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In response to french attacks on the frontier, in 1754 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 11760. He had different ideas about how the colonies should be governed.
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the french and Indian war began 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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the stamp act of 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. parliament also passed laws regulating colonial trade in ways that benefited Great Britain but not the colonies.
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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. 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 mohawk indians, dumped 342 chests of British Tea into Boston Harbor. This protest became known as the Boston Tea Party.
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By 1773 organizations called committees os corespondence were urging resistance to the British. These committees consisted of colonists that wanted to keep in touch with one another as events unfolded.
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Delegates from all the colonies except Georgia met in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, for the first continental congress. The delegates debated what to do about the relationship with Great Britain. They finally imposed an embargo, an agreement prohibiting trade, on Britain and agreed not to use British goods. They also proposed a meeting the following year if Britain did not change its policies.
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In retaliation, parliament passed the coercive acts, which the colonists called the intolerable acts. one of these acts closed Boston Harbor. another of the coercive acts withdrew the right of the Massachusetts colony to govern itself.
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the first blow fell early on the morning of April 19, 1775. British redcoats clashed with colonial minutemen at Lexington and Concord in MA. This skirmish was the first battle of the revolutionary war.
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within three weeks, delegates from all 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia for the second continental congress. It immediately assumed the powers of a central government. It chose John Hancock as President, organized an army and navy, issued money and appointed George Washington as commander of the continental army. the SCC served as the acting government of the colonies throughout the 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 United colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states.
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The congress approved lees resolution of July 2, 1776. the colonies finally broke from Britain. the congress then turned its attention to Jefferson's draft. After considerable debate, a few passages were removed and some editorial changes were made. ON July 4, the congress approved the final draft. It explained the reasons for declaring independence. its actual title was "the unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America."
