APUSH Period 3: Road to Revolution

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the French and Indian War, imperial taxation acts, colonial protest movements, the Continental Congress, and early Revolutionary military engagements.

Albany Plan of Union (1754)

A blueprint organized by Benjamin Franklin for an intercolonial government with an intercolonial council to levy taxes and coordinate defense and Native American relations; rejected by both individual colonies and the British crown.

1763 Treaty of Paris

The peace treaty concluding the French and Indian War that removed immediate French territorial threats to the American colonies, reduced Spanish borders, and opened the West.

Pontiac's Rebellion (1763)

An armed campaign launched by an alliance of Native American tribes led by Chief Pontiac against British forts in the Ohio Valley to protest encroachment by American settlers.

Proclamation of 1763

A royal decree by the British crown that prohibited colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent further costly frontier conflicts.

Sugar Act (1764)

A British parliamentary measure that placed import duties on foreign sugar and certain luxuries to raise crown revenue while strictly enforcing anti-smuggling navigation acts.

Quartering Act (1765)

Legislation requiring American colonists to provide housing and food for British soldiers stationed in their communities.

Stamp Act (1765)

The first direct, internal tax levied on everyday domestic items in the colonies, requiring revenue stamps on most printed paper materials including legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Secret colonial organizations that coordinated opposition to British revenue policies through intimidation of tax collectors, destruction of stamp paper, tarring and feathering, and non-importation boycotts.

Declaratory Act (1766)

A statute passed by Parliament immediately after repealing the Stamp Act, asserting its absolute authority to bind and legislate for the colonies 'in all cases whatsoever.'

Townshend Acts (1767)

A series of parliamentary acts that enacted external taxes on colonial imports of glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea, while authorizing the use of broad writs of assistance.

Writs of Assistance

Broad search warrants authorized under the Townshend Acts that permitted British customs officials to enter and search private homes for smuggled goods.

Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania

A series of influential resistance essays written by John Dickinson arguing against the constitutionality of the Townshend Acts and parliamentary taxation.

Boston Massacre (1770)

An incident where British troops fired into an aggressive, rock-throwing crowd of colonists in Boston, killing five individuals; later widely propagandized by radicals to inflame anti-British sentiment.

Gaspee Incident (1772)

An act of colonial defiance in which local Rhode Island colonists boarded, removed the crew from, and burned a grounded British customs schooner known for catching smugglers.

Boston Tea Party (1773)

A demonstration against the Tea Act where Sons of Liberty members disguised as Native Americans boarded merchant vessels and dumped 342 chests of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.

Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) (1774)

Punitive statutes passed by the British Parliament to punish Boston for the Boston Tea Party, which unified the colonies and led directly to the First Continental Congress.

Boston Port Act

A Coercive Act measure that closed Boston Harbor to trade until the ruined East India Company tea was fully compensated.

Massachusetts Government Act

A Coercive Act law that drastically curtailed local self-governance in Massachusetts and banned town meetings.

Administration of Justice Act

A Coercive Act measure permitting royal officials accused of capital crimes in the colonies to face trial in Great Britain rather than in local courts.

Expanded Quartering Act (1774)

A Coercive Act measure that forced colonists to lodge imperial British troops directly inside occupied private homes.

Quebec Act (1774)

British legislation extending the boundaries of Quebec south to the Ohio River and granting official recognition to Roman Catholicism, alarming Protestant American colonists.

First Continental Congress

A 1774 convention of delegates from twelve colonies in Philadelphia convened to coordinate a unified resistance against the Intolerable Acts; boycotted only by loyalist Georgia.

Joseph Galloway's Proposed Plan

A proposal at the First Continental Congress advocating for a formal political union of the American colonies within the British Empire, which failed by a single vote.

Suffolk Resolves

Measures endorsed by the First Continental Congress urging the immediate repeal of the Intolerable Acts, universal economic boycotts, and local military defense preparations.

Declaration and Resolves

A petition passed by the First Continental Congress entreating the King to restore colonial liberties and address grievances, while conceding Parliament's authority over colonial commerce.

Continental Association

A system created by the First Continental Congress to inspect, organize, and enforce collective economic sanctions and non-importation agreements against Great Britain.

Minutemen

Colonial militia members trained to mobilize rapidly, who engaged British regulars at Lexington and Concord after being warned by Paul Revere and William Dawes.

Battle of Bunker Hill (June 1775)

An early Revolutionary engagement fought primarily on Breed's Hill, where British forces captured the redoubt but sustained more than 1,000 casualties, resulting in an ideological and tactical boost for the colonists.