section_path: History/American Revolution
section_name: American Revolution
paragraph_text: American Revolution
  
  In 1776, after various attempts to reconcile differences with the British, the Thirteen Colonies in British America sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, who unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, a member of the Committee of Five charged by the Second Continental Congress with authoring it. In the Declaration, the thirteen colonies declared their independence from the British monarchy, then governed by King George III, and detailed the factors that contributed to their decision. With the signing and issuance of the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies formalized and escalated the American Revolutionary War, which had begun the year before at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Gathered in Philadelphia following the war's outbreak, delegates from the thirteen colonies established the Continental Army from various patriot militias then engaged in resisting the British, and appointed George Washington as the Continental Army's military commander.
  
  As the American Revolutionary War progressed, France and Spain, both then enemies of Britain, began to ultimately see the promise of a potential American victory in the war and began supporting Washington and the American Revolutionary cause. The British Army, in turn, was supported by Hessian military units from present-day Germany.
  
  In 1783, after an eight-year attempt to defeat the American rebellion, King George III acknowledged Britain's defeat in the war, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, which solidified the sovereign establishment of the United States.