America Secedes from the Empire

Standard 3.0 (see board to left)
Opening:
Quiz
Chapter 8
Closing:
Discuss
timelines
Work Period:
Present Cause of the Rev.
Timeline
Revolutionary War web quest
Homework
Flashcards due next
class.
STUDY!!!!!
 http://revolutionarywarwebquestcampbell.
weebly.com/
America Secedes from
the Empire
1775 - 1783
April 1775
 Lexington & Concord (Mass.)
– War began here, 1st shots were fired
May 10, 1775
 Second Continental Congress
– Met in Philadelphia
– All 13 colonies represented
– Still no real sentiment for independence
• Wanted King & parliament to consent to a redress
of grievances
– Delegates began to raise money & create an
army & navy
– Selected Washington to head the army
– Why select Washington as head of army?
George Washington
 Actually lost more battles than won
 “moral force rather than a great military
mind”
War
 Fought 14 months before Declaration of
Independence was issued
 May 1775
– Ethan Allen & Benedict Arnold
• Surprised & captured British garrison
at Ticonderoga & Crown Point (NY)
• Gunpowder & artillery for seize of
Boston secured
June 1775
 Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill)
– British launched a frontal attack
– “Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes!”
– colonists mowed down the Redcoats
– Colonials’ store of gunpowder gave out & they were
forced to abandon the hill
Olive Branch Petition
July 1775
 Adopted by the Continental Congress
 Professed American loyalty to the crown &
begged king to prevent further hostilities
 King George III formally proclaimed the
colonies in rebellion ( Aug 1775)
 “Open and Avowed Enemies”
 NO HOPE OF RECONCILIATION
What happens now?
 Sept. 1775 – King hired Hessians to help
fight
 What/Who are Hessians?
– German princes needed money
– Colonists felt betrayed
War Heats Up
 Oct. 1775 – British burned Falmouth (Portland),
Maine.
 Colonists decided to invade Canada
– Hoped to add 14th colony
– Deprive Britain of a valuable base for striking at the
colonies
– Was this necessary? Was it counterproductive?
 General Richard Montgomery
– Pushed up Lake Champlain &
captured Montreal
Dec. 1775 - Quebec
 Montgomery joined at Quebec with
General Benedict Arnold
– Montgomery – killed // Arnold – shot
 Remnants retreated up the St. Lawrence
River
 French had no real desire to help colonists
 Jan 1776
– British set fire to Norfolk, Virginia
 Feb 1776
– Colonial victory against Loyalists at Moore’s
Creek Bridge, NC
 March 1776
– Evacuation Day – colonists forced
British to evacuate Boston
 June 1776 -- Charleston Harbor
– Colonial victory against an invading British
fleet
Thomas Paine
 1776 – Common Sense
– One of the most influential pamphlets ever
written
– Why write it?
– Called for not simply independence but for a
democratic republic
• Power should come from the people
– Reject monarchy, embrace
an independent republic
Cry for Independence
 June 7, 1776 – Richard Henry Lee
– Colonies ought to be free & independent states
– Motion passes a month later.
 July 2, 1776
– Motion was adopted for independence
 July 4, 1776
– Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence
 Thomas Jefferson – author
 Formally approved by Congress
 Focused on natural rights
– Colonists were justified
– List of tyrannous misdeeds of George III
p. 148
 Foreign aid could now be solicited
 Is foreign aid important?
Taking Sides
Patriots
Loyalists
 Whigs
 Younger
 New England
 Presbyterians &
Congregationalists
 Tories
 Older
 Anglican
 20% of population
Loyalist Exodus
 Regarded as traitors by Patriots
– Estates were confiscated & sold (helped
finance the war)
 Many joined the British army
General Washington at Bay
 July 1776 – British fleet arrives in NY with
500 ships & 35,000 men
– Washington – 18,000 ill trained troops
– Outgeneraled & outmaneuvered
Battle of Long Island
 Washington escaped to Manhattan Island &
eventually to the Delaware River
 General William Howe (British)
– Decided not to pursue Washington
 Washington recrossed the ice-clogged Delaware
Battles
 Trenton Dec. 26, 1776
– Washington surprised & captured 1000
Hessians
 Princeton ( 1 week later)
– Surprise attack, victory for America
Burgoyne’s Blundering Invasion
 Goal – to capture Hudson River Valley
(1777)
 General Burgoyne was to push down from
Canada & he would be joined by General
Howe
– Howe didn’t show up
Washington
 Moves his army to Philadelphia
 Defeated at Brandywine Creek & Germantown
 Moves his troops to Valley Forge for the winter
– Baron von Steuben whipped men into shape
Battle of Saratoga

Oct. 17, 1777
–

General Burgoyne forced to surrender at Saratoga to
General Horatio Gates
Importance of Saratoga
1.
2.
Revived the colonial cause
Made
possible
foreign
aid from
France
French Aid
 Secretly provided Americans with
lifesaving amounts of gun powder &
other munitions
– 90% of gunpowder used
 Declaration of Independence &
Battle of Saratoga showed France
that colonists were serious
 Britain offered colonists American home
rule within the empire
 1778 – France offered America a treaty of
alliance (Good idea?)
Colonial War = World War
 1779 – Spain & Holland enter war against Britain
 1780 – Catherine the Great of Russia
– Armed Neutrality – lined up almost all the remaining
European neutrals against England
 June 1778 – Britain evacuates Philadelphia to
concentrate in NY City
– Washington remained in NY
 Summer 1780 – Comte de Rochambeau (French)
arrived in Rhode Island
– Americans still a little suspicious
Traitor
 1780 – Benedict Arnold turned traitor
– Plotted to sell out West Point for $ & officer’s
commission
– Plot detected
In the South
 British decided to start in the South & move up
– Took Georgia (’78-79) & Charleston (’80)
 Americans Victorious
– Cowpen’s –1/17/1780
– King’s Mountain – 10-7-1780
 Nathanael Greene (A) & Charles Cornwallis (B)
– Greene “Fighting Quaker” cleared British out of
Georgia & SC
Elsewhere
 Land Frontier
 Indians
 Sea Frontier
 John Paul Jones
– Paid by King George
– Commanded
III to scalp colonists
– George Rogers Clark
successful in attacks
against Britain
American navy
– Destroyed British
merchant shipping
 Privateers – very
successful
Yorktown
 Cornwallis waited at Yorktown for supplies
– Washington & Rochambeau arrived by land
– Admiral de Grasse arrived by sea
 Oct. 19, 1781 - Cornwallis is forced to surrender
 Technically, the war is over
– George III continues for more than 1 year
– British citizens are ready for war to end
 Peace leaders
– Benjamin Franklin,
John Adams, John Jay
 Instructed: make no
peace & consult with
France
 France wanted a weak
America (easier to
manage)
 John Jay becomes
suspicious of France
& makes a deal with
Britain
Treaty of Paris of 1783
 Britain recognized
 Loyalists were not to
independence of US
be persecuted & land
restored
 Increased landholdings:
– West- Mississippi
– North – Great Lakes
– South – Spanish Florida
 Share fisheries in
Newfoundland
– Not followed
 Debts owed to British
creditors be paid
– Not followed