American revolution learn

1763 Treaty of Paris

Ends Seven Years’ War; Britain gains Canada and Florida, massively expanding empire but inheriting heavy debt.

1763 Proclamation Line

Royal decree limiting westward settlement beyond the Appalachians; frontier management becomes a central imperial tension.

1763 Pontiac’s Rebellion

Indigenous uprising against British forts; exposes fragility of imperial authority in the interior.

Salutary neglect

Long-standing lax imperial enforcement before 1763; its end helps explain colonial backlash.

1764 Sugar Act

First postwar revenue tax; signals Britain’s shift toward extracting colonial revenue.

1764 Currency Act

Prohibits colonial paper money; fuels economic grievance and resentment.

1765 Stamp Act

Direct internal tax on legal documents; sparks mass protest and constitutional arguments.

1765 Sons of Liberty

Popular resistance movement using intimidation, crowd action, and symbolism against taxation.

Samuel Adams

Radical Boston leader linking street politics to ideological resistance.

George Grenville

British Prime Minister responsible for Sugar and Stamp Acts; emblem of new imperial policy.

Patrick Henry and Virginia Resolves (1765)

Assert that only colonial assemblies may tax colonists.

“No taxation without representation”

Slogan framing taxation as a violation of political consent and liberty.

1766 Repeal of Stamp Act and Declaratory Act

Parliament retreats tactically but asserts authority “in all cases whatsoever.”

1767 Townshend Acts

Duties on imports and new enforcement structures; shift conflict to trade and sovereignty.

John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767–1768)

“We are taxed without our own consent”; moderate constitutional resistance.

Benjamin Franklin testimony before Parliament (1766)

Warns colonists “will never submit” to parliamentary taxation.

1768 British troops in Boston

Military occupation radicalizes urban politics and escalates confrontation.

King George III Speech to Parliament (Oct 1775)

Describes rebellion as aimed at creating “an independent empire.”

1773–1774 Tea Crisis and Coercive Acts

Turning point pushing colonies toward intercolonial coordination and rupture.

1774 First Continental Congress

Colonies organize collective resistance to metropolitan control.

19 April 1775 Lexington and Concord

First armed clashes of the Revolutionary War.

Edmund Burke, Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)

Argues happiness and interest should guide imperial rule, not abstract authority.

1776 Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Bestselling pamphlet radicalizing public opinion in favor of independence.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

“’TIS TIME TO PART”; calls for total break with Britain.

2 July 1776

Continental Congress votes for independence.

Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776)

Proclaims equality and unalienable rights; reframes conflict as revolutionary.

General George Washington Orders (9 July 1776)

Independence; hope this important event will serve as a fresh incentive to…act with fidelity and courage” …. motivate soldiers’ loyalty and courage.

Articles of Confederation draft (1777)

“Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.”

1777 Battle of Saratoga

Major American victory convincing France to ally with the colonies.

Treaty of Alliance with France (1778)

France commits to defending American independence.

1778–1779 Globalization of the War

French and Spanish intervention turns conflict into imperial and Atlantic war.

Valley Forge (1777–1778)

Severe hardship combined with military professionalization under von Steuben.

1781 Battle of Yorktown

Decisive Franco-American victory forcing British surrender.

Cornwallis letter (20 Oct 1781)

I have the mortification to inform your lordship that I have been forced to surrender the troops under my command.

Lafayette letter to Vergennes (Nov 1781)

The play …is over and the fifth act has come to an end

1782 Peace negotiations in Paris

American diplomats negotiate independence directly with Britain.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

His Britannic majesty recognizes the United States as free, sovereign, and independent.

Frontier and territory

Revolution fundamentally concerned control of land and western expansion.

Native American agency

Indigenous nations pursued their own interests through neutrality or shifting alliances.

Iroquois Confederacy split

Internal divisions led different nations to support Britain or Americans.

Sullivan Campaign (1779)

Washington orders destruction of Iroquois settlements to secure frontier.

Canada and Quebec factor

Canada remains British, highlighting limits of revolutionary unity.

“Vast early America”

Revolution must be understood at continental, hemispheric, and Atlantic scales.

Native Americans excluded from Treaty of Paris

Indigenous land rights ignored, accelerating dispossession.

Loyalists

Allegiance to Britain was local and complex; many faced persecution and exile.

Black Loyalists

Thousands evacuated by British to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.

Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation (1775)

Promises freedom to enslaved people who join British forces.

Petition of African Americans to Massachusetts (1777)

Claims “natural and unalienable right to freedom.”

Quock Walker case (1781)

Massachusetts court uses “all men are born free and equal” to end slavery.

Slavery in the Revolution

Central to economy and diplomacy; antislavery gains were limited and uneven.

Abigail Adams letter to John Adams (31 March 1776)

“Remember the Ladies”; early feminist political claim.

John Adams reply (14 April 1776)

Dismisses women’s demands, revealing gender limits of revolution.

Daughters of Liberty

Organized boycotts and spinning bees to support resistance.

Camp followers

Women’s labor sustained armies through cooking, nursing, and logistics.

Deborah Sampson

Disguised herself as a man to fight; challenges gender norms.

Molly Pitcher

Symbol of women’s presence and participation on the battlefield.

Esther de Berdt Reed, Sentiments of an American Woman (1780)

Advocates expanded female public service.

New Jersey Constitution (1776)

Grants voting rights to unmarried women and free Blacks with property.

Pennsylvania Constitution (1776)

Highly democratic charter rejecting aristocracy.

Massachusetts Constitution (1780)

Durable model constitution; asserts “a government of laws, not of men.”

Patrick Griffin, “De-centering the Narrative: The Case for a Vast 1776” (2021)

Calls for moving beyond nation-centered revolutionary history.

Patrick Griffin, “De-centering the Narrative: The Case for a Vast 1776” (2021)

Advocates decentering the United States’ national narrative.

Michael A. McDonnell and David Waldstreicher, “Revolution in the Quarterly? A Historiographical Analysis” (2017)

Argue historians long wrote to the Revolution rather than critically about it.

Michael A. McDonnell and David Waldstreicher, “Revolution in the Quarterly? A Historiographical Analysis” (2017)

Describe empire as the “elephant in the room” of revolutionary history.

Michael A. McDonnell and David Waldstreicher, “Revolution in the Quarterly? A Historiographical Analysis” (2017)

Frame the American Revolution as one experiment among many in self-determination.

Alan Taylor, Expand or Die: The Revolution’s New Empire (2017)

Rejects consensus narratives and stresses expansionism.

Serena R. Zabin, Writing To and From the American Revolution (2017)

Highlights the gap between popular memory and scholarly history.

Joseph M. Roney, “1776 Viewed from the West” (2017)

Urges widening the geographic scope of revolutionary studies.