How did the Revolutionary war begin?

Introduction

    I have always wondered how  the Revolutionary War started. Back before there was a country called the United States of America, the thirteen American colonies were under the British control of King George III, the king of England.

   But how did it all get started?

Patriots and Loyalists

  There were many protests in the years before the Revolutionary War.  The war didn’t happen right away, but first started with some fights and arguments between the American Colonists and the local British Army.  

     Some American colonists were deciding that they didn’t want to be ruled by the King of England anymore. They wanted to be governed by the people. These colonists were called American rebels or patriots.

     Other American colonists disagreed with the rebels and patriots. They supported staying under the control of the British. These people were called Tories or loyalists because they were loyal to King George III.

     In the years before the Revolutionary War began, a number of important events happened that made more American colonists decide to join the fight for freedom.

Before the War Started

     In 1765 the British passed a law called the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required the American colonists to pay a tax to put a stamp on all written documents like newspapers, pamphlets, and legal papers.

   Over the next few years, many other laws were passed to put a tax on things that the American colonists used every day, such as sugar, coffee, cloth, tea, paper, glass, and paint.

    The purpose of these taxes was to make the American colonists pay back the British for the cost of sending soldiers to protect and rule the colonies. But these taxes made many of the American colonists angry. 

    Colonists protested by saying, "No taxation without representation." This means that the colonists did not think it was fair to pay the taxes if they did not have any rights over deciding the laws that were passed and deciding which people were in charge.

The Boston Massacre

     Many of the angriest protesters were colonists from around Boston, Massachusetts. On March 5, 1770, a group of British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of colonists who were protesting. Five colonists were shot by British troops. This event was called the Boston Massacre. 

    On December 16, 1773, some colonists were angry about the tax on tea that the British were forcing the American colonists to pay. A group of American patriots called the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians. They boarded ships and dumped crates full of tea into the Boston Harbor. This protest is known as the Boston Tea Party.

Getting Ready for War

     In 1774, representatives from 12 out of the 13 American colonies gathered together in Philadelphia to decide what to do about the unfair British taxes and rules.

    The war did not start yet, but for months citizens in the colonies had been collecting guns and swords and armor, and they had started training to fight. These were not well-trained soldiers like the British Redcoats, with a big supply of weapons and bayonets and ammunition. Instead these were just regular people and farmers joining together to prepare and protect themselves in case they were attacked by the British. 

The Shot Heard 'Round the World

      The British had a plan to capture the stores of weapons and ammunition that the American had hidden in Concord, Massachusetts. 

      On the night of April 18, 1775, an American patriot named Paul Revere made a famous midnight horse ride to warn the American colonists that the British were coming. Paul Revere raised the alarm so that the colonists would be awake and prepared.

     On April 19, 1775, the first shots were fired at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The beginning of this battle is famously known as "the shot heard 'round the world," because it was the start of the American Revolutionary War.

The Revolutionary War Begins

     The American militia troops called the Minutemen would win the first battle of the Revolutionary War in 1775. At the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Minutemen forced the British Redcoats to retreat back to Boston. This battle was the start of the Revolutionary War.

     On July 4th, 1776, the leaders of the American colonies signed the Declaration of Independence to announce to King George III and the rest of the world that the American colonies were independent and free from the rule of England.

    In 1777, America chose a red, white, and blue pattern of stars and stripes sewn by Betsy Ross as their American flag. Under the leadership of General George Washington, the American colonists would continue to fight for their independence from the British. 

Victory at Last

     The Revolutionary War continued to be fought until the British General Cornwallis finally surrendered his army of 8,000 troops to American General George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown on October 19, 1781. 

    A treaty was signed in 1783 between England and America to officially end the Revolutionary War. George Washington went on to become the first president of the new free country called the United States of America.