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Oct 19, 2010 · Revolutionary War. The Revolutionary War (1775-1783) arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government. The American ...
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The British Empire established colonies in the Americas.
Britain and France engaged in the French and Indian War, battling over land in North America. After the British won the war, they gained possession of France’s North American territories east of the Mississippi River. Up until this point the British had left the American colonies mostly on their own, but under the rule of King George III, Great Britain began to exert more control over the colonies.
The French and Indian War put the British crown in debt. In order to increase revenues for the costs of defending the expanding British Empire, Britain taxed the colonies. It imposed the Sugar Act in 1764, and, one year later, it added the Stamp Act. Colonists protested the added taxes. The Stamp Act was repealed.
In another effort to raise money and exert its authority over the colonies, Britain established the Townshend Acts in 1767. This series of acts placed taxes on tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass imported to the colonies. The acts were resisted through violence, deliberate refusal to pay, and hostility toward British agents.
Colonial opposition to the British grew, and the British sent troops to Boston, Massachusetts. As punishment for the colonists’ resistance, the British Parliament enacted four measures known as the Intolerable Acts. Meant to divide the colonies, the act united the colonies and provided justification for organizing the First Continental Congress in 1774.
After representatives for the colonists called on Britain to cancel the Intolerable Acts, Britain responded by sending more troops. Fighting ensued, and the colonies officially declared independence on July 4, 1776.
The Peace of Paris, a collection of treaties signed by both sides, ended the war. Britain recognized the United States of America as an independent country and ceded territory to the new United States.
A new plan of government, the Articles of Confederation, were written in 1776–77 and adopted by Congress on November 15, 1777. The articles were not fully ratified by the states until March 1, 1781. This new government organization served as a bridge between the initial government by the Continental Congress and the federal government provided under the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution was written in 1787 to amend the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution organized the country’s basic political institutions and formed the three branches of government: judicial, executive, and legislative.
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Apr 19, 2024 · The American Revolution was an insurrection carried out by 13 of Great Britain ’s North American colonies that began in 1775 and ended with a peace treaty in 1783. The colonies won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and ...
- What was the American Revolution?The American Revolution—also called the U.S. War of Independence—was the insurrection fought between 1775 and 1783 through which 13 of Great Britai...
- How did the American Revolution begin?On the ground, fighting in the American Revolution began with the skirmishes between British regulars and American provincials on April 19, 1775, f...
- What were the major causes of the American Revolution?The American Revolution was principally caused by colonial opposition to British attempts to impose greater control over the colonies and to make t...
- Which countries fought on the side of the colonies during the American Revolution?Until early in 1778, the American Revolution was a civil war within the British Empire, but it became an international war as France (in 1778) and...
- How was the American Revolution a civil war?In the early stages of the rebellion by the American colonists, most of them still saw themselves as English subjects who were being denied their r...
April 18–19, 1775: Paul Revere’s Ride and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington (both in Massachusetts) to warn that the British were marching from Boston to seize the colonial armory at Concord . En route, the British force of 700 men was met on Lexington Green ...
Nov 13, 2012 · On August 27, 1776, the first official battle of the American Revolution, the Battle of Long Island, took place in Brooklyn, New York, and it was a decisive victory for the British. New York fell to the Crown and George Washington was forced to retreat from the city with the American forces.
Crispus Attucks, a (c. 1943) portrait by Herschel Levit depicts Attucks, who is considered to be the first American to die for the cause of independence in the Revolution. An African American soldier (left) of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, widely regarded as the first Black battalion in U.S. military history
