Known by many other names, including the American Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, the American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775–September 3, 1783) was the military struggle of the American Revolution in which American Patriot forces led by George Washington defeated the British, establishing and securing the independence of the United States. On April 19, 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord saw the start of fighting.
The Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia passed the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, stating that the Thirteen Colonies were “free and independent states.” Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was unanimously ratified, formalizing and escalating the war.
The Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Spain finally backed American patriot soldiers during the conflict. German Hessian soldiers also served in the British and Loyalist armies. The Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, and North America saw fighting during the conflict.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the American colonies were founded by royal charter. They traded with Britain, its Caribbean colonies, and other European powers through their Caribbean entrepôts, and at first they were economically successful and relatively independent in their internal affairs.
Tensions and disagreements over trade, trans-Appalachian settlement, and taxing policies—such as the Stamp and Townshend Acts—rose between Britain and the colonies following the British victory over the French in the Seven Years’ War in 1763.
In response, the British revoked previous tax laws. However, the Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773, as a result of the Tea Act, which was passed by the British Parliament in 1773. As a result, in the middle of 1774, the British Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts, sealed Boston Harbor, and repealed Massachusetts’ charter, putting the colony directly under the control of the British monarchy.
Twelve of the colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia early in September 1774 in response to the upheaval these actions caused throughout the colonies, and to discuss possible retaliatory actions. The Congress, in Philadelphia, drafted a Petition to the King pleading for peace and threatening the Continental Association, a boycott of British products, if the Intolerable Acts were not rescinded. Battle broke out.
George Washington became the Continental Army’s commander-in-chief after the Second Continental Congress formally recognized Patriot militias as an army in June. A portion of the British Parliament rejected the coercion approach supported by the North ministry, but both sides came to believe that war would eventually break out. Congress delivered King George III the Olive Branch Petition in July 1775, but he rejected it. In August of that same year, the British Parliament proclaimed the colonies to be in a state of rebellion.
Following Washington’s soldiers’ successful evacuation of the British army from Boston during the Siege of Boston in March 1776, which marked the official start of the Revolutionary War, British commander-in-chief William Howe replied by initiating the New York and New Jersey campaign.
A different British force led by John Burgoyne was forced to surrender at Saratoga in October 1777, marking an American victory that was essential in persuading France and Spain that the United States could really become an independent nation.
Between December 1777 and June 1778, Washington and 12,000 soldiers from the Continental Army took sanctuary in Valley Forge while the British continued to occupy Philadelphia. While General von Steuben was training the Continental Army at Valley Forge to make it a more formidable fighting force, up to 2,000 soldiers perished during the harsh winter from illness and maybe starvation.
From the start of the war, France gave the Continental Army covert military and financial support. Following Saratoga, in February 1778, the two nations signed a Treaty of Alliance and a commercial pact. Although it did not legally create an alliance with the Americans, Spain joined forces with France in the Treaty of Aranjuez in 1779 to oppose Britain. While the British Royal Navy lost important bases in the American south as a result of the Spanish Gulf Coast campaign, American patriots were able to acquire supplies and weapons thanks to their access to ports in Spanish Louisiana.
The 1778 plan hatched by Howe’s successor, Henry Clinton, to drive the American war machine southward was weakened by the closure of American ports. In September and October of 1781, a Franco-American force besieged Yorktown, despite some initial success for Cornwallis. Cornwallis was compelled to capitulate in October after making an unsuccessful attempt to resupply the troops.
The British battles with France and Spain dragged on for two more years, but by then the fighting had mostly stopped in America and Britain’s forces were largely limited to a few harbors and forts in the Great Lakes. A new British government took over the North ministry in April 1782, acknowledged American independence, and started negotiating the Treaty of Paris, which was concluded on September 3, 1783, and which Britain acknowledged.
American Revolution
The 1763 Peace of Paris, which drove France out of Britain’s lands in New France, put an end to the French and Indian War, which was a part of the larger worldwide battle known as the Seven Years’ War.43] After acquiring lands in West Florida and Atlantic Canada, which were mostly populated by French- or Spanish-speaking Catholics, British officials decided to establish English-speaking settlers there in order to strengthen their position.
Avoiding hostilities between western settlers and Native American tribes beyond the Appalachian Mountains also spared the expense of a costly military takeover.In [44]
In order to accomplish these goals, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 redirected colonial growth northward into Nova Scotia and southward into Florida, with the Mississippi River serving as the border between American territories held by the British and the Spanish. Although each colony claimed that its borders extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, claims made by Virginia and Massachusetts to the west of this line were withdrawn. Settlement was severely prohibited beyond the bounds of 1763.In [44]
In the end, the enormous territory exchange between settlers and Indians in the west disrupted their alliances and trade networks, and it was difficult to stop advance across the Proclamation Line.45] The colonial legislatures concurred, with the exception of Virginia and others denied rights to western regions.
Taxation and legislation
The colonies were mostly run by landowners who were native-born, even though The Crown, working through a local governor, was directly in charge of them. The colony militia was supported locally and exterior affairs were overseen by London, although the legislatures anticipated lower taxes following the end of the French menace in 1763. Parliament expected the colonies to pay for their own defense at the same time because of the massive debt accumulated by the Seven Years’ War and demands from British taxpayers for reductions in government spending.[46]-
The Royal Navy was given orders by the Grenville cabinet in 1763–1765 to stop dealing in contraband and to uphold customs taxes imposed in American ports.[46]- The most notable was the 1733 Molasses Act, which had a major economic impact since it was often disregarded before 1763.
The Sugar Act and Stamp Act, which levied extra taxes on the colonies to fund the defense of the western frontier, came after these actions.(47) With the formation of the First Rockingham administration in July 1765, the Whigs helped revive the New England economy by repealing the Stamp Act and lowering the duty on foreign molasses. However, the Declaratory Act restored parliamentary power.48]
This, however, did nothing to quell the unrest; in 1768, a riot broke out in Boston when the sloop Liberty was apprehended by the authorities on charges of smuggling.49] When British troops opened fire on citizens who were hurling rocks in March 1770, five people were killed in what is now known as the Boston Massacre, further inflaming tensions.50] The Massacre occurred concurrently with the North Ministry, a Tory organization, partially repealing the Townshend Acts.
After a customs vessel was destroyed in the Gaspee Affair in June 1772, tensions increased and reached a breaking point in 1773. The East India Company, which controlled the British economy, was on the verge of failing due to a banking crisis. In order to save it, Parliament approved the Tea Act, granting it a trading monopoly in the Thirteen Colonies.
The majority of American tea was smuggled by the Dutch, thus those in charge of the illicit trade opposed the measure, which they perceived as another attempt by Parliament to enforce the idea of taxation.52] The Boston Tea Party began when a group known as the Sons of Liberty, posing as Mohawk Indians, threw 342 boxes of tea into Boston Harbor in December 1773.
Break with the British Crown
The colonial legislatures’ elected lower chambers progressively took authority away from their royal rulers during the course of the eighteenth century.54] Smaller landowners and merchants dominated these assemblies, which replaced royal authority with impromptu provincial legislatures known by varying names such as conferences, conventions, and congresses.
Twelve colonies, Georgia not included, sent delegates to the First Continental Congress to settle on a common approach to the emergency.In [55] A large number of delegates wrote a petition to the king demanding the repeal of the Intolerable Acts because they believed that a complete boycott would spark a war.56] But following considerable discussion, Congress adopted the Massachusetts Suffolk Resolves on September 17, 1774, and the Continental Association on October 20, 1774, based on a First Virginia Convention draft.
A group headed by James Duane and eventual Loyalist Joseph Galloway that Congress acknowledge Parliament’s right to control colonial trade even as it denied it jurisdiction over domestic American matters.In 57 Congress gave the extralegal committees and conventions of the colonial legislatures permission to implement the boycott in anticipation of concessions from the North administration; this succeeded in lowering British imports by 97% between 1774 and 1775.
In [58] On February 9, however, the colony of Massachusetts was placed under blockade by Parliament, which proclaimed the commonwealth to be in a state of rebellion.In [59] The Restraining Acts of July restricted colonial trade with Britain and the British West Indies, and prohibited New England ships from participating in the cod fishery of Newfoundland. Tension escalated, sparking a race for control of militia supply depots where each gathering was authorized.
Political reactions
John Dickinson and other moderate members of Congress produced the Olive Branch Petition following the Patriot victory at Concord, pledging to accept royal power in exchange for George III settling the conflict.[62] However, Colonial Secretary Lord Dartmouth saw the offer as false because the petition was soon followed by the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.
As a result, he declined to deliver the plea to the monarch, and it was subsequently denied in the first part of September.[63]: George’s inability to criticize his own government was constitutionally correct, but it upset Americans hoping he would arbitrate the disagreement, and even Loyalist members of Congress found his hostile tone irritating.In [62] In addition to the Proclamation of Rebellion, which was published on August 23.
With support from the Whigs, Parliament first voted 170 times against imposing coercive measures because of concern that an assertive approach would only push the Americans closer to independence.[65] But by the end of 1774, both George III and Lord North were certain that war was unavoidable due to the breakdown of British power.[66]
Following Boston, Gage suspended operations and waited for reinforcements; the Irish Parliament authorized the enlistment of fresh battalions and permitted the first-ever recruiting of Catholics.In [67] In order to provide more troops, Britain also made a number of accords with German states.In [68] It amassed the greatest army ever dispatched outside of Europe in America within a year, with over 32,000 troops.69] .