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Proclamation of 1763
Made by king George III This order prohibited colonists from living west of the Appalachian Mountains, on Native American land. -
Sugar Act
In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act, which lowered the tax on the molasses the colonists imported. George Grenville hoped this change would convince the colonists to pay the tax instead of smuggling. But the downside was that the act let officers to take stuff away from accused smugglers without going to court. -
The Stamp Act
In 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This law taxed almost all printed materials. Newspapers, wills, and even playing cards needed a stamp to show that the tax had been paid. -
Stamp Act reapealed
People in colonial cities urged merchants to boycott British goods.Businesses in Britain lost money and demanded Parliament reapeal the Stamp Act. In March 1766, Parliament repealed the law. However, it also passed the Declaratory Act, stating that it had the right to tax and make decisions for the colonies -
The Townshend Acts
in 1767 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts to tax imports such as glass, tea, and paper. The tax was paid when the goods arrived,before they were brought inside the colonies. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history. -
Boston Tea Party
Despite warnings of trouble, the East India Company continued shipping tea to the colonies. In 1773 three ships loaded with tea arrived in Boston Harbor. The royal governor had ordered that they be unloaded. The Boston Sons of Liberty acted swiftly. At midnight on December 16, colonists dressed as Native Americans boarded the ships and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. -
1st Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts by the British Parliament. -
The notification to Lexington and Concord
Colonial protest leader Dr. Joseph Warren walked through Boston. Watching for any unusual activity by the British, he saw troops marching out of the city. Warren alerted Paul Revere and William Dawes, they rode to Lexington, a town east of Concord, to spread the word that the British were coming. -
The battle of Lexington and Concord
These battles were the first time that the military had to fight in the Revolutionary War. They were fought in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles were the first time outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America. -
2nd Continental Congress meets
It was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress. The Second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and move towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence. -
The Battle of Bunker Hill
The battle on Breed's Hill—which later became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill—was a British victory. Yet the British suffered heavy losses of more than 1,000 dead and wounded. They learned that defeating the Americans on the battlefield would not be easy. -
Olive Branch Petition
The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress in July 1775 in an attempt to avoid a full-blown war with Great Britain. The petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain and entreated the king to prevent further conflict. The petition was rejected, and in August 1775 the colonies were formally declared in rebellion by the Proclamation of Rebellion. -
Common Sense
Common Sense is a book written by Thomas Paine. It was first published during the American Revolution. The pamphlet was an immediate success. Common Sense gave the American colonists an argument for freedom from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. -
Resolution for Independence
Jefferson drew on ideas from English philosopher John Locke to explain why the thirteen colonies were proclaiming their freedom. In the 1690s Locke said that people are born with certain natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Locke also wrote that people form governments to protect those rights and that a government interfering with those rights could rightfully be overthrown. On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted on this resolution for independence. -
Declaration of independance
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress , which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain.
