The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution which occurred in colonial North America between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), gaining independence from the British Crown and establishing the United States of America, the first modern republic and history's first nation explicitly founded with representative government. After the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1763 first hinted at separation for British colonists who began to realize the interests of the British Empire were not their own. When the conflict erupted in late 1774 the British army and their loyal colonists (known as loyalists) fought against rebel colonists (known as patriots).

The Causes of the American Revolution

American colonials proclaimed "no taxation without representation" starting with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. They had no representatives in the British Parliament and so rejected Parliament's authority to tax them. To American colonists, the British Crown had violated the social contract. Protests started as early as 1765 in resistance to the Townshend Acts and steadily escalated to the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772. Tension and British violence was followed by massive acts of civil disobedience such as the Boston Tea Party in December 1773. Resistance to British rule manifested itself into covert groups such as the Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence to organize protests and boycotts, and eventually, colonial militias made up of "minute-men." 

The British responded to the trouble in Boston by closing the Boston Harbor and enacting a series of punitive laws which effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony's rights of self-government. The other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts, and a group of American Patriot leaders set up their own government in late 1774 at the Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance of Britain; other colonists retained their allegiance to the Crown and were known as Loyalists or Tories. At the Continental Congress, delegates from the 13 rebellious colonies selected the Committee of Five, led by Thomas Jefferson, and drafted the Declaration of Independence and later the Articles of Confederation.

Each colony formed a Provincial Congress which assumed power from the former colonial governments, suppressed Loyalism, and recruited a Continental Army led by General George Washington. The Continental Congress declared King George a tyrant who trampled the colonists' rights as Englishmen, and they declared the colonies free and independent states on July 2, 1776. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject the monarchy and aristocracy, and they proclaimed that all men are created equal.

The American Revolutionary War

Tensions erupted into battle between Patriot militia and British regulars when King George's forces attempted to destroy American military supplies at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The conflict quickly escalated into war, during which the Patriots (and later their French allies) fought the British and Loyalists in the Revolutionary War. Each colony formed a Provincial Congress which assumed power from the former colonial governments, suppressed Loyalism, and recruited a Continental Army led by General George Washington. The Battles of Bunker/Breeds Hill quickly followed near Boston. 

The Patriots unsuccessfully attempted to invade Quebec during the winter of 1775–76. The newly created Continental Army forced the British military out of Boston in March 1776, but the British captured New York City and its strategic harbor that summer, which they held for the duration of the war. The Royal Navy blockaded ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but they failed to destroy Washington's forces and were harassed by a rogue seaman named John Paul Jones. The Continental Army captured a British army led by John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, and France then entered the war as an ally of the United States and helped train American soldiers at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778. Britain then refocused its war to make France the main enemy. Britain also attempted to hold the Southern states with the anticipated aid of Loyalists, and the war moved south. Charles Cornwallis captured an army at Charleston, South Carolina in early 1780, but he failed to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory. Finally, a combined American and French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in the fall of 1781, effectively ending the war. The Treaty of Paris was the agreement that ended the war, it was signed on September 3, 1783, formally ending the conflict and 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 northern Canada, and Spain taking Florida.

The United States Constitution

Among the significant results of the Revolution were American independence and friendly economic trade with Britain. Early American government was ineffective, the Articles of Confederation that was used as a framework of government was too weak and caused widespread outrage in the colonies, culminating in Shay's Rebellion in 1786-1787. In an effort to breathe life into the American Republic, delegates met at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The Americans adopted the United States Constitution, establishing a strong national government which included an three branches of government and system of federalism. Around 60,000 Loyalists migrated to other British territories, particularly to British North America (Canada), but the great majority remained in the United States.

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