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The Constitutional Convention, also known as the Philadelphia Convention, was a meeting of delegates in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 25 to September 17, 1787, to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation -
The Olive Branch Petition was a final plea from the Second Continental Congress to King George III in 1775, attempting to avoid war with Britain by affirming loyalty to the crown and seeking a reconciliation with Parliament. -
The Second Continental Congress was the governing body of the American colonies from 1775 to 1781, -
The Intolerable Acts, known as the Coercive Acts in Britain, were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 to punish the American colony of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. -
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that took place on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts, where members of the Sons of Liberty, a revolutionary group, destroyed a shipment of tea belonging to the British East India Company. -
The Boston Massacre was a deadly confrontation on March 5, 1770, in Boston, Massachusetts, where British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonists, killing five people and wounding others. Tensions had been growing between colonists and British troops, who were stationed in Boston to enforce Parliament's unpopular taxes, particularly the Townshend Acts. The event fueled anti-British sentiment and became a rallying point for the American revolutionary cause. -
The Townshend Acts were a 1767 series of British parliamentary acts named after Charles Townshend, imposing taxes and duties on goods like glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea to pay for colonial administration and recoup war debt -
The Stamp Act was a 1765 British tax on the American colonies requiring a tax stamp on legal documents, newspapers, playing cards, and other paper goods to help pay for British troops after the French and Indian War -
aka 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. -
The term "Quartering Act" generally refers to one of two British laws passed in the 1760s and 1770s that required American colonists to provide housing, food, and supplies for British soldiers. While the 1765 act did not force soldiers into private homes -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, with the American militia successfully ambushing British regulars marching to seize colonial weapons and supplies. -
The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress, who were convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial city of Philadelphia. These delegates became known as the nation's Founding Fathers. -
The Articles of Confederation was the United States' first constitution, established between 1781 and 1789, creating a weak central government with most power residing in the individual states. -
Shays' Rebellion was a populist uprising by Massachusetts farmers, led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays, from 1786 to 1787, protesting high taxes and economic hardship after the American Revolution, -
The Annapolis Convention was a 1786 meeting of 12 delegates from five states that served as a precursor to the 1787 Constitutional Convention.