American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the American War for Independence, or simply the 'Revolutionary War began as a war fought between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the British Colonies in North America, but ended in a global conflict between the great European powers.

The war was a result of the political revolution that stemmed from the Stamp Act of 1765, which the colonists held was unconstitutional because of their lack of representation in the Parliament of Great Britain. The colonists claimed that there could be not taxation without representation, while the Parliament claimed that they represented all citizens of the British Empire, and so the colonists had "virtual representation", and so had not basis for their claim. Thus, Parliament continued to tax the colonists until the tax on tea led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773 which was followed promptly by the Intolerable Acts which punished the Massachusetts colony for the Tea Party.

The armed conflict began when in 1775 General Thomas Gage, then governor of Massachusetts learned of arms being gathered in Concord for the local militia known as the "minutemen". General Gage sent British troops to seize and destroy the weapons, which resulted in the armed confrontations that were the Battles of Lexingon and Concord. After the battles at Lexington and Concord and numerous pleas from the Continental Congress for royal intervention, the Congressional delegates were declared traitors by royal decree. This caused the Congress to declare American Independence on July 4, 1776.

The war would last until 1783 when the Peace (or Treaty) of Paris of 1783 was signed in which the United States of America was recognized by all parties as an independent sovereign nation and granted the new nation all lands east of the Mississippi River with the exception of Florida and the territories of East and West Florida, which were ceded by Great Britain to Spain.