Birth of the United States

By the mid 1700s, there were 13 British had also won control of Canada, by defeating France in the Seven Years’ War (1756-63). Britain had no thought of changing the colonists, denied a say I governing themselves, rebelled. The American Revolution led to the colonies’ independence as the United States.

Britain taxed its American citizens to help pay for the defence of North America. There were about two million British Americans. They produced most of their own food and other goods, but were unhappy at having to pay taxes on imported tea and legal documents. Also the British Americans had no representatives in the British Parliament, and declared that ‘taxation without representation is tyranny’. Britain reacted by sending soldiers to quell any protests.

PAUL REVERE

Paul Revere is one of the heroes of the War of independence. He rode from Boston to Lexington to warn of the approach of British soldiers. Although he was captured, his mission was successful. Reverse was immortalized in a famous poem by Longfellow.

In April 1775, an armed confrontation between colonists and British troops took place at Lexington in Massachusetts. The colonists formed an army of their own, commanded by George Washington, and on 17 June the two armies clashed at Bunker Hill, near Boston. The British were successful, but the War of Independence, or American Revolution, had begun.

While fighting continued, colonial leaders signed the Declaration of Independence on 4 July, 1776. The British government refused to accept it. Under Washington’s command, the colonists’ army began to defeat the British. France, Spain and the Netherlands all joined the colonists’ side. The six-year war ended in 1781, when the British surrendered at Yorktown. Two years later, Britain recognized the independent United States of America.