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Navigation Acts
- Enforcement of the acts was hard because they had 3,000 miles of ocean so smuggling was easy, and bribery was a big thing too. Many Americans fortunes came from smuggling before the Revolution. Wouldn’t let goods be transported in anything other than English Ships.
- This effected the colonists because they couldn’t send goods to any place but England.
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The French and Indian War Ends
- France lost all claims to Canada, gave Louisiana to Spain.
- Strengthened the 13 American colonies by removing European rivals, France later joins the American Revolution on the side of the Patriots because of what they lost in the French and Indian War.
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Stamp Act
- Was the first internal tax directed towards American colonists by British Parliament. This act put a tax on all paper documents in the colonies. And passed it to help British get back some money that they used for the Seven Years’ War.
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Boston Massacre
- Started street brawl between American Colonists and one British Soldier, but quickly turned bloody.
- Helped pave way for the Revolution.
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Tea Act
- Was imposed so that the East India Company could ship tea directly to the colonies.
- Caused the Boston Tea Party
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Boston Tea Party
- Occurred after the Tea Act was imposed. The Sons of Liberty, disguised as Native Americans, boarded a docked ship and threw chests of tea overboard into the Boston Harbor.
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Coercive/Intolerable Acts
- British Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish Boston for the Boston Tea Party, but impacted colonists far outside Boston.
- Marked a major turning point in the conflict between the British government and Colonists.
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First Continental Congress
- Delegates from each of the Colonies, except Georgia, met at Carpenter’s Hall to organize colonial resistance to the Intolerable/Coercive Acts.
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Battles of Lexington and Concord
- Kicked of the American Revolutionary War
- On the day before hundreds of British troops marched to Concord to seize an arms cache, British troops retreated under intense fire.
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Second Continental Congress
- Congress reconvened, and by then the American Revolution had begun, so the colonists would cease to export goods to Britain.
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Declaration of Independence Adopted
- The Continental Congress met in June but was postponed and they reconvened on July 1st, to go over the Declaration.
- On the morning of July 4th the congress revised parts of the Declaration and adopted it later that day.
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Battle of Saratoga
- Was a major victory for the Continental Army and was major turning point in the Revolution. The battle also helped to persuade the French and others to help the colonists in the Revolution.
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Winter at Valley Forge
- The suffering at Valley Forge was as usual in those conditions, but many soldiers lacking the proper clothing, which left them unfit to serve and fight. Some even didn’t have shoes.
- At Valley Forge there was a lack of organization, food and money shortages plagued the Continental Army through the first half of the Seven year long revolution.
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Battle of Yorktown
- The outcome in Yorktown marked the end of the last major battle of the American Revolution and the start of a new nation’s independence.
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U.S. Constitution Written
- Delegates from every state except Rhode Island meet at Independence Hall and wrote up a new scheme of government.
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U.S. Constitution Adopted
- 39 of 55 delegates signed the Constitution, and devised a plan for a strong federal government with three branches and made sure that one branch didn’t have more power then the others.