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The enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition.
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The French and Indian War was the North American conflict in a larger imperial war between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war’s expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.
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On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the “Stamp Act” to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years’ War. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. It was a direct tax imposed by the British government without the approval of the colonial legislatures and was payable in hard-to-obtain British sterling, rather than colonial currency.
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Townshend Acts, (June 15–July 2, 1767), in colonial U.S. history, series of four acts passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert what it considered to be its historic right to exert authority over the colonies through suspension of a recalcitrant representative assembly and through strict provisions for the collection of revenue duties. The British American colonists named the acts after Charles Townshend, who sponsored them. -
On March 5, 1770, seven British soldiers fired into a crowd of volatile Bostonians, killing five, wounding another six, and angering an entire colony. The event, known as the Boston Massacre, did not happen in an isolated vacuum, but it occurred as a result of growing tensions between Boston colonists and English Parliament. At the conclusion of the Seven Years War, England had accumulated a massive military bill doubling their national debt and needed to increase national income. -
The Boston Tea Party was of the most iconic scenes in the American epoch defiant colonists dumping crates of tea into Boston Harbor during the night of December 16,1773. A culminating event after a series of protests over various British taxes over previous years, Great Britain had introduced the Tea Act on May 10, 1773 to reassert itself as the governing authority of the American colonies and spare the East India Company from financial ruin. -
Delegates from twelve of Britain’s thirteen American colonies met to discuss America’s future under growing British aggression. The list of delegates included many prominent colonial leaders, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, and two future presidents of the United States, George Washington and John Adams. Delegates discussed boycotting British goods to establish the rights of Americans and planned for a Second Continental Congress.
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The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. This document served as the United States' first constitution. It was in force from March 1, 1781, until 1789 when the present-day Constitution went into effect. After the Lee Resolution proposed independence for the American colonies, the Second Continental Congress appointed three committees on June 11, 1776. This committee was composed of one representative from each colony.
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In this first battle of the American Revolution, Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats, and embarked on a lengthy war to earn their independence. American victory. The British marched into Lexington and Concord intending to suppress the possibility of rebellion by seizing weapons from the colonists. Instead, their actions sparked the first battle of the Revolutionary War. -
The American patriots were defeated at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but they proved they could hold their own against the superior British Army. The fierce fight confirmed that any reconciliation between England and her American colonies was no longer possible. British victory. The battle was a tactical victory for the British, but it was a sobering experience. The British sustained twice as many casualties as the Americans and lost many officers. -
After crossing the Delaware River in a treacherous storm, General George Washington’s army defeated a garrison of Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. The victory set the stage for another success at Princeton a week later and boosted the morale of the American troops. American victory. The army that the British thought was all but defeated destroyed a major garrison and suffered very few casualties. The Americans also managed to capture critical supplies, including food and clothing, in the process. -
The Battle of Camden was one of several devastating defeats suffered by the Americans in the early stages of the British military offensive in the South. After capturing Charleston in May 1780, British forces under General Charles Lord Cornwallis established a supply depot and garrison at Camden as part of their effort to secure control of the South Carolina backcountry. -
In 1781, American and French troops laid siege to Yorktown, Virginia, a stronghold of the British Army. The strength of American and allied artillery, which only increased as the siege wore on, ultimately forced the British to realize that the situation was hopeless. General Charles Lord Cornwallis formally surrendered to George Washington on October 19, 1781. This proved to be the last major action of the Revolutionary War.
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This treaty, signed on September 3, 1783, between the American colonies and Great Britain, ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the United States as an independent nation. The American War for Independence (1775-1783) was actually a world conflict, involving not only the United States and Great Britain, but also France, Spain, and the Netherlands. The peace process brought a nascent United States into the arena of international diplomacy. -
The Three-fifths Compromise was a pivotal agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, addressing the contentious issue of how enslaved individuals would be counted for purposes of taxation and representation in the United States Congress. Under this compromise, five enslaved people were counted as three individuals, a decision that reflected the deep divisions between Northern and Southern states. Northern delegates typically viewed enslaved individuals as property.