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Proclamation of 1763
King George III signed the Proclamation of 1763, which limited colonial expansion westward. -
Sugar Act
a law that imposed taxes on foreign wines, coffee, textiles, and indigo imported into the colonies -
Currency Act
prohibited colonial governments from issuing paper money and required that all taxes and debts to British merchants be paid in British currency. -
Stamp Act
imposed a tax on all newspapers, legal documents, playing cards, dice, almanacs, and pamphlets. -
Quartering Act
required the colonies to provide housing and food for British troops stationed there. -
Boston Massacre
Tensions between British troops and American colonists came to a head in Boston. Outside the city’s customs house, a crowd of American civilians taunted British troops assigned to stand guard there. The British troops reacted by firing into the crowd. Three patriots, including fugitive slave Crispus Attucks, were killed immediately, and two others died later of their wounds. -
Tea Act
To save the East India Company from bankruptcy, Parliament implemented the Tea Act, authorizing the company to sell a huge tea surplus directly to the public without payment of taxes. -
Boston Tea Party
To protest the Tea Act, Boston colonists staged the Boston Tea Party. Disguised as Mohawk Indians, a group of approximately 150 protesters boarded three tea ships in Boston harbor and emptied 342 chests of tea worth 18,000 pounds sterling into the water. -
Intolerable Acts
closed Boston harbor to all shipping until payment for the destroyed tea was made. -
First Continental Congress
To protest the Tea Act, Boston colonists staged the Boston Tea Party. Disguised as Mohawk Indians, a group of approximately 150 protesters boarded three tea ships in Boston harbor and emptied 342 chests of tea worth 18,000 pounds sterling into the water. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The American Revolutionary War began with the “shot heard ’round the world.” At the battles of Lexington and Concord, seventy-three British troops were killed and 200 were wounded or missing in action. The patriot losses were forty-nine dead and forty-six wounded or missing. -
Declaration of Independence
Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The first draft denounced the slave trade, but that passage was omitted from final text -
Camp at Valley Forge
Washington made camp for the winter at Valley Forge. Washington’s army suffered incredible hardship through the winter, facing disease, cold, hunger, and lack of supplies. -
Battle of Trenton
Washington crossed the Delaware River to attack British forces at Trenton, New Jersey. The surprise raid was a major success. -
Battle of Yorktown
American and French forces under General Lafayette attacked the British at Yorktown, Virginia. It was the last major battle of the Revolution. On October 17, 1781, British general Charles Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. -
Peace of 1783 (Treaty of Paris)
The Treaty of Paris was signed by representatives of Great Britain and the United States. The treaty ended the American Revolutionary War.