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French and Indian War
One major area of contention between France and Great Britain was the rich Ohio River valley just west of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1754, the French built Fort Duquesne in the region despite the fact that the Virginia government had already granted 200,000 acres of land in the Ohio country to a group of wealthy planters. Than Virginia government sent militia to kick French out. This was the fourth war between Great Britain and France to control North America. -
Writ of Assistance
A general search warrant that allowed British customs officials to search any colonial ship or building they believed to be holding smuggled goods. The writs enabled British officials to enter and search colonial homes whether there was evidence of smuggling or not. . -
Proclamation
Proclamation Line along the Appalachians, which the colonists were not allowed to cross. However, the colonists, eager to expand westward from the increasingly crowded Atlantic
seaboard, ignored the proclamation and continued to stream onto Native American lands. -
Treaty of Paris
Great Britain claimed Canada and virtually all of North America east of the Mississippi River. Britain also took Florida from Spain, which had allied itself with France. France retained control of only a few islands and small colonies near Newfoundland, in
the West Indies, and elsewhere. -
Sugar Act & colonists response
The hopes that colonists would pay a lower tax rather than risk arrest. It placed duties on certain imports that had not been taxed before. Colonial merchants complained that the Sugar Act
would reduce their profits. Merchants and traders further
claimed that Parliament had no right to tax the colonists
because the colonists had not elected representatives to the
body. -
Stamp Act & colonists response
Stamp Act was a act that put tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. It was the first tax that affected colonists directly because it was levied on goods and services. -
Sons of Liberty is formed & Samuel Adams
Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers organized a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty to protest the law. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies. Samuel Adams , one of the founders of the Sons of Liberty, the colonists again boycotted British goods. -
Declaratory Act
Asserted Parliament’s full right “to bind the colonies and
people of America in all cases whatsoever.” -
Townshend Acts & colonists response
Named after Charles Townshend, the leading government minister. The Townshend Acts taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies. Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation the Boston Massacre. -
Boston Massacre
Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation the Boston Massacre. They talked to the soldiers. a group of Rhode Island colonists attacked a British customs schooner that patrolled the coast for smugglers. Spreading the painting to show the colonies that how Britain is treating them. -
John Locke's Social Contract
Locke maintained that people have natural
rights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, every society is based on a social contract—an agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. If the government violates that social contract by taking away or interfering with those rights, people have the right to resist and even overthrow the government. -
Boston Tea Party
A large group of Boston rebels disguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action against three British tea ships anchored in the harbor. In this incident, later known as the
Boston Tea Party, the “Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India Company’s tea into the waters of Boston harbor. -
Tea Act
Lord North devised the Tea Act in order to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company. The act granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. -
Intolerable Acts - all three parts
King George III pressed Parliament to act. Parliament responded by passing a series of measures that colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts. -
First Continental Congress
In response to Britain’s actions, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress 56 delegates met in
Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They defended the colonies’ right to run their own affairs and stated that, if the British used force against the colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
Minutemen
Minutemen-civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice—quietly stockpiled firearms and gunpowder. Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. They saw 70 minutemen drawn up in lines on the village green. The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down heir arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying down
their muskets. -
Midnight riders
Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord.
The darkened countryside rang with church bells and gunshots—prearranged signals, sent from town to town, that the British were coming. -
Battle of Lexington
As they neared the town, they saw 70 minutemen drawn up in lines on the village green. The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down their arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying down
their muskets. Then someone fired, and the British soldiers sent a volley of shots into the departing militia. Eight minutemen were killed and ten more were wounded, but only one British soldier was injured. -
Second Continental Congress
The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the Second Continental Congress. Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. So many differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Olive Branch Petition
Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a
return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies.
King George flatly rejected the petition. Furthermore, he issued a proclamation stating that the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order a naval blockade to isolate a line of ships meant for the American coast. -
Battle of Concord
Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees. British soldiers fell by the dozen. Bloodied and humiliated, the remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston that night. Colonists had become enemies of Britain and now held Boston and its encampment of British troops under siege. -
Continental Army
The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the Second Continental Congress. Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. The Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. The colonists held their fire until the last minute and then began to mow down the advancing redcoats before finally retreating. By the time the smoke cleared, the colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove to be the deadliest battle of the war. -
Redcoats push Washington's army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
The British sailed into New York harbor in the summer of 1776 with a force of about 32,000 soldiers. They included thousands of German mercenaries, or hired soldiers, known as Hessian's because many of them came from the German region of Hesse. The Continental Army attempted to defend New York in late August, the untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated. By late fall, the British had pushed Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. -
Publication of Common Sense
read 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense, Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine, a recent immigrant, argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain.” He also stated that independence would give American colonists the chance to create a better society—one free from tyranny, with equal social and economic opportunities for all. Common Sense sold nearly 500,000 copies in 1776. -
Declaration of Independence
Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson was chosen to prepare the final draft. Drawing on Locke’s ideas of natural rights, Jefferson’s document declared the rights of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to be “unalienable” rights ones that can never be taken away. Jefferson then asserted that a government’s legitimate power can only come from the consent of the governed, and that when a government denies their unalienable rights, the people have the right to “alter or abolish” that government -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalist were those who opposed independence and remained loyal to the British king included judges and governors, as well as people of more modest means. Many Loyalists thought that the British were going to win and wanted to avoid punishment as rebels. Patriots the supporters of independence drew their numbers from people who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America. Many Americans remained neutral. -
Washington's Christmas night surprise attack
Washington risked everything on one bold stroke set for Christmas night, 1776. In the face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They then marched to their objective—Trenton, New Jersey—and defeated a garrison of
Hessian's in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and in September of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia. -
Saratoga
The surrender at Saratoga turned out to be one of the most important events of the war. Although the French had secretly aided the Patriots since early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the Americans could win the war. As a result, the French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight. -
Valley Forge
Washington and his Continental Army—desperately low on food and supplies—fought to stay alive at winter camp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died, yet the survivors didn’t desert. Their endurance and suffering filled Washington’s letters to the Congress and his friends. -
French- American Alliance
The Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the Americans could win the war. As a result, the French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight. -
British victories in the South
At the end of 1778, a British expedition easily took Savannah, Georgia. In their greatest victory of the war, the British under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780. Clinton then left for New York,
while Cornwallis continued to conquer land throughout the South. -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. With the help of such European military leaders, the raw Continental Army became an effective fighting force. -
British Surrender at Yorktown
In early 1781, despite several defeats, the colonists continued to battle Cornwallis—hindering his efforts to take the Carolinas. The British general then chose to move the fight to Virginia. He led his army of 7,500 onto the peninsula between the James and York rivers and camped at Yorktown. September, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. October 19, 1781, Cornwallis finally surrendered. -
Treaty of Paris
The American negotiating team included John Adams, John Jay of New York, and Benjamin Franklin. In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now
stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border.
