Download Yorktown marked the end of serious hostilities in North

BAPU COMPOSITE PU COLLEGE
YOGESH. K.H
RAMESH.R
INTRODUCTION
American War of Independence (1775-1783),
conflict between 13 British colonies on the
eastern seaboard of North America and their
Parent country, Great Britain. France later
intervened as an ally of the independent states,
and the war resulted in the colonies becoming a
separate nation, the United States of America.
It is also known as the American Revolution.
ECONOMIC
CAUSES
1 English government of George believed that the
colonies existed for sake of the mother country,
namely England.
2 The colonies supplied raw materials to England
like cotton, tobacco, sugarcane and mineral
resources.
3 establishment of industries in colonies was
discouraged.
4 The colonies imported products from England
through English ships. export taxes were levied for
the benefit of England.
5 The colonies were not permitted to produce iron
implements, hats and woollen goods.
THE STAMP ACT:
Tax Stamps Because Britain had
accumulated large debts in its wars with
France, Parliament passed the Stamp Act
in 1765. The act was intended to generate
revenues that would help pay for the cost of
maintaining a permanent force of British
troops in the American colonies. All official
documents, including deeds, mortgages,
newspapers, and pamphlets, had to bear
British government stamps in order to be
deemed legal
COLONIAL RESISTENCE
Facing heavy costs of supporting a standing
army in the North American colonies,
Britain hoped to shift some of the fiscal
burden on to the colonists by imposing a
series of taxes without consulting colonial
governments. The colonies resisted,
claiming that there should be "no taxation
without representation". The British
government prepared to quash what they
perceived as an open revolt, and the
colonists prepared for war.
BOSTON
TEA
PARTY
Bowing to colonial economic boycotts, Parliament, guided by the new
Prime Minister, Lord Frederick North, repealed the Townshend Acts in
1770 but retained the tax on tea to assert its right to tax the colonies. In
order to rescue the British East India Company from bankruptcy,
Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, reducing the tax on tea shipped
to the colonies so that the company could sell it in America at a price
lower than that of smuggled tea. The colonists, however, refused to buy
the English tea. They viewed the Tea Act as another violation of their
constitutional right not to be taxed without representation. Colonial
merchants also feared that the act would allow the East India Company
to monopolize the tea trade and put them out of business. In
Philadelphia and New York the colonists would not permit British ships
to unload tea. In Boston, in the so-called Boston Tea Party, a group of
citizens, many disguised as Native Americans, swarmed over British
ships in the harbour and dumped the cargoes of tea into the water
POLITICAL CAUSES
1.The governors of the colonies were
appointed by the English king and they
were generally autocrats.
2.All taxes for the colonies were levied by
the English parliament.
3. they were to be obeyed by the people of
the colonies.the rights were enjoyed by the
by the people in England were denied to
the people of the colonies
4. The colonies did not have freedom in the
administration.
First Casualties
at Lexington
JEFFERSON
Out to destroy colonial stores of THOMOS
gunpowder,
about 800 British soldiers under General
Thomas Gage set out for Concord,
Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. They met a
force of about 70 well-trained minutemen in
Lexington. It is unknown which side fired the
first shot, but the 8 colonists who died were
the first casualties of the American War of
Independence.
PHILADELPHIA CONGRESS
The Coercive Acts secured for Massachusetts
the support and sympathy of all the other
colonies. The Virginia assembly called for a
meeting of representatives from the 13
colonies and Canada to consider joint action
against the encroachments of parliamentary
power on colonial rights. The meeting, known
as the First Continental Congress, took place
in Philadelphia in September 1774. The
Congress consisted of representatives from all
13 colonies except Georgia.
Washington at Valley Forge
The Continental Army’s encampment at Valley Forge
in Pennsylvania during the winter of 1777-1778 was
the bleakest time of the American struggle for
independence. Hunger and disease compounded the
problems of inadequate shelter and lack of adequate
winter clothing. Over 2,000 men died of typhus,
typhoid, dysentery, and pneumonia. Washington made
repeated appeals for aid and supplies, but the
Congress was unable to move the states to provide
them.
TREATY OF
PARIS
Yorktown marked the end of serious hostilities in
North America, although peace negotiations dragged
on until the Treaty of Paris was signed on September
3, 1783. Great Britain recognized the independence
of the former colonies as the United States of America
and acknowledged its boundaries as extending west to
the Mississippi, north to Canada (with fishing rights
in Newfoundland), and south to the Florida's.
Washington, to whose decisiveness and determination
the victory was due, took leave of his officers in New
York on December 4, 1783, surrendered his
commission to Congress at Annapolis on December
23, and, in words that were somewhat less than
prophetic, took leave “of all the employments of public
life”.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
SIEGE OF YORKTOWN
On August 14 Washington received word that de Grasse was
bringing the French fleet to Chesapeake Bay. He immediately
decided to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The troops
of Washington and Rochambeau marched south, leaving a
containing force to watch Clinton in New York. De Grasse's fleet
arrived at the Chesapeake capes on August 30, drove off a
British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves, and established a
tight blockade of Cornwallis's army. Some 16,000 American
and French troops and Virginia militia, under Washington's
command, laid siege to Yorktown. Cornwallis made several
attempts to break through allied lines, but on October 19, 1781,
he was obliged to surrender.This put an end to the war.The
British king had to admit the independence of colonies.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The idea of independence gained overwhelming popular support
following the publication of the pamphlet Common Sense, by
Thomas Paine, in January 1776. His pamphlet, published
anonymously, attacked George III, calling him “the Royal Brute”,
and denounced monarchy as a form of government. Paine's
arguments dissolved any lingering attachment to Great Britain
and removed the last psychological barrier to independence. On
July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of
Independence declaring that the colonies “are and of right ought
to be free and independent States”. Thereafter the Americans
considered themselves not as rebellious British subjects, but as
citizens of a sovereign nation repelling invasion by a foreign
power.
SIGNIFICANCE OF REVOLUTION
1.American revolution had profound influence on the
developments in the other parts of the world.
2. It inspired French revolution.Many French men who
had fought fought on the side of the colonies became
heroes of the French revolution.
3. It inspired revolutionaries in many other European
countries to overthrow the autocratic rule in their
countries.
4. It encouraged many Spanish and Portugal colonies
in America to rebel against their mother countries and
become independent.