Chronology of Revolutionary War Era

We all know about the Declaration of Independence, the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's midnight ride, the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution. But how did it all fit together and when did these and other key events in our nation's founding take place? The following brief description and chronology helps to place it all in context, within three broad bands of time.

1. Rising Taxes and Tensions
2. The Colonies Respond
3. A New Nation

Rising Taxes and Tensions: Broadly speaking, starting in 1764, there was a decade of increasingly rising tensions between the colonies and Great Britain, caused by rising taxes imposed by King George III and Parliament. The colonists, of course, protested with the rallying cry of "taxation without representation is tyranny." During this period, the first blood was shed with the Boston Massacre in 1770 in which British troops, taunted by Bostonians gathered to protest repressive measures, opened fire, killing five. In late 1773, Boston hosted the famous Boston Tea Party in which colonists, dressed as Indians, boarded ships in Boston harbor and dumped thousands of dollars of tea from England into the frigid waters, a protest against the Tea Act.

The Colonies Respond: In September 1774, with tensions between the mother country and the colonies at an all time high, representatives from twelve of the thirteen colonies assembled in Philadelphia to develop a strategy for how to respond to Great Britain. Georgia did not send any representatives to what we call the First Continental Congress. When they adjourned, they agreed to meet again in the spring of the following year.

But when they assembled in May of 1775, the situation most on their minds was the opening of what we now call the Revolutionary War - a six and a half year battle fought by thirteen independent colonies with a ragtag army against the world's greatest military power. Three weeks prior to the convening of the Second Continental Congress, also held in Philadelphia, the battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought.

They began when 700 Redcoats marched out of Boston intent on capturing revolutionary leaders such as Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Elbridge Gerry, and capturing arsenal and weapons stored up by the colonists. On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride through the Boston countryside warning residents that the British were coming. Elbridge Gerry had just enough time to flee his house in his pajamas and hide in a nearby corn field before British troops arrived at his house and search it for him, but he was safely hidden.

When the Redcoats arrived at Lexington, they were greeted by 70 minutemen, colonists who had taken up arms to defend themselves. The British opened fired on the morning of April 19, 1776, the "shot heard round the world."

For a whole year, the Second Continental Congress debated what to do. There were conservatives, led by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who were pushing for reconciliation with Great Britain, but an increasingly large number of delegates were leaning to declaring independence. It was a revolutionary thought - and a dangerous one. It constituted treason against the King. In fact, in August 1775, King George declared his intention to suppress the "revolution and bring the traitors to justice."

A New Nation: Fourteen long months passed from the start of the Second Continental Congress until July 4, 1776 when Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. But nations don't suddenly spring into existence just by a declaration.

It would not be until March of 1781 when the ill-fated Articles of Confederation were implemented, setting up a loose government in which the individual colonies (now states) were sovereign. During all this time, George Washington's Continental Army continued fighting the British, or in some cases avoided fighting the British just to remain alive for another day. But then in October 1781 came the shocking surrender of the British forces under General Cornwallis at Yorktown. The Revolutionary War was over, but the nation was still in childbirth.

The new nation struggled under the Articles of Confederation, negotiated a treaty with Great Britain ending the war, and finally, in 1787 convened what we now know as the Constitutional Convention, also in Philadelphia. Originally convened to fix the flaws of the Articles of Confederation, the delegates soon came to realize that it couldn't be fixed and required a total re-write. It took until June of 1788 for nine states to ratify the new Constitution. And then it wasn't until April 30, 1789 that George Washington finally took the oath of office as the first president of the United States.

While it took fourteen months for the Second Continental Congress to eventually declare independence, fourteen long years passed from the start of the Revolutionary War at Lexington until the inauguration of Washington as president.

It's easy for us, 222 years on this side of history, to think that the birth of the United States was somehow a pre-ordained event. But the history that we know so well was once someone else's present time - and the men at the First and Second Continental Congresses and at the Constitutional Convention, and the troops under George Washington, were filled with uncertainty, with doubts, and with fears about how events would eventually unfold. It's not much different for us as we live through history-making events, or even events in our own lives.

Rising Taxes and Tensions
1764	Sugar Act Tax on molasses imported from anywhere outside the British Empire
1765	Stamp Act Tax on stamps on all legal documents
1767	Townshend Acts Tax on colonial imports of British goods
March 5, 1770	Boston Massacre
1773	Tea Act
Dec. 16, 1773	Boston Tea Party
1774	Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts) Closed Boston Harbor Stationed British troops in Boston
The Colonies Respond
September 1774	First Continental Congress
April 18, 1775	Paul Revere’s midnight ride
April 19, 1775	Start of Revolutionary War Battles of Lexington and Concord
May 10, 1775	Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia
A New Nation
July 2, 1776	Resolution on independence approved by Congress
July 4, 1776	Declaration of Independence adopted by Congress
August 2, 1776	Declaration of Independence signed by most members of Congress
March 1, 1781	Articles of Confederation implemented
October 19, 1781	End of Revolutionary War Surrender of Cornwallis to Washington at Yorktown
Sept. 17, 1787	Constitution signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention
June 1788	Constitution ratified by 9 states
April 30, 1789	George Washington inaugurated as first president under the Constitution