The Colonists & Great Britian

Responding to French attacks on the frontier, Benjamin Franklin proposed this innovative plan for uniting the colonies. However, the colonies rejected the plan because it gave too much power to an assembly made up of representatives from all thirteen colonies.

Solidified Britain's hold on the continent.

Imposed the first direct tax on the colonists; required them to pay a tax on legal documents, pamphlets, newspapers, and even dice and playing cards. Parliament also passed laws to control colonial trade in ways that benefited Great Britain but not the colonies.

Nine colonies sent delegates to this meeting in New York; first meeting organized by the colonies to protest King George's actions; delegates to the congress sent a petition to the king, arguing that only colonial legislatures could impose direct taxes such as the Stamp Act.

A group of colonists, dressed as Mohawk, dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor. This was a protest against furthur taxes on teas.

By 1773 organizations called committees of correspondence were urging resistance to the British; consisted of colonists who wanted to keep in touch with one another as events unfolded; Samuel Adams established the first committee in Boston; the idea spread quickly and within a few months, Massachusetts alone had more than 80 such committees; Virginia and other colonies soon joined in this communication network.

Parliament passed these in retaliation of the Boston Tea Party; AKA the Coercive Acts

On September 5, 1774, delegates from all the colonies except Georgia met in Philadelphia for this; delegates debated what to do about the relationship with Great Britain; they finally imposed an embargo on Britain and agreed not to use British goods; they also proposed a meeting the following year if Britain did not change its policies.

The first blow fell early in the morning on April 19, 1775. British redcoats clashed with colonial minutemen at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. This clash, later called "the shot heard 'round the world," was the first battle of the Revolutionary War.

Within three weeks after the first battle of the war, delegates from all thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. This congress assumed the powers of a central government. It chose John Hancock as president, voted to organize an army and navy and to issue money, and made George Washington commander of a newly organizing Continental Army.