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Mercantilism Theory
Mercantilism is an economic theory in which a country wants to export more than it imports to keep a certain circulation of money up. In the 1620’s Great Britain created a whole list of acts declaring what was and was not legal to create the optimum balance of favorable trade in Great Britain’s economy. -
The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War started because the British and French both wanted control of the Ohio River Valley land in America. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The French and Indian War led to the American Revolutionary War because after the British won the war they were in deep debt and charged the colonies high taxes to pay off the war. Meanwhile the colonists had no representation in the British parliament and got very upset due to ‘taxation without representation'. -
The Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was issued by King George III of Britain. The proclamation forbade colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains on the land Britain had just won in the French and Indian War. King George III issued the proclamation in order to control and stabilize the British empire and create better relations with the Native Americans. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 was one of Britain’s first parliamentary acts towards enforcing more power over the colonies. The British government realized that they needed more money because after the French and Indian war they were in huge debt so they began heavily taxing the colonies on basically everything the colonies needed in this act. -
The Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was an act declared by British Parliament that said that colonists were required to provide accommodations, food, and housing for any British soldiers in the colonies who needed it. -
The Stamp Act Congress of 1765
The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 lasted from October 7-25 as the first gathering of Congress in the American Colonies. The Stamp Act Congress originally met to come up with an idea as to fight the taxation without representation from the British. The Stamp Act Congress was a cause of the American Revolutionary War because it was the beginning of the colonists anger towards British taxation. -
The Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act of 1766 accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. When Britain enforced the Declaratory Act it affected the colonists majorly because although it seemed at first as if the colonists were finally going to catch a break on British taxes the act actually enforced even more taxes in nearly all cases. This was a leading cause to the Revolutionary War because it fired colonists up even more towards the British. -
The Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were yet another proclamation from British parliament that targeted the colonies with even higher taxes than previously requested. The Townshend Acts required new and higher taxes on products such as; glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a fight in the streets of Boston between British soldiers and some colonists. The riot in the streets of Boston began when near fifty colonists attacked a British sentinel. After the fight three men lay dead and eight were injured. This fight in the streets was just the beginning of anger in the colonies towards Britain being exploited through fighting. -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act of 1773 was passed by British parliament as a helpful boost to the East India Company’s profit. The act did not actually impose any new taxes it just was meant to be a way to ship tons of extra tea to the colonies to be sold at a cheaper price to help the East India Company. The colonists were extremely stubborn as to receiving the tea sent to their docks and many colonies turned the ships away back to Britain or left the tea to rot at port. -
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an act of political protest initiated by the organization The Sons of Liberty. On December 16, 1773 the Sons of Liberty dressed up as Indians and destroyed shipments of tea sent to the port at Boston from the East India Company to demonstrate their anger towards the newly instated Tea Act. The Sons of Liberty boarded the ships at port and dumped all the chests of tea overboard into the harbor. -
The Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were passed by British parliament shortly after the Boston Tea Party. The acts were targeted specifically at colonists in Massachusetts and aimed to take away a lot of their self government and rights. King George III took control over Massachusetts by closing the Boston Harbor in this act. These acts were near the final straw for the colonists building up to the American Revolution. -
The First Continental Congress
The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia from September 5 through October 26. Every colony sent delegates to the first continental congress except Georgia. A total of 56 delegates from the 12 colonies attended the congress and petitioned against King George III with their grievances. -
Salutory Neglect
Salutary Neglect was when Britain left the colonies alone without strong enforcement of their power for long enough that the colonists began creating their own forms of self government. Because of salutary neglect colonists felt even more anger towards the British when they started reinforcing their true power, making salutary neglect a large cause of the Revolutionary War. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The battles of Lexington and Concord marked the first battles against the British on the mainland of British America. The first shots fired in these beginning battles of the American Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington. Throughout these battles many colonists fought as militiamen against the British and marched many miles. -
The Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress took place on May 10, 1775 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the same place where the first Continental Congress took place. The Second Continental Congress was organized to support war efforts and move the colonies towards independence from Great Britain. The Second Continental Congress acted as the government for the United States to be during the war. -
Thomas Paine Writes Common Sense
"Common Sense" was a pamplet written by Thomas Paine and published right before the American Revolutionary War. This pamplet was released to the public and became extremely popular immediately because it described the reasons for freedom from Britain in the colonies. -
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was originally proposed June 7, 1776 and actually decided on by the Continental Congress July 2, 1776. Thomas Jefferson drafted and wrote the original Declaration of Independence. In total 56 people signed the Declaration of Independence and after it was signed it was distributed throughout the colonies to fire the revolutionary efforts even more. -
The American Revolutionary War Ending
The American Revolutionary War ended in 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was officially signed with Great Britain for peace in the colonies. This ended the war because the colomnists knew that they were going to get their freedom so they could stop fighting. Although the war actually ended in 1783, Britain did not agree to total peace with the colonies and their freedom until the peace treaty. -
The Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was the official ending to the American Revolutionary War. The Treaty of Paris was an agreement between Great Britain and the United States. The Treaty was Britain's way of saying that they recognized America's independence. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens were the five men elected by the Continental Congress to work out the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.
