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The French & Indian War
The final Colonial War 1689 to 1763 was the French and Indian War, which is the name given to the American theater of a massive conflict involving Austria, England, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Sweden called the Seven Years War. The conflict was played out in Europe, India, and North America. -
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road to revolution
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treaty of paris
In the final agreement, the British recognized the independence of the United States. The treaty established generous boundaries for the United States; U.S. territory now extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River in the west, and from the Great Lakes and Canada in the north to the 31st parallel in the south.Newfoundland with their plentiful supply of cod. -
Pontiac's War
On July 31, a British relief expedition attacked Pontiac’s camp but suffered heavy losses and was repelled in the Battle of Bloody Run. Nevertheless, they had succeeded in providing the fort at Detroit with reinforcements and supplies, which allowed it to hold out against the Indians into the fall. The major forts at Pitt and Niagara likewise held on, but the united tribes captured eight other fortified posts. -
proclamation of 1763
The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was a cause for great celebration in the colonies, for it removed several ominous barriers and opened up a host of new opportunities for the colonists. -
Sugar Act
On April 5, 1764, Parliament passed a modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act 1733, which was about to expire. Under the Molasses Act colonial merchants had been required to pay a tax of six pence per gallon on the importation of foreign molasses. Parliament decided it would be wise to make a few adjustments to the trade regulations. -
stamp act
The actual cost of the Stamp Act was relatively small. What made the law so offensive to the colonists was not so much its immediate cost but the standard it seemed to set? In the past, taxes and duties on colonial trade had always been viewed as measures to regulate commerce, not to raise money. -
quartering act
The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. If the barracks were too small to house all the soldiers, then localities were to accommodate the soldiers in local inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualing houses, and the houses of sellers of wine. -
Stamp Act Congress
"No taxation without representation!" was the cry. The colonists were not merely griping about the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act. They intended to place actions behind their words. One thing was clear no colony acting alone could effectively convey a message to the king and Parliament. -
townsend acts
The Townshend Acts was a tax on imported goods, such as glass, paper, lead, paints, and tea. It was passed by Parliament in 1767. The Townshend Acts affected many aspects of Colonial life. Every time a merchant went on a boat to travel, a tax collector would be allowed to go aboard ships and check for smuggled goods. If a merchant was found smuggling, he would be taken to a Vice-Admiralty Court to be tried. Many colonists did not like the Townshend Acts. -
boston masscure
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry. The presence of British troops in the city of Boston was increasingly unwelcome. -
tea act
The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. -
the boston tea party
This action, part of a wave of resistance throughout the colonies, had its origin in Parliament's effort to rescue the financially weakened East India Company so as to continue benefiting from the company's valuable position in India. The Tea Act May 10, 1773 adjusted import duties in such a way that the company could undersell even smugglers in the colonies. -
the intolerable acts
The government spent immense sums of money on troops and equipment in an attempt to subjugate Massachusetts. British merchants had lost huge sums of money on looted, spoiled, and destroyed goods shipped to the colonies. The revenue generated by the Townshend duties, in 1770, amounted to less than $21,000. On March 5, 1770, Parliament repealed the duties, except for the one on tea. -
the first continental congress
The first Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, from September 5, to October 26, 1774. Carpenter's Hall was also the seat of the Pennsylvania Congress. 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. -
lexington and concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War 1775-83. Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. -
second continental congress
The Continental Congress was the formal means by which the American colonial governments coordinated their resistance to British rule during the first two years of the American Revolution. The Congress balanced the interests of the different colonies and also established itself as the official colonial liaison with Great Britain. -
battle of bunker hill
On June 16, 1775, having learned that the British were planning to send troops from Boston to occupy the hills surrounding the city, some 1,000 colonial militiamen under Colonel William Prescott 1726-95 built earthen fortifications on top of Breed’s Hill, overlooking Boston and located on the Charlestown Peninsula. The men originally had been ordered to construct their fortifications atop Bunker Hill but instead chose the smaller Breed’s Hill, closer to Boston.
