TIMELINE OF INDEPENDENCE WAR

•1774:First Continental Congress--13 colonies meet to discuss a boycott of British goods and repeal of Intolerable Acts—NOT A RADICAL MEETING

•October 20, 1774, representatives approved The Articles of Association:

“… (we) firmly agree and associate, under the sacred ties of virtue, honour and love of our country, as follows:....And we do solemnly bind ourselves and our constituents, under the ties aforesaid, to adhere to this association, until such parts of the several acts of parliament passed since the close of the last war...are repealed.”

•April 19, 1775:British troops and American colonials clashed in Concord and Lexington.

•May 10, 1775:Second Continental Congress convened, more radical than the first.Preparations for war begin.

• By June 20, 1775 General George Washington given his commission and instructions.

• By the end of June 1775 Congress began drafting and debating the Articles of War and in July the Congress, through Thomas Jefferson, drafted the Declaration on Taking Arms and Petition to the King.

• At the At the end of July, 1775, they began working on Franklin's Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.

•1776:A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS ACCEPTED JULY 2 and SIGNED JULY 4

•The war was long, costly in innumerable ways, and filled with defeats and disappointments, but ultimately it was also victorious.In the end, however, the Congress not only had waged a successful independence war but also had begun the process of the creation of a new form of government for the United States.

•September 3, 1783, Treaty of Paris concluded;ratified by Congress January 14, 1784:

“...His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States...to be free, sovereign and independent States;that he treats them as such, and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the Government, propriety and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof...”