THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION:A WORLD HISTORY PERSPECTIVE

SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Colonies met to discuss

tensions

Moderates write Olive Branch Petition which pledges peace – King George III ignores Petition

Approve Declaration of Independence

BUNKER HILL

British victory, BUT showed that the American colonists were prepared to fight the professional army of the British Empire

WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE; ATTACKS TRENTON

Washington knew he needed a win to boost the moral of his troops.

The river was treacherous with ice.

They caught the Hessian (German) soldiers sleeping, killing over one hundred men and taking another thousand prisoners.

HOLD ON! Why are there Germans in the American Revolution? The British army was so overtaxed that

she was forced to hire mercenaries.

Not a single American was killed.

SARATOGA

This was a major victory for the American forces

A key turning point in the war as France, Netherlands and Spain agree to aid the Americans because of the victory.

WINTER AT VALLEY FORGE

German training for the American recruits!

Importance: Army did not dissolve!

Ich spreche kein Englisch

I don’t speak

German

YORKTOWN

Cornwallis was trapped between the American army and the French navy.

British were now motivated to negotiate the end of the war.

TREATY OF PARIS

Ended the war, and recognized American independence.

United States is the first nation to gain its freedom from a colonial master

British loyalists are allowed to return and reclaim lost property.

Jay, Adams, Franklin, Laurens and Temple Franklin in Benjamin West’s 1783-1784 painting. The British commissioners refused to pose, and the painting was never finished.

EFFECTS ELSEWHERE

Barely eight years after the military end of the American Revolution, France would erupt in its own revolution, overthrowing the monarch and dismantling its ancient institutions, with tragically different results.

To be continued…