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French-Indian War (1756-1763)
The British began to enact policies that set the stage for the American Revolution. Paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution. -
Navigation Acts (1763)
The Acts prohibited colonies from exporting specific, enumerated, products to countries.a series of laws designed to restrict England's carrying trade to English ships. -
Stamp Act
On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the “Stamp Act” to help pay for the British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Year War. -
Townshend Acts
initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. -
Boston Massacre
British soldiers fought into a crowd killing five, wounding another six, and angering an entire colony. -
Boston Tea Party
on 16 December 1773 the American colonists, disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships and threw 340 chests of tea owned by the East India Company into the water. -
Quartering Act
allowed royal governors than colonial legislatures, to find homes and buildings to quarter or house British soldiers. -
Intolerable Acts (aka Coercive Acts)
four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
the famous 'shot heard 'round the world', marked the start of the American War of Independence (1775-83). -
Second Continental Congress
A plan for the further responses if the British government did not repeal or modify the acts. -
Olive Branch Petition
The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by Congress on July 5, 1775, to be sent to the King as a last attempt to prevent formal war from being declared. -
Declaration of Independence
adopted by the Continental Congress -
Common Sense
the need for American independence arguments for plain language that made it political. -
Articles of Confederation
adopted by the Continental Congress This document served as the United States' first constitution. -
Daniel Shays’ Rebellion
A violent insurrection in the Massachusetts countryside during 1786 and 1787 -
Constitutional Convention (aka Philadelphia Convention)
to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation.