Over the years a lot of things have shaped the colonies. We call this the Birth of America. More than 200 years ago there were British, Dutch, French and Spanish colonies in North America. They were the first 13 states. When people came from Europe to America they noticed it was very different from their previous life. In the colonies land was cheap unlike Europe, and people looked forward to owning their own land. In Europe only the rich could own land. With the benefits in the colonies, the population expanded from 2.5 million to 4 million. People came from France, Germany, Holland and Sweden and brought their customs with them. These traditions and customs are what shaped the colonies. Since the King of Great Britain didn’t pay much attention to the colonies, they started to govern themselves.
In 1764, there was an act call the sugar act that put tax on foreign sugar and increased taxes on coffee, indigo, and certain kinds of wine. It banned rum from being imported and also French wines. These taxes only affected a certain portion of the population, but the affected merchants were very vocal. Besides, the taxes were raised without the permission of the colonists. This was one of the first circumstances in which colonists wanted a say in how much they were taxed.
The next event was The Boston Massacre. It happened after drunken colonists started to throw snowballs at the British officials. The British shot at them and killed five people. The colonists were furious and the British were mad as well. No one seemed to be siding with the British except John Adams. He sided with them to put on a fair trial. He claimed that the officers were provoked to fire at the colonists. Then the 13 colonies boycotted the British goods. That was a huge problem for the British because the colonists were a major part of their trading. That was also a problem for the colonists because the British provided them with almost everything they needed. The colonists were very resistant to give up their tea but eventually did so. The Boston Tea Party was the last event historically that led to the American Revolution. The colonists pretended to be Indians and came on the three boats that the British had docked, this made the British furious, and they dumped all of the tea into Boston Harbor. The tea being thrown was hundreds of dollars down the drain. This resulted in a war. The American Revolution started in 1775- 1783.
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