Events

Question 1

1763: Proclamation Act

Answer 1

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain’s acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War, which forbade all settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains.

Question 2

1763: End of French and Indian War

Answer 2

The Seven Years’ War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by France, Great Britain, and Spain.

Question 3

1763: Pontiac’s Rebellion

Answer 3

led by Chief Pontiac, an attempt by an alliance of warriors from various First Nations tribes to drive British soldiers and settlers out of their lands in 1763

Question 4

1764: Sugar Act

Answer 4

a revenue-raising Act passed by the British Parliament in 1764, which alarmed the colonists about the intent of the British and helped fuel the growing discontent

Question 5

1764: Currency Act

Answer 5

one of several acts created by the British Parliament designed to regulate the use of paper money in America

Question 6

1765: Quartering Act

Answer 6

Quartering Act is a name given to a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament in the local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations or housing. It also required colonists to provide food for any British soldiers in the area.

Question 7

1765: Stamp Act

Answer 7

a British law of 1765 to raise funds from the Thirteen Colonies. This proved to be greatly unpopular and was a key source of revolutionary tension through the 1760s

Question 8

1765: Stamp Act Congress

Answer 8

the first mass meeting of nine of the Thirteen Colonies to determine a course of collective action against Britain’s Stamp Act

Question 9

1766: Declaratory Act

Answer 9

British legislation passed in 1766 granting Parliament that authority to pass all laws for its American colonies. Initially, it did not cause much of a reaction but came to be viewed as a dangerous sign of British intentions

Question 10

1767: Townshend Duties

Answer 10

A series of measures introduced into the English Parliament by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend in 1767, the Townshend Acts imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea imported into the colonies.

Question 11

1767: New York Restraining Act

Answer 11

The New York Restraining Act was one of the five Townshend Acts passed by Parliament in 1767 and 1768 to lay more taxes with strict enforcement upon Britain’s American colonies.

Question 12

1770: Boston Massacre

Answer 12

The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts.

Question 13

1773: Boston Tea Party

Answer 13

The Boston Tea Party (initially referred to by John Adams as “the Destruction of the Tea in Boston”) was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773.

Question 14

1774: Coercive Acts

Answer 14

The Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of laws relating to Britain’s colonies in North America and passed by the British Parliament in 1774. Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773.

Question 15

1774: First Continental Congress

Answer 15

The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution.

Question 16

1775: Second Continental Congress

Answer 16

It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met between September 5, 1774 and October 26, 1774, also in Philadelphia. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Question 17

1775: Battle of Lexington-Concord

Answer 17

The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts.

Question 18

1775: The Revolutionary War begins

Answer 18

The American Revolutionary War was fought from 1775 to 1783. It was also known as the American War of Independence. The Revolutionary War began with the confrontation between British troops and local militia at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on 19 April 1775.

Question 19

1775: Battle of Bunker Hill

Answer 19

On June 17, 1775, early in the Revolutionary War (1775-83), the British defeated the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts. Despite their loss, the inexperienced colonial forces inflicted significant casualties against the enemy, and the battle provided them with an important confidence boost.

Question 20

1776: Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

Answer 20

Published in 1776, Common Sense challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain.

Question 21

1776: Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence

Answer 21

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation’s most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson’s most enduring monument.

Question 22

1776: Battle of Long Island

Answer 22

On August 27, 1776, the British Army successfully moved against the American Continental Army led by George Washington. The battle was part of a British campaign to seize control of New York and thereby isolate New England from the rest of the colonies.