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The Great Awakening
An important point in time when the leaders of the churc in the colonies feared the colonists were loosing their religious dedication. Some people like George Whitefeild gave inspirational and emotonal speeches, or sermons concerning the evangelical movement going throughout the colonies. He said that they should try to renew their faith in christianity by following the movement. Another man by the name of Jonathan Edwards gave sermons on eternal punishment, saying we need to accept God's grace, -
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and repent for our sins or face eternal punishment in hell. Another thing that was taught was that every person; man, woman, child, was born into this world with an equal chance of going to heaven. That just depended on how they acted throughout their lifetime. -
The French and Indian War
This war was a result of the British wanting control of the fur trades in the Great Lakes region and they wanted the colonies to expand westward. But the French had control of what is now Canada so in order to manage the fur trade, they had to compete with France and go to war. The French allied with the indians aroud them and the British used the colonies and their own armies to attack the French forts. Fort Nessesity was attacked many times and finally captured, renamed Fort Duquesne by the -
The Proclamation of 1763
The Proclaimation of 1763 was an act sent from the British that said the colonists could not spread their homes past the Appalachian mountains and that the people that already lived in the Ohio Valley had to leave nd go back to the original colonies.The colonists didn't listen to the t act though because they thought that they should be allowed to go as far as they could. So explorers led willing colonists past the Appalachian mountains to live. -
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French. The British attacked Fort Dequesne and took it back as their own. The British named the newly- captured fort Fort Pitt, after William Pitt who was a British foreign and military advisor. After many defeats, The British led a huge attack on Quebec, the capitol of French Canada, thus ending the war. -
The Sugar Act
The British needed to support the standing armies in the New World from attacking indians so they made The Sugar Act, an act that made the colonist pay extra for tea, sugar, and other products. The Parliment of England allowed their navy to stop and search colonists ships for any unpaid for products, and if so, they had the power to take away their ship, merchandice and belongings, A colonist named James Otis wrote an essay for the British saying neither the Crown nor Parliment had the right -
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to take away a mans possesions without m the owners concent. -
The Stamp Act
In 1765, Prime Minister Grenville proposed to the Parliment that if the colonists did not have a solution to the sugar act, then they should create the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act said that extra had to be paid onpaper goods like newspaper, envelopes, or other things. As a result of the Stamp act, thecolonists banded together and made the Sons of Liberty, a secret society that secretly rvolts against the British and their doings. -
The Townshend Acts
This British act taxed every day items like tea, glass, lead, paint, and paper. These kind of acts take away power from the colonist legislature and thatlimited the amount of things the colonists could buy. They responded by doing a massive boycott against British goods and creating the Daughters of Liberty, which pretty much made anything that could'nt be bought, they supported boycotts and discussed political matters like the acts of England. -
The Boston Massacre
In 1770, British soldiers were stationed in Boston to gaurd the colonial officials that enforced the Parliments laws. The soldiers came to help a sentry standing near the Old State House, who was being tormented by a mob, and shot into the crowd without any orders. Three men died and two others from earlier injuries. The soldiers were tried with murder, but only two were convicted, but with less sentence than tried with. The Sons of Liberty took advantage of this, calling it a 'massacre' to make -
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it sound more dramatic. They also want the colonists who do not care who rules tthem to hate the British and what they do to the colonists. Even though only 5 people died, many colonists believed that lots of Boston civilians were murdered. The Sons of Liberty used this to their advantage. -
The Tea Act
The tea act was intended to reduce the tea surplus from the British East India Trading Company. The BEITC was allowed by Parliment to sell tea to the colonies, which would tax colonists from the Townshend Act. The colonists oppsosed this act because they were afraid that the East India Trading Co. would put them out of business. The British were also able to catch all of the smuggled tea that went into the colonies. These events would influence The Sons of Liberty to go to extremes. -
The Boston Tea Party
On the night of December 16, 1773, The Sons of Liberty, disguised as indians of course, crept onto the three ships holding 90000 gallons of tea and after three hours dumped the last gallon overboard. The colonists didn't want to pay for the tea any more so the Sons of Liberty would not allow the tea to be unloaded. But, the Boston Governer commanded them to do so, AND Royal Governer Thomas Hutchingson refused to have the tea returned to Britian. The ships were left there, so the colonists acted. -
The Intolerable Acts
These British laws were made to punish the colonists for dumping the tea into Boston Harbor. The first was that Boston Harbor was closed until the colonists could pay back the money for the tea. The second is that any governer of any city can ban town meetings. Third, that crimes made in the colonies had to be dealt with in England; criminal trials had to be held in Britian and they had to be shiped there. And lastly the Quartering Act was established. This meant that colonists HAD to keep -
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British soldiers in their homes no matter what. They had to provide for them, care for them and let them sleep in their homes whenever the soldiers wanted. Many people wrote plays and essays critisizing the British and all they did. -
The Battle of Lexington/ Concord
These were the first battles of the Revolutionairy War. Paul Revere ran through Concord shouting 'The British are coming, the British are coming!', warning minutemen- militia that could be ready to fight fast- to be ready to fight the British. Around 700 British regulars were told to search around Concord, Boston, Lexington, and other cities for secret weapon stashes for the minutemen. The colonists had already heard news of the mission for the soldiers, so they switched the weapons to -
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different towns to confuse the British. When the British attacked Lexington, the militia where forced backward toward Concord. Then, 500 militia battled the soldiers, defeating three companies of British regulars. More colonists came, making around 1700 militia forced the British back into Boston. They surounded Boston, trapping the British in Boston with no way out, except fighting. -
The Battle of Bunker Hill
As colonist armies surrounding Boston began to fill up Breed's and Bunker Hill, the British attacked the colonial lines. On the third assult, they were sucessful, probubly because the colonists ran out of ammo. Even though the British captured the hills, they had over 800 injured and 226 dead. The colonists won a morale victory that day because they had fewer casualties and were able to regroup after they retreated. -
Common Sence
Written by Thomas Paine, this pamphlet was made to influence others to help the colonies in their fight to create independent from England. Some things included in Common Sense were that the government of England was unnatural and wrong, that the laws of a country should be made by the people. Over 500,000 copies were sold worldwide. He wrote this pamphlet as a common man would. Many good writers wrote their books so only educated people could read it. The colonists then wrote the Declaration. -
The Delaration of Independance
This document, published by Thomas Jefferson, declared the colony's independence from Great Britian. Many things were stated, like all of the specifics from acts passed by Parliment and King George III. The 57 representitives from all of the colonies signed their names at the bottom, signifying that they approve of the colonies becoming independent. Thomas Jefferson made points about human life too. He wrote that all men have the roght to live, the right of their own liberty, and the right to -
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pusue true happiness. He basically summarized the work of John Locke and other American philosophers into one page telling the British why the colonies should be independent. At the end, Thomas Jefferson writes that the colonists want to have the same privilages as Spain or France; they can trade with whomever they want, they can ally with whomever, and other such things free countries can do. -
The Battle of Saratoga
The Battle of Saratoga was an embarassing British loss. General Sir William Howe was the British commander at the time. He forced General Washington's troops up the Lake Chaplain Valley. The British then made up a plan to attack the american hom base of New York with two armies that would combine from two opposite sides of New York and capture the city. The second army would be led by General John Borgoyne, who would come up the valley to New York. Butthe British were stalled. This gave the -
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American forces time to re-group and defend themselves against the English. Unfortunetly for Burgoyne, General Howe did not think that two armies would be needed to capture New York, so he marched his army down to Philidelphia and get the Americans there. So with no reinforcments available to Burgoyne, he was totally outnumbered by re- grouped American militia. He was then forced to surrender to avoid a gruesome defeat. -
The Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was the last major battle of the American Revolutionairy War. American and allied French forces combined to prevent the escape of British General Cornwallis from Yorktown. A fleet of French ships came up from the West Indies with 500,000 pesos to pay for the battle, along with additional forces. The fleet prevented esape by sea and an army thousands strong blocking the land. The siege of Yorktown started on the 14 of October, and after days of battles, the British -
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surrendered on the 19th. This when the British finally realized that they needed to resolve the conflict. -
The Treaty of Paris
Since England could not pay for another army, and they recognized the U.S's independence, they created the Treaty of Paris, a document saying that the war was over, it established the borders of America, it allowed Florida to be returned to Spain, and it let America settle and trade outside of the original 13 colonies.
