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28 Cards in this Set

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Treaty of Paris 1763
Signed in February 1763, pushed French out of North America, British gained control over all French lands east of the Mississippi and over Spanish Florida, France gave all land west of the Mississippi and the port of New Orleans to Spain
Pontiac’s Rebellion
Pontiac was an Ottawa chief, followed Neolin’s teachings that Indians tribes should resume their native customs and rebel against white settlers and their expansion, Pontiac’s tribe and several others captured all British outposts west of Pittsburgh in 1763, but were defeated by British and American soldiers
Proclamation of 1763
Issued by the Board of Trade in England, stated that colonials could not settle past the crest of the Appalachian Mountains, so that settlers would have to remain on the seaboard where it would be easier to keep them under England’s rule, wanted to reduce number of conflicts with Indians, kept English soldiers in North America to enforce proclamation
Sugar Act 1764
Also called the Revenue Act, lowered the duty on imported molasses from six to three pence a gallon, wanted to be tougher on smugglers, who would be tried by a judge rather than a colonial jury if they were caught, intended to bring in revenue for England rather than regulate trade
Currency Act 1764
Colonies were forbidden from making their paper money into legal tender, so that Americans could not pay off their debts to people in Britain, where the paper money would have little worth
Quartering Act 1764
People had to let British troops stay in their homes if the soldiers asked them, which helped lowered the amount England had to pay to house British troops in America
Stamp Act 1765
Placed taxes on legal documents, customs papers, newspapers, almanacs, college diplomas, playing cards, and dice, had to bear a stamp that showed that the owner of the item had paid the tax, those who violated the law were tried in court without a jury
John Locke
English philosopher, believed that property guaranteed liberty, (property was not just material wealth, it was a source of strength and the freedom to act for oneself), colonials in America followed his beliefs, it was the government’s duty to protect an individual’s property, the Sugar Act and Stamp Act violated these beliefs
Country party
Also known as the Commonwealth and the Opposition, a minority of radical English thinkers, inspired by classical republicanism and wanted a representative government rather than a monarchy or oligarchy, suspicious of British King and rulers, believed the government had become corrupt, received little attention in England, but gathered a huge following in the American colonies
Patrick Henry
Lawyer from western Virginia, convinced the House of Burgesses to pass his resolution that they had exclusive right to tax Virginians (resistance to Stamp Act), refused to allow outright resistance, many other colonies followed suit, some colonies thought that Virginia refused to pay any parliamentary taxes and so they began to protest against the King and the Parliament
Sons of Liberty
New resistance groups made up of traders, lawyers, and prosperous artisans, successfully organized the lower classes into mobs and controlled riots that protested the Stamp Act, burned effigies of stamp distributors and attacked their homes, causing almost all of them to resign by the day the Stamp Act took effect
King George III
Hard working and devoted to the British empire, but very immature, unintelligent, and fickle, dismissed George Grenville (man who passed the Stamp Act) and replaced him with the Marquis of Rockingham, who got rid of the Stamp Act in 1766, unintentionally helped American colonials
Virtual vs. actual representation
Many English, such as Grenville and his followers, told American colonials that they were represented in Parliament because they represented the interests of the whole empire, even if none of the members had actually been elected by American colonies, colonists believed they could only be represented by people that they had elected
Stamp Act Congress 1765
Americans realized that they had many things in common, such as wanting actual representation and Parliament should not be allowed to tax the American colonies
Declaratory Act 1765
Issued by Parliament, stated that it had the authority to create laws for all of the colonies, did not clarify anything, because people did not know if Parliament included taxation as part of the power of legislation
Townshend Duties 1766
Townshend was the chancellor of exchequer, succeeded William Pitt as King George III’s minister, backed by Parliament, ordered the royal governors in America to be more strict with the colonists (suspended the assembly in New York until they complied), paid royal officials with revenue from tariffs so that they were not dependent on the funding of colonial assemblies, created a bigger number of bureaucrats, instituted an American Board of Customs Commissioners to collect customs, made three vice-admiralty courts to help bring justice to smugglers
Samuel Adams
Leader in the Massachusetts assembly, worked as a political organizer and agitator, set up protests against the Townshend Acts, tried to create a united resistance among Americans, helped established (along with John Dickinson) public outrage against Townshend Acts
Agreements among colonists to not import or consume British goods, revived by the Liberty riot and the arrival of British troops in Boston, way of protesting Townshend Acts, would lead to domestic manufacturing
Boston Massacre 1770
March 5, 1770, group of Boston citizens gathered around a group of redcoats and pelted them with snowballs and insults, the soldiers responded by shooting eleven people and killing five of them, event was publicized by Adams and other protestors throughout the colonies
Committees of Correspondence
Established by the assemblies of colonies in order to gather statements of American rights and grievances against England, which were then distributed among the colonists, Samuel Adams’ idea, helped convince rural farmers to join the resistance movement
Boston Tea Party 1773
Parliament passed a Tea Act which let agents of the East India Company sell tea for a lower price than colonial merchants, fifty men dressed as Indians (on December 16) boarded three of the East India Company’s ships and poured 90,000 pounds of tea into the Boston harbor, all the tea they wasted was worth around 10,000 pounds sterling, showed British that colonials wanted American independence
Coercive/Intolerable Acts 1774
Passed by Parliament to prevent Americans from gaining independence and to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, closed the Boston harbor until the King decided to reopen it, all town meetings required permission from a royal official, royal officials accused of a crime in Massachusetts could be tried in a different colony, people had to welcome British troops into their private homes, many say them as a way to enslave the colonies
Quebec Act 1774
Parliament established a permanent government colony in an area that used to be French Canada, lacked a representative assembly, extended the borders of the province, officially recognized the Roman Catholic church, passed shortly after the Coercive Acts
First Continental Congress 1774
Fifty-five delegates met in Philadelphia, all esteemed “civic virtues” such as industry, unselfishness, self-reliance, wanted to decide basic American rights, the limits of Parliament’s power, and the best way to resist the Coercive Acts, took the middle ground between radicals and conservatives, ended up denying the power of Parliament to make laws for the colonies, agreed that the law of nature, colonial charter, and British constitution were the basis of American liberties, approved Parliament’s trade regulations because the economy was so dependent, agreed not to trade with Britain until the Coercive Acts were withdrawn
“no taxation without representation!”
Said by Patrick Henry, colonials didn’t want to be taxed by a group (Parliament) in which there is no one to represent them
The Association 1774
Continental Association established by the First Continental Congress, agreed to not trade with Britain until they removed the Coercive Acts (stop drinking tea, not import any goods), also banned exports to Britain and the West Indies (excluding exports of tobacco and rice)
Battles of Lexington & Concord 1775
April 18, seventy members of the Lexington militia met 700 British soldiers on the road to Concord and the militia began to disperse but someone fired and eight Americans were killed, British soldiers searched for American weapons in Concord but 273 were killed by Americans, and 95 Americans were killed by the British, British retreated to Boston
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense 1776
Very popular and widely circulated in America, pamphlet about the destiny of an American, believed in republicanism and the corruption of a monarchy, didn’t think the colonies should be allied to Britain or the king, nor should they call or want to call themselves English, America was a place of liberty