Key Events of the American Revolution

1775-1783

Recap

• March 1770 Boston Massacre

• Dec. 1773 Boston Tea Party

• October 1774 1st Continental Congress

• April 1775 Lexington & Concord

2nd Continental Congress• Phila. May 10, 1775• Washington appointed

as commander of Continental Army

• Choice was a compromise between south and north

• No pay-expense account $100,000=1.2 million today

2nd Continental Congress

• Olive Branch Petition – professed loyalty to the crown and begged the king to prevent further hostilities

• King proclaimed colonies in rebellion in August of 1775

Fort Ticonderoga & Crown Point

• May 1775 Ethan Allen (Green Mountain Boys) & Benedict Arnold captured weapons depots at Ft. Ticonderoga and Crown Point

Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775

Bunker Hill

• June 1775 Colonists seize Breed’s Hill overlooking Boston

• British launched frontal assault on hill

• Americans outnumbered 2-1 held the British off until they ran out of gunpowder

• “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!”

• King George hires Hessians

Revolution in the North •Colonists think that by taking Canada they would weaken British

•General Montgomery and General Benedict Arnold captured Montreal and Quebec

•Almost worked, Montgomery killed, Arnold wounded

•British forced to flee Boston

Thomas Paine & Common Sense, 1776

• Norfolk, VA and Falmouth Maine burned down by British.

• Had Lived in England British

• Persuaded colonists to seek independence

• Republicanism – government by the people

Declaration of IndependenceJuly 4, 1776

Declaration• June 1776 Richard Henry Lee of

Virginia-”These united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states”, was formal declaration

• Committee put together to make a formal announcement to world, writing it fell to Jefferson

• Announced “natural rights” of man, along with grievances against the king

• Preamble influenced by John Locke

Patriots v. Loyalists

• Patriots-Reluctant revolutionaries

• Loyalists-colonists loyal to crown “Tories” about 20% of colonists

Battles of Trenton & Princeton

Washington at Bay• Boston evacuated, Britain looks to NYC for base of

operations• 500 British ships with 35,000 soldiers appear off NYC

coast July 1776• G.W. only had 18000 tired, unprepared soldiers• Americans routed in battles that summer• G.W. on the run into New Jersey• G.W. secretly crosses Delaware river into N.J. and

surprises 1,000 Hessians morning after Christmas• Also uses questionable tactics to win at Princeton, N.J.

Winter Quarters at Valley Forge

• Baron von Steuben – Prussian drill master who whipped rabble into professional army

Battle of Saratoga

• One of most decisive battles of history

Saratoga cont.• “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne is cut off from

rest of British army in Canada then eventually northern N.Y.

• With his reinforcements living it up in Philadelphia Burgoyne is continually attacked by Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates and eventually forced to surrender his entire army at Saratoga N.Y. Oct 17, 1777

• After this battle the Americans started receiving support from France

Foreign Relations

• France want to help Americans defeat British• American treaties with other countries would have 3

principles

1. No political connection

2. No military connection

3. Only commercial connection – Adams• British offered Americans home rule in the colonies

1777• Ben Franklin used this in treaty with France, which

promised to help gain the Americans freedom at any cost

War wages on

• French arrive with 6000 soldiers 1780

• Benedict Arnold turns traitor and helps out the British, plot is uncovered, Arnold flees to the English side to fight against his countrymen, only to be called back to England

• British devise plan for General Charles Cornwallis to capture southern colonies and move north cutting them off from rest of colonies (Cornwallis Campaign)

Joseph Brant

• Mohawk chief sided with the British (hoping to stop Americans from moving west) – “bloody year” on the frontier

• Treaty of Ft. Stanwix was 1st treaty between US & Indian nation (Iriqouis)– Indians ceded most of their land

John Paul Jones and the navy

• Chief contribution was in destroying British merchant shipping

• Privateers (private merchant ships) were more effective – captured 600 British “prizes”

War in the South

Battle of Yorktown

• The surrender – Cornwallis cornered by Washington while French Admiral DeGrasse blockaded them at sea

Treaty of Paris, 1783

• Three negotiators – Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay

• Very generous terms – Britain eager to keep US out of the arms of France!

• Recognized independence of US

Reconciliation Between Britannia and Her Daughter America

EFFECTS

• Political Revolution

• Social Revolution

• An American Identity

Political Revolution

• Republican ideology

• New state constitutions

• Articles of Confederation

Social Revolution

• Equality – weakened old habits of deference

• Paradox of slavery

• Status of women

• Freedom of religion

Emergence of an American Culture

• Independence Day (July 2, 1776)

• Education

• America’s destiny & sense of mission (call world toward liberty & equality)