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The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was an event that brought about major changes in the relationship that North America had with its sister countries. This event brought forth a freedom of religion and openness to express new ideas and opinions. -
The French and Indian War
"Englishman, our father, the King of France, employed our young men to make war upon your nation. In this warfare many of them have been killed, and it is our custom to retaliate until such time as the spirits of the slain are satisfied" [1]. During this war, native Americans sided with the French, with whom they had better trading relations, and who were not as aggressive as the British in taking Native lands.
(Primary) source: Minavavana, addressing trader Alexander Henry, 1761 -
The American Revolution
America fought for its independence in this long struggle. It started in 1775 when King Gorge III refused to grant America colonists economic and political reform. The colonists revolted because of this, and the events that followed saw the country go into more than five years of war, fighting for their independence. -
The Declaration of Independence 1776
"when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security" [2]. This document contained the colonists’ motivations for fighting for independence.
Primary source: Declaration of Independence, 1776 -
The Treaty of Paris
"There shall be a firm and perpetual Peace between his Britanic Majesty and the said States, and between the Subjects of the one and the Citizens of the other, wherefore all Hostilities both by Sea and Land shall from henceforth cease" [3]. The treaty of Paris signed in Paris between the United States and Great Britain, helped in ending the revolutionary war.
Primary source: Preliminary Peace Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, 1782. -
Congress Officially Creates the U.S. Military
Before 1789, there was a colonial army, which fought the British in the American Revolution. Therefore, the first representatives and senators needed to make a decision to establish the U.S military army.
