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Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Britain's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War. The signing of the treaty formally ended the Seven Years' War, otherwise known as the French and Indian War in the North American theatre, which marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe -
Proclamation 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the Seven Years' War, in which it forbade settlers from settling past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains.The purpose was to organize Great Britain's new North American empire and to stabilize relations with Native North Americans through regulation of trade, settlement, and land purchases on the western frontier. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act imposed a direct tax by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America, and it required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London. These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years' War. -
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was an organization of American patriots that originated in the North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists and to take to the streets against the abuses of the British government. They are best known for undertaking the Boston Tea Party in 1773 in reaction to the Tea Act, which led to the Intolerable Acts and a counter-mobilization by the Patriots. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. Soldiers fired into the crowd, without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. Disguised as American Indians, the demonstrators destroyed the entire supply of tea sent by the East India Company in defiance of the American boycott of tea carrying a tax the Americans had not authorized. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts was the Patriot name for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament, in 1774 relating to Massachusetts after the Boston Tea party. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. The acts stripped Massachusetts of self-government and historic rights, triggering outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies. They were key developments in the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775. Four of the acts were issued in direct response to -
Quartering Acts
The Quartering Act is a name given to a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament in the 18th century. Parliament enacted them to order local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations. It also required colonists to provide food for any British soldiers in the area. Each of the Quartering Acts was an amendment to the Mutiny Act and required annual renewal by Parliament.The tensions would later lead to the Revolutionary War. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party.The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the 13 colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America. -
Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga,September 19 & October 7, 1777, conclusively decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the American War of Independence and are generally regarded as a turning point in the war. Two battles were fought eighteen days apart on the same ground, 9 miles south of Saratoga, New York.The American victory at Saratoga was a major turning point in the war for Independence, heartening the supporters and convincing France to enter in the war as an ally of the US. -
Valley Forge
Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 during the American Revolutionary War. It is approximately 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Starvation, disease, and exposure killed nearly 2,500 American soldiers by the end of February 1778. -
Surrender of Cornwallis
British General Charles Cornwallis formally surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a French and American force at Yorktown, Virginia, bringing the American Revolution to a close. he led his weary and battered troops toward the Virginia coast, where he could maintain seaborne lines of communication with the large British army of General Henry Clinton in New York City. After conducting a series of raids against towns and plantations in Virginia, Cornwallis settled in Yorktown in August. -
Treaty of Paris 1783
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of these, and the negotiations which produced all four treaties. Its territorial provisions were "exceedingly generous" to the United States in terms of enlarged boundaries
