Find more information about the American Revelatory war. Find timeline of battles and causes.

The American Revolutionary war was during the last half of the 18th century.  The Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and rejected the British monarchy.  It was then that they became the independent United States of America.

Before and during the French and Indian War, 1650-1763, Britain neglected the American colonies and left them to run themselves.  This gave them freedom to do as they pleased.  Americans turned to unique governments to match their developing identity.  They forced legislatures and democratic town meetings and enjoyed rights such as local judiciaries and trials by jury.

There were many causes of the American Revolution:  After the French and Indian War, Britain decided to stop neglecting the American colonies.  Prime Minister George Grenville began enforcing the ancient Navigation Acts in 1764, passed the Sugar Act to tax sugar, and passed the Currency Act to remove the paper currencies from circulation.  The then passed the Stamp Act, which placed a tax on printed materials, and the Quartering Act, which required Americans to house British troops.   Also, they were forced to face a British judge without a trial by jury.

The Sugar Act was passed to raise revenue.  The American colonies cried out against “taxation without representation” and refused to import certain British goods in protests.  Several colony leaders also assembled the Stamp Act Congress in New York to petition Parliament and King George III to repel the tax.  In 1766, Parliament repelled the Stamp Act, but quietly passed the Declaratory Act, which gave the Parliament the right to tax the colonies anytime it chose to.

In 1767, the Townshend Acts were passed by Parliament.  These Acts levied another series of taxes on lead, paints, and tea.  In this series of Acts, Britain passed the Suspension act which suspended the Ney York assembly for enforcing the Quartering Act.  Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchison requested assistance from the British Army to prevent violent protests, and in 1768, thousands of redcoats landed in the city to maintain order.  However, on March 5, 1770, an angry mob clashed with British Troops and news of the Boston Massacre quickly spread.

In 1773, the Tea Act was passes, granting the financially troubled British East India Company a trade monopoly on the tea exported to the American colonies.  In many of the colonies, tea agents canceled orders, and merchants refused shipment.  Governor Hutchison of Massachusetts wanted to uphold the law and ordered that the three ships arriving in Boston Harbor should be allow to drop their cargoes and be paid for the goods.  On the night of December 16, 1773, sixty men boarded the ships carrying the tea disguised as Native Americans.  They then dumped the entire shipment of the tea into the harbor.  That event is now known as the Boston Tea Party.

In 1774, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts.  These acts shut down the Boston Harbor until the British Easy India Company had been reimbursed for the tea that was destroyed in the Boston Tea Party.  Americans throughout the colonies sent food and supplies to Boston via land to prevent starvation and cold in the New England winter.  Parliament also passed the Quebec Act which granted more rights to French Canadian Catholics and extended the French Canadian territory to the western boarders of New York and Pennsylvania.  To protest the Intolerable Acts, colonials gathered in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress in autumn of 1774.  They petitioned Parliament, King George III, and the British people to repel the acts and restore friendly relations.  They also decided to institute a boycott of all British goods in the colonies.

On April 1775, part of the British occupation in Boston marched to Concord, Massachusetts, to seize a colonial militia arsenal.  Militiamen of Lexington and Concord intercepted them and attacked.  The first shot—“the shot heard round the world” coined by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson—was one of many that forced the British to retreat to Boston.  Thousands of Militiamen flocked to Boston to assist.

During all of this, leaders convened in the Second Continental Congress to discuss their options.  One final attempt for peace, the Olive Branch Petition, was offered and they processed their love and loyalty to King George III and begged him to address their grievances.  The King, however, rejected the petition and declared the colonies were in a state of rebellion.

The Second Constitutional Congress chose George Washington to command the militiamen besieging Boston to the north.  They also collected money for a small navy.  The British had few victories, such as Bunker Hill.  This encouraged many colonists to advocate total independence as opposed to having full rights within the British Empire.  On July 2, 1776, the congressmen voted to declare their independence.  The American Revolution had great consequences.  This was the first time that a body of colonists had declared their monarch and government incapable of governing a free people.  Thomas Jefferson the drafted the Declaration of Independence, and the United States was born.

Since then, the Declaration of Independence has been a model for groups fighting similar battles.