American Revolution
Also known as: american war of independence, revolutionary war
The American Revolution was the conflict from 1765 to 1783 in which thirteen British colonies rejected imperial authority, declared independence in 1776, and won it through war. It produced the United States and a republican government grounded in popular sovereignty.
The Revolution grew out of Britain's attempt to make the colonies help pay for the French and Indian War. Beginning with the Sugar Act and Stamp Act in the mid-1760s and continuing through the Townshend duties, the Tea Act, and the Coercive Acts, Parliament asserted a right to tax and legislate for colonies that sent no members to it. Colonists answered with boycotts, committees of correspondence, the Stamp Act Congress, and the slogan no taxation without representation.
Fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The Second Continental Congress named George Washington commander of the Continental Army, and in July 1776 adopted the Declaration of Independence, which recast the dispute as a defense of natural rights against a tyrannical king. The American victory at Saratoga in 1777 brought France into the war as an ally; French money, troops, and naval power proved decisive at Yorktown in 1781, and the Treaty of Paris recognized American independence in 1783.
Intellectually the Revolution drew on Enlightenment political thought — Locke on natural rights and government by consent, Montesquieu on separated powers — fused with English common-law tradition and the moral urgency of the Great Awakening. Republicanism held that liberty depended on virtuous citizens resisting concentrated power, an idea that shaped the Articles of Confederation's weak central government and, after its failures, the Constitution of 1787.
The Revolution's social effects were uneven. Some states began gradual emancipation and property qualifications for voting loosened, but slavery survived and expanded, women gained no formal political rights, and Native nations lost ground as the new republic pressed westward. Loyalists fled by the tens of thousands.
AP US History places the Revolution in Period 3 (1754–1800). Exam questions commonly ask you to explain the causes of colonial resistance, analyze the philosophical foundations of independence, or evaluate how far the Revolution changed American society — so be ready to argue both continuity and change with specific evidence.
Key takeaways
- The Revolution began as resistance to post-1763 British taxation and ended with independence recognized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
- The Declaration of Independence (1776) grounded the break in natural rights and government by consent.
- Saratoga secured the French alliance, and combined French and American forces forced the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781.
- Enlightenment liberalism and republicanism shaped the Articles of Confederation and later the Constitution.
- Social change was real but limited: slavery persisted, women gained no political rights, and Native nations lost territory.