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Adoption of the English Bill of Rights
The end result of an English civil war called the Glorious Revolution, the Bill of Rights was a parliamentary writ that formed the backbone of English limited monarchy and established basic rights for English citizens. The text of the document served as inspiration for the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights nearly a century later, including free speech, the right to arms, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. -
Locke's "Two Treatises of Government"
English scholar John Locke published this pamphlet anonymously in late 1689. Printed in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, both treatises refuted arguments for dictatorship and monarchy and argued in favor of limited government and a social contract where the people are empowered to keep their own government in check. The pamphlet would form the foundation of the liberal revolutionary thinking that would influence the Founding Fathers and their Declaration in the U.S. a century later. -
End of the Seven Years' War; Treaty of Paris
An intercontinental war spanning from 1756 to 1763 (though it arguably began with territory disputes in 1753) that left Britain, its victor, much poorer. To recoup their funds, the crown ended their policy of salutary neglect in the American colonies, and the unrepresentative taxation in the 12 years to follow would brew unity and revolutionary spirit among the colonies, eventually boiling over into the American Revolution. -
Sugar Act of 1764
The first tax levied on the American colonies in the wake of the Seven Years' War. In addition to taxing sugar and molasses, it also designated certain products that the colonies could only export to Britain, in an attempt to foster codependence. The economic impact at a time of poverty for the colonies fostered protest, and this could be considered the forebearer for future protests and taxes that led to war. -
The Boston Massacre
A stand-off in Boston where British soldiers fired into a harassing mob of colonists, killing five. Though future Founding Father John Adams successfully defended the regulars in court, there was significant public outcry following the Massacre, prompted in part by the included propaganda piece by Paul Revere, which would cause further anti-British sentiment along with regular taxation and injustice. -
The Boston Tea Party
A Boston chapter of the Sons of Liberty boarded the tea ship Dartmouth and dumped crates of loose tea into Boston Harbor, in protest of Boston's governor and tea consignees refusing to cave to their demands. The event protested the Tea Act, which transferred rights of American tea distribution to the British East India Company, which colonists viewed as an attempt to create a British monopoly. The Tea Party resulted in the passage of the Coercive "Intolerable" Acts, which penalized Boston. -
Coercive Acts
A series of punitive writs (also called "Intolerable Acts") levied by Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party, where Massachusetts Bay colonists boarded a British ship in the harbor and destroyed tea shipments to protest the earlier Tea Act. These acts so incensed the colonists for singling out one specific colony that it led to the arrangement of the First Continental Congress to protest the act and have it repealed, which led to higher tensions and eventually war. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
Two battles fought in Massachusetts Bay, in resistance against British weapon seizure at Concord. The first was in the early morning in Lexington between a small militia and hundreds of British regulars. The militia fell back to Concord and joined hundreds of Massachusetts militiamen, and the ensuing second battle forced a British retreat. These two interconnected battles mark the first shots fired between an American militia and British troops in the American Revolution. -
Approval of the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was approved by the Second Continental Congress on 4 July 1776 in "Independence Hall," Philadelphia. In the text of the document, the delegates cited King George III's unjust rule and announced to the world their intent to carry on as their own sovereign nation. A real admission of independence is what led to the U.S. being taken seriously by the international community, and was instrumental in securing France's help in the late Revolutionary War. -
Signing of the Treaty of Alliance
A treaty signed between France and the newly-formed United States, ensuring that if Britain declares war on France for defying a prior Anglo-French trade agreement by associating with the U.S., then the French and American militaries will be merged to protect the new country. Throughout the latter half of the Revolutionary War, especially in the Battle of Yorktown, France's assistance was invaluable in ending the war in 1783.
