In this assignment, I will pretend to be Thomas Mifflin of the Continental Congress. I will describe my grievances against Parliament and say how they should be solved.

To King George III,

I, Thomas Mifflin, a delegate of Pennsylvania, hereby describe to you my grievances against Parliament’s outrageous laws.

O king, it pains me to describe the things that you have done to us, but I will in the hope that you can stop this craziness.

First, I protest against the Molasses act. This act taxes the sugar coming from other countries so that we have to buy sugar from England only! Now we have to buy high priced subsidized sugar. Sure, this act expired in 1763, and we all thought that was the end. Then what? The Sugar Act! This is almost the same as the Molasses act. It doesn’t matter that the tax is less now, it matters that we still have to pay it!

I also protest against the Currency Acts. Before these acts, we could create and use our own money, but now we are forced to pay in British currency or use gold or silver! It was so much easier and more convenient to use our continental paper currency.

And then, the Quartering Act. This was by far the worst one yet. Now we are forced to provide food and shelter for your troops whenever they come banging on our doors! Us colonists can hardly spare a meal these days! This act is intolerable, and it should be repealed at once!

The Stamp Act was almost as bad as the Quartering Act. All legal documents had to be printed on watermarked paper that is highly taxed. We even had to pay taxes on playing cards, dice and newspapers! Thankfully, after lots of protesting, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. But alas, the same act that repealed the stamp act said that Parliament could pass any law without the colonists consent! This was the breaking point for me. Some of the acts were legal because the colonies consented, except for the Stamp Act. But now Parliament didn’t have to worry about if we wanted the new laws or not!

And then, the Townshend Acts were passed, probably just to infuriate us even more. Now we are taxed on tea, lead, paper, glass, and paint. What does Parliament think they are doing? Don’t they realize that if this continues, there will be war? Already talk of rebellion is spreading around the colonies, and riots are breaking out.

There is only one thing for you to do, O king! Repeal these laws and let us live in peace! If you do this, the colonies will be a much happier place.

The Seven Years’ War was a very big war with a lot historical significance. It was one of the first wars that involved most of the world, including North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

During the time before the war, Great Britain, Spain, and France held a lot of land in North America. The Spanish owned land near Mexico and Florida, the French claimed much of the Midwest, and Britain claimed the eastern coastline from Canada to the Spanish border in Florida.

The British settlers started settling land further and further west, nearer and nearer to French Territory. The Brits sent a message to the French telling them to get out, or there would be a battle.

Washington got a message from one of his Native American allies telling him that the French camp was less than five miles away, near a small gully and meadow. He didn’t know what the French were planning, so he decided to take forty men out at night to check the camp. They moved in around the camp. Strangely, the French only had one person guarding the camp.

Suddenly, at 7:00 in the morning, someone fired a shot. Chaos broke out and the French fled, and ran into Tanacharison, Washington’s ally, with lots of natives armed with tomahawks. The whole battle lasted only about 15 minutes, and ten French soldiers were killed. This battle was later called the Battle of Jumonville Glen, and was the start of the hostilities between the French and the British. This led to tension in Europe and the start of the Seven Years’ War.

Great Britain, Prussia, and Hanover fought against France, Russia, Sweden, Austria and Saxony. It has been called the first world war because it was fought over many continents. In May 1756, Britain officialy declared war on the French. Frederick II of Prussia wanted to defeat Austria before France and Russia could prepare. Prussia seized the capital and forced a surrender from the Austrians. Prussia moved into Bohemia, but they retreated after they could not win. Now Prussia was being attacked from all around!

The French quickly targeted the army of Hanover, who quickly surrendered. Britain tried to keep the French distracted by attacking their coastline, while Prussia was beating back the Swedes.

The British ignored the defeat of the Hanoverian army and kept trying to keep the French away. They won the battle of Minden in 1759, but Frederick kept needing more reinforcements for his Prussian army. Frederick attacked Austria and lost, he fought a draw against the Russians, and was beaten again by the Austrians. By now Prussia was becoming weak. Austria had spent a lot of mony and was not in a good position, but as Frederick suffered more losses, Prussia looked doomed.

Luckily for Frederick, the Tsarina of Russia who was against prussians died and was succeded by Tsar Peter III. He made peace with the Prussians and by now, everyone involved in the war was getting very tired and short on funds.

So the Treaty of Paris was formed and it returned things to the state before the war. Britian emerged from the war the largest power in the world, while Prussia lost 10% of its population. The war created a shift from Spain and Holland dominant, to Russia and Great Britain.

South America started out as a very uncivilized, decentralized area. A few kingdoms ruled small parts of South America, but the other areas were mostly the domain of chiefdoms and small tribal nations.

The two main kingdoms were the Chimu and Incan empires. The Incan empire was located in modern day Peru, and was the strongest empire until the Europeans came and took over. Macchu Picchu is an Incan city that survived the Spaniard invasions, and is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.

After Christopher Columbus made his voyage, people from Europe slowly started coming to the Americas. The Spaniards and Portuguese colonized vast amounts of land and decimated the tribes, including the Incans and the Chimu, who both fought against them.

In Central America, a similar thing happened. At first, there were lots of small tribes and three small empires, the Aztec, the Tarasco, and the Maya. But then the Spanish came and wiped out all three of them completely. They even took over land as far as northern California and Florida!

The Caribbean also experienced a lot of colonization in a short period of time. The slave trade was a big business in this area, and continued until the 18th century, when it was abolished. Most of these islands are independent and are their own nations today, but a few still owe allegiance to European countries.

Africa is one of the most diverse continents on earth. Africa is also a very populated continent. A lot of large civilizations are based around the Nile River, the longest river in the world. Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia were the biggest civilizations in Africa up to the 1800s.

Egypt was the most well-known and most powerful country in Africa. The country was based around the Nile River, where crops flourished. Egypt grew very wealthy under the rule of their pharaohs. Rome conquered Egypt around 31 BC and remained in control of it for a long time, until the fall of the Roman Empire. Egypt’s main religion was Islam.

Nubia was another powerful country located south of Egypt. They remained independent of Egypt, but started to decline at around 400 AD. Nubia was thought to be the place where ironworking originated.

Ethiopia, also called Axum, was unique in that it remained independent for its whole history. It was particularly strong and rich during the first century under its line of powerful kings. It was built up through trade along the coast of the Red Sea. Ethiopia was influenced by Egyptian and Greek culture.

In the west and south of Africa, lots of small tribal nations flourished, and they fought with each other but stayed mostly independent. The Europeans would buy prisoners of war from the different tribes, and the slave trade boomed. The rest of Africa stayed very decentralized until more modern times.

Africa had lots of natural resources, but most remained unused until the Europeans showed up and started to rapidly colonize Africa. They made lots of money off of the natural resources that they had discovered.

Africa has been fighting for independence from other countries for a long time, but they still need their support to advance.