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Signing of the treaty of Paris
Ending the seven Years war, also known as the French and Indian war in North America. France ceded all mainland North American territories, except New Orleans, in order to retain her Caribbean sugar islands. -
Proclamation of 1763
Wary of the cost of defending the colonies, George the third prohibited all settlement west of the Appalachian mountains without guarantees of security from local Native American nations. The intervention in colonies' claim to the exclusive right to govern lands to their west. -
Sugar Act
The first attempt to finance the defence of the colonies by the British Government. In order to defer smuggling and to encourage the production of British rum, taxes on molasses were dropped; a levy was placed on foreign madeir wine and colonial exports of iron, lumber and other goods had to pass first through Britain and British customs. -
Stamp Act
Seeking to defray some of the costs of garrisoning the colonies, Parliament required all legal documents, newspapers and pamphlets required to use watermarked, or stamped paper on which a levy was placed. -
Virginian Resolution
The Virginian assembly refused to comply with the Stamp Act -
Declaratory Act
Parliament finalises the repeal of the Stamp Act, but declares that it has the right to tax colonies. -
British troops arrive in Boston
In the response to political unrest -
Boston Massacre
Angered by the presence of troops and Britian's colonial policy, a crowd began harassing a group of soldiers guarding the customs house; a soldier was knocked down by snowball and discharged his musket, sparking a volley into the crowd which kills five civilians. -
Publication of Thomas Hutchinson letters
In these letters, Hutchinson, the Massachusetts governor, advocated a great restraint of natural Liberty convincing many colonists of a planned British clampdown on their freedoms. -
Tea Act
In an effort to support the ailing East Indian Company, Parliament exempted it's tea from import duties and allowed the company to sell its tea directly to the colonies. Americans resented what they saw as an indirect tax subsidising a British company. -
Boston Tea Party
Angered by the Tea Acts, American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indian dump £9,000 of East India Company tea into the Boston harbour. -
Intolerable Acts
Four measures which stripped Massachusetts of self government and judicial independence following the Boston Tea Party. The colonies responded with a general boycott of British goods. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
First engagement of the Revolutionary War between British troops and the Minutemen, who had been warned of the attacked by Paul Revere. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
The first major battle of the War of Independence. Sir William Howe dislodged William Prescott's forces overlooking Boston at a cost of 1054 British casualties to the American's 367 -
Olive-Brach Petition
Congress endorses a proposal asking for recognition of American rights, the ending of the Intolerable Acts in exchange for a cease fire. George the third rejected the proposal and on 23 August 1775 declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. -
Battle of Long Island and White Plains
British forces occupy New York after American defeats -
Battle of Trenton, New Jersey
Providing a boast to American morale. -
Battle of Princeton, New Jersey
General Washington broke camp at Trenton to avoid a British advance, attacking the British rearguard and train near Princeton and withdrawing to Morristown. -
British surrender of 5,700 troops at Saratoga
Lacking supplies, 5,700 British, German and loyalist forces under Major General John Burgoyne surrender to Major General Horatio Gates in a turning point in the Revolutionary War. -
Treaty of Paris, formally ending the Revolutionary War
