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Marked a turning point for America Independence from Great Britain. Disputes over polices and taxation led to war and by 1776, colonial delegates America a free nation. -
At Princeton, Washington launched a surprise attack, and succeeded in defeating the British. His efforts cleared most of New Jersey of enemy forces, and greatly boosted America. -
The British took Charleston capturing 5,400 men and four American ships in the harbor. It was the worst American defeat of the war. -
French and American forces joined at Yorktown, on land and at sea, and attacked the British. British General Cornwallis soon surrendered, giving up almost 8,000 men. -
The British, French, and Americans met in Paris to discuss peace. The United States sent Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. -
Americans and British signed the Treaty of Paris ending the war. The treaty also gave the United States a large amount of western territory. -
It was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. It doubled the size of the United States. -
Gave U.S. authorities the right to seize slave ships which were caught transporting slaves and confiscate their cargo. Then the "Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves" took effect in 1808. -
Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, a area of land that would become Kansas, Nebraska, Montana and the Dakotas. The bill raised the possibility that slavery could be extended into territories where it had once been banned. -
The Pony Express was a system that delivered mail on horseback between Missouri and California. The service lasted for only about a year and a half in the early 1860s.