Lecture 6: The Revolutionary War

The objective of the Lesson 

Learners will be able to explore the fundamental factors which led to the war for independence.

Identify the major steps of the war and its effects on American society.

Introduction

   In the 18th century, Britain and France fought several major wars. The struggle between them went on in Europe, Asia, and North America. In North America, France claimed to own Canada and Louisiana. Thus, Britain and France began fighting the Seven Years' War. The British won the war, and soon after a confrontation with the colonial Americans escalated into fighting for independence

Fighting for Independence

   On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched from Boston to forestall a rebellion of the colonists by capturing a colonial arms depot in the nearby town of Concord. At the Village of Lexington, they confronted 70 militiamen. Someone, no one knows who fired a shot and the American War of Independence began. The British easily captured Lexington and Concord, but as they marched back to Boston they were harassed by hundreds of Massachusetts volunteers. 

   By June, 10,000 American soldiers had besieged Boston, and the British were forced to evacuate the city in March 1776. In May 1775, a second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began to assume the functions of a national government. It founded a Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington, a Virginia-planted veteran of the French and Indian War. It printed paper money and opened diplomatic relations with foreign powers. On July 2, 1776, Congress finally resolved “that these United States colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent States.” Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, assisted by others, drafted a Declaration of Independence, which Congress adopted on July 4, 1776.

  The Declaration presented a public defense of the American Revolution including a lengthy list of grievances against the British King, George III. Most importantly, it explained the philosophy behind the revolution, that men have a natural right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”; that governments can rule only with the “consent of the governed”, that any government may be dissolved when it fails to protect the rights of the people. This theory of politics came from the British philosopher John Locke, and it is central to the Anglo-Saxon political tradition.

  At first, the war went badly for the Americans. The British captured New York City in September 1776, and Philadelphia was captured a year later. The tide turned in October 1777, when a British army under General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga, in northern New York.

Encouraged by that victory, France seized an opportunity to humble Britain, her traditional enemy. A Franco-American alliance was signed in February 1778. With few provisions and little training, American troops generally fought well, but they might have lost the war if they had not received aid from the French treasury and the powerful French Nay.

      After 1778, the fighting shifted largely to the South. In 1781, 8000 British troops under General George Cornwallis were surrounded at Yorktown, Virginia, by a French fleet and a combined French-American army under George Washington’s command. Cornwallis surrendered, and so afterward the British government asked for peace. The Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, recognized the independence of the United States and granted the new nation all the territory of Florida, south of Canada, and east of the Mississippi River.

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss the factors that stimulated conflicts in the colonies.
2. How did taxation affect relations between American colonists and the British?

    References 

1. Bailey, Thomas A., Kennedy, David M.: The American Pageant, 10th edition, Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath, 1994
2. Bailyn, Bernard, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap, 1967
3. Berkin, Carol, et al., Making America: A History of the United States, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999
4. College Board, Advanced Placement Course Description: United States History, College Entrance Examination Board, 2004
5. Cook, Don, The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760-1785, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press 1995
6. Cunningham, Jr., Noble E., In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson, New York: Ballantine Books, 1987
7. Foner, Eric & Garraty, John A. editors: The Reader’s Companion to American History, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991
8. Hofstadter, Richard, The American Political Tradition, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1948.
9. Morgan, Edmund S., The Birth of The Republic: 1763-89, 3rd edition, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1992
10. Murrin, John, et al., Liberty, Equality and Power, 2nd ed., Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace 1999
11. Nash, Gary, American Odyssey, Lake Forest, Illinois: Glencoe, 1992
12. Wills, Garry, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, New York: Vintage, 1978
13. Wood, Gordon, Radicalism of the American Revolution, New York: Vintage Books, 1991
14. Yanak, Ted, and Cornelison, Pam, The Great American History Fact-Finder, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993
15. Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States, New York: Harper and Row, 1980