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French and Indian War
When France’s expansion into the Ohio River valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies, a series of battles led to the official British declaration of war in 1756. -
Writ of Assistance
A written order issued by a court instructing a law enforcement official, such as a sheriff or a tax collector, to perform a certain task. It enabled custom officials to search any vessel or building that they suspected was carrying smuggled goods. -
John Locke's Social Contract
Theory that said the only right people give up in order to enter into civil society and its benefits is the right to punish other people for violating rights. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
Signed by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Great Britain's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War. France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
Proclamation of 1763
King George III prohibited American colonists from settling west of Appalachia. -
Sugar Act & Colonists Response
A law that attempted to curb the smuggling of sugar and molasses in the colonies by reducing the previous tax rate and enforcing the collection of duties. Colonists were forced to pay more for goods which caused protests. -
Sons of Liberty & Samuel Adams
Founded and led by Samuel Adams, a secret organization that was created in the Thirteen American Colonies to advance the rights of the European colonists and fight taxation by the British government. -
American Revolution Facts
- The British military commander at the start of Revolution was Sir William Howe, though he was later replaced due to failures in the British war effort.
- King George III led British resistance to American independence.
- African-American slaves served on both sides. The British offered freedom to slaves who escaped their masters and served with loyalist forces.
- 25,000 soldiers died
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Stamp Act & Colonists Response
An Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America. Required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London. Colonists responded by mobbing those who carried out the Stamp Act. -
Declaratory Act
Accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act, and the changing and lessening of the Sugar Act. Stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. -
Townshend Acts & Colonists Response
A series of laws passed by the British government on the American colonies. They placed new taxes and took away some freedoms from the colonists including the following: New taxes on imports of paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea. Repealed in 1770 as a result of widespread protest and non-importation of British goods in colonial ports. -
Friedrich von Steuben
Also referred to as Baron von Steuben, he was a Prussian and later an American military officer. He served as Inspector General and a Major General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. -
Boston Massacre
British soldiers shot and killed several American colonists while being harassed by a mob in Boston. -
Tea Act
The act granted the company the right to ship its tea directly to the colonies without first landing it in England, and to commission agents who would have the sole right to sell tea in the colonies -
Boston Tea Party
Political and mercantile protest in Boston, Massachusetts by the Sons of Liberty, who threw barrels of tea into the ocean. -
Intolerable Acts
Laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest. -
First Continental Congress
A meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. -
Minutemen
Civilian colonists who independently organized to form well-prepared militia companies self-trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
One of the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War, where hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. -
Second Continental Congress
A meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that joined in the American Revolutionary War. -
Continental Army
Formed by the Second Continental Congress, consisted of soldiers from all 13 colonies. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
During the Siege of Boston in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, British defeated Americans in Massachusetts. -
Olive Branch Petition
Adopted by the Second Continental Congress in a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Patriots were people who wanted the American colonies to gain their independence from Britain. Loyalists didn't want to break away from the British. -
Publication of Common Sense
Book published by Thomas Paine arguing for independence from England and the creation of a democratic republic. -
Declaration of Independence
The 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain. The Declaration summarized the colonists' motivations for seeking independence. Written by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, -
Washington's Christmas night surprise attack
(Battle of Trenton) George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a surprise attack organized by George Washington against the Hessian (German mercenaries) forces in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington led a column of Continental Army troops across the Delaware River and defeated the troops of Johann Rall quartered in Trenton. The army crossed the river back to Pennsylvania, with prisoners and military stores. -
Valley Forge
The Americans harassed the British army in skirmishes and minor battles. In December, Washington marched his tired, beaten, hungry, and sick army to Valley Forge, 20 miles northwest of British-occupied Philadelphia; so he could keep an eye on General Howe's British army in Philadelphia. There were shortages of food, clothing, and medicine. Washington's men were sick from disease, hunger, and exposure to cold. -
British Victories in the South
The British routed the minutemen at Lexington in 1775. In October 1781, the war virtually came to an end when General Cornwallis was surrounded and forced to surrender the British position at Yorktown, Virginia. -
Saratoga
On September 19th, British General John Burgoyne achieved a small, but costly victory over American forces led by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold. Though his troop strength had been weakened, Burgoyne again attacked the Americans at Bemis Heights on October 7th, but this time was defeated and forced to retreat. He surrendered ten days later, and the American victory convinced the French government to formally recognize the colonist’s cause and enter the war as their ally. -
French American Alliance
Alliance between the Kingdom of France and the United States during the American Revolutionary War. Formalized in the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which the French provided many supplies for the Americans. -
British surrender at Yorktown
Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown effectively ended the Revolutionary War. Lacking the financial resources to raise a new army, the British government appealed to the Americans for peace -
Treaty of Paris
Signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America, ended the American Revolutionary War. -
Marquis de Lafayette
French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles, including the Siege of Yorktown.
