Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies or the Thirteen American Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, th ...
defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the Revolutionary War and the American War of Independence, was initiated by delegates from thirteen American colonies of British America
British America comprised the colonia ...
(1775–1783), gaining independence from the British Crown
The Crown is the in all its aspects within the of the s and their subdivisions (such as the , , , or ). Legally ill-defined, the term has different meanings depending on context. It is used to designate the monarch in either a personal capa ...
and establishing the United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country in . It consists of 50 , a , five major , 326 , and some . At , it is the world's . The United States shares significan ...
, the first modern constitutional
A constitution is an aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents
A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case
A legal case is in a general sense a dispute between opposing parties which may be ...
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also referred to as Western democracy, is the combination of a liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
*a supporter of liberalism, a political and moral philosophy
**Liberalism by country
*an adherent of a L ...
.
American colonists
The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of America from the early 17th century (e.g., 1600s) until the incorporation of the colonies into the United States of America. In the late 16th century, Kin ...
objected to being taxed by the British Parliament, a body in which they had no direct representation. Before the 1760s, Britain's American colonies had enjoyed a high level of autonomy in their internal affairs, which were managed by colonial legislatures. The passage of the Stamp Act of 1765
The Stamp Act of 1765 (short title: ''Duties in American Colonies Act 1765''; 5 George III, c. 12) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain
The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the ...
, which imposed internal taxes on the colonies, led to colonial protest, and the meeting of representatives of several colonies in the Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress (October 7 – 25, 1765), also known as the Continental Congress of 1765, was a meeting held in New York, New York, consisting of representatives from some of the British colonies in North America. It was the first gat ...
. Tensions relaxed with the British repeal of the Stamp Act, but flared again with the passage of the Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts () or Townshend Duties, refers to a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768 relating to the British colonies in America. They are named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
The ...
in 1767. The British government deployed troops to Boston in 1768 to quell unrest, leading to the Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston
Boston (, ), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, capital and List o ...
in 1770. The British government repealed most of the Townshend duties in 1770, but retained the tax on tea in order to symbolically assert Parliament's right to tax the colonies. The in 
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road''), officially the State of Rhode Island, is a state in the New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States (also referred to as t ...
in 1772, the passage of the Tea Act of 1773
The Tea Act 1773 (13 Geo 3 c 44) was an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The principal objective was to reduce the massive amount of tea held by the financially troubled East India Company, British East India Company in ...
and the Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with Decision-making, making decisions in Social group, groups, or other forms of Power (social and political), power relatio ...
in December 1773 led to a new escalation in tensions. The British responded by closing Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States.
History
Since it ...
and enacting a series of punitive laws which effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally The Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of America around the Massachusetts Bay
Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Atlantic Ocean that forms part of t ...
's privileges of self-government. The other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts, and twelve of the thirteen colonies sent delegates in late 1774 to a "Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of British America, Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the ...
" to coordinate their resistance to Britain. Opponents of Britain were known as '' Patriots'' or ''Whigs'', while colonists who retained their allegiance to the Crown were known as ''Loyalists'' or ''Tories''.
Open warfare erupted when British regulars sent to capture a cache of military supplies were confronted by local Patriot militia at Lexington and Concord
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the Revolutionary War and the American War of Independence, was initi ...
on April 19, 1775. Patriot militia, joined by the newly formed Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army
An army (from Latin ''arma'' "arms, weapons" via Old French ''armée'', "armed" eminine, ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land- ...
, then put British forces in Boston under siege. Each colony formed a Provincial Congress
The Provincial Congresses were extra-legal legislative bodies established in ten of the Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies or the Thirteen American Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Br ...
, which assumed power from the former colonial governments, suppressed Loyalism, and contributed to the Continental Army led by General George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American soldier, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continenta ...
. The Continental Congress declared King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain
There have been 12 British monarchs since the political union of the Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the ...
a tyrant who trampled the colonists' rights as Englishmen, and they declared the colonies on July 2, 1776. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of 
liberalism
Liberalism is a political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with Decision-making, making decisions in Social group, groups, or other forms of Power (social and political), power relations between individuals, ...
and republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology
An ideology () is a set of belief
A belief is an Attitude (psychology), attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition about the world is truth, true. In epistemology, philosophers use t ...
to reject monarchy and aristocracy, and they proclaimed that all men are created equal.
The Patriots unsuccessfully attempted to invade Quebec during the winter of 1775–76. The newly created Continental Army forced the British military out of Boston in March 1776, but the British captured New York City and its strategic harbor that summer, which they held for the duration of the war. The Royal Navy blockaded ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but they failed to destroy Washington's forces. The Continental Army captured a British army at the Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1 ...
in October 1777, and France then entered the war as an ally of the United States, transforming the war into a global conflict. Britain also attempted to hold the Southern states with the anticipated aid of Loyalists, and the war moved south. British general Charles Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army
The British Army is the princip ...
captured an American army at Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the of , the of , and the principal city in the . The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on , an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the , , ...
in early 1780, but he failed to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory. Finally, a combined American and French force captured Cornwallis' army at Yorktown in the fall of 1781, effectively ending the war. The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, formally ending the conflict and confirming the new nation's complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of northern Canada, and Spain taking Florida.
Among the significant results of the Revolution were American independence and the end of British merchantilism
Mercantilism is an economic policy
The economic policy of governments covers the systems for setting levels of taxation, government budgets, the money supply and interest rates as well as the labour market, nationalization, national owners ...
in America, opening up worldwide trade for the United States - including with Britain. The Americans adopted the United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law
A constitution is an aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation
An organization, or organ ...
, establishing a strong national government which included an elected executive
Executive may refer to:
Role, title, or function
* Executive (government), branch of government that has authority and responsibility for the administration of state bureaucracy
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief exec ...
, a , and an elected bicameral 
Congress
Congresses are formal meetings of the representatives of different countries
A country is a distinct territorial body or political entity
A polity is an identifiable political entity—any group of people who have a collective identity, ...
representing states in the Senate
The Curia Julia in the Roman Forum ">Roman_Forum.html" ;"title="Curia Julia in the Roman Forum">Curia Julia in the Roman Forum
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Debating chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislatu ...
and the population in the House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies
A legislature is a deliberative assembly
A deliberative assembly is a gathering of members (of any kind of collective) who use parliamentary procedure
Parliamentary procedure is ...
.Wood, ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992) Around 60,000 Loyalists migrated to other British territories, particularly to British North America
British North America comprised the British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or adminis ...
(Canada), but the great majority remained in the United States.
Origin
1651–1748: Early seeds
As early as 1651, the English government had sought to regulate trade in theAmerican colonies#REDIRECT American colonies
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Some writers begin their histories of the American Revolution with the British coalition victory in the 
Prime Minister 
In June 1772, American patriots, including John Brown, burned a British warship that had been vigorously enforcing unpopular trade regulations in what became known as the 
Massachusetts was declared in a state of rebellion in February 1775 and the British garrison received orders to disarm the rebels and arrest their leaders, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775. The Patriots laid siege to Boston, expelled royal officials from all the colonies, and took control through the establishment of 
During negotiations in Paris, the American delegation discovered that France supported American independence but no territorial gains, hoping to confine the new nation to the area east of the Appalachian Mountains. The Americans opened direct secret negotiations with London, cutting out the French. British Prime Minister William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Lord Shelburne was in charge of the British negotiations, and he saw a chance to make the United States a valuable economic partner. The US obtained all the land east of the Mississippi River, including Northwest Territory, southern Canada, but Spain took control of Florida from the British. It gained fishing rights off Canadian coasts, and agreed to allow British merchants and Loyalists to recover their property. Prime Minister Shelburne foresaw highly profitable two-way trade between Britain and the rapidly growing United States, which did come to pass. The blockade was lifted and all British interference had been driven out, and American merchants were free to trade with any nation anywhere in the world.
The British largely abandoned their indigenous allies, who were not a party to this treaty and did not recognize it until they were defeated militarily by the United States. However, the British did sell them munitions and maintain forts in American territory until the Jay Treaty of 1795.
Losing the war and the Thirteen Colonies was a shock to Britain. The war revealed the limitations of Britain's fiscal-military state when they discovered that they suddenly faced powerful enemies with no allies, and they were dependent on extended and vulnerable transatlantic lines of communication. The defeat heightened dissension and escalated political antagonism to the King's ministers. Inside Parliament, the primary concern changed from fears of an over-mighty monarch to the issues of representation, parliamentary reform, and government retrenchment. Reformers sought to destroy what they saw as widespread institutional corruption,
John Locke's (1632–1704) ideas on liberty influenced the political thinking behind the revolution, especially through his indirect influence on English writers such as John Trenchard (writer), John Trenchard, Thomas Gordon (writer), Thomas Gordon, and Benjamin Hoadly, whose political ideas had a strong influence on the American Patriots. Locke is often referred to as "the philosopher of the American Revolution" due to his work in the Social Contract and Natural Rights theories that underpinned the Revolution's political ideology. Locke's Two Treatises of Government published in 1689 was especially influential. He argued that all humans were created equally free, and governments therefore needed the "consent of the governed". In late eighteenth-century America, belief was still widespread in "equality by creation" and "rights by creation".
The theory of the "social contract" influenced the belief among many of the Founders that the Right of revolution, right of the people to overthrow their leaders was one of the "natural rights" of man, should those leaders betray the historic rights of Englishmen.
Thomas Paine published his pamphlet ''Common Sense (pamphlet), Common Sense'' in January 1776, after the Revolution had started. It was widely distributed and often read aloud in taverns, contributing significantly to spreading the ideas of republicanism and liberalism together, bolstering enthusiasm for separation from Great Britain and encouraging recruitment for the Continental Army.
The consensus of scholars is that about 15– to 20-percent of the white population remained loyal to the British Crown. Those who actively supported the king were known at the time as "Loyalists", "Tories", or "King's men". The Loyalists never controlled territory unless the British Army occupied it. They were typically older, less willing to break with old loyalties, and often connected to the Church of England; they included many established merchants with strong business connections throughout the Empire, as well as royal officials such as Thomas Hutchinson of Boston. There were 500 to 1,000 Black Loyalists, enslaved African-Americans who escaped to British lines and supported Britain's cause via several means. Many of them succumbed to various diseases, but the survivors were evacuated by the British to British North America, their remaining colonies in North America.
The revolution could divide families, such as William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin and royal governor of the Province of New Jersey who remained loyal to the Crown throughout the war. He and his father never spoke again. Recent immigrants who had not been fully Americanized were also inclined to support the King, such as Flora MacDonald (Scottish Jacobite), Flora MacDonald, a Scottish settler in the backcountry.
After the war, the most of the approximately 500,000 Loyalists remained in America and resumed normal lives. Some became prominent American leaders, such as Samuel Seabury (1729–1796), Samuel Seabury. Approximately 46,000 Loyalists relocated to Canada; others moved to Britain (7,000), Florida, or the West Indies (9,000). The exiles represented approximately two percent of the total population of the colonies.
Women contributed to the American Revolution in many ways and were involved on both sides. Formal politics did not include women, but ordinary domestic behaviors became charged with political significance as Patriot women confronted a war which permeated all aspects of political, civil, and domestic life. They participated by boycotting British goods, spying on the British, following armies as they marched, washing, cooking, and mending for soldiers, delivering secret messages, and even fighting disguised as men in a few cases, such as Deborah Samson. Mercy Otis Warren held meetings in her house and cleverly attacked Loyalists with her creative plays and histories. Many women also acted as nurses and helpers, tending to the soldiers' wounds and buying and selling goods for them. Some of these camp followers even participated in combat, such as Madam John Turchin who led her husband's regiment into battle. Above all, women continued the agricultural work at home to feed their families and the armies. They maintained their families during their husbands' absences and sometimes after their deaths.
Free blacks in the North and South fought on both sides of the Revolution, but the majority fought for the Patriots. Gary Nash reports that there were about 9,000 black Patriots, counting the Continental Army and Navy, state militia units, privateers, wagoneers in the Army, servants to officers, and spies. Ray Raphael notes that thousands did join the Loyalist cause, but "a far larger number, free as well as slave, tried to further their interests by siding with the patriots." Crispus Attucks was one of the five people killed in the 
After the Revolution, genuinely democratic politics became possible in the former American colonies. The rights of the people were incorporated into state constitutions. Concepts of liberty, individual rights, equality among men and hostility toward corruption became incorporated as core values of liberal republicanism. The greatest challenge to the old order in Europe was the challenge to inherited political power and the democratic idea that government rests on the consent of the governed. The example of the first successful revolution against a European empire, and the first successful establishment of a republican form of democratically elected government, provided a model for many other colonial peoples who realized that they too could break away and become self-governing nations with directly elected representative government.
The Dutch Republic, also at war with Britain, was the next country to sign a treaty with the United States, on October 8, 1782.
As historian Christopher L. Brown put it, slavery "had never been on the agenda in a serious way before," but the Revolution "forced it to be a public question from there forward." In the first two decades after the American Revolution, state legislatures and individuals took actions to free slaves, in part based on revolutionary ideals. Northern states passed new constitutions that contained language about equal rights or specifically abolished slavery; some states, such as New York and New Jersey, where slavery was more widespread, passed laws by the end of the 18th century to abolish slavery by a gradual method. By 1804, all the northern states had passed laws outlawing slavery, either immediately or over time. In New York, the last slaves were freed in 1827. Indentured servitude (temporary slavery), which had been widespread in the colonies (Half the population of Philadelphia had once been bonded servants) dropped dramatically, and disappeared by 1800. An Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves sailed through Congress with little opposition. President Thomas Jefferson supported it, and it went in effect on January 1, 1808. 
Thousands of free Blacks in the northern states fought in the state militias and Continental Army. In the south, both sides offered freedom to slaves who would perform military service. Roughly 20,000 slaves fought in the American Revolution.
Shortly after the Revolution, the Northwest Territory was established, by Manasseh Cutler and Rufus Putnam (who had been George Washington's chief engineer). Both Cutler and Putnam came from History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan New England. The Puritans strongly believed that slavery was morally wrong. Their influence on the issue of slavery was long-lasting, and this was provided significantly greater impetus by the Revolution. The Northwest Territory (which became Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota) doubled the size of the United States, and it was established at the insistence of Cutler and Putnam as "free soil" - no slavery. This was to prove crucial a few decades later. Had those states been slave states, and their electoral votes gone to Abraham Lincoln's main opponent, Lincoln would not have become president. The American Civil War, Civil War would not have been fought. Even if it eventually had been, the North might well have lost.
The American Revolution has a central place in the American memory as the story of the nation's founding. It is covered in the schools, memorialized by a Independence Day (United States), national holiday, and commemorated in innumerable monuments. George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon was one of the first national pilgrimages for tourists and attracted 10,000 visitors a year by the 1850s.
The Revolution became a matter of contention in the 1850s in the debates leading to the American Civil War (1861–1865), as spokesmen of both the Northern United States and the Southern United States claimed that their region was the true custodian of the legacy of 1776. The United States Bicentennial in 1976 came a year after the American withdrawal from the Vietnam War, and speakers stressed the themes of renewal and rebirth based on a restoration of traditional values.
Today, more than 100 :American Revolutionary War sites, battlefields and historic sites of the American Revolution are protected and maintained by the government. The National Park Service alone owns and maintains more than 50 battlefield parks and sites related to the Revolution. The American Battlefield Trust preserves almost 700 acres of battlefield land in six states.