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French and Indian War
French enjoyed having better relationships with Native Americans. They were important partners in slave trade. After building Fort Duquesne, Virginia sent militia to evict the French. This was opening for the War. French won the first battle vs. the outnumbered Virginians and their leader, George Washington. One year later, he returns as aide to B General Edward Braddock with nearly 1,500 soldiers. French AND Native Americans ambush them, startling the soldiers who turned and fled. -
Continental Army
Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. Despite such differences, the
Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander -
French and Indian War pt. 2
Britain's King George II selected new leaders to run his government in 1757. William Pitt was the elder, an energetic, self-confident politician. Under Pitt, the British finally started winning battles. The W's earned Britain the support of the powerful Iroquois, giving Britain some Native American allies to balance those of France. In September 1759, the war took a dramatic turn on the Plains of Abraham just outside Quebec. Under cover of attack, B attacked F and wins in a surprise attack. -
Writ of Assistance
Writs of Assistance were a general search warrant that allowed British customs officials to search any colonial ship or building they thought was smuggling goods. Most merchants worked out of their residences so the British officials were allowed to search colonial homes. This act outraged the merchants of Boston. -
John Locke's Social Contract
One of the key Enlightenment thinkers was John Locke. Locke maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, every society is based on a social contract—an agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. 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. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
The signing of the Treaty of Paris marked the end of the War and resulted in Britain claiming Canada and virtually all of North east of the Mississippi River. They also got Florida from Spain, which allied itself with France. Spain got to keep its lands west of the Mississippi. France regained control of only a few islands and small colonies near Newfoundland, in the West Indies, and elsewhere. -
Proclamation of 1763
the Proclamation of 1763 established a Proclamation Line along the Appalachians, which the colonists were not allowed to go past. However, eager to expand west, they took no mind of it and continued to traverse onto Native American lands. -
Sugar Act & Colonists Response
Great Britain had borrowed so much money during the war that it nearly doubled its national debt. George Grenville, a financial expert, was appointed by King George III to serve as prime minister. In 1764, he prompted Parliament to enact a law known as the Sugar Act. The Sugar did three things. It halved the duty on foreign-made molasses in the hopes that colonists would pay a lower tax rather than risk arrest by smuggling. Placed duties on certain imports that haven't been taxed before. -
Sugar Act & colonists response pt. 2
Most important, it provided that colonists accused of violating the act would be tried in a vice-admiralty court rather than a colonial court. There, each court would be decided by a single judge rather than by a jury of sympathetic colonists. Colonial merchants complained that the Sugar Act would reduce their profits. They further claimed that Parliament had no right to tax the colonists because the colonists didn't elect the representatives of the body. The regulations had little effect onthem -
Sons Of Liberty is formed & Samuel Adams
In response to the Stamp Act, colonists formed the Sons of Liberty. After the Townshend Acts, named after Charles Townshend, the leading government mister, was passed in 1767, the Sons of Liberty, led by men such as Samuel Adams, on of the founders, the colonists once again boycotted British goods. -
Stamp Act & Colonists response
The Stamp Act was passed in March 1765. It imposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. First tax that was direct because it was levied on goods and services. May 1765, colonists untried to defy the lie. Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers organized a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty to protest the law. NY, Boston, and Philly agreed to boycott Brit goods until it was repealed in March 1766. -
Declaratory Act
The same day the Stamp Act was repealed, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted Parliament's full right "to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever." -
Townshend Acts & colonists response
After passing the Declaratory Act, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. The Townshend Acts taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, such a as lead, glass, paint, and paper. Colonists protest "taxation without representation" and organize a new boycott of imported goods. Due to pressure from Boston merchants, Parliament repealed the Townshend duties on all but tea. After Boston Massacre, Townshend Acts were repealed because they cost more to enforce than they did bring in. -
Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a mob gathered in frontof the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guardthere. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killed
or mortally wounded. Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation the Boston Massacre. A dramatic engraving depicting the violence was published. Political atmosphere relaxed somewhat during next three years. -
Tea Act
In 1773, Lord North devised the Tea Act to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company. The act granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that the colonial tea sellers had to pay. It cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to consumers for less. -
Boston Tea Party
Britain gives the East India Company special concessions in the colonial tea business and shuts out colonial tea merchants. Colonists in Boston rebel, dumping 18,000 pounds of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor. This was known as the Boston Tea Party. The "Indians" were said to have dumped all 18,000 pounds of tea. -
Intorable Acts
After the Boston Tea Party, an infuriated King George III made Parliament act. They passed a series of measures that colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. In addition to these measures, General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts. -
First Continental Congress meetrs
In response to Britain’s actions, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress. In September 1774, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They defended the colonies’ right to run their own affairs and stated that, if the British used force against the colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
Minutemen
Minutemen were civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute's notice. They quietly stockpiled firearms and gunpowder. -
Battle of Concord
The British marched on to Concord, where they found an empty arsenal. After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees. British soldiers fell by the dozen. The remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston that night. British troops in Boston were held under siege. -
Second Continental Congress
In May of 1775, colonial leader called the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to debate their next move. The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the Second
Continental Congress. Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. Despite such differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Olive Branch Petition
By July, the Second Continental Congress was readying the colonies for war though still hoping for peace. Most of the delegates, like most colonists, felt deep loyalty to George III and blamed the bloodshed on the king’s ministers. On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies. The King rejected it. He also urged for a naval blockade. -
Midnight RIders
Colonists in Boston were watching, and on the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. The darkened countryside rang with church bells and gunshots —prearranged signals,sent from town to town, that the British were coming. -
Battle of Lexington
The redcoats reached Lexington, Massachusetts, dawn of April 19. As they neared the town, they saw 70 minutemen drawn up in line on the village green. The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down their arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying down their muskets. Eight minutemen were killed and ten more were wounded, but only one British soldier was injured. The Battle of Lexington, the first battle of the Revolutionary War, lasted only 15 minutes. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 17, 1775, Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. The colonists held their fire until the last minute and then began to mow down the advancing redcoats before finally retreating. By the time the smoke cleared, the colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove to be the deadliest battle of the war. -
Publication of Common Sense
Paine declared that independence would allow America to trade more freely. He also stated that independence would give American colonists the chance to create a better society—one free from tyranny, with equal social and economic opportunities for all. Common Sense sold nearly 500,000 copies in 1776 and was widely
applauded. In April 1776, George Washington wrote, “I find Common Sense is working a powerful change in the minds of many men.” Thomas Paine believed the revolt began at Lex and Conc. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists included judges and governors, as well as people of more modest means. Many Loyalists thought that the British were
going to win and wanted to avoid punishment as rebels. Still others thought that the Crown would protect their rights more effectively than the new colonial governments would.
Patriots drew their numbers from people who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America. Many Americans remained neutral. -
Redcoats push Washington's army across...
32,000 soldiers sailed with the British into New York Harbor in summer of 1776. Many were German mercenaries from Hesse. The untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated. By late fall, Washington was forced to cross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson was chosen to prepare the final draft. The Declaration states flatly that “all men are created equal.” When this phrase was written, it expressed the common belief that free citizens were political equals.It did not claim that all people had the same ability or ought to have equal wealth. It was not meant to embrace women, Native Americans, or African-American slaves. Adopted July 4, 1776. -
Washington's Christmas night surprise attack
Wanting an early victory, Washington risked everything on one bold stroke set for Christmas night, 1776. In the face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They then marched to their objective—Trenton, New Jersey—and defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and in September of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia. -
Saratoga
As Burgoyne traveled through forested wilderness, militiamen
and soldiers from the Continental Army gathered from all over New York and New England. While he was fighting off the colonial troops, Burgoyne didn’t realize that his fellow British officers were preoccupied with holding Philadelphia and weren’t coming to meet him. American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered on October 17, 1777. It bolstered France's belief that he Americans could win the war. -
French-American Alliance
Because of what happened at Saratoga, the French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight. -
Valley Forge
While this hopeful turn of events took place in Paris, Washington and his Continental Army—desperately low on food and supplies—fought to stay alive at winter camp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died, yet the survivors didn’t desert. Their endurance and suffering filled Washington’s letters to the Congress and his friends. -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
In February 1778, in the midst of the frozen winter at Valley
Forge, American troops began an amazing transformation.
Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, helped to train the Continental Army. Other foreign
military leaders, such as the Marquis de Lafayettes, also arrived to offer their help. Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war.
Combined, they now had a terrifying fighting force. -
British Victories in the South
In their greatest victory of the war, the British under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780. Clinton then left for New York, while Cornwallis continued to conquer land throughout the South. -
British surrender at Yorktown
Shortly after learning of Corwallis’s actions, the armies of Lafayette and Washington moved south toward Yorktown. Meanwhile, a French naval force defeated a British fleet and then blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, thereby obstructing British sea
routes to the bay. By late September, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. The Americans had shocked the world and defeated the British. -
Treaty of Paris
In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border
