Ø June 14. Continental Congress creates Continental Army

Ø July. Congress offers the Olive Branch Petition in attempt at reconciliation with king.

Ø American armies march on Montreal and Quebec.

Ø January1. Americans lose assault on Quebec.

Ø January. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense published.

Ø July 4. Declaration of independence adopted.

The British defeated the French and their Indian allies in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The result was British control over much of North America. But the war had cost England a great deal of money and Parliament decided it was time for the Colonies to pay a share for their own defense.

The American Revolution became inevitable as far back as 1643 when the New England Confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven were formed for defense against Indians and the Dutch. In 1754 representatives of seven northern colonies met at Albany, N.Y. to consider plans for a permanent union of all colonies for defense against the French and Indians and for other purposes, however, the time was not right for a

The well-known battles of Lexington and Concord followed on April 19, 1775. The die was cast and war had begun. The Second Continental Congress met in May 1775. It provided for the raising and supplying of an army and appointed George Washington of Virginia commander-in-chief. For a year the colonists fought only for their rights as Englishmen. At Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, and Boston, their soldiers demonstrated that they could defeat British regulars. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Although a committee reported it, the Declaration was written almost entirely by Thomas Jefferson.

This resulted in the First Continental Congress, in 1774, which met at Philadelphia's Carpenters' Hall. Twelve colonies sent delegates to discuss how to return to a state of harmonious relations with the Mother Country - not revolution! But radical thinking won out. Parliamentary acts were declared "unconstitutional." Taxes were not paid, an import-export ban was established, and Colonists were urged to arm themselves.

The "shot heard 'round the world" was fired at Lexington and then later that day at Concord where armed colonists tried to resist British seizure of an arsenal. Eight Americans and 273 British soldiers were killed. The Revolution began.

The American colonists then took a serious step. Following the leadership of Massachusetts, the colonists called the First Conti

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