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French and Indian War (1756)
Also known as the Seven Years’ War, the French and Indian War marked another chapter in the long imperial struggle between Britain and France. When France’s expansion into the Ohio River valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies, a series of battles led to the official British declaration of war in 1756. -
The Proclamation Line (1763)
The Proclamation Line of 1763 was a British-produced boundary marked in the Appalachian Mountains at the Eastern Continental Divide. Decreed on October 7, 1763, the Proclamation Line prohibited Anglo-American colonists from settling on lands acquired from the French following the French and Indian War. -
The Sugar Act (1764)
Sugar Act, also called the Plantation Act or Revenue Act, (1764), in U.S. colonial history, was British legislation aimed at ending the smuggling trade in sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch West Indies and at providing increased revenues to fund the enlarged British Empire responsibilities following the French and Indian War. -
Quartering Act (1765)
Quartering Act, (1765), in American colonial history, the British parliamentary provision (actually an amendment to the annual Mutiny Act) requiring colonial authorities to supply food, drink, quarters, fuel, and conveyance to British forces stationed in their towns or villages. -
The Boston Massacre(1765)
Quartering Act, (1765), in American colonial history, the British parliamentary condition (actually an amendment to the annual Mutiny Act) requiring colonial authorities to provide food, drink, quarters, fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns or villages. -
Stamp Act (1765)
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax imposed directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and looked to its North American colonies as a revenue source. -
The Townshed Act (1767)
The Townshend Acts were a series of measures, passed by the British Parliament in 1767, that taxed goods imported to the American colonies. However American colonists, who had no representation in Parliament, saw the Acts as an abuse of power. The British sent troops to America to enforce the unpopular new laws, further heightening tensions between Great Britain and the American colonies in the run-up to the American Revolutionary War. -
Boston Tea Party (1773)
The Sons of Liberty, a radical group, decided to confront the British head-on. Thinly disguised as Mohawks, they boarded three ships in Boston harbor and destroyed more than 92,000 pounds of British tea by dumping it into the harbor. To make the point that they were rebels rather than vandals, they avoided harming any of the crew or damaging the ships themselves, and the next day even replaced a padlock that had been broken. -
The Tea Act (1773)
The Tea Act of 1773 was one of several measures imposed on the American colonists by the heavily indebted British government in the decade leading up to the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). The act’s main purpose was not to raise revenue from the colonies but to bail out the floundering East India Company, a key actor in the British economy. -
First Continental Congress (1774)
The First Continental Congress convened in Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between September 5 and October 26, 1774. Delegates from twelve of Britain’s thirteen American colonies met to discuss America’s future under growing British aggression. -
Coercive Act (1774)
In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, a group of measures primarily intended to punish Boston for rebellion against the British government—namely, the Boston Tea Party. However, the impact of these acts stretched far beyond Massachusetts. The four acts, along with the Quebec Act, became known as the Intolerable Acts among the 13 colonies. The punitive measures marked a major turning point in the conflict between the British government and the colonies. -
The Shot Heard Around The World (1775)
On April 19, 1775, the Battle of Lexington and Concord marked the first military engagement of the American Revolution. Colonists had gathered in the early morning on
Lexington Green to prevent approaching British troops from destroying guns and ammunition that were stored in nearby Concord. The gathered faction of colonists was ordered by the British to disperse when “the shot heard around the world” was fired and the American Revolution
began. -
Common sense (1775)
Thomas Paine published his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his ideas in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. -
Second Continental Congress (1775)
The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, shortly after the war with the British had begun. It was preceded by the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774. The Congress appointed George Washington as commander of the Continental Army and authorized the raising of the army through conscription. On July 4, 1776, the Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, -
Declaration of Independence (1776)
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. It explained why the Congress on July 2 “unanimously” by the votes of 12 colonies (with New York abstaining) had resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States.”