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Treaty of Paris, 1763
Treaty that ended the French and Indian War. The Ohio River Valley was taken away from the French and given to the British for expansion. British dominated North America. Spain got West of Mississippi, Cuba, and Louisiana. -
Proclamation of 1763
Forbid colonists from settling west of Appalachian Mt. Angered colonists. They wanted to expand! -
Sugar Act, 1764
The British parliament passed a law that placed a tax on sugar and molasses from the West Indies. Angered the colonists because they were not represented in parliament and that their rights as English subjects were violated. It was the first law passed by parliament to raise taxes. -
Stamp Act, 1765
A tax on all paper products, legal and recreational. If papers lacked the stamp, they were not legally recognized. Colonists angry at lack of representation in Parliament and felt rights as Englishmen were being violated. -
Stamp Act Protests, 1765~1766
- The Sons and Daughters of Liberty: Protested against British and for resistance
- Tarred and feathered the tax collectors, causing them to quit
- Publicly humiliated colonists not resisting, causing more participation
- Nonimportation Agreements: The boycotting of British goods
- Damaged the English economy without the activity from colonies
- The Sons and Daughters of Liberty: Protested against British and for resistance
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Quartering Act, 1765
Colonists were required to provide food and shelter to the British soldiers. Britain thought this was reasonable because their solders were "protecting" the colonists. Colonists viewed this as the British trying to spy on them. This renewed their anger towards Britain. -
Stamp Act Congress, 1765
Delegates from 9 colonies met in New York to establish a formal statement to repeal the Stamp Act. The statement was ignored by Britain, but inspired the colonists. -
Stamp Act Repeal, 1766
England struggled without the economic help from the colonies, so the stamp act was repealed. -
Declaratory Act, 1766
The act was passed by Britain to show the colonists that they had complete power over them. It stated that the British had the same authority in the Americas as they did in Great Britain. -
Townshend Acts, 1767
It put a tax on glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea. This outraged the colonists, and they refused to pay any taxes without representation. -
Boston Massacre, 1770
Colonists throwing snowballs in protest of a previous death; Redcoats respond nervously. Both sides were to blame for the cause.
- Crispus Attucks: The first death in the massacre and leader of the mob, African American
- Caused by Townshend Acts: British troops were sent in to enforce the laws, who were antagonized by the colonists -
Committees of Correspondence, 1772
First organized by Samuel Adams in Boston. Other towns then followed. They sent letters to discuss their opposition to British policy. These organizations led to intercolonial correspondence committees. -
Boston Tea Party, 1773
Colonists saw the low tea prices as an attempt from Britain to get them to accept taxes. That made the Colonists angry, so they disguised themselves as Indians. They dumped tea into the harbor.
This was in protest of the monopoly that the British East India company was given on the tea market. -
Intolerable Acts, 1774
Laws passed specifically to punish Boston for being the center of the uprising. They revoked some of the colonial rights in the Massachusetts charter, took away town meetings, forced trials in Britain with "guilty until proven innocent," closed the Boston port, allowed soldiers to be lodged in private homes, and forced Boston to repay Britain for damages. Also known to the British as the Coercive Acts. -
Quebec Act, 1774
This was a good law, but was poorly received because of preexisting turmoil in Boston. The conquered French subjects remaining in Canada were given their Catholic religion and a larger patch of land around Quebec. The Americans were worried the lack of assemblies, land being given away, and the presence of Catholicism. -
First Continental Congress, 1774
- Including 12/13 delegates (left out Georgia)
- Met in Philadelphia to discuss the response to the Intolerable Acts
- Wanted to implement a boycott of British goods
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Battles of Lexington and Concord, 1775
British troops were sent to gather colonial gunpowder, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams. The Minutemen were ill-prepared at Lexington, with several left murdered or injured as the British pushed on to Concord. At Concord, the colonists were well prepared, firing from behind cover and walls. The colonists were successful in their protect of their ammunition; the British fled to Boston. -
Second Continental Congress, 1775
- Representative body including a delegate from each of the 13 colonies
- Drafted the Declaration of Independence
- Managed the war efforts, hired George Washington as a political choice because they needed to balance leaders from north and south (and George was a great leader with clean intentions, even though he was not the best fighter)
- Hoping for the best while preparing a declaration, but preparing for the worst by waging for war
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Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775
The colonial army seized Breed's Hill outside Boston to menace the redcoats. The redcoats were easily outnumbered, yet launched a bloody frontal attack. The colonists were sharpshooting ("Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!"), and slaughtered the redcoats; even though the colonists officially lost and had to flee from the redcoats. This battle was so detrimental physically and mentally to the British that even two more battles like this would ruin them. -
Olive Branch Petition, 1775
Cause: The colonists were tired of the hostility from Britain.
It professed American loyalty to the crown.
Effect: The King declined it and hired Hessians to fight for and with Britain. -
King George III Proclaims War, 1775
King George rejects the Olive Branch Petition, angry at the losses at Bunker Hill. He declares the efforts a rebellion, calling the acts treason. This was when the Hessian, German soldiers, were hired. This hurt the feelings of the colonists because they had consider the quarrel within homeland until that point. (This is not the actual date, but it could not be found.) -
Abortive Canada Conquest, 1775
The colonist launched a two pronged attack on Canada. They were hoping to utilize the restless French, add another colony, and take potential base land away from the British. This was their first push for offensive warfare. General Montgomery and Benedict Arnold met at a conquered Montreal, but their attack on Quebec failed, and the remaining troops fled to the St. Lawrence River. The French had been treated well by the British, and were not open to a relationship with the colonists. -
Common Sense, 1776
Radical Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense to convince the colonists to lean towards independence. He hoped for republicanism. He showed the colonists that they would never receive foreign aid unless they were independent, and that the colonists were growing larger than their mother country, making it natural for them to finally detach. -
Declaration of Independence, 1776
Thomas Jefferson drafted this document. He listed all the grievances of King George's time and use them to justify their rebellion and recruit others. This document helped other countries notice the seriousness of this rebellion and attract foreign aid from France. This also worked as motivation to the patriot soldiers. -
Battle of Trenton, 1776
Washing carried troops through the ice-covered Delaware River and captured a thousand hungover Hessians. Washington then went on to capture a small British detachment at Princeton. These two victories were small, but pivotal. -
The Bloody Year, 1777
Indians allied with Britain in order to protect their lands. All but two tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy joined the British for protection. These allies would attack villages all over the backcountry of Pennsylvania and New York until stopped by Patriots. -
Battle of Germantown & Battle of Brandywine, 1777
General Howe had deferred from the plan with Burgoyne to meet him up the Hudson River in Albany to going to Philadelphia to try to clear Washington's troops and leave an open path for Burgoyne. Washington hastily moved his troops to Philadelphia to be defeated at Germantown and Brandywine. General Howe then settled in the rebel capital and left his comrade Burgoyne to his own devices (Leading to Saratoga). -
Battle of Saratoga, 1777
Burgoyne, left alone, struggled north of Albany, after being engaged with from the colonists. General Arnold was directly engaging with this group, and a colonial army was retreating from Oriskany. This left Burgoyne in a stalemate, making him surrender at Saratoga to Horatio Gates. This win mattered because it revived the dragging rebel cause, reigniting the soldiers. This caused France and Spain to see the colonies as strong, with France providing necessary aid for the victory. -
Franco-American Alliance, 1778
After Saratoga, France saw potential to use the colonists' victory to bring down Britain and return to #1. The Continental Congress had formed the Model Treaty in 1776 that was based on commercial connections, not military or political. Ben Franklin was the diplomatic relation between the two countries. Their alliance did not exactly follow the Model, but it was a large recognition of the colonies' independence. Without aid from France, America would not have won the war. (Especially Yorktown) -
Battle of Monmouth, 1778
Britain was forced to strategize with against the new French naval power overgrowing their's. Britain moved its base from Philadelphia to New York. On a very hot day, Washington attacked these rotating redcoats at Monmouth, New Jersey. Many men died from the heat, and one third of the Hessians deserted. Washington remained in this area restricting the redcoats. -
Clark's Victories in West, 1778-1779
George Rogers Clark floated down the Ohio River and captured the scattered British posts in the valley. People argue that his victories here are what cause the British to cede this land to the Americans, later. -
War in South, 1780
The British planned on moving up the Southern colonies with the help of the Loyalist population. Georgia and Charleston fell, with Charleston a bigger loss to America than Burgoyne to British. -
Battle of King's Mountain & Battle of Cowpens, 1780-81
Patriot and Loyalist violence war growing in the South. American riflemen attacked a British detachment at King's Mountain. They later wiped out a smaller group at Cowpens. -
Carolina Campaign, 1781
This was done by General Nathanial Greene, a Quaker who utilized delay in his strategy. He stood and retreated, which lost battles but won campaigns over Cornwallis. This cleared the South of British troops. -
Battle of Yorktown, 1781
Both sides were struggling, with the inflation and debt for the colonies and Cornwallis forced to retreat back to the Chesapeake Bay to wait for seaborne supplies and troops. Washington gathered troops from New York and went to the bay to block Cornwallis on land. General de Grasse of the French had a naval fleet restricting Cornwallis by sea. Cornwallis surrendered. Much of the power came from France. Small fighting continued and King George was bitter, but the war was mostly over. -
North's Ministry Collapse, Britain, 1782
The Britons were tired of war and ready to finish, although King George was bitter. The previous Tory regime was replaced with Whigs (ministry), and King George's personal reign was over. -
Treaty of Paris, 1783
Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Bay were sent to Britain with strict orders for a treaty. France and Spain were in hard spots because they would not have their desires delivered. France only wanted independency to spite Britain and did not want colonial expansion. Britain gave American land to the Mississippi, the Great Lakes, Spanish Florida, and some Newfoundland. Patriots promised to let off Loyalists and return land, but this was flimsy. Britain made a good future choice by leaving now.
