Events Leading to the American Revolution

French and Indian War

Aug 27, 1754

France and Britain went to war over the colonies of North America, the Caribbean, and India. Britain required a lot of materials like copper, hemp, tar, and turpentine from the colonies. Providing this material ended up growing the colonies quite a bit. Great Britain ended up with control over the colonies but they had gone into debt. In order to gain back the money they taxed the colonies heavily.

Proclimation of 1763

Oct 7, 1763

Great Britain issued was to reserve people from colonizing west of the Appilations. They did this because there had been issues with Native Americans in those areas and they didn't want any trouble to be caused. This brought in major anti-British feelings.

Sugar Act

Apr 5, 1764

The Sugar Act increased the amount of items being taxed including sugar coffee, wines, pimiento, etc.

Currency Act

Sep 1, 1764

Before this, there was a complex system in place of currency for the colonies, they would print bills for every town and they would all be different and not of equal value. The British passed this act stopping the colonies from printing paper bills, favoring hard currency like stirling.

The Stamp Act

Mar 22, 1765

This requred stamps on a whole bunch of items and documents ike cards and marriage licenses.

The Quartering Act

Mar 24, 1765

The British required colonist to house and feed any British soldiers that needed it. People didn't particularly like the redcoats and a lot of colonists refused to follow this act.

Stamp Act Congress

Aug 29, 1765

27 delegates met from nine colonies and wrote a statement of rights and grievences to show that those nince colonies where opposed to Great Britain.

The Townshend Revenue Act

Jun 29, 1767

Taxes were imposed to stop colonial leader's independence on colonists. Taxes included paper, tea, and glass.

Boston Massacre

Mar 5, 1770

A fight between a mob of colonists and british soldiers. Several colonists were killed.

Tea Act

May 10, 1773

The East India company in Great Britain had hundreds of pounds of unsold tea. They were allowed to sell tea in America to try and gain back some bussiness. The colonists were opposed to this, even though this offered no new taxes and sold tea for a bargain.

Boston Tea Party

Dec 16, 1773

Several colonists disguised as Native Americans dumped crates of tea off of three ships before tax could be collected on it.

Intolerable Acts

Mar 31, 1774

To respond to the town meetings, acts were passed that included: shutting down the Boston harbor and outlawing town meetings.

First Continental Congress

Sep 5, 1774

12 of 13 colonies met in Philadelphia. One document that came of of the meetings was The Association

The Association

Oct 20, 1774

A pact for stopping the importation of British goods as well as establish people to keep British resistance down. This would be stopped if England decided to lift the intolerable acts.

Lexington and Concord

Apr 19, 1775

All British troops were ordered to Lexington and Concord. They were trying to get colonial gunpowder and Samuel Adams and John Hancock. At Lexington, 8 colonists were killed. At Concord, British troops lost 70 men and had to retreat.

Second Continental Congress

May 10, 1775

All 13 colonies meet in Philadelphia. George Washington was named the head of the Continental Army.

The Battle of Bunker Hill

Jun 17, 1775

Colonists with pickaxes, shovels, guns and canons were told to go to Bunker Hill. They misunderstood and went to Breed Hill. This resulted in a head to head fight with the British and 1,054 English soldiers were injured or killed.