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First Continental Congress
he First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (not including Georgia) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the thirteen colonies (except Georgia) that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met between September 5, 1774 and October 26, 1774, also in Philadelphia. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaratio -
Olive Branch Petitioni
The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress in July 1775 in a fortified attempt to avoid a full-blown war between the Thirteen Colonies that the Congress represented, and the Great Britain. The petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain and entreated the king to prevent further conflict. However, the Petition succeeded the July 6 Declaration of Taking up Arms which made its efficacy in London dubious. In August 1775 the colonies were formally declared to rebelli -
Prohibitory Act
The Prohibitory Act 1775 was passed as a measure of retaliation by Great Britain against the general rebellion then going on in her American colonies, which became known as the American Revolutionary War (or, to the British, the American War of Independence). It declared and provided for a naval blockade against American ports. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they now formed a new nation--the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. A committee had already drafted the formal declaration, to be rea