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French and Indian War
French and Indian War known also known as the 'Seven Years of War, a war fought between Britain and France in the American colonies. The cause was that both nations wanted to expand into the Ohio River Valley. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris signed in Paris. Before the war, Britain increased protective tariffs and created trade regulations so the colonies would work for motherland. After the war, new mercantilism policies led the colonies to resentment and the American Revolution. -
Proclamation of 1763
Before this proclamation, the British gained French territory from the Seven Years of War fought against France. In order to protect the western frontier areas the British issued this proclamation line which prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonists felt they had the right to gain lands formerly held by the French, they defied the order and moved west by the thousands. -
Sugar Act
An act passed by Lord Grenville, to start making the colonies pay for their war, the French and Indian War.
A.K.A the Revenue Act of 1764. It placed duties on foreign sugar and certain luxury goods.It stated that those caught smuggling would now be tried in admiralty courts under British officials, not colonial courts. Affected majorly the New England colonies. An effect was that the colonies felt they were being taxed without their consent and their right to a fair trial was being suspended. -
Stamp Act
The second act passed to start making colonists pay for the French and Indian war. It imposed taxes on anything that was a paper. It affected all the colonists, not just a certain area. The response of colonists was immediate. Immediately the Stamp Act Congress was formed. The situations became more violent when the Sons and Daughters of Liberty were formed. Parliament repealed this act in 1766. -
Quartering Act
The third act passed to start making the colonies pay for the French and Indian war. It required that colonists be responsible for the housing and provisioning of Redcoats stationed in the colonies. The British government would no longer pay for the supply of the Redcoats. -
Townshend Acts
Colonists were imported goods, which where not of total benefit to Britain.Then this series of laws were passed by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend. This acts put taxes glass, lead, paints, paper and tea imported into the colonies. In 1770, all Townshend Acts were repealed except the one on tea. It led to a temporary peace before the American Revolution. -
Boston Massacre
The tensions between Britain and the American colonists was boiling hot. In this incident British Army soldiers shot and killed 5 colonists while under attack by a crowd. This soldiers were there only to keep order and stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts. All they did was to provoke more rage.This massacre helped the colonists unite against their motherland. -
Committees of Correspondence
The earliest forms of these committees started in 1764 to address certain problems but they were later disbanded. Boston started one in 1764 and New York another one in 1765 but their was no permanent intercolonial structure. It was into 1773 the Virginia House of Burgesses proposed to every colony to have a committee for intercolonial correspondence. Later the First Continental Congress was held in September 1774, which represented the evolution of intercolonial communication in the colonies. -
Tea Act
A measure of the Britain for their heavy post war debt. An act passed by the parliament not to raise revenue in the colonies but to bail out the floundering East India Company. The British government gave the monopoly to this company on the importation and sales of tea in the colonies. The colonies of course were not favoring it. It was the final spark in the revolutionary movement in Boston. This led to the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
Taxes on tea were already in action. Something the colonists disliked and motivated their fight for independence. This was an act of resistance towards the Tea Act passed by the Parliament. Colonists boarded East India Company and dumped their loads of tea overboard. The Parliament responded with more harsh measures, then two years waited until the start of the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts
A year before the colonists had done the Boston Tea Party. This were four acts to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party and other protests. The first one was to close the city's harbor. The second one limited colonist power and gave more control to the crown. The third one protected British officials with capital offenses to go to England or another colony for trial. The fourth one was on changes of the housing of British troops. The aim for more control by the Parliament was too late. -
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First Continental Congress
The response of colonists to the Coercive Acts was to have the first session of the Continental Congress at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and complaints and elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as the first president of Congress. They were to have zero tolerance towards British governmental harsh measures. -
Lexington and Concord
First revolutionary battle at Lexington and Concord. Parliament continue to want total control. They sent British troops to confiscate weapons colonists had but they ran into a furious militia. 700 British troopers died, giving the victory to the colonists which boosted their confidence for the war ahead. -
The Second Continental Congress
Congress met again in Philadelphia as the Second Continental Congress. The First Continental Congress had broken up a year earlier. By this time the American Revolution was already in action. The Second Congress managed the Colonial war effort and moved to signed the Declaration of Independence, on July 4 1776. By 1776 it broke all connections to British control. -
Common Sense
Published by Thomas Paine. The American Revolution had already begun. This writing challenged the British government and the royal monarchy. It was written in plain language for the common colonists. It was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. -
Declaration of Independence
In mid-June 1776, a five-men committee had to write a draft of what the colonists wanted. By July 4 1776, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, a date celebrated for American Independence.
At first not all colonists wanted complete independence from Great Britain. Colonists then realizing their opportunity for freedom and persuaded by Common Sense, they started to vote for independence. This declaration became a landmark of the history of democracy.