The Events For Independence

By cobuns

  • George III Becomes the King of England

  • The Stamp Act

    British law passed in 1765 that imposed a direct tax on the American colonies, requiring that most printed materials be produced on officially stamped paper from London.

  • Stamp Act Congress Meets in NYC

    (ended on the 25th)

  • Parliament Passes Townshend Act

    Series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1767 that placed new taxes and rules on the American colonies. (March till June)

  • The Boston Massacre

    Deadly clash on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers fired into a crowd of American colonists, killing five people.

  • The Boston Tea Party

    Political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts. Disguised as Native Americans, a group of American colonists boarded three merchant ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The protest was a direct response to the British Parliament's Tea Act of 1773, which the colonists viewed as another instance of "taxation without representation"

  • The Coercive Acts [Intolerable Acts]

    Series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the Massachusetts colony for the Boston Tea Party. The American colonists, who viewed the laws as an assault on their rights, dubbed them the Intolerable Acts. Instead of isolating Massachusetts, the acts unified the colonies in shared opposition to British rule, ultimately becoming a direct cause of the American Revolutionary War.

  • First Continental Congress Meets in Philly

    September 5 - October 26

  • First Shots of American Revolution

    The "first shots" of the American Revolution took place on April 19, 1775, in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. These engagements marked the start of the armed conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen colonies, a moment later immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the shot heard round the world".

  • Second Continental Congress Meeting

    till March 1, 1781

  • The Olive Branch Petition

    The Olive Branch Petition was a final attempt by the Second Continental Congress to avoid a full-blown war with Great Britain by appealing directly to King George III. The petition, which was adopted in July 1775, just after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, affirmed the colonists' loyalty to the Crown while asking for redress of their grievances. (just July)

  • Adoption of Declaration of Independence

    The formal statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, announcing that the 13 American colonies were no longer part of the British Empire. The document provided a powerful, philosophical justification for the break, arguing for natural rights and popular sovereignty.

  • Adoption of Articles of Confederation

  • British Surrender Yorktown, VA

  • Treaty of Paris Signed

    Official Ending of Revolution