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John Locke
John Locke was a seventeenth-century English philosopher whose writings on political theory and government profoundly affected U.S. law and society. It is chiefly from Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1690) that U.S. politics takes its core premises of the ultimate sovereignty of the people, the necessity of restraints on the exercise of Arbitrary power by the executive or the legislature, and the ability of the people to revoke their social contract with the government when power has been a -
George Washington
when Congress recognized the need for a centralized military in America, they chose Washington as the single commander and chief, because of his considerable military experience, being an advocate of independence, and he was admired and trusted by all Patriots. -
Thomas Jefferson
a 33 year old Virginian, who wrote most of the Declaration, with help from John Adams and Ben Franklin, he borrowed ideas from local "declarations" made within colonies. -
Marquis De Lafayette
one of the foreign military experts, from France, he have money and helped Washington build and train a force that would prevail against the strongest military in the world. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years' War. The terms of the Treaty of Paris were harsh to losing France. All French territory on the mainland of North America was lost. The British received Quebec and the Ohio Valley. The port of New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi were ceded to Spain for their efforts as a British ally. -
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Road to Revolution
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Proclamation of 1763
Issued by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War, which forbade all settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry. -
Battle Of Bunker Hill
on June 17, 1775, a battle broke out, when American forces besieged the British on Breed's Hill, they fought for a long time, and there were casualties for both the British and Patriots. Finally, the British decided to leave Boston for a place that would be easier to tactically defend, so they left for Halifax, Nova Scotia. -
Thomas Paine
an English man who moved to America and wrote a pamphlet that explained why Americans should not be angry at parliament, after all the problem was really in the English constitution, which had apparently caused harm to its own people and could not govern another area. The pamphlet was very popular in the colonies were 100, 000 copies were sold in a few months, and helped create support for the idea of American independence -
Common Sense
This document was writteen byThomas Paine. He was telling colonists that they must declare independence from Great Britian now or they wouldn't be able to later. -
Declaration of Independence
the formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. -
Battle of Brandywine
This battle took place in Chadds Fort, Pennsylvia. The British forces beat the Americans and force them to withdraw towards the American capitol. -
Battle Of Saratoga
(turning point) the battle in which Patriots had victory on October 17, 1777, after fighting and forcing weakened, British troops under Burgoyne to surrender when they had already lost reinforcements, and supplies, and had previously fought several costly engagements -
Battle of King's Mountain
This battle took place in present day KIng's Mountain, South Carolina.The Patriot militia defeated the Loyalist militia. -
Battle of Yorktown
when Cornwallis was forced to take a defensive position in Yorktown, American and French forces descended from different directions in a joint operational tactic, and caught Cornwallis between land and sea, where he surrendered his whole army of more than 7, 000 on October 17, 1781.