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French and Indian War
b) The British and French empire was growing and ran into one another, causing three wars.The French and Indian War was reignited conflict between the French and British.
c) Ohio River valley was built on by the French although it was granted to Great Britain. Virginia sent military to evict the French.
d) This created tension, causing the fourth war between Great Britain and France. The French and Natives (allies) ambushed Great Britain and they fled. -
Writ of Assistance
b) It's a general search warrant that allowed British customs officials to search any colonial ship or building they think have smuggled goods in.
c) Because of the French and Indian War, the British cracked down on colonial smuggling to ensure that merchants were not doing business in any French-held territories.
d) Because the British officials entered homes without any evidence of smuggled goods, the merchants of Boston were outraged. -
Proclamation of 1763
b) It was by Britain to avoid further conflict with the Native Americans.
c) The British government prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains.
d) The colonists were eager to expand and ignored the rule and crossed into the Native Americans land. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
b) The Treaty ended French and Indian War
c) It happened to end the War after the British defeated the French in a surprise attack, and Britain won Quebec.
d) Great Britain claimed Canada, Florida and almost all of North America. This caused tension between Natives and Great Britain, the Natives feared their land would be taken by G. Britain. -
Sugar Act & Colonists Response
b) It halved the duty on foreign-made molasses in the hopes that colonists would pay a lower tax rather than risk arrest by smuggling. It would also try colonists violating this in a vice-admiralty court.
c) It happened because colonists were smuggling without paying taxes, and that resulted in American customs service losing money.
d) Colonial merchants complained it would reduce their profits, and that it wasn't fair since they didn't elect representatives to the body. -
Stamp Act & Colonists Response
b) Imposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. A stamp would be added to prove tax was paid.
c) It happened to directly tax colonists, unlike before where it was indirect, involving duties on imports.
d) The colonists unified to defy the law, and colonial assemblies also said it isn't fair since they aren't represented. NY, Boston and Philadelphia boycotted British goods, and in 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed. -
Sons of Liberty is Formed & Samuel Adams
b) Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers organized a secret resistance group to protest the law (Stamp Act). Samuel Adams is the founder of the Sons of Liberty.
c) It happened because colonists wanted Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act.
d) It created tension because it caused many colonists to boycott British goods, which resulted in the British Parliament repealing the Stamp Act. But then, the British Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, giving them control to bind colonies. -
Declaratory Act
b) Asserted the Parliaments full right "to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever."
c) It happened because the Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.
d) It caused the city to soon erupt in bloody clashes and later in a daring tax protest. -
Townshend Acts & Colonists Response (why they were repealed)
b) It taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, such as lead, glass, paint and paper. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies.
c) It happened after the Stamp Act was repealed.
d) A mob (1770) gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers. 5 colonists died, including Crispus Attucks. Because the Act costs more than enforcing it, it was repealed. -
Boston Massacre
b) A mob gathered in front of Boston Customs house and taunted the British soldier, resulting in 5 colonists deaths.
c) It happened because of the many Acts being applied to the colonists, like the Townshend Act and Declaratory Act.
d) The political atm. relaxed for the next three years, but rose again in 1772. -
Tea Act
b) The act granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that the colonial tea had to pay.
c) It happened because Lord North wanted to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company.
d) This led to the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
b) A large group of Boston rebels disguised as Indians and proceeded to take action against 3 British ta ships anchored in the harbor. They dumped 18,000 pounds of East India Company's tea.
c) It was a rebellion against the Tea Act which made the colonial tea sellers having to pay.
d) In 1774 the Parliament passed a series of measures that colonists called the Intolerable Act, consisting of 3 parts. -
First Continental Congress Meets
b) 56 delegates 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 use force, colonists should fight back.
c) It happened in response to all the unfair treatment by the British.
d) They planned to make an army, but General Thomas Gage found out and he ordered troops to march from Boston to nearby Concord, and seizes illegal weapons. -
Intolerable Acts (all 3 parts)
b) One law shut down Boston harbor, another was the Quartering Act (letting British soldiers in any colonists home), and General Thomas Gage (apart of British forces) was appointed Massachusetts.
c) King George III was angry, and pressed Parliament to act.
d) In response to Britain's actions, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress. -
Minutemen
b) Civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minutes notice.
c) It happened because the Continental Congress said the colonists should fight British back if they use force.
d) Since they were quietly collecting weapons, British troops were notified and ordered to march to Massachusetts and collect them. -
Second Continental Congress
b) Colonial leaders met in Philadelphia to debate their next move. Some wanted independent and others wanted to be allies with G. Britain. They agreed to make a militia called the Continental Army, appointed to G. Washington
c) General Thomas Gage decided to launch a British attack on the militia on Breed’s Hill; the redcoats retreated. This was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, the deadliest battle of the war. -
Olive Branch Petition
b) Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies.
c) King George rejected the petition and urged a proclamation to Parliament that they colonists were in rebellion and that they block and isolate ships sent for the American coast. -
Continental Army
b) Despite such differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander.
c) Not a battle -
Midnight Riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
b) 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 sig- nals, sent from town to town, that the British were coming.
c) This was the beginning of the Battle of Lexington. -
Battle of Concord
b) The British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston after moving to Concord from Lexington. Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees. British soldiers fell by the dozen.
c) The remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston that night. Colonists had become enemies of Britain and now held Boston and its encampment of British troops under siege. -
Battle of Lexington
b) The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down their arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying down their muskets. Then someone fired, and the British soldiers sent a volley of shots into the departing militia.
c) The British won, killing 8 minutemen and wounding 10. This was the first battle of the Revolutionary War, lasting only 15 minutes. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
b) British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill, north of the city and near Bunker Hill. The colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. The colonists retreated in the mist of the smoke after defeating the British last minute.
c) The colonists won. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove to be the deadliest battle of the war. -
Redcoats push Washington's army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
b) British sailed into New York harbor in the summer of 1776 with 32,000 soldiers and thousands of Germans (known as Hessians). The Continental Army tried to fight back but retreated and was pushed into the Delaware River.
When: August 1776
Where: The British tried to seize New York to isolate the rebellion in New England.
What made it successful: The British had won by numbers and were skilled compared to the unskilled Continental Army.
c) British won. -
John Locke’s Social Contract
b) Locke (an Enlightenment thinker) maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. He contended, every society is based on a social contract, the people obey the government as long as they protect their natural rights. If the government violates their natural rights, the people can resist.
c) This supports the colonists actions to rebel again King George and the Parliament, because they’re infringing on colonists natural rights. -
Publication of Common Sense
b) In a widely read 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense, Thomas Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain.” He explained the reasons to why America should be independent, more freedom to trade and equality.
c) This to Britain is an act of extreme rebellion, fo the thoughts of many colonists are being changed by this pamphlet. -
Loyalists and Patriots
b) Loyalists: Those who apposed independence and remained loyal to the British King. Some didn’t want punishment for being rebels, and others felt the King would better protect their rights than t new colonial government.
Patriots: Those who wanted independence and saw economic opportunities as well.
Many Indians were Patriots. Most American were neutral.
c) Not a battle -
Declaration of Independence
b) Author: Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson
Summary of Statements: All men are created equal.
All men have basic human rights given to them by God.
The only reason to have a government is to protect these basic human rights, which Jefferson lists as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Government must be by the consent of the governed.
Date of adoption: July 4, 1776
c) The colonists are expressing writings of revolt against Britain. -
Washington's Christmas night surprise attack
b) Washington risked everything to set sail for Christmas night, 1776. In the face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400
men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They then marched to Trenton, New Jersey, and defeated the Hessians in a surprise attack.
When: Christmas, 1776
Where: New Jersey
What made it successful: Washington risked sailing across the Delaware River
c) Continental Army won. But Britain soon regrouped and took the capital of Philadelphia. -
Saratoga
b) 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. The two regiments would then join forces to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies.
It didn't work because the other British regiment was too busy holding Philly.
American troops surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, and he surrendered. France realized that America can win the war.
c) Americans won. -
Valley Forge
b) While this hopeful turn of events took place in Paris,
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. Their endurance and suffering
filled Washington’s letters to the Congress and his friends. -
French-American Alliance
b) The 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. -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis
When: February 1778, and 1779
Friedrich contributed to the war by helping train the Continental Army. Marquis de Lafayette also 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 expedition easily took Savannah, Georgia. In their greatest victory of the war, the British under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780. -
British Surrender at Yorktown
When: Oct. 19, 1781
a French naval force defeated a British fleet and then
blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, thereby obstructing British sea routes to the bay.
By late September, French and American troops
surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night.
Cornwall 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. The Treaty confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now
stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border. -
Amer. Revolution Facts
1) 2,165,076 British colonists lived in North America during the war.
2) Most soldiers on both sides returned to their regular lives after the war. About 20 percent of the German soldiers who had fought for the British stayed in America. 70,000 Loyalists went to Canada or returned to England after the war.
3) In Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1781, The British tried to surrender to the French, but they made the British surrender to the Americans.