🗽 US History · Colonial America and Revolution
Causes of the American Revolution cheat sheet
Everything you need on one page. Print it, or switch on test-yourself mode to blur the answers and check your memory.
Timeline
- 1754 to 1763: French and Indian War. Britain wins and has a large debt.
- 1763: Proclamation of 1763 (no settling west of the Appalachians).
- 1764: Sugar Act. 1765: Stamp Act (repealed 1766).
- 1767: Townshend Acts. 1770: Boston Massacre.
- 1773: Tea Act and, in December, the Boston Tea Party.
- 1774: Coercive Acts and First Continental Congress.
- April 1775: Lexington and Concord.
Key terms
- Salutary neglect: loose enforcement of trade rules before the 1760s.
- Virtual representation: Parliament claimed to speak for all British subjects.
- Natural rights and consent of the governed: ideas from John Locke and the Enlightenment.
- Boycott: refusing to buy goods as a protest.
Who disagreed
- Patriots: supported resistance.
- Loyalists: stayed loyal to the Crown.
- Many colonists were undecided, and people could change their minds.
- Left out of “representation”: enslaved people, Native Americans, most women, many men without property.
Watch out
- Say “one major cause,” not “the cause.”
- The Tea Act was not a new tax.
- Independence was not the goal for most protesters in 1765 or 1774.
Causes of the American Revolution cheat sheet from HighSchoolQ.com, for personal study use.