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French Indian War
Britain defeats the French and gains all the land east of the Mississippi River. -
Stamp Act
Britain’s first effort at repaying the war debt from the French Indian War. The Stamp Act put a tax on all printed goods, which colonists weren’t too happy about. -
The Boston Tea Party
Colonists raided a boat carrying tea and threw all the boxes into the Boston Harbor in retaliation to the newly implemented taxes (in this case being the Tea Act). -
Intolerable Acts
These were a series of laws instated as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. They included closing the Boston Harbor, replacing all local government officials, allowing British officials charged with a capital offense to be tried in another colony or in England, and The Quartering Act. -
First Continental Congress
Delegates from the 12 of the 13 colonies met in Philadelphia to organize resistance against the British parliament’s Coercive Acts (AKA the Intolerable Acts) -
Lexington and Concord
The first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fought here, sending the revolution into full swing. -
Second Continental Congress
When the British government failed to amend the grievances presented to them, and with the now present military threat, the second continental congress was formed by, again, delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies to decide what to do. This resulted in the creation of the Continental Army -
The Olive Branch Petition
This was a document created by the second continental congress in order to try to avoid a war with Great Britain -
Declaration of Independence
The final draft of the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, 1776. Written by Thomas Jefferson, it declared America’s Independence from Great Britain. -
Saratoga
The battles of Saratoga that lasted from September 19 until October 17, 1777 marked a turning point in the American Revolution. The colonists’ victory gave them a major step up, and it was when the French decided to lend their support to the revolutionaries. -
Yorktown
Lasting from September 28 until October 19, 1781, the last battle of the American Revolution occurred in Yorktown, Virginia, where George Washington and the French army trapped the British and forced them to surrender, which ended the American Revolution. -
Treaty of Paris
In 1783, the revolution officially came to an end when representatives of King George III and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris. This made America officially independent.
“His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States” (ToP, A1) -
Constitution
After the war ended, the newly sovereign USA had to establish a government, so a convention in Philadelphia formed on May 25 and ended in on September 17 of the same year, 1787. The Constitution outlined the new government. -
The Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers, published in 1788, were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay in order to rally support for the Constitution. -
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights were a series of 10 amendments added to the Constitution explicitly outlining the natural rights of the American people. They first started being created on September 25, 1789, but all ten were ratified on December 15, 1791.
