Lecture covers the sequence of events that took the American Colonists from mostly-loyal British citizens to the brink of armed revolt in eleven years. The French and Indian war was over, the Colonists were looking forward settling new lands west of the Appalachians that had been ceded by the French and they’d been promised. Then they were told London was giving that land to wartime Native allies. Then that London would keep a permanent military presence in North America, which the Colonists to pay for by an illegal tax. In London, MPs offended that the Colonists protested the taxes quickly abolished colonial legislatures and sent troops to Boston in response to the resultant riots. A spiral of increasing Colonial resistance and heavy-handed Parliamentary response ultimately led to combat and revolution. Presented by Merle Robinson of the National Security Decision Making Game staff.