French Areas – Quebec, St. Lawrence River Valley, Great Lakes, Mississippi River Interested in fur trading not colonies Better relationship with the Indians English colonies want to expand and farm ( soil depletion ) Indians resist the English expansion and ally with the French

Old Rivalry – Multiple wars fought between French and English in past centuries

1754 – conflict ignites again as French building forts near the Virginia border

Virginia Gov’t sends George Washington to fight against the French)

The French easily defeat Washington and his militia

Victory will eventually be won by the English

  Treaty of Paris, 1763 – France loses

almost all lands in North America (Louisiana)

Indians in the Ohio Valley revolt against the British forts

  Conflict become costly for Britain  Proclamation of 1764 – States that no

colonist could cross the Appalachian Mtns.

Colonist ignore the law and continue to provoke the Indians

British are heavily in debt b/c of the war and keeping a British Army in America

  Trading restrictions are passed to levy

duties ( collect taxes ), smugglers avoid taxes

Sugar Act – affected merchants and traders; protests began against “taxation without representation”, James Otis

Parliament Passes the Stamp Act – Places a direct tax on the colonist SAS Interactivity

required stamp on all legal documents, newspapers, licenses, cards

  taxed the rich and the poor  Quartering Act, 1765 – placed

military in the homes of the colonist

Sons of Liberty – group of colonist that secretly harassed and led protests; Boston – Sam Adams and John Adams

  No taxation without representation  Stamp Agents – bill collectors were

harassed

Law Repealed

Townshend Acts

new tax placed on imports such as tea, glass, paper, and paint

  Colonists again reacted with protests  British reacted by sending more

troops

March 1770 – British soldiers are being harassed by Boston townsfolk

  British Guns – British fire on the

crowd, 5 die, Crispus Attucks is the first to fall

  John Adams – represents the soldiers

in court, most are found not guilty

Taxes on Tea – lowered the tax but it was enforced

  Monopoly on tea given to British Tea

Companies  Dec. 1773 – Colonist raided Boston

harbor dressed as Indians and threw the British tea into the harbor before setting the British ships on fire

Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) – laws passed as a reaction to the Tea Party

  Punishments –   Closed the Boston Harbor until tea was

repaid Suspended basic civil rights – writ of habeas

corpus Placed more soldiers in the homes  Colonial Reaction – Began the Committees

of Correspondence, which spread the word through the colonies, colonial militias form

1st Continental Congress SAS Interactivity

1774 – 1st meeting in Philadelphia to discuss the rights of the colonies, Dickenson of Penn wants peace; agree to meet again in one year

April 1775 – British try to seize weapons stored in Concord

  Riders – Paul Revere, William Dawes, and

Samuel Prescott ride to warn colonist (Redcoats are coming)

  Conflict – minutemen met British on the

road at Lexington  Guerilla Warfare – colonial militia battle

the British along the road to Concord

May 1775 – Called for an army and appointed Washington as leader

  Doves – some call for Peace

(Dickenson of Penn)

At the Second Continental Congress, some delegates wanted independence. Others still felt loyal to Britain.

Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense swayed public opinion toward independence. Finally, the Second Continental Congress agreed.

June 1775 – Colonist establish a position on Breeds Hill overlooking Boston

  Ammo – British charge the hill 3

times, deadliest battle of the war, Colonial retreat due to lack of ammo

July 1775 – 2nd Continental Congress sends King George a petition to return to the peace of the past

  King George – refuses the petition

and urges the rebellion be put down in the most severe fashion

Loyalist – people still loyal to the King and crown

  Patriots – people in support of

Independence  Common Sense – written by

Thomas Paine in Jan. 1776 urging independence for the colonies

June of 1776 – Congress was debating Independence

  Richard Henry Lee – Proposes a

formal declaration be written  Committee appointed to work on the

document (Adams, Jefferson, Franklin)  Purpose of the Document Think pair share 25 sec

Explain – to give the reasons for independence

Thomas Jefferson – writes most of the document with Congress editing the final version

July 4, 1776 – The document is finalized and issued

The Declaration said that the purpose of government is to protect the rights of the people.

Government is based on consent of the people. If it disregards their rights or their will, the people are entitled to change or overthrow it.

The Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration on July 4, 1776.

Jefferson – took many ideas from the Enlightened Thinkers

  John Locke – Natural Rights and the

Social Contract  Rousseau – all men are created equal Enlightenment Philosophers Sas

Interactivity

Reasons for the declaration – listed specific grievances against the King and Parliament; does not describe any particular form of gov’t for the new nation

List of possible reasons w/shoulder partner

Look in book p. compare and see how close you were

Loyalists – those who remained loyal to the King, often called Tories

Patriots – those who supported the move for independence; risked everything because they could be hanged as traitors

British Early – British capture all of the major colonial cities – New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston

Washington’s Retreat – Washington’s army began the retreat after the defeat of New York

Undecided – as many as a third of the colonists were undecided as to whether independence or remaining as part of England was best for them

Now choose sides and create a propaganda poster to bolster support for either the Tories or Patriots

British Early Strategy – To cut the head off of the snake, divide the New England colonies (troublemakers) from the others

Map of British strategy

ROE Usually they would meet in a field

(open ground) March in formation (30-60yrds) Fired volley on command reload.

• Brown Bess v. American Rifle Field Artillery Guerilla tactics (minutemen)

Not many – just enough to keep the hope alive

  Dec 1776 – Trenton; British are upset

at the tactics of the Rebels.   Jan 1777 – Princeton; again not

playing by the rules Revolutionary war battle!!!!!!!!!

The Battle of Saratoga – Large British force is defeated at Saratoga in Oct 1777; gave France and the rest of Europe reason to support the war in America

Campsite – Washington’s army spent the winter of ‘77-’78

  British forces occupied nearby cities  Starvation – many of the American

soldiers died of cold and starvation

Congress – struggled to gain supplies for the forces; lack of gov’t

Think pair share: How might these problems influence the formation of future gov

Inflation – prices soared in the colonies and shortages occurred

  Women – took over the main jobs of

men who were at war

France – Marquis de Lafayette led a volunteer army from France

  Prussia – Friedrich von Steuben

trained patriot soldiers  Casmir Pulaski – led and trained

American soldiers

Southern Strategy – the British tried to divide the southern colonies

  Charleston – Captured by Cornwallis  Kings Mountain – Won by the Patriots;

kept the British out of North Carolina  Cowpens – Patriot victory

Battle of Guilford Courthouse – costly British victory, signaled the retreat of Cornwallis

  Yorktown – Cornwallis is surrounded

by America and its allies

French – French navy controls the coast line and won’t allow Cornwallis to escape by sea

  Washington – drives hard from the

northwest  Green – driving up out of the

southwest

Treaty of Paris, 1783 – recognized US independence

  set boundaries between Canada and

the US, set boundaries to the Mississippi

  Will not resolve issues that will re-

surface

Liberty, Freedom, Equality, Opportunity

  Belief in a greater cause  Set a precedent for the American

future