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THe French and Indian War
THe French and Indian war was fought between the English and the French over the land in the Ohio River valley due to both colonial empires expanding. Eventually, the british won the war and took possession of all of the land the french previously owned in the Americas. THis war showed that american colonists could unite against a common enenmy if need be and that they didn't like the british to meddle in their affairs as the parliament knew nothing about the lives of the colonists. -
Proclmation of 1763
THis prohibited settlement in the area west the Appalachians due to cost of military efforts in the French and Indian War. It was not designed to oppress colonists, but to protect them from the natives but the colonist viewed it as meddling in their affairs by the British -
The Stamp Act
To raise revenues to support the new military force, the Act mandated the use of stamped paper or affixing of stamps, certifying payment of tax which placed a tax on them. However, Stamps were required on bills of sale for about fifty trade items as well as on certain types of commercial and legal documents,THis came at a time of recession and greatly angered the colonists who had not had their opinon about the act heard by palriament before it was passed. -
The Quartering Act
The Quartering Act of 1765 ordered that colonists were to hause and feed British soldiers under any circumstances and give them all the food and board that they require without question. -
The Boston Massacre
Colonists and British soldiers exchanged harsh words and the colonists threw snowballs and rocks at the british soliders in Boston on the fifth day of March in 1770. As the crowd gre larger, the british soldiers feared for their life and fired into the crowd.. As shots were fired, five colonists were killed. THis caused tensions to rise sharply between the colonists and the crown as they felt that innocent civialians had been brutally murdered by governemnt soliders and that they should be execu -
The Boston Tea Party
In protest to the Tea Act, 50 colonists dressed up at Mohawk Indians, boarded British tea ships and threw 90,000 pounds of tea over board and into the Boston Harbor as a result of what they felt was monopolisstic behavior by the Brtish crown. This caused almost full out hostilities in the colonies because in response, the ritish passed a set of acts known as the intolerable acts. -
The Intolerable Acts
THese acts were Britain's repsonse to the Boston Tea Party. It shut down Boston Harbor until the colonists paid for the dumped tea, cancelled Massachusett's charter, sent the British troops tried for the Boston Massacre back to Britain for a new trial, forced colonists to quarter British troops and named General Thomas Gage the govenor of Massachusetts, effectively reducing any impact town halll meetings could have had in the process leading to the revolutionary war. -
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First Continental Congress
The colonies were summoned in response to the “Intolerable Acts”.The delegates met in Philadelphia to consider ways of redressing colonial grievances It was attended by 12/13 colonies- as Georgia did not attend. This Was a consultative body as it was mainly jsut to adress the issues the colonists had. However, none of their complaints were ever heeded by the british and this drove them closer to independence. -
The Battles of Lexington and Concord
General Gage found out that the colonists were hiding weapons and gunpowder in Concord and organized a surprise attack to get the weapons back so that the colonists couldn't fight back should they want. However, the plan was leaked and Paul Revere and Williams Dawes spread the word to the colonists during their midnight ride. THe local militias confronted the britishat Lexington and Concord and once both battles concluded with a colonist victory, the British knew the revolutionary war had begun. -
2nd Continental Congress
THe goal of this congress was to move toward a clean break from england. All of the colonies were presnt and had multiple representatives involved in the decision making process of how to separate and what to put in placeof the colonial rule. Eventually,The declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was formally approved by the Congress on July 4, 1776 and ratified on that day. This formally declared America as independent.