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, depicted in John Trumbull's 1818 portrait, Declaration of Independence
Date	1765 to 1783
Location	Thirteen Colonies (1765–1775) United Colonies (1775–1781) United States (1781–1783)
Outcome	Independence of the United States of America from Great Britain Dissolution of British America, formation of British North America and Spanish Florida End of the First British Empire Began the Age of Revolution World's first federal republic founded on the consent of the governed First permanently successful overthrow of monarchical colonial rule

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American Revolution
The Committee of Five presents their draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia
Timeline Military leaders Battles
Origins Context Thirteen Colonies Salutary neglect French and Indian War George III Ideas American Enlightenment Republicanism Liberalism "No taxation without representation" Conflict over taxation Sugar Act Currency Act Quartering Acts Stamp Act 1765 Sons of Liberty Stamp Act Congress Declaratory Act Townshend Acts Virginia Association Tea Act Boston Massacre Boston Tea Party Philadelphia Tea Party Intolerable Acts Committees of Correspondence First Continental Congress Continental Association
Revolutionary War Continental Army Continental Navy Minutemen British Army British Royal Navy France Spain Battles Diplomacy Intelligence Treaty of Paris Financial costs
Political developments Loyalists Patriots Role of women Role of African Americans Second Continental Congress 27 colonial grievances Olive Branch Petition Lee Resolution Declaration of Independence (Drafting Signing)
Forming a republic Confederation period Articles of Confederation Perpetual Union Congress of the Confederation Northwest Ordinance Dissent and rebellions Newburgh Conspiracy Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 Shays' Rebellion Paper Money Riot Constitution Annapolis Convention Philadelphia Convention The Federalist Papers Anti-Federalist Papers Raftification Bill of Rights
Legacy United States Atlantic Revolutions American nationalism American civil religion Bicentennial Prospect Hill Flag Debate
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The American Revolution (1765–1783) was an ideological and political movement in the Thirteen Colonies in what was then British America. The revolution culminated in the American Revolutionary War, which was launched on April 19, 1775, in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Leaders of the American Revolution were colonial separatist leaders who, as British subjects, initially sought incremental levels of autonomy but came to embrace the cause of full independence and the necessity of prevailing in the Revolutionary War to obtain it. The Second Continental Congress, which represented the colonies and convened in present-day Independence Hall in Philadelphia, formed the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in June 1775, and unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence the following year, which inspired, formalized, and escalated the war. For most of the eight-year war, its outcome appeared uncertain. But in 1781, a decisive victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown inspired King George III and the British to negotiate an end to colonial rule in the colonies and acknowledge their independence, which was codified in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, leading to the establishment of the sovereign United States of America.

Discontent with colonial rule began shortly after the defeat of France in the French and Indian War in 1763. Even though the colonies had fought in and supported the war, 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 in 1765; its "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" argued that taxation without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. In 1767, tensions flared again following British Parliament's passage of the Townshend Acts. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion, King George III deployed British troops to Boston, where British troops killed protesters in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. In 1772, anti-tax demonstrators destroyed the Royal Navy customs schooner Gaspee off present-day Warwick, Rhode Island. On December 16, 1773, in a seminal event in the American Revolution's escalation, Sons of Liberty activists wearing costumes of Native Americans instigated the Boston Tea Party, during which they boarded and dumped chests of tea owned by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. London responded by closing Boston Harbor and enacting a series of punitive laws, which effectively ended self-government in Massachusetts but also served to expand and intensify the revolutionary cause.

In late 1774, 12 of the Thirteen Colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress, which met inside Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia; the Province of Georgia joined in 1775. The First Continental Congress began coordinating Patriot resistance through underground networks of committees. Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Washington and the Continental Army responded by surrounding Boston, forcing the British to withdraw by sea in March 1776, and leaving Patriots in control in every colony. In August 1775, King George III proclaimed Massachusetts to be in a state of open defiance and rebellion.

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress began debating and deliberating on the Articles of Confederation, an effort to establish a self-governing rule of law in the Thirteen Colonies. On July 2, they passed the Lee Resolution, affirming their support for national independence, and on July 4, 1776, they unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, authored primarily by Thomas Jefferson, 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 France ultimately entered the war, supporting the colonial cause of independence. On September 28, 1781, Washington, with support from Marquis de Lafayette, the French Army, and French Navy, led the Continental Army's most decisive victory, capturing roughly 7,500 British troops led by British general Charles Cornwallis 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 their former colonies 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.