The First Great Awakening (1730-1740) was a period of intense religious revivalism in the colonies that helped foster an independent religious spirit, encourage the creation of new Christian denominations and lead to the creation of many Christian schools across the colonies. Disdain for Catholicism was already rampant amongst the (vast) Protestant majority in the colonies and, as such, was not caused by the First Great Awakening.

Prior to King Phillip’s War there had been little existence of an American identity, one distinct from British. In the early seventeenth century, colonies had been established primarily as a means of shipping religious dissidents three thousand miles away, where they could not affect English heterodoxy. The colonists tended to see themselves as religiously separate, but culturally and nationally identical to the British; however, in King Phillip’s War the colonists were provided with very little assistance by the British Empire. Forced to fight and die together, the war fostered a new identity, an American identity that would continue to build, particularly in New England, for the next hundred years.

“Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer” was, in fact, written by a lawyer in opposition to the British imposition of the Townshend Acts. The tract argued that the British government did have ultimate authority over the external affairs of the colonies, but that the colonies had the right to internal government. It declared that taxes made solely for the purpose of raising revenue for the Empire were abhorrent and against the British legal system. The tract was widely read and encouraged anti-British feeling throughout the colonies.

In early 1692, many town in the northern part of Massachusetts colony underwent a mass hysteria where various townspeople accused others of being practicing witches. Such accusations had a long history in European culture, and were well established in the colonists' own deeply held Calvinism. Witchcraft was a capital offense, and the ensuing trials became more convoluted by recent changes and disputes over Royal authority in the colony. In all, hundreds were accused and convicted, with dozens being executed in a variety of manners. This was also the last instance of a widespread witch trial, and made royal authority finally preeminent in Massachusetts.

Embittered by his experience with the Continental Army, General Benedict Arnold schemed to deliver the American fort of West Point to the British. Today, his name remains tarnished in the USA for his actions.

The Iroquois are a Native American tribe found outside of the mesoamerican time period and geography.

Entry into the early Puritan church in the seventeenth-century American colonies required that the user be baptized and undergo a “full religious experience,” but the church began to decline rapidly in membership as the children and grand-children of the first generation Puritans were excluded from the full religious community. In an attempt to counter this trend, the Puritan church passed the Half-Way Covenant to allow for the baptism of children of the holders of the Covenant. The idea was that these children would still reap the social and moral lessons of the Puritan church and then later in life would come to experience the “born again” moment and become full members.

The writings of Thomas Paine, the Anglo-American revolutionary, inspired Americans to seek independence from Britain before their Revolutionary War.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers, never served in the army.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both written at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.