The Revolutionary War

The British decided to shift the focus of the war to the Southern colonies in late 1778 for three main reasons. First, the war, which had primarily been fought north of Pennsylvania previously, had...

Back in the Colonial days, there were many reasons people would choose to be loyal to the British government or to be patriotic and attempt to establish a new nation. In retrospect, it is easy to...

The colonists faced many hardships during the Revolutionary War. One of the hardships was that many colonists were loyalists. These loyalists supported the British for many reasons. Some believed...

The Revolutionary War functioned as a civil war in the sense that opinions on the war split families in the colonies. Benjamin Franklin was an ardent Patriot; one of his sons was a Loyalist. This...

The American Revolution marked the end of British rule of the 13 colonies. With the British on their way out, American society would certainly undergo changes as old ways of thinking and doing...

Here are some ideas for metaphors for the Revolutionary War. The idea behind many of these metaphors, as the other Educator has suggested, is the building of tensions and the separation of two...

The social changes of the American Revolution were limited mostly because it was a political revolution, not a social one. The patriots who waged the War for Independence were not so much concerned...

One of the most important reasons the Revolutionaries were more successful was that they had the home field advantage. They knew the terrain, and had sympathetic individuals everywhere to help...

The American Revolution was unique in that its impact spread far beyond the borders of the newly created nation. This was the very first instance of a nation rising up out of the oppression of...

There were reasons to support why the colonists weren’t justified in rebelling against the rule of the British. One reason is that the British established these colonies, and they had the right to...

The United States gained its independence from Britain by winning the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). This is in contrast to Canada, which gained its independence from England in a gradual and...

The Americans's use of rifled barrels was an important factor in the American Revolution. British forces used mainly flintlock muskets; these could be fired relatively quickly, but they had minimal...

Washington faced many obstacles. The first was the fact that his Continental Army was typically outnumbered in most engagements, and that the British had the naval power to move troops from one...

Funding at par means the government will redeem bonds at face value. This was a huge issue in the early days of our country. Alexander Hamilton wanted to pay our debts. Part of his plan called for...

Even right up until the outbreak of the American War of Independence the fraught relationship between Great Britain and her American colonies could still have been salvaged. The vast majority of...

Paine published Common Sense at a pivotal junction in the revolution, and gave it a moral dimension for many people. Literacy rates were actually quite high in the colonies, especially in urban...

The British and American armies had different strengths and weaknesses going into the Revolutionary War. The British had a superior army. Numbers, training and supplies were all on the British...

There were a number of factors that allowed the American colonies to win the Revolutionary War. Let us look at some of the more important of these factors. Greater motivation. The colonists really...

I do want to note just for the point of historical accuracy: Britain did not possess by any means the strongest army in the world. Britain was primarily a naval power, and they concentrated most of...

By nature, war is designed to inflict pain on both military and civilians alike. While the military suffers from casualties as the result of battle, civilians are dramatically impacted in ways less...

The Franco-American alliance, concluded in 1778, was a major turning point in the Revolutionary War between the former colonies, which became the United States, and Great Britain. This alliance was...

The colonists did not entirely sever ties with Great Britain, as Great Britain continued to be the United States's chief trading partner after the American Revolution. The United States was...

The British featured some distinct strategies in seeking to win the Revolutionary War. For the most part, these strategies were rooted in the idea that there was no real way that the Colonists...

One way the American Revolution altered gender roles was the emergence of an ideology that historian Linda Kerber called "republican motherhood". This was the concept that women had an important...

Although we think of the Revolutionary War as something that all Americans were behind, it really was not that way. Only a minority of Americans were actually strong supporters of the American...

The origins for American independence begin during the salutary neglect period that took place before the French and Indian War. During this time, the colonists enjoyed a great deal of local...

The colonists fought the American Revolution to secure independence from Great Britain. They had a long list of grievances—most notably, taxation without political representation—which had not been...

The main problem with counterfactual statements about the past is that we cannot actually know what would have happened were the past different. Perhaps the closest we can come to an answer is by...

I would agree that the desire or need for change is the main cause of revolts. While suffering may be a part of it in some cases I don't think that is always the case.

The American Revolution, also known as the War of Independence took place between 1765 and 1783 and resulted in America gaining independence from the British crown. On September 3, 1783, the...

When the American Revolution began, the rebels were not so much interested in starting their own nation. Like the loyalists, they saw themselves as Englishmen and Englishwomen. What they were...

This quote comes from a letter Abigail Adams wrote to her son, John Quincy Adams, just two years after he left on an overseas voyage to France in 1778. Adams was the American foreign diplomat to...

The French aided the Americans in the War for Independence largely out of a desire for revenge. Ever since they lost the Seven Years War and their bid for dominance in North America, the French...

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, propaganda is "the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person." The American...

At the time of the American Revolution in 1776, Canada was only a loosely-owned British colony with a high density of French inhabitants. The boundaries that represent modern-day Canada were not...

By the onset of hostilities in the Revolutionary War the American side had built-up a significant and well-established "shadow government" in many colonies through the creation of committees of...

Given that the Revolution was ultimately successful, the turning points usually cited are ones that were victories for the Patriot side. These are well known: Trenton in December of 1776, in which...

The American Revolution began in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the Declaration of Independence. On the ground, major battles took place along the East coast of what was to become the United...

This would probably not be the most popular question so far as a US audience is concerned, but if we think of a purely technical analogy between disease and the War of Independence, it could go as...

The British lacked sufficient troops to fight in all theaters of operations during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783). There was no draft at the time, so raising troops was often problematic....

The thirteen British colonies in North America declared independence for a few reasons. The decision to declare independence, however, was not welcomed by all segments of the colonial population....

I tend to disagree that it was radical, at least not in a social or economic sense. A few privileged whites were running the colonies before independence and a few privileged whites were running...

With all of the experiences the colonists faced between the end of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War, many colonists felt a bond of unity and purpose by the time the Revolutionary...

First and foremost, the American and French revolutions showed the Indian nationals that it was, in fact, possible to rise up against your oppressors. Prior to that, there were many unsuccessful...

After the Revolutionary War the 13 colonies became the first states. In the treaty with Britain signed in 1783, the US was granted the rights to the lands from the eastern seaboard to the...

One of the most critical components that help to define the American Revolution is the convergence of political and economic rights into one setting. A very compelling case can be made that...