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French Indian War
The French and Indian War was a theater of the Seven Years' War, The North American colonies of the British Empire against the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. -
Stamp Act
The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on multiple forms of papers, and playing cards. It was a tax brought up by the British government without the approval of the others and was payable in British sterling, rather than colonial currency. -
Quartering Act
In American colonial history, the British provision (actually an amendment to the Mutiny Act) requiring colonial authorities to provide food, drink, quarters, fuel, and transportation to British forces in their towns or villages. -
Townshend Acts
Made 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. In response to new taxes, the colonies again decided to down the purchase of British imports. -
Boston Massacre
Seven British soldiers fired into a crowd of volatile Bostonians, killing five, wounding another six, and angering an entire colony. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord was the first major military campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in an American victory and militia support for the anti-British. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. -
Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)
The Coercive Acts of 1774, known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, were a series of four laws passed by the British to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. -
Second Continental Congress
They established a Continental army and elected George Washington as Commander-in-Chief, but the delegates also drafted the Olive Branch Petition and sent it to King George III in hopes of reaching a peaceful resolution. The king refused to hear the petition and declared the American colonies in revolt. -
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 war from being declared. The Petition emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens. The Congress met according to adjournment. -
Common Sense
"Common Sense" written by Thomas Paine in 1776. Published on January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine's 47-page pamphlet helped sway the Thirteen Colonies toward independence with his persuasive and passionate case for separation from Britain. -
Declaration Of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in both the engrossed version and the original printing. The founding document of the United States. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. This document served as the United States' first constitution. It was in force from March 1, 1781, until 1789 when the present-day Constitution went into effect. -
Daniel Shays Rebellion
Shays's Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts and Worcester in response to a debt crisis among the people and in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes on both individuals and their trades. -
Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation.