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Seven Years’ War
The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. On July 10, 1754, representatives from seven of the British North American colonies adopted the plan. -
Salutary neglect
Salutary neglect was an unofficial British policy of non-enforcement of trade regulations on their American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. The purpose was to maximize economic output among the colonists while maintain some form of control. -
Pontiac’s Rebellion
Pontiac's Rebellion, which came closely on the heels of the French and Indian War, made the British seek more peaceful relations with Native Americans in the Ohio Valley. They issued the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling in the region, as a way to avoid further conflict. -
Peace of Paris 1763
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
Proclamation 1763
After Britain won the Seven Years' War and gained land in North America, it issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited American colonists from settling west of Appalachia. The Treaty of Paris, which marked the end of the French and Indian War, granted Britain a great deal of valuable North American land.The Proclamation of 1763 was important because of the effect it had on the relationship between Britain and the colonies. -
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress was a significant historical event because it was the first unified meeting of the American colonies to respond to British colonial policies.The Stamp Act of 1765 was a tax to help the British pay for the French and Indian War. The British felt they were well justified in charging this tax because the colonies were receiving the benefit of the British troops and needed to help pay for the expense. -
Sons & Daughters of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was a secret revolutionary organization that was founded by Samuel Adams in the Thirteen American Colonies to advance the rights of the European colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest in reaction to changes in taxation by the British to the detriment of colonial goods. -
Declaration of Rights and Grievances
The Colonists felt that, as British colonies, they should also have the rights of Englishmen as if they were born in the realms of England. The Declaration of Rights and Grievances had made the colonies uneasy, and it was because of the realization that they could fight for their rights. -
Prohibitory Act
The Prohibitory Act was British legislation in late 1775 that cut off all trade between the American colonies and England, and removed the colonies from the King's protection.The laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest in reaction to changes in taxation by the British to the detriment of colonial goods. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. -
land ordinance of 1785
It was a very important law that was developed by the government while the Articles of Confederation was our plan of government. This law helped to organize the sale of western lands. Western lands were split into townships that were 6 miles wide and 6 miles long.These procedures formed the basis of American public land policy until the Homestead Act of 1862. It laid the basis for the government of the Northwest Territory and for the admission of its constituent parts as states into the union. -
Shay’s Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was a brief insurrection by Massachusetts farmers from 1786-1787, in response to the need for debt relief. What started as a protest turned into an army of roughly 4,000 people known as Regulators, who closed down courts across the state. -
3/5s Compromise
The three-fifths compromise was an agreement, made at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, that allowed Southern states to count a portion of its enslaved population for purposes of taxation and representation. The compromise gave the South more power than it would have had if enslaved people had not been counted. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. -
Judiciary Act
The Judiciary Act of 1789 was a United States federal statute adopted on September 24, 1789, in the first session of the First United States Congress. The Judiciary Act of 1789, officially titled "An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States," was signed into law by President George Washington on September 24, 1789. Article III of the Constitution established a Supreme Court, but left to Congress the authority to create lower federal courts as needed. -
Whiskey Rebellion
It was the U.S. government its first opportunity to establish federal authority by military means within state boundaries, as officials moved into western Pennsylvania to quell an uprising of settlers rebelling against the liquor tax.It demonstrated that the new national government had the will and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws, though the whiskey excise remained difficult to collect. The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States. -
Pinckney Treaty 1795
U.S. citizens were accorded free navigation of the Mississippi River through Spanish territory. The treaty granted Americans the privilege of tax-free deposit (temporary storage of goods) at New Orleans. ... The treaty was negotiated by Thomas Pinckney for the United States and Manuel de Godoy for Spain. -
Revolution of 1800
In what is sometimes referred to as the "Revolution of 1800", Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party. The election was a realigning election that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican rule. -
Unicameral legislature
While the major advantage of a bicameral system is that it can provide for checks and balances and prevent potential abuses of power, it can also lead to gridlock that makes the passage of laws difficult. A major advantage of a unicameral system is that laws can be passed more efficiently.
