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The end of the French and Indian War hailed in a new era of tension between the colonists and the British. Due to a period of much-loved salutary neglect, the colonies had been left to govern themselves. Now that the British decided to rein the colonists in, their independent beliefs of self-autonomy kicked in.

Immediately after the war, Parliament had decided that in order to curb bloodshed and unnecessary conflict the adventurous, land-hungry colonists would have to stay put for a while. The Proclamation of 1763 prohibited the migration of any colonists into the land past the Appalachian Mountains, French and Indian territory. Needless to say, the colonists were quite indignant.

British national debt had sky-rocketed as a result of the European Wars and logic was that a war fought for the colonists should be paid -- at least in part -- by the colonists. And so the barrage of taxes came down.

It started with the Navigation Acts, formerly very laxly enforced. It prohibited the sale or trade of goods from foreign nations and required all products from the colonies to be transported using British merchant ships. Similarly, the Sugar Acts curbed colony trade with mainly the British. Smuggling started becoming a pasttime. The Quartering Act sought to remind the colonists of British supremacy by requiring them to provide room and board for British troops. Somewhere in the fray, a couple of British soldiers guarding a tax house in Boston gunned down a few protesting colonists--it came to be known as the Boston Massacre. Trying to assert more power and gain revenue, the Stamp Act was passed, requiring all legal documents to be printed on special stamped paper. When colonists vehemently opposed the act, Parliament threw their hands up in bewilderment -- British people had been paying duties similar to these for a while. The Stamp Act Congress was formed to rally for the immediate repeal of the Act. The cry was raised among the colonists; "no taxation without representation". British Parliament shot back with "virtual representation", claiming that the members of Parliament represented all British subjects, including those dwelling in the colonies. Slyly they permitted a British company to take a monopoly on tea to try and rein in revenue in a hopefully more palatable way. The colonists responded with the Boston Tea Party. An ungodly amount of crates containing tea leaves was tossed off of ships. In retaliation, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts which closed down the Boston Harbor until damages were repaid by the colonists and dragged the Massachussetts Bay colony directly under royal rule. Spitefully, the colonists named these acts and the addition of the offending Quebec Act as the Intolerable Acts.

Mid-1775, a skirmish broke outside of Boston at Bunker Hill between the colonists and the occupying British army. The Olive Branch Petition was sent to the King immediately after to try and repair connections but proved to be futile. later in 1775, the first shot of the Battles of Lexington and Concord broke out and officially began the War for American Independence, now widely known as "the shot heard around the world". In June of 1776, the Second Continental Congress finally agreed that it was time for independence. The Declaration of Independence was passed and ratified and the colonists named themselves the United States of America.

A shorter version:

The British colonies in lower North America became greatly dissatisfied with England over taxation and regulation that increased after the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The colonies were subject to the laws of George III and the British Parliament but were given no representation in these decisions. By the 1770's, with England overruling or abolishing the colonial legislatures, many in America began pressing for independence.

The actual fighting in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) began on April 19, 1775, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. The colonial militias (Minutemen) engaged British regulars who were out to confiscate weapons known to be in colonial hands. The Continental Congress began serving as the de facto government of the combined 13 colonies and established the Continental Army under the command of George Washington.

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