American Revolution

The Boston Massacre took place on March 5,1770, when British soldiers fired into a mob, killing five Americans. Patriot propaganda like this engraving by Paul Revere called the incident a massacre to stir up feeling against the British government.

British propaganda showed unruly colonists forcing a tax col­lector they had tarred and feathered to drink scalding tea. The colonists in the background are dumping British tea overboard.

Clashes at Lexington and Concord opened the American Revolution. In March 1776, the British evacuated Boston. This map locates major battles and troop movements in and around Boston.

The Battle of Bunker Hill was the first major battle of the American Revolution. The British sol­diers expected an easy victory but were twice driven back by American musketfire from the hilltop fortifications. The Americans then ran out of gunpowder and were driven from the hill.

British propaganda showed unruly colonists forcing a tax col­lector they had tarred and feathered to drink scalding tea. The colonists in the background are dumping British tea overboard.

The Boston Massacre took place on March 5,1770, when British soldiers fired into a mob, killing five Americans. Patriot propaganda like this engraving by Paul Revere called the incident a massacre to stir up feeling against the British government

Artillery took part in attacks and defence. Cannons fired slowly because soldiers had to swab the barrel after each round as these British gunners demonstrate.

A rifle fired more accurately than a musket and was han­dled skilfully by American frontiersmen. The sharp­shooter above takes aim at a British officer.

A bayonet fastened to a musket was used in hand-to- hand combat. A German soldier hired by the British, left, clashes with an American infantryman, right.

Britain's surrender at Saratoga on Oct. 17, 1777, marked a turning point in the war. In this painting, defeated General John Burgoyne, left, offers his sword to General Horatio Gates

The siege of Yorktown in October 1781 was the last major battle of the American Revolution. Britain began peace talks with the Americans several months after its defeat at Yorktown.

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American Revolution

History, Facts, Events and Battles

The war of independence waged by the American colonies against Britain influenced political ideas and revolutions around the globe, as a fledgling, largely disconnected nation won its freedom from the greatest military force of its time.

American Revolution (1775-1783) led to the birth of new nation—the United States. The revolution, which is also called the American Revolutionary War, was fought between Great Britain and its 13 colonies that lay along the Atlantic Ocean in North America. The colonies were Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia. The war began on April 19,1775, when British soldiers and American revolutionaries clashed at the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. The war lasted eight years. On Sept. 3,1783, Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, which recognized U.S. inde­pendence.

The American Revolution stood as an example to peo­ples in many lands who later fought to gain their free­dom. In 1836, the American author Ralph Waldo Emer­son referred to the first shot fired by the patriots at Con­cord as "the shot heard round the world."

Background and causes of the war

Great Britain's power in North America was at its height in 1763, only 12 years before the American Revo­lution began. Britain had just defeated France in the Seven Years' War. The treaty that ended the war gave Britain almost all of France's territory in North America. That territory stretched from the Appalachian Moun­tains in the east to the Mississippi River and included much of Canada. Most American colonists took pride in being part of the British Empire, at that time the world's most powerful empire.

In each colony, voters elected representatives to a legislature. Colonial legislatures passed laws and could tax the people. The governor of a colony could, how­ever, veto any laws passed by the legislature. The king appointed the governor in most colonies.

Great Britain expected the American Colonies to serve its economic interests, and it regulated colonial trade. In general, the colonists accepted British regula­tions. For example, they agreed not to manufacture goods that would compete with British products.

British policy changes. Great Britain had largely neglected the American colonies while it fought France in a series of wars during the 1700's. After the Seven Years' War ended in 1763, Britain sought to strengthen its control over its enlarged American territory. In 1763, Parliament voted to station a standing army in North America. Two years later, in the Quartering Act, it ruled that colonists must provide British troops with living quarters and supplies.

Britain also sought to keep peace in North America by establishing good relations with the Indians. The Indians had already lost a good deal of territory to white set­tlers. In the spring of 1763, an Ottawa Indian chief named Pontiac led an uprising against the colonists along the western frontier. Britain feared a long and bloody Indian war, which it could not afford. To prevent future uprisings, King George III issued the Proclama­tion of 1763. The document reserved lands west of the Appalachians for Indians and forbade white settlements there. Britain sent soldiers to guard the frontier and keep settlers out.

The colonists deeply resented the Proclamation of 1763. They felt that Britain had no right to restrict their settlement In addition, many Americans hoped to profit from the purchase of western lands.

The Sugar Act George Grenville became King George's chief cabinet minister in 1763. Grenville was determined to increase Britain's income from the Ameri­can Colonies. At his urging, Parliament passed the Reve­nue Act of 1764, also known as the Sugar Act. The act placed a three-penny tax on each gallon of molasses en­tering the colonies from ports outside the British Em­pire. Several Northern colonies had thriving rum indus­tries that depended on imported molasses. Rum producers angrily protested that the tax would eat up their profits. However, the Stamp Act—an even more un­popular British tax—soon drew the colonists' attention away from the Sugar Act In 1766, Parliament reduced the tax on molasses to a penny a gallon.

The Stamp Act. King George, Prime Minister George Grenville, and Parliament believed the time had come for the colonists to start paying part of the cost of sta­tioning British troops in America. In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. That law extended to the colonies the traditional British tax on newspapers, playing cards, diplomas, and various legal documents.

Rioting broke out in the colonies in protest against the Stamp Act, Angry colonists refused to allow the tax stamps to be sold. Merchants in port cities agreed not to order British goods until Parliament abolished the tax. The colonists believed that the right of taxation be­longed only to the people and their elected representa­tives. They said Parliament had no power to tax them as the colonies had no representatives in that body.

Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. But at the same time, it passed the Declaratory Act, which stated that the king and Parliament had full legislative authority over the colonies in all matters.

The Townshend Acts. In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, named after the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend. One law taxed lead, paint, paper, and tea imports. Another set up a customs agency in Boston to collect the taxes.

The Townshend Acts led to renewed protests in the American Colonies, primarily in the form of a boycott of British goods. In 1770, Parliament withdrew all Towns­hend taxes except the one on tea. It kept the tea tax to demonstrate its right to tax the colonies.

Protests against what the colonists called "taxation without representation" were especially violent in Bos­ton, Massachusetts. On March 5,1770, soldiers and townspeople clashed in a street fight that became known as the Boston Massacre. During the fight, British soldiers fired into a crowd of rioters. Five men died.

The Tea Act. To avoid paying the Townshend tax on tea, colonial merchants smuggled in tea  from the Netherlands. 
The Tea Act. To avoid paying the Townshend tax on tea, colonial merchants smuggled in tea from the Neth­erlands. The British East India Company had been the chief supplier of tea for the colonies. The smugglings hurt the company financially, and it asked Parliament for help. In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act. It reduced the tax on tea and thereby enabled the East India Company to sell its product below the price of smuggled tea.

The British actions offended the colonists in two ways. They reaffirmed Britain's right to tax the colonists. They also gave the East India Company an unfair advantage in the tea trade. Furious Americans vowed not to use tea and colonial merchants refused to sell it. On the evening of Dec. 16,1773, Bostonians disguised as Indians raided East India Company ships docked in Boston Harbor and dumped their cargoes of tea overboard. The so-called Boston Tea Party enraged King George his ministers.

The Intolerable Acts. Britain responded to the Boston Tea Party in 1774 by passing several laws that became known in America as the Intolerable Acts. One law closed Boston Harbor until Bostonians paid for the destroyed tea. Another law restricted the activities of the Massachusetts legislature and gave added powers to the post of governor of Massachusetts. King George named Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, the commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, to be the new governor. Gage was sent to Boston with troops.

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774. The Congress voted to cut off trade with Britain unless Parliament repealed the intolerable Acts. It also approved resolutions advising the colonies to begin training their citizens for war. None of the delegates called for independence.

At the start of the war, the Americans in each colony were defended by members of their citizen army, the militia. The militiamen came out to fight when the British neared their homes. The Americans soon established a regular military force known as the Continental Army, with George Washington as its commander-in-chief.

Britain depended chiefly on professional soldiers who had enlisted for long terms. The British soldiers were known as redcoats because they wore bright red jackets. Britain also hired mercenaries-professional soldiers, from Germany. They were often called Hessians because most of them came from the German state of Hesse-Kassel. The British military force numbered about 50,000 at its peak.

Lexington and Concord. In February 1775, Parlia­ment declared that Massachusetts was in open rebellion in April, General Gage decided to capture or destroy arms and gunpowder stored by the revolutionaries in the town of Concord, near Boston. About 700 British soldiers reached the town of Lexington, on the way to Concord, near dawn on April 19,1775. About 70 minutemen- members of the militia who were highly trained and supposedly prepared to take arms on a min­ute's notice—waited for the British troops in Lexington. The minutemen had been alerted about the redcoats' approach by Paul Revere and other couriers. No one knows who fired the first shot. But 8 minutemen fell dead and 10 more were wounded. One British soldier had been hurt.

The British continued on to Concord, where they searched for hidden arms. One group met minutemen It North Bridge, just outside Concord. In a brief clash, three British soldiers and two minutemen were killed.

The British then turned back to Boston. Along the way, Americans fired at them from behind trees and stone fences. British dead and wounded numbered about 250. American losses came to about 90.

Word spread rapidly that fighting had broken out be­tween British troops and the Americans. Militiamen throughout New England took up arms and gathered outside Boston. Three British officers—Major Generals John Burgoyne, Hienry Clinton, and William Howe—ar­rived with more troops in late May 1775.

Bunker Hill. On June 17, 1775, British troops led by Howe attacked American fortifications on Breed's Hill, near Boston. The Americans drove back two British charges before they ran out of ammunition. During a third charge, British bayonets forced the Americans to flee. The fighting, usually called the Battle of Bunker Hill, after the name of a nearby hill the Americans originally intended to fortify, was the bloodiest battle of the entire war. More than 1,000 British soldiers and about 400 Americans were killed or wounded.

The evacuation of Boston. In 1775, American troops seized the British posts of Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point, in New York. The two victories provided the Americans with much-needed artillery. In late 1775 and early 1776, the captured artillery was dragged to Boston, where it was used to fortify high ground south of the city. Howe realized that his soldiers could not hold Bos­ton with American cannons pointed at them. In March, the British troops were evacuated to Canada.

The Declaration of Independence. When the Sec­ond Continental Congress opened in May 1775, few del­egates wanted to break ties with the mother country. In July, the Congress approved the Olive Branch Petition, which declared that the colonists were loyal to the king and urged him to remedy their complaints.

George III ignored the petition for reconciliation. On August 23, he declared all the colonies to be in rebel­lion. This action convinced many delegates that a peace­ful settlement of differences with Britain was impossible.

Support for American independence grew. Many people who had been unsure were convinced by read­ing the pamphlet titled Common Sense, by the political writer Thomas Paine. Paine attacked George III as unjust, and he argued brilliantly for the complete independ­ence of the American Colonies. On July 4,1776, the Con­gress adopted the Declaration of Independence, and the United States of America was born.

The Continental Congress provided leadership for the 13 former British colonies during most of the American Revolution. After the Declaration of Independence was adopted, each former colony called itself a state. By March 1781, all 13 states had adopted the Articles of Confederation. It unified the states under a weak central government.

The war continues

After the Americans declared their independence, they had to win it by force. The task proved difficult, partly because the people never fully united behind the war effort. A large number of colonists remained uncon­cerned about the outcome of the war and supported neither side. As many as a third of the people sympa­thized with Britain. They called themselves Loyalists. The revolutionaries called them Tories, after Britain's con­servative Tory Party. The revolutionaries, today referred to in the United States as the patriots, made up less than a third of the population.

Chief battles in the North. British strategy called for crushing the rebellion in the North first. Once New Eng­land was knocked out of the war, Britain expected resist­ance to crumble in the remaining colonies.

Campaign in New York. Immediately after the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, Howe began to plan his return to the American Colonies. In July, he landed on Staten Island in New York Harbor. He was joined by Clinton's men and by Hessian troops.

Howe commanded a total force of more than 45,000 experienced  soldiers and sailors. They faced about 20,000 poorly trained and ill-equipped Americans.

Washington had shifted his forces to New York City after the redcoats withdrew from Boston. To defend the city, American troops fortified Brooklyn Heights, an area of high ground on the western tip of Long Island.

In August 1776, British troops landed on Long Island in front of the American lines. Howe surrounded the Americans' forward positions in the Battle of Long Island on August 27. However, the slow-moving Howe paused before attacking again, enabling the remainder of the Americans to escape.

By mid-September 1776, Howe had driven Washington's troops from New York City. Howe slowly pursued the Americans as they retreated toward White Plains, New York. His hesitation cost the British a chance to crush Washington's army. New York City remained in British hands until the war ended.

Trenton. At the end of 1776, Washington's despondent forces had withdrawn to New Jersey. In late November, British troops led by Major General Charles Cornwallis poured into New Jersey in pursuit of Washington. The patriots barely escaped to safety by crossing the Delaware River into Pennsylvania on December 7.

Washington's forces were near collapse, and New Jersey militiamen had failed to come to their aid. Yet Howe again missed an opportunity to destroy the Continental Army. He decided to wait until spring to attack and ordered his troops into winter quarters in Trenton and other New Jersey towns.

Although Washington had few troops, he decided to strike at Trenton. The town was defended by Hessians. On the stormy and bitterly cold night of Dec. 25, 1776, Washington and about 2,400 troops crossed the Delaware River. The next morning, they surprised the Hessians and took more than 900 prisoners.

Brandywine. In the summer of 1777, Howe's Red coats sailed from New York City to the top of Chesapei about 80 kilometres southwest of Philadelphia. Washington had rebuilt his army during the spring, and he had received weapons from France. Fie positioned his troops between Howe's forces and Philadelphia. The op­posing armies clashed on

Sept. 11, 1777, at Brandywine Creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. One wing of the

British army swung around the Americans and attacked them from behind. The surprised Americans had to re­treat. Howe occupied Philadelphia on September 26.

Saratoga. In the summer of 1777, British troops com­manded by Burgoyne advanced southward from Can­ada. On Sept. 19, 1777, they were met by American forces in a clearing on a farm near the Hudson River about 65 kilometres north of Albany, New York. Nightfall and the bravery of Hessian soldiers saved Burgoyne's troops from destruction in what became known as the First Battle of Freeman's Farm.

Burgoyne lost the Second Battle of Freeman's Farm to the revolutionaries on Oct. 7,1777, and he finally began to retreat. But he soon found himself encircled by the Americans at Saratoga, New York. On October 17, Bur­goyne surrendered to Major General Horatio Gates, commander of the Northern Department of the Conti­nental Army. The Americans took nearly 6,000 prisoners and large supplies of arms.

France was secretly aiding the Americans' war effort against Great Britain. It gave the revolutionaries loans, money, and weapons, but France had been reluctant to ally itself openly with the Americans until they had proved themselves in battle. The victory at Saratoga marked a turning point in the war.

In 1778, France and America signed treaties of alli­ance. Thereafter, France provided the Americans with troops and warships. Spain entered the war as an ally of France in 1779. The Netherlands joined the war in 1780.

France's entry into the war forced Britain to defend the rest of its empire. The British expected to fight the French in the West Indies and elsewhere, so they scat­tered their military resources. As a result, Britain no longer had a force strong enough to fight the Americans in the North.

Valley Forge. Washington's army of about 10,000 soldiers spent the winter of 1777-1778 camped at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, about 30 kilometres northwest of Philadelphia. Many of the troops lacked shoes and other clothing. They also suffered from a severe shortage of food. By spring, nearly a quarter of the soldiers had died of malnutrition, exposure to the cold, and diseases such as smallpox and typhoid fever. Many soldiers deserted.

Chief battles in the South. Great Britain changed its strategy after France entered the war. Rather than attack in the North, the British concentrated on conquering the colonies from the South.

Savannah and Charleston. Clinton became com­mander in chief of British forces in North America in May 1778. Britain's Southern campaign opened later that year. On December 29, a large British force that had sailed from New York City easily captured Savannah, Georgia. Within a few months, the British controlled all of Georgia.

Early in 1780, British forces under Clinton landed near Charleston, South Carolina. They slowly closed in on the city. On May 12, Major General Benjamin Lincoln sur­rendered his force of about 5,500 soldiers—almost the entire American Southern army. Clinton placed Corn­wallis in charge of British forces in the South and re­turned to New York City.

Camden. In July 1780, the Continental Congress or­dered Gates, the victor at Saratoga, to form a new Southern army to replace the one lost at Charleston. Gates hastily assembled a force made up largely of un­trained militiamen and rushed to challenge Cornwallis at a British base in Camden, South Carolina.

On Aug. 16,1780, the armies of Gates and Cornwallis unexpectedly met outside Camden and soon went into battle. Most of the militiamen turned and ran without fir­ing a shot. The rest of Gates's men fought on until heavy casualties forced them to withdraw. The British had de­feated a second American army in the South.

The disaster at Camden marked the low point in the war for the American revolutionaries. They then re­ceived a further blow. In September 1780, they discov­ered that General Benedict Arnold, who commanded a military post at West Point, New York, had joined the British side. The Americans learned of Arnold's treason just in time to stop him from turning West Point over to the British.

The end of the war

Surrender at Yorktown. Cornwallis rushed into virginia in the spring of 1781 and made it his new base in the campaign to conquer the South. Cornwallis had violated Britain's Southern strategy, however, by failing to gain control of North and South Carolina before advancing northward. Clinton ordered Cornwallis to adopt a defensive position along the Virginia coast. Cornwallis moved to Yorktown, which lay along Chesapeake Bay.

About 5,500 French soldiers had reached America in July 1780. They were led by Lieutenant General Jean Rochambeau. Washington still hoped to drive the British from New York City in a combined operation with the French.

In August 1781, Washington learned that a large French fleet under Admiral Frangois Grasse was headed toward Virginia. Grasse planned to block Chesapeake Bay and prevent Cornwallis from escaping by sea. Washington and Rochambeau shifted their forces southward to trap Cornwallis on land.

By late September 1781, a combined French and American force of about 18,000 soldiers and sailors had surrounded Cornwallis at Yorktown. The soldiers stead­ily closed in on the trapped British troops. Cornwallis tried to ferry his forces across the York River to safety on the night of October 16. But a storm drove them back. Cornwallis asked for surrender terms the next day.

The surrender at Yorktown took place on Oct. 19, 1781. More than 8,000 men—about a fourth of Britain's military force in North America—laid down their arms as a British band reportedly played a tune called "The World Turned Upside Down."

Yorktown was the last major battle of the American Revolution, though it did not end the war. The fighting dragged on in some areas for two more years.

British leaders feared they might lose other parts the empire if they continued the war in America. In 1782, they began peace talks with the Americans.

The Treaty of Paris was signed on Sept. 3, 1783. It recognized the independence of the United States and established the new country's borders. U.S. territory extended west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada east to the Atlantic Ocean, and south to Florida. Britain gave Florida to Spain. The treaty also granted the Americans fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The last British soldiers were withdrawn from York City in November 1783.

War losses. American military deaths during the war numbered about 25,000. In addition, approximately 1,400 soldiers were missing. British military deaths during war totalled about 10,000.

Costs of the war. The 13 states and the Congress (deeply into debt to finance the war. A new Constitution, approved in 1788, gave Congress the power of taxation. Largely through taxes, Congress paid off much of the war debt by the early 1800's.

The American Revolution severely strained Britain's economy. The king and Parliament feared the war might bankrupt the country. But after the war, greatly expanded trade with the United States helped the economy recover. Taxes on that trade reduced Britain's debt.

Of all the warring nations, France could least afford its expenditures on the American Revolution. By 1788, the country was nearly bankrupt. France's financial prob­es contributed to the French Revolution in 1789.

Related articles:

Background and causes of the war: Boston Tea Party; Continental Congress; Declaration of independence; Intolerable Acts; Minuteman; Navigation Acts;  Stamp Acts.

America Military Leader: Arnold, Benedict; Clark , George R.; Hale, Nathan; Jones, John Paul; Lee, Charles; Lee, Henry; Marion, Francis; Wayne, Anthony; Saint Clair, Arthur; Washington, George

American civilian leaders: Adams, John; Adams Samuel; Franklin, Benjamin; Henry, Patrick; Jefferson, Thomas; and Revere, Paul.

British leaders: Andre, John; Burgoyne, John; Burke, Edmund; Carleton, Sir Guy; Cornwallis, Charles; Gage, Thomas; George (III); Howe (family); North, Lord; and Saint Leger, Barry

Other biographies: Grasse, Francois JP; Kosciusko, Thaddeus; Lafayette, Marquis de; Paine, Thomas; Pulaski, Casimir; Rochambeau, Comte de; Ross, Betsy; Sampson, Deborah; and Steuben, Baron von

Background and causes of the war: British policy changes; The Tea Act; The Sugar Act; The Intolerable Acts; The Stamp Act; The First Continental; and The Townshend Acts Congress

The beginning of the war: Lexington and Concord; The Declaration of

Bunker Hill; Independence; and The evacuation of Boston; 

 The war continues: Chief battles in the North; and Chief battles in the South

The end of the war: Surrender at Yorktown; War losses; The Treaty of Paris; and Costs of the war.

Questions

What pamphlet built support for American independence? Which defeat marked the low point for the Americans?

Why did colonists object to the Stamp Act?

How did Britain change its strategy after France entered the war?

Who were the Hessians? The Loyalists? The minutemen?

How did France help the patriots during the war?

Which American victory marked a turning point in the Revolu­tion?