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The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the 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. -
The Proclamation Line of 1763
In 1763, at the end of the French and Indian War, the British issued a proclamation,mainly intended to conciliate the Indians by checking the encroachment of settlers on their lands. This royal proclamation, which closed down colonial expansion westward, was the first measure to affect all thirteen colonies. In response to a revolt of Native Americans led by Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, King George III declared all lands west of the Appalachian Divide off-limits to colonial settlers. -
The Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on 5 April 1764. By reducing the rate by half and increasing measures to enforce the tax, the British hoped that the tax would actually be collected. These incidents increased the colonists' concerns about the intent of the British Parliament and helped the growing movement that became the American Revolution. -
The Quartering Acts
In 1765, Parliament passed the Quartering Act, outlining the locations and conditions in which British soldiers are to find room and board in the American colonies.The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British government. The act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years’ War and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue source. The colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional, and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. -
Stamp Act Congress
"No taxation without representation!" was the cry. The colonists intended to place actions behind their words. One thing was clear — no colony acting alone could effectively convey a message to the king and Parliament. The appeals to Parliament by the individual legislatures had been ignored. It was James Otis who suggested an inter colonial conference to agree on a united course of action. With that, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York in October 1765. -
The Declaratory Act
The American Colonies Act 1766, commonly known as the Declaratory Act, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765 and the changing and lessening of the Sugar Act. The declaration stated that the Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament's authority to pass laws that were binding on the American colonies. -
The Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of measures, passed by the British Parliament in 1767, that taxed goods imported to the American colonies. But American colonists, who had no representation in Parliament, saw it as an abuse of power. The British sent troops to America to enforce the unpopular new laws, further heightening tensions between Great Britain and the American colonies in the run-up to the American Revolutionary War. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-Britain sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution. -
Gaspee Affair
The Gaspee Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspee was a British customs schooner that had been enforcing the Navigation Acts in and around Newport, Rhode Island, in 1772. A group of men led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown attacked, boarded, and torched the ship.This event and others in Narragansett Bay marked the first acts of violent uprising against the British crown's authority in America. -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act of 1773 was one of several measures imposed on the American colonists by the heavily indebted British government in the decade leading up to the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). The act’s main purpose was not to raise revenue from the colonies but to bail out the floundering East India Company, a key actor in the British economy. The colonists had never accepted the constitutionality of the duty on tea, and the Tea Act rekindled their opposition to it. -
Boston Tea Party
Their resistance culminated in the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, in which colonists boarded East India Company ships and dumped their loads of tea overboard. Parliament responded with a series of harsh measures intended to stifle colonial resistance to British rule; two years later the war began. -
The Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts was the term invented by 19th century historians to refer to a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774. The laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Boston Tea Party. The acts took away self-governance and historic rights of Massachusetts, triggering outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies. They were key developments in the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. -
The First Continental Congress
From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts, a series of measures imposed by the British government on the colonies in response to their resistance to new taxes. Five years later, the Congress ratified the first national constitution, the Articles of Confederation. -
Patrick Henry's Speech
On March 23, 1775, at the Second Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Patrick Henry argued that a volunteer militia should be organized and armed in every county of Virginia to prepare to defend themselves from Great Britain. Patrick Henry lays out the hard truth: Great Britain isn’t going to hand out liberty and respect until they have to. The colonists need to be willing to die for it. -
The Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord kicked off the American Revolutionary War. Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. On the night of April 18,hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. A confrontation on the Lexington town green started off the fighting, and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 17, 1775, early in the Revolutionary War (1775-83), the British defeated the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts. Despite their loss, the inexperienced colonial forces inflicted significant casualties against the enemy, and the battle provided them with an important confidence boost. Although commonly referred to as the Battle of Bunker Hill, most of the fighting occurred on nearby Breed’s Hill. -
Thomas Pain Common Sense
In 1776, writer Thomas Paine published his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries.“Common Sense” advocated independence for the American colonies from Britain and is considered one of the most influential pamphlets in American history. “Common Sense” played a remarkable role in transforming a colonial squabble into the American Revolution. -
Declaration of Independence
The Americans were ostensibly fighting only for their rights as subjects of the British crown. In mid-June 1776, a five-man committee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions. The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence–written largely by Jefferson–in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence.
