The American Revolution (1775–83) won political independence for 13 of Britain’s North American colonies, which subsequently formed the United States of America.
The Road to Revolution
The “shot heard ’round the world” was preceded by years of deteriorating relations between Britain and the colonies and a growing spirit of independence among the colonists.
Founding Father John Adams later declared:
“The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.”
French and Indian War
American phase of a worldwide nine years’ war (1754–63) fought between France and Great Britain. (The more-complex European phase was the Seven Years’ War [1756–63].) It determined control of the vast colonial territory of North America. Three earlier phases of this extended contest for overseas mastery included King William’s War (1689–97), Queen Anne’s War (1702–13), and King George’s War (1744–48).
Stamp Act
In U.S. colonial history, first British parliamentary attempt to raise revenue through direct taxation of all colonial commercial and legal papers, newspapers, pamphlets, cards, almanacs, and dice.
Townshend Acts
In colonial U.S. history, series of four acts passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert its historic right to exert authority over the colonies through suspension of a recalcitrant representative assembly and through strict provisions for the collection of revenue duties.
Boston Massacre
Skirmish between British troops and a crowd in Boston, Massachusetts. Widely publicized, it contributed to the unpopularity of the British regime in much of colonial North America in the years before the American Revolution.
Boston Tea Party
Incident in which 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company were thrown from ships into Boston Harbor by American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians.
Intolerable Acts
In U.S. colonial history, four punitive measures enacted by the British Parliament in retaliation for acts of colonial defiance, together with the Quebec Act establishing a new administration for the territory ceded to Britain after the French and Indian War (1754–63).
The Continental Congress
The body of delegates who spoke and acted collectively for the people of the colony-states that later became the United States of America.
Important Figures
The American Revolution was fueled by a wide range of people. Immigrants and activists. Warriors and writers. Slaveholders and abolitionists. Some gave their lives in the struggle for independence while others would go on to build the government of the new United States.
George Washington is often called the “Father of His (or Our) Country.” He not only served as the first president of the United States, but he also commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolution (1775–83) and presided over the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution. Read more.
Politician, leader of the Massachusetts “radicals,” who was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–81) and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Read more.
The first American ambassador to the court of King George (1785–88), and the first vice president (1789–97) and second president (1797–1801) of the United States. Read More
American first lady and wife of George Washington, first president of the United States and commander in chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolutionary War. Read more.
Folk hero of the American Revolution whose dramatic horseback ride on the night of April 18, 1775, warned Boston-area residents that the British were coming. Read more.
American first lady (1797–1801), the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and mother of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. Read more.
Patriot officer who served the cause of the American Revolution until 1779, when he shifted his allegiance to the British. Read more.
English-American writer and political pamphleteer. His Common Sense pamphlet and Crisis papers were important influences on the American Revolution. Read more.
Fourth president of the United States (1809–17) and one of the Founding Fathers of his country. Read more.
American printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat. One of the foremost of the Founding Fathers. Read more.
American hero, martyr of the Boston Massacre. Attucks’s life prior to the day of his death is still shrouded in mystery. Read more.
New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787), major author of the Federalist papers, and first secretary of the treasury of the United States (1789–95), who was the foremost champion of a strong central government for the new United States. Read more.
Draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the nation’s first secretary of state (1789–94) and 2nd vice president (1797–1801) and, as the 3rd president (1801–09), the statesman responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. Read more.
American Revolutionary War officer who served as aide-de-camp to Gen. George Washington. Read more.
Brilliant orator, best known for his words “Give me liberty or give me death!” Read more.
French aristocrat who fought in the Continental Army with the American colonists against the British. Read more.
She was the heroine of the Battle of Monmouth Court House during the American Revolution. Read more.
Washington’s designated successor and a strategist without peer on the American side of the Revolution. Read More.
Founding Documents and Symbols of Liberty
The founding documents of the United States offered a promise of liberty and civil rights. But for many people, these guarantees proved elusive. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., called the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution “a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”
Declaration of Independence
In U.S. history, document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain.
Betsy Ross
née Elizabeth Griscom, (born January 1, 1752, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [U.S.]—died January 30, 1836, Philadelphia), seamstress who, according to family stories, fashioned and helped design the first flag of the United States.
The United States Flag
After the American Revolution began, the first, unofficial national flag—known as the Continental Colours (or, sometimes, as the Grand Union Flag, the Cambridge Flag, the Somerville Flag, or the Union Flag)—was hoisted on a towering 76-foot (23-metre) liberty pole at Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now in Somerville), Massachusetts, on January 1, 1776.
Articles of Confederation
First U.S. constitution (1781–89), which served as a bridge between the initial government by the Continental Congress of the Revolutionary period and the federal government provided under the U.S. Constitution of 1787.
The Treaty of Paris
The military verdict in North America was reflected in the preliminary Anglo-American peace treaty of 1782, which was included in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens served as the American commissioners.
Constitution of the United States
The fundamental law of the U.S. federal system of government and a landmark document of the Western world. The oldest written national constitution in use, the Constitution defines the principal organs of government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens.
Federalist papers
Formally The Federalist, a series of 85 essays on the proposed new Constitution of the United States and on the nature of republican government, published between 1787 and 1788 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in an effort to persuade New York state voters to support ratification.
From the shot heard ’round the world to the dreadful winter at Valley Forge to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, learn the story of an unlikely victory over one of the most powerful armies in the world.
FEATURED QUIZZES
Spurred by Great Britain’s taxation without fair representation, this political uprising led to the formation of the United States of America. Test your knowledge of the thirteen colonies’ quest for independence in this quiz.
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