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Battles of Lexington and Concord, (April 19, 1775), initial skirmishes between British regulars and American provincials, marking the beginning of the American Revolution. Acting on orders from London to suppress the rebellious colonists, General Thomas Gage, recently appointed royal governor of Massachusetts, ordered his troops to seize the colonists' military stores at Concord. En route from Boston, the British force of 700 men was met on Lexington Green by 77 local minutemen and others who had been forewarned of the raid by the colonists' efficient lines of communication, including the ride of Paul Revere. It is unclear who fired the first shot. Resistance melted away at Lexington, and the British moved on to Concord. Most of the American military supplies had been hidden or destroyed before the British troops arrived. A British covering party at Concord's North Bridge was finally confronted by 320 to 400 American patriots and forced to withdraw. The march back to Boston was a genuine ordeal for the British, with Americans continually firing on them from behind roadside houses, barns, trees, and stone walls. This experience established guerrilla warfare as the colonists' best defense strategy against the British. Total losses were British 273, American 95. The Battles of Lexington and Concord confirmed the alienation between the majority of colonists and the mother country, and it roused 16,000 New Englanders to join forces and begin the Siege of Boston, resulting in its evacuation by the British the following March.

Jeff Wallenfeldt.

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Battles of Lexington and Concord | Revolutionary War, Patriots, British

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Battles of Lexington and Concord, (April 19, 1775), initial skirmishes between British regulars and American provincials, marking the beginning of the American Revolution. Acting on orders from London to suppress the rebellious colonists, General Thomas Gage, recently appointed royal governor of

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The Boston Tea Party 1773, (The American Revolution)

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Also includes the Quebec Act

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In 1765, British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to raise revenues by taxing American colonists. The colonists were not pleased.

The Stamp Act was enacted in 1765 by British Parliament. It imposed a direct tax on all printed material in the North American colonies.

The most politically active segments of colonial society-printers, publishers, and lawyers-were the most negatively affected by the act.

The Stamp Act intensified colonial hostility toward the British and was a pivotal development on the road to the American Revolution.

The Seven Years' War and British debt

Between 1754 and 1763, Britain and France-and their respective allies-fought the Seven Years' War. Though the war was triggered by competing colonial claims to the Ohio territory of North America, the European allies of both Britain and France quickly became involved and the scope of the war widened dramatically to include every European great power except the Ottoman Empire.

The Seven Years' War was a world war that ended with France surrendering all claims to Canada and to territories east of the Mississippi River and Spain ceding Florida to Britain. Although the Treaty of Paris -signed in 1763 formally concluding hostilities-was favorable to Britain, much blood and treasure had been sacrificed in waging the war. After its termination, Britain sought to ease its financial difficulties by taxing the North American colonies.

The Stamp Act

The first measure undertaken for this purpose in the colonies was the Stamp Act. In March 1765, British Prime Minister George Grenville authored the act, which required that all newspapers and documents-including official court documents-in the North American colonies be printed on stamped paper from London. Additionally, the stamped paper had to be purchased in British hard currency, which was much more rare than the abundant colonial paper currency.

The only opposition to the act in Parliament came from William Pitt, Grenville's brother-in-law turned political rival. Pitt challenged Parliament's right to tax the colonists. The British Constitution prohibited the taxation of British subjects without their consent, which was provided through representation in Parliament. Though the British had imposed restrictions and duties on colonial trade, the passage of the Stamp Act was the first time they had sought to tax the colonists for the explicit purpose of raising revenue.

Prelude to revolution

The Stamp Act was greeted with widespread and unconcealed hostility in the colonies. Unfortunately for Parliament, the segments of colonial society that were most detrimentally affected by the act-newspaper printers, students, attorneys, and judges-were also among the most politically active. They mobilized popular opposition to the act, which frequently took the form of street protests that sometimes turned violent. Newspapers ominously predicted the demise of the journalistic profession.

While townspeople rioted, colonial assemblies debated. Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the most influential voices arguing that since the American colonies were not represented in the British Parliament, that body had no right to tax them. The slogan "No taxation without representation!" arose from colonial opposition to the Stamp Act and proved enduring. The British countered with the theory of virtual representation, which held that members of Parliament were obligated to defend the interests of British subjects and colonists alike.

In October 1765, delegates from the colonies convened in New York City at the Stamp Act Congress, where they drew up formal petitions to the British Parliament and to King George III to repeal the act. It was the first unified colonial response to British policy and it provided the British a taste of what would come soon thereafter.

The British had been receiving reports of mob violence in the colonies, and Prime Minister Grenville had been replaced by Lord Rockingham, who proved more sympathetic than his predecessor to the colonists' demands.

What do you think?

What does the phrase "no taxation without representation" mean? Is it still relevant today?

Explain the theory of virtual representation in your own words. Was it valid?

Why did the colonists react so vehemently to the passage of the Stamp Act? How important do you think the Stamp Act was in the eventual outbreak of the American Revolution?

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Uproar over the Stamp Act (article) | Khan Academy

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