Revolutionary War Outline
By Tim Natzke
I.
Causes
a. Rivals for North America in 1753
i. French
1. They had Louisiana
which was most of the United States and part Canada.
The French also allied with the Algonquians and the Hurons.
ii. Spanish
1. They had the area of Mexico
and part of the bottom west of the United States which was
called New Spain.
iii. British
1. They had the 13 Colonies
and the upper part of Canada. They also allied with the Iroquois.
b. The French and Indian War
i. Causes
1. Between 1689 and 1748 there
was three wars between France and Great
Britain were they had fought for power in Europe and North
America. The three wars are King Williams War, Queen Anne’s War, and King George’s War.
2. In 1754 the French and Indian
War breaks out because of scuffles between France and Britain
in the Ohio River valley.
ii. Start of the French and Indian
War
1. George Washington is sent
by Governor Dinwiddie to warn the French in 1753 and when he gets back he is promoted and sent off to the west again with
150 men to build a fort.
iii. Advantages
1. The French had several advantages
over the British. Since the colonies could not agree on a united defense, the 13 separate colonial assemblies had to approve
of all decisions. New France, on the other hand had a single government that could act quickly if necessary.
Also the French had the support of many more Indian allies than the British did.
2. The British’s advantages
were that the colonies were clustered along the coast so they were easier to defend than the widely scattered French settlements.
At the same time the 13 English colonies were about 15 times bigger than that of the New France.
iv. Attack against Fort
Duquesne
1. In 1755 Edward Braddock led
the British and colonial troops in an attack against Fort Duquesne
2. As the British neared the
fort the French and their Indian allies launched a surprise attack. Almost half the British men were killed or wounded. Washington
and the survivors returned to Virginia
v. Fort
William and Fort Oswego
1. Were both lost to the French.
vi. William Pitt
1. In 1757 he became head of
the British government. He sent Britain’s best Generals
to North America. Lord Jeffery Amherst captured Louisburg
the most important fort in French Canada. That year the British also won more Iroquois support. The Iroquois persuaded the
Delawares at Fort Duquesne
to abandon the French so the British seized the fort quickly. They renamed it Fort
Pitt. which became the city of Pittsburgh
which late grew up on the site.
vii. Fort Niagara/Crown Point/Fort
Ticonderoga
1. The British took these forts
in the summer of 1759.
viii. Battle
for Quebec
1. Quebec
was the capital of New France. The French lost the city in a fierce battle in which the British won
with the help of General Wolfe. In 1760 the British took Montreal and the war
ended in North America. Fighting drag on in Europe until the France
and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris in 1763. It marked
the end of the French power in North America. Britain
gain Canada and all French lands east of the Mississippi
River.
c. Taxes
i. Proclamation of 1763
1. Pontiac’s
war convinced the British government to issue the Proclamation of 1763.
2. The Proclamation of 1763
drew a line along the Appalachian Mountains that the colonist were forbidden to settle west of. It
ordered all settles already west of the line to remove them selves.
3. The Proclamation angered
the colonists. Some colonies including New York, Pennsylvania,
and Virginia claimed lands in the west. Also the colonists had to pay for the
troops that had been sent to enforce the law. In the end they simply ignored the proclamation and moved west anyway.
ii. Molasses tax
1. The French and Indian War
had plunged Britain deeply into debt which they thought the
colonist should help pay for. George Grenville asked parliament to place a tax on molasses which was a valuable item in the
triangular trade.
iii. Sugar Act
1. The Sugar Act replaced the
tax on molasses because the merchants could not afford to pay it and keep in business. The Sugar Act of 1764 cut the prices
of the molasses almost in half. But Grenville demanded that the smuggling and the bribes most stop.
iv. Stamp Act
1. In 1765 Grenville persuaded
Parliament to pass the Stamp Act. The Act placed taxes on legal documents such as wills, diplomas, and marriage papers.
2. The colonists were angry
because there was taxation without representation. The Colonists insisted that only they or their representatives had the
right to pass taxes.
v. Stamp Act Congress
1. In 1765 nine colonies sent
delegates to what became know as the Stamp Act Congress. They sent petitions to King George III and to Parliament. In these
petitions they rejected the Stamp Act. But parliament paid little attention. So the colonist boycotted. Finally in 1766 Parliament
Repealed the Stamp Act.
vi. Declaratory Act
1. In this act Parliament claimed
that it still had the right to make laws and raise taxes in all cases whatsoever.
vii. Townshend Acts 1767
1. This act placed taxes on
goods such as glass, paper, silk, lead, and tea. The colonists got angry again because there was taxation without representation.
viii. Writs of Assistance
1. This gave a customs officer
the right to inspect a ship’s cargo without giving a reason. It helped to stop the colonists from smuggling.
ix. Nonimportation agreements
1767
1. In these agreements the colonists
promised to stop importing goods taxed by the Townshend Acts.
x. Sons and Daughters of Liberty
1767
1. The Sons of Liberty were
the first group of angry colonists. The women also set up their own group known as the Daughters of Liberty. In the cities
from Boston to Charleston the sons
and daughters of liberty place lanterns in large trees and had meetings. They staged mock hangings of cloth or straw figures
dressed like British officials.
xi. Quartering Act 1766
1. Under the Quartering act
the colonists had to provide hosing, candles, bedding, and beverages. In 1766 the New York
assembly refused to obey the act. The New Yorkers argued that it was just another way of taxing them without their consent.
xii. The Boston
Massacre
1. On the night of March 5, 1770 a crowd gathered outside the Boston
customs house. Colonists shouted insults at the British. A shot rang out so the British soldiers fired into the crowd and
kill five people. Paul Revere made an engraving of the event. At trial the British soldiers received very light sentences.
xiii. Repeal of the Townshend
Acts
1. On the day of the Boston
Massacre, Parliament voted to repeal most of the Townshend Acts. The British merchants pressured Parliament to end the taxes,
but King George III asked Parliament to keep the tax on tea.
xiv. Tea Act of 1773
1. The Tea Act allowed the companies
to bypass the tea merchants and sell directly to the colonists. This was supposed to lower the prices and encourage colonists
to buy more tea. The tea drinkers would have benefited from the law, but they believed that it was a British trick to make
them accept Parliament right to tax them.
xv. Boston
Tea Party
1. The Boston Tea party was
were the about 50 or 60 people dressed up as Mohawk Indians and attack the ships containing tea and dumped it into the harbor.
The place where the ships were was Griffin’s Warf. The job was done at 10 pm.
xvi. Punishment for Massachusetts
1774
1. Parliament shut down the
port of Boston. No ship could enter or
leave the harbor not even a small boat. The harbor would remain close until the colonist paid for the tea and showed they
were sorry for what they did.
2. Parliament forbade colonists
to hold town meetings more than once a year without the governor permission.
3. Parliament allowed customs
officers and other officials charge with major crimes to be tried in Britain
instead of in Massachusetts.
4. Parliament passed a new quartering
act. No longer would the soldier camp in tents on the British common. Instead they would live in the colonists’ houses.
5. These acts were called the
Intolerable Acts because they were so harsh.
xvii. Quebec
Act 1774
1. The act set up a government
for Canada and protected the rights of French Catholics. The
act also redrew the boundaries of Canada to include the land
between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
This angered the colonists because they claimed land there.
xviii. The First Continental
Congress 1774
1. In response to the Intolerable
Acts colonists sent leaders to a meeting in September 1774. Delegates from 12 colonies gather as what became as the First
Continental Congress. The colony that didn’t send delegates was Georgia.
They decided to boycott all British goods and to stop exporting goods to Britain
until the harsh laws were repealed.
2. They urged each colony to
set up and train its own militia.
xix. The First Shot
1. In 1775 General Thomas Gage
the British commander learned that the minuteman had a large store of arms in Concord.
On April 18, about 700 British troops left Boston for Concord
under the cover of night.
2. At April 19 the British reached
Lexington, a town near Concord. There
waiting for them were 70 minutemen. At the end eight minutemen were killed and one British soldier was wounded. The British
pushed on to Concord were they found nothing. So they head back to Boston.
On the bridge outside of concord the meet 300 minutemen and a fight broke out. By the time they reached Boston
the British lost 73 men and another 200 were wounded or missing.
II.
The Revolutionary War
a. The Beginning
i. Green
Mountain Boys
1. They took Fort
Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775,
with a surprise attack. The fort was a British outpost at the southern tip of Lake Champlain.
ii. Olive Branch Petition 1774
1. Delegates from the 13 colonies
came together to write the Olive Branch Petition. In it they declared their loyalty to the king. They also asked him to repeal
the Intolerable Acts and end the fighting.
iii. Continental Army
1. The congress took a bold
step by setting up the Continental Army. John Adams nominated George Washington as commander
iv. Strengths And Weaknesses
1. The American had troops that
were mostly untrained. Some advantages were that they had every reason to fight because they were defending on their homeland.
Some Americans had some soldiers but almost every framer owned a rifle and were good shots. They also had George Washington
as a commander.
2. The British had well trained soldiers and experienced fighting before and Britain’s
navy was the most powerful in the war. It could move soldiers up and down the coast quickly.
b. The Battles
i. The Battle
of Bunker Hill June 16th, 1775
1. It was the first major battle
of the war. At the end of the Battle the Americans lost the Bunker
Hill and Breeds Hill, but more than 1000 British soldiers laid dead. The Americans had only lost 400.
ii. Battle
of Montreal
1. The army lead by Richard
Montgomery seized Montreal in November 1775
iii. Battle
of Quebec
1. On December 31 1775 the Americans attack Quebec Richard Montgomery was killed and Benedict Arnold
was wounded. They fail to take the city. They stayed outside of Quebec until
May 1776, when the British landed forces in Canada.
iv. Common Sense
1. Common Sense was a pamphlet
that made many colonists think about independence. It appeared in January 1776 written by Thomas Paine.
v. Declaration of Independence
1. On July 2, 1776 the Continental Congress voted that the 13 colonies were free and independent States.
Two days later the delegates accepted the Declaration of Independence.
vi. The Battle
of Long Island
1. More than 1400 American troops were killed, wounded, or captured. The rest retreated across the East
River to Manhattan.
vii. Nathan Hale
1. Nathan Hale was a spy for
the America troops. He was hanged when the British captured
him.
viii. The Battle
of Trenton
1. On December 26, 1776, the American surprised the Hessian troops guarding Trenton
and took most of them prisoner. The Hessian population at 8 am. 1408 men and 39 officers;
Hessian population at 9 am 0.
ix. The Battle
of Princeton
1. On January 3, 1777, George Washington attack Princeton were they had another
victory. Then he moved to Morristown were they spent the winter.
x. Battle
of Brandywine
1. On July 1777, George Washington
tried to stop Howe but was defeated.
xi. Battle
of Germantown
1. On September 1777 George
Washington attack the British again but was defeated again and they retreated to Valley Forge.
xii. Battle
of Bennington
1. After the Burgoyne’s
troop retook Fort Ticonderoga he sent
soldiers into Vermont to find food and horses. The Patriots fell on these troops
and nearly 1000 British troops were captured or wounded.
xiii. Battle
of Saratoga
1. This battle end the threat
to New England and it boosted the American spirits. But most important it convinced France
to sign a treaty with the United States.
xiv. The Battle of King’s
Hill
1. On October 7, 1780 the Patriots captured King’s Mountain which boosted the morale after a
string of defeats in the south.
xv. Battle of Moore’s Creek
Bridge (Lexington and Concord
of the south)
1. On February 1776, North Carolina
Patriots defeated a Loyalist army.
xvi. An American traitor
1. In the summer of 1780 George
Washington received some bad news Benedict Arnold; one of his best generals had joined the British.
xvii. Battle
of Cowspens
1. Another British army was
defeated in South Carolina command by General Daniel Morgan.
xviii. The Battle
of Yorktown
1. This was the last battle
of the Revolutionary War. On October 17, 1781 Cornwallis surrendered
his army. After he held out for 3 weeks.
III.
The After Affects of The Revolutionary War
a. The Treaty of Paris
i. Under the Treaty of Paris
Britain recognized the United
States as an independent nation. On April 15, 1783,
Congress approved of the treaty.