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Pilgrims Establish Colony in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was centered in Boston. Document signed by Pilgrim men aboard the Mayflower, on Nov. 21, 1620, before the Plymouth landing. It was modeled after a Separatist church covenant, by which they agreed to establish a temporary government and to be bound by its laws. -
French and Indian War
The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War, the American phase of a worldwide nine years’ war fought between France and Great Britain. (The European phase was the Seven Years’ War.) As a result of the war, France ceded all of its North American possessions east of the Mississippi River to Britain. The costs of the war contributed to the British government’s decision to impose new taxes on its American colonies.