When King George III refused to open the Olive Branch Petition, he gave the 2nd Continental Congress no choice but to move for independence.

1. Noturningback

2. One last try One month after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the 2nd Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, PA.

3. One last try They were 56 men from all thirteen colonies who met to try and come up with some plan to deal with the fact that some members of the colonies had fired British regulars.

4. One last try Their first effort to fix this was the Olive Branch Petition, whose purpose was to convince King George the Third that the colonies wanted a peaceful solution to the problem and that there would be no more fighting.

5. One last try King George never read the petition and sent it back to the 2nd Continental Congress.

6. One last try This made it fairly clear that King George was not going to accept any apology and war was the only answer.

7. Common sense In addition to this information, Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense, published in January, 1776.

8. Common sense The purpose of this was to convince the American people, but also the members of the 2nd Continental Congress, to support the cause of Revolution and independence from England.

9. Common sense The document laid out just how much England depended on the American colonies far more than the colonies depended upon England.

10. To independence The leaders of the 2nd Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence.

11. To independence The committee was led by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin.

12. To independence They were greatly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment.

13. To independence The Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, was a period of time where thinkers attempted to apply the principles of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of society.

14. To independence One of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment was John Locke, who was also the greatest inspiration to Thomas Jefferson.