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Albany Plan of Union
French attacks on the frontier, Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for uniting the colonies. -
George III becomes king of Great Britain
He had different ideas of how the colonies should be governed. The French and Indian War started as a struggle between the French and British over lands in the western Pennsylvania and Ohio -
French and Indian War
It started as a struggle between the French and British over lands in the western Pennsylvania and Ohio. By 1756, several other European countries became involved. Great Britain won the war in 1763 and gained complete control of the eastern third of the continent. -
Stamp Act
Imposed the first direct tax on the colonists. It required them to pay a tax on legal documents, pamphlets, and playing cars. Parliament also passed laws regulating colonial trade in ways that benefited Great Britain but not the colonies. -
Stamp Act Congress
Nine colonies sent delegates to a meeting in New York called the Stamp Act Congress. This was the first meeting organized by the colonies to protest King George's actions. Delegates to the Congress sent a petition to the king arguing that only colonial legislatures could impose direct taxes such as the Stamp Act. -
Coercive Acts
The colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One of these acts closed Boston Harbor. Another of the Coercive Acts withdrew the right of the Massachusetts colony to govern itself. -
Boston Tea Party
A group of colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, dumped 342 chests of British tea into the British Harbor: This protest became known as the Boston tea Party. -
Committee of Correspondence
Were urging resistance to the British. These committees consisted of colonists who wanted to keep in touch with one another as events unfolded. Samuel Adams established the first committee in Boston. The idea spread quickly, and within a few months, Massachusetts alone had more than 80 such committees. Virginia and other colonies soon joined in this communication network. Two prominent members of the Virginia committee of the correspondence were Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. -
First Continental Congress
Delegates from all the colonies except George met in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. Key colonial leaders such as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee, and George Washington attended. The delegates debated what to do about the relationship with Great Britain. They finally imposed an embargo, an agreement prohibiting trade, on Britain and agreed not to use British goods. They also proposed a meeting the following year if Britain did not change its policies. -
Lexington and Concord
British Redcoats clashed with colonial minutemen at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. This skirmish was the first battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Second Continental Congress
Within three weeks, delegates from all thirteen colonies gathered in the Philadelphia for the Second Continental congress. The continental Congress immediately assumed the powers of a central government. It chose John Hancock of Massachusetts as president. Hancock was a well-known colonial leader, but he was also a wealthy merchant and thus well-placed for helping to raise funds for an army. -
declaration of independence
Congress approved Lee's resolution. THe colonies officially broke with Great Britain. THe congress then turned its attention to Jefferson's draft -
Resolution of Independence
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia did declare independence. Lee introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress that these United Colonies are, and of the right ought to be, free and independent states.
