The Beginning of The American Revolutionary War

When christopher columbus first went sailing , he aimed to reach India but he actually did not reach India , he discovered a new continent . Columbus landed in central America in october 1492 , he stole gold , jewelry including some previously undiscovered items such as tobacco , pineapple and the turkey . Just a small correction , christopher was not the first to discover America , it as actually the vikings , in the 11th century Leif Erikson was the first European to land in America . Getting back to Columbus , and suddenly the race was on to explore and conquer the new world . After a couple of centuries with war with the native and each other , the European powers have claimed quite a lot of land more than the english . Including one area which the french and the english claimed as theirs , one day the french built forts on this land so the english sent george washington with the combined force of British troops and native Americans . After a short battle the french commander said that they surrender , but suddenly a native American killed the french commander by accident so it started a 7 year long major global conflict , which great britain won . At the peace negotiations spain gave up florida while france gave up all of its territory in North America .

In 1764 britain introduced the sugar act , forcing the colonists to import sugar and molasses exclusively from the british and in return they pay duties on them . A year later in 1765 they introduced the extremely controversial stamp act , which was if any shopkeep gets a stamp on any paper or documentation they make the buyer has to pay for it . after a bit of protesting and going against britain , and after a couple of months the british were forced to repeal the Stamp act. But the british would not stop here , in 1766 the british made the Declaratory Act meaning that the british can do whatever they want because they are in charge . Following the declaration there were a couple of other taxes , including the Townshend Acts in 1767 which was taxes on glass , lead , paper ,tea and oil . But once again the Americans boycotted british goods and the british did not succeed so they had to back down in that Act too . so the british repealed on the taxes of everything except for the one on tea and they sent 1000 troops to boston to take control . On March 5th a band of local haters began protesting a british guard at the customs house , more and more Americans joined them and more and more british troops joined the guard . snowballs and rocks were thrown at the british , the troops were outnumbered and panicked , and you can see where this is going . five civilians were killed , the patriot pressed throughout the colony declared the boston massacre an unwanted crime committed against the people of boston by the british .

On december 16th 1773 , a band of patriots known as the sons of liberty disguised themselves as native Americans then marched down to boston harbor , boarded a british merchant ship loaded with tea and in front of thousands of spectators , threw nearly ten thousand pound worth of tea overboard into the water . the british were mad and they punished massachusetts badly . They dissolved its general assembly and sent three more thousand more troops to occupy the city , meaning boston and massachusetts were now essentially under the direct rule of great Britain . they people of boston were so mad too . The other colonies saw what was happening too and were worried they would be next , so they called a brain trust ( a meeting ) to decide what to do . 56 delegates from 12 colonies gathered and met in philadelphia at the first continental congress , and there were a lot of people like John Adams , experienced military commander George washington , Sam Adams , Patrick henry , and who were not present at the first congress sooner came like James Madison , Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson , and Alexander Hamilton .

After a lot of debate and disagreement on what to do they have finally agreed on one solution , that they would simply ask the british to stop but the British refused . so they told the local militias to start arming and be ready at a minute’s notice . And so these minutemen stood ready for the beginning of the American Revolutionary War . so the British general Thomas ordered 700 troops from boston out to the rebel controlled massachusetts countryside to destroy stores of arms and ammunition held by the rebels in concord , the British set out in the middle of the night , patriots including paul revere went ahead to warn that the British were coming which gave the rebels time to prepare . Both sides met in Lexington when the sun began to rise , they faced off against each other and in the middle of the confusion somebody shot first . ̈ ̈

The shot heard around the world ̈ marked the beginning of the American war of independence. The rebels were outnumbered and had to fall back to concord as the british split up to search for the rebels supplies , however more and more patriot rebels kept showing up and this time it was the British who were outnumbered , as more fighting went on in concord , the most professional army in the world were forced to flee back to Boston at the hands of local poorly trained militia men , and all along when the British were going back to Boston , patriot rebels continued to gather and fire on the retreating British . when the British reached Boston , the rebel militia surrounded them. Boston and the British were now under siege .

And the british would suffer another embarrassing blow ,this time in upstate New York . Colonel Benedict Arnold made a plan to take the British stronghold Fort Ticonderoga , which held a large amount of guns and ammunition. He set off towards the fort alone hoping to recruit men along the way ,when he came across the green mountain boys lead by Ethan Allen who has turned out to have the same plan as he did . So they decided to work together but Ethan allen would be in charge of everything . The group raided the fort at night while the red guards were asleep , and they caught them completely by surprise taking the fort and all of its ammunition with almost no resistance . The Americans were sure that the British were going to retaliate for all what happened , so they decided to put together a proper army and pick a commander-in-chief .

They picked George Washington as the commander-in-chief . So washington began his journey , after his first victory of the war in taking Boston back from the British . He them moved his army to new york knowing that when the British will return they will probably go there . In the meantime a man with the name Thomas Paine had written and published a pamphlet called common sense which he advocated for full independence from Great Britain , it spread across the colonies like wildfire and to this day it remains the best selling American title . Congress began to seriously consider the idea , Thomas Jefferson was selected to write an official declaration of independence . On the 2nd of July , congress voted in favor of independence and John Adams declared that the 2nd of July would go down as the most memorable day in American history, then a couple of days later independence actually came into effect which was the 4th of July . The United States of America was born now , the Americans torn down the statue of King George in New York , to the British it was treason .

The british are back , the king sent an intimidating force of 130 warships and 25000 men to New York . Washington knew that taking on the most powerful military in the world would not be easy . The British set up camp on Staten Island as the Americans dug into defensive positions around Brooklyn Heights waiting for an attack to come but the British just waited waring down their opponents nerve while building their own strength . At one point they lost a big scary artillery barrage and asked them to sue for peace but Washington told them to continue . The Americans kept holding out for what was coming and when the British finally hit , they hit hard . 15000 British troops approached the Americans position and the two sides fired on each other in massive rows . But what the Americans did not realize is that they were only fighting a decoy , the main British force was going around to fight the Americans from behind . And when they arrived , they inflicted heavy casualties .

The Americans panicked and retreated back to Brooklyn Heights when they then found themselves trapped between the British army and the east river . It looked like the war was already lost but luckily instead of attacking the British decided to dig in for a siege , then a thick fog set in which allowed the Americans to escape to the other side of the river .The British continued to chase and engage Washington’s army in a couple more battles like the Battle of Kips Bay , Battle of Harlem Heights , and the Battle of White Plains . But the Americans suffered a defeat every time . It was a disaster , Washington’s leadership was called into question . Washington’s army fled from New Jersey all the way down to Penselvania , rarely had an army been so badly defeated yet survive the fight another day .

Washignton needed to do something to restore the faith in the revolution but winter was already here . The british spread throughout New Jersey and settled in for the winter . Nobody expected an attack in winter so Washington planned for an attack in the winter .the Americans defeated the british three times in ten day , from here the war was far from lost . The British decided to abandon New Jersey for the rest of the winter . congress sent Benjamin Franklin to France on a mission to convince them to join the war and after some time the French decided to enter the war against Britain . After losing Philadelphia , Washington’s job was again on the line . But suddenly a man named Friedrich Wihelm hired by Benjamin Franklin , said to Washington that he came here to give his army a European Military training and he did . Washington’s army came out of the winter in 1778 , a new and improved force , ready to take Philadelphia from the British . In the end though they did not have to , with the French joining the war, the British ordered general Clinton to evacuate Philadelphia and solidate all the British forces in New York . The Dutch provided aid although they never entered the war officially and the Spanish were already providing aid but they officially entered the war against Britain in June 1779 .

It is 1780 and there were alot of more battles between the Americans and the British . In the last battle the British surrendered and over 7000 British troops were captured , and with that the parliament has reached the end of the war . The british still held New York , Savannah and Charleston . The fighting between both sides were mostly peace negotiations opened up in Paris , the results of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was that great Britain removes its troops from American soil , recognize US independence and seek territory up to the mississippi river , in return the Americans agreed to pay back any debts to Britain . The Spanish got Florida while the French got an economic crisis which led to its own revolution a decade later . Washington retired to his home town in Mount Vernon , he hoped to live the rest of his days in peace but unfortunately for him people wanted him to be the first leader of the new country . On April 30th 1789 he officially became the first American president . And that was how America was born .

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