| A | B |
|---|
| Second Continental Congress | Formed after shots fired at Lexington & concord, Drafted the Declaration of Indepedence, raised money for an army, created the army & navy, drafted new appeals to King George, and most imortantly selected George Washington to head the Continental Army, all 13 colonies sent delgates |
| Bunker Hill | Actually called Breed'hill, where colonists seized then surrounded by British troops, American defeat as they ran out of gunpowder BUT a moral victory because they fought courageously. It was after this battle that King George declared the colonies as officially in rebellion. |
| Olive Branch Petition | Last ditch effort to resore peaceful relations with the crown. Petition asked the king to "return to the former harmony" and also stated that America was LOYAL to the crown still. King George III REFUSED to accept the petition. |
| Thomas Paine | Author of COMMON SENSE, one of the most influential pamphlets ever written. It called for independence and the creationof a new society or REPUBLIC. |
| Richard Henry Lee | Virginia delegate to the Second continental Congress. Lee was the first to move that the colonies adopt independence, a INFORMAL declaration. |
| Declaration of Independence | The FORMAL declaration of independence, explanation why the colonies were rebelling. Invoked the "natural rights" of all mankind. Quoted Enlightenment thinker John Locke extensively. |
| Republic | Government power only comes from the consent of the governed who will sacrifice their own self-interest for the common good. |
| Thomas Jefferson | Main author of the Declaration of Independence, "Father of the Declaration" |
| Tory | Term applied to Loyalists in the colonies. Tories in England were the dominant politcal party. |
| Whigs | Term given to Patriots. Whigs represented the opposition factions in England. |
| Loyalists | Usually Anglicans, older generation, educated, wealthy, beneficiaries (benefitted) of the crown, and least likely to come from New England. |
| Patriots | In the minority, rebels of the crown |
| Loyalist Exodus | After the Declaration of Independence about 80,000 loyalists were driven out or fled. Those that remained had thier property taken, were exiled, or reestablished themselves somewhere else in the colonies. |
| New York | The basis for British military operations as it housed a great # of loyalists and a great seaport. |
| George Washington | Headed the Continental Army. Risk taker, courageous, NOT a military genius but called the "Old Fox" . |
| Trenton | Surprise by Washington in Dec. or 1776 where he successfully defeated a Hessian garrison the Day after Christmas. A great shot in the arm for American morale. |
| British Strategy | Isolate new England, capture the Hudson River and Fort Ticonderoga. They were stopped by General Benedict Arnold who later turned traitor. The British would fight from New England to the Middle Colonies to the South and in that order. |
| General Howe | British General who instead of assiting British General Burgoyne, settled down in Philadelphia with his wine and women. |
| General Burgoyne | British general who had to surrender his entire command to American general Horatio Gates after Howe did not assist him. |
| Battle of Saratoga | British Burgoyne surrenders his entire command, significantly convinces the French to help the American cause which changes the probable outcome of the war. |
| France | Came to the aid of the patriots after the Battle of Saratoga. They were seeking revenge against England so they could resume their former position and prestige. |
| Model Treaty | What Franklin took with him to France that outlined the basic way a treaty should be written. |
| American-French Alliance | Signed in 1778, France agreed to help the Americans, America became militarily beholden to the French, and now the Revolutionary War becomes a world war. |
| Home Rule | Stated that the American colonies could rule themselves WITHIN the empire. It was all they colonies asked for EXCEPT the independence part. What the British proposed to keep the Americans from signing an alliance with France. Came too late. |
| Spain and Holland | Joined the American cause after the French-American alliance. m |
| North America, Europe, South America, Caribbean, and Asia | All the places that Americna Revolution fighting occurred. |
| England outmanuevered | America won the war for independence after England was overwhelmed by other European powers choose the opportunity to make the English miserable by attacking English posts around the world. |
| Comte de Rochambeau | Commander of the French troops in America. |
| British strategy after the French-American Alliance | Abandon Philadelphia and concentrate their strength in New York. |
| America Benefits of French Alliance | France supplied America with more guns, gold, equipment, 50% of troops, and almost all of the new navy. |
| General Benedict Arnold | Turned traitor and killed the upsurge in morale after the French Alliance. Arnold, a self important man thought he was not being treated with enough respect by Washington and made plans to sell West Point, the stronhold on the Hudson. The plans were discovered and Arnold flees. |
| Charleston, South Carolina | 5,000 men and 400 canons were lost to the British in 1779. |
| Kings Mountain and Cowpens | Both battles where American riflemen won the day. |
| General Nathaniel Greene | Called the "Fighting Quaker". Greene used the unusal tactic of engaging then fleeing engaging then fleeing whereby exhausting the pursuing British. Fought mostly in Georgia and South Carolina. |
| Joseph Brant | Mohawk Indian chief who sided with the British and fought in New York and Pennsylvania. |
| "the bloody year" | 1777, where fighting on the frontier in America was so ferious as the British were buying the scalps of Americans from the Indians. Indian tribes joined BOTH sides of the war. |
| George Rogers Clark | Frontiersman turned solider who successfully captured British Forts on the Ohio River. Some argue it was Clark's victories that forced England to hand over the land north of the Ohio in the peace treaty after the war. |
| John Paul Jones | Father of the Navy, whose contribution was to destroy British merchant shipping and carrying the war into the British Isles. |
| Privateers | Prvately owned armed ships that caputred over 600 British merchant ships. |
| Yorktown | Final battle of the war, British General Cornwallis surrendered 7,000 men to the combined French and American forces. Ironically, fighting continued for another year especially in the heavy Loyalist area of the South. |
| Peace negotiators | Benjamin Franklin, john Adams, and John Jay gather in Paris to negotiate peace with specific instructions from the Second Continental Congress to make no seperate peace with England and to consult their French allies at all stages of the negotiations with England. |
| French manipulations | France wanted to manipulate the treaty in order to give Spain promised territory for their help. Also, they wanted to keep the new natio of American SMALL, hemmed in by the Alleghney Mountains and easier to manage. |
| John Jay | Understood the French manipulations and instead contacted England directly. A different kind of peace treaty emerged that France had little control over. |
| Treaty of Paris 1783 | Britain formally recognized America independence, boundaries set at Mississippi in the West, Florida in the South, and Great Lakes to the North, America agreed to stop prosecuting loylalist and consider that loylaist property be returned, debts owed to British collectors would still be collected. |
