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French and Indian War
France and Great Britain owned territory in North America. The Ohio river valley, located near Pennsylvania and Virginia was an area of contention between France and Great Britain. in 1754 the French built a fort in the area (Fort Duquesne) while the british colony had granted the 200,000 acres of land. -
Writ of Assistance
In 1761, the royal governor of Massachusetts authorized the use of the Writ of Assistance, a general search warrant that allowed british custom officials to search a colonial ship or building they believed to be holing smuggling good, because many merchants worked out on their residences, the writs enabled British officials to enter and search colonial homes whether there was evidence of smuggling or not. -
Treaty of Paris
The war officially ended in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The treaty permitted Spain to keep possession of its land west of mississippi and the city of New Orleans, which it had gained from France in 1762. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 established a Proclamation Line along the Appalachians, which the colonist were not allowed to cross. The colonist were eager to expand westward from the increasingly crowded Atlantic seaboard, ignored the proclamation and continued to stream onto the Native American lands. -
Sugar Act & colonists response
Great britain had borrowed so much money during the war that it nearly doubled its national debt. the Sugar Act did three things. it halved the duty on foreign made molasses in the hopes that colonist would pay a lower tax rather than risk arrest smuggling. Colonial merchants complained that the Sugar Act would reduce their profits. Merchants and traders further claimed that parliament had no right to tax the colonists because the the colonists had not elected representative to the body. -
Stamp Act & colonists response
In March 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This act imposed tax on documents and printed items such as will, newspapers, and playing cards. A stamp would be placed on items to prove that the tax had been paid. It was the first tax that affected colonist directly because it was levied on goods and services. In May of 1765, the colonists united to defy the law. Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and labores organized a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty to protest the law. -
Sons of Liberty is formed & Samuel Adams
Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and labores organized a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty to protest the law. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies. Led by men such as Samuel Adams, one of the founders of the Son of Liberty, the colonists boycotted British goods. -
Declaratory Act
The same date that the Stamp Act was repealed, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted parliament's full right "to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever." -
Townshend Acts & colonists response
In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, named after Charles Townshend, the leading government minister, The Townshend Acts taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. -
Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a 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. Colonial leader quickly labeled the confrontation the Boston Massacre -
Tea Act
in 1773, Lord North devised the Tea Act in order to save the neatly bankrupt British East India Company. The act granted the company the right to sell to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. This action would have cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to the consumers for less. -
Boston Tea Party
On the moonlit evening of December 16, 1773, 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. In this incident later 'know as the Boston Tea Party, the "indians" dumped 18,000 pounds of the East Indian Company's tea into the waters of Boston harbor. -
Intolerable Acts – all 3 parts
One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized british commanders to house soldiers in the vacant private homes and other buildings. In addition to the measures, general Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of the British forces in north america, was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts. o keep peace, he placed boston under martial law, or rile imposed by the military forces. -
First Continental Congress meets
In response to the Britain's actions, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress. In September 1774, 56 delegates met in the Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of the colonial rights. They defended the colonies rights to run their affairs and started hat, if the Britains used forced against colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
Minutemen
Minutemen- civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute's notice. -
Battle of Concord
The British marched on to Concord, where they found an empty arsenal. After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. 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. Bloodied and humiliated, the remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston that night. -
Continental Army
Despite such differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Publication of Common Sense
Just as important were the ideas of Thomas Paine. In a widely read 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense, Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine, a recent immigrant, argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain.” -
Second Continental Congress
In May of 1775, colonial leaders called the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to debate their next move. The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the Second Continental Congress. Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. -
John Locke’s Social Contract
Locke maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, 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. If the government violates that social contract by taking away or interfering with those rights, people have the right to resist and even overthrow the government. -
Midnight riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
Colonist in boston were watching, and in the night of april 18 1775, Paul Revere, William Dewes, Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 1700 British were headed for concord. -
Battle of Lexington
The king’s troops, known as “redcoats” because of their uniforms, reached Lexington, Massachusetts, five miles short of Concord, on April 19. As they neared the town, they saw 70 minutemen drawn up in lines on the village green. The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down their arms and leave. Then someone fired, and the British soldiers sent a volley of shots into the departing militia. Eight minutemen were killed and ten more were wounded, but only one British soldier was injured -
Battle of Bunker Hill
Cooped up in Boston, British general Thomas
Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill. On June 17, 1775, Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. The colonists held their fire until the last minute and then began to mow down the advancing redcoats before finally retreating. The colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove to be the deadliest battle of the war. -
Olive Branch Petition
By July, the Second Continental Congress was readying the colonies for war though still hoping for peace. Most of the delegates, like most colonists, felt deep loyalty to George III and blamed the bloodshed on the king’s ministers. On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies -
Loyalists and 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. -
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-choked Delaware River. They then marched to their objective—Trenton, New Jersey—and defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack. -
Redcoats push Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
Although the Continental Army attempted to defend New York in late August, the untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated. By late fall, the British had pushed Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. -
Declaration of Independence
the Congress appointed a committee to prepare a formal Declaration of Independence. Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson was chosen to prepare the final draft. Jefferson’s document declared the rights of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” ones that can never be taken away. Jefferson then asserted that a government’s power can only come from the consent of the governed they have the right to “alter or abolish” On July 4, 1776, they adopted the Declaration of Independence. -
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. While he was fighting off the colonial troops, Burgoyne didn’t realize that his fellow British officers were preoccupied with holding Philadelphia and weren’t coming to meet him. American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, -
Valley Forge
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. -
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. -
French-American Alliance
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 de Lafayette
In February 1778, in the midst of the frozen winter at Valley Forge, American troops began an amazing transformation. Steuben, a Prussian captain, drill master helped to train the Continental Army. Other foreign military leaders, such as the Lafayette also arrived to offer their help. Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779 and led command in Virginia at the end of the war from help of such European military leaders, the raw Continental Army became an effective fighting force. -
British surrender at Yorktown
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, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. Less than a month later, 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.