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Proclamation of 1763
This act was created by the British that closed the western lands beyond the Appachilcan Mountains which was seen by the American colonists as a violation of their land rights. -
Sugar Act
This act increased the duties of sugar and molasses and prohibited the importation of all foreign rum so Great Britain could make more money. The colonists also protested this act. -
Currency Act
This act prohibited the issuing and printing of currency among the American colonies. This act was passed to protect British merchants from depicted colonial currency, all of which angered the colonists. -
Quartering Act
This act allowed British governors to house British soldiers in American Barracks. The reason for this was that the British soldiers needed homes and resources to live in. The colonists were angered but not by having to house the soldiers, but to have to pay for provisions and barracks for the army. -
Stamp Act
This act taxed all papers and official documents on the colonists, but not in England, which mad the colonists protest by not paying the unfair tax. -
Declaratory Act
This act made the tax equal in Britain and in America. The British passed this act because of all the protest over the Stamp and Sugar Act. Unlike many of the other acts, the colonists weren't too upset about this one. -
Townshend Revenue Act
This act raised the tax of items like glass, tea, lead, and paint that were imported to the American colonies, which greatly upsetted them. Britain passed this act because they need money to pay off their debts from the war. -
Boston Massacre
A tragic event that took place in Boston where the colonists threw snowballs and taunted a soldier. This led to several British officials arriving and eventually shot several bullets into a crowd of colonists, killing five and wounding six. -
The Tea Act
This act gave all control over tea trade to East India and added more tax on them. This sparked one the biggest moments in history; The Boston Tea Party, in which large amounts of tea were thrown into the ocean. -
Boston Tea Party
This was a huge historical protest against the unfair tax on tea where the colonists threw crates of tea into the ocean to show Britain that they need a voice in government. -
The Intolerable Acts
All of these acts were passed as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. These acts included the Boston Port Act, which closed the port to the sea in Boston until all tea had been paid for, the Massachusetts Government Act, which gave the British-elected governor more power and the colonists less, the Murder Act, which gave huge protection to British officials, an expansion of the Quartering Act, and finally, the Quebec Act, which expanded British-Canadian territory. -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord
The British marched over to Lexington in hopes of taking away all of the colonists' weapons and ammunition. This was because the British wanted to prevent the colonists from attacking. These actions resulted in several shots being fired between the British and the colonists. -
Bunker Hill
This battle occurred because both the colonists and the British wanted control over the hills which gave great advantage in battle. The colonists first arrived and built a fort over night to fight the British. The colonists won the first two pushed by the British, but fell on the third attack. -
Declaration of Independence
This was a document written by Thomas Jefferson and was sent to the king detailing him about the colonists disliking of his unfair actions, as well as informing him of their new independence and destroyed their political relationship with Britain in order to form their own government as society. -
Battle of Trenton
This battle was led by George Washington and took place in Long island where hundreds of British soldiers were imprisoned. The purpose for this battle was for the Americans to stun the British and take their supplies. -
The Battles of Saratoga
These were a collection of battles between the Americans and the British. The British hoped to close all off New England off from the Americans. The Americans won which gave them needed confidence as well as foreign allies such as France and Spain. -
Valley Forge
This was not a battle, but was a military encampment set by the Americans that went wildly wrong, leaving many soldiers without food and disease. -
Battle of Yorktown
This battle, led by George Washington, lasted three weeks that was between the Americans and the British for a harbor in Yorktown. The Americans won the battle and secured their harbor. -
Treaty of Paris
These were a collection of articles that gave peace to the Americans and ended the war with the British. -
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Westward Expansion
Westward Expansion was a huge event in U.S. history in which thousands of people traveled west to inhabit the new states and start a new life. However, Nationalism and Sectionalism played a large part because the people argued and debated over whether or not the new states should be free or slave states. These arguments resulted in many compromises in order to satisfy both the North and South's demands. -
3/5 Compromise
Sectionalism caused a large debate over if slaves should count toward the total population of a state or not. Having a larger population meant you could have more representatives and more votes. Slave states wanted more representatives and thought slaves should be counted, but the North thought it was unfair that slave states had more votes. So, the 3/5 compromise was made in which for every 5 slaves, only 3 would be counted for the total population. This was done for the good of the Nation. -
Whisky Rebellion
This was a large protest over the tax on whisky or alcohol products on the people. The people held violent protests against this and even burned downs houses and killed soldiers. -
States Rights (10th Ammendment)
During Westward Expansion when the people were inhabiting the new states they wanted to make their own laws and not follow something like they had followed with King George. So, the tenth amendment was written. This states that the powers not given to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This was done for the good of the Nation, allowing the people to create rules separate form the government. -
XYZ Affair
The French were attacking American ships over and over again, so Americans traveled to France in order to make peace with them. Instead, France wanted a bribe, which offended the Americans. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
This was a collection of laws that were passed after the XYZ Affair. These laws raised the residency requirements for citizenship from 5 to 14 years, authorized the President to deport aliens and permitted their arrest, imprisonment, and deportation during wartime. -
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
This was an event that declared the Alien and Sedition Acts unconstitutional, as it overstepped federal authority. -
Embargo Act
This was an act that prohibited U.S. exports and closed imports from Britain. -
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The Underground Railroad
This was a huge effort led by both whites and free blacks in order to help thousands of enslaved people escape to freedom in the North, where slavery was illegal. This wasn't underground or was there a railroad, but instead were runways from slaveholding states to freedom. This was one of the direct causes of the Civil War, as it heavily divided the North and South. The South fought and fought against the North where the escaped slaves were fleeing to. -
War of 1812
This was a war between the United States and Great Britain. This war was fought because Britain kept attacking U.S. ships and taking their sailors. The U.S. declared war after these events kept happening. -
McCulloch vs. Maryland
This was an argument that hosted two point of views on the creation of banks. Maryland's argument stated that the constitution did not say that banks could be built, and therefore shouldn't. While McCulloch argues that we need banks to keep track of all the money in the world. -
Compromise of 1820 (Missouri Compromise)
The state of Missouri was admitted as a slave state. Congress had been focusing on the nation as a whole and made it so there was an equal amount of slave states and free states. This was to keep a balance that made both the North and South happy. However, with Missouri now being added as a slave state, the balance would be broken, and the North would't like that. In order to solve this issue, Congress passed the Compromise of 1820, in which Missouri was a slave state and Maine was a free state. -
Monroe Doctrine
This declared that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open to European colonization and that the U.S. would view any attempt by European powers to interfere with the Americas as hostile against the U.S. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner was an enslaved man who led a rebellion of enslaved people which let off a massacre of up to 200 black people and a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of enslaved people. The rebellion also stiffened pro-slavery, anti-abolitionist convictions that persisted until the American Civil War -
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist who escaped slavery when she was 27 years old and since then has helped dozens of people escape slavery to freedom. She became a conductor of the Underground Railroad and led 13 missions to recuse more people. Her first rescue mission was in December of 1850. Her efforts angered the South and divided both the North and South even more as more and more enslaved people escaped. -
Compromise of 1850
This large compromise that really represents how sectionalism had made the North and South want many different things in order to satisfy their section. There was five main points in this Compromise. First was making California a free state. Next was giving Texas 10 million dollars to pay their debt and end border dispute with New Mexico. Third was making UT and NM vote on whether the state was free. Next a fugitive slave law was passed and finally, buying and selling slaves was banned in D.C. -
Dred Scott Decision
An enslaved man who had previously lived in the South where slavery was allowed, had moved with his owner to the free North states. He sued for his freedom because he couldn't be a slave in the North because those states were free, but the court ruled against eventually. If the world wasn't divided by Sectionalism and there was only slave states or only free states this decision wouldn't have had to be made. -
John Brown
John Brown was an abolitionist who had helped enslaved people escape to Canada, as well as killed a slave owner. He led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859 in hopes to start a slave rebellion. His actions divided the nation even more because he caused the North and South to be enemies, as John Brown had killed a slave owner and led many slaves to freedom away from the South, which was a leading factor to the Civil War. He died on December 2, 1859. -
Emancipation Proclamation
During the third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln passed this proclamation that freed all slaves in the United States. The President had thought this was important and promoted Nationalism because it was done for the good of the nation. However, this didn't end slavery as this only applied to states that have seceded from the Union and didn't affect the loyal, border states.