-
French and Indian War
Conflict between British and french colonies that lasted 7 years -
Proclomation of 1763
This closed off colonial expansion. The british wanted colonist to stay where they were. -
The Quatering Act
Required the colonies to provide barracks and supplies to British troops. -
Stamp Act
The Act was created to help cover the cost of maintaining troops in the colonies. "No taxation without representation." -
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act was a gesture of British Parliament reasserting its authority to pass taxes and laws on the colonies, even though they lacked any representation. -
Townshend Act
These laws placed new taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. Britain eventually repealed all the taxes except the one on tea. -
Boston Massacre
The killing of five colonists by British regulars. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act was an attempt by the British to regain control of the tea trade in America and to rescue the British East India Company. However, after the Townshend Acts of 1767 many colonists boycotted the tea, and chose to smuggle it in from Dutch companies. This hurt the British as they still had 18 million pounds of unsold tea that they were contractually obligated to sell. -
Boston Tea Party
Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than ever before. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a howl erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war chants, the crowd marched to the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into thr harbor -
Intolerable Act
The government spent immense sums of money on troops and equipment in an attempt to subjugate Massachusetts. British merchants had lost huge sums of money on looted, spoiled, and destroyed goods shipped to the colonies. On March 5, 1770, Parliament repealed the duties, except for the one on tea. -
First Continental Congress
All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates. These were elected by the people, by the colonial legislatures, or by the committees of correspondence of the respective colonies. The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain, but their aims were not uniform at all. Pennsylvania and New York sent delegates with firm instructions to seek a resolution with England. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America. -
Second Continental Congress
Delegates from the thirteen colonies (except Georgia) that started meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun -
Battle of Bunker Hill
Took place mostely on and around Breed's Hill during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after the adjacent Bunker Hill, which was peripherally involved in the battle and was the original objective of both colonial and British troops. -
Common Sense
Common Sense challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. -
The Sugar Act
Required to pay a tax of six pence per gallon on the importation of foreign molasses. -
Declaration of Independence
A statement adopted by the Continental Congress , which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they now formed a new nation--the United States of America. -
Battle of Saratoga
Conclusively decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the American War of Independence and are generally regarded as a turning point in the war. The battles were fought eighteen days apart on the same ground, 9 miles south of Saratoga, New York. -
Battle of Yorktown
Last major land battle in North America of the American Revolutionary War. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other
