During the Colonial Period in North America, each colony had the right to summon all able-bodied white males to provide for the defense of that colony. Colonies had militia laws that required every able-bodied man to be available for militia duty and to provide his own arms. In 1774 and 1775, the British government, which now had a larger presence, attempted to disarm American colonists. This caused the colonists to form private militias, independent of any control by the governors who were appointed by the British government. The Minutemen who fought the British Army at the Battles of Lexington and Concord were an independent militia. The American colonies saw standing armies as tools of a despotic monarch. 