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French and Indian War
Britain paid a large amount of money to keep the colonies safe and happy by fighting a war with France over control of the the land in the Ohio Valley. -
Stamp Act Passed
A new tax that required a stamp for all printed items including, newspaper, legal documents, and even playing cards. -
Stamp Act Congress
The colonies decided to organize and sent representatives to a meeting in New York City that. -
Townshend Act
Were enacted, taxing British imports, products shipped from other countries such as glass, tea, paint, and paper. -
Townshend Act repealed
The British parliament repealed the Townshend duties on all but tea. Pressure from British merchants was partially responsible for the change. ... More importantly, the British government wished to maintain the principal that their parliament had the right to tax the colonies. -
Boston Massacre
March 5, 1770 tensions were high. Shots rang out, killing five colonists. -
Boston Tea Party
members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act and its provisions for taxation of tea. -
Tea act Passed
the British Parliament passes the Tea Act, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company from bankruptcy by greatly lowering the tea tax it paid to the British government and, thus, granting it a the factor monopoly on the American tea trade. -
Coercive Act
these laws were intended to punish the people of Massachusetts, for destroying the tea that they threw into Boston Harbor in December, 1773, and strengthen British authority in Massachusetts -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts, a series of measures imposed by the British government on the colonies in response to their resistance to new taxes. -
Revolutionary War Begins
In April 1775 British soldiers, called lobsterbacks because of their red coats, and minutemen—the colonists' militia—exchanged gunfire at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Described as "the shot heard round the world," it signaled the start of the American Revolution and led to the creation of a new nation -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Congress functioned as a de facto national government at the outset of the Revolutionary War by raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and writing treatises such as the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms and the Olive Branch Petition. -
Stamp Act Repealed
Britain decided to repeal the Stamp Act, but the very same year, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act stating that it had all power to make laws that were strong enough to keep the people in the colonies. -
Declaratory Act
Stating that it had a power to make laws that were strong enough to keep people in colonies under Great Britain's control. -
Declaration of Independence Signed
The Declaration of Independence, 1776. By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain. The Declaration summarized the colonists' motivations for seeking independence.
