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British Taxation Increases
After the seven years war, Britain wanted some more money to cover the war costs, so they thought they could sneakily sneak some from the colonies. They had defended them in the war after all. Parliament imposed the Stamp Act. Certain things had to have a stamp on them saying a tax had been payed to Britain. The act was repealed a year later when everyone freaked out. Despite this, Britain still needed moolah. They kept trying. -
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston tea party was a political protest in which a group of colonists threw 342 chests of East India Company tea overboard into the ocean. These actions led Britain to pass the Coercive Acts, which brought the US and them even closer to war. -
The First Continental Congress
The Colonies took action. They organized a get together known as the First Continental Congress, which was basically urging colonists to get off their butts and grab their guns. They began organizing militias. -
The Declaration of Independence
The second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, a document drafted by Thomas Jefferson, as an official goodbye to Great Britain. It was exclusively complaining about white men who lived in the colonies not receiving all of their natural rights. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," as seen by John Locke. -
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were the newly independent 13 colonies' first Constitution. It had a few issues, of those being:
-Congress had very little power to enforce new laws that might benefit the country.
-Could not coin money or levy taxes, the country struggling financially.
-Could not regulate trade.
-Could not draft soldiers, so they had no way of protecting themselves.
Overall, the independent state governments, the small central government, and the document itself, were very weak. -
The Battle of Yorktown
George Washing-machine and his French and American soldiers trapped Britain's General Cornwallis and his soldiers at Yorktown, Virginia. This event decided the end of the war for the British. -
The Treat of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, which had originally been created for the Seven Years War, recognized the Colonies' independence and gave them control of some Western territory from the Appalachians to the Mississippi river. -
The Constitutional Convention
The Articles of Confederation obviously were not working out, so in 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia to revise it.
The ended up creating an entirely new thing, The Constitution. The Constitution built up a federal system, in which the national government and the state governments shared power. It was separated into three branches and had a system of checks and balances and included a Bill of Rights. It was argued about a lot, and was eventually ratified by 9 out of 13 of the states.
