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French and Indian War
At the 1763 peace conference, the British received the territories of Canada from France and Florida from Spain, opening the Mississippi Valley to westward expansion. -
Stamp Act
A Stamp Act duty was in place in Britain since 1694.People who created public documents had to pay a tax on blank paper they bought. Officials would place a stamp as prove of payment. -
Boston Massacre
The heavy military presence in Boston that lead to the Massacre was the result of British enforcement of the Townshend Acts of 1767.
4,000 troops were dispatched to Boston in October of 1768—not a small number, considering that Boston’s population was only about 20,000 residents at the time. -
Boston Tea Party
90% of the tea drunk in the colonies was smuggled in. The American tradition of drinking coffee increased as British tea was subject to boycotts. The Boston Tea Party was a direct protest by colonists, members of the the Sons of Liberty, against the Tea Tax that had been imposed by the British government. -
Intolerable Acts
name given by American patriots to five laws. which limited the political and geographical freedom of the colonists. -
Lexington and Concard
On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. Paul Revere and other riders sounded the alarm, and colonial militiamen began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoat column. A confrontation on the Lexington town green started off the fighting, and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. -
Declaration of Independence
The document was signed by 56 delegates to the Continental Congress. The document stated the reasons the 13 American colonies wanted to be free of Great Britain's government. -
Saratoga
Fought eighteen days apart in the fall of 1777, the two Battles of Saratoga were a turning point in the American Revolution. -
Yorktown
The British Army and Hessians fought against the Americans and France. The Battle of Yorktown was a military conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in North America during the American Revolutionary War -
Treaty of Paris
Based on a preliminary treaty agreed to in 1782
Recognized the independence of the United States
Granted the U.S. significant western territories -
Constitution
Written in 1787, the Constitution was signed on September 17th. But it wasn't until 1788 that it was ratified by the necessary nine states. -
Bill of Rights
The U.S. Constitution has 4,400 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world."
