Changes

After the expulsion of France from North America in 1763, there was no longer an external danger to the colonies.  They did not need British military or naval protection. The British, however, insisted on imposing a series of taxes, partly to raise revenue and partly to demonstrate the superiority of Parliament. The Americans insisted that they possessed the traditional rights of Englishmen and only their elected officials had the power to raise taxes; they were not represented in Parliament, which therefore could not levy taxes.  The dispute was unbridgeable, especially as Americans started adopting [[republicanism|republican political ideas]] that warned the aristocratic British system was corrupt and dangerous. Popular leaders in the colonies, such as [[Samuel Adams]] in Massachusetts and [[Patrick Henry]] in Virginia  tried to achieve united opposition to British policies.  

After the expulsion of France from North America in 1763, there was no longer an external danger to the colonies.  They did not need British military or naval protection. The British, however, insisted on imposing a series of taxes, partly to raise revenue and partly to demonstrate the superiority of Parliament. The Americans insisted that they possessed the traditional rights of Englishmen and only their elected officials had the power to raise taxes; they were not represented in Parliament, which therefore could not levy taxes.  The dispute was unbridgeable, especially as Americans started adopting [[republicanism|republican political ideas]] that warned the aristocratic British system was corrupt and dangerous. Popular leaders in the colonies, such as [[Samuel Adams]] in Massachusetts and [[Patrick Henry]] in Virginia  tried to achieve united opposition to British policies.  

===First Continental Congress===

 

==First Continental Congress==

 

[[File:1-congress.jpg|thumb|190px|left]]The colonies, without British permission, formed the First Continental Congress in 1774 to protest British clampdown on Boston.  Leaders such as Adams argued that there must be a central government to regulate trade, to prevent civil war among the colonies, and to suppress internal dissension. Nothing was done.  55 delegates represented twelve of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] ([[Georgia]] did not send a representative). This body debated over what the colonies should do, if anything, in reaction to the [[Intolerable Acts]] passed by [[Parliament]] that year. The First Continental Congress successfully boycotted British goods coming into the colonies, drastically reducing imports. It agreed that a Second Continental Congress should meet in 1775.

[[File:1-congress.jpg|thumb|190px|left]]The colonies, without British permission, formed the First Continental Congress in 1774 to protest British clampdown on Boston.  Leaders such as Adams argued that there must be a central government to regulate trade, to prevent civil war among the colonies, and to suppress internal dissension. Nothing was done.  55 delegates represented twelve of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] ([[Georgia]] did not send a representative). This body debated over what the colonies should do, if anything, in reaction to the [[Intolerable Acts]] passed by [[Parliament]] that year. The First Continental Congress successfully boycotted British goods coming into the colonies, drastically reducing imports. It agreed that a Second Continental Congress should meet in 1775.

==Second Continental Congress==

==Second Continental Congress==

The [[Second Continental Congress]] is by far the more noteworthy of the two. It was the national government that conducted the war, controlled the army, raised money, conducted diplomacy and formed alliances, and finally (in 1783) made peace with Britain.  

The [[Second Continental Congress]] is by far the more noteworthy of the two. It was the national government that conducted the war, controlled the army, raised money, conducted diplomacy and formed alliances, and finally (in 1783) made peace with Britain.