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French and Indian War
a clash between the French and English over colonial territory and wealth -
Battle of Lexington
the first battle of the Revolutionary War, lasted only 15 minutes. The King's troops were known as "redcoats" -
Writ of Assistance
A writs of assistance is a written order (a writ) issued by a court instructing a law enforcement official, such as a sheriff or a tax collector, to perform a certain task. -
Treaty of Paris
Great Britain claimed Canada and virtually all of North America east of the Mississippi River. Britain also took Florida from Spain, which had allied itself with France. The treaty permitted Spain to keep possession of its lands west of the Mississippi and the city of New Orleans. France retained control of only a few islands and small colonies near Newfoundland. -
Proclamation
To avoid further costly conflicts with Native Americans, the British government established a Proclamation Line along the Appalachians that prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. -
Sugar Act & colonists response
halved the duty on oreign-made molasses in the hopes that colonists would pay lower tax rather than risk arrest by smuggling, placed uties on certain imports that had not been taxed before, provided that colonists accused of violating
the act would be tried in a vice-admiralty court rather
than a colonial court. They complainted that the Sugar Act would reduce their profits and Parliment had no right to tax the colonists without having elected representatives. -
Stamp Act & colonists response
a tax law requiring colonists to purchase special stamps to prove payment of tax. Colonists harass stamp distributors, boycott British goods, and prepare a Declaration of Rights and Grievances. -
Sons of Liberty & Samuel Adams
secret society, American colonists that was created in the Thirteen American Colonies, was formed to protect the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. Adams conceived of the Boston Committee of Correspondence and coordinated Boston’s resistance to the Tea Act -
Declaratory Act
declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain -
Townshend Acts & colonists response
taxed goods that were imported into the colony from
Britain, such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. Also taxed tea. Colonists protest “taxation without representation” and organize a new boycott of imported goods. Repealed these acts because of widespread protest. -
Boston Massacre
Taunted by an angry mob, British troops fire into the crowd, killing five colonists. Colonial agitators label the conflict
a massacre and publish a dramatic engraving depicting the violence. -
Tea Act
to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company and granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. This action would have cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to consumers for less. -
Boston Tea Party
a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard. -
Introlerable Acts- all 3 parts
One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private
homes and other buildings. General Thomas Gage placed Boston under martial law to keep peace. -
First Continental Congress meets
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
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
civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice, quietly stockpiled firearms and gunpowder. General Thomas Gage found out and ordered troops to seize illegal weapons -
Midnight riders: Revere, Dawes, 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 march quickly became a slaughter. Bloodied and
humiliated, the remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston that night. Colonists had become enemies of Britain and now held Boston and its encampment of British troops under siege. -
Second Continental Congress
Held in Philadelphia. 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. -
Continental Army
formed by the second continental congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War -
Battle of Bunker Hill
Cooped up in Boston, British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill. The colonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties, deadliest battle of war. -
Olive Branch Petition
Congress sent a letter to King George III urging a return to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies.
King George flatly rejected the petition, he issued a proclamation stating that the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order a naval blockade to isolate a line of ships meant for the American coast. -
Publication of Common Sense
ideas of Thomas Paine that attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine declared that independence would allow America to trade more freely and give American colonists the chance to create a better society -
Loyalists and Patriots
Loyalists—those who opposed independence & remained loyal to the British king—included judges and governors thought that the British were going to win and wanted to avoid punishment as rebels. Patriots—the supporters of independence—drew their numbers from people who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America. Many Americans remained neutral. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas 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, and that when a government denies their unalienable rights, the people have the right to “alter or abolish” that government. -
Redcoats push Washington's army across the Delaware River into Pennslyvania
The British quickly attempted to seize New York City. Although the Continental Army attempted to defend New York in late
August, the untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated. -
Washington's Christmas night surprise attack
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 Jerseyand defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped 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. -
Valley Forge
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. -
French-American Alliance
the French signed an alliance with the Americans and joined them in their fight, which promised America of French military support in case of attack by British forces indefinitely into the future. -
Friedrich von Steuben & Marquis de Lafayette
Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, helped to train the Continental Army. Marquis de Lafayette also arrived to offer their help. Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779 and led a command in Virginia -
British victories in the South
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. He led his army of 7,500 onto the peninsula between the James and York rivers and camped at Yorktown. Cornwallis planned
to fortify Yorktown, take Virginia, and then move north to join Clinton’s forces. -
British surrender at Yorktown
A French naval force defeated a British fleet which blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay that obstructed 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. Cornwallis finally surrendered. -
Treaty of Paris
The American negotiating team included John Adams, John Jay of New York, and Benjamin Franklin-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.
