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American Revolution

  • Salutary neglect

    Salutary neglect

    "hands off approach by Great Britain; British policy of loosely enforcing laws and regulations in the American colonies, allowing them to govern themselves.
  • Stamp Act

    Stamp Act

    British parliamentary law that imposed a tax on all printed materials in the American colonies, including newspapers, legal documents, pamphlets, and playing cards
  • French-Indian War

    French-Indian War

    aka the 7 Years' War, between France and England. In the colonies, it was called the French Indian War because the colonists fought with British soldiers against France the Indians who were on side of France. Because of the war, England had a massive war debt began to tax the people in the 13 colonies.
  • Townshend Acts

    Townshend Acts

    a series of parliamentary laws passed in 1767 by the British Parliament, named for Charles Townshend, to raise revenue from the American colonies by taxing imports of goods like tea, glass, lead, paint, and paper
  • Boston Massacre

    Boston Massacre

    was a deadly confrontation that took place on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of American colonists in Boston, killing five people.
  • Boston Tea Party

    Boston Tea Party

    a political demonstration on December 16, 1773, where American colonists, disguised as Native Americans, boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea overboard
  • "Common Sense"

    "Common Sense"

    a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.
  • Declaration of Independence

    Declaration of Independence

    the founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which formally declared the thirteen American colonies' separation from Great Britain
  • Battle of Lexington & Concord

    Battle of Lexington & Concord

    marked the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War
  • Quartering Act

    Quartering Act

    British parliamentary measures, particularly the Act of 1765 and the 1774 revision, that required American colonial governments to provide housing, supplies, and transportation for British soldiers stationed in the colonies
  • Intolerable Acts

    Intolerable Acts

    a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party
  • Second Continental Congress

    Second Continental Congress

    a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that functioned as the de facto national government from May 1775 to March 1781, overseeing the war effort against Great Britain during the American Revolution
  • Olive Branch Petition

    Olive Branch Petition

    a final, last-ditch appeal by the Second Continental Congress to King George III in July 1775, seeking a peaceful reconciliation with Great Britain despite the ongoing American Revolutionary War
  • Articles of Confederation

    Articles of Confederation

    the first governing document of the United States, establishing a "league of friendship" between the states with a weak central government and a single-house Congress
  • Annapolis Convention

    Annapolis Convention

    a 1786 meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, of delegates from five states (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia) to discuss regulating interstate trade under the weak Articles of Confederation
  • Constitutional Convention

    Constitutional Convention

    a meeting of delegates to either draft a new constitution or revise an existing one
  • Daniel Shays’ Rebellion

    Daniel Shays’ Rebellion

    an armed uprising by debt-ridden farmers and Revolutionary War veterans in western Massachusetts from 1786 to 1787, led by Daniel Shays