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John Locke
John Locke was one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". -
The Enlightenment
European philosophers had many ideas on the best form of government should work. The founding Fathers used their ideas when creating a new nation. Enlightenment ideas were- natural rights, consent of the governed, social contract, ordered liberty, separation of power, and separation of church and state. All these Enlightenment Ideas were important but the most important one is the natural rights- rights you're born with that rulers can't take away. Because no one can't take away your own rules. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War in the singular is used in the United States specifically for the warfare of 1754-63 which composed the North America theatre of the Seven Years' War and the aftermath of which led to the American Revolution. It was fought between France and Great Britain to determine control of the vast colonial territory of North America. English and French fighting over the same resources. England and France believed they owned some land. -
Colonial Anger/ Colonial Agitation
Britain started playing more active role in governing the colonies after war. Proclamation of 1763 was that nobody could live West of the Appalachian Mountains. Colonists didn't like this at all. Proclamation of 1763 which limited westward expansion and increased British taxation and "interference" in the colonies. Britain wanted to control and take the power from other colonies. Colonists had that anger with Britain for doing that to them, because they didn't feel like they had freedom. -
Stamp Act
It was the first internal tax directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. Each colony had its own government which decided which taxes they would have and collected them. Taxes on all printed materials. -
Townshend Act
Series of four acts passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert what it considered to be its historic right to exert authority over the colonies. Taxes on tons of other goods. American colonists, who had no representation in Parliament, saw the Acts as an abuse of power. The British sent troops to America to enforce the unpopular new laws, further heightening tensions between Great Britain and the American colonies in the run-up to the American Revolutionary War. -
Boston Massacre
Citizen began taunting British soldiers and throwing snowballs. British soldiers opened fire, killing 5 civilians. Soldiers put on trial and found not guilty. People all over the colonies are FURIOUS. Date was March 5, 1770. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment and paved the way for the American Revolution. -
Boston Tea Party
Tea Act of 1773 put a tax on all British tea and banned sale of tea that was not British. Sons of Liberty and other rebels dumped British tea into Boston Harbor as a protest against the tax. December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10,1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts. Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of rights. -
The Continental Congress
Politicians from every colony except Georgia met to discuss how to respond to the blockade of Boston Harbor and the presence of British troops. First meeting se in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26, 1774. First time most of the colonies came together to have one voice. -
The Intolerable Acts
The first of the Intolerable Acts was the Boston Port Act passed on March 31,1774. It forced the colonial settlers to pay for losses incurred by the British East India Company due to the destruction of the tea. A set of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament following the Boston Tea Party. Colonists had to pay for the tea that was dumped into the harbor. -
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was the principal author of The Declaration of Independence (1776), which was pivotal in creating a sense of idealism behind the new nation of the United States. Jefferson after became the third President of the US. -
George Washington
Regarded as one of the principals 'Founding Fathers' of the United States. Washington served as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army (1775-83), during which he often outmaneuvered the British army, despite a frequent numerical disadvantage. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. On the Lexington Common, the British force was confronted by 77 American militiamen, and they began shooting each other. Seven Americans died, but the other militiamen managed to stop the British at Concord and continued to harass them on their retreat back to Boston. About 73 British were dead, with another 174 wounded and 26 missing in action. -
Aftermath
On the afternoon after the massacre, most of the Indians left, heading back to their homes. Montcalm was able to secure the release of 500 captives they had taken. France gives Canada and all land east of the Mississippi river to the British. Spain gives up Florida. Britain would be now the most powerful empire in North America. After revolution the U.S implemented indirect democracy, a slightly more democratic version of the British Parliament. -
John Adams
A Founding Father and was also the second US President. Adams also played an important role in encouraging Congress to declare Independence. He wanted Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence and also helped to pass the Declaration through Congress. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was called, to which all colonies eventually sent representatives. Chose George Washington to lead the colonists' army, known as the Continental Army. Also debated and agreed on declaring independence from Britain. -
United States Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence, formally the unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and July 4,1776. A document written by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. -
Battle of Trenton
A small but pivotal American Revolutionary War battle that took place on the morning of December 26,1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington defeated a formidable garrison of Hessian mercenaries before withdrawing. A week later he returned to Trenton to lure British forces south, then executed a daring night march to capture Princeton on January 3. The victories reasserted American control of much of New Jersey and greatly improved the morale and unity of the colonial army and militias. -
Turning Point and Victory
Americans won the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 which led to the Treaty of Alliance (negotiated by Ben Franklin with France). France won thought the Americans could win the war, so they joined the war to help fight against the British. -
Battles of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the American over the British in the American Revolutionary War. The Battles of Saratoga are often considered together as a turning point of the war in Favour of the Americans. The failure of the American invasion of Canada in 1775-76 had left a large surplus of British troops along the St. Lawrence River. -
Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown proved to be the decisive engagement of the American Revolution. The British surrender forecast the end of British rule in the colonies and the birth of a new nation- the Unites States of America. It ended by American victory. Outnumbered and outfought during a three-week siege in which they sustained great losses, British troops surrendered to the Continental Army and their French allies. -
Southern Campaigns
Pensions Transactions refer to the years after the Revolutionary War, when there are thought to have existed around 80,000 pension applications from soldiers who fought in the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. The Southern Campaign began with British concern over the course of the war in the North. Failure at Saratoga, fear of French intervention, and over-all failure to bring the rebels to heel persuaded British military strategists to turn their attention to the South. -
Treaty of Paris
The newly elected British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne saw American independence as an opportunity to build a lucrative trade alliance with the new nation without the administrative and military costs of running and defending the colonies. The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution War. The treaty and the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause (France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic) also known as the Peace of Paris. -
The Constitutional Convention
In 1787, the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia to create a new government. This meeting would be known as the Constitutional Convention. George Washington led the meeting, although did not participate much in any debates. The problem to solve: How to make a stronger government while making sure it doesn't become too powerful! Too weak and it won't work, too strong and it will violate people's rights.
