Thomas Paine’s protest called for independence of the colonies from Britain and a new political society. He pushed for a republican form of government, but was not the first person to push for one. The colonists were luckily experienced with governance, so Paine’s summons for a new government did not surprise them, but everyone did not agree with his ideas.
Members of the Philadelphia Congress slowly moved to breaking away peacefully from Britain. Richard Henry Lee made a formal statement to separate the colonies from Britain for good. The King concerned the people who wanted separation from Britain rebels.
Loyalists were the people who were loyal to Britain and the king, and the Patriots were the people who supported the separation of the colonies from Britain. Many colonists were neutral during the Revolutionary War. Loyalists were the wealthy, educated, king’s officers, and people of England.
Loyalists were subject to brutality, but hardly ever persecuted. The Patriots later looked at the Loyalists as traitors, and eventually drove them out of the colonies.
The British looked at Boston as a headquarters for the king to count on the Loyalists to get things started. The Americans were defeated at the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and then won at Trenton and Princeton later that same year.
The British devised a scheme to capture the Hudson River from the colonies. General Burgoyne began an invasion with just seven thousand troops, while General Howe embarked an attack on the British in Philadelphia. General Washington soon pushed his troops toward Philadelphia as well and Burgoyne later had to surrender at Saratoga.
France was eager to gain revenge against the British, wanted to fuel the fire in the war. The Americans stood for revolutionary political ideas in their homeland, but also for international affairs as well. After the colonies were defeated at Saratoga, Britain offered them the opportunity to rule in their homeland without having to be completely separated from Britain.
England and France began fighting in 1778, and Spain later entered in 1779. The Americans kept the war going until 1778 with the secret aid of the French. This caused the British to change their strategy in the war. In June of 1778, the redcoats who were withdrawing were attacked by Washington.
In the summer of 1780, a French army arrived in Rhode Island to aid the Americans. Making sure no one would become a traitor, became difficult in 1780 after Benedict Arnold deceived the Americans. The British soon came up with a new plan to win more in the war, and this caused the war to greatly intensify in the Carolinas where more of the Loyalists were.
The king made allies with the Indians, who just wanted their original land back and would do anything to get that. Just because the colonies were in war, did not mean the humans would stop moving westward, and they did not. Swift privateers were more dangerous than the American navy and was not an unalloyed asset.
One of the darkest times in the war was from 1780 to 1781, before the final victory. The British general, Cornwallis, was trapped while waiting for supplies in Yorktown at the Chesapeake Bay. Fighting continued for more than a year after the battle at Yorktown, which eventually allowed a peace treaty to be signed.
The Britons were tired of war and ready to come to terms that the colonies needed independence, although King George III thought differently. The French were in a terrible position and were eager to smash Britain. John Jay noticed what game France was trying to play and decided not to be a part of that, but to sign the Treat of Paris of 1783.
Britain’s terms in the peace treaty were quite liberal, surprisingly, but were this way in order to try to reduce American’s alliance with France. The Americans made a separate treaty in order not to deceive the French alliance, and America only, gained from the war.
