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french and indian war
From the start the French colony in North America,
called New France, differed from the British colonies. Typical French colonists
were young, single men who engaged in the fur trade and Catholic priests who
sought to convert Native Americans. The French were more interested in exploiting
their territories than in settling them. However, they usually enjoyed better
relations with Native Americans, in part because they needed the local people as
partners in the fur trade. In fact, several militar -
The Stamp Act
In March 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This act
imposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. The colonists unified to deny this law. The colonies assemblies declared that Parliment lacked the power to imposes taxes on the colonies. -
Townshend Act
Britain taxes certain colonial imports and stations troops at major colonial ports to protect customs officer. The Colonists protest “taxation without representation” and organize a new boycott of imported goods. -
Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killed or mortally wounded. Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation as the Boston Massacre. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party In 1773, Lord North devised the Tea Act in order to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company. The act granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. This action would have cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to consumers for less. -
The Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts an infuriated King George III pressed Parliament to act. In 1774, Parliament responded by passing a series of measures that colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. In addition to these measures, General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, was appointed the
new governor of Massachusetts. -
First Contenental Congress Meet
In September 1774, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They defended the colonies’ right to run their own affairs and stated that, if the British used force against the colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
Midnight Riders
Colonists in Boston were watching, and on the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. The darkened countryside rang with church bells and gunshots prearranged signals, sent from town to town, that the British were coming. -
Minutemen
Civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute's notice, and quietly stockpiled firearms and gunpower. -
Battle of Concord
The British marched on to Concord, where they found an empty arsenal. After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees. British soldiers fell by the dozen. Bloodied and humiliated, the remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston that night. -
Second Continential Congress
Colonial leaders called the Second Continential Congress in Philidelphia to debate their next move. The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the Second Continential Congress. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill, north of the city and near Bunker Hill. On June 17, 1775, Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. The colonists held their fire until the last minute and then began to mow down the advancing redcoats before finally retreating. By the time the smoke cleared, the colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove to be the deadliest battle -
Olive Branch Petition
By July, the Second Continental Congress was readying the colonies for war though still hoping for peace. Most of the delegates, like most colonists, felt deep loyalty to George III and blamed the bloodshed on the king’s ministers. On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies. -
John Locke Social Petition
Locke maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, every society is based on a social contract an agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. If the government violates that social contract by taking away or interfering with those rights, people have the right to resist and even overthrow the government. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists are those who opposed independence
and remained loyal to the British king included judges and governors, as well as people of more modest means. Many Loyalists thought that the British were going to win and wanted to avoid punishment as rebels. Patriots were the supporters of independence drew their numbers from people
who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America. Many Americans remained neutral. -
Common Sense
Just as important were the ideas of Thomas Paine. In a widely read 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense, Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine, a recent immigrant, argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain.” Paine explained that his own revolt against the king had begun with Lexington and Concord. -
Declaration of Independence
By the early summer of 1776, the wavering Continental Congress finally decided to urge each colony to form its own government. On June 7, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee moved that “these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent States.” While talks on this fateful motion were under way, the Congress appointed a committee to prepare a formal Declaration of Independence. Virginia lawyer
Thomas Jefferson was chosen to prepare the final draft. -
Saratoga
The surrender at Saratoga turned out to be one of the most important events of the war. Although the French had secretly aided the Patriots since early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the Americans could win the war. As a result, the French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight. -
Redcoats cross the Deleware river into Pennsylvania
Although the Continental Army attempted to defend New York in late August, the untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated. By late fall, the British had pushed Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Desperate for an early victory, Washington risked everything on one bold stroke set for Christmas night, 1776. In the face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. -
Washington's Night Suprise
Desperate for an early victory, Washington risked everything on one bold stroke set for Christmas night, 1776. In the face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They then marched to their objective Trenton, New Jersey and defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and in September of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia. -
Valley Forge
While this hopeful turn of events took place in Paris,
Washington and his Continental Army desperately low on
food and supplies fought to stay alive at winter camp in
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died,
yet the survivors didn’t desert. Their endurance and suffering
filled Washington’s letters to the Congress and his friends. -
Marquis de Lafayette and Friedrich von Steuben
American troops began an amazing transformation.
Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, helped to train the Continental Army. Other foreign military leaders, such as the Marquis de Lafayette also arrived to offer their help. Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. With the help of such European military leaders, the raw
Continental Army became an effective fighting -
British victories in the South
The British general, Charles Cornwallis, chose to move the fight to Virginia. He led his army of 7,500 onto the peninsula between the James and York rivers and camped at Yorktown. Cornwallis planned to fortify Yorktown, take Virginia, and then move north to join Clinton’s forces. -
British surrender a Yorktown
By late September, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. Less than a month later, on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis finally surrendered. The Americans had shocked the world and defeated the British. -
Treaty of paris
Cornwallis finally surrendered because the Americans had shocked the world and defeated the British in 1781. In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to
the Florida border.
