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French and Indian War
The French and British fight over the Ohio River valley territory. The French win with the help of Native American allies. -
Writ of Assistance
A general search warrant that allowed British custom officials to search any colonial ship or building they believed to be holding smuggled goods. The writs enabled British officials to enter and search colonial homes whether or not there was evidence of smuggling or not. -
Proclamation of 1763
The British government prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists weren't allowed to cross the Proclomation Line along the Appalachians. Colonists ignored the Proclomation and pushed west. -
Treaty of Paris
The war between France and Britain ends with Great Britain claiming Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi River. France retained control of a few islands and small colonies near Newfoundland, in the West Indies, and other places. -
Sugar Act and Colonists Response
Halved the duty on foreign-made molasses in hopes that colonists would pay a lower tax rather than risk arrest by smuggling. It placed duties on certain imports that hadn't been taxed before. It also provided that colonists accused of violating the act would be tried in a vice-admiralty court rather than a colonial court. Cases would be decided by a single judge. Colonial merchants complained it would reduce their profits. Merchants and traders were affected the most. -
Stamp Act & Colonists Response
The act imposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. It was the first tax that affected the colonists directly because it was levied on goods and services. The colonists united to defy the law. Merchants in New York, Boston and Philadelphia boycotted British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. Parliament repealed the law. -
Sons of Liberty is formed & Samuel Adams
A secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty was organized to protest the Stamp Act. Townshend Acts led the colonist to boycott British goods again. Samual Adams was one of the founders of the Sons of Liberty. -
Declaratory Act
It asserted Parliament's full right to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases. -
Townshend Acts & Colonists Response
It taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, the most popular tea in the colonies. The colonists boycotted British goods once again. The Act was costing more to enforce than they would ever bring in. It was repealed except for the tax on tea. -
John Locke’s Social Contract
Natural rights to life, liberty, and property. He contended, every society is based on a social contract. An agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government just as long as it keeps their natural rights safe. If the government violates that social contract by taking away or interfering with those rights, people have the right to resist and even overthrow the government. -
Boston Massacre
A mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard. Shots were fired and five colonists,including Crispus Attucks, were killed or wounded. -
Tea Act
It was made to save the British East India Company. The act granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. This would cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade. The colonists protested dramatically. -
Boston Tea Party
Boston rebels disguised themselves as Native Americans and dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India Company's tea into the waters of Boston harbor. -
Intolerable Acts – All 3 Parts
They shut down Boston harbor. The Quartering Act authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. Also General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America was appointed the new governer of Massachusetts. -
First Continental Congress Meets
Reaction to the Intolerable Acts, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and made a declaration of colonial rights. -
Minutemen
Civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute's notice. They held firearms and gunpowder. -
Midnight Riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
Spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. -
Battle of Lexington
First battle of the Revolutionary War, lasted 15 minutes. 8 minutemen killed and 10 injured. Only one redcoat was injured. -
Battle of Concord
3,000 to 4,000 minutemen fire on the British troops. The colonists had become enemies to the British and had their troops and Boston under siege. -
Continental Army
The Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Second Continental Congress
They debated their next move in Philadelphia. The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates. Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed's Hill. The battle would prove to be the deadliest battle of the war. Colonists retreated and lost 450 men. The British had 1,000 casualties. -
Olive Branch Petition
Congress sent the king the Olive Branch Petition urging former harmony between the colonies and Britain. King George rejected the petition. He then issued a proclomation stating the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order a naval blockade to isolate a line of ships meant for the American coast. -
Publication of Common Sense
The ideas of Thomas Paine. Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine declared that independence would give American colonists the chance to create a better society and would allow America to trade more freely. It sold nearly 500,000 copies in 1776 and was widely applauded, even by George Washington. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson prepared the final draft. It declared the rights of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" rights that can't be taken away. A government's legitimate power can only come from the consent of the governed, and when a government denies their unalienable rights, the people have the right to "alter or abolish" that government. He also said "all men are created equal." They adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists were those who opposed independence and remained loyal to the British king. It included judges and governers, as well as people of more modest means. Patriots were the supporters of independence. Made up of people who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America. Many Americans remained neutral. Many African Americans fought with the Patriots, but others joined the Loyalists because the British promised freedom to slaves who would fight for the Crown. -
Redcoats push Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
The Continental Army attempted to defend New York. The British had a force of 32,000 soldiers including thousands of German mercenaries, known as Hessians, sail into New York harbor. -
Washington’s Christmas Night Surprise Attack
He led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the nearly frozen Delaware River. Then marched to Trenton, New Jersey and defeated the Hessians in a surprise attack. -
Saratoga
General John Burgoyne planned to lead an army down a route of lakes from Canada to Albany and meet British troops. British officers were preoccupied with holding Philadelphia. American troops surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga and he surrendered. It turned out to be one of the most important events of the war. The French formed an alliance with America as a result. -
French-American Alliance
Allied as a result of Saratoga. -
Valley Forge
Washington and his Continental Army -low on food and supplies- fought to stay alive at winter camp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died, but the survivors didn't desert. -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, helped to train the Continental Army. Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. -
British Victories in the South
At the end of 1778, a British expedition easily took Savannah, Georgia. The British under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780. -
British Surrender at Yorktown
The armies of Lafayette and Washington moved south toward Yorktown. A French naval force defeated a British fleet and then blocked the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, obstructing British sea routes to the bay. 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. Less than a month later, Cornwallis surrendered. -
Treaty of Paris
It confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. It stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border.
