How Did The Colonists Gain Their Independence

The colonists were able to finally accomplish unity during the French and Indian War (Schultz). The Albany Plan, previously proposed by Benjamin Franklin, in which would have united the colonists somewhat had failed before the war. Once the war ended, with the Treaty of Paris signed and the Proclamation Line drawn on the maps, the colonists realized how little control they had over their destinies. The Crown decided to tax the colonies in an attempt to regain their losses, besides in the process they would gain a better understanding of exactly with which countries the colonies traded. The Privy Council, the Proclamation of 1763, and the Sugar Act of 1764 (all of which I put in my discussion post) were the first three acts of the Crown to go into effect. The colonists were irritated over the new laws, although they soon found methods to avoid the first two and the third raised awareness of the Crown's intent.
The Crown then added the Quartering Act of 1765 in which I am sure seemed to the colonists that spies were in every home of New England since they were now housing and feeding the British army.
The Stamp Act in March of 1765 became the blow that resulted in organized boycotts by the Daughters of Liberty against cloth and tea that England had imported (Schultz). The Sons of Liberty in August of that same year formed boycotts and riots of their own in which they intimidated officials of the Crown, resulting in no one wanting the position. The colonists assembled groups that referred to themselves as "Radical Whigs" and wrote letters to the Whigs in England claiming that the taxation was "taxation without representation" because of a lack of a representation in Parliament (Schultz). There were colonists that disagreed with the opposition to the Crown's interference, they believed remaining faithful to their homeland and that the taxation was paying what was due. This did not stop the process of a repeal since in 1766 the Stamp Act was rejected in
Parliament.
The colonists' relief was short-lived, though, the Crown in 1766 installed Charles Townshend as their new chancellor who introduced the Restraining Act closely followed by the Townshend Acts of 1767 (Schultz). As with the Stamp Act, there was opposition and boycotts, although the merchants were split about where their loyalties belonged. The Boston Massacre in 1770 was one result of these boycotts and led to the unnecessary deaths of five colonists. The Townshend Acts were repealed in Parliament on the same day, but the tax on tea remained as a symbol and the boycotts ceased temporarily (Schultz).
From 1770-1773 the conflicts declined while the two groups did most of the arguing in council meetings. The wealthy families mostly remained loyal to the Crown, while the artisans and merchants supported the rebellion (Schultz). The Southern Colonies and the people of the Chesapeake also supported the Crown, the rural areas were the ones who favored the rebels. On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act in which lowered the duty on tea, granted a monopoly to the East India Company and appointed agents in charge of the sale of tea. The colonists responded again with boycotts and this resulted in the Boston Tea Party, December 10, 1773, where a group of rebels dressed as Mohawks dumped a whole shipment into the Boston Harbor.
The Coercive Acts in 1774 were mostly comprised to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party (Schultz). The Acts came in four parts, The Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act and the Quartering Act and were intended to divide the colonists. The Quebec Act later that same year was linked the Coercive Acts to become referred as the Intolerable Acts. The results of the acts united the colonists instead of dividing them and in September members from twelve colonies met together for the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The group of congressmen created the Continental Association to supervise the boycott of British trade, they also initiated the "Declaration of Rights" in an "attempt to pursue autonomy" (Schultz).