The American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was an ideological and political movement in the Thirteen Colonies in what was then British America. The revolution ultimately culminated in the American Revolutionary War, which began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775. The war between the colonies and the Kingdom of Great Britain continued for eight years. Leaders of the American Revolution were colonial separatist leaders who, as British subjects, initially sought incremental levels of autonomy. But later, assembled in present-day Independence Hall in the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia, they embraced and joined the cause of full independence and the Revolutionary War, forming the Continental Army and appointing George Washington as its commander-in-chief in 1775 and unanimously adopting and issuing the Declaration of Independence the following year, which served to inspire, formalize, and escalate the war, which ultimately ended British colonial rule over the colonies, permitting their independence and the establishment of the United States of America.
Discontent with colonial rule began shortly after the defeat of France in the French and Indian War in 1763. Although the colonies had fought and supported the war, the British 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; its "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" argued that taxation without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. In 1767, tensions flared again following the British Parliament's passage of the Townshend Acts. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion, King George III deployed troops to Boston. A local confrontation resulted in the troops killing protesters in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. In 1772, anti-tax demonstrators in Rhode Island destroyed the Royal Navy customs schooner Gaspee. On December 16, 1773, activists disguised as Indians instigated the Boston Tea Party and dumped chests of tea owned by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. London closed Boston Harbor and enacted a series of punitive laws, which effectively ended self-government in Massachusetts.
In late 1774, 12 of the Thirteen Colonies (Georgia joined in 1775) sent delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. It began coordinating Patriot resistance through underground networks of committees. In April 1775, British forces attempted to disarm local militias around Boston and engaged them. On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress responded by authorizing formation of the Continental Army and appointing George Washington as its commander-in-chief. In August, King George III proclaimed Massachusetts to be in a state of open defiance and rebellion. The Continental Army surrounded Boston, and the British withdrew by sea in March 1776, leaving the Patriots in control in every colony. In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress began to take on the role of governing a new nation. It passed the Lee Resolution for national independence on July 2, and on July 4, 1776, unanimously 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 Revolutionary War continued for another five years during which the Kingdom of France ultimately entered the war as an ally of the colonies and their pursuit of independence. On September 28, 1781, in the Continental Army's most decisive victory, combined American and French armies captured an entire British army during the Siege of Yorktown, leading to the collapse of King George's control of Parliament and consensus in Parliament that the war should be ended on American terms.
On September 3, 1783, the British signed the Treaty of Paris, granting 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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