Revolutionary War
• During the 1760s and 1770s, many American colonists grew resentful of British
policies. The main issues that led to conflict were British taxes imposed on colonists
without their consent, laws that restricted colonial commerce, and the presence of a
British standing army.
• The first battles of the Revolutionary War occurred in the Massachusetts towns of
Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. British General Thomas Gage sent troops
from Boston to arrest rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington. The
troops were also ordered to destroy supplies of arms and ammunitions that American
rebels kept in Concord.
• A Boston silversmith named Paul Revere had set up a warning system for the
Massachusetts rebels: one lantern burning in the Old North Church steeple in Boston
would signal that the British troops were leaving Boston by land, and two lanterns would
signal that the British were leaving by water.
• Revere and another messenger named William Dawes rode out from Boston on the
night of April 18 to warn about the British troop movements. They managed to reach
Lexington and alert Adams and Hancock. A third messenger who had joined them along
the way reached Concord. Their warnings gave the rebel militia time to prepare. After a
day of fighting, the British troops were forced to retreat to Boston.
• About a month after the start of the war, colonial leaders agreed to create a Continental
Army and chose George Washington to be its commanding general. The colonial troops
were inexperienced and disorganized compared with the British troops, and they often
lacked proper equipment and supplies. However, the British troops lacked the idealism of
the rebel fighters, and they were up against not only the Continental Army but also many
patriotic civilians who took part in the war. The British also had the disadvantage of
fighting 3,000 miles from home.
• On July 4, 1776, colonial leaders issued the Declaration of Independence. This event
firmly committed the colonies to severing their ties to Britain.
• In the summer and autumn of 1776, the British won a series of battles against
Washington’s troops in New York and New Jersey. By the time Washington was forced
to flee New Jersey into Pennsylvania across the Delaware River in November, he had lost
most of his army. However, on Christmas, Washington struck back by crossing the
Delaware at night and capturing almost a thousand foreign soldiers fighting for the
British in Trenton, New Jersey. Soon afterward he won a battle at Princeton. These
victories did much to restore colonial morale.
• An overwhelming American victory in the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 helped convince
foreign countries that the Americans were able to win the war. Beginning in 1778, the
colonies gained support from France, Spain, and the Netherlands. These allies supplied
money and troops to the colonists.
• After the Americans defeated the British at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the British
lost their will to continue fighting. They began to negotiate for peace.
Copyright © Holt McDougal/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• The treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, formally ended the Revolutionary War.
Copyright © Holt McDougal/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.