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THE AMERICAN COLONIES AND THEIR GOVERNMENT
Chapter 2, Lesson 3 Disagreements with Great Britain
Essential Question
Why do people create, structure, and change governments?
Social and Political Changes in the Colonies
1740s
•A religious movement called the Great Awakening made colonists question traditional
religious authority.
•People began to believe in personal freedom, or liberty.
•Colonists believed that Parliament was not protecting their rights.
1750s
•British colonists move into westward areas claimed by France.
•Tensions lead to the French and Indian War.
•Native American groups join France against Great Britain and colonists.
•This led to war between Great Britain and France in Europe.
1763
•The British won the French and Indian War.
•British claimed control of French lands up to the Mississippi River.
•King George wanted to punish the colonists for the expensive war, so he issued an official
statement, or proclamation forbidding the colonists from settling in the west.
•Parliament passed the Stamp Act to pay for the war that made the colonists pay tax on all
sorts of printed materials such as newspapers and legal documents.
•Colonists began to boycott, or refuse to buy, British goods.
•The Stamp Act was canceled, or repealed, but it was replaced by the Declaratory Act that
gave Parliament the right to tax the colonies and make decisions for them in all cases
whatsoever.
Chapter 2 Lesson 3, page 1
Colonial Dissatisfaction Grows
Parliament continued to tax the colonists through the 1770s. One of the laws
that angered the colonists the most was the Tea Act, which was not actually a
tax. It allowed a British company that grew their tea in India to import its tea to
the colonies without paying the existing tea tax. This made their tea cheaper
than the tea sold by colonial merchants. A group of angry colonists protested by
disguising themselves as Native Americans, boarding the British company’s tea
ships, and dumping the tea into the water. This became known as the Boston
Tea Party. Parliament responded to this by passing even more laws to punish
the colonists.
Chapter 2 Lesson 3, page 2
Steps Toward Independence
As you read, give details about how these events led colonists to think about breaking away from
Great Britain.
Event
Outcome
•Representatives, or delegates from 12 colonies met in Philadelphia
•Colonists send letter to king asking for same rights as British
citizens in England.
First Continental Congress
•Colonists plan boycott of all British goods and ban all trade with
meets in 1774
Britain.
•King George responds by calling for stronger measures against
colonists.
•Members are split over how to respond to England’s latest
Second Continental
measures.
Congress meets in 1775
•Some delegates remained loyal to Britain.
•Congress debated for months on what to do.
•Widely read pamphlet argued that “Common Sense” called for the
Thomas Paine publishes
colonists to rebel against the king.
Common Sense in 1776
The Declaration of Independence
•The Declaration of Independence’s main purpose was to explain to the world why the colonists
should be free
•It was mostly written by Thomas Jefferson, who was greatly influenced by the following political
thinkers.
•What ideas did Jefferson draw from each of the following sources?
idea of democracy
Ancient Greeks
John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Voltaire
natural rights
social contract
if government does not protect freedom, it
should not exist
right to liberty
•The Declaration was approved by Second Continental Congress the on July 4, 1776.
•The president of the Second Continental Congress, John Hancock was the first to sign it.
Chapter 2 Lesson 3, page 3