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John Locke's Social Contract
Locke maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. An agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. People have right to resist and even overthrow the government if they violate contract. -
French and Indian War
A conflict in North America, lasted from 1754 to 1763, that was a part of a worldwide struggle between France and Britain. It ended with the defeat of France and the transfer of French Canada to Britain. This was the fourth war between Britain and France for control of North America. -
Writ of Assistance
General search warrant that allowed British customs officials to enter and search colonial homes whether there was evidence of smuggling or not. Outraged Boston merchants. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
British surprise attack the French at Quebec and triumph. Treaty that ends the French and Indian War. Britain obtains great mass of land, while French obtain control of a few islands and colonies. -
Proclamation of 1763
British government prohibits colonists from settling west of Appalachians. But the colonists were still eager to expand westward due to the crowded Atlantic seaboard. Thus, they invaded more Native American lands -
Sugar Act and colonists response
- Halved the duty on foreign made molasses in hopes that the colonists would pay lower taxes rather than risk smuggling.
- Placed duties on certain imports that had not been taxed before.
- Provided that colonists accused of violating the act would be tried in vice-admiralty court rather than colonial court. Responses: Complained about profit reduction and had little effect on colonists besides merchants and traders.
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Stamp Act and colonists response
Act imposing a tax on documents and printed items ranging from wills, newspapers, and playing cards. A stamp would be placed on the item to prove that the tax had been paid. First tax that affected colonists directly because it was levied on goods and services. -
Sons of Liberty is formed and Samuel Adams
Colonists unite to defy the law. Secret resistance group that protested the law. Merchants agreed to a boycott of British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. One of the founders of the Sons of Liberty was Samuel Adams. -
Declaratory Act
Was passed on the same day that the Stamp Act was repealed. Act asserting Parliament's full right "to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever." -
Why they were repealed
Stamp Act repeal (1765): Colonists harass stamp distributors and boycott British goods
Townshend Acts repeal (1767): "Taxation without representation" and boycott of imported goods -
Townshend Acts and colonists response
Named after Charles Townshend, the leading government minister. Act that taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. Acts also imposed taxes on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies. -
Boston Massacre
First major violent act against taxes. Mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing in front. 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. This action would have cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to consumers for less. North hoped the American colonists would simply buy the cheaper tea; instead, they protested dramatically. -
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. The “Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India Company’s tea into the waters of Boston harbor. -
Intolerable Acts -- all 3 parts
One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant pri- vate homes and other buildings. To keep the peace, General Thomas Gage placed Boston under martial law, or rule imposed by military forces. -
First Continental Congress meets
In response to Britain’s actions, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress. 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 who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice. Quietly stockpiled firearms and gunpowder. He ordered troops to march from Boston to nearby Concord, Massachusetts, and to seize illegal weapons. -
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
Despite such differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists: those who opposed independence and remained loyal to the British king
Patriots: the supporters of independence -
Midnight riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
All 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 British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down their arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying down their muskets. 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. -
Battle of Concord
After a brief skirmish with minutemen, 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. 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. -
Battle of Bunker 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
Urged a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies. King George rejected the petition. He issued a procla- mation 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. -
Publication of Common Sense
Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. 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. -
Declaration of Independence
Early summer of 1776, Congress appointed a committee to prepare a formal Declaration of Independence. 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. Adopted on July 4, 1776 -
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. Although the Continental Army attempted to defend New York in late August, the untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated. -
Washington's Christmas Night Attack
Washington 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
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. The two regiments would then join forces to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne didn’t realize that his fellow British officers were preoccupied with holding Philadelphia and weren’t coming to meet him. American troops finally sur- rounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered on October 17, 1777. -
Valley Forge
While this hopeful turn of events took place in Paris, Washington and his Continental Army—desperately low on food and supplies—fought to stay alive at winter camp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. -
French-American Alliance
The Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the Americans could win the war. The French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight. -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drill- master, helped to train the Continental Army. Other foreign military leaders, such as the Marquis de Lafayette, also arrived to offer their help. 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
In their greatest victory of the war, the British under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles Town, South Carolina. Clinton then left for New York, while Cornwallis continued to conquer land throughout the South. The British general then chose to move the fight to Virginia. He led his army 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. -
British surrender at Yorktown
French naval forces defeated a British fleet and then blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, thereby obstructing British sea routes to the bay. About 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night = Cornwallis surrender -
Treaty of Paris
Confirmed U.S. inde- pendence 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.
