American Revolution

American Revolution
Part of the Atlantic Revolutions
The Continental Colors flag (1775–1777)
The Committee of Five presenting its draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on June 28, 1776, as depicted in John Trumbull's 1818 portrait, Declaration of Independence
Date1765 to 1783
LocationThirteen Colonies
(1765-1775)
United Colonies
(1775-1781)
United States
(1781-1783)
Outcome
American Revolution
1765–1783
Chronology
Colonial Period Confederation period

The American Revolution was a rebellion and political revolution in the Thirteen Colonies, which saw colonists initiate a war for independence against the Kingdom of Great Britain. Colonial separatist leaders who had originally sought more autonomy within the British political system as British subjects, assembled to establish a new national government following the recognition of their independence which resulted in the creation of the United States of America.

Discontent with colonial rule began shortly after the defeat of France in the French and Indian War. Although the colonies had fought and supported the war, Parliament imposed new taxes to compensate for wartime costs and turned control of the colonies' western lands over to the British officials in Montreal. Representatives from several colonies convened the Stamp Act Congress to articulate a response. Its "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" argued that taxation without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. Tensions flared again in 1767 with Parliament's passage of the Townshend Acts, a group of new taxes and regulations imposed on the thirteen colonies. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion in the colonies, which was particularly severe in Massachusetts, King George III deployed troops to Boston. A local fracas resulted in the troops killing protesters in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.

The Thirteen Colonies responded assertively. Anti-tax demonstrators in Rhode Island destroyed the Royal Navy customs schooner Gaspee in 1772. Activists dressed themselves as Indians and dumped 340 chests of tea owned by the British East India Company worth £9,659. London responded decisively, closing Boston Harbor and enacting a series of punitive laws, which effectively ended self government in Massachusetts Bay Colony. In late 1774, 12 of the Thirteen (Georgia arrived in 1775) sent delegates to the First Continental Congress. It began coordinating Patriot resistance by militias which existed in every colony and which had gained military experience in the French and Indian War.

In 1775, the King declared Massachusetts to be in a state of open defiance and rebellion. On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia responded by authorizing formation of the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief. The fighting began in April 1775 when the British attempt to seize militia weapons was repulsed in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The Continental Army expelled the British from Boston, leaving the Patriots in control of each colony.

In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress took the role of governing a new nation. It denounced King George III as a tyrant who trampled the colonists' rights as Englishmen, passed the Lee Resolution for national independence on July 2, and on July 4, 1776, adopted the Declaration of Independence, which embodied the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism, rejected monarchy and aristocracy, and famously proclaimed that "all men are created equal".

The fighting continued for five years, now known as the Revolutionary War. During that time, France entered as an ally of the United States. The decisive victory came in the fall of 1781, when the combined American and French armies captured an entire British army at at Yorktown, Virginia. The defeat led to the collapse of King George's control of Parliament, with a majority now in favor of ending the war on American terms. On September 3, 1783, the British signed the Treaty of Paris giving the United States nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes. About 60,000 Loyalists migrated to other British territories in Canada and elsewhere, but the great majority remained in the United States. With its victory in the American Revolution, the United States became the first constitutional republic in world history founded on the consent of the governed and the rule of law.


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