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French and Indian War
French and British were fighting over control over the Ohio River Valley. Native Americans, also known as Indians sided with the French against the British hoping to end the growing British settlements. The French wanted to connect the Mississippi River and Louisiana with their territories in the Great Lakes and Canada for the benefit of their trade. British wanted to grow their settlements westward. The French were defeated marking the end of their power in North America and the beginning of tw -
Sugar Act
The British parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764 which put an import tax on molasses. It also called for harsh punishment for on colonial smuggling, which was really common at the time. It was a way for raising money from the colonies to pay the debt from the French and Indian War. The colonists were upset that there normal ways of business were disrupted and this led to many early colonial protests against the British interference in the colonies. Other measures by the British would follow w -
Quartering Act
The British Parliament passes this Act that requires all colonists to house British troops and provide them with food and other supplies. The British did this to save money, because the French and Indian War had let them in a deep state of debt and the expenses continued since they had to keep troops in North America to protect the settlers from Native Americans, and make sure that the French did not regain their territory. British leaders believed that British colonists should pay part of the d -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament in early 1765. It was a tax bill imposed by Britain on the colonies and it required special stamps for most products and activities. The British saw it as an effort to have the Americans share the expense of maintaining the colonial defenses. However the colonists view it as “Taxation without Representation”. Protests were widespread. In October delegates from nine colonies met in New York for the Stamp Act Congress. They frame a petition for th -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre is an incident in American History where on March 5th of 1770 five men were killed when fired by British soldiers on a crowd in Boston. This was the result of tensions between civilians and the British soldiers that had been growing since the first troops appeared in Massachusetts. The soldiers were in Boston to keep order but the people viewed them as oppressors and competitors for jobs, and by harassing them sought to force the removal. The soldiers were tried for murder an -
Tea Act
In 1773 The British Parliament passed the Tea Act. It was intended to help the British East India Company who grew tea in India and sold it in Britain and the colonies. The Tea Act actually lowered the price of tea by allowing the company to sell directly to the colonies that is why the Prime Minister of England felt the colonies shouldn’t complain about it. However the colonies reacted angrily because the Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on selling British tea in the colonies. That hu -
The Boston Tea Party
Colonists disguised as Indians raided a ship in Boston Harbor and threw 342 chests of tea worth thousands of dollars into the ocean. A group of colonists called the Sons of Liberty tried to stop the East India Company tea from being unloaded, threatening merchants and ship captains. This was their way to protest the British Tea Act of 1773, as the colonists thought it was infringing their right to legislate and tax themselves. The Bostonians cheered and shouted as the raiders destroyed ninety th -
Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 16th of 1775 hundreds of American militia men, mostly formers and workers, dug fortifications on Breed’s Hill across the Charles River from Boston. British General William Howe decided to attack straight up Breed’s Hill. The American commander General Putnam opened fire against the hundreds of British soldiers. The British were pushed back twice before driving out the rebels because they had ran out of ammunitions. More than one thousand Redcoats were killed and wounded, compared to four -
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
In January 1776 Thomas Paine published a fifty page revolutionary pamphlet that advocated America’s complete independence of Britain. It was an immediate success; some five hundred thousand copies were sold between January and July of 1776. Paine argued that the political connection with England was both unnatural and harmful to Americans; he believed Britain had only used the colonies for economic gain. The welfare of America, in Paine’s view, required them to govern themselves. It provided an -
Declaration of Independence
In June 1776 the colonies were ready for independence but a document was needed to explain the reasons from separating from England. The fifty six delegates from the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia hotly debated the wording until July 4th when the Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence .The document contained a list of rights that cannot be taken away; including the idea that all men are created equal and a list of complaints against Great Britain, including obj -
Battle of Trenton
On Christmas night, George Washington led two thousand four hundred men across the Delaware River in small boats. Once in the other end, they had to march several miles in the snow to Trenton, where they attacked by surprise German mercenaries who were fighting for the British. November and early December 1776 were very difficult days for Washington as his army, diminished by desertions and expiring enlistments, had to retreat from New York and fell back to New Jersey. Morale among the troops wa -
Battle of Princeton
On the morning of January 3rd of 1777, Washington attacked the British at Princeton. After the victory of Trenton, spirits were high at Washington’s Continental Army. British General Howe wanted revenge for the British defeat at Trenton. He sent General Cornwallis to take his army from New York City to attack the Americans. The victories at Trenton and Princeton saved the Revolution for the Americans. They did not only boost morale for the troops but also helped the American delegates in France -
Battle of Saratoga
During the spring of 1777 the British made a plan to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies in an effort to end the rebellion. General Burgoyne’s troops marched down from Canada towards New York. In the village of Saratoga General Horatio Gates saw Burgoyne’s troops, surrounded and attacked them in the woods. The fighting lasted for a month before the British surrendered on October 17thof 1777. The American victory ended the British threat to New England and destroyed British hopes o -
Battle of Yorktown
After British General Cornwallis lost the battle of Cowpens in the south, so he decided to move his troops to Virginia. Cornwallis committed a terrible mistake. He moved his strong army to the Yorktown Harbor peninsula. He thought that British ships that surrounded it could reinforce his position, but he didn’t know that the French had already chased off the British fleet from the port. At the same time Washington went toward Virginia with American and French troops and closed in by land. Cornwa -
Treaty of Paris
On September 3, 1783, John Jay, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin signed the Treaty of Paris, the agreement that ended the war and recognized the United States as a new nation. Britain agreed to new borders for the United States, including all land from the Great Lakes on the north, to Florida on the south, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River on the West. Florida was returned to Spain. The British also agreed to remove all the troops from America, and America agreed to pay all th
