American Revolution

  • Navigation Acts

    Navigation Acts

    These acts along with subsequent trade laws prevented colonists from selling their most valuable products to any country except Britain.
  • French and Indian War

    French and Indian War

    War erupted on the North American continent between the English and the French. Britain emerged victorious in 1763.
  • Stamp Act

    Stamp Act

    According to this law, colonists had to pay a tax to have an official stamp put on wills, deeds, newspapers, and other printed material.
  • Boston Tea Party

    Boston Tea Party

    A group of colonists dumped a large load of British tea into the Boston Harbor to protest import tax.
  • First Continental Congress

    First Continental Congress

    Representatives from every colony except Georgia gathered in Philadelphia to form the First Continental Congress. This group protested the treatment of Boston.
  • Battle of Lexington

    Battle of Lexington

    On this date British soldiers and American militiamen shot gunfire in Lexington, Massachusetts which soon spread to nearby Concord.
  • Second Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence

    Second Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence

    The second continental congress voted to raise an army and organize for battle under the command of a Virginian named George Washington. The second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson.
  • French join the Americans

    French join the Americans

    Louis XVI of France had little sympathy for the ideals of the American Revolution, but he was eager to weaken France's rival, Britain.
  • Articles of Confederation

    Articles of Confederation

    These articles established the US as a republic, a government in which citizens rule through elected representatives.
  • Constitutional Convention

    Constitutional Convention

    Congress approved a Constitutional Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation.