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Revolutionary War
1775-1783

Victory in the French and Indian War proved the undoing of the British
empire in North America. The Treaty of Paris ceded to the British all territory
east of the Mississippi River from Canada to Florida. The war left the British
treasury empty. The British Parliament pressured American Colonies to pay
for security and governance of this vast expanse. Britain prohibited
expansion of settlements into the Trans-Appalachian West. Parliament
enforced Navigation Acts, enacted the Sugar Act of 1764 and Stamp Act of
1765 to impose duties on imports and exports of colonies.
Resistance by the colonists to these measures med to the Boston Massacre
in 1770, and the Boston Tea Party in 1773. The colonies formed a
committee of correspondence to organize activities of resistance against the
centralization of power by Britain. The First Continental Congress assembled
in Philadelphia, September 1774. Resistance turned to revolution in April
1775 with armed confrontations at Lexington and Concord. Ethan Allen
captured the British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga in May. The Battle of
Bunker Hill followed in June. The Second Continental Congress appointed
George Washington to command the Continental Army. In November,
Congress established an American Navy with Esek Hopkins its commodore.
Though raw American forces lost many battles, they won critical key
engagements.
July 4, 1776 the Continental Congress endorsed their Declaration of
Independence from British rule.
June 1776, the British fleet sailed into New York Harbor and was victorious in
the Battle of Long Island. Washington's troops repulsed the British at the
Battle of Harlem Heights, then slipped out of Manhattan to White Plains,
suffered heavy casualties there, and crossed the Delaware River into
Pennsylvania.
A key victory for the Americans was achieved at Saratoga in October 1777.
The British surrendered 5,700 troops. Prompted by this impressive victory,
France officially recognized the independence of American colonies and
granted its support.
Commodore Hopkins attacked British shipping in the Bahamas. Captain John
Paul Jones carried the fight to the coasts of Ireland and England.
Other key battles of the Revolutionary War occurred at Quebec, Charleston,
Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Savannah,
Cowpens, and Guilford Court House.
British General Cornwallis withdrew his forces to Yorktown, Virginia. French
Count de Grasse landed 3,000 troops joining American soldiers under
Marquis de Lafayette to block a Cornwallis retreat by land. General
Washington's 9,000 men with French General Rochambeau's 7,000 troops
were transported by de Grasse to lay down the siege of Yorktown. On
October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his 8,000 men dashing hopes of
a British victory in America. November 30, 1782, a peace treaty was signed
in Paris. In December the last British troops evacuated Charleston, South
Carolina. February 1783, Great Britain officially declared an end to hostilities
in America. The birth of our nation was at hand.