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French and Indian War
a series of battles boosted by the financing of future Prime Minister William Pitt, the British turned the tide with victories at Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac and the French-Canadian stronghold of Quebec. -
Proclamation Line of 1763
forbade all settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France.France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there -
Sugar Act
a revenue-raising act passed by the British Parliament of Great Britain in April of 1764. The Parliament passed the Sugar Act to recoup some of the military expenses for protecting and defending the colonies. The Sugar Act was also a way for England to exercise control over the colonies. -
Stamp Act
the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British government. The act imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies -
Declaratory Act
Passed along with the repeal of the stamp act. Declared that the parliament had the right to tax the colonies -
Townshend Revenue Acts
a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods including paint, paper, lead, glass and tea and used revenues too clear the massive war debt incurred by the French Indian Wars, maintain British troops in America,and pay the salaries of Royal Officials. -
Boston Massacre
The killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. The incident was heavily propagandized by leading Patriots, such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, to fuel animosity toward the British authorities -
The Tea Act
1773 Act that gave a monopoly on tea sales to the East India Company. In other words, American colonists could buy no tea unless it came from that company. -
Boston Tea Party
Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty board three Boston ships and threw 342 chest full of tea into the Boston harbor -
Intolerable Acts
a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance of throwing a large tea shipment into Boston Harbor in reaction to being taxed by the British -
Quartering act of 1774
One of the series of Intolerable Acts passed as a reprisal to the Boston Tea Party. he Quartering Act of 1774 gave the governor, rather than the assembly, the authority to enforce necessary arrangements to ensure that the British troops were sheltered. -
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First Continental Congress
a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me death” speech
A speech by Patrick Henry that he made to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia. He is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the convention to pass a resolution delivering Virginian troops for the Revolutionary War. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy , and Cambridge, near Boston. -
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Second Continental Congress
the sucessor of the First Continental Congress, it took the momentous step of declaring America’s independence from Britain. , the Congress ratified the first national constitution, the Articles of Confederation. -
George Washington named Commander in Chief
On June 19 1775, The Continental Congress named George Washington the Commander for the Continental Army. Washington was selected over other candidates such as John Hancock based on his previous military experience and the hope that a leader from Virginia could help unite the colonies -
Olive Branch Petition
a final attempt to assert the rights of the colonists while maintaining their loyalty to the British crown. Drafted by John Dickinson and later adopted by the second continental congress -
Thomas Paine writes “Common Sense”
Thomas Paine writes and publishes "common sense" setting forth his argument in american independence. “Common Sense” advocated independence for the American colonies from Britain and is considered one of the most influential pamphlets in American history -
Declaration of Independence
announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule. Instead they formed a new nation the United States of America.
