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Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were laws imposed by England’s Parliament to regulate English ships and restrict trade with other nations. This raised taxes, which enraged the colonists and was a significant event leading up to the American Revolution. -
French and Indian War ends
The British defeated the French and Native Americans. The British took possession of France’s territories in mainland North America. The signing of The Treaty of Paris of 1763 officially ended the French and Indian War. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The act imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies. The colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional, which led to mob violence. -
Boston Massacre
Street fight that occurred between a Patriot mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and British soldiers. Several colonists were killed. This roused the colonists to fight for independence. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act of 1773 was one of the measures imposed on the American colonists by the British government. The act granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. American colonists were frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation”, and this ultimately caused the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
Colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dressed as Indians and threw tea into the Boston Harbor. This fueled tension between Britain and America. -
Coercive/Intolerable Acts
Four measures enacted by the British Parliament in retaliation for acts of colonial defiance. Took away self-governance and rights. This triggered outrage in the Thirteen Colonies. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was comprised of delegates from the colonies. They organized colonial resistance to Parliament's Coercive Acts. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The battles of Lexington and Concord were started by “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”. These battles started the American Revolution. The British were forced to March back to Boston, which caused many Americans to join the war. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met soon after the American Revolutionary War had begun. They managed the colonial war, and moved towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence. They also established the Continental Army. -
Declaration of Independence adopted
American colonies severed their connections to Great Britain. By declaring themselves an independent nation, the American colonists were able to confirm an official alliance with the Government of France. -
Battle of Saratoga
Americans ambush British forces in battle. This victory convinces France and Spain to support the Americans. -
Winter at Valley Forge
Hundreds of soldiers died from disease, hunger, and coldness. Here, the Continental Army emerged under Washington’s leadership as a cohesive fighting force that was able to defeat the British. -
Battle of Yorktown
At The Battle of Yorktown, the Americans and French trapped a British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced them to surrender. The battle essentially ended military operations in the American Revolution. -
U.S. Constitution Written
The Constitution was written by delegates to a Constitutional Convention that was called to amend the Articles of Confederation. It later became the fundamental law of the U.S. federal system of government. -
U.S. Constitution adopted
The Constitution became the official framework of the government of the United States of America when New Hampshire ratified it. It established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens.