Major Events Leading to the Declaration of Independence

French and Indian War

Conflict (1754-1763) between Britain and France.

Treaty of Paris

1763 agreement ending the French and Indian War.

Proclamation of 1763

British decree preventing westward colonial settlement.

Sugar Act

1764 tax on sugar and imported goods.

Stamp Act

1765 tax on printed materials in colonies.

Stamp Act Congress

1765 meeting protesting the Stamp Act.

Townshend Acts

1767 laws imposing duties on imported goods.

Boston Massacre

1770 confrontation killing five colonists.

Tea Act

1773 law granting tea sales monopoly to British East India Company.

Boston Tea Party

1773 protest where colonists dumped tea into harbor.

Intolerable Acts

1774 punitive laws in response to Boston Tea Party.

Boston Port Act

Closed Boston port until tea damages were paid.

First Continental Congress

1774 meeting of twelve colonies in Philadelphia.

Battles of Lexington and Concord

First military engagements of the Revolutionary War.

Battle of Bunker Hill

Significant 1775 battle showing colonial resilience.

Second Continental Congress

1775 assembly managing colonial war efforts.

Declaration of Independence

1776 document declaring colonies' independence from Britain.

Colonial Resistance

Colonial actions against British policies and taxes.

Monopoly

Exclusive control over a commodity or service.

Military Engagements

Armed confrontations between opposing forces.

Colonial Unity

Collaboration among colonies in response to British actions.

the colonies must be 'subordinate unto and dependent upon the imperial crown'

The Declaratory Act (1766)

'His Majesty has no right to land a single armed man on our shores'

Thomas Jefferson 1774

there is 'something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy'

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

'...give me liberty or give me death!'

Patrick Henry, 1775

'...it was hardly a revolution at all'

Daniel Boorstin - historian - believed that the Americans were simply insisting on rights they believed they enjoyed under salutary neglect

the revolution released forces that created in America 'a society unlike any that had existed before'

Gordon S. Wood - historian - believed that the American Revolution changed society, made people more equal, gave people a chance to socially advance - and it made slavery a problem, because people now saw the injustice

the revolution used the 'language of liberty and equality' to unite just enough whites to fight, 'without ending either slavery or inequality'

Howard Zinn - historian - believed that the leaders of the revolution used Enlightenment ideals to get ordinary people to fight and transfer power from a British elite to the colonial elite

‘the empire’s needs took precedence’

Edward Countryman