Before Britain became the dictatorial power clouding any American effort to speak up, they were involved in a series of four wars. The last of them, the French and Indian War, occurred on American soil and the British victory handed England a pile of debt and a huge land dispute between the Indians residing in the territory the British gained through the Treaty of Paris and the colonists eager for new land. This started the ferocious turmoil between Britain and the American colonies. From the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, British antagonistic policies only added gasoline to America’s resentment of British rule, and sparked their unity and dedication to colonial republican values. The end of the French and Indian War, signals the beginning of harsh …show more content…
In 1770, there were 4,000 red coats roaming the streets of Boston. As a result of the Great Awakening in the 1730s-40s, the highly spiritual colonists had a strong dislike for the bad behavior of the red coats. This caused what is known as the Boston Massacre. The Boston Massacre was the first extremely violent encounter between the British and the colonists with shots fired from the red coats. Oddly enough, this resulted in a period of calm. The Boston Tea Party disrupted this period of calm. In December 1773, a group of patriots took over three ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The harsh Tea Act imposed by the British caused this action. Two years later, the British began their march to Lexington and Concord to arrest patriot leaders and seize their weapons. In Lexington, the British were met with colonial armed forces known as minutemen. Here, eight colonists died. In concord, the two groups met again, but the minutemen left victorious. This event caused the beginning of the Revolutionary