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 The American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) of 1775-1783 was the war between the British Empire and the former thirteen British colonies on the North American continent. The thirteen colonies were constantly denied governing by the British Parliament without representation as well as the constant imposing of taxes and restricting acts.

On July 4th, 1776, the thirteen colonies' Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, stating that they were independent from the British Empire and no longer under British rule. After the defeat of the British at Yorktown by the French (American allies), Britain surrendered. This was the final defeat in the American Revolutionary War.

Following this defeat, on September 3rd, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ratified by the Second Continental Congress on January 14th, 1784, and ratified by King George III on April 9th, 1784, this treaty formally ended the American War of Independence. This treaty acknowledged the independence of the thirteen colonies, and no longer recognized them as part of the British Empire as well as a variation of many other articles pertaining to the land in North America.

But before the ending of the Revolutionary War, many acts were imposed on the American colonies, thus sparking wanton in colonies to gain their independence from the imposing British Empire.

__ Revolutionary War Acts __
These many acts that the British imposed on the American colonies, some were major and some were minor, but all of them took part in starting the Revolutionary War.

Among these acts were the: - **The Sugar Act** (1764) - **The Currency Act** (1764) - **The Stamp Act** (1764) - **The Quartering Act** (1765) - **The Townshend Acts** (1767) //Revenue Act of 1767 // // The Indemnity Act // //The Commissioners of Customs Act // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The Vice Admiralty Court Act // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The New York Restraining Act // <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> - **The Tea Act** (1773) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> - **The Coercive Acts** (1774) //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The Boston Port Act // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The New Quartering Act // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The Administration of Justice Act // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The Massachusetts Government Act // <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">- **The Quebec Act** (1774)


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> __// The Sugar Act of 1764 //__ **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> George Grenville was the first lord of treasury and a British Politician. He was responsible for the beginnings of the firsts ludicrous acts that were placed on the thirteen American colonies.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The first act that Grenville had imposed on the colonists was the The Sugar Act of 1764. It was proclaimed as "just and necessary, that a revenue be raised... in America for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the colonies." Grenville wanted the colonists to pay for their own military protection of the colonies, and thus this tax was put into effect. This act placed duties on Madeira wine, coffee, and other products. However, Grenville hoped that the most revenue would come from the molasses. The duty would be three pence per gallon. He wanted to raise about £100,000 per year from the molasses duty, but it publicly came to be about £40,000 per year.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The Sugar Act launched a war against smugglers. This act increased paperwork on ship captains and the permitted seizures of ships. So Grenville tried to make it profitable for customs officers to constantly watch merchants rather than to accept bribes from merchants. The Sugar act encouraged them to prosecute violators of the act. Prosecutors would be virtually immune for any suit for damages, and even when the merchant won an acquittal, as long as the judge certified "probable cause" for the seizure, the prosecutors would suffer no loss.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> __// The Currency Act of 1764 //__ **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> The Sugar Act wasn't the only act that George Grenville passed. Again, in 1764, he passed the Currency Act. This act responded to wartime protests of London merchants against Virginia's paper money, which had been issued for the colony's defense. This money originally lost about 15% of it's value between 1759-1764.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> This act would not allow colonies to issue any paper money as a legal tender. That meant that paper money would not be accepted by the law to pay of debts, or in other words, it wasn't allowed to be used as actual money. This made money matters urgent since the Sugar Act required that all the duties must be paid in silver or gold. Grenville saw this "America" as a single region in which the gold and silver would circulate to the benefit of everyone.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> __// The Stamp Act of 1764 //__ **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Early 1764, Parliament passed the Sugar Act, and Grenville announced that a stamp tax on legal documents and on publications might also be needed. The army in North American was costing too much money (the sum of £225,000 per year, all on Britain). Other expenses that were costly included the navy, transport, and Indian gifts (peace offerings), which cost the annual total almost £400,000. To gain more revenue, Grenville thought that a stamp tax would be the best way in order to gain more revenue.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> This tax would be the first direct tax on the colonies. Supporters of Grenville insisted that this did not violate the "no taxation without representation" principle. They argued that each member of Parliament represented the entire empire. Grenville himself argued that there was no legal difference between external taxes (port duties) and internal (inland) taxes.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> After this proposition, the thirteen colonies protested, drafting petitions objecting to this act, and they said that this type of tax was violating the "no taxation without representation" principle. They did agree that they should contribute to their own defense, but urged the government to return to the traditional method of requisitions (the Crown asked a colony for a specific sum and the assembly would decide how/whether to raise it). Colonists feared that this taxation by Parliament would tempt Britain to rule without consulting the American assemblies. When these petitions reached Britain, they refused to receive them (consider the standing rule that petitions against money bills and any petition challenging the right of Parliament to pass such a tax was prohibited).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> So in February of 1765, the Stamp Act was passed. It was to be put into effect that year on the first of November.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Every contract, licenses, commissions, newspapers, pamphlets, playing cards, dice, and any other legal document would be void unless they had been executed and officially stamped. Law courts would not recognize any legal document without the proper stamp.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Colonists grudgingly obliged to this tax even if they weren't happy with it. That act almost enforced itself.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> A resistance to the Stamp Act started in the spring of 1765 and continued on through for about a year until it was officially repealed. Patrick Henry (from the Virgina House of Burgesses) introduced five resolutions on May 30th and 31st. Over the summer, the //Newport Mercury// printed six of Henry's seven resolutions while the //Maryland Gazette// printed all of them. Once the last resolve was published, the //Maryland Gazette// claimed that anyone who defended Parliament's right to tax Virginia "shall be Deemed, an Enemy to this his Majesty's Colony." During the fall/winter seasons, eight colonial legislatures passed new resolutions condemning the Stamp Act. Nine of the thirteen colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in October to New York. By 1765, most colonists deemed the act unconstitutional. Thus the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> __// The Quartering Act of 1765 //__ **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Once again, reform measures were taken, and Grenville issued the Quartering Act of 1765, as requested by Sir Thomas Gage, army commander. Sir Thomas Gage had requested for parliamentary authority to quarter soldiers in private homes if necessary (say they were on their march and they were away from army barracks).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> Parliament ordered colonies to have specific supplies that the troops wanted or needed, including beer, candles, etc. They also required that the army quartered its soldiers in public buildings (like taverns, since they existed largely in cities).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> However, soldiers were often rowdy and drunk, and didn't help the colonies. This didn't solve any problems however, but created several new problems.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> __// The Townshend Acts of 1767 //__ **

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Charles Townshend whom these acts/series of laws were named after, was a Chancellor of the Exchequer. He proposed the Townshend Acts was imposed to raise revenue (like most of these acts were proposed to do). There were five laws or acts that were part of the Townshend Acts. These included the Revenue Act of 1767, the Indemnity Act, the Commissioners of Customs Act, the Vice Admiralty Court Act, and the New York Restraining Act.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Th<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">i s act was used to generate revenue since the repeal of the 1766 Stamp Act. Since the colonists had protested on taxes that were direct (also known as 'internal taxes'), the colonists wouldn't mind paying indirect (external) taxes. These indirect taxes were taxes not on exports but on imports. Because this is what the colonists had protested, Townshend had created the Revenue Act which placed duties on anything imported into the colonies. These included: tea, paper, lead, paint, lead, glass, etc. All these were not from North America and the colonies had to buy from Great Britain, no where else in the world.
 * //__<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Revenue Act of 1767 __//**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">This act was not only used to generate revenue, but it also allowed the legality of the writs of assistance (general search warrants). This gave customs officials the right to search houses, businesses, etc. for smuggled goods.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**//__ Indemnity Act __//** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Also passed along with the Revenue Act, the Indemnity Act was imposed on the American colonies. This act tried to make the British East India Company more competitive with smugglers when it came to Dutch tea. Instead of being smuggled, this act allowed the tax on tea to be repealed, and thus making the imports of tea cheaper when bought from England than having it smuggled into the Americas.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">** __//Commissioners of Customs Act//__ ** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">This act established the American Board of Customs Commissioners. This board was modeled on the British Board of Customs. The American Board of Customs Commissioners was created because Britain was having difficulties to regulate trade in distant colonies (in this case, the Americas). In this board, five commissioners were selected and the headquarters were located in Boston, Massachusetts. But this board would generate considerable hostility towards the British government soon.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">** __//Vice Admiralty Court Act//__ ** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">The Vice Admiralty Court Act was actually initiated when Charles Townshend was not present and was issued by the Cabinet and did not pass till after Townshend's death. However, it is still regarded as part of the Townshend Acts. Before this act was even brought up, only one vice admiralty court in all of North America (in Halifax, Nova Scotia). The vice admiralty court was a juryless court that granted jurisdiction in local legal matters that related to maritime activities (merchants vs. seamen). With the passing of the Vice Admiralty Court Act, four district courts were created in Halifax, Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston. These courts helped to prosecute smugglers.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Because the Quartering Act wasn't in favor for the colonists and they refused to comply with it (they felt it unconstitutional tax), therefore the New York Restraining Act was placed, and this suspended the power of the Assembly until they complied with the Quartering Act. However, this act was never actually passed because the New York Assembly gained enough money to cover the Quartering Act. The Assembly didn't make any reference to the Quartering Act when collecting the money so that they could avoid conceding the Parliament right to tax colonies. They also passed a resolution that said that Parliament couldn't suspend an elected legislature because it wasn't constitutional.
 * __//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">The New York Restraining Act //__**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">**__//The Tea Act of 1773//__**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Passed by Parliament on May 10th, 1773, this act was not supposed to raise revenue, nor was it used to impose new taxes on the American colonies. This act appealed important duties on tea in England but retained the Townshend duty on the colonies. Legal tea from the EITC (East India Trading Company) would become cheaper than anyone else's tea. This would allow the East India Trading Company to be saved and the settlers would buy cheap tea and accept Parliament's right to tax them.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">This act allowed the EITC to have a monopoly on the shipping and distribution of tea in the colonies. Only company ships could carry the tea and only a few consignees in each port could have the exclusive right to sell it.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Patriots, however, saw this Tea Act as a "Trojan horse" that would destroy liberty by seducing the settlers into parliamentary sovereignty. This gave the North advantage to those who wanted to resist the Tea Act. So in retaliation, patriots waited for the specially chartered tea ships and tried to prevent them from landing their cargoes. When the firsts of the tea ships approached Philadelphia, the Sons of Liberty greeted the skipper of the ship rudely with, "What think you Captain, of a halter around your neck-ten gallons of liquid tar decanted on your pate-with the feathers of a dozen wild geese laid over that to enliven your appearance? Only think seriously of this-and fly to the place from whence you came-fly without hesitation-without the formality of a protest-and above all,... let us advise you to fly without the wild geese feathers." The ship left shortly afterwards. This took place all over the many ports except for in Boston. In Boston, Governor Hutchinson refused to grant clearance papers to three tea ships, under the law, had to pay the Townshend duty within twenty-one days of arrival or face seizure.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Finally, the patriots realized that they had no other way of stopping the ships from coming and landing, so Boston radicals disguised themselves as Indians and snuck on a tea ship and dumped 342 chests of tea, which was worth about £11,000 sterling into the Boston harbor on the night of December 16th, 1773. This was later called the Boston Tea Party.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">**__//The Coercive Acts of 1774//__**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Also known as the Restraining Acts or the Intolerable Acts, Parliament passed these four acts during the spring of 1774 in retaliation to the Boston Tea Party. The willful destruction of private property shocked both Americans and Britains. Because the British didn't want to lose credibility, they thought that severe punishment was essential.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Passed on June 1st, 1774, this act closed the port of Boston until all the Bostonians had paid for the destroyed tea on the night of December 16th, 1773 as well as the damage to the customs office during the unrest. Not only were they to pay for the destroyed items, but they were also to prove to Parliament that they were no longer unruly and peaceable subjects. Lord North told the colonies that they wouldn't be punished, only Boston would be; however, colonies this Port Act was just a continuation of the Massacre to American Liberty, and rallied to Boston's aid and the First Continental Congress was created as direct opposition to Britain.
 * //__<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">The Boston Port Act __//**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">**//__ The New Quartering Act __//** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">This new act allowed the army to quarter soldiers on civilian property if necessary. It was put into effect on June 2nd, 1774. Under the previous Quartering Act, colonies were to quarter soldiers in public facilities such as taverns, inns, unoccupied buildings, etc. This new Quartering Act allowed soldiers to be quartered not only in public facilities, but in private homes and occupied facilities as well. This was the only act that applied to all the colonies instead of Massachusetts alone.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">** __//The Administration of Justice Act//__ ** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">This act was a response to the Boston Massacre trials and put into effect on May 20th, 1774. This act permitted a British soldier or official who was charged with a crime while carrying out his duties to be tried in either in another colony or in England. This helped them avoid hostile local juries. At this time General Thomas Gage was authorized at his discretion that these such cases be held in England. Many angry colonists labeled this act as the "Murder Act" because it gave accused murderers a means of escape from the colonial justice.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">** __//The Massachusetts Government Act//__ ** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">The most controversial of the Coercive Acts was the Massachusetts Government Act that was passed on May 20th, 1774. It overturned the Massachusetts Charter of 1691, made the council appointive, and restricted town meetings. It made Massachusetts like other royal colonies. Before this act was passed, the king named General Thomas Gage, already the commander of the British army in North America, as the new governor of Massachusetts, with the clear implication was that he could use military force against civilians. Most elective offices in the colony were to be filled with royal appointees, whom at the time were not with popularly elected officials.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">**__//The Quebec Act of 1774//__**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">This fifth law was unrelated to the Coercive Acts but was just as significant. This act established French civil law and the Roman Catholic Church in the Province of Quebec, provided for trial by jury in criminal but not in civil cases, gave legislative power (but not the power to tax) to an appointive governor and council, and extended the administrative boundaries of Quebec to the area between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, saving only the legitimate charter claims of other colonies. This act added credibility to the fear that evil ministers in London were conspiring to destroy British and colonial liberties.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Specifically, this act restored French civil law. And although typical religious restrictions were eased in the act, civil authorities were to swear allegiance to the Church of England.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Many colonists put this together with the Coercive Acts and named all five acts the Intolerable Acts.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**References:**__ <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">1.The American Revolutionary War; Source: arw.net - [|American Revolutionary War] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">2. Treaty of Paris; Source: wikipedia.org - [|Treaty of Paris] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">3. __Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People (4th Edition)__; <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 80%;">//Citation//: <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> **Paul E. Johnson, James M. McPherson, and Gary Gerstle. Liberty, Equality, Power, A** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;"> **History Of The American People. 4th. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub Co, 2006.** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">4. Townshend Acts; Source: wikipedia.org - [|Townshend Acts] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">5. The Tea Act; Source: ushistory.org - [|The Tea Act] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">6. Boston Port Act; Source: ushistory.com - [|The Boston Port Act] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">7. [New] Quartering Act; Source: ushistory.com - [|The [New Quartering Act]] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">8. Administration of Justice Act; Source: ushistory.com - [|The Administration of Justice Act] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">9. Massachusetts Government Act; Source: ushistory.com - [|The Massachusetts Government Act] <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">10. Quebec Act; Source: usconstitution.net - [|The Quebec Act]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People (4th Edition) **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">**. Murrin, John M.,**