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French-Indian War (1756-1763)
The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution. -
Navigation Acts (1763)
The Navigation Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade -
Stamp Act
The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act stated that Great Britain would house its soldiers in American barracks and public houses -
Townshend Acts
To help pay the expenses involved in governing the American colonies, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. -
Boston Massacre
seven British soldiers fired into a crowd of volatile Bostonians, killing five, wounding another six, and angering an entire colony. -
Boston Tea Party
It was an act of protest in which a group of 60 American colonists threw 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to agitate against both a tax on tea (which had been an example of taxation without representation) and the perceived monopoly of the East India Company. -
Intolerable Acts (aka Coercive Acts)
included a new Quartering Act that provided arrangements for housing British troops in American dwellings. It revived the anger that colonists had felt regarding the earlier Quartering Act (1765), which had been allowed to expire in 1770 -
Battle of Lexington & Concord (aka “The Shot Heard Around the World”)
Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats, and embarked on a lengthy war to earn their independence -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War, which established American independence from the British Empire -
Olive Branch Petition
The Petition emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens. -
Common Sense
sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts -
Declaration of Independence
God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -
Articles of Confederation
created a sovereign, national government, and, as such, limited the rights of the states to conduct their own diplomacy and foreign policy -
daniel shays rebellion
A violent insurrection in the Massachusetts countryside during 1786 and 1787, -
Constitutional Convention (aka Philadelphia Convention)
it was decided that the best solution to the young country's problems was to set aside the Articles of Confederation and write a new constitution.