Origins of American Government Project

  • Establishment of Jamestown as a colony

    Establishment of Jamestown as a colony
    Jamestown, also Jamestowne, was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699 when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg
  • Establishment of Massachusetts as a colony

    Establishment of Massachusetts as a colony
    In 1629 King Charles I of England granted the Massachusetts Bay Company a charter to trade in and colonize the part of New England that lay approximately between the Charles and Merrimack Rivers
  • French and Indian War

    French and Indian War
    The French and Indian War was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes
  • The Proclamation of 1763

    The Proclamation of 1763
    King George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 on 7 October 1763. It followed the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the Seven Years' War and transferring French territory in North America to Great Britain.
  • Sugar Act

    Sugar Act
    The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued by King George III on 7 October 1763. It followed the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the Seven Years' War and transferred French territory in North America to Great Britain.
  • Stamp Act

    Stamp Act
    On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the “Stamp Act” to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years' War. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards.
  • Townshend Act

    Townshend Act
    The Townshend Acts or Townshend Duties were a series of British acts of Parliament passed between 1767 and 1768 introducing a series of taxes and regulations to fund the administration of the British colonies in America. They are named after the Chancellor of the Exchequer who proposed the programme
  • Boston Tea Party

    Boston Tea Party
    The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor.
  • 1st Continental Congress

    1st Continental Congress
    The First Continental Congress convened in Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between September 5 and October 26, 1774. Delegates from twelve of Britain's thirteen American colonies met to discuss America's future under growing British aggression.
  • Intolerable Acts

    Intolerable Acts
    The Coercive Acts of 1774, known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party.