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FRANCO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE In France, enthusiasm for the American cause was high: The French intellectual world was it- self stirring against feudalism and CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY 63 privilege . However, the Crown lent its support to the colonies for geo- political rather than ideological reasons: The French government had […]

DEFEATS AND VICTORIES Although the Americans suffered severe setbacks for months after independence was declared, their tenacity and perseverance eventu- ally paid off . During August 1776, in the Battle of Long Island in New York, Washington’s position be- came untenable, and he executed a masterly retreat in small boats from Brooklyn to the Manhattan

COMMON SENSE AND INDEPENDENCE In January 1776, Thomas Paine, a radical political theorist and writer who had come to America from England in 1774, published a 50-page pamphlet, Common Sense . Within three months, it sold 100,000 copies . Paine attacked the idea of a hereditary monarchy, declaring that one honest man was worth more

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS General Thomas Gage, an amiable English gentleman with an Amer- ican-born wife, commanded the garrison at Boston, where political activity had almost wholly replaced trade . Gage’s main duty in the colo- nies had been to enforce the Coer- cive Acts . When news reached him that the Massachusetts colonists were collecting

THE COERCIVE ACTS Parliament responded with new laws that the colonists called the “Coercive” or “Intolerable Acts .” The first, the Boston Port Bill, closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for . The action threatened the very life of the city, for to prevent Boston from having access to the sea

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY In 1773, however, Britain furnished Adams and his allies with an incen- diary issue . The powerful East India Company, finding itself in critical fi- nancial straits, appealed to the Brit- ish government, which granted it a monopoly on all tea exported to the colonies . The government also per- mitted

THE TOWNSHEND ACTS The year 1767 brought another se- ries of measures that stirred anew all the elements of discord . Charles Townshend, British chancellor of the exchequer, attempted a new fis- cal program in the face of continued discontent over high taxes at home . Intent upon reducing British taxes by making more efficient

THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY 55 The American leaders argued that their only legal relations were with the Crown . It was the king who had agreed to establish colonies be- yond the sea and the king who pro- vided them with governments . They asserted that he was equally a king

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION The issue thus drawn centered on the question of representation . The colonists believed they could not be represented unless they actually elected members to the House of Commons . But this idea conflicted with the English principle of “virtual representation,” according to which each member of Parliament rep- resented the interests

THE STAMP ACT A general tax measure sparked the greatest organized resistance . Known as the “Stamp Act,” it re- quired all newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, licenses, leases, and oth- er legal documents to bear revenue stamps . The proceeds, collected by American customs agents, would be used for “defending, protecting, and securing” the colonies .