(NF) Chapter 08: America Secedes From The Empire (1775-1783) Flashcards
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met beginning on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met briefly during 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. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States.[1] With the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, the Congress became known as the Congress of the Confederation.
Battle of Bunker Hill
(June 17, 1775) First major battle of the American Revolution. Within two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, more than 15,000 colonial troops assembled near Boston to prevent the British army from occupying several hills around the city, including Bunker and Breed’s hills. The colonists fortified Breed’s Hill in Charlestown, across the Charles River from Boston. They withstood a cannonade from British ships in Boston Harbor and fought off assaults by 2,300 British troops but were eventually forced to retreat. Although the British won the battle, it was a Pyrrhic victory that lent considerable encouragement to the revolutionary cause. British casualties (about 1,000) and the colonists’ fierce resistance convinced the British that subduing the rebels would be difficult.
Olive Branch Petition
A document of American colonial grievances addressed to King George III and signed by members of the Continental Congress in July 1775. It was delivered by Richard Penn to the King in London in August 1775. The King refused to see him or the document. It was an effort by the Americans to resolve differences with Britain and to avert the Revolutionary War.
Hessians
German mercenaries who fought with the British forces in North America during the Revolutionary War. The 29, 000 German mercenaries represented about one-third of all British forces in America. Only some 17, 000 were actually subjects of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel (i.e., genuine Hessians), the remainder came from other German principalities. They served in almost all the campaigns of the Revolutionary War suffering notable defeats at Trenton (1776) and during the Saratoga campaign (1777). A large number of Hessians remained in North America after the Revolutionary War.
Common Sense
A pamphlet written in America by Englishman Thomas Paine, published on January 10, 1776. It called for American independence and a union of the American colonies, and as propaganda, it influenced colonists to pursue both in the Revolutionary War.
Declaration of Independence
Formal pronouncement of independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and approved by Congress. The declaration allowed Americans to appeal for foreign aid and served as an inspiration for later revolutionary movements worldwide.
(July 4, 1776) Document approved by the Continental Congress that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Britain. The armed conflict during the American Revolution gradually convinced the colonists that separation from Britain was essential.
Declaration of the Rights of Man
The rights should be universal, people should not be born into the classes, etc. It called for freedom, property, security, and right to resist when rights are stolen.
Loyalists
colonials loyal to the king (Tories)- 16% of the population, people of education + wealth, the older generation, Anglican clergy, (Loyalists were roughly handled, imprisoned, and a few hung, many estates were confiscated and sold)
A Loyalist is an American colonist who wishes to remain a part of England. A Torie is basically a Loyalist although it is the English counterpart.
Patriots
A name often used to describe the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation. Their rebellion was based on the political philosophy of republicanism, as expressed by pamphleteers, such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Paine.
Battle of Long Island
The Americans were defeated at the battle of Long Island, they escaped to Manhattan Island and they retreated northward across the Hudson River to New Jersey and finally reached the Deleware River with the British close behind.
Battle of Trenton
A battle of the Revolutionary War following a surprise attack of Continental troops under the command of George Washington on British and Hessian troops at Trenton, New Jersey. Washington and his men crossed the icy Delaware River on Christmas Day, 1776, and attacked the next day, completely surprising the British. It was the first American victory of the war, and helped to restore American morale.
Battle of Saratoga
(1777) Engagements in the American Revolution. British troops under John Burgoyne marched from Canada to join with other British troops, and, after camping at Saratoga, N.Y., engaged the Continental Army under Horatio Gates at the First Battle of Saratoga (September 19), also known as the Battle of Freeman’s Farm. Failing to break the American lines, the British faced a counterattack led by Benedict Arnold at the Second Battle of Saratoga (October 7), or the Battle of Bemis Heights. With his forces reduced to 5,000 men, Burgoyne began to retreat, but Gates, with 20,000 men, surrounded the British at Saratoga and forced their surrender (October 17). The American victory induced the French to offer open recognition and military aid.
Model Treaty
sample treaty drafted by the Continental Congress as a guide for American diplomats. Reflected the Americans’ desire to foster commercial partnerships rather than political or military entanglements.
Armed Neutrality
1780 Catherine the Great of Russia made this where all the remaining European neutrals maintained an attitude of passive hostility towards Britain
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
A fort in the Mohawk Valley of New York that was the site of a twenty-day siege by British forces during the Saratoga campaign in August 1777. The siege ended with the arrival of forces under the command of Benedict Arnold.
Privateers
ship privately owned and crewed but authorized by a government during wartime to attack and capture enemy vessels
Battle of Yorktown
The plan’s key element was de Grasse’s fleet, which arrived on 26 August from the West Indies, established control of the coastal waters inside the Capes of Virginia, and contributed 4,800 more men to the besieging force. Ten days later, de Grasse fought a strategically decisive engagement with a British squadron sent by Clinton to evacuate Cornwallis’s force. The British failure to penetrate past de Grasse, plus Cornwallis’s inertia, allowed Washington and Rochambeau to spring their trap.
The allies closed in on Yorktown on 28 September, and on 6 October began formal siege operations, which would have been impossible without French heavy artillery. By 14 October, the cannonade had weakened British positions sufficiently to allow the allies to capture key outposts: 400 American light infantry, led by Alexander Hamilton, took the smaller Redoubt No. 10 sooner and with fewer casualties than the French at Redoubt No. 9. Cornwallis and 8,000 men surrendered on 17 October.
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War and represented a major diplomatic triumph for the young nation. Following the decisive victory of the American and French forces at the Battle of Yorktown (1781), the British recognized that they could not defeat the rebellious colonists on the battlefield. After a change of government brought in a ministry devoted to ending the conflict, the British opened talks with the delegates from the Continental Congress: John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin. The Americans declined the guidance of their French allies and negotiated their own settlement, signing the initial articles on 30 November 1782. The final document was agreed to by all parties in September 1783. The treaty recognized the independence of the United States, generously fixed its western boundary at the Mississippi River (a move that doubled the size of the United States), and gave the new country fishing rights off Newfoundland. The United States agreed to terminate reprisals against loyalists and to return their property.
The Continental Congress ratified the pact in 1784. Issues arising from the treaty would trouble Anglo‐American relations in the 1790s, but the team of Adams, Franklin, and Jay had made the most of what their countrymen had won in the battles of the Revolution.
Ethan Allen
Ethan Allen fought during the American Revolution as the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, a ragtag militia made up of settlers of what it now the state of Vermont.
Benedict Arnold
One of history’s best-known traitors, Benedict Arnold was a successful general from Connecticut during the American Revolutionary War – until he switched sides and was caught trying to help the British in 1780.
Richard Montgomery
(1738-75) officer in the Continental army, born at Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. Montgomery captured Montreal but was killed in the subsequent attack on Quebec. Montgomery had been in America with the British army during the French and Indian War (1754-63), when he took part in the siege of Louisbourg (1758) and in the expedition against Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point (1759). In 1772 he sold his commission in the British army and moved to New York.
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was one of the great fiery voices of the American Revolution. Paine emigrated from England to Philadelphia in 1774. Two years later he published Common Sense, a popular pamphlet that argued for complete American independence from Britain. Later that year in his pamphlet The American Crisis he penned his famous line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” The revolution won, Paine returned to England in 1787, and in 1791 he published The Rights of Man, which opposed the idea of monarchy and defended the French Revolution. To escape being tried for treason, he fled to Paris, where he wrote The Age of Reason. In 1802 he returned to America, only to find himself outcast and poverty-stricken in his final years.
Richard Henry Lee
(born Jan. 20, 1732, Stratford, Va. — died June 19, 1794, Chantilly, Va., U.S.) U.S. statesman. As a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1758 - 75), he opposed the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. He helped initiate the Committees of Correspondence and was active in the First and Second Continental Congress. On June 7, 1776, he introduced a resolution calling for independence from Britain. Its adoption led to the Declaration of Independence, which he signed, as he did the Articles of Confederation. He again served in Congress from 1784 to 1787, acting as its president in 1784. He opposed ratification of the Constitution of the United States because it lacked a bill of rights. He later served in the first U.S. Senate (1789 - 92).
Lord Charles Cornwallis
British soldier and statesman. In 1780, during the American Revolution, he was appointed British commander in the American South. He defeated Horatio Gates at Camden, S.C., then marched into Virginia and encamped at Yorktown (see Siege of Yorktown). Trapped and besieged there, he was forced to surrender his army (1781), a defeat that effectively ended military operations in the war.
