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French and Indian War
The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War, the American phase of a worldwide nine years’ war fought between France and Great Britain. As a result of the war, France ceded all of its North American possessions east of the Mississippi River to Britain. The costs of the war contributed to the British government’s decision to impose new taxes on its American colonies. -
Currency Act
Passed by Parliament on September 1, 1764, the act extended the restrictions of the Currency Act of 1751 to all 13 of the American British colonies. It eased the earlier Currency Act's prohibition against printing of new paper bills, but it did prevent the colonies from repaying future debts with paper bills. -
Stamp Act
"No taxation without representation"
It was the first British parliamentary attempt to raise revenue through direct taxation on a wide variety of colonial transactions. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert what it considered to be its historic right to exert authority over the colonies through suspension of a recalcitrant representative assembly and through strict provisions for the collection of revenue duties -
Boston Massacre
Soldiers used shotfire without order and were given a civilian trial, in which John Adams conducted a successful defense.
Taxes were only imposed tea importation. -
Boston Tea Party
Protesting both a tax on tea (taxation without representation) a party of Bostonians thinly disguised as Mohawk people boarded ships at anchor and dumped some £10,000 worth of tea into the harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
British warships arrived
Five Acts were passed to punish the people of the Boston tea party
The Boston harbor was closed until the tea was paid for. -
First Continental Congress
First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates represented all the colonies except Georgia met to oppose British oppression.
Divided opinions on how to solve the problem giving solutions:
-their right to liberty and property and the right of provincial legislatures to set taxes and internal policy.
-claimed to be loyal to the British king but called Americans to refuse to buy British goods. -
1775
700 British marched silently out of Boston to seize weapons owned by colonists in Concord.
The first shots had been fired. -
Second Continental Congress
In Philadelphia and started acting as the American government. It set up an army under the command of George Washington. -
1776
The British captured New York. Americans were close to losing the war, they were not disciplined soldiers. -
Declaration of Independence
After the Congress recommended that colonies form their own governments, the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson. It sent the basis for a new form of government. -
Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga
The Colonies turned the situation around and they took 6000 Britain soldiers prisoner in New York and then they were sent back to England. -
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Washington winters at Valley Forge
French King Louis XVI signed an Alliance with the Americans. -
1781
George Washington won in Virginia with the help of France. -
Articles of Confederation
-Central government was needed
-American states didn´t want to pay taxes to a federal government.
-After the Independence War, there was no unity: all states were self-governed. -
Treaty of Paris
Britain recognized the independence of the United States with generous boundaries, including the Mississippi River on the west. Britain retained Canada but ceded East and West Florida to Spain. -
Constitutional Convention
Congress asked for a Constitutional Convention. They issued the Constitution of the United States, which proposed a new system of government: a federal government which went effective in 1789. -
George Washington
First President -
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights granted the right to religious freedom, freedom of speech, the right to carry arms, to stand trial by jury and protection against cruel punishments.
