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French and Indian War
The French where setting up forts from the Greate Lakes to the Mississippi River to keep the colonist out of the Ohio River Valley. Virginia sent George Washington to kick the French out of Fort Duquesne. In the small battle they defeated the French and started the war. At the begining of the war the French won many of the battles but eventually the British won the war. -
Treaty of Paris
Britain claimed all land east of the Mississippi River. War was cost a lot of money for the British so the British colonist began to settle in the Ohio River Valley for the farmland there. Native Americans started attacking colonists and destroying the forts set up. -
The Proclamation
Britain wanted to avoid conflict with Native Americans so they told the colonist they were forbidden to cross Appalachian Mountains. The colonist and some of them still went past the Appalachian Mountains and they got attacked by the natives. The colonist were angry and did not like the British there. -
Sugar Act
It was a tax placed on sugar. People didn't care much but people where starting to notice more and more taxes. -
Stamp Act
It was a tax on anything made of paper such as legal documents, newspapers, and basically every piece of paper. The Stamp Act Congress was formed to boycott this law and it was enventually repealed. -
Quartering Act
British soldiers could walk into a colonists house and they had to provide food, housing, and blankets for them. They could do nothing about this. -
Townshend Acts
It was a tax placed on various household items such as paper, glass, silk, and tea. Colonist started boycotting this act and eventually it was repealed. -
Writs of Assistance
Customs officers could search ships whenever they wanted. Not many people were affected but the merchants thought it wasan invasion of privacy. -
Boston Massacre
A mob of mad colonist confronted British soldiers at the Boston Customs House.The tension rose and shots were fired into the crowd, killing five colonists. Sam Adams used the opportunity to get the colonist against the British calling the event a “massacre”. -
Tea Act
Tea merchants in the colonies were cut off from the tea trade because the British East India Company lowered their tea prices.The company controlled tea sales in the colonies. The Boston Tea Party happened because of this. -
Boston Tea Party
The Sons of Liberty went to the docs and dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. The Intolerable Acts were created because of this. -
1st Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. All colonies, except for Georgia sent delegates. The delegates agreed to ban all trade with Britain until Acts were repealed. They also said that every colony was to begin training troops. They were determined to uphold their colonial rights. -
Intolerable Acts
This act did not let colonist hold town meetings. The Port of Boston closed. This act caused the First Continental Congress to meet and idividual colonies began to unify. -
Concord
Before the British marched into Concord they stopped and destroyed colonist military supplies and then engaged in a battle where they had to retreat from. 4000 minutemen and militiamen lined the road from Concord to Lexington and they shot at the at the British as they retreated back to Boston. -
Lexington
700 British Troops reached Lexington. 70 of the militiamen were waiting. The British ordered the Americans to drop their muskets but they refused. No one knows who fired first, but a couple of minutes after the first shot 8 militiamen were dead. The first shot was the “shot heard around the world”. This was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in a poem. This was the beginning of the war. -
Ft. Ticonderoga
The fort was occupied by the British. The Americans awakened the stunned British soldiers and took their weapons. The British army surrendered and Ft. Ticonderogawas theirs. -
2nd Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. While they were there they created the Olive Branch Petition to declare their loyalty but to ask for repeal of the Intolerable Acts. They also established the Continental Army with George Washington as the commander. -
Bunker Hill
Militia men fortified the hills around Boston to fire on British ships as they came. The British marched up Bunker Hill to kick the Continental Army out of Bunker Hill. The Americans were low on gunpowder, so they were “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes”. They were low on supplies, so the Colonists retreated.The British won Bunker Hill, however they lost over 1000 soldiers in the battle. -
Common Sense
Early in the war many colonist were still against the idea of total independence. Thomas Paine tried to change public opinion through his publication Common Sense. What Thomas Paine’s said helped persuade many colonists to support the fight for Independence. -
Battle of New York
The fighting had shifted into the Middle Colonies now. The British wanted to capture New York City, which was the center of the Colonial economy. The British attacked Washington’s army on Long Island and made heavy damage on his army. Washington avoided capture and retreated into Pennsylvania. The British occupy New York for the rest of the war. -
Declaration of Independence
The Continental Congress debated if they wanted to be completely free and independent from Britain or not. They formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was chosen to compose the document. 2 weeks later, Jefferson had completed most of it, the resolution was presented again and passed and independence was declared. -
Battle of Trenton
Washington launched a surprise attack crossing the frozen Delaware River. He captured over 800 Hessian prisoners without losing one man. Washington went on to attack at Princeton. -
Battle of Princeton
After winning at Trenton Washington went to Princeton and captured 300 British soldiers. After that he went on to lose a couple of battles. -
Battle of Saratoga
British General Burgoyne planned to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies. Daniel Morgan had another plan against them. The American General Horatio Gates surrounded Burgoyne’s remaining forces at Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne surrendered his entire army to the Americans when he noticed he wasn’t going to win. Saratoga was a turning point in the war because we took a lot of the British soldiers and Benjamin Franklin helped negotiate Treaty of Alliance with France and Spain. -
Winter at Valley Forge
Washington and his men spent the long cold winter of 1777-1778 in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. The American troops were in need of food and warm clothing. Most where dying because of the cold or starvation. -
Battle of Yorktown
British General Lord Cornwallis moved his troops to Virginia to set up camp and wait for reinforcements. This information was given to George Washington by James Armistead a slave that was also a double spy. Before he could leave Yorktown by ship, a fleet of French battleships sailed into the Bay and Cornwallis was now trapped. Washington would lead the 3 week battle against the British. He finaly surrender and the colonist had won independence. -
Treaty of Paris
The treaty said that Great Britain would recognized the United States as an independent nation, United States gained all land east of the Mississippi River, and as long as the U.S. agreed to return all property taken from Loyalist.
