American Revolutionary War

The **American Revolutionary War** (also known as the **American War of Independence** and **American Revolution**) was a war fought between the British Crown and its colonies in North America, allied with France, from 1775 to 1783. The eventual outcome was the recognition of independence of the 13 southernmost of the colonies, as well as lightly settled territories west to the Mississippi River.

The revolution started in April 1775 when British troops quartered in Boston attempted to seize munitions stored by colonial militias at Concord, Massachusetts. Conflict spread and the outnumbered British garrisons in the 13 Southernmost colonies were quickly defeated. Fort Ticonderoga fell in May, Montreal in August. Boston was evacuated by British troops in October. By the end of 1775 Britain's holdings in North America had been reduced to the Canadian Maritimes and a besieged garrison at Quebec City.

In 1776, King George III assembled the largest army seen in Western Europe since Roman times and sent 75,000 troops to North America. The colonists met in Philadelphia in June of 1776 and declared independence from England on July 4, 1776. See United States Declaration of Independence. The colonial army proved no match for the well armed British and suffered an embarassing series of defeats in New York, and New Jersey. By the end of 1776, Quebec, New York City and much of New Jersey were in British hands. However, during Christmas week, General George Washington who had retreated into Pennsylvania crossed the Delaware River back into New Jersey and rolled up outlying British garrisons at Trenton and Princeton. This established a pattern that held for the rest of the war. The British controlled the territory they occupied with major forces -- primarily New York City and Philadelphia. The colonists controlled everything else.

In 1777, a force of 10000 troops started down from Quebec to cut the colonies in half. Simultanously the much larger army in New Jersey moved across the Delaware and took Philadelphia -- the colonial capitol and the second largest city in the British Empire. However, after retaking Ticonderoga with little trouble, the Northern army suffered a series of serious defeats at Bennington, Fort Stanwix and in two battles near Saratoga. By October the 5700 survivors found themselves surrounded, outnumbered and short of supplies in the wilderness 130 miles south of Montreal with winter approaching. On October 17th General Burgoyne surrendered an entire British Army to the colonials. News of the surrender arrived in Paris hard on the heels of news that colonial troops had caused supposedly invincible British regulars to flee in disarray in the early stages of the Battle of Germantown. Convinced by Benjamin Franklin and the news from North America that the Colonials had a reasonable chance of victory, the French agreed to support the colonists.

With the French in the war, the conflict settled into a war of attrition. The colonials were too weak to dislodge the British from Philadelphia and New York. The British tried various strategies, but were unable to establish permanent control over the countryside and the vast majority of the population. The economy of the colonies slowly disintigrated and the British economy -- drained by the costs of a War with France and supporting the large occupation forces in America also suffered substantially.

In 1781, the British strategy de jour placed a force of about 7000 troops under General Cornwallis at Yorktown in Tidewater Virginia. Accounts of what happened next are remarkably diverse -- possibly due to a desire by some American authors to minimize the French role in the events. All sources agree that French naval forces defeated the British Royal Navy on September 5th at the Battle of the Virginia Capes cutting off Cornwallis' supplies and transport. A combined Colonial-French force of 16000 or 17000 troops was assembled and commenced the Battle of Yorktown on October 6, 1781. Cornwallis position quickly became untenable. On October 19th a substantial British Army once again surrendered to the Colonials.

In April 1782, the British House of Commons voted to end the war with the American colonies and the government of war proponent Lord North was ousted. The British removed their troops from Charleston and Savannah in the Summer of 1782. In November 1782 a peace agreement was reached although the formal end of the War did not occur until the Treaty of Paris was signed in November of 1783.

* Important battles:
	+ Battle of Lexington and Concord
	+ Battle of Saratoga
	+ Battle of Yorktown

* Important persons:
	+ Samuel Adams
	+ Ethan Allen
	+ Benedict Arnold
	+ John Burgoyne
	+ Benjamin Franklin
	+ King George III
	+ John Hancock
	+ Thomas Jefferson
	+ John Paul Jones
	+ Thomas Paine
	+ Paul Revere
	+ John Stark
	+ George Washington

* Some historical societies preserve what they interpret as the ideas of the Revolution, including
	+ Daughters of the American Revolution
	+ Sons of the American Revolution