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Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was a 17th and 18th century international movement in ideas and sensibilities, emphasizing the exercise of critical reason as opposed to intellectual dogmatism. It developed along with the rise of scientific thinking and stressed the importance of nature and the natural order as a source of knowledge. In reaction to the religious wars of Europe, many Enlightenment thinkers -
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French & 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 -
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Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were a grassroots group of instigators and provocateurs in colonial America who used an extreme form of civil disobedience—threats -
Stamp Act of 1765
sought to raise money to pay for this army through a tax on all legal and official papers and publications circulating in the colonies -
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Townshend Act of 1767
the expenses involved in governing the American colonies, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea -
Boston Tea Party
It showed that the Sons of Liberty identified with America, over their official status as subjects of Great Britain. That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. -
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first continental congress meets
The First Continental Congress was prompted by the Coercive Acts, known in America as the Intolerable Acts, which Parliament passed in early 1774 to reassert its dominance over the American colonies following the Boston Tea Party. The Intolerable Acts, among other changes, closed off the Boston Port and rescinded the Massachusetts Charter, bringing the colony under more direct British control. -
Battles of Lexington & Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord confirmed the alienation between the majority of colonists and the mother country, and it roused 16,000 New Englanders -
Second Continental Congress meets
voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776, which led to the colonies becoming the United States of America. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
The American patriots were defeated at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but they proved they could hold their own against the superior British Army -
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Olive Branch Petition sent to England
emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens -
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Thomas Paine’s Common Sense published
made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it -
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Articles of Confederation created
The Articles of Confederation created a national government composed of a Congress, which had the power to declare war, appoint military officers -
Great Compromise
The Great Compromise suggested a bicameral legislature; one house with representation based on population as suggested in the Virginia Plan and a second house -
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Bill of Rights adopted
It spells out Americans' rights in relation to their government. It guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual