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In response to to French attacks on the frontier, Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for uniting the colonies- Albany Plan of Union. The colonies rejected this plan because it gave too much power to an assembly made up of representatives from all 13 colonies.
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The French and Indian war started as a struggle between the French and the 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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King George III had different ideas about how the colonies should be governed.
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The Stamp Act was the first direct tax imposed 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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This was the first meeting organized by the colonies to protest King George's actions. Delegates to the Congress sent a petition to the King, arguing that only colonial legislatures could impose direct taxes such as the Stamp Act.
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A group of colonists, dressed as Indians, dumped 342 chests of British tea into the Boston Harbor.
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Otherwise known as the Intolerable Acts, they closed the Boston Harbor, and withdrew the right of the Massachusetts colony to govern itself.
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These committees were urging resistence to the British. They were made up of colonists who wanted to keep in touch with eachother as events unfolded.Sam Adams created the first in Boston, and the idea spread quickly and within a few months there was more than 80 committees.
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A meeting for all the colonies, except Georgia, met in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. The delegates debated what to do with the relationship with Great Britain. They imposed an embargo on Britain and agreed not to use British goods. They also proposed a meeting the following year if Britain didn't change its policies.
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The Continental Congress assumed the powers of a central government. John Hancock was chosen as President,the next critical steps were to organize an army and navy, to issue money, to appoint George Washington as commander of Continental Army. Although the Second Continental Congress had no power, it served as acting government of the colonies throughout the war.
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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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After more than a year of fighting begun in the colonies, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declared independence. Lee introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress, "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."
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After Lee's resolution, the Congress named a committee of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman to prepare a written decleration of independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the draft. On June 28 the committee submitted the edited draft to Congress. On July 2, 1776, Congress approved of Lee's resolution, the colonies were officially broke with Great Britain. Then they turned attention to Jefferson's draft, after some editing they approved on July 4th. c
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John Hancock, was the first to sign the decleration which eventually held all 56 delegates' signatures, and it explained the reasons for declaring independence.
