Period 3 1754-1800

  • Seven Years War 1754-1763

    First 3 years of war focused on battles in Europe, the ones in the colonies were secondary. Later, both enemies, France and Britain, understood the importance of the North American colonies and began shipping troops to support colonists of both sides.
  • Albany Plan of Union

    The plan was made for the purpose of coordinating colonial defense. The plan was developed by Benjamin Franklin when 7 colonies met in Albany; Franklin's plan provided for intercolonial government and a system for recruiting troops and collecting taxes for colonial defense.
  • Sugar Act of 1764

    This act placed duties on foreign sugar and certain luxuries with the soul purpose of raising money for the British monarchy. However, this also provided stricter enforcement of the Navigation Acts of 1651 by sending troops into the colonies by the British.
  • Pontiacs Rebellion

    This would stand as the first major test of the new British imperial policy. Chief Pontiac led a major attack on the colonial western frontier when indians began to become angered by the western encroachment of land and the British refusal to offer gifts as the French had done.
  • Proclamation

    This prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains in hope of prevention towards future hostilities among British colonists and Native Americans.
  • Stamp Act of 1765

    This act required that revenue stamps be placed on most printed documents including legal documents and newspapers. It was put in act in effort to raise funds for the British military forces.
  • Quartering Act of 1765

    The Quartering Act required colonists to provide food and a living quarters for British troops which the British found justified as they soldiers were sent to protect the colonists from indian invasions. However, this further angered colonists as they voluntarily did this prior to the enforcement, causing further discontent.
  • Stamp Act Congress 1765

    Representatives from nine colonies met in New York to discuss the enforcement of the Stamp Act. The team resolved that only their elected representatives had the legal authority to approve such taxation.
  • Declaratory Act 1766

    With a new King in control, this asserted that Parliament had the right to tax and make laws for the colonies in "all cases whatsoever". This attitude led to renewed conflict among colonists and British rule.
  • Sons and Daughters of Liberty

    The Sons and Daughters of Liberty was a secret society of radical colonists who organized for the purpose of intimidating tax agents. This included but was not limited to destroying stamps and tarring and feathering tax collectors, which many colonists considered to be much too radical.
  • Dickinson's Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania 1767-1768

    Dickinson wrote this letter stating that Parliament could regulate commerce but argued that because duties were a form of taxation, they could not be levied on colonies without the consent of their elected representative assemblies.
  • The Townshend Acts 1767

    The Townshend Acts enacted duties to be collected on colonial imports of glass, tea, and paper. This income was used to pay crown officials stationed in the colonies and also allowed for unauthorized search and seize of homes for smuggled goods which we would later see repealed in the Bill of Rights.
  • Massachusetts Circular Letter 1768

    The letter was written cohesively by James Otis and Samuel Adams who urged various colonies to petition Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts. After attempts by Parliament to retract the letter from circulation, colonists conducted boycotts against taxed goods.
  • Repeal of the Townshend Acts 1770

    With yet another new king in control, Lord Frederick North, the British urged the repeal of the Townshend Acts because they damaged trade and generated a disappointingly small amount of revenue.
  • Boston Massacre 1770

    After a crowd of colonists harassed British guards near customs homes, guards fired into the crowd killing 5. However, troops were tried in Britain while colonists dramaticized the event to inflame anti-British feelings.
  • Committees of Correspondence 1772

    The committees kept alive the view that British officials were undermining colonial liberties. Adams began practicing the organization of communities that would exchange letters of suspicious or threatening British behavior.
  • Boston Tea Party 1773

    After the enactment of the Townshend Acts in 1767 and colonists began refusing to purchase the British East India Company's tea, a group of Bostonians- the Sons of Liberty- disguised themselves as Indians, boarded British ships, and dumped 342 chests of the tea into Boston Harbor.
  • Lord Dunmore's War

    A conflict that arose prior to the Revolutionary War between colonists in Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indians.
  • First Continental Congress

    The purpose of the congress was to respond to what delegates viewed as Britain's alarming threats to colonial liberties. These views ranged from radical to conservative, however with loyalists unrepresented. The congress eventually called for the repeal of the Intolerable Acts, urged the king to redress colonial grievances, created a network of committees to enforce economic sanction, and declared colonial rights.
  • Coercive Acts 1774

    These acts were directed mainly as punishment for the acts committed in the Boston Tea Party. 1) The British closed Boston Harbor. 2) The power of the legislature was decreased while royal power and authority increased. 3) Royal officials would now be tried in Great Britain rather than in the colonies. 4) British troops would be upgraded from customs homes to private homes in an increasingly enforced Quartering Act.
  • Quebec Act 1774

    This law organized the Canadian lands gained from the French following the French and Indian War. French Canadians were accepting while colonists resented this act. The act also established Roman Catholicism as the primary religion, established a government without representative assembly, and extended Canadian borders past the Ohio River.
  • Second Continental Congress

    At this congress, delegates had become divided. One group of delegates, mostly from the northern New England colonies, believed the colonies should declare independence. However, many delegates representing the middle colonies hoped that conflict may be resolved and subside with negotiation of a new relationship with the king.
  • Bunker Hill

    British forces attacked a colonial militia of mostly farmers on the outskirts of Boston. Though Americans suffered great loss of troops, they claimed victory having succeeded in inflicting heavy losses upon British troops.
  • Olive Branch Petition

    The Olive Branch Petition was a final straw to hoping for a repaired relationship between the colonists and the British monarchy. It pledged colonial loyalty and asked the king to intercede with Parliament to secure peace and protection of colonial rights. It was instead rejected, thus lighting a fire under the burning fuel of angry colonists.
  • Lexington and Concord

    British troops were sent to seize colonial military supplies in Concord. However, with news of such, Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on their "midnight ride" to warn of the terrible news. Americans were forced to retreat after a devastating blow to their colonial militia. However, who shot that first shot "heard round the world"?
  • Common Sense

    Thomas Paine's essay arguing an idea previously seen as radical till now- a clear and forceful argument for colonies to become independent states, a clear act of treason. The pamphlet also discussed the idea of "unalienable rights," an idea to later be used by Thomas Jefferson in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
  • Battle of Trenton

    The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal battle in the American Revolutionary War. This battle is best depicted in the infamous painting of Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River under harsh winter conditions, leading his main body of the Continental Army.
  • Declaration of Independence

    After a year, the Second Continental Congress favored independence. Thus five delegates formed to write the document declaring a list of grievances and expressing basic principles justifying revolution.
  • Valley Forge

    In the Winter of 1777 Washington's demoralized troops suffered through a very harsh winter after a major loss in Philadelphia.
  • Battle of Saratoga

    The British objective was to cut off New England from the remainder of the colonies, a seemingly well developed plan. However, the British were instead attacked by ambush, an unfamiliar style of fighting for the British, led by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold
  • Battle of Yorktown

    The Battle of Yorktown was the last major battle in the American Revolutionary War. It was strongly supported by French naval and military forces until Washington's army forced General Cornwallis' surrender, a major British army commander at this time.