3.5

• Not everyone was on board with independence from Britain
• Groups regarding independence


  • Patriots
  • Loyalists
  • Neutral
• Probably no more than half of the colonists actively supported the patriots
• The resistance of the loyalists was no small thing to overcome
• Continental Army


  Appointed George Washington as general
• For the first six months, the Continental Army didn't win a single conflict
• Continental Army


  • Poorly armed
  • Poorly trained
  • Soldiers coerced into service by local authorities
  • People were much more regionally minded back then
• British General William Howe landed in New York with ten thousand experienced, well-trained troops, and about 60,000 American Loyalists joined their ranks
• Washington's strategy


  Wage a war of attrition - keep the battle going as long as possible so that the British would eventually tire out
• Black Americans fought in this war too
• Over the course of the war, something like 5000 black men fought for the patriot cause
• The tide of the war began to turn when Washington led his troops across the Delaware River on Christmas Eve 1776, and attacked a group of Hessian soldiers and won
• The most important victory for the patriots came in September of 1777 at the Battle of Saratoga
• After the Battle of Saratoga, Benjamin Franklin was able to persuade the French to ally with the Americans
• A year later Spain and Holland also entered the war against Britain
• With the aid of French guns and ships, the final battle of the war was played out in Yorktown (Battle of Yorktown), Virginia in 1781
• In 1783 the Paris Peace Treaty was signed by all parties in Paris, and the war was over
• In the Paris Peace Treaty, Britain officially recognized America as an independent nation whose western boundary would be established at the Mississippi River