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French and Indian War
English and French fight over the same land and resources. Both the English and the French thought they owned the same land in the Ohio River Valley. The France tried to ban and captured/killed English traders from the Ohio River Valley. -
Proclamation
Britian started playing more active role in governing the colonies after the war. The British prohibited American colonists from living in the West of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonist was angered by this act. -
Treaty of Paris
After the British victory in the French & Indian War, France gave Canada and all land east of the Mississippi River and Spain gives Florida to the British. This made British the most powerful empire in North America, but the war drained the country's economy leading Britain to be broke. -
Sugar act
The British made the colonists pay high taxes in order to pay Britain back for the French & Indian War and protecting their colonies. The Sugar Act of 1764 was a law enacted by the British Parliament intended to stop the smuggling of molasses into the American colonies from the West Indies by cutting taxes on molasses -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. Printed materials included legal documents, magazines, playing cards and newspapers. -
Townshend acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed in 1767 by British Parliament that restructured the administration of the American colonies and placed duties on certain goods being imported into them. It was the second time in the history of the colonies that a tax had been levied solely for the purpose of raising revenue. Those taxes were imposed on some necessary goods, such as tea, paper, glass, lead, paint, etc. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a crowd of three or four hundred who were abusing them verbally and throwing various missiles. This was the first huge conflict between the colonists and the British. In the massacre, the British soldiers shot down several colonists provoking the start of the American Revolution. -
Boston Tea Party
The Tea Act of 1773 put a tax on all British tea and banned sale of tea that was not British. This angered the American colonists a lot. To retaliate, on December 16,1773, the Sons of Liberty and other rebels dumped British tea into Boston Harbor as a protest against the tax. British punished Boston by bringing troops and banning town meetings. This fueled tension between Britian and America that ultimately led to the American Revolution. -
The First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. The primary accomplishment of the First Continental Congress was a compact among the colonies to boycott British goods, unless parliament should rescind the Intolerable Acts. Being one of the first meetings ever between the colonist, The First Continental Congress laid one of the first bricks into the foundation of America. -
Intolerable acts
The Intolerable Acts (also called the Coercive Acts) were harsh laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774. They were five laws that were passed by the British Parliament against the American Colonies. They were given the name “Intolerable Acts” by American Patriots who felt they simply could not “tolerate” such unfair laws. The British passed these acts as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
War began when the Minutemen in Massachusetts fought a brief battle with the British troops at Lexington & Concord. The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. It is unclear who fired the first shot. The Battles of Lexington and Concord confirmed the alienation between the majority of colonists and the mother country, and it roused 16,000 New Englanders to join forces -
Siege of Boston
The Siege of Boston started after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts Militia followed British troops back to Boston. In the days that followed, militia from New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island joined Massachusetts to confine the British to the city. It was part of the Boston Campaign and included the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Fortification of Dorchester Heights. It ended in an American victory when the British evacuated the city. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress met inside Independence Hall beginning in May 1775They established a Continental army and elected George Washington as Commander-in-Chief, but the delegates also drafted the Olive Branch Petition and sent it to King George III in hopes of reaching a peaceful resolution. The king refused to hear the petition and declared the American colonies in revolt. -
Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence, in U.S. history, document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence played a critical role in unifying the colonies for the bloody struggle they faced. -
Battle of Fort Lee and Fort Washington
Forts Washington and Lee guarded the Hudson River from British warships. British General Charles Lord Cornwallis landed 5,000 troops at the base of the New Jersey Palisades to attack Fort Lee.Washington & his troops decided to evacuate and narrowly escaped. The battle marked the successful invasion of New Jersey by British. Fort Lee was rendered defenseless after Continental Army troops holding Fort Washington were defeated and captured. -
Battle of Trenton
The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal American Revolutionary War battle on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. The Battle of Trenton was an important event in the American Revolutionary War because it inspired beleaguered American soldiers to reenlist and encouraged more men to join the fledgling American military. -
Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. It included two crucial battles, fought eighteen days apart, and was a decisive victory for the Continental Army and a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War. It gave the Patriots a major morale boost and persuaded the French, Spanish and Dutch to join their cause against a mutual enemy -
Winter at Valley Forge
The Continental Army camped in the Valley Forge from December 1777-June 1778. The conditions were harsh, and over 2,500 soldiers died from the cold, starvation, disease, exposure, and malnutrition. The particularly severe winter of 1777 proved to be a great trial for the American army, however, the suffering troops were held together by loyalty to the Patriot cause and to General Washington, who stayed with his men. -
Treaty of Alliance
The US and France signed this military treaty on February 6, 1778. It formalized France’s financial and military support of the revolutionary government in America. Believing that they would benefit militarily by allying themselves with a powerful nation, the Colonies formed an alliance with France against Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. The two sides also agreed that neither of them would make peace with England until the independence of the US was recognized. -
Battle of Yorktown
British General Cornwallis surrendering at Yorktown marked the conclusion of the last major battle of the American Revolution and the start of a new nation's independence. It was a decisive victory by a combined force of the American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French army troops. This victory also cemented Washington’s reputation as a great leader and eventual election as first president of the United States.
