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The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that focused on reason. During this time, most of the world was ruled by kings with absolute power, meaning there was no bounds to their power. Enlightenment thinkers began to question these ideas and 100% influenced the American Revolution a few years later. The Enlightenment was thought to range from the start of the Glorious revolution to the start of the French revolution. -
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French and Indian War
The Seven Years' War (called the French and Indian War in the colonies) began in 1754, and ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris. This war pitted the American Colonies of the British Empire against the French, with both sides having aide from various Native American Tribes. Great Britain gained a lot of territory from this win. -
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Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were a radicalistic group who wanted to intimidate loyalists and outrage the British Government. They were founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. -
Townshend Acts of 1767
The Townshend Act of 1767 was a series of taxes imposed by the British Parliament to increase the taxes on common goods -- for the sake of paying the expenses of the American Colonies. This included taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. In response to the increase in taxes, The American Colonies decided to boycott the purchase of British imports. They deemed the Townshend Act unconstitutional and John Dickinson declared that the Parliament could not tax the colonies. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that took place March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American Colonists and a lone British solider but it quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict increased anti-British ideas and paved the way for the American Revolution. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights and hated the monopoly the East India Company had built. In response, the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed a large shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. There were 342 chests of tea destroyed that day. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. The four acts were the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act. Only the Quartering Act applied to the Colonies. This allowed high-ranking military officials to demand better accommodations for troops and to refuse locations for quarters. They were quartered at the colonists expense. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord took place on April 19th,1775 when British troops were ordered to seize Concord and suppress the colonists. Most of the American military supplies had been hidden/destroyed before the British troops arrived. The British troops arrived to Lexington first, and moved on to Concord. The British were confronted by 320 to 400 American patriots and forced to withdraw. They were pushed back, and this established guerrilla warfare as the best way to fight the British. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was a battle fought during the American Revolutionary war. During this battle, the British won however they sustained twice as many casualties as the Americans. This was a 'sobering' experience for the British, as the Americans proved they can hold their own in battle. About 450 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured. The number of British killed or wounded totaled 1,054, including 89 officers. -
Declaration of Independance.
The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. This established the 13 United States of America as a separate country, freeing them from the British. This was the start of the American Revolutionary War. -
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. This document served as the United States' first constitution. It was in force from March 1, 1781, until 1789 when the present-day Constitution went into effect. This constitution established many ideas that are used in our present-day constitution. -
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Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was a three-week siege where the British sustained massive losses. It was an American victory, with the British outnumbered and this loss forecast the end of British rule in the colonies and the birth of a new nation—the United States of America. General George Washington laid siege to Yorktown, where Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis’s troops were. At the end of the battle, the British sustained an estimated 8,589 casualties while Americans sustained 389 casualties. -
The Great Compromise
The Great Compromise was created to solve the dispute between small and large states over representation in the new federal government. This compromise used a dual system of representation: the upper house would have equal representation from each state, while the lower house would have proportional representation based on a state’s population. -
The Ratification of the Constitution
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was finally accepted by the delegates. The Founding Fathers now had to get the states to agree to the document and to vote in favor of it. Nine states needed to vote for the Constitution for it to be accepted. On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. However, it was not until May 29, 1790, that the last state, Rhode Island, finally ratified the Constitution -- making it official. -
Bill of Rights
On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. 10 of these 12 amendments were adopted by Congress. By December 15, 1791, three-fourths of the states had ratified 10 of these, now known as the “Bill of Rights.” This made the first 10 amendments of the United States