-
French Indian War
There was a war happening between France and England, because England owed money. The war lasted 7 years and affected all 13 colonies. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. -
Navigation Acts
A bunch of laws that were passed that restricted different types of shipping. It was a law that the British came up with due to the fact that they depended on the colonies around it, they wanted to be self sufficient. -
Stamp Act
The British had a bunch of wars going on at the time so they needed money to pay for it. They decided to start putting a tax on certain items to bring more money into the British parliament, it was mostly on paper goods. The people did not like the fact that they had to pay extra for something, that they wouldn't even get back at a later time. It led to protests people were mad, so the British parliament decided to repeal the tax. -
Boston Massacre
Some call it the bloody massacre due to the violence of the photo, it portrays soldiers killing innocent civilians. In the painting it shows a very harsh perspective on the British guards, the civilians were actually the ones who started it. They threw a snowball at the soldiers causing mayhem. -
Boston Tea Party
Boston decided to put a tax on tea leading to civilians getting very angry because tea was used very often. The saying "No taxation without representation", later on the civilians that lived in Boston poured tea into the Boston harbor. Over 92,000 pounds of tea was then poured into the river at night. -
Intolerable Acts
After the Boston Tea Party there had to be some sort of punishment for the civilian's, so the British made a couple laws. The port in Boston was closed until the civilians' paid for all the tea they destroyed, kind of like a tax. The whole city was punished because of a law that the British thought they could get away with. -
Second Continental Congress
This was a very important meeting as some of the biggest names in history were there like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Dickinson etc. These men came together to talk about what to do, there was so much fighting going on in the Boston area with the wars. They didn't know how to pay the soldiers so they printed paper money, they were in severe debt due to all the wars that were going on, in a short amount of time. -
Olive Branch Petition
This certain petition was used as a kind of a sympathy letter, to try and persuade King George the 3rd to not go to war. The American colonies did not want to go to war with the British, the letter didn't help much because King George didn't even read it. He declared them traitors. -
Common Sense
Thomas Paine had a bunch of opinions about certain subjects, so he wrote a book. The main point he was trying to make was that the people of Great Britain should fight for their independence and break away from the 13 colonies. But what was interesting about this book is he used mind swaying words, he didn't use big words so simple folks could read it, and not just political leaders. -
Declaration of Independence
The most important document ever signed and even written is the Declaration of Independence, it's the "rules" we use everyday in the court system. It's a list of rights we as humans have living in the USA. This document was written by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams etc. One thing it says in this document is "God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". -
Articles of Confederation
This document made the 13 colonies the first frame of government, declaring their Independence from Great Britain. It was also written to show how the government was gonna work, different branches if you will. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
To this day nobody knows who took the first shot in this war, but it has the name "The shot heard around the war". This is because this war led to the creation of the U.S. It was a very unfair war in some civilians opinions due to the fact that the British army was the most powerful army at the time, going against the 13 colonies of America. -
Daniel Shay's Rebellion
In this time period there was a bunch of war with little money to pay for it, people started getting paid less at their jobs in order to repay the damage of the war and help pay for it. Soldiers were getting paid less and less because there was no money to give the, the colonies were in severe debt. The government was trying to get money anywhere they could they taxed civilians and different trades that were going on in the area. -
Cositiunital Convention
The government wasn't doing too well during this time period they were broke and kept getting into wars, so this meeting was about how to better our government and help its lower spots. But it turned heads very quickly nobody could agree on what was the right move and what wasn't, so they just decided to re-do the whole thing. They put a better system in place to help support the soldiers at war while also taking into account other issues that were happening at the time. -
Quartering Act
The whole act was created to save money, due to the wars that happened a couple years before. Soldiers would be housed in homes of the residents that resided in certain American barracks. They couldn't force everybody to just let these soldiers live with them and care for them, so if there were any soldiers that weren't allowed in these people's homes they would live in public housing or inns. -
Townshend Acts
The British Parliament passed a law on putting tax on certain items like glass, lead, paint, etc. The tax money that these people payed went to pay for the colonial governors and judges.