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In response to French attacks on the frontier, in 154 Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for uniting the colonies- The Albany Plan of Union. The colonies rejected the plan, however, because it gave too much power to an assembly made up of representatives from all thirteen colonies.
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George III became king in 1760. he had different ideas about how the colonies should be governed. When George III became king, he was determined to deal firmly with the American colonies. To help pay for the war, the king and his ministers levied taxes on tea, sugar, glass, paper, and other products.
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The French and Indian War started as a struggle between the French and British over lands in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. By 1756, several other European countries became involved. Great Britain won the war in 1763 and gained complete control of the Eastern third of the continent.
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The Stamp Act pf 1765 imposed the first direct tax on the colonists. It required them to pay a tax on legal documents, pamphlets, newspapers, and even dice and playing cards.
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In 1765 nine colonies sent delegates to a meeting in New York called the Stamp Act Congress. This was the first meeting organized by the colonies to protest King George's actions.
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Coercive Acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One of these acts closed Boston Harbor. Another Coercive Acts withdrew the right of the Massachusetts colony to govern itself.
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A group of colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor. This protest became known as the Boston Tea Party. In retaliation Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts.
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By 1773, organizations called committees of correspondence were urging resistance to the British. These committees consisted of colonists who wanted to keep in touch with one another as events unfolded. Samuel Adams established the first committee in Boston.
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Delegates from all the colonies except Georgia met in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, for the First Continental Congress.
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Within three weeks, delegates from all thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. The Continental Congress immediately assumed the powers of a central government.
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The first blow fell early on the morning of April 19, 1775. British Redcoats clashed with colonial minuteman at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. This skirmish was the first battle of the Revolutionary War.
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In June 1776, more than a year after fighting had begun in the colonies, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia did declare independence. Lee introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress "that these Untied Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."
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On July 4, the Congress approved the final draft. John Hancock, the president of the Congress, was the first to sign the document, which eventually held the signatures of all 56 delegates. It explained the reasons for declaring independence. Its actual title was " The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America".
