Eight years of continental armies, allies, and uncertain odds
From Lexington in April 1775 to Paris in September 1783, Patriot forces under George Washington fought the British across North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic. Early reverses in New York gave way to Saratoga, French alliance, and Yorktown—yet Parliament only accepted defeat after a global war drained its will.
The Revolutionary War capped the broader American Revolution. After Concord, Congress created the Continental Army with Washington as commander; George III proclaimed rebellion in August 1775 while July 1776 formalized independence. Washington's 1776 Boston siege expelled British troops, but William Howe seized New York that autumn until Washington's Delaware crossings won Trenton and Princeton. Philadelphia fell in 1777 while Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga in October—a turning point convincing France and Spain an independent United States was viable.
France signed commercial and alliance treaties in 1778; Spain joined France in 1779 without formally allying with Americans. The 1779 Sullivan Expedition scorched Haudenosaunee villages yet frontier raids continued. Clinton shifted south; Cornwallis landed in Yorktown in September 1781, trapped by Franco-American forces with French naval blockade, and surrendered in October. North American fighting largely ceased though Anglo-French war continued two more years. Paris on 3 September 1783 acknowledged US sovereignty; Versailles settlements ceded territories to France and Spain including Florida and Menorca.
Origins lay in post-1763 imperial debt, enforcement of molasses and sugar duties, Stamp and Townshend taxes, Boston Massacre, Gaspee affair, Tea Act monopoly, and Intolerable Acts. Continental Association boycotts cut British imports ninety-seven percent from 1774 to 1775; Parliament declared Massachusetts in rebellion, blockaded trade, and sought militia stores at Concord. Olive Branch Petition failed after simultaneous war declaration; German auxiliaries swelled a 32,000-strong expeditionary force opposed in Parliament.
Royal Proclamation of 1763 restricted western settlement beyond the Mississippi line, requiring garrisons whose cost Parliament expected colonies to bear—fueling disputes over who paid for defense after France left Canada. Pine Tree Riot in 1772 and smuggling enforcement on Liberty presaged wider resistance. Politically active merchants hurt by Navigation limits helped translate economic friction into constitutional argument over parliamentary authority versus local assemblies that had steadily wrested power from royal governors throughout the eighteenth century.
Source: American Revolutionary War
