-
French and Indian War
The British thought the colonists should help pay for the cost of their own protection. Furthermore, the French and Indian War had cost the British treasury £70,000,000 and doubled their national debt to £140,000,000. Compared to this staggering sum, the colonists' debts were extremely light, as was their tax burden. -
Albany Plan for the Union
A plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. Representatives from seven of the British North American colonies created -
Proclamation of 1763
In 1763, at the end of the French and Indian War, the British issued a proclamation,mainly intended to conciliate the Indians by checking the encroachment of settlers on their lands. -
Quartering Act
Parliament passed the Quartering Act, outlining the locations and conditions in which British soldiers are to find room and board in the American colonies in 1765 and required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. -
Stamp Act
An act of the British Parliament in 1765 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. Colonial opposition led to the act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the Crown. -
Period: to
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed by the British government on the American colonies in 1767. They placed new taxes and took away some freedoms from the colonists including the following: New taxes on imports of paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea. (June 15–July 2, 1767) -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers shot and killed several people while under harassment by a mob. -
Tea Act
Tea Act 1773 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The principal objective was to reduce the massive amount of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses and to help the financially struggling company survive. December 16th, 1773 -
Boston Tea Party
A political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts. At Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of British tea into the harbor. -
1st Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies who met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts
Also called Coercive Acts, (1774), in U.S. colonial history, four punitive measures enacted by the British Parliament in retaliation for acts of colonial defiance, together with the Quebec Act establishing a new administration for the territory ceded to Britain after the French and Indian War (1754–63). -
Period: to
2nd Continental Congress
The Second Congress managed the Colonial war effort and moved incrementally towards independence in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, and October 26, 1774. -
Period: to
Thomas Paine writes Common Sense
Common Sense was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–76 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Written in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for the egalitarian government. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. -
Olive Branch Petition
The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 5, 1775 and signed on July 8 in a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America. The Congress had already authorized the invasion of Canada more than a week earlier, but the petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain and beseeched King George III to prevent further conflict. -
Declaratory Act
Declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. Stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. -
Declaration of Independence
The statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. The Declaration of Independence expresses the ideals on which the United States was founded and the reasons for separation from Great Britan. -
Articles of Confederation
The original constitution of the US ratified in 1781. The written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain. -
Treaty of Paris- Revolutionary War
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War.