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Ending the French and Indian War. France had to leave and give up all of their North American land except New Orleans, in order to retain her Caribbean sugar islands. Britain gained all territory east of the Mississippi River; Spain kept territory west of the Mississippi, but exchanged East and West Florida for Cuba.
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King George III prohibited all settlement west of the Appalachian mountains because he didn't want to pay anymore money to defend the colonies. This offended the colonists who felt entitled to move west.
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The first attempt to finance the defense of the colonies by the British Government. In order to stop smuggling and to encourage the production of British rum, taxes on molasses were dropped; a tax was placed on foreign Madeira wine and colonial exports of iron, lumber and other goods had to pass first through Britain and British customs.
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Parliament taxed all legal documents, newspapers and pamphlets required to use watermarked, or 'stamped' paper.
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Colonial assemblies required to pay for supplies to British troops.
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Representatives from nine of the thirteen colonies declare the Stamp Act unconstitutional as it was a tax produced without their consent.
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The British repealed the Stamp Tax, but declares the right to tax colonists.
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Duties on tea, glass, lead, paper and paint to help pay for the administration of the colonies, named after Charles Townshend.
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Colonists threw snowballs and bricks and rocks at British soldiers and they threatened to shoot and there was a fire down the street. Someone yelled "fire" and the British opened fire killing 5 people.
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The Townshend Act is repealed by Parliament.
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The revenue schooner Gaspee ran aground near Providence, Rhode Island and was burnt by locals angered by the enforcement of trade legislation.
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Parliament exempted the East India Company tea from import duties and allowed the Company to sell its tea directly to the colonies. Americans resented what they saw as an indirect tax.
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The Sons and Daughters of Liberty dressed up as Indians and boarded a British ship full of tea and dumped all the tea into Boston Harbor.
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Four laws which stripped Massachusetts of self-government and judicial independence following the Boston Tea Party. The colonies responded with a general boycott of British goods.
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The colonial delegates meet up to figure out how they will oppose the Intolerable Acts. They decided on boycotting British goods and created the Declaration of Rights.
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First battle of the Revolutionary War between British troops and the Minutemen, who had been warned of the attack by Paul Revere.
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The first major battle of the American Revolution. Sir William Howe dislodged William Prescott's forces overlooking Boston at a cost of 1054 British deaths and 367 American deaths.
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Congress proposes a proposal asking for recognition of American rights, the ending of the Intolerable Acts in exchange for a cease fire. George III rejected the proposal and declared the colonies to be in open rebellion.
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Thomas Paine publishes a pamphlet called Common Sense anonymously in Pennsylvania.
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The Continental Congress gathered and they drafted, signed, and sent the Declaration of Independence to the king of England.
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George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day 1776 and won two crucial battles of the American Revolution.
