10 Acts Leading to The American Revolution

1. Navigation Acts (1660–1663)

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countdown.education

4 min readOct 14, 2016

What they did: supported British mercantilism by requiring all American trade to go through English ports, on English ships, and to be for the benefit of Britain rather than the colonists
Why it was dumb: Even though these were over 100 years before the American Revolution, the colonists frequently broke the rules of these acts, which marked the beginning of Americans not listening to their British superiors
The Result: Colonists develop a culture of smuggling goods and breaking British laws that slips through the cracks right now, but will be trouble when England is in debt after the Seven Years’ War/French & Indian War (1754–1763)

What it did: The Sugar Act actually reduced the tax on sugar from the Molasses Act (1733), but it cracked down on smugglers by using Writs of Assistance allowing officers to search colonists and, if they are suspected, then try them in Vice Admiralty courts where British judges gave harsh punishments
Why it was dumb: Americans didn’t like having their freedom taken away and didn’t like having to pay taxes that didn’t actually help their communities
The Result: Upset Americans start spreading revolutionary spirit and slogans against the British government like “No taxation without representation” (James Otis), meaning the Americans wanted a say in British government if they were paying them taxes

What it did: The Currency Act limited the Americans’ ability to make their own paper money, instead making them rely on British paper money notes and British currency
Why it was dumb: It was actually kind of smart, since America’s paper bill printing was unregulated and Britain had the most advanced economy in the world, but Americans didn’t have access to gold or silver mines, so they felt like they were at Britain’s mercy now that they couldn’t print their own money
The Result: America loses the economic independence they’d been enjoying and feels powerless

What they did: Made the colonies responsible for housing troops in barracks, local inns, and if need be, colonists’ houses
Why they were dumb: Americans needed some space from Britain; instead, Britain said it was okay to put their troops right in Americans’ homes to really invade their personal space (even though this rarely happened)
The Result: Many colonists rebel, and the whole colony of New York refuses to obey the acts

What it did: Taxed all paper documents in the colonies, the first internal tax on them (not on imports/exports)
Why it was dumb: Think about who uses paper… lawyers, journalists, generally well-educated and literate people who you are professionals at spreading ideas and speaking to the public
The Result: There is a massive public outcry as eloquent writers start spreading revolutionary fervor and boycotts on British goods, and so Parliament repeals them in 1766 just a year later and issues the Declaratory Act

What they did: Britain took the L in the Stamp Act, so this was basically just an attempt to save face
Why they were dumb: Just take the L and sit down, Britain… This should’ve been time for Britain to just chill out for a bit to let Americans calm down and restore good faith
The Result: The colonists are still upset because of Britain’s condescension, so revolutionary fervor continues to build

What they did: “Champagne” Charley Townshend proposed this tax on luxury goods like glass, lead, paints, paper and tea
Why they were dumb: Luxury goods are by definition luxuries that you don’t need, so they were easy to boycott and continued to piss off colonists
The Result: Protests become more and more frequent, especially in New England, where the Sons of Liberty begin leading protests as disputes eventually get deadly in The Boston Massacre

What happened: A crowd of colonists were arguing with British troops, throwing snowballs and other small objects at them and taunting them asking if their guns were loaded; eventually, the British fire some shots on a crowd and kill 5 people
America said it was: A massacre, a savage act against humanity, that was depicted by Paul Revere in this famous piece of propaganda
What Britain said it was: Britain refers to it as the “Incident on King Street”, since it really was more of an incident than a targeted mass murder
The Result: Sons of Liberty begin to see their conflict with the British not just as a financial conflict, but a potentially violent conflict as well and they do things like burn the Gaspée British trading ship in 1772

What it did: This wasn’t actually a tax, but a way to save the British East India Company by making Americans purchase their surplus of tea
Why it was dumb: Americans had already established they didn’t like doing what the British told them to do, so they were obviously upset and thought of how they could stick it to the British
The Result: New England’s Sons of Liberty dress as Indians and dump millions of dollars of tea into Boston Harbor in the Boston Tea Party, and Britain gets more upset than ever at Colonial protests and issues the Intolerable Acts

What it did: Britain closed Boston’s port until it paid for the tea it wasted, reinforced the Quartering Act, and made it so British soldiers would be tried back in Britain rather than America, so they had greater immunity
Why it was dumb: As the name suggests, the Americans found these acts intolerable and began to seriously consider the possibility of war
The Result: America’s best and brightest hold the First Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia where they for the first time all come together as united colonies thinking about how they could stage a revolution