American Revolution (1775-1783) led to the birth of a new nation—the United States. The revolution caused a military conflict called the Revolutionary War in America. The war was fought between Britain (now also called the United Kingdom) and its 13 colonies that lay along the Atlantic Ocean in North America. The war began on April 19, 1775, when British soldiers and American patriots clashed at Lexington, Massachusetts, and at nearby Concord. The war lasted eight years. On Sept. 3, 1783, Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, by which it recognized the independence of the United States. The revolution stood as an example to peoples in many lands who later fought to gain their freedom. In 1836, the American author Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to the first shot fired by the patriots at Concord as “the shot heard round the world.”
Tension had been building between Britain and the American Colonies for more than 10 years before the Revolutionary War began. Starting in the mid-1760’s, the British government passed a series of laws to increase its control over the colonies. Americans had grown used to a large measure of self-government. They strongly resisted the new laws, especially tax laws. Fierce debate developed over the British Parliament’s right to tax the colonies without their consent.
The disobedience of the American Colonies angered the British government. In 1775, Britain’s Parliament declared Massachusetts—the site of much protest—to be in rebellion. The British government ordered its troops in Boston to take swift action against the rebels. The Revolutionary War broke out soon afterward.
Washington, the first President of the United States of America
The American Colonies were unprepared for war. They lacked a central government, an army, and a navy. Delegates from the colonies formed the Continental Congress, which took on the duties of a national government. The Congress directed the war effort and voted to organize an army and a navy. It appointed George Washington commander in chief of the colonial army, called the Continental Army. Washington was a wealthy Virginia landowner and former militia officer. On July 4, 1776—more than a year after the start of the Revolutionary War—the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. In that document, the colonies declared their freedom from British rule.
Britain launched a huge land and sea effort to crush the revolution. Britain had a far larger and better-trained army than did the Americans. However, Britain had to transport and supply its army across the Atlantic Ocean and pacify a vast territory. Although the British won many battles, they gained little from their victories. The American patriots were able to form new forces and fight on.
In 1777, the Americans won an important victory at Saratoga, New York. The victory convinced France that the Americans could win the war. As a result, France went to war against Britain, its long-time enemy. France provided the Americans with the money and military equipment they badly needed to fight the war.
In October 1781, a large British force surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia. That defeat led the British government to begin peace talks with the Americans. The Treaty of Paris formally ended the war in 1783.
This article will trace the background and causes of the American Revolution; the beginning of the Revolutionary War; the conduct of the war, including weapons and tactics and how the war was financed; the war in the North, West, and South; the end of the war; and the results of the revolution.
Background and causes of the revolution
Britain’s power in North America was at its height in 1763, only 12 years before the Revolutionary War began. Britain had just defeated France in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The treaty that ended the war gave Britain almost all of France’s territory in North America. That territory stretched from the Appalachian Mountains in the east to the Mississippi River and included much of Canada. Most American colonists took pride in being part of the British Empire, which was then the world’s most powerful empire.
Yet in 1775, the American Colonies rebelled against British authority. The dramatic turnabout resulted from disagreements over the proper relationship between Britain and its colonies. Britain expected the colonists to obey the British Parliament “in all cases whatsoever.” The colonists, on the other hand, believed that there were limits to Parliament’s power. They believed they had certain rights that Britain should respect. Each side refused to yield, which led to a military showdown.
Life in the American Colonies
during the 1700’s differed in important ways from life in the most advanced European nations. Well-to-do merchants and planters formed a small upper class, or gentry, in the seaboard colonies, but they lacked the wealth and power of the English aristocracy. A large middle class consisted mainly of farmers who owned their land, shopkeepers, and craftworkers. Unskilled workers and farmers who rented their land ranked among the poor, or “lower sort.” In addition, by the mid-1700’s, about 20 percent of the colonists were enslaved people of African descent. Enslaved people lived in all the mainland colonies, though they were most numerous in the South.
Farming was by far the main occupation in the American Colonies. It provided a living for nearly 90 percent of the people. Only about 10 percent of the colonists lived in towns or cities. Philadelphia, with about 40,000 people, was the largest American city in 1775. The next largest cities were New York City and Boston.
The opportunity to own land had drawn many settlers to the American Colonies. Owning property gave a person a chance to get ahead. It could also give men the right to vote, though some colonies denied that right to Roman Catholics and Jews. All colonies denied it to Black people and to most women. In each colony, voters elected representatives to a legislature. Colonial legislatures passed laws and could tax the people. However, the governor of a colony could veto any laws passed by the legislature. The king appointed the governor in most colonies.
Britain expected the American Colonies to serve its economic interests, and it regulated colonial trade. In general, the colonists accepted British regulations. For example, they agreed not to manufacture goods that would compete with British products. For more information, see Colonial life in America.
British policy changes.
Britain had largely neglected the American Colonies while it fought France in a series of wars during the 1700’s. But after the French and Indian War ended in 1763, the British government sought to tighten its control over the colonies. The war had drained Britain’s treasury and left a huge debt. Most British leaders did not expect the colonists to help pay off the debt. However, Britain planned to station troops in America to defend the colonies’ western frontier. It wanted the colonists to help pay for those troops.
Relations between the colonies and the mother country steadily worsened from 1763 to 1775. During that time, Parliament passed a number of laws to increase Britain’s income from the colonies. The colonists reacted angrily. They lived far from Britain and had grown increasingly self-reliant. Many Americans believed that the new British policies threatened their freedom. In late 1774, Britain’s King George III declared, “The die is now cast, the colonies must either submit or triumph.” A few months later, the Revolutionary War broke out.
The Proclamation of 1763.
Before the French and Indian War, France had helped prevent colonists from settling on the hunting lands of Indigenous (native) people west of the Appalachians. But settlers began crossing the frontier soon after Britain defeated France. In the spring of 1763, an Ottawa chief named Pontiac began an uprising in which tribes attacked many western forts the British had taken from the French. Hundreds of colonists along the western frontier were killed.
Britain feared a long and bloody war with the Native Americans, which it could not afford. To prevent future uprisings, King George issued the Proclamation of 1763. The document reserved lands west of the Appalachians for Native Americans and forbade white settlements there. Britain sent soldiers to guard the frontier and keep settlers out.
The Proclamation of 1763 angered many colonists. Some wealthy Americans hoped to profit from the purchase of Western lands. Poorer colonists saw the lands as an opportunity to escape poverty. Colonists living on the frontier, or the “backcountry,” resisted British efforts to enforce the Proclamation of 1763.
The Sugar Act.
George Grenville became King George’s chief Cabinet minister in 1763. Grenville was determined to increase Britain’s income from the American Colonies. At his urging, Parliament passed the Revenue Act of 1764, also known as the Sugar Act. The act placed a threepenny tax on each gallon (3.8 liters) of molasses entering the colonies from ports outside the British Empire. Several Northern colonies had thriving rum industries that depended on imported molasses. Rum distillers angrily protested that the tax would eat up their profits. In 1766, Parliament reduced the tax on molasses to a penny a gallon.
The Quartering and Stamp acts
were passed by Parliament in 1765, again with Grenville’s support. The laws were intended to make the colonists pay part of the cost of stationing British troops in America. The Quartering Act ordered the colonies to supply the soldiers with living quarters, fuel, candles, and cider or beer. The Stamp Act required the colonists to buy tax stamps for newspapers, playing cards, diplomas, and various legal documents.
Most colonies half-heartedly obeyed the Quartering Act, often providing fewer supplies than requested. But the Stamp Act resulted in riots. Angry colonists refused to allow the tax stamps to be sold. Merchants in port cities agreed not to order British goods until Parliament abolished the act.
In October 1765, delegates from nine colonies met in New York City and prepared a statement protesting the Stamp Act. The objections of that so-called Stamp Act Congress stemmed from the colonists’ belief that the right of taxation belonged only to the people and their elected representatives. The delegates argued that Parliament had no power to tax the colonies because the colonies had no representatives in Parliament. The meeting of the Stamp Act Congress was the first united action by the colonies against an unpopular British law.
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. But at the same time, it passed the Declaratory Act, which stated that the king and Parliament had full legislative authority over the colonies in all matters.
The Townshend Acts.
Many members of the British government disliked giving in to the disobedient colonies over the Stamp Act. They included Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend, who developed a new plan for raising money from the colonies. Townshend convinced Parliament that the colonists would find a duty (tax on imported goods) more agreeable than the Stamp Act. Whereas the Stamp Act had taxed the colonists directly, the government would collect duties only from importers. In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. One act placed duties on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. Another act set up a customs agency in Boston to collect the duties efficiently.
The Townshend Acts led to renewed protests in the colonies. The colonists accepted Britain’s right to regulate their trade. But they argued that the Townshend duties were taxes in disguise. To protest the duties, Americans stopped buying British goods. In 1770, Parliament withdrew all the Townshend duties except the one on tea. It kept the tea duty to demonstrate its right to tax the colonies.
Protests against what the colonists called “taxation without representation” were especially violent in Boston. In 1768, British officials sent soldiers to police Boston and to protect the city’s customs collectors. Nearly 1,000 soldiers entered the city on October 1, and more soon followed. Sending the soldiers made matters worse. On March 5, 1770, soldiers and townspeople clashed in a street fight. During the fight, frightened British soldiers fired into a crowd of rioters. Five men died, including a Black patriot named Crispus Attucks. Patriots called the killing of the five colonists “the Boston Massacre” and spread news of it to turn public opinion in America against Britain. 
In 1772, Boston political leaders formed the Committee of Correspondence to explain to other communities by letters and other means how British actions threatened American liberties. Other committees of correspondence soon sprang up throughout the colonies. The committees helped unite the colonies in their growing struggle with the British government.
The Tea Act.
To avoid paying the Townshend duty on tea, colonial merchants smuggled in tea from the Netherlands. Britain’s East India Company had been the chief source of tea for the colonies. The smuggling hurt the company financially, and it asked Parliament for help. In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which enabled the East India Company to sell its tea below the price of smuggled tea. Lord North, who had become the king’s chief minister in 1770, believed that the colonists would buy the cheaper British tea and thereby acknowledge Parliament’s right to tax them. In the process, the colonists would lose their argument against taxation without representation.
Samuel Adams, a Boston patriot, led the resistance to the Tea Act. On the evening of Dec. 16, 1773, Bostonians disguised as Native Americans raided British ships docked in Boston Harbor and dumped their cargoes of tea overboard. The so-called Boston Tea Party enraged King George and Lord North and the king’s other ministers. They wanted the Bostonians punished as a warning to all colonists not to challenge British authority.
The Intolerable Acts.
Britain responded to the Boston Tea Party in 1774 by passing several laws that became known in America as the Intolerable Acts. One law closed Boston Harbor and stated that it would reopen only after Bostonians paid for the tea and showed proper respect for British authority. Another law restricted the activities of the Massachusetts legislature and gave added powers to the governor of Massachusetts. Those powers in effect made him a dictator. King George named Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, the commander of British forces in North America, the new governor of Massachusetts. Gage was sent to Boston with troops.
Committees of correspondence throughout the colonies warned citizens that Britain could also disband their legislatures and take away their political rights. Several committees called for a convention of delegates from the colonies to organize resistance to the Intolerable Acts. The convention was later called the Continental Congress.
The First Continental Congress
met in Philadelphia from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts. Representatives attended from all the colonies except Georgia. The leaders included Samuel Adams and John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington and Patrick Henry of Virginia. The Congress voted to cut off colonial trade with Britain unless Parliament abolished certain laws and taxes, including the Intolerable Acts. It also approved resolutions advising the colonies to begin training their citizens for war.
None of the delegates to the First Continental Congress called for independence from Britain. Instead, the delegates hoped that the colonies would regain the rights Parliament had taken away. The Congress agreed to hold another Continental Congress in May 1775 if Britain did not change its policies before that time.
The beginning of the war
Fighting broke out between American patriots and British soldiers in April 1775. The Americans in each colony were defended at first by the members of their citizen army, the militia. The militia came out to fight when the British neared their homes. The patriots soon established a regular military force known as the Continental Army. Britain depended chiefly on professional soldiers who had enlisted for long terms. The British soldiers were known as redcoats because they wore bright red jackets.
The patriots won several victories in New England, the two Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland, and the Southern colonies during the early months of the Revolutionary War. As the fighting spread, many Americans became convinced of the need to cut their ties with Britain.
Lexington and Concord.
In February 1775, Parliament declared that Massachusetts was in open rebellion. This declaration made it legal for British troops to treat troublesome colonists as rebels and shoot them on sight. The king and his ministers hoped to avoid a war by crushing the disorder in Boston. In April, General Gage received secret orders from the British government to take military action against the Massachusetts troublemakers and arrest their principal leaders. 
Boston patriots learned about the secret orders before Gage did, and the leaders of the rebellion fled Boston to avoid arrest. Gage decided to capture or destroy arms and gunpowder stored by the patriots in the town of Concord, near Boston. On the night of April 18, 1775, about 700 British soldiers marched toward Concord. Joseph Warren, a Boston patriot, discovered that the British were on the march. He sent two couriers, William Dawes and Paul Revere, by separate routes to ride to Concord and warn the people about the approaching redcoats. A third rider, Samuel Prescott, joined them on the road outside Lexington. Only he made it past British patrols to warn the patriots at Concord.
The redcoats reached the town of Lexington, on the way to Concord, near dawn on April 19, 1775. Revere’s ride had alerted American volunteer soldiers who were called minutemen because they were prepared to take up arms on a minute’s notice. About 70 minutemen mustered (gathered) on the Lexington village green to watch the redcoats pass. Suddenly, shots were fired. No one knows who fired first. But 8 minutemen fell dead, and 10 more were wounded. One British soldier had been hurt. 
The British force continued to Concord, where they searched for hidden arms. One group of redcoats met minutemen at North Bridge, just outside Concord. In a brief clash, three redcoats and two minutemen were killed. The British then turned back to Boston. Along the way, militia fired at them from behind trees and stone fences. British dead and wounded for the day numbered about 250, and American losses came to about 90. 
Word spread rapidly that fighting had broken out. Militias throughout New England took up arms and gathered outside Boston. The Americans prepared to pounce on Gage’s troops if they marched out of Boston. Three British officers—Major Generals John Burgoyne, Henry Clinton, and William Howe—arrived in Boston with more troops in late May 1775.
Bunker Hill.
The British and the Americans each hoped to gain an advantage by occupying hills overlooking Boston. The Americans moved first. They dug in on Breed’s Hill, close to the city. 
On June 17, 1775, British troops led by Howe attacked American positions on Breed’s Hill. To save ammunition, American officers ordered the patriots: “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” The Americans drove back two British charges before they ran out of ammunition. During a third charge, British bayonets forced the Americans to flee. The fighting, usually called the Battle of Bunker Hill, was the bloodiest battle of the entire war. More than 1,000 British soldiers and about 400 Americans were killed or wounded.
The Continental Army.
The Second Continental Congress began meeting in Philadelphia in May 1775, soon after the battles at Lexington and Concord. Patriot leaders in Massachusetts urged the Congress to take charge of militia units outside Boston and raise an army strong enough to challenge the redcoats. On June 14, the Congress established the Continental Army. The next day, George Washington was made the Army’s commander in chief. The Congress named 13 more generals soon afterward. It then had to figure out how to recruit troops, supply an army, and pay for a war.
Washington took command of the military camps near Boston on July 3, 1775. He immediately worked to establish order and discipline in the army. The militia units were poorly trained and lacked weapons and overall organization. Their camps were filthy. Most soldiers had volunteered for service to defend their families and farms. They expected to return home after a few months. Washington issued a flood of orders and dismissed junior officers who failed to enforce them. Soldiers who disobeyed were punished.
The evacuation of Boston.
Soon after Washington took charge of the Continental Army, he sought to drive the British from Boston. To accomplish that task, the Americans needed artillery. In May 1775, Colonels Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had seized Fort Ticonderoga, a British post in the colony of New York. Shortly afterward, their troops captured another British post at nearby Crown Point. The two victories provided the Americans with much-needed artillery. 
In November 1775, Colonel Henry Knox, Washington’s chief of artillery, proposed a plan to move the heavy guns by sled from Ticonderoga across the snow-covered Berkshire Mountains to Boston. The guns reached Framingham, near Boston, by late January 1776.
The arrival of the artillery enabled the patriots to fortify a high ground south of Boston known as Dorchester Heights. They completed the work during the night of March 4, 1776. General Howe, who had taken command of the British army several months earlier, realized that his soldiers could not hold Boston with American cannons pointed at them. By March 17, the British troops had boarded ships headed for Nova Scotia, a British colony in Canada. However, the evacuation of British troops from Boston was only a temporary victory for the Americans. Howe and his troops landed at New York City in July. 
The invasion of Canada.
To prevent British forces from sweeping down from Canada into New York, the Continental Congress ordered an invasion of Canada. Some delegates also hoped that Canada might join the colonies in their rebellion against Britain.
In the fall of 1775, two American expeditions marched northward into Canada. Benedict Arnold led one force along rivers and over rugged terrain toward the city of Quebec. Disease and hunger caused many of his troops to turn back. The other expedition, under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, headed toward Montreal. Montgomery captured Montreal on November 13. He then joined Arnold outside Quebec.
On Dec. 31, 1775, under cover of a blizzard, the Americans stormed Quebec, but they failed to take the city. Montgomery died in the attack, and Arnold was seriously wounded. Major General Guy Carleton, governor of the colony of Quebec, commanded the British forces in Canada. The Americans retreated to New York in the spring, after British reinforcements reached Canada. The invasion of Canada had ended in failure for the patriots.
Fighting in the Chesapeake and Southern colonies.
Some planters in the Chesapeake and Southern colonies feared that a rebellion against Britain in the name of liberty might inspire enslaved Black people to rise up against them. For that reason, Britain expected to restore its authority more easily in the Chesapeake and Southern colonies than in the North. However, the patriots had great success in the Chesapeake and South at the start of the Revolutionary War. A few weeks before the battles of Lexington and Concord, Patrick Henry had urged his fellow Virginians to raise a militia and prepare for war. He declared, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
Many of Virginia’s wealthiest slaveholders disagreed, urging patience and caution. In November 1775, the British governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, offered to free enslaved Black men who took up arms on Britain’s side. About 1,000 enslaved people joined Dunmore. This action angered many conservative slaveholders, who eventually came to support the patriots’ military effort. In December, Virginia patriots defeated a force led by Dunmore at Great Bridge, south of Norfolk. Dunmore fled Virginia the following summer.
North Carolina’s governor, Josiah Martin, also hoped to crush the rebellious colonists by force. He urged North Carolinians loyal to Britain to join him. About 1,400 colonists answered Martin’s call and marched toward the coast to join British troops arriving by sea. But on the way, these colonists took a beating from patriot forces at Moores Creek Bridge, near Wilmington, North Carolina. British troops under General Clinton had sailed southward from Boston. However, they failed to arrive in time to prevent the defeat at Moores Creek Bridge on Feb. 27, 1776.
The British warships continued on to Charleston, South Carolina, the chief port in the South. They opened fire on a fort outside the city on June 28, 1776. However, Clinton called off the attack later that day, after gunfire from the fort damaged several ships. Clinton soon rejoined British forces in the North.
The Declaration of Independence.
When the Second Continental Congress opened in May 1775, few delegates wanted to break ties with the mother country. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania led the group that urged a peaceful settlement with Britain. Dickinson wrote the Olive Branch Petition, which the Congress approved in July 1775. The document declared that the colonists were loyal to the king and urged him to remedy their complaints. However, George III ignored the petition. On August 23, he declared all the colonies to be in rebellion. In December, Parliament passed the Prohibitory Act, which closed all American ports to overseas trade. Those actions convinced many delegates that a peaceful settlement of differences with Britain was impossible.
Support for American independence continued to build early in 1776. In January, the political writer Thomas Paine issued a pamphlet titled Common Sense. Paine attacked George III as unjust, and he argued brilliantly for the complete independence of the American Colonies. 
In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced the resolution in the Congress “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.…” The Congress appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence in case Lee’s resolution was adopted. On July 2, the Congress approved Lee’s resolution. It adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, and the United States of America was born. See Declaration of Independence.
Progress of the war
After the Americans declared their independence, they had to win it by force. The task proved difficult, partly because the people never fully united behind the war effort. A large number of colonists remained unconcerned about the outcome of the war and supported neither side. As many as a third of the people sympathized with Britain. They called themselves Loyalists. The patriots called those people Tories, after Britain’s Tory Party, which strongly supported the king. Victory in the Revolutionary War depended on the patriots, who made up less than a third of the population.
Although the patriots formed a minority of the colonial population, they had many advantages over the British in the Revolutionary War. They had plenty of troop strength, if they could only persuade citizens to come out and fight. Unlike the British, they did not have to supply their army across an ocean. In addition, the patriots fought on familiar terrain and could retreat out of reach of the British. In time, Britain’s chief rivals, France and Spain, joined the war. Their aid enabled the patriots to win independence.
The American patriots also benefited from British blunders. The British expected an easy victory. They thought that the patriots would turn and run at the sight of masses of redcoats. Yet British military leaders were cautious in their battle plans. American military leaders were less experienced than British officers, but they were more willing to take chances. In the long run, daring leadership gave the Americans an advantage.
The fighting forces.
The American Colonies entered the Revolutionary War without an army or a navy. Their fighting forces consisted of militia units in the various colonies. The militias were made up of citizen-soldiers from 16 to 60 years old who were ready to defend their homes and families when danger threatened. The colonies could call up militias for periods of service ranging from a few days to a few months.
Britain had an army of well-trained and highly disciplined soldiers. Britain also hired professional German soldiers. Such soldiers were often called Hessians because most of them came from the German state of Hesse-Kassel. American Loyalists, Black men who had escaped slavery, and Native Americans also joined British fighting forces during the war. At its peak, the British military force in North America numbered about 50,000.
Washington and other patriot leaders doubted that part-time militias could defeat the British in a long war. Therefore, Washington worked to build an army of disciplined soldiers who had enlisted for several years. However, recruitment for the Continental Army remained a constant problem. Most citizens preferred to serve in local militias and support the Continental Army when a major battle threatened nearby.
Washington rarely commanded as many as 15,000 soldiers at a time, and he frequently commanded far fewer. Soldiers often went without pay, food, and proper clothing because the Continental Congress was so poor and transportation in the colonies was so bad. Yet many poor soldiers stayed in the army because they had been promised free land after the war. They fought as much for economic gain as for political liberty.
In time, most states permitted Black men to serve in the Continental Army. In all, about 5,000 African Americans fought on the patriot side in the war. Many were enslaved people who had been promised freedom in exchange for military service.
Weapons and tactics.
The most important weapons of the war were the flintlock musket, the rifle, and the cannon. The musket discharged a large lead ball and could fire three or four rounds a minute. Rifles had much greater accuracy than muskets, but they took longer to reload, which made them less efficient in battle. Colonists from the western frontier improved the rifle’s value by developing their skill at rapid loading. Cannons hurled shells long distances and blasted soldiers at closer range. 
On the battlefield, soldiers lined up shoulder to shoulder, two or three rows deep. Their muskets had little accuracy beyond about 60 yards (55 meters). For that reason, the attackers advanced as far as possible before shooting. After firing several rounds, the two sides closed in for hand-to-hand combat with bayonets (knives that fit on the barrel of a gun). The battle ended when one side broke through enemy lines or forced the other side to retreat. In the early years of the war, the Americans had few bayonets, which gave the redcoats an enormous advantage.
Maritime forces.
The Congress established the Continental Navy in 1775, but it was small and poorly equipped to challenge Britain’s powerful Royal Navy. The British Navy loosely blockaded American ports and supported British military operations along the Atlantic coast. However, the Continental Navy sank or captured many smaller British vessels, especially cargo ships. Privately owned American vessels known as privateers also captured enemy cargo ships. The privateers then sold the stolen cargoes and divided the profits among investors, the ship captains, and the crews.
Patriot governments.
The Continental Congress provided leadership for the 13 former colonies during most of the war. After the Declaration of Independence, each former colony called itself a state. The Congress drew up a plan called the Articles of Confederation to unify the states under a central government. The Articles left nearly all powers to the states because many delegates distrusted a strong central government. By March 1781, all 13 states had approved the Articles.
Each state formed a government to replace its former British administration. In most states, an elected legislature drafted a written constitution that defined the powers of the government. In 1780, Massachusetts became the last of the states to introduce a new constitution.
Patriot committees in each state stirred support for the war effort. Such committees tormented citizens suspected of sympathizing with Britain. Many Loyalists left the colonies rather than submit to the demands of patriot committees. By the end of the war, as many as 100,000 Loyalists had fled to Canada, England, the Bahamas, and other British territories.
The home front.
With husbands, fathers, and brothers away at war, many women assumed new roles at home. They took responsibility for the daily functioning of family farms and businesses. They policed their communities with a watchful eye and took a greater interest in community issues. On a number of occasions, for example, city women rioted to force merchants to lower the price of grain and other items. Women also contributed directly to the war effort. In 1780, Esther De Berdt Reed helped to found the Philadelphia Ladies Association, which raised over $300,000 for the Continental Army.
Financing the war.
The Continental Congress had to pay for the Revolutionary War, but it had no power to tax the people. Late in 1775, the Congress began to issue paper currency known as Continental dollars, or Continentals. However, it issued so many Continentals that they became nearly worthless. The Congress received some money from the states, but never enough. Loans and gifts of cash from other nations—especially from France, the Netherlands, and Spain—saved the patriots. The Congress also obtained loans from patriot merchants and other Americans who had cash or goods to spare. Those citizens received certificates that promised full repayment of their loans with interest.
Diplomacy.
Vital support for the American cause came from France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Benjamin Franklin represented the Americans in France and helped win French support for the patriots.
Before the Revolutionary War began, French leaders had watched with interest the widening split between Britain and the American Colonies. France still smarted from its defeat by Britain in the French and Indian War. France’s foreign minister, the Count de Vergennes, believed that a patriot victory would benefit France by weakening the mighty British Empire. France agreed to aid the patriots secretly. However, France refused to ally itself openly with the Americans before they had proved themselves in battle.
From 1776 to 1778, France gave the American government loans, gifts of money, and weapons. In 1778, treaties of alliance were signed, making France and America “good and faithful” allies. Thereafter, France also provided the patriots with troops and warships. Spain entered the war as an ally of France in 1779. The Netherlands joined the war in 1780.
The war in the North
The outcome of the battles in 1775 convinced the British that defeating the American Colonies required a major military effort and an effective strategy. As a result, Britain sent additional troops and a large naval force to America. The initial British strategy called for isolating and destroying the uprising in the North first. Once New England was knocked out, Britain expected resistance to crumble in the remaining colonies.
Britain nearly conquered the patriots several times during the fighting in the North, which lasted from 1775 to 1778. But British generals failed to carry out their strategy effectively.
The campaign in New York.
After the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, General Howe began to plan his return to the American Colonies. In July, he landed on Staten Island in New York Harbor. Howe was joined by General Clinton’s troops, following their defeat in South Carolina, and by Hessian soldiers from Europe. Howe commanded a total force of about 43,000 disciplined soldiers and sailors. They faced about 20,000 poorly trained and poorly equipped Americans.
Washington had shifted his forces to New York City after the redcoats withdrew from Boston. He did not expect to hold New York City, but he wanted to make the British fight for it. To defend the city, patriot troops fortified Brooklyn Heights, an area of high ground on the western tip of Long Island.
Howe saw an opportunity to trap patriot troops in Brooklyn. In August 1776, British troops landed on Long Island in front of the American lines. Howe surrounded the patriots’ forward positions in the Battle of Long Island on August 27. However, the slow-moving Howe paused before attacking again, enabling the remainder of the Americans to escape. In September, Washington sent Captain Nathan Hale behind British lines to obtain information about British positions on Long Island. The British caught Hale and hanged him for spying. Before being hanged, he reportedly said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” 
By mid-September 1776, Howe had driven Washington’s troops from New York City. Howe slowly pursued the Americans as they retreated toward White Plains, New York, but his hesitation cost the British a chance to crush Washington’s army. Another patriot force remained on Manhattan Island to defend Fort Washington. The fort fell to Howe in November, and Britain captured nearly 3,000 Americans. New York City remained in British hands until the war ended.
During the summer and fall of 1776, General Carleton led a British force southward from Canada. British strategy called for Carleton to link up with Howe in the Hudson River Valley, thereby cutting New England off from the rest of the colonies. But Carleton met heavy resistance from patriot forces under Brigadier General Benedict Arnold in a naval battle near Valcour Island on Lake Champlain. In November, Carleton turned back to Canada for the winter. 
Trenton and Princeton.
The patriot situation appeared dark at the end of 1776. Washington’s discouraged forces had withdrawn to New Jersey. In late November, British troops led by Major General Charles Cornwallis poured into New Jersey in pursuit of Washington. The patriots barely escaped to safety by crossing the Delaware River into Pennsylvania on December 7.
Washington’s forces were near collapse, and the New Jersey militias failed to come to their aid. Yet Howe again missed an opportunity to destroy the Continental Army. He decided to wait until spring to attack and ordered his troops into winter quarters in Trenton, Princeton, and other New Jersey towns. Clinton was assigned to capture Newport, Rhode Island.
Howe believed he had broken the patriot rebellion, but he was mistaken. Although Washington had few troops, he decided to strike at Trenton. The town was defended by Hessians. On the stormy and bitterly cold night of Dec. 25, 1776, Washington and about 2,400 troops crossed the Delaware River. They landed 9 miles (14 kilometers) north of Trenton and marched through the night. The next morning, they surprised the Hessians and took more than 900 prisoners.
On Jan. 2, 1777, Cornwallis advanced toward Trenton. He planned to attack the Americans the next day. But during the night, Washington’s troops silently stole away and marched past Cornwallis’s army. The following morning, Washington attacked at Princeton. He won a brilliant victory over redcoats on their way to join Cornwallis. Washington then moved his troops northward to winter headquarters near Morristown, New Jersey. He soon began to rebuild his army. 
The victories at Trenton and Princeton revived patriot hopes. The Continental Army had almost been destroyed, but it had kept going and regained most of New Jersey. Despite superior strength, the British had again failed to defeat the rebels.
Brandywine and Germantown.
Washington’s successful maneuvering at Trenton and Princeton had embarrassed Howe. In the spring of 1777, Howe sought to lure Washington into battle and destroy his army. After failing to draw Washington into battle in New Jersey, Howe set out to take Philadelphia, the patriot capital.
In the summer of 1777, Howe’s redcoats sailed from New York City to the top of Chesapeake Bay, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Philadelphia. Washington had rebuilt his army during the spring, and he had received weapons from France. He positioned his troops between Howe’s forces and Philadelphia.
The opposing armies clashed on Sept. 11, 1777, at Brandywine Creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. One wing of the British army swung around the Americans and approached from behind. The surprised patriots had to retreat. Howe skillfully moved his troops after the Battle of Brandywine and occupied Philadelphia on September 26. The Continental Congress had fled to York, Pennsylvania, where it continued to direct American affairs.
On Oct. 4, 1777, Washington struck back at British forces camping at Germantown, north of Philadelphia. However, his complicated battle plan created confusion. In a heavy fog, patriot forces fired on each other. The Americans again had to retreat.
Victory at Saratoga.
While Howe won victories at Brandywine Creek and Germantown, another British force became stranded near Saratoga, New York. That force had advanced southward from Canada under Lieutenant General John Burgoyne.
Burgoyne had a successful start against the Americans. On July 6, 1777, he recaptured the British post of Fort Ticonderoga in New York from the Americans without a struggle. A second British expedition, led by Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger, marched up the Mohawk River Valley to meet Burgoyne. In August, St. Leger ambushed militias outside Oriskany, New York. In the bloody Battle of Oriskany, the British beat back patriot forces. General Arnold stopped St. Leger soon afterward. By then, conditions favored the patriots.
As Burgoyne advanced southward, patriot forces destroyed bridges and cut down trees to block his path. American rifles fired on the British from the woods, and Burgoyne ran short of food and other supplies. In August 1777, the Congress appointed Major General Horatio Gates to command the Northern Department of the Continental Army. Gates was popular with New England patriots, and they poured out to support him and his soldiers, called Continentals. On August 16, militias overwhelmed two groups of Hessians and Loyalists looking for horses and food in New York, just west of Bennington, Vermont.
Burgoyne trudged slowly through the wilderness along the Hudson River. His slowness gave the Americans time to fortify a wooded area along the Hudson about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Albany. On Sept. 19, 1777, British troops attacked the fortifications, but they were met by patriot forces in a clearing on a nearby farm. Nightfall and the bravery of Hessian soldiers saved Burgoyne’s troops from destruction in what became known as the First Battle of Freeman’s Farm.
Although the patriot forces greatly outnumbered his army, Burgoyne decided not to retreat toward Canada. On Oct. 7, 1777, he attacked again. Arnold’s daring leadership won the Second Battle of Freeman’s Farm for the patriots. Burgoyne finally began to retreat, but he soon found himself encircled by the Americans at Saratoga. On October 17, Burgoyne surrendered to Gates. The Americans took nearly 6,000 prisoners and large supplies of arms.
The victory at Saratoga marked a turning point in the Revolutionary War. It revealed the failure of British strategy. More importantly, the decisive victory at Saratoga helped convince France that it could safely enter the war on the American side.
Valley Forge.
Washington’s army of about 10,000 soldiers spent the winter camped at Valley Forge, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia. Many of the troops lacked shoes and other clothing. They also suffered from a severe shortage of food. By spring 1778, nearly a fourth of the soldiers had died of malnutrition, exposure to the cold, and such diseases as smallpox and typhoid fever. Many soldiers deserted because of the miserable conditions. 
In February 1778, a Prussian officer called Baron Friedrich von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge. He convinced Washington that he could train the Continental Army in European military formations and bayonet charges. By late spring, Steuben had created a disciplined fighting force. The Marquis de Lafayette, a young French soldier, also spent part of the winter at Valley Forge. Fired with enthusiasm for the revolution, Lafayette had joined Washington’s staff as a major general without pay.
France’s entry into the Revolutionary War
in 1778 forced Britain to defend the rest of its empire. The British expected to fight the French in the Caribbean and elsewhere, and so they scattered their military resources. As a result, Britain no longer had a force strong enough to battle the Americans in the North.
In May 1778, General Clinton became commander in chief of British forces in North America. He replaced Howe, who had occupied Philadelphia since September 1777. Clinton received orders to abandon Philadelphia and move his army to New York City. He was also told to send troops to the Caribbean and other areas.
Monmouth.
Clinton left Philadelphia on June 18, 1778, and marched across New Jersey toward New York City. The Continental Army followed him. On June 28, the patriots attacked near Monmouth Court House, New Jersey. Clinton soon counterattacked. After early confusion, the Americans held their ground, and the battle ended in a draw. During the night, Clinton’s exhausted forces limped off the battleground and continued the march toward New York. The Battle of Monmouth was the last major Revolutionary War battle in the North.
Stalemate in the North.
Washington hoped to drive the British from New York City in a joint operation with the French. In July 1778, a fleet under the French admiral Charles Hector, Comte d’Estaing, reached America. But a sandbar at the mouth of New York Harbor blocked the French warships. Later that summer, a combined French and American effort to take Newport, Rhode Island, also failed. In November, d’Estaing sailed south to protect the French West Indies from British attack.
The war in the West
When the Revolutionary War began, about 150,000 Native Americans lived in territory claimed by Britain. East of the Appalachian Mountains, Indigenous people lived mainly in separate communities surrounded by English-speaking colonists. Native Americans participated in the colonial economy as whalers, agricultural laborers, and craftworkers. West of the Appalachians, they inhabited what was sometimes called “Indian country”—a patchwork of hundreds of villages belonging to a number of distinct Native American nations. Indigenous people in this region lived by a combination of farming and hunting. They traded with American colonists for necessities they could not produce themselves, such as iron utensils, firearms, and ammunition. However, they guarded their land and welcomed British efforts to prevent the colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains.
When the fighting began in 1775, Native Americans faced a difficult choice. Some communities tried to remain neutral in the conflict. Others, such as the Stockbridge and Mashpee of Massachusetts and the Catawba of South Carolina, contributed soldiers to the American war effort. In the West, however, most Indigenous communities allied with the British. They feared that an American victory would threaten their survival. American colonists had crossed the Appalachian Mountains and settled on land that belonged to Indigenous people, often in violation of British policy. During the Revolutionary War, Native Americans attacked and tried to disperse these settlements.
Invasion of the Iroquois country.
Burgoyne’s campaign in the Hudson Valley prompted four of the six Iroquois nations—the Mohawks, Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas—to enter the war as British allies. After Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga in 1777, they continued to harass American settlements on the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. In 1779, Washington sought to remove the Iroquois from the war through “the total destruction and devastation of their settlements.” Patriot troops commanded by General John Sullivan invaded the Iroquois country in the late summer and fall. They burned 40 villages and destroyed crops ready for harvest. That winter, some Iroquois died of starvation and several thousand fled as refugees to Fort Niagara, a British post on the southwestern shore of Lake Ontario. But Iroquois warriors continued to fight.
The Illinois campaign.
Soon after the war began, some Native American war leaders in the West began raiding settlements to try to push settlers out of Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley. Colonel George Rogers Clark of Virginia executed a daring campaign in the Illinois country that disrupted the flow of British supplies to the western tribes and helped to prevent Native American war leaders from coordinating attacks along the frontier. In the summer of 1778, Clark captured several settlements in what are now southern Illinois and southern Indiana. The British recaptured the settlement at Vincennes in Indiana. Clark and his troops fought their way back to Vincennes across flooded countryside and took its British and Native American defenders by surprise in February 1779. 
The war in the South
Britain changed its strategy after France entered the Revolutionary War. Rather than attack in the North, the British concentrated on conquering the colonies from the South. British leaders believed that most Southerners supported the king. Although the British failed to find as much Loyalist support as they expected, they defeated the Americans in several key battles. This strategy forced the patriots onto the defensive in the South.
Savannah and Charleston.
The first stage of Britain’s Southern strategy called for the capture of a major Southern port, such as Charleston, South Carolina, or Savannah, Georgia. Britain would then use the port as a base for rallying Southern Loyalists and for launching further military campaigns. After Britain’s army moved on, the British expected Loyalists to keep control of the conquered areas. Britain assumed it could more easily retake the North after overcoming resistance in the South.
Britain’s Southern campaign opened late in 1778. On December 29, a large British force that had sailed from New York City easily captured Savannah. Within a few months, the British controlled all of Georgia.
The Continental Congress named Major General Benjamin Lincoln commander of the Southern Department of the Continental Army. In October 1779, Lincoln and Comte d’Estaing tried to drive the British from Savannah but failed. Afterward, d’Estaing returned to France, and Lincoln retreated to Charleston.
Success at Savannah led the British to invade South Carolina. In February 1780, British forces commanded by General Clinton landed near Charleston. They slowly closed in on the city, trapping its defenders. On May 12, General Lincoln surrendered his force of over 5,000 soldiers—almost the entire Southern army. Clinton placed General Cornwallis in charge of British forces in the South and returned to New York City.
The loss of Charleston and Lincoln’s army badly damaged American morale. However, the British victory had an unexpected result. Soon afterward, bands of South Carolina patriots began to roam the countryside, battling Loyalists and attacking British supply lines. The rebels made it risky for Loyalists to support Cornwallis. The chief rebel leaders included Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter.
Camden.
In July 1780, the Continental Congress ordered General Gates, the victor at Saratoga, to form a new Southern army to replace the one lost at Charleston. Gates hastily assembled a force made up largely of untrained militias. The rest of his troops consisted of disciplined Continentals. He rushed to challenge Cornwallis at a British base in Camden, South Carolina.
On Aug. 16, 1780, the armies of Gates and Cornwallis met outside Camden and went into battle. The militias quickly panicked. Most of them turned and ran without firing a shot. The Continentals fought on until heavy casualties forced them to withdraw. The British had defeated a second American army in the South.
The disaster at Camden marked a low point for the patriots. They then received a further blow. In September 1780, the patriots discovered that General Arnold, who commanded a military post at West Point, New York, had joined the British side. The Americans learned of Arnold’s treason just in time to stop him from turning West Point over to the enemy.
Kings Mountain.
Cornwallis’s victory at Camden in August 1780 led him to act more boldly. In September, he charged into North Carolina before the Loyalists had gained firm control of South Carolina. After Cornwallis’s departure, rebels in South Carolina terrorized suspected Loyalists. In addition, colonists from the western frontier turned out to fight the British.
In October 1780, the patriots surrounded and captured the left wing of Cornwallis’s army, which was made up of Loyalist troops, on Kings Mountain, just inside South Carolina. After the defeat at Kings Mountain, Cornwallis temporarily halted his Southern campaign and retreated into South Carolina.
Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse.
In October 1780, the Continental Congress named Major General Nathanael Greene to replace Gates as commander of the Southern army. Greene was a superb choice because he knew how to accomplish much with few resources. Greene divided his troops into two small armies. He led one army and put Brigadier General Daniel Morgan in charge of the other. Greene hoped to avoid battle with Cornwallis’s far stronger force while he rebuilt the Southern army. Greene planned to let the British chase the Americans around the countryside.
Cornwallis set out to trap Morgan’s army. Just before the British caught up with him, Morgan prepared for battle in a cattle-grazing area known as the Cowpens in northern South Carolina. On Jan. 17, 1781, Morgan’s sharpshooting rifles quickly killed or captured nearly all the attacking redcoats.
The patriot victory at Cowpens enraged Cornwallis, and he pursued Morgan with even greater determination. Greene rushed to join Morgan, hoping to crush Cornwallis’s weakened force. On March 15, 1781, a bloody conflict occurred at Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina. Although Cornwallis drove Greene from the battlefield, the British took a battering. Cornwallis halted the chase after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. He moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he gave his exhausted army a brief rest.
Greene challenged British posts in South Carolina during the spring of 1781. The patriots fought several small battles but failed to win clear victories. Yet the fact that a rebel army moved freely about the countryside proved that Britain did not control the Carolinas.
The end of the war
The fighting in the Revolutionary War centered in Virginia during 1781. In January, Benedict Arnold began conducting raids in Virginia for the British, who had made him a brigadier general. Arnold’s troops set fire to crops, military supplies, and other patriot property. In response, Washington sent Lafayette with a force of Continentals to rally Virginia’s militia and to go after Arnold. However, Lafayette had too few troops to stop Arnold.
Cornwallis rushed into Virginia in the spring of 1781 and made it his new base in the campaign to conquer the South. However, Cornwallis had departed from Britain’s Southern strategy by failing to gain control of North and South Carolina before advancing northward. General Clinton believed that the Southern campaign was therefore doomed. He also feared an American attack on his base at New York City. Clinton ordered Cornwallis to adopt a defensive position along the Virginia coast and to prepare to send his troops north. Cornwallis moved to Yorktown, which lay along Chesapeake Bay.
Surrender at Yorktown.
The last major battle of the Revolutionary War was fought at Yorktown. French and American forces cooperated to deliver a crushing defeat to British forces under Cornwallis.
About 5,500 French soldiers had reached America in July 1780. They were led by Lieutenant General Jean Rochambeau. Washington still hoped to drive the British from New York City in a combined operation with the French. In August 1781, however, Washington learned that a large French fleet under Admiral François de Grasse was headed toward Virginia. De Grasse planned to block Chesapeake Bay and prevent Cornwallis from escaping by sea. Washington and Rochambeau rushed their forces southward to trap Cornwallis on land. A British naval force sailed from New York City and battled de Grasse at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay in early September. But after several days, the British ships returned to New York for repairs.
By late September 1781, Cornwallis knew that he was in trouble. A combined French and American force of about 18,000 soldiers and sailors surrounded him at Yorktown. The soldiers slowly and steadily closed in on the trapped British troops. Cornwallis made a desperate attempt to ferry his forces across the York River to safety on the night of October 16, but a storm drove them back. Cornwallis asked for surrender terms the next day.
The surrender at Yorktown took place on Oct. 19, 1781. More than 8,000 soldiers laid down their arms as a British band reportedly played a tune called “The World Turned Upside Down.” They represented about a fourth of Britain’s military force in America. 
Britain’s defeat at Yorktown did not end the Revolutionary War. The fighting dragged on in some areas for two more years. However, British leaders feared they might lose other parts of Britain’s empire if they continued the war in America. Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown brought a new group of British ministers to power early in 1782. They began peace talks with the Americans.
The Treaty of Paris.
Peace discussions between the Americans and the British opened in Paris in April 1782. Richard Oswald, a wealthy merchant, represented the British government. The statesmen Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay negotiated for the United States. 
The Congress instructed the American delegates to consult with the French before they took any action. But the Americans disregarded the instructions and concluded a preliminary peace treaty with Britain on Nov. 30, 1782. The Congress approved the preliminary treaty on April 15, 1783, and the warring nations signed it on Sept. 3, 1783. The Americans ratified (confirmed) the final treaty on Jan. 14, 1784, and the British did so on April 9.
The Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the United States and established the new nation’s borders. United States territory extended west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada, east to the Atlantic Ocean, and south to about Florida. Britain gave Florida to Spain. The treaty also granted the Americans fishing rights off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. In addition, it instructed the Congress to recommend that the states restore property taken from Loyalists during the war. The last British soldiers withdrew from New York City in November 1783.
Results of the revolution
As a result of the American Revolution, the Thirteen Colonies threw off royal rule. In its place, they established governments ruled by law and dedicated to the guarantee of certain basic rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Admiration for the principles that guided the revolution led peoples elsewhere to demand political reforms. Thomas Paine declared that the American Revolution “contributed more to enlighten the world, and diffuse a spirit of freedom and liberality among mankind, than any human event … that ever preceded it.” 
War losses.
Most historians estimate that about 7,200 Americans were killed in battle during the Revolutionary War. Approximately 8,200 more were wounded. About 10,000 others died in military camps from disease or exposure. Some 8,500 died in prison after being captured by the British. American military deaths from all causes during the war thus numbered about 25,700. In addition, approximately 1,400 soldiers were missing. British military deaths during the war totaled about 10,000.
Many soldiers in the Continental Army came out of the war penniless, as they had received little or no pay while they served. Soldiers who had enlisted for the entire war received certificates for Western land. But many veterans had to sell the certificates because they needed money before Western lands became available. In 1818, Congress agreed to pay pensions to needy veterans.
Costs of the war.
The 13 states and the Congress went deeply into debt to finance the Revolutionary War. A new Constitution, approved in 1788, gave Congress the power of taxation. Largely through taxes, Congress paid off much of the war debt by the early 1800’s.
The Revolutionary War severely strained Britain’s economy. The king and Parliament feared the war might bankrupt the country. But after the war, greatly expanded trade with the United States helped the economy recover. Taxes on trade reduced Britain’s debt.
Of all the warring nations, France could least afford its expenditures on the Revolutionary War. By 1788, the country was nearly bankrupt. France’s financial troubles helped bring on the French Revolution in 1789.
Historical significance.
The American Revolution fundamentally changed life in America. Above all, the revolution opened the doors that shut ordinary citizens out of the political process. Previously, the right to vote had been limited to adult white males who owned property. The property requirement was based on the idea that property owners had the strongest interest in good government and so were best qualified to make decisions. During and after the revolution, requirements for property ownership were reduced. By the 1830’s, they were eliminated in nearly all the states. Black men and women of all races, however, did not gain the vote for many years.
Revolutionary ideals and the practical circumstances of the war also made it possible for African Americans, with others, to mount a challenge to slavery. In the Northern states, their efforts succeeded. Between 1777 and 1804, every state north of Maryland adopted a plan to end slavery within its boundaries. Meanwhile, in the South, slaveholders worked to shore up and preserve the institution of slavery. The American Revolution thus helped create a new division between free and slave states. This division laid the foundation for the American Civil War (1861-1865) and, with it, the ultimate end of slavery in the United States.
