Revolutionary War

he American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) or American War of Independence,[6] or simply American Revolution, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers. The war was the end result of escalating political tensions between the Parliament of Great Britain and colonists opposed to various taxes and other laws they considered oppressive and illegitimate. Earlier responses of the colonies to Parliamentary actions included petitions to King George, a boycott of British goods, and the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Parliament responded to this act by sending more British soldiers to Boston and appointing General Thomas Gage as governor of Massachusetts. In April of 1775, Gage sent a contingent of troops out of Boston to seize a suspected rebel armory. Rebel militia, including many known as 'minutemen' because they were trained to muster on short notice, confronted the British troops in the town of Lexington, and the resulting Battles of Lexington and Concord began the war.
France, Spain and the Dutch Republic all secretly provided supplies, ammunition and weapons to the revolutionaries starting early in 1776. After early British success, the war became a standoff. The British used their naval superiority to capture and occupy American coastal cities while the rebels largely controlled the countryside, where 90 percent of the population lived. Then, the Continentals' unexpected victory and capture of a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 convinced France to openly enter the war in early 1778, bringing the revolutionaries' military strength into balance with Britain's. Spain and the Dutch Republic—French allies—also went to war with Britain over the next two years, threatening an invasion of Great Britain and severely testing British military strength with campaigns in Europe—including attacks on Minorca and Gibraltar—and an escalating global naval...