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The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason, is an intellectual movement where philosophers applied research and logical thought to society. Its purpose was to reform society using reason and advance knowledge through science. This period of time led to large advances in politics, social ways, and science. -
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The French and Indian War
This war began with a disagreement over the control of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. England and the American colonists fought against the French in America. The French and the natives became allies. The Proclamation of 1763 was written because of this conflict saying that colonists were forbidden from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains so that conflict with the Natives would be prevented. England created a huge debt because of the war and payed it off by taxing the colonists. -
Proclamation Line of 1763
King George the Thrid issued the Proclamation Line of 1763 after the end of the French and Indian War. The purpose of this proclamation was to stablilize relations with the Native Americans through trade, settlement, and purchasing land in the west. This proclamation stated that colonists were not allowed to settle on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was a direct tax on all goods in England. Every printed document had to have a stamp on it. The colonists then started to boycott this act by not buying any items made in England. Boycotting this act worked in favor of the colonists however, because in the end the act was repealed. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre--also known as the "Incident on King Street" by the British--was an event where a group of colonial protesters had an arguement with British troops in Boston, which resulted in five of the colonial protesters being killed and six injured. This event started out with a mob surrounding one British soldier, but eight more soldiers started to back him up against the mob.The soldiers then started to fire into the crowd without order. The Sons of Liberty used this as propaganda. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act created a new tax on tea. The objective of this act was to save the British East India Company by reducing the large amounts of tea held by them because of their financial issues. -
Boston Tea Party
A group in Boston called the Sons of Liberty were very angry with the Tea Act so they decided to dress up as Mohawk Indians and throw hundreds, even thousands of packages of tea off of British boats into the Boston Harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
The British created three new acts to punish the colonists after the Boston Tea Party. The first act was that there would be no trail by jury in the colonies. The second act, called the Quartering Act, forced all colonists to house and feed English soldiers whenever asked. Lastly, the third act was called the Blockade of Boston. This act stated that no ships were allowed to enter or leave the Boston harbor. However, this act cause many hardships for the people who lived in Boston. -
First Continental Congress
Fifty-six delegates from twelve of the thriteen colonies met in Philadelphia to talk about the Intolerable Acts. They ended up sending a letter to King George the Third asking if he could repeal the acts, which he ended up refusing to do. -
Lexington and Concord
British troops found out that weapons were being held in Concord, Massachusetts. On their journey there, farmers and militia members confronted them at Lexington, ending in British victory. Again, more people confronted them when they reached Concord, but the British troops were again victorious. On the way back from Concord to Boston, the colonists used guerilla warfare tactics against the British troops. Although they lost, many New England colonies volunteered to fight. -
Second Continental Congress
The delegates from the First Continental Congress met again to discuss the conflicts in Massachusetts. The congress was split about the independence issue. However, after Thomas Paine writes "Common Sense" more delegates decided to support independence. So, they set up a committee to write a declaration. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress which announced that the thirteen American colonies were to be known as independent states. People expected Benjamin Franklin to be the author of this statement, but John Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson instead. Jefferson's ideas for the Declaration were taken from Locke and Rousseau. The Declaration also listed colonial greviences against King George the 3rd.
