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French-Indian (Seven Years War) War
France and Britain went to war. Britain won, with the help of the native Americans, became the dominant power in North America, owning territory that extended all the way to the Mississippi River. The government went into debt fighting the French, and they made the colonies pay off the debts and new defences for the colonists through heavy taxes. -
Stamp Act
This was the first direct tax placed on the colonists; for all printed items. Politicians tried to have the Act repealed, after the period in which colonists ignored it for a time before the British started enforcing it. FInally, it was repealed in 1766. -
Townshend Acts and Unrest
Attempts to raise funds for Britain led to the Townshend Acts, which taxed paper, paint, glass, lead, and tea. Colonial merchants started to boycotted British exports. Massachusetts and Virginia challenged the taxes themselves. -
Boston Massacre
British troops fired into a crowd of colonists in Boston due to an incident in a common square, the circumstances themselves are very foggy. After an outcry over the bloodshed, the British reppealed all the Townshend Acts except for the Tea tax. -
Committees of Correspondance and the Boston Tea Party
Thomas Jefferson, a prominent plantation owner and politician, thought up the system involving committees of correspondance to help colonies communicate with one another. The British East India Company lowered their tea prices even lower than that of the Dutch tea being smuggled into the colonies. American merchants feared that this action would put them out of business. When tea ships arrived in Boston Harbor, colonists arrived, dressed as Indians, to dump it all in the harbor. -
The Intolerable Acts
After the Boston Tea Party, the British passed the Coercive Acts, to try to stop any challaenges by the colonists to British authority. General Thomas Gage arrived in Massachusetts to enforce the acts. The Quebec Act gave the named territory more land, as well as a governnor and council appointed by the king. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress that met delegated to boycott British goods and to hold a second Congressional meeting if neccessary, Local militias of minutemen were created in Massachusetts to counter British forces, if necessary. During the revolution, Americans were divided into Loyalists and Patriots (Whigs) over the question of revolution. -
Paul Revere
General Gage and his troops attempted to seize a local militia's supply depot at Concord. Paul Revere, famously, set out on his horse to warn outlying town militias that the "British were coming!" Fierce minutemen blocked the path of the British and forced them into retreat. -
Second Continental Congress and Battle of Bunker Hill
The Second Continental Congress met again to discuss defenses and agreed to build the Continental Army, consisting of 20,000 men. George Washington was appointed general. In the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British army made their move in the colony of Massachusetts. The colonists turned back two advances of British troops, and only retreated due to lack of ammunition. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Paine published "Common Sense," garnering more support for the patriotic cause. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was issued by Congress, officially starting the American Revolution.
