The Seven Years' War and the Seeds of the American Revolution

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, legislation, and concepts from the lecture on the Seven Years' War, the French and Indian War, and early British colonial taxation.

Seven Years' War

A global confrontation in the middle of the eighteenth century primarily fought between the British Empire and the French Empire across Europe, North America, and South Asia.

French and Indian War

The British name for the North American theater of the global Seven Years' War.

Ohio Company

A joint-stock company created in the middle of the eighteenth century by colonists in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland to secure and settle land in the Ohio River Valley.

George Washington

A 22-year-old British officer from Virginia hired by the Ohio Company to lead its militia into the Ohio territory to clear out French forces.

Fort Duquesne

A heavily fortified French fort located at the start of the Ohio River in Western Pennsylvania, equipped with artillery and troops.

Fort Necessity

A quickly constructed fort built downriver from Fort Duquesne by George Washington, which was subsequently destroyed by French forces.

Quebec

The main fortified and most populous city in New France, successfully captured by the British in 1759, effectively ending the fighting in North America.

Treaty of 1763

The peace treaty signed in 1763 that concluded the global Seven Years' War, leaving Great Britain as the preeminent global superpower with vast new territories.

George Grenville

The Lord of the Treasury and British Prime Minister who attempted to resolve Britain's post-war debt by enforcing existing trade laws and creating new taxes on the American colonies.

Sugar Act 1764

A British law that placed a substantial tariff on imported sugar, hitting rum distillers in New England the hardest.

Stamp Act 1765

A highly unpopular British tax requiring official business documents, deeds, licenses, certificates, and playing cards to bear a stamp from custom houses, affecting all 13 colonies equally.

Quartering Act 1765

A British law requiring colonies to provide housing and barracks for British soldiers, which disproportionately affected the Mid-Atlantic colonies where most troops were stationed.

No Taxation Without Representation

The core political slogan and argument used by American colonists against British parliamentary taxes, asserting that taxes were unjust without colonial seats in Parliament.