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French and Indian War
french&native Americans vs. British and colonies
Ohio River Valley
viginia granted land to wealthy English Planters but French built fort Dusquesne
British lost 1754(George Washinton) &1755(Edward Braddock)
1759 : British victory(William Pitt) in Plains of Abraham
war ended 1763 with Treaty of Paris = British gets almost all Canada, E.of MIssissippi & Florida(from Spain who allied with France)
native frustrated with loss of land -
Writ of Assistance
the royal governor of Massachusetts authorized the use of the writs of assistance, a general search warrant that allowed British customs officials to search any colonial ship or building they believed to be holding smuggled goods. -
Treaty of Paris
French and Indian War ended 1763 with Treaty of Paris = British gets almost all Canada, N.of MIssissippi, Florida(from Spain who allied with France) & city of New Orleans
Natives -
Proclamation of 1763
Natives also lost a lot of land due to French Indian War
To avoid conflicts with Native Americans, the British prohibited colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.
-made a Proclamation Line along the Appalachians, which the colonists were not allowed to cross. However, the colonists ignored the proclamation to expand west.
-Britain wanted better relationship with native
-colonists were upset over the land restriction -
Sugar Act & colonists response
-to pay the war debt & pay British troops in N America
- taxation of sugar(basis of making rum)
- colonists angered with lack of representation (british passed acts without listening to colonists)
- George Grenville (prime minister 1763) made it -
stamp Act and colonists response
imposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. A stamp would be placed on the items to prove that the tax had been paid.
-first tax directly on goods and services
colonist response:
-boycott British goods
-sons of liberty: fought against taxation ("taxation without representation")
-1766, parliment repeal the act -
Sons of liberty is formed & Samuel Adams
-secret resistance group on british taxation
- Led by men such as Samuel Adams, one of the founders of the Sons of Liberty, the colonists again boycotted British goods.1967 when townshend act was passed -
Declaratory Act
asserted Parliament’s full right “to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever.”
-british parliament could make laws over the colonies -
Townshend Act & colonists (why they were repealed)
-named after Charles Townshend, leading government minister.
-to raise revenue for British administrative officials and their protection in N America
-taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, (lead, glass, paint, and paper.
- tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies.
- colonists boycotted & rebeled (Boston Massacre)
-march 5 : parliament repealed the act except on tea because they were losing more money than gaining ( Lord Frederick North found out) -
John Locke's Social contract
-Locke maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property
-he said 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. Therefore, if the gov. violates the social contract, people have right to resist and overthrow the government. -
Boston Massacre
mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killed or mortally wounded. -
Tea Act
- to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company. -granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay.
- This action cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to consumers for less.
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Boston Tea Party
- rebellion agaist Tea Act
- a large group of Boston rebels disguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action against three British tea ships anchored in the harbor.
- the “Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India Company’s tea into the waters of Boston harbor.
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Intolerabe Acts-all 3 parts
-infuriated king George III
1. shut down Boston harbor
2.Quartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings.
3 placed Boston under martial law, or rule imposed by military forces.( General Thomas Gage) -
First Continental Congress meets
-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
After the First Continental Congress met, colonists in many eastern New England towns stepped up military preparations.
-Minutemen—civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice—quietly stockpiled firearms and gunpowder. -
Continental Army
-made during debate in second continental congress
- led by general George Washington -
Loyalist & Patriots
- Loyalists—those who opposed independence and remained loyal to the British king—included judges and governors, as well as people of more modest means. -Patriots—the supporters of independence—drew their numbers from people who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America.
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Midnight Riders - Revere, Dawes, Prescott
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
-king's troop ("redcoats") reached Lexington, Massachusetts, five miles short of Concord
- 8 out of 70 minutemen were shot or wounded and only 1 british soldier was injured.
-only lasted for 15 min
-first war of revolutionary war -
Battle of Concord
The British marched on to Concord, where they found an empty arsenal. the British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees.
- Colonists had become enemies of Britain and now held Boston and its encampment of British troops under siege. -
Second Continental Congress
-in Philadelphia to debate their next move
-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. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
-British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill
-2,400 British soldiers went up the hill, The colonists held their fire until the last minute and then began to mow down the advancing redcoats before finally retreating.
- colonist : 450 dead ; British : more than 1000 dead
-The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill was the deadliest battle of the war. -
Olive Branch Petition
- Congress sent the king the Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies. -King George rejected the petition. He issued a proclamation stating that the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order a naval blockade to isolate a line of ships meant for the American coast.
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Publication of Common Sense
-widely read 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense, Paine attacked King George and the monarchy.
-responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain".
-declared that independence would allow America to trade more freely.
-states 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. -
Declaration of Independence
-Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee moved that “these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent States.”
- Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson prepared the final draft
-declared the rights of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”
-government’s legitimate power can only come from the consent of the governed, and that when a government denies their unalienable rights, the people have the right to “alter or abolish” that government.
- “all men are created equal.” -
Red coats push Washington's army across th Delaware River into Pennsylvania
-The British sailed into New York harbor with 32,000 soldiers. -They included thousands of German mercenaries, or hired soldiers, knownas Hessians because many of them came from
the German region of Hesse.
-By late fall, the British had pushed Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.
- continental army was not well trained -
Washington's Christmas night surprise attack
-Desperate for 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-cold Delaware River. They then
marched to 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
-General John Burgoyne planned to lead an army down a route of lakes from Canada to Albany, where he would meet British troops as they arrived from New York City to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies.
- Burgoyne didn’t realize that other British officers, fighting in Philadelphia,weren’t coming to meet him Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga when surrounded by American army -
French American Alliance
-Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the Americans could win the war. As a result, 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 French American Alliance), 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. -
Friedich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
-Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, helped to train the Continental Army.
- Marquis de Lafayette, 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. With the help of such European military leaders, the raw Continental Army became an effective fighting force. -
British Victories in the South
- At the end of 1778, a British took Savannah, Georgia. 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
-Cornwallis planned to fortify 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, obstructing British sea routes to the bay.
-late September, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them.
-on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis finally surrendered. -
Treaty of Paris
-Peace talks began in Paris in 1782.
-The American negotiating team included John Adams, John Jay of New York, and Benjamin Franklin.
-In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation.
