American Revolution Timeline Quiz

Seven Years' War (French and Indian War)

(1754-1763) A 1754-1763 global conflict between European nations, primarily Britain and France, that began in North America in 1754 and erupted in Europe in 1756. France ultimately ceded all of its North American territories to England and Spain, but the enormous cost of the war also damaged the British economy.

Albany Plan of Union

(1754) A plan put together by Benjamin Franklin to create a more centralized colonial government that would establish policies regarding defense, trade, and territorial expansion, as well as aim to facilitate better relations between colonists and American Indians. The plan was never implemented.

Peace of Paris

(1763) A peace treaty ending the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War). Under its terms, Britain gained control of North America east of the Mississippi River and of present-day Canada.

Proclamation Line of 1763

(1763) A boundary established by the British government after the Seven Years' War, prohibiting American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains to reduce tensions with Native Americans.

Salutary Neglect

(1700-1760) British colonial policy from around 1700 to 1760 that relaxed supervision of internal colonial affairs as long as the North American colonies produced sufficient raw materials and revenue. Also known as benign neglect.

Quartering Act

(1765) An act ensuring British troops would remain stationed in the colonies after the end of the Seven Years' War.

Sugar Act

(1764) The act of Parliament imposing an import tax on sugar, coffee, wines, and other luxury items. It sparked colonial protests that would escalate over time as new revenue measures were enacted.

Currency Act

(1764) The act of Parliament preventing colonial assemblies from printing paper money or bills of credit, curtailing the ability of local colonial economies to expand.

Committee of Correspondence

(1764) Type of committee first established in Massachusetts to circulate concerns and reports of protest and other events to leaders in other colonies in the aftermath of the Sugar Act.

Stamp Act

(1765) An act of Parliament that imposed a duty on all transactions involving paper items. The Stamp Act prompted widespread, coordinated protests and was eventually repealed.

Stamp Act Congress

(1765) A group of affluent protesters that met in New York City in October 1765, where twenty-seven delegates from nine colonies petitioned Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. Taxation without representation, they argued, was tyranny. Delegates then urged colonists to boycott British goods and refuse to pay the stamp tax. Yet they still proclaimed their loyalty to king and country. Even as delegates at the Stamp Act Congress declared themselves loyal, albeit dissatisfied, British subjects, they participated in the process of developing a common identity in the American colonies.

Declaratory Act

(1766) The act announcing Parliament's authority to pass any law "to bind the colonies and peoples of North America" closer to Britain.

Townshend Acts

(1767) The acts of Parliament that instituted an import tax on a range of items including glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. They prompted a boycott of British goods and contributed to violence between British soldiers and colonists.

Boston Massacre

(1770) A massive conflict between colonial protesters and British soldiers in Boston that led to the death of five colonists. The bloody conflict was used to promote the patriot cause.

Tea Act

(1773) An act of Parliament, also known as the tea tax, that aimed to reduce the financial debts of Britain and the British East India Company by providing the company with a tea monopoly in the British American colonies. This resulted in colonial protests.

Boston Tea Party

(December 16, 1773) Rally against British tax policy organized by the Sons of Liberty on December 16, 1773, consisting of about fifty men disguised as American Indians who boarded British ships and dumped about forty-five tons of tea into the Boston Harbor.

Coercive Acts

(1774) An acts of Parliament passed in response to the Boston Tea Party. The acts closed the port of Boston until residents paid for the damaged property and moved Massachusetts court cases against royal officials back to England in a bid to weaken colonial authority.

Quebec Act

(1774) An act of Parliament extending the boundary of Quebec to areas of the Ohio River valley that American colonists wanted to settle. This act also set up a colonial government without a local representative assembly in Quebec.

Continental Congress

(1774) Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1774 in response to the Coercive Acts. The delegates hoped to reestablish the freedoms colonists had previously enjoyed.

Continental Army

(1775) An Army created by the Second Continental Congress after the battles of Lexington and Concord began the Revolutionary War in 1775.

Second Continental Congress

(Philadelphia on May 10, 1775) Assembly of colonial representatives that served as a national government during the American Revolution. Despite limited formal powers, the Continental Congress coordinated the war effort and conducted negotiations with outside powers.

Battle of Bunker Hill

(On June 16, 1775) 2,500 British infantry sought to dislodge 1,500 patriot volunteers from Breeds Hill, 600 yards below Charlestown's strategic Bunker Hill. Although the British managed to expel the patriots during a third assault, more than a thousand British soldiers were wounded or killed.

Dunmore's Proclamation

(1775) A proclamation issued by the British commander Lord Dunmore that offered freedom to all enslaved African Americans who joined the British army. The proclamation heightened concerns among some patriots about the consequences of independence.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

(1776) In Common Sense, Paine wielded both biblical references and Enlightenment ideas to provide a rationale for independence and an emotional plea for creating a new democratic republic that would ensure liberty and equality for all Americans. He urged colonists to separate from England. It was an instant success, impressing everyone from patriot leaders to ordinary farmers and artisans, who debated his ideas at taverns and coffeehouses.

Declaration of Independence

(July 4 1776) A document declaring the independence of the colonies from Great Britain. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and then debated and revised by the Continental Congress, the Declaration was made public on July 4, 1776.

Battle of Saratoga

(October 1777) A Key Revolutionary War battle fought at Saratoga, New York. The patriot victory there in October 1777 provided hope that the colonists could triumph and increased the chances that the French would formally join the patriot side.

The War in the North

(1775-1778) After early battles in Massachusetts, patriots invaded Canada but failed to capture Quebec. The British army captured New York City in 1776 and Philadelphia in 1777, but New Jersey remained a battle zone through 1778. Meanwhile General Burgoyne secured Canada for Britain and then headed south, but his forces were defeated by patriots at the crucial Battle of Saratoga.

Battle of Yorktown

(October 19, 1781) A decisive battle in which the surrender of British forces on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively sealed the patriot victory in the American Revolution.

The War in the West and the South

(1777-1782) Between 1780 and 1781, major battles between Continental and British troops took place in Virginia and the Carolinas, and the British general Cornwallis finally surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781. But patriot forces also battled British troops and their American Indian allies from 1777 to 1782 in the Ohio River valley, the lower Mississippi River, and the Gulf coast.

Treaty (Peace) of Paris

(1783) The treaty that formally ended the American Revolution.