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Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were laws passed by England to maintain control over colonial trade. The acts made colonists buy English goods and limited trade between the colonies and other countries. -
Writs of Assistance
The Writs of Assistance was a "warrent" that allowed British to search any colonists house for smuggled goods. This made the colonist afriad and furious with the British. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
The document that ended the war between the British and French over the Ohio River Valley. The treaty ended French power in North America and expanded British Territory and increased debt. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 prohibited colonist from settling in land past the Mississippi River. This was because the Native Americans didn't like the British in there land, so they started fighting. So the British close the land from them. This made the colonist angry because the worked hard to fight the French to get the land. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act gave the British the right to tax the Americans sugar. This act made people smuggle the sugar in order not to pay. -
Stamp Act
The stamp act said that colonists had to pay more for paper than they did before. This made the colonist furious and made them start acting out. -
Quartering Act
This act allowed British soldiers to make themselves at home in colonist homes when no houses were available. This made the colonist furious and afraid. -
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress was formed to petition the King and boycott British goods. This made the British angry and empowered the colonists. -
Declaratory Act
This act was passed to tell the colonist that the British were superior to them, and that they should obey the laws passed and honor their king. The colonists just ignored the act because they didn't want to look to a king who had to announce that he was king. -
Townshend Acts
This act allowed the British to tax goods before they reached the colonies. It taxed things like paper, glass, paint, tea, ect. This started a growth in protest in the colonies because of the anger of the Americans at the taxing British. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident in which British solider under the command of Thomas Preston fired on a mob of colonists. The colonists were protesting on the unfair taxation, and they riled up the soldiers so much that the soldiers fired on them. The colonist used this as propaganda to fire others up to fight for the American cause. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act allowed the British to directly ship tea to the colonist because of the decrease in tea sales. This also taxed Americans for their tea. This infuriated tea merchants and colonists because they were paying higher prices for tea then they should have been. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a protest against the British tea tax. The colonist met up and agreed to dump tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Tax. They seized the ship and dumped the tea while dressed as Indians. This made the British angry at the resistance of the the colonist, but gave the colonist hope. -
Coercive Acts
These acts were a series of laws passed to punish the people of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. It closed Boston Harbor and restricted meetings. This brought the colonist together because other colonies sent help to Bostons aid. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was the first meeting of the colonies. All met but Georgia, but they still supported the cause. The colonists agreed to ban trade with Brits. until the Intolerable Acts were repealed. They also set up a militia know as the minute men. Finally, they planned future governing. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first "win" for the colonist. First in Lexington, minutemen were informed of the British coming. They faced of in Lexington were the minutemen lost 8 and the British were grazed. The British then marched to Concord to seize minutemen supplies. They were intercepted by more minutemen, and they lost a 1000 men, while the colonist only lost 700. This was a win in the eyes of the colonist and boost their morals. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was the second meeting held by the colonies. They agreed to make an official army, name George Washington the general, and authorize the printing of money to fund for the war. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
The colonist fought hard against the British. They held their own against the British. The British had two times to casualties of the Americans, but they still took Bunker Hill because the colonists did not have enough ammo. This fired the colonist up seeing how much the colonist could do. -
Olive Branch Petition
The Continental Congress send a document as a last warning to the British showing them that the two could have peace if the demands were met. The British react by rejecting the petition and sending German mercenaries to the Americas. -
Common Sense
Common Sense was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine to show loyalist Americans why it was "common sense" to join the cause of the Patriots. The idea of independence now screamed. 100,000 copies were sold in three months and converted a lot of Loyalists. -
Declaration of Independence
The DEclaration of Independence was a document drafted by the Americans to declare their independence from Britain. Thomas Jefferson was the main writer, but he was aided by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. This declaration infuriated the king and he wanted to prolong the war because of it.