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French and Indian War
The dispute began when the French built Fort Dusquesne in the Ohio River Valley west of Pennsylvania and Virginia. However, the Virginia government had already gave 200,000 acres of land there to a group of wealthy planters. Angered by this the Virginia governor sent militia, a group
of ordinary citizens who performed military duties, to evict the French. This was the start of the French and Indian War, the fourth war between Great Britain -
Treaty of Paris
The American revolutionary war had officially ended in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the U.S. Great Britain had claimed Canada and virtually all of North America east of the Mississippi
River, took Florida from Spain.The treaty permitted Spain to keep possession of its lands west of the Mississippi
and the city of New Orleans, which it had gained from France in 1762. -
Proclamation of 1763
To avoid anymore conflicts with Native Americans, the British government banned colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Proclamation of 1763 established a Proclamation Line along the Appalachians, which the colonists were not allowed to cross. However, they still continued to trespass onto Native American Land. -
Sugar Act and the Colonists Response
The Sugar Act halved the duty on foreign-made molasses in the hopes that colonists would pay a lower tax rather than by smuggling. It placed duties on certain imports that had not been taxed before.The colonists declared that Parliament lacked the power to impose taxes on the colonies because the colonists were not represented in Parliament. Also that it would reduce their profits. -
Stamp Act and colonists response
In March 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This act
imposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing cards. A stamp would be placed on the items to prove that the tax had been paid. It was the first tax that affected colonists directly because it was levied on goods and services. Previous taxes had been indirect, involving duties on imports.Colonists harass stamp distributors, boycott British goods, and prepare a Declaration of Rights and Grievances. -
Declaratory Act
Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted Parliament’s full right “to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever.” Stated parliaments right to rule over all the colonies in all cases and arenas. -
Sons of Liberty is formed and Samuel Adams
The Townshend Acts taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies. Led by men such as Samuel Adams, one of the founders of Sons of Liberty, the colonists boycotted British goods. -
Writ of Assistance
A writs of assistance is a written order issued by a court instructing a law enforcement official, such as a sheriff or a tax collector, to perform a certain task. Historically, several types of writs have been called "writs of assistance". Most often, a writ of assistance is "used to enforce an order for the possession of lands". -
Townshed Acts and colonists response
In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, named after Charles Townshend, the leading government minister.The Townshend Acts taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, the most popular drink in the in 1770. The Townshend Acts were repealed with the exception of a tax on tea. colonies.Colonial Reaction :protest "taxation without representation”
and organize a new boycott of imported goods. -
Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guard there. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killed
or mortally wounded. Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation the Boston Massacre. -
Tea Act
1773 TEA ACT
British Action:Britain gives the East India Company special concessions in the colonial tea business and shuts out colonial
tea merchants.Colonial Reaction: Colonists in Boston rebel,dumping 18,000 pounds of East India Company tea into Boston harbor.The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. -
Boston Tea Party
On the moonlit evening of December 16, 1773, a large group of Boston rebels disguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action against three British tea ships anchored in the harbor. In this incident, later known as the Boston Tea Party, the “Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India Company’s tea into the waters of Boston harbor. It was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston. -
Intolerable Acts
British Action :King George III tightens control over Massachusetts
by closing Boston Harbor and quartering troops.Colonial Reaction:
Colonial leaders form the First Continental Congress and
draw up a declaration of colonial rights. -
First Continental Congress Meets
In response to Britain’s actions, the committees of correspondence assembled the First Continental Congress. In September 1774, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They defended the colonies’ right to run their own affairs and stated that, if the British used force against the colonies, the colonies should fight back. -
John Locke's Social Contract
Locke maintained that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, every society is based on a social contract—an agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. If the government violates that social contract by taking away or interfering with those rights, people have the right to resist and even overthrow the government -
Minutemen
Minutemen were private colonists who independently organized to form well-prepared militia companies self-trained in weaponry, tactics and military strategies from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They were also known for being ready in a minute's notice. -
Midnight Riders: Revere, Dawes, Prescott
Colonists in Boston were watching, and on the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord. The darkened countryside rang with church bells and gunshots—prearranged signals, sent from town to town, that the British were coming. -
Battle of Concord
The British marched on to Concord. After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up to march back to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000 minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops from behind stone walls and trees. British soldiers fell by the dozen. Bloodied and humiliated, the remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston.Colonists had become enemies of Britain and now held Boston and its
encampment -
Battle Of Lexington
The king’s troops, known as “redcoats” because of their uniforms, reached Lexington, Massachusetts, five miles short of Concord, on the cold, windy dawn of April 19. As they neared the town, they saw 70 minutemen drawn up in lines on the village green. The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay down their arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying down their muskets. Eight minutemen were killed and the battle only lasted 15 minutes. -
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed by the second continental congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. -
Second Continental Congress
In May of 1775, colonial leaders called the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to debate their next move. The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the Second Continental Congress. Some delegates called for independence, while others argued for reconciliation with Great Britain. Despite such differences, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
cooped up in Boston,British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill, north of the city and near Bunker Hill. On June 17, 1775, Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. The colonists held their fire until the last minute and then began to mow down the advancing redcoats before finally retreating. By the time the smoke cleared, the colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties. * the deadlist battle of the war* -
Olive Branch Petition
The Olive Branch Petition, drafted on July 5, 1775, was a letter to King George III, from members of the Second Continental Congress, which represents the last attempt by the moderate party in North America to avoid a war of independence against Britain. Urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies.King George flatly rejected the petition. Furthermore, he issued a proclamation stating that the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order a naval blockade -
Publication of Common Sense
Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–76 that inspired people in the Thirteen Colonies to declare and fight for independence from Great Britain in the summer of 1776.Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine, a recent immigrant,argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute of Britain.” Paine explained that his own revolt against the king had begun with Lexington and Concord -
loyalists and patriots
Loyalists—those who opposed independence
and remained loyal to the British king—included judges and governors, as well as people of more modest means. Many Loyalists thought that the British were going to win and wanted to avoid punishment as rebels. Still others thought that the Crown would protect their rights more effectively than the new colonial governments would. Patriots the supporters ofindependence
drew their numbers from peoplewho saw political and economic opportunity in an independce -
Declaration Of Independence
Thomas Jefferson " all men were created equal" Drawing on Locke’s ideas of natural rights, Jefferson’s document declared the
rights of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to be “unalienable” rights—ones that can never be taken away. a government’s legitimate power can only come from the consent of the governed, when a government denies their rights,the people have the right to “alter or abolish” that government. From then, the American colonies declared their independence from Britain -
Redcoats push Washington's Army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania
Planned in partial secrecy, Washington led a column of Continental Army troops across the icy Delaware River in a logistically challenging and dangerous operation. Other planned crossings in support of the operation were either called off or ineffective, but this did not prevent Washington from surprising and defeating the troops of Johann Rall qaurtered in Trenton.The army crossed the river back to Pennsylvania, this time laden with prisoners and military stores taken as a result of the battle. -
Washintons Christmas night suprise attack
Desperate for an early victory, Washington risked everything on one bold stroke set for Christmas night, 1776. In the face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They then marched to their objective—Trenton, New Jersey—and defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and in September of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia -
Saratoga
American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered on October 17, 1777.The surrender at Saratoga turned out to be one of the most important events of the war. Although the French had secretly aided the Patriots since early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the Americans could win the war. As a result, the French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight. -
Valley Forge
While this hopeful turn of events took place in Paris,
Washington and his Continental Army—desperately low on
food and supplies—fought to stay alive at winter camp in
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died,
yet the survivors didn’t desert. Their endurance and suffering
filled Washington’s letters to the Congress and his friends. -
French American Alliance
Although the French had secretly aided the Patriots since
early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief
that the Americans could win the war. As a result, the
French signed an alliance with the Americans in February
1778 and openly joined them in their fight -
Friedrich von Steuben and Marquis de Lafayette
In February 1778, in the midst of the frozen winter at Valley
Forge, American troops began an amazing transformation.
Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster,
helped to train the Continental Army. Other foreign
military leaders, such as the Marquis de Lafayette
, also arrived to offer their help. Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779, and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war -
British victories in the south
After their devastating defeat at Saratoga, the
British began to shift their operations to the South. At the end of 1778, a British expedition easily took Savannah, Georgia. In their greatest victory of the war, the British under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780. Clinton then left for New York, while Cornwallis continued to conquer land throughout the South. -
British surrender at Yorktown
a French naval force defeated a British fleet and then
blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, thereby obstructing British sea routes to the bay. By late September, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. Less than a month later, on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis finally surrendered. The Americans had shocked the world and defeated the British. -
Treaty of Paris
Peace talks began in Paris in 1782. The American negotiating team included John Adams, John Jay of New York, and Benjamin Franklin. In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. independence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada to the Florida border
