1. 1754-1783

These colonial groups worked to communicate information, spread revolutionary sentiment, and coordinate patriotic action. The first group was established in Boston during the 1760s. During the early 1770s, a network of these groups formed across the colonies.

Committees of Correspondence

This pamphlet was written by Thomas Paine in 1776. In clear, simple language, Paine criticized the colonists' allegiance to the King, explained the financial advantages of becoming an independent republic, and urged the colonists to proclaim independence. The pamphlet became an immediate bestseller in America and helped influence colonial opinion.

Common Sense

This war between England and France (and their North American colonists and Indian allies) occurred from 1754 to 1763. The conflict began in the colonies and, several years later, extended to Europe, where it was called The Seven Year's War.

French and Indian War

On April 19, 1775, British troops marched from Boston to these two towns in Massachusetts to arrest rebel leaders and seize a militia arms depot. On that day, skirmishes erupted in both towns, and, during their return march to Boston, British troops were repeatedly attacked by colonial militiamen. These events mark the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

Lexington and Concord

This royal order issued by King George III prohibited the colonists from settling beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The decree angered many colonists who wanted to expand westward and profit from new territory.

Proclamation of 1763

Created in 1765, this British law required the colonies to supply British troops with barracks and provisions. If the barracks were too small, colonies were to house soldiers in local inns, vacant buildings, and barns.

Quartering Act

During the war, the U.S. built a small navy, which was used to raid a number of English ports. Additionally, the Continental Congress commissioned over 500 of these ships to attack British shipping. Capturing or destroying hundreds of British merchant vessels, these ships helped to raise the cost of war for the British.

privateers (armed ships that are owned and manned by private individuals and authorized by the government to help fight a war)

In 1767, Parliament created this series of laws which levied taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. The law required the tax revenue to be first used to pay the salaries of colonial governors and officials, which effectively stripped the colonial assemblies of their "power of the purse".

Townshend Acts

This is the treaty that ended the French and Indian War.

Treaty of Paris of 1763

Signed in 1783 by representatives of Britain and the U.S., this was the treaty that officially ended the American Revolutionary War.

Treaty of Paris of 1783

James Otis, a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts, is attributed with these two revolutionary catchphrases.

1) "A man's house is his castle." 2) "Taxation without representation is tyranny."

During the American Revolution, the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies became increasingly divided into these two main groups.

1) Patriots (a.k.a. Rebels, Whigs) resisted British control and eventually supported independence. 2) Loyalists (a.k.a. Royalists, Tories) supported traditional British authority.

These factors stimulated the emergence among the colonists of a separate identity, a sense of nationalism as Americans.

1) the large geographic separation from Britain 2) the mixture of ancestry and culture in the colonies 3) local rule and salutary neglect 4) a sense of importance after winning the French and Indian War 5) colonial resentment with the way the British treated the colonials (as inferiors) during and after the French and Indian War

These were the advantages and disadvantages of Britain during the American Revolutionary War.

Advantages: Britain had a large navy and well trained army, a strong government with money, and the support of colonial Loyalists and Native Americans. Disadvantages: The war was far from Britain (costly to wage war). The British were less familiar with the terrain, and its soldiers were fighting for pay and out of loyalty to the crown.

These were the advantages and disadvantages of the United States during the American Revolutionary War.

Advantages: The Patriots were more familiar with the terrain, received aid from abroad (made a key alliance with France), and were fighting for homes, families, future (inspiring cause). Disadvantages: Initially, the Patriots no navy. Their national government (Continental Congress) was newly formed and lacked broad powers over the thirteen states. Not all Americans were Patriots.

In an attempt to unite the colonies in order to better protect themselves against the French and their Indian allies, Ben Franklin submitted this plan to a meeting of colonial representatives in 1753. The plan called for an inter-colonial government made up of a President-General and a Grand Council that could enact laws, make treaties with Indians, and raise an army. Although it was initially endorsed by the representatives at the meeting, the plan was ultimately rejected by both the King and colonial assemblies.

Albany Plan of Union

Many colonists protested that the writs of assistance violated their rights as British subjects. The colonists made these criticisms of the warrants.

Basically, the warrants were too general (not specific with limits) and therefore too powerful. The warrants: 1) didn't expire 2) were transferable (the holder of a writ could assign it to another) 3) allowed any place to be searched at the whim of the warrant holder 4) excused searchers from being held responsible for any damage they caused

This was the first large-scale battle of the American Revolutionary War. By late spring of 1775, about 15,000 colonial militia had closed in on British-held Boston. On June 17, British troops repeatedly attacked colonial militia forces that had occupied several hills surrounding the city. Ultimately, the British took the hills but lost more men than the colonials.

Battle of Bunker Hill

Also occurring during the summer of 1777 was this battle in upstate New York. British troops that had invaded from Canada got bogged down in the wilderness, were unable to get reinforcements and supplies, and eventually were surrounded and attacked by American forces. The surrender of British forces at this battle is regarded as the turning point of the war, for it renewed revolutionary confidence (which had suffered from the British occupation of Philadelphia) and encouraged a powerful European nation to form a military alliance with the U.S.

Battle of Saratoga

During this battle, which occurred on Christmas night in 1776, Washington led 2,400 men in rowboats across the Delaware River, marched nine miles through a storm, and attacked a garrison of 1,500 Hessians in New Jersey. Washington's successful surprise attack was a much-needed victory that boosted the Patriots' morale and inspired reenlistment.

Battle of Trenton

The famous "Join or Die" political cartoon (which depicts a serpent divided into pieces that are labeled with abbreviated names of the colonies) was created by this person and for this reason.

Ben Franklin created the illustration and published it in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1754. He wanted to encourage the colonists to adopt the Albany Plan of Union (i.e. unite the colonies under a common government).

This event, which took place in Massachusetts in 1770, involved the taunting of British soldiers at a customs house and the death of five colonists. Publicized by colonial newspaper writers and artists (e.g. Paul Revere's illustration), the event heightened tensions throughout the Thirteen Colonies.

Boston Massacre

During this 1773 event, a group of colonists dressed like Indians boarded ships in a New England harbor and threw a large shipment of tea overboard. The protesters (members of the Sons of Liberty) were angry with the British policy to allow a huge surplus of tea in England to be sold in the colonies tax-free. They felt that the British government was inducing the colonists to buy the cheap (but taxed) tea and implicitly agree to accept Parliament's right of taxation.

Boston Tea Party

This is why Great Britain increased taxes on the Thirteen Colonies during the 1760s.

Britain had amassed huge government debt from the French and Indian War and also faced the high costs of keeping an army in North America to protect the colonists. The British government reasoned that the colonials should share the cost of their own defense.

In the context of the mid 1700s, this term refers to all the territories and colonies in North America, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean that were ruled by Great Britain.

British Empire

This is how the British government responded to the colonial protests against the Sugar and Stamp Acts.

British Parliament: 1) repealed the Stamp Act 2) lowered the Sugar Act taxes 3) passed the Declaratory Act which asserted the power of Parliament to make laws over the colonies

In 1774, Britain made this series of laws to punish the Massachusetts colonists for throwing a large tea shipment into Boston harbor. These laws (1) closed the Port of Boston, (2) stripped Massachusetts of self-government, (3) allowed trials of accused royal officials and soldiers to take place in Britain rather than in the colonies, and (4) reaffirmed the Quartering Act.

Coercive Acts (a.k.a. Intolerable Acts)

This was the United States' professional military force during the Revolutionary War. It was composed of paid volunteers who signed enlistment contracts with their states. Because of funding problems, short enlistment periods, and desertions, the force varied in size (from 5,000 to 17,000) throughout the war. General George Washington was its commander-in-chief.

Continental Army

This document proclaimed the Thirteen Colonies to be sovereign states, separate and free from Britain. It explains the reasons for the colonies' decision by describing the colonists' natural rights, their duty to abolish an abusive government, and the ways King George III violated their rights. The document was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

Declaration of Independence

Although the French won most of the battles during the first few years of the French and Indian War, these are the reasons why the British ultimately won the war.

During the second half of the war, Britain sends thousands troops to North America, enlisted many colonials into military units, and gained the aid of the Iroquois Confederacy. Additionally, the French colonial population was small and in the end couldn't provide enough supplies and soldiers.

In response to the Intolerable Acts, fifty-five delegates from the colonies met in Philadelphia in 1774 and formed this group.

First Continental Congress

In a separate peace treaty signed at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Britain ceded this North American territory to Spain.

Florida

Although this European nation had covertly helped the United States with supplies since the beginning of the war, the American victory at Saratoga gave this country the confidence to officially join the war. After signing a military alliance with the U.S. in 1778, this European nation sent warships and troops to fight against the British in North America.

France

While camped at Valley Forge, the Continental Army received training from this Prussian general who had been given a position in the Continental Army. He created a model company (that then trained the rest of the troops) and greatly improved the army's camp sanitation, discipline, and tactics, including the use of bayonets.

Friedrich von Steuben

He was the King of Great Britain during the American Revolution.

George III

This colonist led a Virginia militia force into the Ohio River Valley, warned a French commander to leave the territory, ambushed a French scouting party, and then built Fort Necessity, which he surrendered during a French attack. During the French and Indian War, he participated in several British expeditions and led a full-time American military unit to defend the Virginia frontier.

George Washington

These are the main provisions of the Treaty of Paris of 1783.

Great Britain: 1) accepted the independence of the U.S. 2) ceded (gave up) to the U.S. the land east of Mississippi River 3) but retained possession of Canada

To expand Britain's largely volunteer army (which had shrunk from a lack of peacetime spending), the British government hired contingents of German mercenaries, commonly known as this, who served alongside the regular British army units during the Revolutionary War. Of the 32,000 soldiers who invaded Long Island in 1776, about 9,000 were this.

Hessians

This was the British government's response to the actions taken by the First Continental Congress.

In early 1775, the British government declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion, appointed a military general as governor of Massachusetts, and ordered him to enforce the Coercive Acts and suppress the "open rebellion" among the colonists by all necessary force.

This is the significance of the Battle of Yorktown.

It was the last major battle of the war and a defeat that helped to convince the British government to end the war. Just a few months after the Battle of Yorktown, Parliament voted to cease all offensive operations in America and seek peace.

This Boston lawyer wrote essays against the Stamp Act and, as a member of the Continental Congress, played a leading role in persuading that body to write and adopt the Declaration of Independence. During the second half of Revolutionary War, he served as diplomat in Europe.

John Adams

The ideas of this 17th-century English philosopher influenced the leaders of the American Revolution. Rejecting the notion of the divine right of kings, he argued that the people are the source of governmental power, that governments are formed to protect the people's natural rights, and that people have the right to abolish their government if it fails to protect their rights.

John Locke

During the summer of 1776, 32,000 British and German soldiers landed on this island. Washington's army (about 19,000 largely untrained, poorly equipped soldiers) attempted to defend New York City. After losing several battles, Washington and his battered army retreated to Pennsylvania.

Long Island

This was the colonials' response to the series of British laws and taxes made in 1764 and 1765.

Many American colonists were annoyed with the rapid end of salutary neglect and felt that they were victims of tyranny (cruel and oppressive rule). Irate colonists protested the laws by: 1) publishing pamphlets and giving speeches 2) passing resolutions and petitioning the British government 3) holding rallies and engaging in violence (assaulting tax agents, destroying tax offices) 4) boycotting (refusing to buy) British goods

This term refers to the American militia forces (non-professional citizen soldiers) who helped support the Continental Army but typically returned home after battles to defend their own communities.

Minutemen

Hoping to make a compromise settlement with the British government and avoid an all-out war, the Continental Congress sent this document to King George III in July of 1775. In the document, the colonists professed their loyalty to Britain, begged for an end to the hostilities, traced the history of the disagreement, and affirmed their aim to fight for their rights.

Olive Branch Petition

These were the results of the Townshend Acts.

Once again, many colonists rose up in protest. Anonymous essays were written and reprinted. Several colonies petitioned the King. Boycotts were organized, and violent clashes occurred. In 1770, Parliament repealed several of the Townshend taxes but retained a tax on tea and the requirement to use the revenue to pay colonial officials.

During the Colonial Era, Great Britain and its empire was ruled by a monarch and this legislative body, which consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Thirteen Colonies had no representation in the House of Commons.

Parliament

This colonial silversmith was a close friend of Samuel Adams and a member of the Sons of Liberty in Boston. A number of his engravings, such as "The Bloody Massacre," promoted the revolutionary cause. Although he served as an officer in the Revolutionary War, he is perhaps best known for his "midnight ride" that helped to warn of the British advance on Lexington and Concord.

Paul Revere

In the summer of 1777, British troops sailed from New York up the Chesapeake Bay and then marched into Pennsylvania to seize this American capital. Washington attempted to block the redcoats at Brandywine Creek but was defeated and forced to withdraw. The Continental Congress fled this city just before it was captured by the British.

Philadelphia

This Indian war with the British colonists occurred in 1763. Native American tribes of the Ohio River and Great Lakes regions were dissatisfied with the outcome of the French and Indian War, gathered together under the leadership of an Ottawa chief, and attacked British frontier forts and settlements. Both sides engaged in brutal tactics (targeting civilians, diseased blankets). The failed but costly Indian uprising hastened the British government to create policies to protect the colonies.

Pontiac's Rebellion

This Harvard graduate and unsuccessful businessman became one of the leaders of the American Revolution. Strongly opposed to British control of the colonies, he helped to found the Sons of Liberty, organize several protests in Boston, write colonial letters of protest, and organize the Committee of Correspondence in Boston.

Samuel Adams

Amid the spreading warfare between American militiamen and British troops in New England in 1775, colonial delegates met again in Philadelphia. This group assumed the role of a revolutionary government of the colonies for the duration of the war.

Second Continental Congress

This secret organization was formed to protect the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. Its members often engaged in violent and destructive acts.

Sons of Liberty

In 1779, this European nation signed a military alliance with France and agreed to fight the British in Florida.

Spain

This British law levied a tax on many paper documents (e.g. newspapers, pamphlets, deeds, contracts, licenses, diplomas, playing cards) sold in the Thirteen Colonies. Like the Sugar Act, this law allowed vice-admiralty courts to have jurisdiction for trying violators. The law was created in early 1765 and scheduled to go into effect 10 months later.

Stamp Act

Created in 1764, this British law levied taxes on molasses, sugar, coffee, wine, textiles, and indigo imported into the colonies. Calling for strict enforcement, the law required that violators be tried in vice-admiralty courts where a judge decided the case, not a local jury.

Sugar Act

As agreed to in the Treaty of Paris of 1763, Britain gained this from France and Spain (France's ally during the war).

The British gained: 1) almost all of the French territory in North America east of the Mississippi 2) Spanish Florida

This was the British government's reaction to the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Olive Branch Petition.

The British government rejected the Olive Branch Petition. King George III declared the colonists to be in rebellion (enemies) and began hiring German mercenaries for an invasion of the colonies. Parliament ordered the colonies closed to all commerce.

After the Battle of Saratoga, the British devised this new war strategy, which it carried out with some success during 1778-1780.

The British sought to gain control of the Southern states, where they hoped to recruit large numbers of Loyalists and stop the region's exportation of cash crops.

These were the effects of the Coercive Acts.

The Coercive Acts backfired on Britain. The colonists viewed the laws as cruel, unnecessary punishment and a threat to the rights of all American colonists, not just those in Massachusetts. Nicknamed the "Intolerable Acts," the laws convinced many moderate colonists to oppose British rule and encouraged the colonists to form an inter-colonial assembly to find solutions to their difficulties.

In response to the Intolerable Acts, the First Continental Congress took these actions.

The First Continental Congress: 1) sent the King a petition that stated the colonists' grievances, desire to maintain relations with Britain, and request for help 2) declared the Coercive Acts null and void 3) agreed to a colonial-wide boycott of British goods 4) urged the colonies to mobilize militias 5) agreed to meet again in 1775

These are the causes of the French and Indian War.

There was no clear boundary between British and French territory in North America. In the mid 1700s, both nations made efforts to secure their claims on the Ohio River Valley. France constructed forts and expelled British traders. In 1754, war erupted in that valley when a British colonial militia ambushed French troops and, in response, French forces captured the newly-built British outpost, Fort Necessity.

This wealthy lawyer and planter was a member of the Virginia colony's House of Burgesses. He wrote resolutions protesting the Intolerable Acts and, as a member of the Continental Congress, drafted the Declaration of Independence. During the Revolutionary War, he served as Governor of Virginia.

Thomas Jefferson

This English writer and political activist moved to the Thirteen Colonies in 1774. He authored influential pamphlets that promoted the ideas of liberty, encouraged colonials to declare independence from Britain, and boosted American morale during the war.

Thomas Paine

During the winter of 1777-1778, while the British army wintered comfortably in Philadelphia, Washington and the Continental Army camped at this site in Pennsylvania. Living in make-shift huts, 2,500 (of the 10,000) American soldiers died from exposure and disease.

Valley Forge

After gaining control of much of Georgia and the Carolinas, the British focused on subduing Virginia in 1781. In response, American and French troops in the North marched south and surrounded the British fort at this town in Virginia. At the same time, French warships defeated the British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay and cut off the British army's escape. After a two-day siege, the British General Cornwallis surrendered his entire army.

Yorktown

This term refers to a sense of belonging and loyalty to one's nation. Unlike patriotism, which is a peaceful pride and emotional attachment to one's homeland, this involves a belief that one's nation is the best and that the interests of their nation should be promoted over other nations.

nationalism

During the 1760s, British courts issued these search warrants to help customs officials search for smugglers who attempted to circumvent the Navigation Acts. These warrants, which allowed officers to enter a place and seek evidence, angered many colonists and played a role in the increasing tensions that led to the American Revolution.

writs of assistance