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1176
America declares its independence
The Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress. Following a decade of agitation over taxes and a year of war, representatives make the break with Britain. King George III isn't willing to let his subjects go without a fight, and loyalist sentiment remains strong in many areas. Americans' primary allegiance is to their states; nationalism will grow slowly. -
7 October: Proclamation of 1763
Wary of the cost of defending the colonies, George III prohibited all settlement west of the Appalachian mountains without guarantees of security from local Native American nations. The intervention in colonial affairs offended the thirteen colonies' claim to the exclusive right to govern lands to their west. -
5 April: Sugar Act
The first attempt to finance the defense of the colonies by the British Government. In order to deter smuggling and to encourage the production of British rum, taxes on molasses were dropped -
22 March: Stamp Act
Seeking to defray some of the costs of garrisoning the colonies, Parliament required all legal documents, newspapers and pamphlets required to use watermarked, or 'stamped' paper on which a levy was placed. Later Representatives from nine of the thirteen colonies declare the Stamp Act unconstitutional as it was a tax levied without their consent -
18 March: Declaratory Act
Parliament finalises the repeal of the Stamp Act, but declares that it has the right to tax colonies -
29 June: Townshend Revenue Act (Townshend Duties
Duties on tea, glass, lead, paper and paint to help pay for the administration of the colonies, named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. John Dickinson publishes Letter from a Philadelphian Farmer in protest. Colonial assemblies condemn taxation without representation. -
5 March: Boston Massacre
Angered by the presence of troops and Britain's colonial policy, a crowd began harassing a group of soldiers guarding the customs house; a soldier was knocked down by a snowball and discharged his musket, sparking a volley into the crowd which kills five civilians. -
July: Publication of Thomas Hutchinson letters
In these letters, Hutchinson, the Massachusetts governor, advocated a 'great restraint of natural liberty', convincing many colonists of a planned British clamp-down on their freedoms. -
May to June: Intolerable Acts
Four measures which stripped Massachusetts of self-government and judicial independence following the Boston Tea Party. The colonies responded with a general boycott of British goods. -
19 April: Battles of Lexington and Concord
First engagements of the Revolutionary War between British troops and the Minutemen, who had been warned of the attack by Paul Revere. -
War breaks out
The first shots of the Revolutionary War are fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. The news of the bloodshed rockets along the eastern seaboard, and thousands of volunteers converge on Cambridge, Mass. These are the beginnings of the Continental Army. -
Americans hold their own at the Battle of Bunker Hill
In the first major action of the war, inexperienced colonial soldiers hold off hardened British veterans for more than two hours at Breed's Hill. Although eventually forced to abandon their position, including the high ground of Bunker Hill overlooking Boston, the patriots show that they are not intimidated by the long lines of red-coated infantrymen. Of the 2,200 British seeing action, more than 1,000 end up dead or wounded.
