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| passed on April 5, 1764. It was an act passed by Parliament of Great Britain, as an alteration to the earlier act of Sugar and Molasses 1733. The act of 1733 imposed a tax of sixpence per gallon on molasses in order to make the English products cheaper than those from the French West Indies. However, George Grenville reduced the tax from sixpence to three pence, and strictly enforced that act and expanded its products to wine, cloth, and other goods. The colonists were mad because they claimed it was taxation without representation. This is one of the causes of the American Revolution. |
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| were passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. It made it a law or legal to have a tax stamp on all legal documents, newspapers, and other paper products. The Americans believed that this act once again imposed laws that infringed on their rights. |
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| an assembly by American colonist representatives as a result of the complaints against the injustices of the recently passed acts by the British Parliament. The meeting adopted a Declaration of Rights and Grievances and wrote letters and petitions to the King and both of the houses of parliament. This was a precursor of the American Revolution. This was a form of formal resistance. |
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| They were passed in 1767 by the British Parliament by Charles Townshend. It placed a tax on common products including lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea. These acts helped sparke the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. “No taxation without representation” was coined by James Otis. |
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| the killing of five civilians by British Troops in March, 1770. This helped spark the American Revolutionary War. As people were disappointed with the Townshend Acts as well as the presence of military soldiers from Britain in Boson, it was able to cause riots and shootings between the colonists and the soldiers. |
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| This Act was an act passed by Parliament of Great Britain in 1773 which allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the British Colonies without the tax. This allowed the East India Company to prosper and allow them to have effective monopoly on tea imports to the 13 colonies. They didn’t add any more taxes on tea, however, the colonists like the advantages granted by the government to that Company.(company was suffering due to famine in India). This lead to the Boston Tea Party. So basically, it made tea from this company cheaper, but the colonists didn't want to buy it as a matter of principle because they didn't want to pay the Townshend duty. |
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| This act targeted Massachusetts as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. This was a series of laws passed by the English Parliament in 1774 in response to the outrage of the American Colonies. The coercive acts included the Massachusetts Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, Boston Port Act, and Quartering Act. These acts prohibited local town meetings, closed the Boston Harbor, built barracks for the soldiers in their private homes, and allowed for the transfer of trials for capital crimes to other colonies of Britain. (intolerable Acts) |
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| 1774; extended the territories of Quebec into the rivers of the Ohio River Valley and restricted the western boundaries of Virginia and other colonies. It gave the privilege to allow and tolerate Roman Catholicism, angering the American colonists. |
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| Forced American colonists and settlers to give British soldiers shelter as well as other necessities needed. These soldiers had the rights to sleep in colonists houses with authoritative law. The Americans believed that this act once again imposed laws that infringed on their rights. (Among the "Intolerable Acts") |
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| a label adopted by the Patriots of the northern colonies that used violent and destructive acts in ways to tell the king to repeal the Stamp Act, which infringed upon their rights. this was a form of informal resistance. |
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| Colonial Non-Importation Agreements: |
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| Promoted smugglers to import goods without taxes and organizing boycott of the legitimate imports. |
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| American colonists dressed up like Indians and threw 342 creates of Tea into the Boston Harbor. This enabled to unite the colonies even more against Britain as a whole. |
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| Committees of Correspondence |
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| 1774; In response to British oppression, the colonies set up committees of correspondence to communicate with each other. Delegates from 12 colonies came and held the Continental Congress. |
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| First Continental Congress |
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| They discussed a compromise. They passed a Declaration of Rights and Grievances Which demanded the appeal of the Coercive Acts and they threatened to cut off exports to Britain. Parliament rejected William Pitt’s (now the Earl of Chatham) and Lord Dartmouth’s proposals of compromise. They also criticized the Declaratory Act. |
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| 1775; It was the trigger action with the march of British troops to Concord to take the ammunition that was there. They also wanted to arrest some English leaders. The minutemen tried to stall the British at Lexington (Revere) to let the riders ride to Concord to warn everyone. The first significant battle was at Concord. |
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| 1775; It was created by the moderates of the Patriots (mainly by John Dickenson) and given to George the third. It was the last attempt at compromise. They passed this proposal as a way to express loyalty to George III and requested the appeal of oppressive Parliamentary legislation. George III ignored it and responded with the Proclamation of Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition to punish them. This was the final attempt at compromise, and his reaction ensured that war would come. |
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| This pamphlet that was published by Thomas Paine, inspired Americans to reject the arbitrary powers of the King and the non-representative parliament of England. This pamphlet inspired the American people to move towards a republican government that derived its authority and legitimacy from the people. It changed the views of many people, as there were still people loyal to the English Crown. It called for the establishment of natural rights, claiming that Americans had the right resist. |
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| Independence: Resolution and Declaration |
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| Richard Henry Lee presented the Virginia Convention’s resolution to the Continental Congress. Richard Lee argued that each state had the right to be free and independent states, absolved from the allegiance to the British crown. On July 4, 1776, the congress approved a Declaration of Independence. The main author of this declaration was Thomas Jefferson. He justified the revolt and war on George III rather than on the parliament. He stated the self–evident truths in the Declaration as a basis of the American constitution. |
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| Washington’s retreat through New York and New Jersey |
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| Washington’s failed efforts in New York during the Middle Atlantic stage (1776-1778) of the war for Independence forced them to retreat there. We had no navy, a small and inexperienced army, and inexperienced leaders. |
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| The Americans had victory at Saratoga, near New York, when an english attack on Albany, New York failed. But Howe did take Philadelphia, intending to break up the Continental Congress, though they just fled to the interior. In 1777, Burgoyne’s army surrendered because they didn't have enough supplies and they had bad communication. This was the turning point of the war and it was significant because it convinced the French to ally with the colonists. |
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| 1777; Hunger and sickness began to take the colonial troops in Valley Forge in Winter when local farms refused to help and refused to sell food for worthless continental currency. Moral was so low. Baron von Steuben brought moral back by encouraging military leaders to drill their armies and make them professional. A great number of troops had died. |
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| A formal alliance (the Treaty of Alliance of February 1778) was sought after the American victory at the battle of Saratoga. France and the colonies agreed that neither one would sign a peace treaty with England until America was free. France was free to take any lands won in the West Indies. Charles III, through Lord North, tried to compromise with the colonies to prevent them allying with France. They gave up the right to tax the colonies, but it was too late and the colonies were already aligned with France and ready to fight. |
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| Cornwallis surrendered his army to the American and French forces, allowing a negotiation that brought an end to the American Revolutionary War. Yorktown combined the American and French forces under the Command of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, as well as the French General Comte de Rochambeau over a British army. The British were commanded by Lord Charles Cornwallis. Washington’s forces combined with General Rochambeau’s army on land and hemmed in Cornwallis’ forces near New York; simultaneously a French fleet hemmed them in from the sea. Cornwallis was forced to surrender at Yorktown in 1781. Britain gave up hope of controlling the colonies again. |
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| Britain recognized American independence; Britain kept Canada, but allowed the US to have the lands south of the great lakes and east of the Mississippi; opened the trans-Appalachian west up for settlement for America. The British troops were to leave ASAP and the loyalists became citizens again. |
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| 1770’s; with the establishment of republican institutions in the new US, 100,000 loyalists left the US for the west Indies, Britain or Canada, many of them had had land or property confiscated. They affected the society that they left behind as merchants filled their spots and more money was invested in trade and manufacturing rather than real estate. Their old land and goods were sold or distributed among poor farmers. This was happening during the war. |
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| Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom |
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| It was created by Jefferson and it established that all churches were equal before the law and that the government could not give financial support to churches. There were no more religious taxes or state churches. |
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| This was one of the three important ordinances organizing the west. It encouraged people to settle there by mandating a rectangular-grid system for the distribution of land there. It also encouraged settlers to come by encouraging large-scale land purchases. It set a minimum price of $1 per acre, and the land had to be sold in big blocks. |
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| Northwest Ordinance of 1787 |
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| It dealt with the states that today are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It prohibited slavery in these territories. Some of the money from the sale of these lands would go for supporting schools there. A formula is put in place for the process of becoming a territory and the process of becoming a state (based on population), in which these new states will have all the same rights as the existing ones. |
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| mid 1780’s; It was a taxpayer's revolt because they thought that the government was being tyrannical and taxing too much. It was perceived as a threat to the social order, which caused people to think about a stronger national government to keep things under control. This caused the Constitutional Convention. It caused the Massachusetts legislature to pass the Riot Act, prohibiting illegal assemblies. |
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| 1780’s; In New York, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton argued for a strong national government in a collection of essays called The Federalist. these were propaganda for ratification of the Constitution. They drew on Montesquieu’s theory of mixed government and John Adams’ Thoughts on Government to support their “checks and balances” system. They also explained why they thought that a republican government would work better for a large state while claiming that a single interest would most likely not be able to dominate the government. They promised that a Bill of Rights would be added to the Constitution. |
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| Components of Hamilton’s financial program |
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| 1790, 91;he was secretary of the Treasury (federalist). his goals of the plan were to provide financial stability for the country and to have good public credit. The US did not have good credit during the years of the articles of Confederation. In the end, he was successful. Funding- repayment of bond holders at full; he pledged that the government was going to honor all the bonds that the people had taken out at full face value. He thought that some level of permanent national debt was a good thing because that means that foreign countries or people have invested in the United states, this means that these people will be wanting to see the US grow and succeed. The federal government will take over (“assume”) all state war debts. Thus, foreign countries did not have to deal with each separate state. States in a lot of debt, of course, supported this “assumption.” The South only agreed to this by having the capitol move south. A National bank was included, but hotly contested with people with an agrarian vision of the country. Tariffs + excise taxes- this is the way the government would raise money |
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| Articles of confederation |
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| They functioned from 1781 to 1788 as a "League of Friendship" between the states before the constitution was ratified. states kept freedom, rights, and independence, but they were just loosely connected. They had Congress, but the major flaw was that Congress did not have the power to tax. Its major accomplishment was the organization of the west. |
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| Proclamation of Neutrality of 1790 |
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| It allowed United States citizens to trade with both the French and the British during the French revolution. Claiming to be Neutral, American ships were granted permission to pass through the British naval blockade along the French coastline and took over the sugar trade between France and its West Indian islands. Washington did this because he didn't believe that America was ready to fight. |
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| 1794; In western Pennsylvania, farmers led this rebellion in opposition to Hamilton’s tax on spirits because they claimed that it raised the price of the whiskey that they sold locally, making so that people didn’t want to buy the whiskey, so the demand was lower. The rebellion was crushed by one of Washington’s forces. |
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| 1795; When British ships began to confiscate sugar from American ships, something had to be done. John Jay went to Britain and secured a treaty that stated that the US government had to repay the pre-war debts to British merchants. It also gave Britain the right to take French property off of American ships. The British had to take out military garrisons in the Northwest and American merchants were able to submit claims of illegal seizure to arbitration against the British. |
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| 1797-1800; three French agents, X, Y, and Z, demanded that in return for the continuation of America’s bilateral peace negotiations, they had to pay, give a huge loan, give a personal bribe to the French prime minister, and Adams had to write an apology letter. In response, Congress (Federalist-controlled) cut off all trade with France and authorized the seizure of French ships. (Federalists were pro-britain) |
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| Alien, naturalization, and Sedition Acts |
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| These foreign policies were controversial as they prompted domestic protest and government oppression. The Naturalization Act increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years. The Alien Act authorized the deportation of foreigners. Sedition Acts prohibited the publication of “under grounded” or malicious attacks on the President of Congress, seeking to silence Republican and anti-British ideas. |
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| Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions |
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| Jefferson led this resolution which allowed the Alien and Sedition Acts to be void, and of no force, arguing that states had the right to judge the “constitutionality” of laws. |
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| Republicans supported Jefferson’s proposal for presidency. He pointed out the wrongful imprisonment of newspaper editors and states rights. President Adams response to these attacks was done by evaluating his foreign policy. It was the first “dirty” political campaign, called mud-slinging. This showed a shift from Federalists to Republican power. |
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| They took a broad interpretation of the Constitution. They wanted a strong central government that controlled a majority of national affairs. Their European ally was Britain. Their supporters were wealthy; their major leaders were Washington, Adams, Jay, Franklin, and Hamilton. |
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| They took a strict interpretation of the Constitution. They supported strong states' rights and their ability to nullify federal laws. Their major European ally was France. They had a wider variety of supporters that were more ordinary people. Their major leaders were Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. |
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