On the morning of April 19, 1775, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired (Library of Congress). To this day, 240 years later, it remains unclear which side, the British or the colonial minutemen, fired the first shell. A score or so of patriots, as they were called, suffered casualties, whereas there were no reported injuries from the British. However, on their march to Concord to destroy the armory stockpile, they were harassed by minutemen and lost three times the number of men. The Americans quickly spread their version of the events and garnered the support of the Continental Congress, and so began the first stages of the American Revolution. However, on the fateful night of April 18, 1775, what caused General Thomas Gage
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Washington not only leads his troops to victory eventually in the war, but can also be viewed as the lynchpin that struck the first spark, as he ambushed a group of French soldiers, killing 13 and capturing 21. This created much animosity between the French and the Americans, essentially causing the great Seven Years’ War. In the first three years of the war from 1755 to 1758, the Americans are badly losing due to a total absence of organization. Their militia were poorly trained and few in number, yet the colonists pursued very little in the way of improving their condition. To save their subjects, Secretary of State William Pitt of Britain spent £148 million to commit a large portion of the British navy to the Americas, among other resources (USHistory). Eventually successful in defeating the French, the British now embark on a series of controversial decisions which turn the colonists views against …show more content…
Issued by King George III immediately following the conclusion of the war, it forbade all colonial settlement west of the Appalachian mountains (USHistory). The colonists were extremely frustrated by this order, as many colonies had already conceived plans for westward expansion. By 1760, the population within the colonies had already grown in excess of 1.5 million people (HistoryPlace), making it impossible for development within the current area as America showed few qualities of urbanization, along with the largest city being only 20,000 strong (DigitalHistory). Therefore, the Americans responded to the new law by simply ignoring it, with scores of wagons simply heading westward any, ways, acting under the assumption that the British government lacked the resources to monitor them. The Americans were unable to comprehend why the British had won the French-Indian War, only to restore the lands they had captured to the defeated Indians, leaving the colonies in some resentments of the British
Washington not only leads his troops to victory eventually in the war, but can also be viewed as the lynchpin that struck the first spark, as he ambushed a group of French soldiers, killing 13 and capturing 21. This created much animosity between the French and the Americans, essentially causing the great Seven Years’ War. In the first three years of the war from 1755 to 1758, the Americans are badly losing due to a total absence of organization. Their militia were poorly trained and few in number, yet the colonists pursued very little in the way of improving their condition. To save their subjects, Secretary of State William Pitt of Britain spent £148 million to commit a large portion of the British navy to the Americas, among other resources (USHistory). Eventually successful in defeating the French, the British now embark on a series of controversial decisions which turn the colonists views against …show more content…
Issued by King George III immediately following the conclusion of the war, it forbade all colonial settlement west of the Appalachian mountains (USHistory). The colonists were extremely frustrated by this order, as many colonies had already conceived plans for westward expansion. By 1760, the population within the colonies had already grown in excess of 1.5 million people (HistoryPlace), making it impossible for development within the current area as America showed few qualities of urbanization, along with the largest city being only 20,000 strong (DigitalHistory). Therefore, the Americans responded to the new law by simply ignoring it, with scores of wagons simply heading westward any, ways, acting under the assumption that the British government lacked the resources to monitor them. The Americans were unable to comprehend why the British had won the French-Indian War, only to restore the lands they had captured to the defeated Indians, leaving the colonies in some resentments of the British