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Sugar Act
taxed sugar and coffee -
Stamp Act
taxed any paper product (newspapers, playing cards, etc.) -
Boston Massacre
British soldiers open fire on 5 people of a mob that was throwing rocks and snowballs at the soldiers -
Boston Tea Party
Colonists threw barrels of British tea into the harbor to protest the tax on tea. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
Colonists formed an army against the British, who tried to confiscate their weapon stores. War broke out. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration shows that we have natural rights, and it is the government's job to protect them.
If government does not protect these rights, it is the people's duty to abolish the unjust government.
It focuses on popular sovereignty, which states that all government power comes from the people. -
Battle of Saratoga
American troops defeated the British, causing the French to enter as as ally to the Americans -
British Surrender at Yorktown, VA
2 years later, theTreaty of Paris that ended the war with an American victory -
Constitutional Convention
to make a document that was stronger than the Articles of Confederation -
Ratification of the US Constitution
They saw the government in terms of a social contract in which "We the people of the United States" entered.
There was also a separation of powers among the judicial, legislative, and executive branches; a concept borrowed from Montesquieu
