Page 56 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

54  USA A T A GLANCE

were imported in great
numbers, reaching a total
of 150,000, 40 percent of
the population, by 1750.
The American Revolution
began swiftly, and
transformed the face of the
world in a few short years.
The removal of a potential
French threat, following
John Trumbull’s 1786 painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill Britain’s conquest of Canada
in the Seven Years’ War, led
The American Revolution to American complaints about British abuse,
The 18th century was a period of significant epitomized by the phrase “No Taxation
change throughout the world, and this was without Representation.” In 1770, British
especially true in North America. Colonists troops opened fire on a group of unruly
expanded their domain, displacing or killing workers, killing five in what became known
the native tribes through a combination as the Boston Massacre. In 1773, some
of land purchases, warfare, and disease. colonial merchants disguised as Mohawk
In the southern colonies of Virginia and warriors dumped a boatload of tea into
Carolina, where the lack of available land Boston Harbor, to protest Britain’s
discouraged new immigrants, African slaves monopoly of the tea trade.
War broke out in April 1775, when
KEY DATES IN HISTORY British “Redcoats” marched on the town
of Concord in an attempt to seize a
1763 The Seven Years’ War ends, France surrenders
its Great Lakes lands to Great Britain stockpile of weapons from the American
“Minutemen.” As the British fought their way
1773 Boston Tea Party
back to Boston, more than 75 Redcoats and
April 19, 1775 The Revolutionary War begins
over 90 Americans were killed. On July 4
1776 The Declaration of Independence is adopted 1776, Congress adopted the Declaration
in Philadelphia
of Independence, and this marked the
1783 Treaty of Paris puts an end to the founding of the USA. The British occupied
Revolutionary War
New York City, while the ill-equipped
1789 George Washington becomes the first Americans struggled through a harsh
President of the US
winter. After victories at Saratoga (1777)
1790 A 100-mile (160-km) square on the Maryland/
Virginia border, Washington, the District of Columbia, and Yorktown (1781), America eventually
is set aside as the new capital succeeded, largely due to French support,
1793 Samuel Slater’s water-powered mill at Pawtucket, and the war officially ended in 1783.
Rhode Island, brings the Industrial Revolution to the US
1803 Ohio is the first of the Northwest Territories to
become a state
1803 The Louisiana Purchase
1814 Francis Scott Key composes “The Star-
Spangled Banner”
1824 The Bureau of Indian Affairs, a division of the
US War Department, is formed to handle relations
with Native American tribes
1832 Resisting removal of his people from their tradi-
tional homelands, Chief Black Hawk leads a band of
1,000 Fox-Sauk warriors but is destroyed by the US Army The Boston Tea Party: patriots disguised as Mohawk warriors
dumping tea into Boston Harbor

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