1770 – Boston Massacre. The British troops were regularly mocked and pelted with stones, dirt, and sometimes human excrement. By 1769, brawls were fairly frequent. On March 5, 1770, British troops panicked at the usual harassment and fired into the crowd, hitting 11 and killing 5, including Crispus Attucks, a former slave. Samuel Adams and other more radical colonists seized on the incident and used it to draw attention to what they considered British brutality and oppression.

1772 – The Gaspee Commission arrives from England to investigate the incident of the Gaspee, a British naval schooner that ran aground off Rhode Island while pursuing colonial smugglers. Providence residents celebrated the Gaspee's misfortune with a bonfire on the ship's deck, an action that enraged British officials.

1773 – The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party. In effect, the Tea Act granted the failing East India Tea Company a monopoly on the tea trade to Americans. The company would be exempt from tax and thus could sell tea to Americans more cheaply than colonial merchants. Colonists resented the law, which they interpreted as further taxation without representation, although no new tax was instituted. The colonists responded by first boycotting tea. In the final weeks of 1773, colonists went further and tried to either prohibit the company's ships from landing in their harbors or from unloading the tea. On December 16 in Boston harbor, about 150 men disguised as Mohawks raided three of East India's ships and heaved its cargo of tea into the harbor. As news of the Boston Tea Party spread, colonists in other seaports staged similar rebellious acts.

1774 – Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists, consist of the following: the Boston Port Bill closed the port of Boston; the Massachusetts Government Act restricted the ability of Massachusetts to govern itself as the governor's council would now be appointed by the king rather than elected by the assembly, and town meetings would be held only once a year except if the governor granted permission; the Administration of Justice Act stipulated that any government or customs officer indicted for murder would be tried in England, away from local juries; and a new Quartering Act authorized the quartering of troops within a town instead of in barracks provided by the colony.

In September, the First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. The Congress debated and rejected Joseph Galloway's plan for colonial unity under British authority, with a grand council of the colonies to decide issues of common concern, with any laws it passed subject to review and veto by Parliament; likewise the council would be empowered to veto any laws set forth by Parliament affecting the colonies. The Congress did acknowledge Parliament's right to regulate trade, but it endorsed a statement of grievances and a demand to repeal all oppressive legislation passed since 1763. The members authorized preparations for a defensive war and agreed to a series of boycotts designed to stop all trade with Great Britain, while agreeing to reconvene in the spring. Parliament debated the colonists' proposals throughout the winter and eventually passed the Conciliatory Acts, which proposed that instead of Parliament taxing the colonists directly, the colonists tax themselves at Parliament's demand. The offer, however, arrived too late. War had broken out.

1774 - 1781 – St. Jean de Crèvecoeur writes Letters from an American Farmer.

1775 - 1781 – War for American Independence. The war began in the early morning hours of April 19 as Major John Pitcairn led British troops to Lexington to arrest leaders of the Provincial Congress (formed without the consent of Governor Thomas Gage) and to seize the arms and ammunition that the Provincial Congress was storing in Concord. Because of the efforts of Paul Revere and William Dawes, several dozen minutemen awaited the British troops on the Lexington town common. At first, townsmen obeyed Pitcairn's order to disperse. Then a shot was fired – whether the British or Americans fired first is unknown – and war had begun. Eight Americans lay dead on Lexington Green. The British set off for Concord, where they found deadly snipers using most of the arms and ammunition the British had expected to find in storage. On the narrow road back to Boston, the British were harassed and shot at by hidden farmers. By the night of April 19, the British lost 273 men and the Americans, 95.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, fought actually on Breed's Hill, near Boston, on June17, 1775 intensifies preparations for war throughout America. In a crude fortification, the rebels held their ground for two British assaults, and only withdrew when they ran out of ammunition during the third rally of the British. The British suffered the loss of 228 dead and 800 wounded.

The Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia in May 1775. This Congress created the Continental Army with George Washington as its commander-in-chief, and decided to issue paper money to pay for the troops. Yet although Congress prepared for war, it confused Parliament and British royalists by seeking reconciliation, denying that the colonies were seeking independence.

Also in 1775, Great Britain begins hiring German mercenaries to fight in America. At the height of the war, British troops numbered 50,000, but Hessian mercenaries from Germany numbered an additional 30,000. American forces barely approached 30,000.

1776 – Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. France began secretly supplying the Americans with guns and ammunition. In the fall, the Continental Army suffered a string of defeats in New York that causes rebel troops to retreat first into New Jersey and then Pennsylvania. On Christmas night, the rebels re-crossed the Delaware River maneuvering a surprise victory over the Hessian soldiers in Trenton, which marked the British line of advance. Washington then defeated British troops near Princeton on January 3, 1777.

1777 - 1778 – On October 17, General John Burgoyne surrenders to rebels at Saratoga, a major turning point in the war. As a result of the stunning rebel victory at Saratoga, Prime Minister Lord North offered a peace plan: complete home rule for Americans within the empire if they would quit the war. In early 1778, France, anxious to see Great Britain weakened and convinced after Saratoga that Americans could win, greatly expanded French assistance and recognized the United States as a sovereign nation.

1779 – Hoping to recover territory lost to England in earlier conflicts, Spain declares war on Great Britain. British fighting forces could no longer concentrate on America, but had to be dispersed throughout the world. The British tried to enlist the support of loyalists in America to help crush the rebellion, especially in the South where loyalist sympathies were strongest. The strategy failed as the British overestimated their support and the willingness of loyalist Americans to confront rebels.

1780 – The British seize Charleston. Rebels in the South were effective in guerilla war tactics. Francis Marion, dubbed the Swamp Fox, cut British lines of communication between Charleston and the interior, and Thomas Sumter, the Gamecock, led attacks on British forces throughout the central part of South Carolina. Rebels faltered in conventional warfare in the South however. Benedict Arnold, a hero at Saratoga, is discovered to be a traitor and defects to the British side.

1781 – General Charles Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia. Washington and his French ally, the Comte de Rochambeau, led the attack on Yorktown, which was supported by a French fleet blockading Cornwallis by sea. The war need not have ended here, except that the British army was experiencing severe losses in other theaters of the War, particularly India, the West Indies, and Florida. Thus, the British decided to cut their losses in America.

1783 – The Treaty of Paris formally ends the American Revolution. The American negotiators, led by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, implied that a generous British settlement might weaken American ties with France. The British took the suggestion and agreed to spacious boundaries for the new nation: the Mississippi River on the west, the northern boundary of Florida in the south, and the present border of Canada on the north. Spain gained Florida and Minorca, an island in the Mediterranean.

1784 – Land Ordinance, based on a proposal by Thomas Jefferson, divides the western territory into ten self-governing districts, each of which could petition for statehood when its free population equalled the number of the smallest existing state.

1786 - 1787 – Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts. Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran, led a prolonged protest, at times numbering 2000 farmers and sympathizers, against the Massachusetts state government. Shays and his rebels demanded that the government issue paper money, reduce taxes and governmental salaries, and perhaps most importantly, stop mortgage foreclosures on their farms. During the summer of 1786, Shays and his followers prevented the collection of debts and used force to keep courts from sitting and sheriffs from selling confiscated property. In January, rebels advanced on the government arsenal in Springfield, but the force was dispersed by the state militia. Shays and others were sentenced to death, but later pardoned. The legislator did offer the protesters tax relief, a postponement of debt payments, and exempted from debt collection people's clothing, household goods, and tools of their trade. In 1835, Robert I. Lockwood wrote a novel, The Insurgents, based on Shay's efforts.

1786 – As a result of Shay's Rebellion and other intimations of similar insurrections, representatives from five states meet in Annapolis to adopt a uniform system of commercial regulations. The delegates, instead, agreed to a more ambitious undertaking, a full meeting of representatives from all states in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation.

1787 – In May, the Constitutional Convention meet in Philadelphia, and in September, pass the Constitution. Each state had to attempt to ratify the Constitution; after nine states did so, the Constitution would be in effect. To respond to objections of the Anti-Federalists, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay wrote a series of essays called The Federalist. Rhode Island, in 1790, was the last state to vote in favor of ratification. To gain support of Anti-Federalists, Madison pledged to write a bill of rights.

Congress adopts the Northwest Ordinance, which abandons the ten districts of the Land Ordinance of 1784 and creates a single Northwest Territory out of the lands north of Ohio. Slavery was prohibited, religious freedom guaranteed, and right to trial by jury guaranteed. In time, the land could be divided into between three and five territories. The minimum population for statehood was set at 60,000. Congress ignored the rights of the Shawnee, Chippewa, and other Indian peoples who lived in the region.

Royall Tyler's The Contrast, the first American comedy professionally staged, is produced in New York.

1789 – George Washington unanimously elected first president.

French Revolution begins. At first, Americans greeted the French Revolution with enthusiasm, a sign that liberty had finally sprouted in Europe. But by 1793, when the excesses of the Revolution led to many executions and a declaration of war with England, Americans were split over how loyal America should remain to France. Alexander Hamilton and his followers viewed the Revolution as anarchy and urged an alliance with Britain. Thomas Jefferson and his followers insisted that America should remain neutral and thus be justified in trading with both France and England. Washington proclaimed neutrality, a position difficult to maintain as the British navy impressed sailors and seized American ships engaged in trade in the West Indies, while the British governor of Canada encouraged Indians to attack Americans in the northwest frontier. John Jay was sent to England to settle the differences between the two countries. Jay's Treaty, ratified in 1795 by a very slim Congressional margin, did not gain many concessions from England, but it did call for the British to remove troops from the Northwest and, perhaps more importantly, the treaty kept America from a war it might not have been capable of winning.

1791 – First Bank of the United States chartered. The concept of a Bank of the United States was not received so favorably as might be supposed. Only three banks existed in the United States at this time, and many saw Hamilton's idea for a national bank as a means to establish a privileged and powerful aristocracy. Jefferson and Madison argued against a bank, stating that the Constitution did not specifically authorize Congress to charter a bank. Hamilton argued that the Constitution granted implied as well as enumerated powers. After deliberation, Washington sided with Hamilton and approved the Congressional bill.

1793 – Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, which removes the seeds from cotton quickly and efficiently. ("Gin" is a derivative of "engine.") A single operator could clean as much cotton in a few hours as a group of workers in a single day. Within a decade the total cotton crop increased eightfold.

1794 – Whiskey Rebellion. Farmers in western Pennsylvania challenged federal authority by refusing to pay the new whiskey excise tax and by terrorizing tax collectors in the region. The federal government did not leave it up to Pennsylvania to settle the protest; instead Washington called out the militias of three states and with an army of about 15,000, he personally accompanied the troops to Pennsylvania. The rebellion collapsed at the sight of the militiamen. The government may have overreacted, but it intimidated the whiskey rebels into submission and perhaps diffused potential rebellions in the process.

Charles Willson Peale opens the first museum in America. Peale's Museum in Philadelphia primarily features natural history exhibitions, but occasionally the museum exhibited paintings and sculptures.

1795 – Pinckney's Treaty. Thomas Pinckney negotiated a treaty with Spain that recognized the right of Americans to navigate the Mississippi River to its mouth and to deposit goods at New Orleans (then a part of Spanish Florida) for reshipment to other ports, extended the northern boundary of Florida in America's favor, and commanded Spanish authorities to prevent Indians in Florida from launching raids north across the border. The Treaty was ratified unanimously by Congress during the following year. Significantly, by permitting Americans to use the port of New Orleans, the treaty removed the temptation from Americans beyond the Appalachians to secede just to pursue trade opportunities.

1796 -– John Adams is elected president with 71 electoral votes to Thomas Jefferson's 68.

1798 – XYZ Affair. President Adams tried to avoid war with France, whose navy and privateers were raiding American ships. He sent three envoys to France to negotiate, but the French minister of foreign affairs, Prince Talleyrand, refused to negotiate until France received a loan and French negotiators a bribe. The American representatives refused, and when news became public, the fiasco was known as the XYZ Affair because in official government documents the letters X, Y and Z were substituted for the names of the French officials. For nearly two years, an undeclared naval war – called the Quasi-War – broke out with France as U.S. and French ships raided one another. In 1800, Adams sent another commission to Paris where new commercial arrangements ended the Quasi-War.

Alien and Sedition Acts, a series of the most controversial laws in U.S. history, are passed in the summer and are intended to keep the Federalist party in power. The Alien Enemies Act provided for the restraint of enemy aliens in time of war; the Alien Friends Act, never used, authorized the president to arrest and deport aliens suspected of treasonable tendencies; the Naturalization Act increased the period of residence for an alien seeking citizenship from five to fourteen years; the Sedition Act established heavy fines and possible imprisonment for writing, speaking, or publishing anything of a "false, scandalous and malicious" nature against the government or any of its officers. The Sedition Act was enforced on approximately ten men, most of them newspaper editors who had criticized the Federalists in government. Courts eventually adopted a more absolute view of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. In the last year of the Adams's administration, the Alien and Sedition Acts quietly expired. The Naturalization Act was repealed when the Republicans came into power.

late 1790s – The Second Great Awakening. Religious enthusiasm, fanned by traveling ministers and revival meetings, took hold of the country.

1800 – Thomas Jefferson elected president. The national census determined that the population of the United States was 5,308,483.

1801 – President Adams's "midnight appointments." Having lost control of Congress and the presidency in the election of 1800, the Federalists and Adams sought to retain some power by expanding the size of the federal court system. In the last hours of Adams's presidency, the Federalists passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, creating six circuit courts and sixteen new judgeships, along with a number of marshalls, attorneys, and clerks. The Federalists claimed the appointments were necessary because of the expanding country. Under President Jefferson, Congress, voting along party lines, repealed the law and eliminated the new courts in 1802.

1803 – Marbury v. Madison. As a result of Jefferson's taking office, William Marbury, one of Adams's midnight appointments, never received his commission, although signed and sealed. He sued Secretary of State James Madison to turn over the commission. The Supreme Court nullified Marbury's appointment, but more importantly, established a precedent for the court to determine the constitutionality of congressional legislation and to act as the final authority on the meaning of the Constitution.

The United States purchase the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. In 1800 France regained Louisiana from Spain, as Napoleon hoped to establish a French Empire in the New World. However, after a yellow fever epidemic destroyed much of his army in the New World and after reinforcements remained icebound in a Dutch harbor, Napoleon realized he would not have the resources to secure an empire in America and wage war in Europe. In Paris, Robert Livingston and James Monroe negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States.

1804 – Jefferson reelected president.

1804 - 1806 – Lewis and Clark expedition explores the West. With funding from Congress and orders from President Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark accompanied by some fifty men and Sacajawea, a Shoshone woman guide, sailed up the Missouri River, wintered in present-day North Dakota, crossed the Rockies, and traversed their way to the Oregon coast, before returning to St. Louis. The expedition encountered hostile Indians and severe conditions, but produced accurate maps, collected many useful plant and animal specimens, and conducted diplomatic relations with several tribes.

1805 – The Prophet, a Shawnee, leads an Indian spiritual revival. The Prophet took a new name, Tenskwatawa (the Open Door), and was successful in urging several tribes to renounce alcohol and white goods. Inspired by a series of visions, he called on his followers to live in peace with the whites and other tribes, and to return to their old customs, which included hunting with bows and arrows, eating traditional Indian foods, and wearing traditional dress. For spiritual guidance and inspiration, tribes from the Northwest traveled to the Prophet's headquarters in Indiana.

1807 – British attack on the Chesapeake riles Americans. Between 1803 and 1807, Great Britain seized over 500 American ships; France, over 300. Many American sailors were impressed into foreign naval service. Jefferson complained of the two countries, "The one is a den of robbers, the other of pirates." The issue brought the United States to the brink of war when a British frigate fired on the U.S. warship Chesapeake in American waters. Public opinion called for war, but Jefferson opted for "peaceable coercion." The Embargo Act was passed to prohibit American ships from sailing to any foreign port. As a result, American exports and imports plunged. New England port cities were especially hurt, and many American merchants resorted to smuggling to deep their businesses operating.

1808 – James Madison, Jefferson's political ally and secretary of state, elected President. Dissatisfaction with the Embargo Act helped the Federalists to gain seats in Congress however.

Importation of slaves banned. But with no means of enforcement, the prohibition was ineffective and many thousands of African slaves were imported after its adoption.

1809 – The Non-Intercourse Act reopens trade with all nations but Great Britain and France.

Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnees and brother of the Prophet, forms a confederacy of tribes to halt the steady advance of white civilization. He had hoped to make the Ohio River the boundary between the United States and Indian country.

Washington Irving publishes Knickerbocker's History of New York.

1810 – Macon's Bill No. 2 reopens free commercial relations with Great Britain and France, but gave the president authority to prohibit commerce with either nation should either violate neutral shipping rights.

1811 – Governor William Harrison, a veteran Indian fighter and governor of the Indiana Territory, camps near Prophetstown with 1,000 men and provokes a conflict with the Indians. Tecumseh was in the South at the time trying to persuade other tribes to join the alliance. The conflict, known as the Battle of Tippecanoe (for the creek near the battle site), saw heavy losses on both sides, but culminated with Harrison's victory as he burned Prophetstown. Tecumseh's confederacy was severely weakened, but warriors remained active in terrorizing frontier settlements.

1812 – The United States declares war against Great Britain. Madison asked Congress for the declaration of war for two primary reasons: continued impressment of Americans into the British navy and continued violation of neutral trading rights for Americans. In addition, some believe America was interested in expanding its territory into Canada or Florida (owned by Britain's ally Spain) and in destroying Indian populations, who War Hawks claimed were receiving weapons from the British to continue raids. Many War Hawks contended that Britain had never accepted American independence.

With Britain at war in Europe with Napoleon, War Hawks argue that the United States would defeat the British with little effort. However, the American armed forces were not adequately prepared for a war. Although Britain could not turn its full attention to the war until 1813, the American war effort did not begin well. A three-pronged American invasion of Canada failed disastrously in 1812. The invasion was poorly planned, but American troops were surprised that the Canadians did not see them as "liberators." Instead the Canadians fought alongside the British. Furthermore, Fort Dearborn (later Chicago) was lost in an Indian attack. Perhaps the first significant American victory occurred in September 1813 when Captain Oliver Hazard Perry's victory at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie gave the U.S. control of the Great Lakes.

1813 – Tecumseh killed at the Battle of the Thames in Canada. Tecumseh saw the War of 1812 as an opportunity to drive the Americans out of the Western territory. However, General William Henry Harrison defeated the British and the Indian allies at the Battle of the Thames. With Tecumseh's death, any hope of a Pan-Indian movement was lost.

1813 - 1814 – Creek War fought in the South. The Creeks staged a series of attacks, but Indian unity again proved problematic when traditional Creek enemies (Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw) allied with the Americans. In March 1814, General Andrew Jackson destroyed the Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and then dictated the peace treaty in which the Creeks agreed to cede 22 million acres of land in the Mississippi Territory to the United States.

1814 – With Napoleon in exile on Elba, the British invade America. Their most significant victory occurred in Chesapeake Bay, which culminated in the capture and burning of Washington, D.C. With the president, politicians, and government officials fleeing, the British burned the White House, the Capitol Building, and other public buildings. British troops then headed to Baltimore, but Baltimore was prepared. The British could only bomb the city from a distance before withdrawing. Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the night of the British bombardment.

In August 1814, British and American diplomats meet in Belgium to discuss a treaty. The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814 about two weeks before the Battle of New Orleans, did little more than end the fighting. The Americans did not insist, as they had earlier in the negotiations, that the British renounce impressment nor that the British cede Canada to the United States. The British gave up their demand that an Indian buffer state be created in the Northwest. By December both were simply anxious to end the war. The British were in debt and exhausted as a result of the Napoleonic Wars and the Americans realized that since the British were no longer at war with Napoleon that there would be little reason to impress men off American ships. (The Americans were right; impressment rarely occurred after 1815.) The War of 1812 accomplished very little. As John Quincy Adams commented, "Nothing was adjusted, nothing was settled – nothing in substance but an indefinite suspension of hostilities was agreed to."

The Hartford Convention is held in December. Organized by New England Federalists who were upset with the administrations of Jefferson and Madison over issues like the Embargo Act and the present war, convention delegates discussed the possibility of a New England secession (not supported by the majority) and proposed new amendments to the Constitution. However, within weeks of the convention's adjournment, news swept the country of Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans and the Treaty of Ghent. The Federalist Party appeared obsolete, trifling, and simply irrelevant.

1815 – Unaware of the Treaty of Ghent, British and American troops engage in the Battle of New Orleans in early January. Major General Andrew Jackson, out-numbered and ill-equipped, won a stunning victory in which the American people took great pride. The British losses totaled 700 dead, 1,400 wounded, and 500 captured: Jackson's losses: 8 dead, 13 wounded.