American Revolutionary War

During the war, American Patriot forces had the support of France and Spain, while the British and Loyalist forces hired Hessian soldiers from Germany for assistance. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which resulted in Great Britain ultimately recognizing the independence and sovereignty of the United States.


The American colonies were established by royal charter in the 17th and 18th centuries. After the British Empire gained dominance in North America with victory over the French in the Seven Years' War in 1763, tensions and disputes arose between Britain and the Thirteen Colonies over a variety of issues, including the Stamp and Townshend Acts. The resulting British military occupation led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, which strengthened American Patriots' desire for independence from Britain. Among further tensions, the British Parliament imposed the Intolerable Acts in mid-1774. A British attempt to disarm the Americans and the resulting Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 ignited the war. In June, the Second Continental Congress formalized Patriot militias into the Continental Army and appointed Washington its commander-in-chief. The British Parliament declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion in August 1775. The stakes of the war were formalized with passage of the Lee Resolution by the Congress in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776, and the unanimous ratification of the Declaration of Independence two days later, on July 4, 1776.


After a successful siege, Washington's forces drove the British Army out of Boston in March 1776, and British commander in chief William Howe responded by launching the New York and New Jersey campaign. Howe captured New York City in November. Washington responded by clandestinely crossing the Delaware River and winning small but significant victories at Trenton and Princeton, which restored Patriot confidence. In the summer of 1777, as Howe was poised to capture Philadelphia, the Continental Congress fled to Baltimore. In October 1777, a separate northern British force under the command of John Burgoyne was forced to surrender at Saratoga in an American victory that proved crucial in convincing France and Spain that an independent United States was a viable possibility. After Saratoga, France signed a commercial agreement with the rebels, followed by a Treaty of Alliance in February 1778. In 1779, Spain also allied with France against Britain in the Treaty of Aranjuez, though Spain did not formally ally with the Americans.


Howe's replacement Henry Clinton intended to take the war against the Americans into the south. Despite some initial success, British general Cornwallis was besieged by a Franco-American force in Yorktown in September and October 1781. Cornwallis was forced to surrender in October. The British wars with France and Spain continued for another two years, but fighting largely ceased in America. In April 1782, the North ministry was replaced by a new British government, which accepted American independence and began negotiating the Treaty of Paris, ratified on September 3, 1783. Britain acknowledged the sovereignty and independence of the United States of America, bringing the American Revolutionary War to an end. The Treaties of Versailles resolved Britain's conflicts with France and Spain and forced Great Britain to cede Tobago, Senegal, and small territories in India to France, and Menorca, West Florida and East Florida to Spain.^[43][44]