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The French and Indian War
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John Locke's Social Contract Ideas
Locke maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, every society is based on a social contract—an agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. If the government violates that social contract by taking away or interfering with those rights, people have the right to resist and even overthrow the government. -
Writ of Assistance
a general search warrant that allowed British customs officials to search any colonial ship or building they believed to be holding smuggled goods. -
Treaty of Paris
The French lose all their land in the Americas except for a few islands here and there. -
Proclamation of 1763
The line that colonists were forbidden from crossing but crossed anyway because 'Murica -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act did three things:
1) Halved the duty (tax) on imported molasses, in hopes that colonists would pay rather than risk arrest for smuggling
2) Placed duties on certain things that hadn't been taxed before
3) Made it so that colonists accused of violating the act were tried in a vice-admiralty court (with a single judge) rather than a colonial court (a jury of sympathetic colonists). -
Sugar Act - Colonists' Response
1) Colonial merchants complained that the Sugar Act would reduce their profits by promoting the sale of foreign goods
2) Colonists complained further that the Parliament had no right to tax the colonists because the colonists were unable to elect representatives for themselves. -
Stamp Act- Colonists' Response
The colonists united to defy the law. Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and labourers organiseda secret group called the Sons of Liberty. Colonial assemblies declared that Parliament had no right to impose taxes, and in October 1765 New York, Boston, and Philadelphia agreed to boycott British goods until the Act was repealed. The boycott worked. -
Stamp Act
Imposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. A stamp would be placed on the items to prove that the tax had been paid. -
Sons of Liberty & Samuel Adams
This timeline would look so professional if you only saw the title and read the first slide -
Declaratory Act
Asserted Parliament's full right "to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever." -
Townshend Act
Named after Charles Townshend, the leading government minister, the Townshend Acts taxed goods imported into the colony from Britain, including glass, lead, paint, and paper. The Acts also introduced a tax on tea. -
Boston Massacre
A mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired, and five colonists were killed or mortally wounded. -
Tea Act
Granted the British East India Company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. This would have cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade by providing cheaper tea of the same quality. -
Boston Tea Party
Boston rebels disguised as Native Americans boarded three British tea ships and dumped 18,000 pounds of East India Company's tea into the Boston Harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts...
1) Shut down the Boston Harbour
2) (The Quartering Act) authorised British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings
3) General Thomas Gage was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts and placed Boston under martial law. -
First Continental Congress
In response to the Intolerable Acts, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress. 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights, amongst these the right to run their own affairs. They stated that, if the British used force against the colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
Minutemen
civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice -
Midnight Riders
Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. Church bells and gunshots were prearranged signals, sent from town to town, that the British were coming. -
Concord
The British found an empty arsenal. After a brief fight, the British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the minutemen fired on them from the sidelines as they marched. -
Lexington
The king's redcoats reached Lexington, Massachussetts at dawn. As they neared town, they saw 70 minutemen waiting. The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down
their arms and leave, and the colonists began to move without laying down their muskets. Then someone fired, and the battle began. Eight minutemen were killed, ten more were
wounded, but only one British soldier was injured. It lasted fifteen minutes -
Second Continental Congress
They met in Philadelphia. Some delegates called for independence, others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. The Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Continental Army
The colonial militia under George Washington. Approved by the Continental Congress. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
Actually took place on Breed's Hill. The colonists lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. Deadliest battle of the Revolution. -
Olive Branch Petition
Most of the delegates, like most colonists, feltdeep loyalty to George III and blamed the bloodshed on the king’s ministers. On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies. King George flatly rejected the petition. Furthermore, he issued a proclamation
stating that the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order a naval blockade to isolate a line of ships meant for the American coast. -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists - those who were still loyal to King George III.
Patriots - those who were in rebellion against the King. -
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
50-page pamphlet. Paine declared that independence would allow America to trade more freely. He also stated that independence would give American colonists the chance to create a better society—one free from tyranny, with equal social and economic opportunities for all. Common Sense sold nearly 500,000 copies in 1776 and was widelyapplauded. In April 1776, George Washington wrote, “I find Common Sense is working a powerful change in the minds of many men. -
Declaration of Independence adopted
Written mainly by Thomas Jefferson. declared the rights of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to be “unalienable” rights. Jefferson then asserted that a government’s legitimate power can only come from the consent of the governed, and that when a government denies their unalienable rights, the people have the right to “alter or abolish” that government. -
Washington's Christmas Surprise Attack
Washington attacked on Christmas, which was widely thought to be a day of armistice. -
Washington Crosses the Delaware
On Christmas Day, Washington led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They then marched to their objective—Trenton, New Jersey—and defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack. -
Saratoga
American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered on October 17, 1777. Although the French had secretly aided the Patriots since early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the Americans could win the war. As a result, the French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight. -
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Valley Forge
Winter -
France signs alliance with Patriots
After Saratoga, the French gained confidence in American troops. -
Friedrich von Steuben
a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster who helped train the Continental Army -
Savannah
The British capture Savannah. -
Marquis de Lafayette
lobbied France for French reinforcements -
Charleston
captured by cornwall something-or-other -
British surrender at Yorktown
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Treaty of Paris
One of the many Treaties of Paris. How many are there, 'cause I remember a ton from history class two years ago...
...and one from earlier in the timeline...
