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French-Indian War (1756-1763)
The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution. -
Navigation Acts (1763)
The Navigation Acts, while enriching Britain, caused resentment in the colonies and contributed to the American Revolution. The Navigation Acts required all of a colony's imports to be either bought from Britain or resold by British merchants in Britain, regardless of the price obtainable elsewhere. -
Stamp Act
The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. It was a direct tax imposed by the British government without the approval of the colonial legislatures and was payable in hard-to-obtain British sterling, rather than colonial currency. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act stated that Great Britain would house its soldiers in American barracks and public houses. And if the soldiers outnumbered colonial housing, they would be quartered in inns, alehouses, barns, other buildings, etc. -
Townshend Acts
initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea -
Boston Massacre
seven British soldiers fired into a crowd of volatile Bostonians, killing five, wounding another six, and angering an entire colony -
Common Sense
made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it. -
Boston Tea Party
This political and mercantile protest was one of the key events in the lead up to the American Revolutionary War and, ultimately, American independence. -
Intolerable Acts (aka Coercive Acts)
They were designed to ban town meetings in Massachusetts, increase British control over the colonies, and punish previous acts of rebellion by the colonists -
Olive Branch Petition
The Petition emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
marked the start of the American War of Independence -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War, which established American independence from the British Empire. -
Declaration of Independence
God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -
Articles of Confederation
created a sovereign, national government, and, as such, limited the rights of the states to conduct their own diplomacy and foreign policy. -
Daniel Shays’ Rebellion
A violent insurrection in the Massachusetts countryside during 1786 and 1787, -
Constitutional Convention (aka Philadelphia Convention)
met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation.