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The French and Indian War
Also known as the Seven Years War, this New World conflict marked another chapter in the long imperial struggle between Britain and France. When France's expansion into the Ohio River Valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies. It lasted from 1756 to 1763, it was a real struggle between France and Britain. -
Proclamation of 1763
A royal proclamation that was made by King George III following the British victory over France in the French and Indian Wars. It declared all lands west of the Appalachian Mountains to divide off limits to colonial settlers. It was the first measure to affect all thirteen colonies. -
Sugar Act
The Revenue Act of 1764, which was also known as the Sugar Act. It was the first tax on the American colonies imposed by the British Parliament. The purpose of it was to raise revenue through the colonial customs service and to give customs agents more power and latitude with respect to executing seizures and enforcing customs law. -
Stamp Act (taxes)
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on the American colonists by the British Parliament. The act which was imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the French and Indian War. -
The Boston Massacre
A deadly riot that occurred on March 5th, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street bawl between American colonists and a British soldier. It paved a way for the American Revolution. -
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political Protest that occurred on December 16th, 1773, at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. Americans colonists angry at Britain for imposing "taxation without representation" , dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British east India Company into the harbor. This event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. -
Intolerable Acts
Also called the coercive Acts, in the U.S. colonial history, four punitive measures enacted by the British Parliament. They were passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were made to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest reaction to changes in taxation. -
Continental Congress
From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 colonies and later the United States. The first one met in 1774 in reaction to the Coercive Acts. 1775, the second one came along convened after the American Revolutionary War had already begun. -
Boston Blockade
British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston and demanding that the city's residents pay for the nearly one million worth of the tea dumped into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party. -
The Declaration of Independence
It was a formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring freedom of the 13 colonies from Great Britain. It was adopted at the Second Continental Congress on July 4th,1776. It explained why the colonies should separate themselves from Great Britain.
