Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The American Revolution
- British victory over French in French and Indian War in 1763
- Eliminates France as a
major player in North
American affairs
- Taxation
- Sugar Act (1764): Taxes placed
on certain goods. Indirect
taxation
- Stamp Act (1765): Direct tax on any paper goods
- Issues arise, not because of the taxes high price,
because they lacked representation in Parliament
- Townshend Act (1767)
- British attempt to better
regulate the tax and trade
industry
- Boston Massacre (1770)
- Leaves 6 dead and
becomes a perfect
propaganda tool
against the British.
- Boston Tea Party
(1773)
- Direct result of the Tea Act.
- First Continental Congress (1774)
- All Colonies attend to
question possibile
collective action
- April 1775
- Battle of Lexington: British defeat the ill prepared American
militias as they search for near by weapons
- Battle of Concord: Hours after Lexington, with
more militias reaching Concord, a force of
American militia men made contact with a small
British force searching for hidden weapons. Poor
tactical mistakes by the British lead to a tactical
retreat that resulted in the entire force of British
regulars coming under fire and taking causalities
from thousands of colonials using guerrilla
warfare tactics.
- The siege of Boston Begins with
nearly 15,000 colonials surrounding
the city
- Battle of Bunker Hill (1775)
- The British take heavy causalities as they try to
break the colonials siege of Boston
- Instils more confidence in the
Colonial cause
- March 1776
- With heavy artillery captured from
Fort Ticonderoga, Washington's
forces are now considerably
stronger despite their declining
numbers
- By the 17th, the British forces leave Boston
and sail out of the harbor
- Invasion of Quebec
- Two separate advances on Quebec by American forces end
in defeat in 1775-1776 and again later in 1776
- The attacks do serve the purpose of delaying
a British attack from Canada until 1777
- 4th of July
- America Declares its Independence from the King
- Battle of Long Island (August 1776)
- Also know as the Battle of Brooklyn
- Largest battle of the entire war
- Ended in a terrible defeat for
Washington and his army, New
York falls to the British
- Battle of Trenton
- With the continental army hovering near
defeat Washington takes the offensive
- A surprise attack takes 1,000 hessian soldiers
prisoner and provides a major morale boost to the
weak continental army
- More poor leadership by William Howe gives the Americans
another victory in the following days over a much larger
force.
- Battle of Saratoga
- General John Burgoyne's plan to take Albany with a march
from Canada continually runs into problems, losing men and
material
- With a much weaker force then he had weeks before, Burgoyne is defeated at
Saratoga. When he realizes that General Howe wont be coming to his rescue,
Burgoyne surrenders to the Americans
- With proof the colonials could win, the
French throw their full support into the
war against the British
- Failures of General Howe
- His cautious attitude is all attributed to losses he suffered at
Bunker Hill
- After failing multiple times to press his advantage and destroy
Washington's army after Boston, New York and Trenton, Howe
resigns his position of British Commander in Chief
- Valley Forge
- Washington's defeated army continues to
suffer losses as thousands die in the
freezing cold winter
- Prussian advisors help train the
continental army on their tactics for 6
months
- The North(1778-1783)
- With the threat of French Warships, The British
abandon Philadelphia and fortify New York
- The Continental Army suffers additional losses due to harsh
conditions and boarders on munity in 1780
- For the remainder of the war the North stays very quiet
- The South (1777-1780)
- After 3 years of fighting in the North the war
moved down to the South for the remainder of the
war.
- 1778: General Henry Clinton's army takes Savanah Georgia and repulses
counter attacks from colonials
- 1780: Clinton then capitalized on his victory at
Savanah with his conquest of
Charleston, South Carolina, taking a large
portion of the Southern colonial force as
prisoners
- 1781
- Believing Virginia is the key to the Sothern colonies General
Cornwallis was ordered to fortify a major sea port to receive
reinforcements, the location he choose was Yorktown
- At the same time that Cornwallis is preparing Yorktown, Washington began
moving his army south as the French moved their fleet north to Yorktown
from the Caribbean
- Yorktown
- With a much larger fleet than expected, the French
routed the British fleet and cut off Cornwallis at
Yorktown
- Washington and the French army
soon connected to surround
Cornwallis with nearly 19,000
soldiers, cutting off all escape
- After just over a month of siege
warfare, Cornwallis surrendered to the
American and French forces.
- Post Yorktown
- Upon hearing the loss of Cornwallis and Yorktown, the British
parliament vows to continue the war against the colonies
- Fighting against the French and Spanish in the West Indies and Gibraltar draws British
forces. British losses cause many to question continued action in the colonies
- February 1782: Faced with growing losses in
other reaches of the world, the British seek
peace
- Treaty of Paris
- September 3rd, 1783: US and Britain officially sign the Treaty
of Paris, ending the conflict
- November 1783: the Last British soldiers leave New York
- The siege of Boston continues
- British forces are seriously bloodied by the militias leading to many,
including British General William Howe to be much more cautious in
future battles. Proving to be a serious advantage for the colonials
- Helps instil confidence that the colonials can
stand against Britain
- Taxes set to replace the stamp act
which was repealed in 1766