Many Bostonians resented(憤慨する)the heavy British military presence in their city during the late 1700s, and the soldiers' enforcement(施行、強要)of the unpopular Townshend Acts merely exacerbated(悪化させる)the tense situation. On March 5th, 1770, soldiers opened fire on an aggressive, rioting civilian mob, killing five men. The Boston Massacre, as it became known, fueled the anti-British sentiment that culminated in(に至らせる)the American Revolutionary War.