french nobleman who served as major general in the colonial army during the american revolution and aided the newly-independent colonies in securing french support royal governor of massachusetts during the run-up to the revolution, he misjudged colonial zeal during the tea act controversy and insisted that east india company ships unload in boston harbor british prime minister whose ill-conceived duties on the colonies, the townshend acts, sparked fierce protests in the colonies and escalated the imperial conflict used to try offenders for violating the various navigation acts passed by the crown after the french and indian war

1. marquis de lafayette

french nobleman who served as major general in the colonial army during the american revolution and aided the newly-independent colonies in securing french support

2. thomas hutchinson

royal governor of massachusetts during the run-up to the revolution, he misjudged colonial zeal during the tea act controversy and insisted that east india company ships unload in boston harbor

3. charles townshend

british prime minister whose ill-conceived duties on the colonies, the townshend acts, sparked fierce protests in the colonies and escalated the imperial conflict

4. admiralty courts

used to try offenders for violating the various navigation acts passed by the crown after the french and indian war. colonists argued that the courts encroached on their rights as englishmen since they lacked tries and placed the burden of proof on the accused

5. boston massacre

clash between unruly bostonian protestors and locally-stationed british redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens

6. boston tea party

rowdy protest against the british east india company's newly-acquired monopoly on the tea trade. colonists, disguised as indians, dumped 342 chests of tea into boston harbor, prompting harsh sanctions from the british parliament

7. committees of correspondence

local committees established across massachusetts, and later in each of the thirteen colonies, to maintain colonial opposition to british policies through the exchange of letters and pamphlets

8. declaratory act

passed alongside the repeal of the stamp act, it reaffirmed parliament's unqualified sovereignty over the north american colonies

9. first continental congress

convention of delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies that convened in Philadelphia to craft a response to the Intolerable Acts. Delegates established Association, which called for a complete boycott of British goods

10. intolerable acts

series of punitive measures passed in retaliation for the boston tea party, closing the port of boston, revoking a number of rights in the massachusetts colonial charter, and expanding the quartering act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes