| A | B |
|---|
| French and Indian War | A series of military engagements between Britain and France in North America between 1754 and 1763;American phase of the Seven Years' War |
| Albany Plan of Union | plan proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 that aimed to unite the 13 colonies for trade, military, and other purposes; the plan was turned down by the colonies and the Crown |
| Proclamation Line of 1763 | a law that forbade the colonists to settle west of the appalachian mountains |
| Sugar Act | laws passed by British Parliament raising taxes on foreign sugar, British sugar growers given monopoly; first indirect tax |
| Currency Act of 1764 | The British ban on printing colonial money in order to alleviate British creditors' fears of being payed in the depreciated currency of the colonists. |
| Stamp Act of 1765 | exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents; repealed 1766 |
| Sons of Liberty | A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act; incited riots and burned customs houses. |
| Nonimportation agreements | a series of commercial restrictions adopted by American colonists to protest British revenue policies prior to the American Revolution |
| Declaratory Act | The act declared Parliament's right to legislate for the colonies for whatever reason. |
| Quartering Act | an act passed by British Parliament, which forced people in the US colonies to house and feed British soldiers during times of peace if there was no room in barracks; implied that there would be a standing army in the colonies |
| Townshend Acts | levies on glass, white lead, paper, and tea, the proceeds of which were used to pay colonial governors who had previously been paid directly by colonial assemblies |
| Writs of Assistance | a writ issued by a superior colonial court authorizing officers of the British crown to summon aid and enter and search any premises. |
| Boston Massacre | a riot in Boston (March 5, 1770) arising from the resentment of Boston colonists toward British troops quartered in the city, in which the troops fired on the mob and killed several persons. |
| Committee of Correspondence | a body established by various towns or assemblies of the American colonies to exchange information with each other, mold public opinion, and take joint action against the British; a shadow government; proposed by Virginia House of Burgesses |
| Tea Act of 1733 | approved by the British Parliament on May 10, 1773;intended to benefit the East India Company by giving them the exclusive right to sell tea in the colonies, creating a monopoly |
| Boston Tea Party | a raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor (December 16, 1773) in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company. |
| Intolerable (Coercive) Acts | series of British measures passed in 1774 and designed to punish the Massachusetts colonists for the Boston Tea Party. |
| Paul Revere | American silversmith, member of the Sons of Liberty, and most known for his midnight right warning the "British are coming" |
| Minutemen | a member of a class of American militiamen who volunteered to be ready for service at a minute's notice. |
