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French and Indian War Ends
For nine years, from 1754-1763, Britain fought a war against France over control of the land in the Ohio River valley. This took a large amount of money in order to keep the colonies safe and happy. -
Stamp Act Congress
This meeting was to discuss the colonists rights and British subjects, declaring that only their colonial legislatures had the power to tax them. They elected no representatives to Parliament, and therefore had not given their consent to any taxes Parliament decided to impose. -
Stamp Act Passed
The Sons of Liberty attacked the office of the stamp commissioner, forcing him to resign. When the Stamp act went into affect their were no longer any commissioners left in the colonies to collect the tax. -
Stamp Act Repealed
After four months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act. This was a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. -
Declaratory Act
This was enacted the same year the stamp act was repealed. It stated that parliament had all power to make laws that were strong enough to keep the people in the colonies under Great Britain's control. -
Townshend Act Passed
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed by the British government on the American colonies in 1767. They placed new taxes and took away some freedoms from the colonists. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known to the British as the Incident on King Street. This was a confrontation in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston. -
Townshend Act Repealed
The British parliament repealed the Townshend duties on all but tea. The British government wished to maintain the principal that their parliament had the right to tax the colonies. -
Tea Act Passed
This granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. The passing of the Tea Act imposed no new taxes on the American colonies. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred in Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped tea, imported into the harbor. -
Coercive Acts Passed
The Intolerable Acts also known as Coercive Acts were a package of five laws implemented by the British government with the purpose of restoring authority in its colonies. The first four Acts were passed as a response to the Boston Tea Party Protest. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting by the colonies in response to the intolerable acts that the British had enforced. The result was a declaration by the colonies that stated the rights for the colonists, and stopped the trade from the British. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, shortly after the war with the British had begun. It was preceded by the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774. -
Revolutionary War Begins
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence. The Revolutionary War, also known as the American Revolution, arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. -
Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent states, no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America.
