when was the american war of independence fought
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (1775â€“1783), also known as the American War of Independence,[43] was a global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and her Thirteen Colonies, which declared independence as the United States of America.[N 1]
History of the United States Armed conflict began in 1775 as Patriots drove the royal officials out of every colony and assembled in mass meetings and conventions. In 1776, the Second Continental Congress declared that there was a new, independent nation, the United States of America, not just a collection of disparate colonies. With large-scale military and financial support from France and the military leadership of General George Washington, the American Patriots won the Revolutionary War. The peace treaty of 1783 gave the new nation the land east of the Mississippi River (except Florida and Canada). The central government established by the Articles of Confederation proved ineffectual at providing stability, as it had no authority to collect taxes and had no executive officer. Congress called a convention to meet secretly in Philadelphia in 1787. It wrote a new Constitution, which was adopted in 1789. In 1791, a Bill of Rights was added to guarantee inalienable rights. With Washington as the first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief political and financial adviser, a strong central government was created. When Thomas Jefferson became president he purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, doubling the size of the United States. A second and final war with Britain was fought in 1812.
American Revolutionary War On April 18, 1775, 700 troops were sent to confiscate militia ordnance stored at Concord.[94][95] Fighting broke out, forcing the regulars to conduct a fighting withdrawal to Boston. Overnight, the local militia converged on and laid siege to Boston.[96] On March 25, 4,500 British reinforcements arrived with three senior generals; William Howe, John Burgoyne and Henry Clinton.[97] On June 17, the British seized the Charlestown peninsular after a costly frontal assault,[98][99] leading Howe to replace Gage.[100] Many senior officers were dismayed at the attack which had gained them little,[101] while Gage wrote to London stressing the need for a large army to suppress the revolt.[102] On July 3, George Washington took command of the Continental Army besieging Boston. Howe made no effort to attack, much to Washington's surprise.[103] After a plan to assault the city was rejected,[104] in early March 1776, the Americans fortified Dorchester Heights with heavy artillery captured from a raid on Fort Ticonderoga.[105] On March 17, the British were permitted to withdraw unmolested, sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Washington then moved his army to New York.[106]
American Revolution The Continental Army forced the redcoats out of Boston in March 1776, but that summer the British captured and held New York City and its strategic harbor for the duration of the war. The Royal Navy blockaded ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but they failed to defeat Washington's forces. The Patriots unsuccessfully attempted to invade Canada during the winter of 1775–76, but successfully captured a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777. France now entered the war as an ally of the United States with a large army and navy that threatened Britain itself. The war turned to the American South where the British under the leadership of Charles Cornwallis captured an army at Charleston, South Carolina in early 1780 but failed to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory while fighting partisans. A combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in the fall of 1781, effectively ending the war in North America. The Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, formally ended the conflict, confirming the new nation's complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada and Spain taking Florida.