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Context
After the French and Indian war, England faced a bunch of debt, this led them to tax the colonists. The colonist leaders led a resistance to imperial rule. They demanded their rights, leading to the Declaration of Independence. After the US split from England, the Articles of Confederation united the newly formed states.There was a split between federalists and antifederalists. There was a development of foreign policy that dealt with European presence in the nation. -
Seven Years War
A global conflict which ran from 1756 until 1763 and pitted a coalition of Great Britain and its allies against a coalition of France and its allies. The war escalated from a regional conflict between Great Britain and France in North America, known today as the French and Indian War. -
Pontiac's Rebellion
made the British seek more peaceful relations with Native Americans in the Ohio Valley. They issued the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonists from settling in the region, as a way to avoid further conflict. It lasted until 1766. -
Peace of Paris 1763
Ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
Sons and Daughters of Liberty
An organization established in 1765, these members (usually in the middle or upper class) resisted the Stamp Act of 1765. Even though the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, they joined with the Daughters of Liberty remained active in resistance movements. -
Declaration of Rights and Grievances
The Colonists felt that, as British colonies, they should also have the rights of Englishmen as if they were born in the realms of England. The Declaration of Rights and Grievances had made the colonies uneasy, and it was because of the realization that they could fight for their rights. -
Townshend Acts
Sugar, Quartering, Stamp, Declaratory, Townshend, Tea & Coercive Acts all led to the rebellion of the US against Britain. The acts all put strains on America and caused hatred and led to the split. -
Intolerable Acts
Passed in 1774, following the Boston Tea Party, which were considered unfair because they were designed to chastise Boston in particular, yet effected all the colonies by the Boston Port Act which closed Boston Harbor until damages were paid. -
Lexington and Concord
The first battle of the Revolutionary War, fought in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. The British Army set out from Boston to capture rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington as well as to destroy the Americans store of weapons and ammunition in Concord. -
Minutemen
Civilian colonists who independently organized to form militia companies self-trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. -
Declaration of Independence
Formally approved by the Congress on July 4, 1776. This "shout heard round the world" has been a source of inspiration to countless revolutionary movements against arbitrary authority. The document sharply separated Loyalists from Patriots and helped to start the American Revolution by allowing England to hear of the colonists disagreements with British authority. -
Common Sense
Written in 1776 was one of the most potent pamphlets ever written. It called for the colonists to realize their mistreatment and push for independence from England. [The author] Thomas Paine introduced such ideas as nowhere in the universe sis a smaller heavenly body control a larger. For this reason there is no reason for England to have control over the vast lands of America. The pamphlet with its high-class journalism as well as propaganda sold a total of 120,000 copies within a few months. -
Articles of Confederation
The first "constitution" governing the United States after the Revolution; it was ratified in 1781 and it provided for a "firm league of friendship;" the legislative branch (Congress) had no power to regulate commerce or forcibly collect taxes and there was no national executive or judicial branch; it was an important stepping-stone towards the present constitution because without it the states would never have consented to the Constitution. -
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments of the Constitution, added in 1791 when it was adopted by the necessary number of states. It guarantees such civil liberties as freedom of speech, free press, and freedom of religion. Written by James Madison. -
Treaty of Paris 1783
The British recognized the independence of the United States. It granted boundaries, which stretched from the Mississippi on the west, to the Great Lakes on the north, and to Spanish Florida on the south. The Yankees retained a share of Newfoundland. It greatly upset the Canadians. -
Shays Rebellion
1786 An uprising that flared up in western Massachusetts. Impoverished back country farmers, many of them Revolutionary war veterans, were losing their farms through mortgage foreclosures and tax delinquencies. They demanded cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of mortgage fore closures. Hundreds of angry agitators attempted to enforce these demands. Massachusetts authorities, supported by wealthy citizens, raised a small army under General Lincoln. -
Federalists
A United States political party consisting of the more respectable citizens of the time; mostly lived along the eastern seaboard in the 1790's; believed in advocating a strong federal government and fought for the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1787-1788. -
Anti-Federalists
People against federalists in 1787; disagreed with the Constitution because they believed people's rights were being taken away without a Bill of Rights; also did not agree with annual elections and the non-existence of God in the government. -
Federalist Papers
A series of articles written in New York newspapers as a source of propaganda for a stronger central government. The articles, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, were a way for the writers to express their belief that it is better to have a stronger central government. The papers turned out to be a penetrating commentary written on the Constitution. -
Whigs
Name given to party of patriots of the new land resisting England prior to the Declaration of Independence
