Creating a New Nation

By Cavav7

  • From protest to war

    In 1773, Americans learned that they would now be required to purchase all their tea from Britain's East India Company. Angry Patriots in every port refused to accept the tea. They saw the Tea Act as the first step in controlling colonial business. In Boston, Sons of Liberty, dressed as Mohawk warriors, dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor. The British acted to punish the colonists for this Boston Tea Party, so the Patriots responded by calling a Continental Congress, and making an army

  • The intolerable acts

    The act authorized the Royal Navy to blockade Boston Harbor because “the commerce of his Majesty's subjects cannot be safely carried on there."1 The blockade commenced on June 1, 1774, effectively closing Boston's port to commercial traffic. Additionally, it forbade any exports to foreign ports or provinces.

  • Outbreak of War

    Shortly before dawn on April 19, 1775, as church bells and signal cannons sounded the alarm of the approaching British Redcoats, Minutemen, so called because they could be ready at a moment's notice, arrived from every direction. The British fired on one band of Minutemen on Lexington's village green, killing eight, then marched on to Concord, where they had planned to capture Patriot weapons and two Patriot leaders- Sam Adams and John Hancock.

  • Outbreak of War

    When the Second Continental Congress met on May 10, 1775, it voted to create a Continental Army out of the militiamen who camped outside Boston. George Washington was chosen to command. By the time he met up with his men, Patriots had already fought the Battle of Bunker Hill.

  • Outbreak of war

    Also on May 10, 1775, a band of Patriots from Connecticut captured Fort Ticonderoga, a strong British fort on Lake Champlain in New York state. The British hadn't heard that war had begun, so the assault mounted by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys was a surprise. Allen shared command of the fort with militia officer Benedict Arnold.

  • Morales Victory at Bunker Hill

    Massachusetts | Jun 17, 1775. The American patriots were defeated at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but they proved they could hold their own against the superior British Army. The fierce fight confirmed that any reconciliation between England and her American colonies was no longer possible.