-
End of French and Indian War
French and Indian War ended with the signing of the treaties of Hubertusburg and Paris in February 10, 1763. In the treaty of Paris, France lost all claims to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. -
Proclamation of 1763
King George iii issued a proclamation that forbade colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. In doing so, he hoped to placate the Native Americans who had sided against him during the recently concluded Seven Years' War. Enforcement was so weak, however, that it did very little to curb the westward flow of pioners. Even prominent figures such as George Washington paid it no heed, except as a source of anti-British sentiment leading up to the American Revolution. -
Grenville
George Grenville was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. He passed the Stamp Act, Quartering Act, Sugar Act, and put limits on Admiralty courts. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was enacted in order to help reduce the staggering national debt incurred during the French and Indian War and to help pay for the continued presence of British troops in the colonies to defend from any further attacks. -
Admiralty Courts
George Grenville wanted smugglers sent to vice admiralty courts. -
Colonial Resistance
In 1765 the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which placed a tax on newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets and broadsides, all kinds of legal documents, insurance policies, ship's papers, licenses, dice and playing cards. This led to widespread protest in the American colonies, and to the slogan, "No taxation without representation!" -
Boycotts
Boycotts were a form of resistance the colonists used against the British. The colonists stopped using British goods and resulted in the smuggling of goods, sucha as tea. -
Committees of correspondence
The Committees of Correspondence were the American colonies’ means for maintaining communication lines in the years before the Revolutionary War. In 1764, Boston formed the earliest Committee of Correspondence to encourage opposition to Britain’s stiffening of customs enforcement and prohibition of American paper money.The exchanges that followed built solidarity during the turbulent times and helped bring about the formation of the First Continental Congress in 1774. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was one of the leading causes of the Revolutionary War. It required that many documents such as licenses, diplomas, contracts, and even playing cards be printed on embrossed paper that had a tax on it. Parliament intended to use the tax to pay the expenses of British troops on the drontier , but instead the colonists reacted with fury and refused to comply with the act. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was one of a long series of acts by Parliament and the King that caused the American colonists to eventually rebel against England and declare their independence. It required the colonial legislatures to provide food, supplies, and housing to British troops stationed in America after the French and Indian War. -
Virginia Resolves Patrick Henry
The Virginia legislature did not actually adopt the fifth and sixth resolves, which were quite radical, but this document, including all six resolves, was published widely in newspapers across the colonies. Therefore, colonists were exposed to Henry's radical ideas, and this document served as influential propaganda for the cause. Eight other colonies followed suit and had adopted similar resolves by the end of 1765. -
Son (Daughters) of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was an organization of dissidents that originated in the North American British colonies. The secret society was formed to protect the rights of the colonists and to take to the streets against the abuses of the British government. They planned the Boston Tea Party. -
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress, or First Congress of the American Colonies, was a meeting held between October 7 and 25, 1765 in New York City, consisting of representatives from some of the British colonies in North America; it was the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation. Parliament had passed the Stamp Act. -
Repeal of Stamp Act
After four months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. -
Declaratory Act
Parliament then agreed to repeal the Stamp Act on the condition that the Declaratory Act was passed. On March 18, 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and passed the Declaratory Act.The Declaratory Act proclaimed that Parliament "had hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America ... in all cases whatsoever". The phrasing of the act was intentionally unambiguous. -
Townshend
Charles Townshend was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He proposed by passing taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea were applied with the design of raising £40,000 a year for the administration of the colonies. The result was the resurrection of colonial hostilities created by the Stamp Act. -
Townshend duties
The laws set new import taxes on British goods including paint, paper, lead, glass and tea and used revenues to maintain British troops in America and to pay the salaries of some Royal officials who were appointed to work in the American colonies. -
New York assembly disbanded
The New York assembly opposed and refused to accept the Quartering Act of 1765, and all its meetings were suspended until it complied with the unpopular act. -
Lord North
Lord North was Prime Minister of Great Britain from January, 1770 to March, 1782. His early successes as Leader of the House and his efforts to cut the national debt brought him the confidence of a faction-ridden Parliament and the favor and friendship of King George III. But his failure to subdue the American colonies and the subsequent loss of the Revolutionary War brought an end to his ministry and forever darkened his name in history. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre started as a street fight between some patriots and a mob of people. several colonist where killed from this event. -
Quiet Period & Committee of Correspondence
After the Boston Massacre and the repeal of most of the Townshend Duties (the duty on tea remained in force), a period of relative quiet descended on the British North American colonies. Even so, the crises of the past decade had created incompatible mindsets on opposite sides of the Atlantic. The colonists now had potentially powerful tools--local newspapers and committees of correspondence (established in 1772) for airing colonial grievances. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act of 1773 was one of several measures imposed on the American colonists by the heavily indebted British government in the decade leading up to the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). The act’s main purpose was not to raise revenue from the colonies but to bail out the floundering East India Company, a key actor in the British economy. The British government granted the company a monopoly on the importation and sale of tea in the colonies. The colonists had never accepted the constitu -
Boston Tea Party
The colonists had never accepted the constitutionality of the duty on tea, and the Tea Act rekindled their opposition to it. Their resistance culminated in the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, in which colonists boarded East India Company ships and dumped their loads of tea overboard. Parliament responded with a series of harsh measures intended to stifle colonial resistance to British rule,and two years later the war began. -
Coercive Acts
Upset by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property by American colonists, Parliament enacts the Coercive Acts. The Coercive Acts included: The Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid.
The Massachusetts Government Act, which restricted Massachusetts; democratic town meetings and turned the governor's council into an appointed body.The Administration of Justice Act, which gave British officials immunity -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
1775 Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord signaled the start of the American Revolutionary war on April 19, 1775. The British Army set out from Boston to capture rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington as well as to destroy the Americans store of weapons and ammunition in Concord. The colonists were warned however, by riders including Paul Revere, that the British Army was approaching. Sam Adams and John Hancock were able to escape and the local militia was able to hide much of their -
Ticonderoga
Fort Ticonderoga served as a key point of access to both Canada and the Hudson River Valley during the French and Indian War. On May 10, 1775, Benedict Arnold of Massachusetts joined Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont in a dawn attack on the fort, surprising and capturing the sleeping British garrison. Although it was a small-scale conflict, the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War, and would give the Continental Army much-needed amo. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Bunker Hill
On June 17, 1775, early in the Revolutionary War (1775-83), the British defeated the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts. Despite their loss, the inexperienced colonial forces inflicted significant casualties against the enemy, and the battle provided them with an important confidence boost. -
Washinton Appointed Commander of the Continental Army
After the American Revolution erupted in 1775, Washington was nominated to be commander in chief of the newly established Continental Army. Some in the Continental Congress opposed his appointment, thinking other candidates were better equipped for the post, but he was ultimately chosen because, as a Virginian, his leadership helped bind the southern colonies more closely to the rebellion in New England. -
American Invasion of Canada
The Invasion of Canada in 1775 was the first major military initiative by the newly formed Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The objective of the campaign was to gain military control of the British Province of Quebec, and convince the French-speaking Canadiens to join the revolution on the side of the Thirteen Colonies. The forces of Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold were defeated in the Battle of Quebec in December 1775 -
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Published in 1776, 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. -
Declaration of Independence is written by Thomas Jefferson
In this tense climate, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia with the intention of voting for independence from England. In anticipation of this vote, the Congress selected a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The committee, composed of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, in turn instructed Thomas Jefferson to write the declaration -
Hessian Mercenaries hired by British
During the American Revolutionary War, Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel and other German princes hired out some of their regular army units to Great Britain for use to fight against the rebels in the American revolution. About 30,000 of these men served in North America. They were called Hessians, because the largest group (12,992 of the total 30,067 men) came from Hesse-Kassel. They came not as individuals but in entire units with their usual uniforms, flags, weapons and officers. -
Battle of Trenton
In the Battle of Trenton (December 26), Washington defeated a formidable garrison of Hessian mercenaries before withdrawing. A week later he returned to Trenton to lure British forces south, then executed a daring night march to capture Princeton on January 3. The victories reasserted American control of much of New Jersey and greatly improved the morale and unity of the colonial army and militias. -
Battle of Saratoga
The two Battles of Saratoga were a turning point in the American Revolution. On September 19th, British General John Burgoyne achieved a small, but costly victory over American forces. Though his troop strength had been weakened, Burgoyne again attacked the Americans at Bemis Heights on October 7th, but this time was defeated and forced to retreat. He surrendered ten days later, and the American victory convinced the French government to formally recognize the colonist’s cause and enter the war. -
Valley Forge Winter
The winter at Valley Forge might have signaled the end of the American Revolution. Fortunately for the Continentals though, Washington did not give up. During this time Washington made several key additions to his officer corps, such as the Prussian General Friedrich von Steuben, who was tasked with implementing a new training regimen, and Nathanael Greene, who served as quartermaster general, relieving Washington of the duty of supply procurement. Washington, supported by a loyal officer corps, -
France Allies with Americans
The Treaty of Alliance with France: Franco-American Treaty, was the defensive alliance between France and the United States of America, formed in the midst of the American Revolutionary War, which promised military support in case of attack by British forces indefinitely into the future. Delegates of King Louis XVI of France and the Second Continental Congress, who represented the United States government at this time, signed the treaty along with The Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce -
Spain Allies with Americans
Spain's King Charles III would not consent to a treaty of alliance with the United States. For one imperial power to encourage another imperial power's colonies in revolt was a treacherous game, and he was unwilling to play. However, French Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, managed to negotiate a treaty with Spain to join their war against the British. As the ally of the United States' ally, Spain managed to endorse the revolt at a critical diplomatic distance. -
Benedict Arnold becomes a traitor
Arnold contacted Sir Henry Clinton, head of the British forces, and proposed handing over West Point and its men. On September 21 of that year, Arnold met with British Major John Andre and made his traitorous pact, in which the American was to receive a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. However, the conspiracy was uncovered and Andre was captured and killed. Arnold fled to the enemy side and went on to lead British troops in Virginia and Connecticut. -
Articles of Confederation are approved
The Articles of Confederation were ratified. The Articles were signed by Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification on November 15, 1777, after 16 months of debate. Bickering over land claims between Virginia and Maryland delayed final ratification for almost four more years. Maryland finally approved the Articles on March 1, 1781, affirming the Articles as the outline of the official government of the United States. The nation used them until 1789. -
Yorktown
General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris of 1783, negotiated between the United States and Great Britain, ended the revolutionary war and recognized American independence. The Continental Congress named a five-member commission to negotiate a treaty–John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens. Laurens, however, was captured by a British warship and held in the Tower of London until the end of the war, and Jefferson did not leave in time to take part in the negotiations.
