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Period: to
Events of the Revolutionary War
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Treaty of Paris - 1763
This treaty was signed by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, and it ended the French and Indian War. It also marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe. -
Proclamation of 1763
King George III declared this proclamation to prohibit settlers from colonizing past the Appalachian mountains. The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Great Britain's new North American empire and to stabilize relations with Native North Americans through regulation of trade, settlement, and land purchases on the western frontier. -
Stamp Act
On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act was passed by Parliament without debate and was to become effective November 1, 1765. The purpose was to raise £60,000 yearly in the colonies in order to help support the cost of maintaining British troops there, a cost totaling £350,000 annually. In fairness to the colonies, the money collected would stay in America, and Americans would be appointed stamp agents. -
Quartering Act - 1765
The Quartering Act in 1765 stated that all great britain soldiers would be housed in barracks or public houses. But if the amount of soldiers was greater than the housing available, then the soldiers would be quartered in inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualing houses, and the houses of sellers of wine. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of acts passed beginning in 1767 by the parliment of great britain relating to the British colonies in North America. They were named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It includes the Revenue Act, Indemnity Act, the Commissioners of Customs Act, The Vice Admiralty Court Act, and the New York Restraining Act. The purpose of these was to raise revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would be independe -
Townshend Acts Continued
independent of colonial rule, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, to punish the province of New York for failing to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act, and to establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies.[2] The Townshend Acts were met with resistance in the colonies, prompting the occupation of Boston by British troops in 1768, which eventually resulted in the Boston Massacre of 1770. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known as the Incident on King Street by the British,[citation needed] was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials. Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the... -
Boston Massacre Continued
...soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers, who were subjected to verbal threats and thrown objects. They fired into the crowd, without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. Two more people died later of wounds obtained the incident. -
Boston Tea Party
was a nonviolent political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. Disguised as Indians, the demonstrators destroyed the entire supply of tea sent by the East India Company in defiance of the American boycott of tea carrying a tax the Americans had not authorized. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party. The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the... -
First Continental Congress Continued
...legislatures of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies. The members were called back later in response to their petition to stop the Intolerable Acts' failing. -
The Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable (Coercive) Acts was the Patriot name for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Massachusetts after the Boston Tea party. The acts stripped Massachusetts of self-government and historic rights, triggering outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies. They were key developments in the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775. -
Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military conflicts of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge. 700 british troops were given secret orders to capture and destroy military supplies that were supposedly kept by the massachusetts militia in concord. The Patriots had, however recieved information weeks before the mission that their supplies might be at risk and -
Lexington and Concord Continued
...weeks before the mission that their supplies might be at risk and had moved most of them to other places. -
Declaration of Independence
This declaration stated that the colonies, being at war, would, at that point, become independent states and be free from the british empire. The document also said that the new states would form a new nation: The United States of America. -
Battles of Saratoga
decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the American War of Independence and are generally regarded as a turning point in the war. Two battles were fought eighteen days apart on the same ground, 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne's campaign to divide New England from the southern colonies had started well, but slowed due to logistical problems. He won a small tactical victory over General Horatio Gates and the Continental Army in the September 19 Battle... -
Battles of Saratoga Continued
...of Freeman's Farm at the cost of significant casualties. His gains were erased when he again attacked the Americans in the October 7 Battle of Bemis Heights and the Americans captured a portion of the British defenses. -
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, German Battle or Surrender at Yorktown, the latter taking place on October 19, 1781, was a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, the siege proved to be the last major land battle of the... -
Siege of Yorktown
...American Revolutionary War, as the surrender by Cornwallis, and the capture of both him and his army prompted by the th british government to negotiate an end to the conflict. -
Treaty of Paris - 1783
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements. Peace negotiations began in April of 1782, involving American representatives Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams. The British representatives present were David Hartley and Richard Oswald.