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French and Indian War
During the late 17th and first half of the 18th centuries, France
and Great Britain had fought three inconclusive wars, after 6 peaceful years, the French-British conflict reignited. -
John Locke's 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. -
Writ of Assistance
Royal governor of Massachusetts authorized a general search warrant that allowed British customs officials to search any colonial ship or building they believed to be smuggling goods. -
Treaty of Paris
British won the war and defeated the French at Quebec, Britain claimed Canada and most of north America east of the Mississippi River -
Proclamation of 1763
Established a Proclamation Line along the Appalachians, which the colonists were not allowed to cross to avoid conflict with the Native Americans -
Sugar Act & Colonists' Response
Halved the duty on foreign-made molasses in the hopes that colonists would play a lower tax, placed duties on certain imports that had not been taxed before, and proved that colonists accused of violating and act would be tried in a vice-admiralty court than a colonial court. Colonists complained that it would reduce their profits and claimed that Parliament had no right to tax colonists. -
Stamp Act & Colonists' Response
Imposed a tax on written documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. Colonists (Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and laborors) organized a resistance group called the Sons of Liberty to protest the law. Merchants in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia agreed to boycott British goods until it was repealed. March 1776, repealed the law. -
Declaratory Act
Asserted Parliament's full right "to bind the colonies and the people of America in all cases whatsoever" -
Son of Liberty formed & Samuel Adams
Sons of Liberty (Typed in Stamp Act)
Samuel Adams was one of the founders of the Sons of Liberty and when the Townshend Acts (taxed goods that were imported into England) were passed, the colonists again boycotted British goods -
Townshend Acts & Colonists Response, Why they were Repealed
Townshend Acts (In Samuel Adam's timeline)
Colonists protest“ taxation without representation” and organize a
new boycott of imported goods. Lord Frederick North realized that the Townshend Acts were costing more to enforce than they would ever bring in -
Boston Massacre
A mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killed or mortally wounded -
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 -
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. -
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. In addition to these measures, General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts. To keep the peace, he placed Boston under martial law, or rule imposed by military forces. -
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
Civilian soldiers whopledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice. General Thomas Gage ordered troops to march from Boston to nearby Concord, Massachusetts, and to seize illegal weapons. -
Midnight Riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
They 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
The king's troops, the "Redcoats" saw 70 minutemen drawn up in lineson 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 shotsinto the departing militia. Eight minutemen were killed and ten more were wounded, but only one British soldier was injured. Lasted only 15 minutes. -
Battle of Concord
The British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. 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. -
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. -
Continental Army
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. -
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. -
Publication of Common Sense
Paine, a recent immigrant, argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain.” Paine explained that his own revolt against the king had begun with Lexington and Concord. Paine declared that independence would allow America to trade more freely. He also stated that independence would give American colonists the chance to create a better society—one free from tyranny. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists are those who opposed independence and remained loyal to the British king.
Patriots are the supporters of independence. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson was chosen to write 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. If a government denies them of their rights, the people have the right to abolish the gov't. All men are created equal. -
Redcoats push Washington's Army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
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 Hessians.
Although 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. -
Washington's Christmas Night Surprise Attack
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 Hessians in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and in
September of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia. -
Saratoga
General John Burgoyne planned to lead an army down a route of lakes from Canada to Albany, where he would meet British troops as they arrived from New York City. Militiamen and soldiers from the Continental Army gathered from all over New York and New England. Burgoyne didn’t realize that his fellow British officers were preoccupied with holding Philadelphia and weren’t coming to meet him. Americans surround him a Saratoga, where he surrendered on October 17, 1777. -
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. -
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. -
Fredrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, helped to train the Continental Army.
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 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. -
British Surrender at Yorktown
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. Cornwallis planned to fortify Yorktown, take Virginia, and then move north to join Clinton’s forces. -
Treaty of Paris
On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis finally surrendered. The Americans had shocked the world and defeated the British.
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.
