The Second Continental Congress

 The Second Continental Congress succeeded the first cotinental congress. The congress met in philadelphia for the second time in May 10, 1775 with the purpose of organizing all the efforts of the colonies against England. They took important decisions as organizing all their war efforts wisely. Fiftysix delegates attended to the second congress and they agreed to have Peyton Randolph as president and Charles Thompson as the secretary. They had two new delegates John Hancock from Massachussetts and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. Randolph had to get back to The House of Burguesses so John Hancock replaced him. For second time only delegates of twelve of the thirteen colonies got together leaving out Georgia that didn´t send delegates, it was until May 13 that Lyman Hall a colonist of Georgia was accepted in the congress but not in representation of his colony. In July Georgia sent representation to the Continental Congress after holding a congress as a colony. The Continental Congress assumed the responsibility for going to war with England. They formed the Continental Army wich was under George Washington´s command. During this meeting some of the radical delegates wanted to declare independence from England but theu knew that it was too soon. The congress sent "Olive Branch Petition" to the king but he rejected it and sent more troops to America.

The Minutemen

The minutemen were selected men from the colonial Militia. This were called minutemen because when they were summoned to fight they got ready in a rush.The minutemen were among the first people to fight in the American Revolution. They were  about one fourth of the Militia. Minutemen and the sons of liberty  spread the news that the British readcoats were heading to Lexington and Concord. The minutemen were ready for every situation even though they had no trainment as the English troops had.The requiremnets for being part of the Minutemen was to have twenty five years or younger you had to be enthusiastic, you had to be reliable person and you had to have physical strenght and resistence. The Minutemen are connected to the revolution because theuy played an important role in it but the origins of the minutemen date from Massachusetts during the midseventeenth century. In 1645 they started to select men to arm them with what they had on hand and they had to get ready to fight in at most one hour.The only disadvantage that the Minutemen had was that they had no central organization.

The Coercive Acts

Known by the colonies as The Intolerable Acts were a series of laws passed by the Parliament in 1774 as response for the Boston Tea Party. This motion was supported by the  Brititsh Prime Minister Lord North and encouraged by King George III with the purpose of restoring the order in colonial Massachussetts.
There were five intolerable ancts and are yhe following:

1. Quebec Act  : British expanded the frontiers of  Quebec, so that the southern border of Canada  cut off the western colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia. People that lived in that area lost heir land and were very angry against the Parliament, The King and The english Prime Minister.
2. Boston Port Act :The English closed Boston´s port for every boat that wasn´t English until the colonists paid for the tea they had thrown to the sea.
3. Quartering Act : To reinforce Britain´s authority the King sent troops to the colonies to control the situation and the colonists were forced to give them housing.
4. Administration of Justice Act : English that commited crimes in the colonies  went to trial in England.
5. Massachussetts Government act   this act took  away  the right of self-government. Government positions were appointed by the governor or directly by the king.

                                    

Concord and Lexington

 When the colonists started to take matters on their hands the Parliament stopped ignoring their actions because this time they were directly affected. In 1775 the Lt.General Thomas Gage received orders from the english secretary of state of going to Lexington and to Concord to capture the congressmen of the colonies and to confiscate the stockpiled weapons and ammunitions. By that time the members of the congress were scattered throughout the countryside but Samuel and John could only get to the house of Reverend Clark in Lexington. The English wanted to keep secret their plans but they couldn't Paul Revere,  William Daws and Samuel Presscott warned all the colonists about the arrival of the English troops. When the troops got top Lexington the colonial militia was waiting for them. They told the militia to disperse but when they were doing someone shot a gun and the troops killed 8 colonists and wounded ten. When that finished the troops headed to Concord but militia intercepted the troops and they defeated them and drove them back to Boston.

Boston Tea Party

  Even when the colonists had repeled most of the taxes the Parliament wouldn´t give up they kept insisting in taxing the colonists. The colonists kept refusing to pay taxes if they had no representation. After all the protests of the colonists against the taxation without representation thye Parliament had regressed most of the taxes except one, tea tax. The colonists decided to boycott the East Indie Company that was in charge of shipping English tea to America, instead of buying the tea from England they would buy smuggled Dutch tea. The English Parliament realized that the East Indie Company was falling in bankrupcy so it passed a law that gave permission to the company to sell directly to the Colonists. The colonists kept without buying the tea.On December 16, 1773, after officials of Boston refused to send back three ships fullof  tea to Britain, a group of colonists dressed as Indians to remain in the anonimatum boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into the harbor of boston. 

The Boston Massacre

 In the early 1700 s The colonies were ruled by the British laws, the governor of the colony was imposed by the King. in 1765 the English Parliament passed a law that stated that the colonists had to give housing to the English troops. In some cases the troops built rough encampments as houses but almost all the time they moved into the houses of the colonists. This angered the colonies because they saw it as another abuse of the Parliament. The troopers weren't happy because they were far away from their families they didn't pay them well.

In a cold evening of March, in 1770 when a soldier was looking for work the colonists angered and they followed the soldier as an angry mob. The colonists throwed rocks and snowballs to the soldier. The soldier got to his encampment and a captain and eight of his men went to help the trooper.

The colonists got more angry at every moment until a soldier felt so threatened that he opened fire, this shot  encouraged the other soldiers to open fire and they killed Five colonists that had no chance to defend themselves from the armed soldiers.

The soldiers were put under arrest and charged by murder.

Colonial Heritage

The colonists adopted several of the English politics because back then they thought that the British had the best government. The British government included the law administration of justice according to establish rules and principles which is known as the common law. Colonists would enjoy trials by jury, freedom of press from prior censorship and they cherished the right of not paying taxes unless they were levied by their representatives. Until 1760 the Colonial government followed the British government but protests arrived at this time and proved that they were not happy.

The French and Indian War

The French and Indian War also knownn as the Seven Year War ,was one of the battles between the French and the British. The war started in europe and it spread to America. The British wanted the land and the profitable fur trade held by the French. The French refused to give up their territory and their trade so they begun to fight. Meanwhile the Indians joined the British to fight against the French, because they thought that the British were powerful and that they could easily take their land. So the Indians allied with the British. At first the French were defeating the British easily but this changed. In 1756 William Pitt became the British secretary of state and he applied more resources and money to the war, now Britain had complete control of the situation. In 1759 the Britsh seized Quebec and in the next year MOntreal and this completed the conquering of the Canadian territory.The war was ended officially in February 10, 1763, when the French signed The Treaty of Paris. France gave all of its holdings in North America, but they got back the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.