Unfortunately, next week we will be in France, and je parle français comme une idiote. INTRO So intellectual historians might put the roots of the American Revolution earlier, but I'm going to start with the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, which, as you will recall from last week, was one, expensive, and two, a victory for the British, including British subjects living in America, who now had more land and therefore more money. So in 1765, the British government was like, hey, since we went into this debt to get you all this new land, we trust that you won't mind if we pass the Stamp Act, in which we place a fancy stamp on your documents, newspapers, playing cards, etc., and in return, you give us money. Well, it turns out the colonists weren't so keen on this, not so much because the tax was high, but because they had no direct representation in the parliament that had levied the tax. And plus, they were cranky about the crown keeping large numbers of British troops in the colonies even after the end of the Seven Years' War. And then the British government was like, you are inadequately grateful, and the colonists were like, shut up, we hate you, and the British government was like, as long as you live under our roof, you live by our rules, and so on. But eventually, the British backed down and repealed the Stamp Act.