American Revolution
A revolution is the overthrow of one government, and its replacement with another.
In this lesson, you learned how the colonists defeated the British to become a new country. The weaker side won because of some special advantages.
From 1775 to 1783, the colonists fought the British to win their independence. At first, Great Britain seemed sure to succeed. I had the largest navy in the world, and its army was made up of skilled, full-time solders. The Continental army of the colonies, however, was small and untrained.
The Continental army and navy were weaker than those of the British. But, unlike the British, the Continentals were fighting at home. They had a stronger motivation to win, and they could fight a defensive war. In contrast, the British had to try to control large amounts of territory as well as defeat the Continental army.
The Battles of Saratoga were a turning point in the war. When the Continentals won the Battles of Saratoga, powerful allies joined them. In the decisive Battle of Yorktown, French soldiers and ships helped the Continentals defeat the British. The Treaty of Paris recognized American independence, and it gave a huge amount of land to the United States.
Timeline:
Timelines show us when important things happened and what came before or after.
By looking at a timeline, we can see the order of events. It's like reading a story in order!
1. The Stamp Act:
The British government imposed a tax on all paper goods, leading to widespread protest in the colonies.
2. Boston Tea Party-1773:
The first battle of the American Revolution happened in Lexington and Concord.
American Minutemen stood up against British soldiers, marking the beginning of the armed conflict for independence.
3. Battle of Lexington and Concord-1775:
A group of leaders including Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. This document declared that the American colonies were no longer part of Britain and explained why they wanted to be independent.
4. Declaration of Independence-1776:
The British army surrendered to the American and French forces at Yorktown.
This event is considered the final major battle of the American Revolution, and it led to the independence of the United States.
5. Surrender at Yorktown-1781:
The Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the war between the United States and Britain. The treaty recognized the United States as an independent nation and established the new country.
6. Treaty of Paris-1783:
Angry colonists in Boston protested against British taxes on tea. They dressed up as Native Americans and threw British tea into the harbor to show their disagreement with the unfair taxes.
Let's explore a powerful idea: “No Taxation Without Representation.” This phrase meant the colonists didn't want taxes without having a say.
As we look at visuals, we're understanding how this idea is introduced and explained. The pictures help us see why the colonists stood up for their right to be heard.
For example, we might read about their desire for a voice in government, and the visuals show their determination. These images turn an important idea into a story, helping us get to the heart of the American Revolution.
The Boston Massacre: 1770
British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonists, killing five people. This event fueled anti-British sentiments.
The Boston Tea Party: 1773
Colonists, disguised as Native Americans, dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act.
Battles of Lexington and Concord: 1775
The first battles of the American Revolution. 'The shot heard 'round the world' marked the start of the war.
Declaration of Independence: 1776
On July 4th, the colonies declared their independence from Britain. The Declaration was written primarily by Thomas Jefferson.
Battle of Saratoga: 1777
A major American victory that convinced France to join the war on the side of the colonies.
Battle of Yorktown: 1781
The last major battle of the war. British General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington.
Treaty of Paris: 1783
The Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the war and recognizing the United States as an independent nation.
Fig: The American Revolution Timeline
Fig: The colonists showed their anger with the Stamp Act in many ways.
Here we see colonists in Boston burning Stamp Act papers.
The Stamp Act: 1765
After fighting the French and Indian War, Great Britain needed money to pay its debts. In 1765, to raise money, Parliament passes a new tax law called the Stamp Act.
The Stamp Act said that colonists had to pay a tax on printed papers. Newspapers, pamphlets, marriage licenses, and playing cards were taxed. When a colonist paid the tax, an official would mark the printed paper with a large stamp.
This new tax angered the colonists for multiple reasons. They did not want to pay more money for things they used every day, and they also did not want to pay more money for things they used every day, and they also did not want to pay another tax to the British government. But they were mostly angry because they had no say in making the law. They said that this taxation without representation was unfair.
Colonists showed their anger in many ways. Some colonists refused to pay the tax to have printed papers stamped, while others protested in the streets and town squares. Some tried to scare off the tax collectors. At times, groups of colonists even attacked the tax collectors and their homes.
Groups from different colonies joined together in protest against the stamp Act, and in some colonies, merchants agreed not to buy any British goods. Many women, such as the Daughters of Library in Rhode Island, refused to buy British cloth. They wove their own cloth instead.
In October of 1765, nine colonies sent delegates to a special gathering in New York. This meeting became known as the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates thought that all British subjects had a right to vote on taxes through representatives. But the colonies had no representatives in Parliament, so the delegates said that it was unfair for Parliament to pass tax laws like the Stamp Act. To them, such laws were an example of taxation without representation.
The colonists' angry protests surprised King George III and Parliament. However, British leaders knew that they could not force the colonists to obey the Stamp Act. In March of 1766, Parliament repealed the law. But Parliament let the colonies know that it still believed in its right to tax them.
In 1767, Parliament again passed tax laws to raise money from the colonies. These laws, called the Townshend Acts, taxed several goods that the colonies imported. These goods included lead, glass, paint, paper, and tea. In protest, the colonists again stopped buying British goods.
Fig: Paul Revere created an engraving showing the Boston Massacre.
In it, soldiers fire at a peaceful crowd. But that was not what actually happened.
2. The Boston Massacre:
In 1770, the colonists remained angry that British troops were living in their towns and cities. They thought that the soldiers were rowdy and ride, and they were also upset when soldiers took jobs away from them. The British soldiers could work for low pay in their spare time.
However, the soldiers were not content, either. They were far from their homes, and the colonists' anger made their jobs more difficult.
As time went on, the relationship between the soldiers and the colonists worsened. Things were especially tense in the city of Boston. The colonists showed their hatred for the soldiers by making fun of their red coats. They called them names like "lobster back." Some soldiers went out of their way to annoy local citizens. Soon, name-calling and fistfights in the streets were common between soldiers and colonists.
On the cold night of March 5, 1770, violence erupted in Boston. A British soldier was standing guard at the Custom House, a building where the disputed taxes were collected from the colonists. A crowd began to gather, and people called the soldier offensive names. Some of them even began to throw stones and snowballs. Captain Thomas Preston and other soldiers hurried to the guard's defense. They loaded their muskets, a type of gun.
Still, the crowd continued taunting the soldiers, and some of the colonists threw more snowballs and chunks of ice at them. No one is sure about what happened next. Some people said that Captain Preston told his soldiers not to fire their guns at the colonists. However, one soldier thought that he heard the command "Fire!" He shot into the crowd, and the crowd moved toward them. The other soldiers panicked and fired more shots. Within moments, five people lay dead or dying, and six more were wounded.
This tragic event became known as the Boston Massacre. A silversmith named Paul Revere made an engraving, or an image etched into metal, of the massacre. the engraving shows British soldiers firing at a peaceful crowd, even though that was not what actually happened.
Colonists shared news in letters, or correspondence. Colonial governments had begun to set up informal Committees of Correspondence in the 1760s, and members of these groups let one another know what wa going on in their regions. Samuel Adams was a leader of protests against the British, and he made sure that the news of the massacre spread throughout the colonies. In 1772, Adams helped form a permanent Committee of Correspondence in Massachusetts. This group wanted to unite the colonists to protest against British actions.
Fig: During the winter at Valley Forge, the men in Washington's army suffered
from starvation and bitter cold. But they refused to give up.
3. The Boston tea Party:
In response to the Boston Massacre, Parliament repealed all taxes on the colonies except the tax on tea. Although the colonists loved tea, many boycotted it because of the tax.
The largest British tea company, the British East India Company, lost a great deal of money. To save the company, Parliament passed the Tea to Act in 1773. It said that only this company could sell tea to the colonies. With this tax, the British hoped to force the colonists to again buy British tea.
The Tea Act did, in fact, lower the cost of tea. But the colonists were still angry because this was another unfair law passed without their approval. They were also angry that they were forced to buy tea from only one company. What if Parliament decided to let certain companies control other imported items?
Again, the colonists protested. Some spoke out, while others boycotted tea. In Boston, some local citizens acted against the tax. On December 16, 1773, a group of men dressed as Native Americans boarded ships in Boston Harbor. They opened 342 chests of tea and dumped the tea into the water.
Today, this incident is known as the Boston Tea Party. Soon, people began to sing about it in the colonies. "Rally, Mohawks [a Native American tribe]" they sang. "Bring out your axes/and tell King George we'll pay no taxes/On his foreign tea." But in Great Britain, people were shocked and angry, and King George was furious with the colonists.
Fig: On a winter night in 1776, Washington led his troops across the Delaware River to New Jersey. There, in the Battle of Trenton, they won a key early Patriot victory over German mercenaries.
4. Battles of Lexington & Concord:
In 1775, the Second Continental Congress asked George Washington to lead a new army. This Continental army was made up of volunteers. Most of these men were farmers, merchants, and workers. At the start of the war, they enlisted in the army for take care of their families.
Historians estimate that 8,000 to 24,000 men were in Washington's army at any one time, including some African Americans and Native Americans, African Americans served for relatively long periods in the army, and many played important roles in battles. For example, Peter Salem, who was enslaved, and Salem Poor were known for their heroics at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Women took part, as well, by cooking for soldiers, mending uniforms, and caring for the sick and wounded. Some women even fought in battles against the British.
But the Continental army had a number of serious problems. Congress had little money to pay the soldiers, buy supplies, or provide weapons for the army. As a result, the volunteers were poorly supplied with uniforms, guns, and food. In addition, these men knew very little about being soldiers.
Washington worked hard to train his men. He taught them to obey orders and to fight together. In speeches and written messages, he encouraged them to believe that they could beat the mighty British military forces even though the Americans were less skilled at battle.
The colonial navy was even smaller than the army. It was made up of trade and fishing ships that carried only a few cannons. With their inexperienced army and tiny navy, the colonies were like a weak man about to fight a powerful giant.
Fig: The final battle at Yorktown, won by the colonists, was one of the last battles of the war.
5. Declaration of Independence:
In August 1776, the British took control of New York City after the Battle of Long Island. They chased Washington's soldiers all the way across New Jersey and believed the war nearly won. However, Washington moved the war nearly won. However, Washington moved his men into the countryside. There, the Continental army used tactics not common for that time. For example, Patriot troops made surprise attacks on small groups of British soldiers and then retreated. Sharpshooters hid in the woods and shot British soldiers, one by one. The Continental army did not use these tactics puzzled British troops, who preferred to meet their enemy face-to-face. The tactics used by the colonists help them gain an advantage over the British.
One night in December 1776, Washington sneaked his troops across the Delaware River, from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. There, in the Battle of Trenton, they surprised and defeated German mercenaries who were celebrating Christmas, winning a key early Patriot victory.
Fig: At Saratoga, the Continental army defeated British troops.
The Battles of Saratoga were a turning point in the war.
6. Battle Of Saratoga:
In mid-1777, about 9,000 British troops crossed the border from Canada. About 2,000 Vermont and New Hampshire soldiers attacked them. Thousands of Continental troops rushed to help. By October, the British army was trapped at Saratoga, New York, and its commander British General John Burgoyne surrendered to American General Horatio Gates.
The Battle of Saratoga were a turning point in the war. After the colonists defeated British troops at Saratoga, France declared war on British and sent troops and ships to help the colonists. Spain pledged to support France. Since Dutch merchants were trading with the Americans, Dutch banks loaned the Americans money. The Continental army now had strong allies to help them.
7. Battle Of Yorktown:
In 1781, Spain captured a British fort at Pensacola, Florida.
Then, that summer, a large British force marched to the Virginia coast. But the French navy stopped enemy ships from bringing the British support from New York. Washington's army and thousands of French soldiers arrived from the north. They trapped the British in the port of Yorktown, where they pounded the British with cannon fire for about two weeks. Finally, British Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis surrendered.
The Battle of Yorktown was the last big battle of the war. With the help of their French allies, the Continentals had won a key victory.
Fig: The Treaty of Paris marked the end of the war between America and Great Britain. This painting shows American soldiers disbanding in New York, one month after the treaty was signed.
8. Treaty Of Paris: 1783
In September of 1783, the war between America and Great Britain finally ended with the Treaty of Paris. In this set of agreements, Great Britain agreed to recognize the United States of America as an independent nation.
When the American Revolution ended in 1783 the original 13 colonies along the Atlantic Coast became the United States. The new nation also decided to annex or add most of the land that stretched from the colonies to the Mississippi River, which had previously been under British control. Soon, more settlers began moving west into this territory, land belonging to Native Americans. Some settlers wanted to go even farther, across the Mississippi River. Most used horse-drawn wagons to make the trip west. Eventually, this method would give way to railroads and steamboats.
Americans were proud of their new country. Many Americans believed that it was their natural right to spread their religions, government, and ways of life westward across North America to the Pacific Ocean. In 1845, a newspaper writer called this idea the manifest destiny of the United States.
Summary:
- We discovered key figures like George Washington and the powerful events like the Boston Tea Party that shaped the United States.
- Visuals, from timelines to graphics, were our time-traveling guides, helping us see history unfold before our eyes.
- Central ideas, such as 'No Taxation Without Representation,' echoed the voices of those who fought for their rights.
The American Revolution (1775–1783) was a pivotal conflict in world history that led to the independence of the thirteen American colonies from British rule and the creation of the United States of America. It was driven by political, economic, and ideological factors, culminating in a war for independence and the establishment of a new nation based on democratic principles.
Causes of the American Revolution
- Taxation Without Representation:
- British policies like the Stamp Act (1765) and Townshend Acts (1767) imposed taxes on the colonies without granting them representation in Parliament.
- The slogan "No taxation without representation" became a rallying cry.
- Trade Restrictions:
- The Navigation Acts and other trade regulations limited colonial trade and economic autonomy, favoring British interests.
- The Proclamation of 1763:
- Restricted colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, causing frustration among settlers.
- Enlightenment Ideas:
- Philosophers like John Locke inspired ideas of natural rights, liberty, and government by consent, influencing colonial leaders.
- Colonial Unity and Resistance:
- Events like the Boston Tea Party (1773), protests against the Tea Act, and the formation of the Continental Congress united colonists against British policies.
Major Events of the Revolution
- Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775):
- The first military engagements marked the beginning of the war.
- Known as "the shot heard 'round the world."
- Declaration of Independence (1776):
- Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted on July 4, 1776, it proclaimed the colonies' independence from Britain and outlined their reasons for rebellion.
- Valley Forge (1777–1778):
- A harsh winter where the Continental Army, under George Washington, endured significant hardships but emerged more disciplined.
- Battle of Saratoga (1777):
- A turning point in the war; the American victory convinced France to join as an ally.
- Battle of Yorktown (1781):
- The decisive American and French victory over British forces under General Cornwallis, effectively ending the war.
- Treaty of Paris (1783):
- Officially ended the war, recognizing the independence of the United States and establishing its borders.
Key Figures
- George Washington: Commander of the Continental Army and later the first President of the United States.
- Thomas Jefferson: Principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
- Benjamin Franklin: Diplomat who secured French support for the Revolution.
- John Adams: Advocate for independence and key negotiator in the Treaty of Paris.
Impact of the Revolution
- Political:
- Established the United States as an independent nation with a republican form of government.
- Inspired revolutionary movements worldwide, including in France and Latin America.
- Economic:
- Freed the U.S. from British trade restrictions but created economic challenges, including war debt.
- Social:
- Highlighted issues of slavery and women's rights, though these were largely unresolved.
- Fostered a sense of national identity among Americans.
- Global:
- Marked the decline of British colonial power and the rise of the U.S. as a significant force.
If you'd like to explore any specific aspect, such as battles, leaders, or documents, let me know!
The American Revolution (1775–1783) was a pivotal conflict in world history that led to the independence of the thirteen American colonies from British rule and the creation of the United States of America. It was driven by political, economic, and ideological factors, culminating in a war for independence and the establishment of a new nation based on democratic principles.
Causes of the American Revolution
- Taxation Without Representation:
- British policies like the Stamp Act (1765) and Townshend Acts (1767) imposed taxes on the colonies without granting them representation in Parliament.
- The slogan "No taxation without representation" became a rallying cry.
- Trade Restrictions:
- The Navigation Acts and other trade regulations limited colonial trade and economic autonomy, favoring British interests.
- The Proclamation of 1763:
- Restricted colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains, causing frustration among settlers.
- Enlightenment Ideas:
- Philosophers like John Locke inspired ideas of natural rights, liberty, and government by consent, influencing colonial leaders.
- Colonial Unity and Resistance:
- Events like the Boston Tea Party (1773), protests against the Tea Act, and the formation of the Continental Congress united colonists against British policies.
Major Events of the Revolution
- Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775):
- The first military engagements marked the beginning of the war.
- Known as "the shot heard 'round the world."
- Declaration of Independence (1776):
- Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted on July 4, 1776, it proclaimed the colonies' independence from Britain and outlined their reasons for rebellion.
- Valley Forge (1777–1778):
- A harsh winter where the Continental Army, under George Washington, endured significant hardships but emerged more disciplined.
- Battle of Saratoga (1777):
- A turning point in the war; the American victory convinced France to join as an ally.
- Battle of Yorktown (1781):
- The decisive American and French victory over British forces under General Cornwallis, effectively ending the war.
- Treaty of Paris (1783):
- Officially ended the war, recognizing the independence of the United States and establishing its borders.
Key Figures
- George Washington: Commander of the Continental Army and later the first President of the United States.
- Thomas Jefferson: Principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
- Benjamin Franklin: Diplomat who secured French support for the Revolution.
- John Adams: Advocate for independence and key negotiator in the Treaty of Paris.
Impact of the Revolution
- Political:
- Established the United States as an independent nation with a republican form of government.
- Inspired revolutionary movements worldwide, including in France and Latin America.
- Economic:
- Freed the U.S. from British trade restrictions but created economic challenges, including war debt.
- Social:
- Highlighted issues of slavery and women's rights, though these were largely unresolved.
- Fostered a sense of national identity among Americans.
- Global:
- Marked the decline of British colonial power and the rise of the U.S. as a significant force.
If you'd like to explore any specific aspect, such as battles, leaders, or documents, let me know!