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Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts were passed by the English Parliment. These acts required that only English ships (including ships of its colonies) be used for trade within the British empire. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 declared that no colonial settlement could be established west of the Appalachian Mountains. -
Sugar Act
This act imposed a tax on all sugar imported into the American colonies. The tax revenues helped pay for wars that the British had waged. These taxes were also used to support British troops in North America. -
Stamp Act
Stamp Act required the use of tax stamps on all legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards and certain business aggrements. -
Stamp Act Congress
The delegates prepared a declaration of rights and grievances against the new British actions, which was sent to King George III. This action marked the first time that a majority of the colonies joined together to oppose a British law. As a result of the colonists' grievances, the British Parliment repealed the stamp Act. -
Boston Tea Party
Colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians dumped almost 350 chests of British tea into the Boston Harbor as a gesture of tax protest. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was heled at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. They decided that the colonies should send a petition to King George III to explain their grievences. -
Lexington and Concord
The first two battles of the American Revolution. The Battle of Concord was later described by the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as the "Shot heard round the world". -
Second Continental Congress
The delegates from twelve colonies gathered and immediately assumed the powers of a acentral government. One of its main actions was to estabolish an army. -
Coercive Acts
The British Parliment was quick to respond to the Tea Party. It passed the Coercive Acts in 1774. The acts closed the harbor and placed the government of Boston under direct British control. -
Resolution of Independence
Congress adopted the Resolution of Independence, but it was not a legally binding document. It was, however, one of the firs necessary steps to establish the legitimacy, legal authority, of a new nation in the eyes of foreign governments. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson began writing a draft of the Declaration of Independence. He worked alone on the document for the last two weeks of June. On June 28, he asked John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to look over his work. On July 4 it was adopted. On August 2, the members of the Continental Congress signed it.