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French-Indian War (1756-1763)
The French and Indian War was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. -
Stamp Act 1765
Parliament's first direct tax on the American colonies, this act, like those passed in 1764, was enacted to raise money for Britain. It taxed newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, broadsides, legal documents, dice, and playing cards. -
Declaratory Act 1765
stated that Parliament could make laws binding the American colonies in all cases whatsoever. -
Townshend Acts 1767
An tax which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. -
Boston Massacre March 5 1770
British soldiers fired upon a group of rowdy colonists, killing five and wounding others. -
Boston Tea Party 1773
one of the most iconic scenes in the American epoch defiant colonists dumping crates of tea into Boston Harbor. -
Intolerable Acts (aka Coercive Acts) 1773
a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party -
Quartering Act 1774
allowed royal governors, rather than colonial legislatures, to find homes and buildings to quarter or house British soldiers. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord 1775
it marked the start of the American War of Independence -
Second Continental Congress May 1775
to plan further responses if the British government did not repeal or modify the acts -
Declaration of Independence 1776
the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain -
Common Sense 1776
a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.