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French and Indian War
France and Britain were fighting over land in the Ohio River Valley. -
The Treaty of Paris 1763
This treaty ended the French and Indian War. France gave up all its territories in mainland North America. The colonies therefore had no foreign military threat. -
Proclamation Line of 1763
This document prohibited any westward settlements past the Appalachian Mountains -
Sugar Act
Britain taxed sugar and molasses imported into the colonies which impacted the manufacture of rum in New England. -
Stamp Act
Britain taxed every piece of printed paper the colonists used. -
Declaratory Act
Britain claimed the taxing in the colonies was the same in Britain. The act gave Britain complete authortiy to make laws binding on the American Colonies. -
Townshend Revenue Acts
The act was designed to collect revenue from the colonists in America by putting customs duties on imports of glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. -
Boston Massacre
British regulars were being harassed by a mob and shot into the crowd, killing five colonists. -
Tea Act
British Parliiament granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the American Colonies. -
Boston Tea Party
Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Native Americans, boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 343 chests of tea overboard. -
Quartering Act of 1774
Local colonial governments were forced to provide provisions and housing to British soldiers stationed in the 13 colonies of America. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of of British Laws, passed by Parliament and were aimed at punishing the Massachusetts colonists for their actions taken in the Boston Tea Party -
First Continental Congress
A meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to organize colonial resistance to Parliament's Intolerable Acts. -
Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me death” Speech
A speech he made at the Second Virgina Convention. He is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the convention to pass a resolution delivering Virginian troops for the RevolutionaryWar. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
These were the first military engagements of the Revolutionary War. The British miltary marched from Boston to Concord in search of a weapons cache. Paul revere and other riders warned the nearby colonists that they were coming. -
Olive Branch Petition
A petition, drafted by John Dickson, was an attempt to assert the the rights of the colonists while maintaining their loyalty to the British Crown. -
George Washington named Commander in Chief
The Continental Congress commissioned George Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. Washington was selected on his previous military experience and the hope that a leader from Virginia could help unite the colonies. -
Thomas Paine write "Common Sense"
Common Sense challenged the authority of the British governmetn and royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. -
Second Continenal Congress
A meeting that managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia which announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent states, and no longer under British rule. -
George Washington named Commander in Chief
The Continental Congress commissioned George Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. Washington was selected based on his previous military experience and the hope that a leader from Virginia could help unite the colonies.
