-
Jamestown Settled
The Virginia Company's charter granted the settlers the rights of Englishmen, which was important as it linked the colonists to crown rule. However, later the colonists felt that they were not getting these rights due to heavy taxation and unfair laws, which contributed to the American Revolution. -
House of Burgesses First Meets
This Virginian mini-parliament of sorts was one of the first stepping stones to self-government in the colonies. It later inspired town meetings in New England which supported democracy and the voice of the people. -
Rhode Island Royal Charter
Rhode Island is formally established. It was originally settled by Roger Williams as a haven for those escaping religious prosecution in some of the other more strict colonies. Rhode Island was an important symbol of the later American idea of 'a place for everyone', though at the time religious tolerance wasn't practiced in all of the colonies. -
Bacon's Rebellion Begins
Nathaniel Bacon leads a protest against Governor William Berkeley about high taxes, failure to protect Virginia from the Indians, and the special privileges that people close to the governor received. This rebellion helped Americans with a sense of independence and power even under a king. -
Leisler's Rebellion Begins
Jacob Leisler led a rebellion against the class distinctions between landholders and non-landholders. Like Bacon's Rebellion, this helped give the colonists a sense of the idea that they could change things and rebel if they wanted to. -
Molasses Act Commences
A bill created by London that taxed the importation of molasses to the Americas from non-English colonies to make the Americans pay for more expensive molasses from British plantations in the West Indies. This began a long and slow-boiling anger towards the British because of their mercantilism ideas involving the control of American trade. -
Washington Leaves for the Ohio Valley
Governor George Washington leaves Virginia to go to the Ohio river valley and confront the French about their conflicting claims on the land. This leads to the French and Indian War, which leaves the American colonists with more land and more experience in battle. -
Period: to
French and Indian War
Started by George Washington's fight with the French over who owns Ohio, then spirals into a war between Britain and France with Indian allies on both sides over the land, and is even carried into Europe as the 'Seven Years War.' It left Britain in great debt, hence their later passings of several tax laws on the colonists. It also helped expose the colonists to warfare, and many now had experience that would later come in handy during the American Revolution. -
Treaty of Paris Signed
The Treaty of Paris surrenders French Canada and the land East of the Mississippi to Britain and the rest to Spain, which leaves the British as the new big superpower in North America with lots of land. -
Pontiac's Rebellion
Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe, joins other tribes in a month-long attempt to drive the British out of the Ohio Valley. Disease, starvation, and superior British firepower end up causing many of the tribes to quit the rebellion. This led to the London Proclamation in an attempt to avoid further Indian conflicts. -
Proclamation of 1763
Issued by London- 'The Line of Proclamation' ran through the Appalachians made to prevent westward expansion onto Indian and and hopefully avoid further conflicts with the Indians. This contributed to the growing anger against the British because the Americans did not want to be controlled. -
Sugar Act Passed
Passed by Prime Minister George Grenville to increase tax revenue for the crown; an extension of the Molasses Act that now taxed coffee and sugar as well. More taxes meant, or course, more anger towards the British. -
Stamp Tax Passed
The Stamp Tax required the purchase of a stamp on over 50 trade items like playing cards as well as on legal documents like newspapers, pamphlets, marriage licenses, and diplomas. The Americans disagreed with the tax, even though taxes on the British themselves were much worse. -
Quartering Act Passed
Forced several colonies to provide food and shelter for any British troops, which violated their rights to privacy and was not necessary in a time without war, when no troops should be stationed in the American colonies anyway. -
Stamp Act Congress Meets
Several delegates meet in New York to write a complaint to King George III about their distaste for the heavy stamp taxes, but it was completely ignored by the crown and a new anger against the crown rose. -
Boston Massacre
The death of an 11-year-old boy at an earlier protest led to a small protest involving throwing snowballs at British soldiers stationed in Boston. The nervous soldiers fired without order on the crowd, killing several including a leader named Crispus Attucks. This lead to a widespread anger towards the British, and consequently the Boston Tea Party protest. -
Boston Tea Party
Several members of the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Indians and boarded several British East India Company ships and leaked 342 chests of costly tea leaves into the harbor in a protest against the Boston Massacre. The use of the popular item of tea meant that the display was a good symbol to the American colonists of what they could achieve if they rebelled. A -
Intolerable Acts Passed
Meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for the Boston Tea Party, these acts including the Boston Port Act which closed the port until the city could repay the money lost from the tea, a new Quartering Act that included the invasion of private homes, and the Quebec Act which gave the French some northern land, and allowed Catholicism to creep closer to the Puritan colonists. The colonists were furious that their 'Rights of Englishmen' were being ignored. -
First Continental Congress Meets
12 out of 13 colonies sent delegates to meet in a sympathetic and angry response to the Intolerable Acts punishing Massachusetts and Boston. John Adams swayed the majority to think about a small rebellion, and the Declaration of Rights was sent to King George III as the first formal declaration of their anger with the crown. -
Second Continental Congress Meets
The delegates agree on the need to fight against the new heavy British laws. They claim they want to patch the Anglo-American relationship, but seem to contradict themselves in several battles including the battles at Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga. -
Olive Branch Petition Sent to King George III
The Olive Branch Petition was sent to King George asking for reconciliation, but he refused and instead declared all of the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion and sent the German Hessians to control them, which angered the colonists as now foreign forces were being involved. -
Declaration of Independence Signed
Thomas Jefferson captured Richard Henry Lee's sentiment about the colonists' right to independence, and it is approved by the Continental Congress and sent to the king declaring an infliction on basic human rights due to heavy taxation and an army dictatorship. This now invited foreign aid in favor of the Americans to fight Britain. -
The Battle at Trenton
British troops under scandalous William Howe left Boston and went for New York, sending George Washington to New Jersey and across the Delaware River with the Hessians in pursuit. Outnumbered, he then snuck back across the Delaware to Trenton and captured the Hessians, who were drunk from their recent Christmas celebrations -
Second Treaty of Paris Signed
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay meet in Paris to negotiate land, but John Jay notices France's desire to give land to Spain to repay their debts. He goes behind everyone's back to London and signs the Treaty of Paris with King George III to officially recognize American independence and sovereignty. -
Land Ordinance of 1785
The Continental Congress acquires land in the Ohio area for public use with the promise of allowing settlers in that land to create their own colonies. It split the land up into townships of 6 miles square with a section in each townships reserved and sold to the government to make money to support education -
Constitutional Convention Meets
55 delegates meet with the goal of altering the Articles of Confederation but late completely rewrite them as the Constitution. -
Period: to
Compromises and Conflicts in the Constitution
The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan conflicted over whether or now representation should be awarded by population or not- basically whether or not to give big states an advantage thanks to more votes. The Great Compromise split the government into two houses, the senate with equal representation and the House of Representatives with representation based on population.
The three-fifths compromise counted slaves as 3/5 of a person when measuring population for the House of Representatives. -
Northwest Ordinance
The Continental Congress fulfilled their promise from the Land Ordinance: once a township reached 60,000 people and went through a trial period, it could be admitted to the Union with the same benefits as the original 13 colonies. This smart move helped prevent a second uprising of Western settlements for their own independence. -
Constitution Signed
Only 39 out of the 55 delegates actually stayed in Philadelphia to sign. Many left because they did not agree with the compromises they had to make in the document.
