-
Enlightenment
The causes of the Enlightenment include the focus on humanism during the renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. -
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were a grassroots group of instigators and provocateurs in colonial America who used an extreme form of civil disobedience. -
Townshend Act of 1767
Helped pay the expenses involved in governing the American colonies, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. -
Boston Tea Party
The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn't take taxation and tyranny sitting down, and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for Independence. -
The First Continental Congress
The First Congress passed and signed the Continental Association in it's Declaration and Resolves, which called for a boycott of British goods to take effect. -
Intolerable Acts
The four acts were the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act. -
Second Continental Congress meets
Their were two goals that the Second Continental congress had, one was to create a more fair and representative government than the tyrannical British Parliament. The other was to create a currency and trade relations with other nations. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
American troops learned that the British were planning to send troops from Boston to occupy the hill surrounding the city. Some men had originally had been ordered to construct their fortifications atop Bunker Hill but instead chose the smaller Breed's Hill, closer to Boston. -
Declaration of Independence adopted
The Declaration of Independence was engrossed on parchment and on Aug. 1776 delegates began signing it. In order to have any hope of defeating Britain, the colonists would need support from foreign powers, which Congress knew they could only get by declaring themselves a separate nation -
Great Compromise
The Great Compromise provided a dual system of congressional representation. In the House of Representatives each state would be assigned a number of seats in proportion to it's population. -
Bill of Rights adopted
Opportunities to improve our Constitution have been contemplated since it's inception. Three-fourths of the existing State legislatures ratified the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution - the Bill of Rights. The Americans wanted strong guarantees that the new government would not trample upon their newly won freedom of speech, press and religion, nor upon their right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures.
