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Navigation Acts of 1651
The English Parliament passed its Navigation Acts of 1651. These Acts were designed to tighten the government's control over trade between England, its colonies, and the rest of the world. Basically, the English government wanted to closely supervise England's imports and exports, limit imports to give British manufactures and merchants an advantage, close off the admittance of most foreign ships into English and colonial harbors, and tighten up economic oversight in the colonies. -
The French and Indian War
The war was fought 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, as well as Native American allies. -
Proclamation of 1763
King George III issued a proclamation that forbade colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. In so doing, he hoped to placate Native Americans who had sided against him during the recently concluded Seven Years' War. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act, also known as the American Revenue Act or the American Duties Act, was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was a law that required all colonial residents to pay a stamp tax on virtually every printed paper including legal documents, bills of sale, contracts, wills, advertising, pamphlets, almanacs, and even playing cards and dice. -
Declaratory Act
Declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. Parliament had directly taxed the colonies for revenue in the Sugar Act and The Stamp Act. -
Townshend Acts
The English Parliament decided to cut British land taxes. In order to make up for the difference and to continue to finance their troops in the Colonies, Charles Townshend, the British Treasurer, promised he would tax the colonists. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to make the citizens angry. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. Colonists dressed as Indians and threw tea into the water -
1st Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from thirteen colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts was the American Patriots' name for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston harbor. -
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The American Revolution
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2nd Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun.
