For more than 10 years, American colonists had been protesting British tax laws. Their rallying cry became "No taxation without representation!" Protests continued but nothing changed. By 1775, the colonists had reached a breaking point and formed volunteer militias. Untrained and outnumbered, they fought bravely against British soldiers who had been sent to enforce the law. Tensions between Great Britain and the American colonies increased, and on June 17, 1775, the bloody Battle of Bunker Hill marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War.