-
Boston Tea Party
The Tea Act essentially eliminated all taxes on tea except the three pence Townshend tax. It offered Americans tea at a lower price than that of the colonial smugglers. patriots decided to reject tea shipments and they demanded that tea ships be permitted to return to England without paying the duty required by law. The Boston Tea Party marked the beginning of violence in the dispute between mother country and colonies. -
Declaration of rights and grievances is passed
The Declaration of Rights and Grievances is the second and third parts of the Declaration of Independence. They are the rights of citizens. It says that the government has to protect the rights of the citizens. The list of grievances lists the complaints against the British government. It also shows what the colonists want or think they should have. -
Constitutional congress opens
consisted of fifty-six delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States of America. The delegates which included George Washington, then a colonel of the Virginia volunteers, Patrick Henry, and John Adams, were elected by their respective colonial assemblies. -
First Continental Congress meets
All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates. These were elected by the people, by the colonial legislatures, or by the committees of correspondence of the respective colonies. The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain, but their aims were not uniform at all. -
Revolutionary war begins
Many of the colonies had been upset with Britain over taxes being levied for everyday items such as paper The Battle of Lexington was the first of the shots fired. Many of the colonists hoped for a resolution with Britain. Many colonists did not want to break with Britain. Only after the colonists realized that Britain was fully intending to invade the colonies, and force their cooperation at gunpoint, did the colonists decide that Britain could not be negotiated with. -
2nd Continental Congress meets
The members of the Second Continental Congress met at the State House in Philadelphia. the Battles of Lexington and Concord had already begun in April, and while delegates were still making their way to Philadelphia, which marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. -
Declaration of independence is signed
Announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when congress voted on independence. -
Articles of Confederation
Thw sixteen individuals who signed the Articles of Confederation also signed the Declaration of Independence. The delegates from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland could not sign because their respective states had not yet ratified the Articles, and the delegates from North Carolina and Georgia were not present on that day. -
Revolutionary War Ends
The Revolutionary War finally ended only when the treaty of peace was signed by the British in Paris in 1783. It technically lasted for five years. Actually the American Revolutionary War did not start on one fine day or end in the same manner. -
Final draft of the constitution is signed
Members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution. Two days earlier, when a final vote was called, Edmund Randolph called for another convention to carefully review the Constitution as it stood. This motion, supported by George Mason and Elbridge Gerry, was voted down and the Constitution was adopted.
