Mrs. Cook wants us to make a timeline about the start of the American Revolution- the causes, the battles, etc. Here it is! I got all of my information, the notes Mrs. Cook gave us, my textbook, and the pictures are random searches on Bing.com. I used SparkNotes.com for the information on the French & Indian War, and I used a teeny bit from Wikipedia on Revere, Dawes, & Prescott's rides. Thanks, sources!
Created by smartykat37 on Oct 22, 2010
Last updated: 10/28/10 at 06:39 PM
The British decided they should move their camps and forces to a pennisula, where they could supplies from ships on all sides. Expect for the fact that the Americans closed on them, trapping them in the pennisula, everything was hunky-dory. On October 19, Washington and a Rochambeau dude moved south where the red coats were and started friring cannons, reducing their buildings to rubble. Cornwallis had no choice but to surrender, and the Americans finally won the American Revolution!
The British guys decided it would be smarter if they went down South for three reasons. a) they hoped the slaves would side with them if they offered them freedom, b) they thought the Southerners were all loyalists, and c) the British had troops there. What the British didn't count on was Nathanael Greene, a guy who like to play tag. He led the Brishs around the southern colonies for 3 years, playing chase. There were 5 total, 3 victories belonging to Patriots. P.S. This is a picture of Nathanael Greene.
A lot of shooting went on because this Burgoyne guy didn't follow orders. Needless to say, they lost, so the Americans were happy. This also proved that just maybe they could win this war, so France and SPain decided to help the Patriots, especially if it would mean the fall of Britain.
Washington decided that thBritish probably wouldn't be expecting a surprise attack on Christmas, so he decided to cross the Deleware River on Cristmas Day 1776. He surprised the redcoats and they stole their supplies. Hooray! This is also caleld the Battle of Trenton because it took place in Trenton, New Jersey. Plus, it actually was a battle. So that makes sense.
Washington's Army decided that they should camp out at Valley Forge for the winter. The soldiers experienced malnutrition, exposure to cold, smallpox, typhoid fever, and people had to amputate their legs because they turned black. The Brtish had warm tents and clothes, of course, and the Patriots had nothing, not even enough blankets. They didn't have shoes, so their feet got so cold that they turned cracked and bloody, leaving red trails in the snow.
The Patriots decided that it was time to do something drastic to say how much they hated KG3. They decided to have Thomas Jefferson write the world's best break-up letter, the Declaration of Independence. Basically, it said that the King was stupid and needed to go jump in a lake.It told him what he did wrong, what he should have done, and what the Patriots were going to do now. A bunch of people signed the bottom of it on July 4th, 1776. John Hancock was the first to sign, and he took a lot of time making it all fancy and big so the king could read it even without his reading glasses.
This was a pamphlet that wa all about how we shoudl fight the British, written by Thomas Paine. He was VERY offensive to the king. He helped convince many Americans to join the Patriots wiht hsi writing. Sounds like a persuasive kind of guy.
A diocument asking the King to make peace and just leave them alone but still pay for all their stuff, which actually isn't very logical. Needless to say, the king said, Oh no, you got yourselves into this mess. You'll be done with in a few weeks.
So, when the sun was just aboput to rise on Lexington, 700 British guys showed up and 70 minutemen were already there waiting on them. Then the Shot Heard Round The World was fired and 8 patriots were dead. Then the British retreated and marched to Concord. Click on "Concord" for more info on what happened next.
So, now that the Colonists have an army and everything, they caught Bunker and Breed's Hills. They had a bunch of cannons that they had stolen from Ticonderoga and fired those at the British coming up over a hill. Will Prescott said "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" because that would make sure every unpredictable shot was afatl and not waste ammo. Eventually, the Bristsh took over the hill and the Americans got killed, but it was morale win for the Patriots because now they thought maybe they had a bit of a chance. Plus they whiped out a ton of British people.
A bunch of guys met up in Philly again and decided that they needed a real army instead of all these random people coming to their aid with guns. A dude named George Washington was appointed General of the Continental Army.
Americans (Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys) attacked a fort called Ticondoga... no, Ticendogs....... no, Toceriga..... Ticonderoga? Anyways, whatever the fort was called, it was Bristsh, so they decided to attack it. They held it off for a while and dragged some much-needed cannons away. They also got a few guns and stuff like that.
Now the Patriots were prepared. 4,000 guys showed up at Concord where they Brits were destroying their supplies. They shot and shot at the redcoats until the crazy Brits got 1000 more guys and ran away. Hooray! The war had now begun.
The British troops were ordered to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock, but the colonists thought they were going to try and kill them. So Paul Revere and William Dawes ran around screaming "The Regulars are coming out!" for twelve miles straight. They didn't actually shout "The British are coming!" Like everyone thinks because the loyalists thought of themselves as British citizens, and technically they were. So, Paul and Dawes went around shouting about the regulars and waking up minute men, and they rode towards Lexington in the wee hours of the morning. Dawes and Paul were captured by British Patrol, but a guy named Sam Prescott finished out the ride. Click on "Lexington" for more info on what happened the midnight ride. P.S. This is the statue of Paul Revere. He was not really made out of metal.
A bunch of people from every colony (except Georgia) sat down in Philadelphia and bascially decided that they hated England and the King. They said they would not trade with England until the Intolerable Acts were repealed and they said that each colony needed to begin training troops because something bi was about to happen. This meeting planted the seeds for a future independant government.
As Apunishment for all the childish behaviour coming from the colonists, the King made the Coersive, or as the colonists called them, Intolerable Acts. They stated: 1. The port of Boston was closed until all the tea that had been destroyed in the Boston Tea Party had been paid for. 2. Commitees of correspondence were banned, meaning colonists couldn't meet up and talk about how awfult the king was and what they were going to do about it. 3. Britain was allowed to house soldiers whenever and wherever it wanted to. 4. The British officials who were accussed of crimes could stand trial back in Britain, where they would be more lenient and non-discriminative-ish towards the redcoats. The non-Bostonians helped out the people in Massachusetts by sending food and money since their port was closed. The colonists ignored some of the rules and met anyways. These acts aroused 40% of all colonists and helped to get more people against Britain.
As a protest against the Tea Act, the colonists got dunmped hundreds of chests of tea into the Boston HArbor without paying for it.
This time the king really went and pushed the colonists' hot buttons. He pased the Tea Act, saying that the colonists couldn't trade with anybody other than the British East India Tea Company, and it made them (yet AGAIN) pay a tax on the tea. This angered the colonists even more and as a result, the Boston Tea Party happened. See The Boston Tea Party for more details.
Bristish soldiers were taunted by colonists and someone got scared and fired, killing 5 people. Although this was an accident, the colonists called it a massacre, sparking spirit and inspiring feelings of hate among colonists.
After the Stamp Act was repealed, the Townshend Acts were passed, now more as a "Nanananabooboo, I can still tax you!" than a reasonable solution to the money problems with England on the king's part. The Townshend Acts made the colonists pay a tax on glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea. It also permitted the Writs of Assistance, which meant people could just come into your home and search you for illegal goods. This upset the colonists, which was probably the King's goal, whether it was conscious or subconscious. The colonists still said "No Taxation Without Representation!" and organized MORE boycotts. The colonists felt all threatened and as a result the Boston Massacre occurred. See The Boston Massacre for more details.
This Act made forced the colonists to house the soldiers that were in the colonies and made them give the soldiers food and a bed. The colonists hated this and it provoked feelings of anger toward the king.
The Stamp Act required all paper/legal things to have a stamp on them saying that they had been paid for. Everyhting that was made of paper- marriage certificates, wills, diplomas, contracts, newspapers,and even playing cards- had to either been printed on special paper or put a stamp on so that everyone knew the tax had been paid. This mad the colonists super-mad and they got even more riled up. They started tarring and feathering British officals and organized boycotts, while the KIng looked at them like foolish children who couldn't see the sensibility in what he was doing.
This Act made the colonists pay a tax on sweet, luxury items like sugar and molasses. This made sense to the king because he still was broke because of the Seven Years War, so he didn't see anything wrong with it. But then the colonists got all upset and offended that he was *gasp!* making them PAY MONEY for defenses and help out the mothership.They also said that they shouldn't have to pay anything because they didn't have a voice back in Parliment. SO this was the beginning of "No Taxation Without Representation."
This document prohibited colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains. THe king put this in [place because he could not afford to defend the colonists if another war like Pontiac's Rebellion happened, but he ended up having to defend them anyways because the colonists ignored it. This angered the colonists and began their protesting against the king.
The French and Indian was a colonial extension of the Seven Years war that went on in England from 1756-1763. Basically, the French, Spanish, and English got all mad about who had what land and threw a hissy fit. The result was a war on three different continents (Carribean, North America, & Europe). England and Spain won, and then France only had a little sliver of land while everone else had huge chunks. Because the King sent soldiers over to the colonies, they saw that the colonists were a little lax about the rules and weren't exactly all "Properly British" anymore, or something like that. This caused tensions and financial problems between the colonies and Britain.
John Peter Zenger published a newspaper criticizing and insulting the governor of New York. He went on trial because it was illegal to post bad things about the government back then. He found innocent because as Andrew Hamilton said, he was only try to speak the truth, and he should have a right to. This was the birth of the first ammendment, even if they didn't know it just then.
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