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It took time during 1754~1763.
The war started because of countries wanted territories.
Both French and England allied with Native American tribes and fought for seven years. French colonists usually needed local far trade partner. Several military alliances developed out of the French-Native American trade relationship. -
The French and Indian war ended with the Treaty of Paris. As a result, Great Britain claimed all of North America east of the Mississippi River and Florida, and Spain possessed its land west of the Mississippi and the city of New Orleans. French controlled a few islands and small colonies near Newfoundland in the west Indies and elsewhere.
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The British government tried to avoid further conflicts with Native American and made the Proclamation of 1763 setting up a Proclamation Line along the Appalachians. It did not allow the colonists to cross, but they ignored the proclamation and continued trying to expand westward and to Native American lands.
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Massachusetts governor authorize seizure of illegal goods. James Otis argued Writs Unconstitutional.
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King George III of Great Britain chose a financial expert, George Grenville to lower the national debt, and Grenville prompted Parliament to enact a law known as the Sugar Act in 1764. It placed duties on certain imports that had not been taxed before, and colonial merchants complained that the Sugar Act would reduce their profit.
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In March 1765, Parliament pass the Stamp Act imposing a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and playing card. A stamp proved that the tax had been paid. This was the first tax that influenced colonists directly because it was levied on goods and services. Accordingly, in May 1765, the colonists united to defy the law.
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In responding to the Townshend Acts in 1767, the colonists opposed it, and Samuel Adams, one of the founders of the Sons of liberty led boycott British goods.
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In March 1765 on the same day repealed the Stamp Act, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted Parliament’s full right to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever.
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In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain, such as lead, glass, paint and paper. This also imposed a tax on the tea. The colonists again boycotted British goods.
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On March 3, 1770, a mob gathered in front of the Boston Customs House and taunted British soldiors standing guard there. Shorts were fired and five colonists were killed or mortally wounded. Thus, Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation the Boston Massacre.
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In 1773, Lord North devised the Tea Act to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company. The act granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay.
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On the evening of December 16, 1773, British rebels disguised themselves as Native Americans and behaved against three British tea ships. In this incident, the Indians dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India Company’s tea into the waters of Boston Harbor.
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In 1774, per King George III pressure, Parliament passed a series of measures that colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One law shut down Boston harbor, and another was the Quartering Act authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings. The other is General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts.
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In response to Britain’s actions, the committees of correspondence assembled the first continental Congress. In September 1774, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They stated if the British used force against the colonies, the colonies should fight back.
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After the first Continental Congress met, colonists in many eastern New England towns stepped up military preparation. Civilian soldiers who pledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice were named Minutemen.
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On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord.
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On April 19, 1775, 70 minutemen fought British soldiers in Lexington, Massachusetts. The battle of Lexington was the first battle of the Revolutionary War. While only one British soldier was injured, only 15 minutes lasted.
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After the battle of Lexington, the British marched on to Concord, where there found on empty arsenal. After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up a march back.
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In May of 1775, colonial leaders called the second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to debate their next move.
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On the second Continental Congress, the Congress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army and approached George Washington as its commander.
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British general Thomas Gage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill, north of the city and near Bunker Hill. On June 17, 1775, Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. At the battle, colonists lost 450 men, and British suffered 1000 casualties.
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On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Orange Branch Petition, urging a return to the former harmony between Britain and the colonies.
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One of the key Enlightment thinker in 1760s and 1770s was English philosopher was John Locke. He maintained that people have natural right to life, liberty, and property. He contended, every society is based on a social contract – an agreement in which the people consent to choose and obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. Common sense sold nearly 500,000 copies in 1776 and was widely applauded.
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A widely read 50-page pamphlet titled common sense by Thomas Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with the royal brute of Britan.
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In summer of 1776, the Continental Congress finally decided to urge each colony to form its own government. On June 7, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee moved that these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states. The Congress appointed a committee to prepare a formal Declaration of Independence. Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson was chosen to prepare the final draft.
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Loyalists were those who opposed independence and remained loyal to the British king , and Patriots are the supporters of independence.
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The Continental Army attempted to depend New York in late August, the untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated. By late fall, the British had pushed Washington’s army across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.
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At Christmas night, 1776, Washington led 2,400 men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They marched to Trenton, New Jersey and defeated a garrison of Hessians in a surprise attack.
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American troops finally surrounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered on October 17, 1777. The surrender at Saratoga turned out to be one of the most important events of the war.
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French had secretly aided the Patriots since early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered France’s belief that the American could win the war. As a result, the French signed an alliance with the Americans in February 1778 and openly joined them in their fight.
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While events took place in Paris, Washington and his Continental Army fought to stay alive at winter camp with low supplies in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died.
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FrIedrich Von Steuben , a Prussian captain and talented drillmaster, helped to train the Continental Army. Other foreign military leaders, such as the Marquis de Lafayette also arrived to offer their help.
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General Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charles town, South Carolina in May 1780.
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By late September, about 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding them day and night. Less than a month later, on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis finally surrendered.
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In September 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, and it confirmed US Independence and set the boundary of the new nation.
