Notes on the American Revolution

I. Forming a New Identity After 150 years the British colonies in North America had each established their own government. Many colonists identified more and more with their colony and less with Britain itself.

II. Opposing British Policies Britain began to assert its right to impose laws on the colonies  conflict After the British defeated France in the French and Indian War in 1763, Britain was left with large war debts.

New taxes placed on the colonies would cover the expense of the war: 1765 Stamp Act- required a stamp on all newspapers, legal documents, public papers  led to a boycott of British goods until it was repealed in less than a year Townshend Acts- taxes on glass, paper, paints, and tea resulted in another call for a boycott in Boston where Britain then sent troops.

New Taxes Cont Boston Massacre occurs and 5 colonists are killed and the Townshend Acts are mostly repealed leaving behind a tax on tea.Boston Massacre 1773 the Sons of Liberty led by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere dump crates of tea into Boston Harbor in protest – Boston Tea Party- and the British pass the Intolerable Acts closing the port of Boston and limiting the freedoms of the colonists.

III. Revolution Begins After the Intolerable Acts the colonists called the First Continental Congress meet in Philadelphia in 1774 and list their grievances against the British government British troops confront 75 colonial militiamen  beginning the battle of Lexington and Concord Thomas Paine writes Common Sense in 1776 arguing that the colonies no longer need British rule.

IV. Declaring Independence Second Continental Congress members Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin draw on Enlightenment ideas of Locke and Rousseau to draft the Declaration of Independence.

V. The Revolutionary War George Washington is assigned by the Second Continental Congress to be the commanding General of the Army before independence is declared. The Americans had less money, supplies, and men than the British. The British hoped to divide the colonies in two as they won battles in New York and New Jersey as well as in Georgia and South Carolina.

V. The Revolutionary War Cont. The American army was able to make key a victory in Saratoga and Benjamin Franklin was able to convince the French to aid the American cause. In September 1781 the French and American armies surrounded the British army under Lord Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia leading to a surrender on October 19, Treaty of Paris- signed September of gave the U.S. the boundary of the Mississippi River.