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French and Indian War
During the 17th and 18th centuries, France and Britain had wars in Europe that eventually spread to oversea colonies. It reignited in 1754. The war started because the French built a fort on a British-claimed area between Pennsylvania and Virginia. -
Writ of Assistance
In 1761, the use of writs of assistance were authorized by the Massachusetts governor. These were general search warrants that allowed British officials to search colonial ships/buildings that they believed to be holding smuggled goods. The British could also enter and search homes whether or not there was evidence of smuggling or not. Merchants were outraged. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
The French and Indian War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. As a result, Great Britain claimed Canada and virtually all of North America east of the Mississippi River. Britain would also take Florida from Spain, which was an ally with France. France remained in control of only a few islands and small colonies near Newfoundland. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was made by the British to avoid more conflicts with the Native Americans. The Proclamation made a line along the Appalachian Mountains that colonists were not allowed to cross. However, the colonists would move across the line from the crowded Atlantic seaboard. -
Stamp Act & Colonists' Response
Parliament passed a tax on documents and printed items (wills, newspapers, playing cards, etc). A stamp would be placed on the items to prove that the tax had been paid. It was the first tax that affected colonists directly. Previous taxes had been indirect, involving duties on imports. -
Sugar Act & Colonists' Response
The Sugar Act halved the duty on foreign-made molasses so that colonists would pay lower taxes rather than risk arrest by smuggling. It taxed on certain imports that had not been taxed before. It provided that colonists accused of violating the act would be tried by a single judge rather than a court with a jury. Merchants and traders were most affected by the Sugar Act, and they complained because of their lower profits. -
Sons of Liberty is Formed & Samuel Adams
The colonists united to defy the law. They made a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty to protest the law. Samuel Adams was one of the founders and leaders of the SOL. -
Declaratory Act
On the same day Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, they passed the Declaratory Act which which asserted Parliament’s full right “to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever.” -
Townshend Acts & Colonists' Response
The Townshend Acts taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain like lead, glass, paint, and paper. They also made a taxed on tea--the most popular drink in the colonies. They were later repealed because they cost more to reinforce than what they were gaining as a result of reinforcing. So, the Townshend Acts were repealed except for the tax on tea. -
Boston Massacre
A mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired and 5 colonists were killed or mortally wounded. -
Tea Act
To save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company (BEIC), Lord North made the Tea Act. The BEIC could sell tea to colonies free of taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. As a result, colonial merchants lost money and were cut out of the tea trade. Lord North hoped the American colonists would simply buy the cheaper tea. But they protested dramatically -
Boston Tea Party
A large group of Boston rebels disguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action against 3 British tea ships. They dumped 18,000 pounds of the British East India Company's tea into the Boston harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
One act shut down the Boston harbor. Another (the Quartering Acts) allowed British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. General Thomas Gage, a chief of British forces, placed Boston under martial law (rule imposed by military forces). -
First Continental Congress
In response to the Intolerable Acts, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia to make the First Continental Congress. They made a declaration of colonial rights. One being that the colonies had a right to run their own affairs, and if the British used forced against the colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
Minutemen
After the First Continental Congress met, colonists in many eastern New England towns stepped up military prep. Minutemen--civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minutes's notice--stockpiled firearms and gunpowder. -
John Locke's Social Contract
Locke believed that people had natural rights to life, liberty, and property. He contended that every society is based on a social contract--people consent to choose and obey a government as long as it safeguards their natural rights. If the government violates that contract by taking away/interfering with those rights, people
rights had the right to resist and even overthrow the government. -
Midnight Riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
General Thomas Gage learned about the Minutemen stockpiling supplies and ordered troops to march to Concord to seize these weapons. Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Dawes rode out in the night to spread the word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. -
Battle of Lexington
The British "redcoats" ordered the minutemen they spotted 5 miles outside of Concord to lay their arms and leave, but someone fired, and the British soldiers fired at the departing militia. 8 minutemen were killed, 1 British was injured, and the Battle of Lexington--the first battle of the Revolutionary War--lasted only 15 minutes. -
Battle of Concord
When the British continued to march onto Concord, they found an empty arsenal. They had a brief skirmish with minutemen, and they lined back up to march to Boston, but the march became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled and fired back on the marching troops behind stone walls and trees. Colonists had become enemies of Britain at this point. -
Second Continental Congress
Colonial leaders assembled in Philadelphia to debate their second move against the British. There were some opposing sides: some delegates wanted to declare independence and others wanted to reconcile with Great Britain. -
Continental Army
As a result of the Second Continental Congress, the colonial militia became the Continental Army with George Washington as its commander. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
British general Thomas Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up Breed's Hill. The colonists held their fire until last minute and then began to mow down the advancing redcoats before finally retreating. The colonists lost 450 men, while the British suffered over 1,000 casualties. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove to be the deadliest battle of the war. -
Olive Branch Petition
The Second Continental Congress was readying the colonies for war though still hoping for peace. Most of the delegates and colonists felt a deep loyalty to George III and blamed the violence on the king's ministers. On July 8, Congress sent the king the Olive Branch Petition to return to former harmony between Britain and the colonies. It was rejected, and King George issued a proclamation that the colonies were in rebellion. He ordered a naval blockade. -
Loyalists and Patriots
When the war began, Americans found themselves on different sides of the conflict. LOYALISTS were those opposed independence and remained loyal to the king--judges, governors, and modest people. They wanted to avoid punishment and thought that the king would protect their rights more effectively than new colonial governments. PATRIOTS supported independence. People who saw political/economic opportunity in independence joined this side. -
Publication of Common Sense
Thomas wrote a widely read 50-page pamphlet that attacked King George and the monarchy. He declared that independence would allow America to trade more freely, become a better society without tyranny, with equal and economic opportunities for all. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson was chosen to prepare the final draft of the Declaration. Jefferson used Locke's ideas to the right of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to be “unalienable” rights. It was made sometime in June 1776. The delegates would vote unanimously on July 2, 1776 that the American colonies were free, and on July 4, 1776, they adopted the Declaration of Independence. The colonists had declared their freedom from Britain. -
Redcoats push Washington's army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
The British sailed into New York harbor with 32,000 soldiers including German mercenaries. 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. -
Washington's Christmas night surprise attack
Washington wanted a victory, so on Christmas night, 1776, 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 (German mercenaries) in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and in September of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia. -
Saratoga
General John Burgoyne planned to lead an army down from Canada to Albany, where he would meet British troops as they arrived from New York City. The two regiments would then join forces to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. However, this failed because Burgoyne didn't realize that his fellow British were preoccupied with holding Philadelphia and weren't coming to meet to him. Americans surrounded him in Saratoga where he surrendered. -
Valley Forge
Washington and his Continental Army were desperately low on food and supplies. They fought to stay alive at winter camp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died, but the survivors didn't desert. -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
During the winter of Valley Forge, American troops began a transformation. von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster helped train the Continental Army. The Marquis de Lafayette also arrived to offer help. He would lobby France for French reinforcements in 1779 and lead a command in Virginia in the last years of the war. -
French-American Alliance
Although the French supported the Patriots since early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered their belief that the Americans could win the war, so they signed an alliance, and France openly joined the American in their fight. -
British Victories in the South
1778: A British expedition took Savannah, Georgia.
1780: British generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles Town, South Carolina. -
British surrender at Yorktown
October 19, 1781: The British surrendered when 17,000 American and French troops surrounded them on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. The success of the Continental Army could be attributed to the French naval force defeating a British fleet and blocking the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and obstructing British routes to the sea. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris confirmed the United States' independence. It stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border.
