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The French Indian War
The war was fought primarily between the colonies of British America and New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France. -
The Sugar Act
The preamble to the act stated: "it is expedient that new provisions and regulations should be established for improving the revenue of this Kingdom ... and ... it is just and necessary that a revenue should be raised ... for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same." -
The Stamp Act
The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. -
The Tea Act
Its principal overt objective was to reduce the massive surplus of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses and to help the struggling company survive. -
The Boston Tea Party
After officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The first military engagements were faught in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. -
The Second Continental Congress
A convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sence
Common Sense presented the American colonists with an argument for freedom from British rule at a time when the question of seeking independence was still undecided. -
Declaration of Independence
A statement adopted by the Continental Congress which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. -
Valley Forge
Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 during the American Revolutionary War. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other. -
Shay's Rebrllion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising that took place in central and western Massachusetts in 1786 and 1787. -
Constitutional Convention
This took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. -
Ratification of the Constitution
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution with its 7 Articles written on 4 pages was completed, followed by a speech given by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin urged unanimity, although the Convention had decided only nine state ratification conventions were needed to inaugurate the new government. The Convention submitted the Constitution to the Congress of the Confederation.