Week 4 — The Road to Revolution

Why this matters

A business student pricing what a new tax does to a small shop and a community whose land was traded in a treaty it never signed both meet this week's question: who gets a say in the rules you live under?

In plain language

This week is about how Britain and its North American colonies fell into a quarrel that ended in war. After Britain won a long war with France in 1763, Parliament began to tax the colonists directly. Many colonists answered that only their own representatives — the people they helped choose to make laws for them — could tax them. You will read two dated documents: the peace treaty that ended the war, and the declarations of a meeting of colonial delegates in 1765. You will also see where Native nations and enslaved people stood in this quarrel, even when the documents leave them out.

• Already covered: Week 1's four moves, Week 2's colonies, and Week 3's colonial law of slavery.
• This week: the Seven Years' War, the Treaty of Paris of 1763, Native nations and the new empire, consent to taxation, and the Stamp Act Congress.
• How they connect: you read two new documents with Week 1's four moves.
• Where we're going next: Week 5, The American Revolution.

Focus

Why did colonists who called themselves loyal British subjects move toward rebellion between 1763 and 1775?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] source the Treaty of Paris of 1763 and say whom it leaves out
• [ ] explain that colonists objected to taxes without consent, not all taxes
• [ ] tell the Stamp Act Congress from the Continental Congress
• [ ] name petition, boycott, and crowd action

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 4 (~50–60 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Work the practice set (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the Primary Source Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: ask of any tax who voted it, and of any document who made it.

You've got this

Old documents are hard to read. Take them one move at a time, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com