The United States of Ameriwank Timeline
1775-1783
1770: Boston Massacre
1773:
May: The Tea Act is passed by Parliament.
December: Boston Tea Party
1774:
March: The Stranger visits George Washington and gives him the technology.
Parliament approves the sale of St. Barthelemy to Sweden. This move greatly upsets the British Caribbean colonists pushing them into alliance with the North Americans.
Boston Port Act, one of the Intolerable Acts, shuts down Boston Harbor as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.
April: Washington makes his colonial tour, touring all of the British North American colonies throughout the spring and summer. Also he secretly assembles the original Order of Freedom.
June: Quartering Act, one of the Intolerable Acts, forces colonists to house and pay for British soldiers to stay with them.
The Quebec Act is passed giving Ohio Country to Quebec but not protecting Catholic rights. This Act further infuriates colonists against Parliament but also frustrates Quebecoise Catholics.
September: The First Continental Congress is convened in Philadelphia amongst the various British North American and Caribbean colonies.
1775:
February - Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
April - On April 18/19 Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Boston to announce the coming of the British and to warn Sam Adams and John Hancock in Concord that they are to be arrested. This leads to the scrambling of American minutemen and militiamen and the subsequent battles of Lexington and Concord igniting the American Revolution.
May - The Second Continental Congress opens with impassioned speeches by Washington and Sam Adams which leads all of the colonies to declare their support for the revolutionary cause. The Congress elects John Hancock as its president and votes to raise a Continental Army. Guy Carleton and his primarily Canadian forces will command the north while Washington and his primarily seaboard forces will command the lower 13 colonies.
The Dalling-Briggs plan of capturing docked Royal Navy ships by surprise and paying for a vast privateer force comes to ahead enabling the patriots to gain valuable naval ships along with thousands of deserters ready to work for the Continental Navy for the right price. William Briggs is placed in charge of this navy.
Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold leading the Green Mountain Boys and a Canadian volunteer regiment capture Fort Ticonderoga.
June - British forces under siege in Boston win a Pyhrric victory at Bunker Hill.
October
Carleton and his Continentals secure Quebec City from the British securing the St. Lawrence River from Montreal to Quebec.
1776
January
Thomas Paine published Common Sense
March
Threatened on all sides by patriot guns the besieged British evacuate Boston
May
The St. Lawrence valley being largely cleared of British activity, Guy Carleton pushes towards the key Royal Navy port of Halifax. Unbeknown to Carleton, John Burgoyne and an army of British soldiers are days from landing at Halifax.
June
After several colonies have renounced their allegiance to George III or given their delegations permission to vote for independence, Richard Henry Lee declares before the Continental Congress that the revolution should be used to make the American colonies free of British dependence.
Carleton and his forces besiege Halifax with Burgoyne and his army attempting to break out. The Siege of Halifax will last until September.
July
On July 4, 1776 Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence is ratified by the Continental Congress officially declaring the United States' independence from the British Empire.
August
William Howe and his British Army land at New York and engage Washington at the Battle of Long Island. Washington and his soldiers fight valiantly but are no match for the British and escape from New York under the assistance of a thick fog.
September
Nathan Hale is hung by the British for espionage.
Burgoyne and his army score the break out victory they need over Carleton at Halifax sending the Continental Canadians scrambling in retreat to fall back positions at the Isthmus. Burgoyne will score another victory at the Battle of Fundy forcing Carleton to concede and retreat back to Quebec City.
November
Burgoyne with the assistance of the Royal Navy retakes Quebec City sending Carleton to Trois Rivieres to set up Winter Camp.
December
Thomas Paine publishes The American Crisis the famous pamphlet in which he declares “These are the times that try men's souls”.
Unwilling to concede the year without a fight Washington and his soldiers cross the Delaware River and surprise the Hessian garrison at Trenton in a complete victory.
1777
January
Washington scores another victory at Princeton over British forces.
May
A Massive Royal Navy assault on Nassau is narrowly repulsed.
Carleton wins the First Battle of Trois Rivieres, holding back Burgoyne from Montreal.
June
The Stars and Stripes is adopted by the Continental Congress as the standard American flag. It features a star for every colony in rebellion and seven stripes for the seven “official theaters of conflict” ongoing in the war (Canada, New England, Middle Colonies, Southern Colonies, Frontier, Caribbean, and the Open Ocean).
September
Battle of Brandywine is a disaster for Washington and the Continentals as British continue to press towards Philadelphia. On the 26th they take the capital as Congress flees into interior Pennsylvania.
October
Battle of Germantown sees Washington beaten back from his last attempt to retake Philadelphia before winter. He falls back and winters at Valley Forge overlooking Philadelphia.
In Canada Carleton loses the Second Battle of Trois Rivieres to Burgoyne, falling back to Montreal.
November
Despite meeting in York Pennsylvania and with their cause falling back on all fronts, the delegates of the Continental Congress adopt the Articles of Confederation.
Hoping to take the primary city of Canada before winter Burgoyne presses towards Montreal where Carleton is waiting at Vercheres. In a stunning reversal Carleton and the Continentals smash the British capturing large portions of Burgoyne's army with the remnants fleeing back to Quebec City.
1778
February
France recognizes and declares its support for the young United States in the wake of Carleton's great victory at Vercheres.
George Washington, Horatio Gates, Benedict Arnold, and John Paul Jones meet at Valley Forge to plan a surprise attack that could change the war.
June
Washington fights Sir Henry Clinton's army to a draw at Monmouth New Jersey. More importantly he brings key forces away from New York City.
On June 12 John Paul Jones sails a fleet of ships into New York Harbor and engages with the Royal Navy in what appears to be a suicide maneuver. At the same time Horatio Gates leads a regiment of New Yorkers from the northwest while Arnold leads New Englanders from the east, both converging on New York. The battle is the bloodiest of the revolution but at the end of the day the Americans retake New York.
July
Louis XVI and France declare war on Great Britain.
1779
February
Famed captain James Cook dies on Hawaii during his last voyage.
June
Spain declares war on Great Britain
July
Anthony Wayne captures Stony Point from the British
The Franco-Spanish Great Siege of Gibraltar fails to unwedge the British from the Rock.
September
After nearly a year and half of siege Burgoyne and his forces surrender to Guy Carleton at Quebec City, effectively ending major hostilities in Canada.
October
General Cornwallis begins to move north from St. Augustine against the southern colonies in hopes of inciting a loyalist revolt. His Royal Navy ships take Savannah Georgia.
Carleton places Halifax under siege once more.
1780
January
British admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
February
The league of Armed Neutrality is formed between Denmark, Sweden, and Russia
March
Royal Navy takes Charleston South Carolina.
May
Waxhaw Massacre sees surrendering American soldiers killed by a combined loyalist British force in South Carolina.
August
Gates and his forces sent south to stabilize the situation at beaten severely by Cornwallis paving the way for the invasion of North Carolina.
October
A major loyalist militia is defeat at King's Mountain North Carolina by patriot militia.
The war effort is brought to an end in the southeastern Caribbean (Barbados, St. Vincent, among others) after the Great Hurricane of 1780 forces war making on the back burner.
November
Maria Theresa dies passing the Hapsburg lands to her son Joseph II who has been Holy Roman Emperor since 1765.
December
Netherlands declares war on Great Britain.
1781
January
Daniel Morgan leads American forces to victory at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina
May
Spanish forces from Lima put down the native uprising in Peru and execute Incan leader Tupac Amaru II.
August
The Comte de Grasse's French fleet secures much of the seaboard from the Chesapeake to Charleston from the Royal Navy. Cornwallis, in Columbia South Carolina, sends a messenger to Howe in Philadelphia telling him to link up at Baltimore as the fighting in the south is going nowhere and soon he will be trapped. Cornwallis' message is intercepted shortly after being dispatched. Washington gets wind of the plan and moves a major force south under his command.
September
Cornwallis and his army are corned at New Bern by Washington and other forces forcing its surrender. With only Howe left at Philadelphia, and trapped there for many months, the war is essentially over.
1783
February
Treaty of Paris is signed between American representatives and Great Britain ending the war and recognizing American independence.
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