A New Nation Is Born

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Britain sent soldiers to the Colonies in 1768. About 2,000 were sent to Boston, Massachusetts—a city of about 16,000 people. The soldiers were supposed to help keep the peace, but instead, there were constant arguments between soldiers and colonists who rejected British rule.

On March 5, 1770, a riot broke out in the city. Colonists pelted a British soldier with ice, snowballs, and stones. More soldiers soon arrived, but colonists badly outnumbered them. Then, suddenly, a soldier fired his gun into the crowd. After a few moments, more soldiers fired their weapons, and in the end, five colonists were killed. The incident, which became known as the Boston Massacre, helped turn public opinion against Britain.

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To calm the colonists, the British government stopped collecting taxes on many items in April 1770. The tax on tea remained in place, however, but many colonists avoided it by boycotting British tea. Instead, they drank tea smuggled into the Colonies from Holland and other places, which meant that Britain wasn’t getting as much tax money. 

So in May 1773, Britain passed the Tea Act. It allowed the East India Company to sell its tea in the Colonies at very low prices—even with the existing tax added on. Britain hoped the law would encourage colonists to drink the cheaper British tea, but the plan failed. Colonists saw the Tea Act as yet another way to force Americans to pay up. 

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For months, anger over the Tea Act continued to grow. In the fall of 1773, three ships carrying tea from the East India Company arrived in Boston Harbor. A group of colonists called the Sons of Liberty refused to let the ships unload their tea.

Then, on the night of December 16, the Sons of Liberty organized a protest. About 100 colonists climbed aboard the three ships and destroyed about 92,000 pounds of tea—worth nearly $2 million in today’s money. The protest, which became known as the Boston Tea Party, inspired similar protests across the Colonies.

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It took about six weeks for news of the Boston Tea Party to reach Britain. After all, phones, cameras, and the internet didn’t exist back then, so news traveled much slower than it does today. When the British government found out, it was furious. To punish the colonists, Britain passed a series of harsh laws that many Americans called the Coercive Acts. 

One law closed the port of Boston until colonists agreed to pay for the destroyed tea. With ships unable to pass in or out, many local businesses lost money. Another law gave Britain more control over the colony of Massachusetts.  

Britain hoped these strict measures would discourage colonists from acting out, but yet again, the plan failed. Americans grew more and more angry, and soon many of them wanted to break away from Britain for good—and form a new nation.

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All the anger that had been building up for years soon exploded into war. On April 19, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord, two towns near Boston. In June, General George Washington of Virginia was named the commander in chief of the colonial army, called the Continental Army. 

The first major battle of the Revolution took place on June 17 at Bunker Hill in Massachusetts. It ended with a British victory. Still, the colonists surprised the much larger—and more experienced—British army. More than 1,000 British troops were killed or wounded in the battle, compared with about 450 Americans.

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As the fighting continued, delegates (or representatives) from the Colonies met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1776. On July 4, they approved a document called the Declaration of Independence, which announced that the Colonies would no longer be under British rule. The document, written mostly by Thomas Jefferson, spelled out the unfair treatment the colonists had suffered under Britain’s King George III. Today, the Declaration of Independence is considered one of the most important documents in U.S. history.

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In the fall of 1777, the Americans won an important battle in Saratoga, New York—a victory that helped convince leaders in France that the colonists could actually win the war. As a result, France agreed to help the Americans defeat the British, France’s longtime enemy. 

France joined the war in February 1778. The country proved to be a great ally for the colonists, providing money, uniforms, weapons, and gunpowder. France also sent about 12,000 soldiers and 32,000 sailors to fight alongside the colonists.

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By the fall of 1781, the fighting had been dragging on for more than six years. Both sides were exhausted and hoping for a victory on the battlefield that would finally end the war. 

On September 28, American troops and their French allies arrived in Yorktown, Virginia, where they surprised the British. 

The Battle of Yorktown lasted for three weeks. British soldiers were badly outnumbered and, in the end, suffered heavy losses. On October 19, British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington. It was the last major battle of the American Revolution. 

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Representatives from America and Britain met in Paris, France, in April 1782 to make a peace agreement, called the Treaty of Paris. The treaty, signed on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolution.

The United States was its own nation at last.