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French and Indian War
The French and Indian 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. It ended with the signing of the treaty of Paris and then later leading 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. The Albany Plan was the first important proposal to conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian war between Great Britain and France. In the terms of the Treaty of Paris, France gave up all of its territories in North America, ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 prohibited the North American colonists from establishing or maintaining settlements west of an imaginary line running down the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. It acknowledged that Indians owned the lands on which they were then residing and white settlers in the area were to be removed. -
Sugar Act
Under the Sugar Act colonial merchants had been required to pay a tax of six pence per gallon on the importation of foreign molasses. The enforced tax on molasses caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies. The Sugar Act set the stage for the revolt at the imposition of the Stamp Act. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act required all American colonists to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. The issues of taxation and representation raised by the Stamp Act strained relations with the colonies to the point that the colonists rose in armed rebellion against the British. -
Quartering Act of 1765
The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. It stated that American colonists were to find accommodations for British soldiers which could include bedding, food and other associated items at the cost of the colonist. It was one of a series of events that caused the American Revolution. -
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress was a meeting that consisted of representatives from 9 of the British Colonies in North America. The objective of the representatives was to devise a unified protest against new British taxation - specifically the Stamp Act. -
Repeal of the Stamp Act
The repeal of the Stamp Act was first major retreat by the British in the face of colonial American resistance. After Parliament passed the Stamp Act ost Americans called for a boycott of British goods, attacks on the customhouses and homes of tax collectors. After months of protest, and an appeal by Benjamin Franklin, Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act. However, the same day, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act. -
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act was passed by the Parliament of Great Britain that was passed at the same time that the Stamp Act was repealed. It stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. The Declaratory Act asserted Parliament's authority to pass laws on the colonies contained the phrase “in all cases whatsoever” which was taken to mean the power to tax. New taxes were introduced within a year by the Townshend Act. -
Townshend Act
The Townshend Act was a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods such as paint, paper, lead, glass and tea and used revenues to maintain British troops in American and to pay the salaries of some royal officials who were appointed to work in the American colonies. The Townshend Act would lead to the Boston Massacre. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight between a patriot mob and British soldiers that fired, killing five colonists. It arose from the resentment of Boston colonists towards the British which had been fuelled by protest activities. The effects of the Boston Massacre led to the creation of the Committee of Correspondence. -
Boston Tea Party
Many factors caused the Boston Tea Party including “taxation without representation,” the Townshend Act, and the Tea Act. American colonists raided three ships in Boston Harbor, destroying their cargo of tea to protest a tax on tea imposed unilaterally on the American colonies by the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonies escalated after the incident, later resulting in the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of acts British Parliament passed in reaction to the Boston Tea Party. These acts were put in place to punish the Massachusets colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into the Boston Harbor. -
Quebec Act
The Quebec Act was a well-intentioned measure designed to afford greater rights to the French inhabitants of Canada, which had come under British rule through the Treaty of Paris. It set procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress brought together representatives from each of the colonies, except Georgia, to discuss their response to the British "Intolerable Acts." The Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. Five years later, the Congress ratified the first national constitution, the Articles of Confederation. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battle of Lexington and Concord kicked off the American Revolutionary War. undreds 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. Many more battles followed, and in 1783 the colonists formally won their independence.
