1775

Shot heard round the world!

April. Shots fired at Lexington and Concord. "Minute Men" force British troops back to Boston. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army.

•Gage sends troops to seize rebel supplies•Paul Revere warns colonists•Lexington militia protests•8 Americans killed at Lexington; 10 wounded•"Minutemen" attack British•300 casualties total•Britain had a war!

Second Continental Congress (May 1775)

• Creation of Continental Army

• George Washington—commander

• Purchased military supplies; issued currency

• Richard Henry Lee’s resolution

1776

Thomas Paine—"Common Sense" (January 1776)

•Colonists no longer had to be loyal to king•Persuades common people to pursue independence

Richard Henry Lee’s ResolutionJune 7, 1776

1. Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

2. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

3. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

Committee of Five appointed led by Thomas Jefferson. Presented on June 28, 1776

Thomas Jefferson—Declaration of Independence

• Approved July 4, 1776• Lists grievances against

British government

Homework: Read the Declaration and be ableto identify and summarize the four main parts.

The Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Thomas Jefferson. It was approved, with minor modifications, by the Continental Congress, on July 4, 1776.

British Problems

• Underestimated colonial militia• Overestimated loyalist strength• Difficult to control large territory• No great leader• European balance-of-power considerations• Americans had home field advantage• Americans were willing to die for cause

American Problems

• One third of the number of British forces• One tenth of the money• British were the best fighters in the world• Experienced standing army of 50,000 men• Hired 30,000 German mercenaries (Hessians)• Had 50,000 American Loyalists

July -British Arrive in New York harbor bent on crushing the rebellion.

• General Washington had 19,000 troops in New York, but many were inexperienced and ill-equipped. Admiral Richard Howe arrived on July 12 with 150 more ships and reinforcements. On August 12, Maj. General Henry Clinton returned from the failed Charleston Expedition. Howe began operations on August 22, 1776. On September 15, 1776, General Howe landed at Kip's Bay and entered the city of New York virtually unopposed and paused his campaign. In November, he would pursue Washington out of New York and across New Jersey.

New York (1776) Washington retreats to Pennsylvania

December

• December 26. Washington crosses the Delaware River and captures a Hessian force at Trenton, New Jersey.

The battle ended quickly — 22 Hessians killed, 83 seriously wounded, and 900 captured, to two American combat deaths.

The American troops found 40 hogshead of rum in the town, which temporarily blunted their effectiveness. Washington followed up soon enough with another victory at Princeton. In the space of a few weeks, the Americans killed or captured as many as 3,000 of the enemy and irreversibly changed the dynamic of the war.

Trenton (1776) and Princeton (1777) British withdraw from New JerseyAmerican morale boost

Trenton and Princeton

Help From France• December. In desperate

need of financing and arms, Congress sends Benjamin Franklin to France to urge the French to ally with America.

In 1776 Congress sent Franklin on his most important diplomatic mission. He was asked to persuade France to help America in its fight for independence. Before he left he lent Congress about 4,000 pounds of his own money to help carry on the war. He reached Paris just before Christmas.

1777

July

• A British force led by John Burgoyne takes Fort Ticonderoga in a devastating loss to the Americans. The Marquis de Lafayette arrives in America

Philadelphia

• Washington defeated at Brandywine (September 11) and Germantown (October 4). Philadelphia is lost to the British.

October - Saratoga

• October 17. Americans capture Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga

Saratoga (1777) First major American victoryLeads to Franco-American Treaties (1778)

1778

February

• France signs a treaty of alliance with the United States and the American Revolution becomes a world war.

1780

South Carolina

•British attack Charleston, South Carolina. City falls in May.

1780-'81 Americans "lose" series of engagements in the south, but exact a heavy toll on the British army.

1781

Yorktown

Surrender at Yorktown• October 19. A

miraculousconvergence of American and French forces traps Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. He surrenders his British army.

1783

Peace

• September - A peace treaty is signed between Great Britain and the United States.- The Treaty of Paris