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Jamestown, founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London, was the first permanent English settlement in North America. Despite early hardships, it became a crucial outpost for English colonization in the New World. -
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was a conflict between Great Britain and France, with Native American allies on both sides, over control of North America. It ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, marking a significant shift in power dynamics in the region. -
The Proclamation of 1763 banned American colonists from settling beyond the Appalachian Mountains to reduce conflicts with Native Americans and maintain British control over the frontier. -
The Sugar Act, enacted in 1764, was a British law aimed at raising taxes on sugar and other imported goods in the American colonies, sparking colonial unrest and contributing to the buildup to the American Revolutionary War. -
The Stamp Act, enacted in 1765 by the British Parliament, imposed direct taxes on the American colonies for various printed materials, sparking widespread protests and ultimately leading to its repeal in 1766 due to colonial opposition. -
The Townshend Acts were British laws passed in 1767, imposing taxes on imported goods in the American colonies, leading to colonial resistance and contributing to the road to the American Revolutionary War. -
The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonists in Boston, killing five people. Tensions had been rising between the colonists and British troops stationed in the city. The incident heightened anti-British sentiment and contributed to the growing revolutionary fervor leading up to the American Revolutionary War. -
The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773, when American colonists protested British taxation without representation by dumping tea into Boston Harbor. -
The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777 and ratified in 1781, established a weak central government in the United States, granting more power to individual states. They were later replaced by the U.S. Constitution in 1789 due to their inefficiency in governing the nation. -
The New Jersey Plan, proposed during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, advocated for a unicameral legislature with equal representation for each state, regardless of population size, aiming to protect the interests of smaller states.