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Great Awakening
The Great Awakening started was in 1754 and was a celebraton where people could come and renew there christianity. Between 1730 and 1745 there swept over the American colonies from Maine to Georgia a religious revival known as the Great Awakening. The revival movement, unlike the earlier doctrine of the Puritans, promised the grace of God to all who could experience a desire for it. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War, as it was referred to in the colonies, was the beginning of open hostilities between the colonies and Gr. Britain. England and France had been building toward a conflict in America since 1689. These efforts resulted in the remarkable growth of the colonies from a population of 250,000 in 1700, to 1.25 million in 1750. Britain required raw materials including copper, hemp, tar, and turpentine. -
Proclamation
The Proclamation 0f 1763, as it is known, acknowledged that Indians owned the lands on which they were then residing and white settlers in the area were to be removed. However, provision was made to allow specially licensed individuals and entities to operate fur trading ventures in the proscribed area. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon, while Grenville took measures that the duty be strictly enforced. The act also listed more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron. The enforced tax on molasses caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was Parliament's first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the colonies. Great Britain was faced with a massive national debt following the Seven Years War. That debt had grown from 72,289,673 in 1755 to 129,586,789 in 1764. English citizens in Britain were taxed at a rate that created a serious threat of revolt. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Atc was a series of 1767 laws named for Charles Townshend, British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasurer). These laws placed new taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. Colonial reaction to these taxes was the same as to the Sugar Act and Stamp Act, and Britain eventually repealed all the taxes except the one on tea. In response to the sometimes violent protests by the American colonists, Great Britain sent more troops to the colonies. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. -
Boston Tea Party
In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
Parliament was utterly fed up with colonial antics. The British could tolerate strongly worded letters or trade boycotts. They could put up with defiant legislatures and harassed customs officials to an extent.But they saw the destruction of 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company as wanton destruction of property by Boston thugs who did not even have the courage to admit responsibility. -
Battle of Lexington/Concord
The morning of April 19, 1775 saw soldiers of the British Army arriving at the Massachusetts town of Lexington. Their mission was to seize and destroy militia weapons and ammunition, but the local militia, known as Minutemen, stood on Lexington Green, awaiting their arrival. During the stand off, a someone fired a shot, which led the British troops to fire at the colonial militia. The Minutemen dispersed, and the British headed toward nearby Concord. -
Battle Of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, only days after George Washington was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. Despite the name, the battle was actually fought on Breed's Hill. -
Commen Sence
In 1775 "Common Sense," published in January, argued that the time had come to sever colonial ties with England; and that it was in the American interest to do so. This pamphlet sold 120,000 copies in the first three months and was instrumental in convincing many colonists that the time had come for Independence. -
Declaration of Independance
The Declaration is a document that states the unalienable rights life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the fact that all men are created equaly. The Declation of independence is imprtant because it gives us the rights that we have now. -
Battle of Saratoga
Historians consider the Battle of Saratoga to be the major turning point of the American Revolution. This battle proved to the world that the fledgling American army was an effective fighting force capable of defeating the highly trained British forces in a major confrontation. As a result of this successful battle, the European powers, particularly the French, took interest in the cause of the Americans and began to support them. -
Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was one of the last battles of the American Revolutionary War. The engagement lasted 20 days and ended with British Gen. Charles Cornwallis's surrender on October 19, 1781.: American victory that ended the Revolutionary War on October 20, 1781. British General Charles Cornwallis had met defeat in the south, at Cowpens, and his force had been continually weakened, especially by American General Nathanael Greene at Guilford Courthouse. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris officially ended the revolution, and recognized the United States of America as an independent nation.The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1782. The treaty was ratified on April 17, 1783, and it officially recognized American independence.
