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French and Indian War
This was a war not between French and Indians exactly, but it was about them fighting side by side against the Bristish. This war began 1754 where the French and British empires were expanding across North America and their empires collided with each other and the French formed an alliance with the Native Americans. With this alliance they delivered a crushing defeat to the Virginians whom were outnumbered. -
Sugar Act and colonists response
It started when Great Britain borrowing so much money during the war. Britain borrowed so much money that their national debt was twice the amount as it was befoer the war. In a move of desperation King George III appointed George Grenville as prime minister. He authorized search warrants for ships with goods to make sure there wasn't any unauthorized trading going on and search warrants for merchants' houses since they did business there too. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
The Treaty of Paris was the result of a surprise attack sprung by British troops on September 1759, on the plains of Abraham outside of Quebec. The French were defeated and the French and Indian War ended 1763 resulting in Britain claiming Canada, Florida and virtually all of North America east of the Mississippi River. -
Proclamation of 1763
A Proclamation line along the Appalachians where the colonists were not allowed to cross since it was Native American territory. The Native Americans had the upper hand in the dispute but they had to settle for this proclamation due to British officers presenting blankets to the Natives contaminated with smallpox making them too weak and sick to fight. However, the colonists ignored this and still continued to expand over Native American land. -
Writ of Assistance
A widespread boycott happened because of imposed taxes on the colonists which eventually worked and repealed one of the acts known as "The Stamp Act". -
Stamp Act & colonists response
The Stamp Act imposed taxes on printed items which outraged colonists creating a widespread boycott which actually worked, repealing The Stamp Act. -
Sons of Liberty is formed & Samuel Adams
A resistance created to oppose The Stamp Act. One of the founders of the Sons of Liberty, Samuel Adams, led a boycott against British goods. -
Declaratory Act
an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765 and the changing and lessening of the Sugar Act. -
Townshend Acts & colonists response
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John Locke’s Social Contract
Locke maintained that people have natural
rights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, every society is based on a social contract—an agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. -
Why they were repealed
As hostilities between the colonists and the British mounted, the atmosphere in Boston grew increasingly tense. The city soon erupted in bloody clashes and later in a daring tax protest, all of which pushed the colonists and Britain closer to war. On March 5, 1770, a mob gathered in front
of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killed
or mortally wounded. Colonial leaders quickly label -
Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a mob gathered in front
of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killed or mortally wounded. Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation the
Boston Massacre. -
Tea Act
In 1773, Lord North devised the Tea Act in
order to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company. The act
granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that
colonial tea sellers had to pay. This action would have cut colonial merchants out
of the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to consumers
for less. North hoped the American colonists would simply buy the cheaper
tea; instead, they protested dramatically. -
Boston Tea Party
On the moonlit evening of December 16, 1773, a large group of Boston rebels
disguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action against
three British tea ships anchored in the harbor. In this incident, later known as the
Boston Tea Party, the “Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India
Company’s tea into the waters of Boston harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
An infuriated King George III pressed Parliament to
act. In 1774, Parliament responded by passing a series of measures that colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. In addition to these measures, General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts. -
First Continental Congress Meets
In response to the Intolerable Acts, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress. In September 1774, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They defended the colonies’ right to run their own affairs and stated that, if the British used force
against the colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
Publication of Common Sense
In a widely read 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense,
Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine, a recent immigrant, argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain.” Paine explained that his own revolt against the king had begun
with Lexington and Concord. -
Minutemen
Minutemen—civilian soldiers who
pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice—quietly
stockpiled firearms and gunpowder. General Thomas Gage soon learned about
these activities. In the spring of 1775, he ordered troops to march from Boston to
nearby Concord, Massachusetts, and to seize illegal weapons. -
Midnight riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
Colonists in Boston were watching, and on the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. The darkened countryside rang with church bells and gunshots—prearranged signals, sent from town to town, that the British were coming -
Battle of Concord
The British marched on to Concord, where they found an empty arsenal. After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees -
Battle of Lexington
The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down
their arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying down their muskets. Then someone fired, and the British soldiers sent a volley of shots into the departing militia. Eight minutemen were killed and ten more werenwounded, but only one British soldier was injured. The Battle of Lexington, the first battle of the Revolutionary War, lasted only 15 minutes. -
Continental Army
Despite such differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Second Continental Congress
In May of 1775, colonial leaders called the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to debate their next move. The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the Second Continental Congress. Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. Despite such differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 17, 1775, Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. By the time the smoke cleared, the colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a
return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies.
King George flatly rejected the petition. -
Olive Branch Petition
On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies. King George flatly rejected the petition. Furthermore, he issued a proclamation stating that the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order a naval blockade to isolate a line of ships meant for the American coast. -
Declaration of Independence
The author of the Declaration was Thomas Jefferson. It stated that "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" to be unalienable rights, people have the right to alter or abolish their government, and that all men are created equal. -
Redcoats push Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
They crossed the Delaware River one Christmas night, 1776 and the element of surprise gave them the upper hand. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists—those who opposed independence and remained loyal to the British king—included judges and governors, as well as people of more modest means. Patriots—the supporters of independence—drew their numbers from people who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America. Many Americans remained neutral. -
Saratoga
In a complex scheme, General John Burgoyne planned to lead an army down a route of lakes from Canada to Albany, where he would meet British troops as they arrived from New York City. The two regiments would then join forces to
isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. When he was fighting colonial troops he didn't realize the British officers would get held up and mver make it so he surrendered. Because of this the French openly declared alliance with the Americans. -
French-American Alliance
This was when The French declared a publice alliance with the Americans. They already had an alliance with America but it was in secret because they didn't know if the Americans would win or not but with the Americans' victory at Saratoga they were sure they would win. -
Valley Forge
Even with the victory at Saratoga, the colonists could not celebrate yet. Washington and his Continental Army—desperately low on
food and supplies—fought to stay alive at winter camp in
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died,
yet the survivors didn’t desert. Their endurance and suffering
filled Washington’s letters to the Congress and his friends. -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
The year was 1778, on a cold February. Washington recruited some extraordinary men to help the American troops undergo an amazing transformation. Friedrich von Steuben, who was a retired Prussian captain whipped them into shape and changed their camps to be more hygeanic and more efficient. Marquis de Lafayette sent in French reinforcements to aid the Americans in the war. -
British victories in the South
Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured
Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780. Clinton then left for New York, while Cornwallis continued to conquer land throughout the South. In early 1781, despite several defeats, the colonists continued to battle Cornwallis—hindering his efforts to take the Carolinas. The British general then chose to move the fight to Virginia. He led his army of 7,500 onto the peninsula between the James and York rivers and camped at Yorktown. Cornwallis -
British surrender at Yorktown
Late September, 17,000 French and American troops surrounded Yorktown where the British were and began bombing them day and night until on October 19, 1781; the British surrendered to the Americans. This shocked the world that they could defeat a superpower like British. This resulted in the Treaty of Paris which confirmed U.S. independence and set the borders of their new nation. -
Treaty of Paris
In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now
stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border.
