Origins

• According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, in 1774, the British government passed a series of five laws that the American colonists called the Intolerable Acts. Four of these laws were specifically meant to punish the people of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea party, including closing the port of Boston until the colonists paid for the tea they'd destroyed; forcing people to let British soldiers stay in their homes; and allowing British officials in trouble with colonial authorities to be tried and punished in England.
  
  

Features

• Fearing armed conflict, the British commander in Boston, sent troops to take control of weapons stored in Concord. Paul Revere, Samuel Prescott and William Dawes warned the people in the area, and when British troops arrived in Lexington, they were met by the famous militia known as the minutemen. According to historian R.G. Grant, after a brief fight in which several Americans were killed, the militia withdrew and British forces marched to Concord. In Concord, the British destroyed some colonial weapons and again fought colonial militia before returning to Boston.
  
  

Significance

• According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, the members of the First Continental Congress, which had met just before the battles, didn't intend to go to war with Britain. Instead they had agreed not to buy British goods until the British government recognized colonial rights. By the time the Second Continental Congress met in May, 1775, colonial forces were fighting the British throughout the colonies. Congress appointed George Washington commander of the Continental Army in June, 1775.