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The British needed to station a large army in North America as a consequence. and on march 22, 1765, the British parliament passed the Stamp Act, which sought to raise money to pay for this army through a tax on all legal and official papers, and publications circulating through the colonies -
To help the expenses involved in governing the American colonies, Paraliament passed the Townshed Acts. The acts which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea. -
A crowd confronted eight British Soldiers in the streets of the city. As the mob insulted and threatened them, the soldiers fired their muskets, killing five colonists -
The Boston Tea Party was to protest British parliament's tax on tea. The demonstrators boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor -
The first Continental Congress, formally declared that colonists should have the same rights as Englishmen. They also agreed to form the Continental Association, which called the suspension of trade with Great Britian -
Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats, and embarked on a lengthy war to earn their independence. -
The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by congress. To be sent to the king as a last attempt to prevent formal war from being declared. The petition emphasized their loyalty to the British Crown and emphasized their rights as British citizen's -
Common Sense is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775-1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies -
The Declaration of Independence states the principles on which our government, and our identity as American, are based. The Declaration of Independence is not legally binding but, it is powerful. -
The Articles of Confederation was a document that explained how the government was to work. They failed because it left too much power with the states -
The treaty, signed on September 3rd 1783, between the American colonies and Great Britain, ended the American Revolution. Also formally recognized the United States as an independent nation. -
It determined that three out of every five slaves were counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxation. Before the Civil War, the Three-Fifths Compromise gave a disproportionate representation of slave states in the House of Representatives. -
A convention of of delegates from all the states except Rhode Island met in Philadelphia, in May of 1787. At this meeting it was decided that the best solution to the problems was to set aside the Articles of Confederation and write a new constitution.
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The Great Compromise established the United States legislature as a bicameral or two-house-law-making body. In the Senate, each state would allow two representatives. -
The Bill of Rights spells out Americans' rights in relation to their government. It guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual-- like freedom of speech, press, and religion.