British Troops And Citizens Of Boston example essay topic

The American Revolution was a conflict between 13 British colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America and their parent country, Great Britain. The war resulted in the colonies becoming a separate nation, the United Stated of America. It is also known as the American War of Independence. The Seven Years' War left Great Britain with the expensive responsibility of administering newly acquired territory in North America. The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765 to pay a share of the empire's defense costs.

The Stamp Act required the colonists to use for all official documents, newspapers, and pamphlets. It provoked almost unanimous opposition among the colonists, who regarded it as a violation of the right of English subjects not to be taxed without representation. Riots broke out in colonial cities, and American merchants pledged not to buy British goods. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766, yielding to the demands of economically depressed British merchants. In 1767 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which imposed taxes on lead, glass, tea, paint, and paper imported by Americans from Britain. Once again the colonists protested vigorously and boycotted British goods.

In 1770 a riot occurred between British troops and citizens of Boston (then in the Massachusetts Bay Colony). The troops fired, killing five people in the so-called Boston Massacre. Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts but retained the tax on tea. In 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act, reducing the tax on tea in an attempt to rescue the English East India Company from bankruptcy. The colonists refused to buy English tea and would not permit British ships to unload it in Philadelphia and New York City. In Boston, in the so-called Boston Tea Party, a group of citizens dumped cargoes of tea from British ships into Boston Harbor.

In retaliation, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774-Intolerable Acts called the by the colonists-which were designed to punish Massachusettsanddemonstrate Parliament's sovereignty. The Virginia assembly called for a meeting of representatives from the 13 colonies and Canada to consider joint action against the encroachments on colonial rights. The meeting, known as the First Continental Congress, took place in Philadelphia in September 1774. The Congress attempted to define America's rights, place limits on Parliament's power, and agree on tactics for resisting the Coercive Acts. Bythe time the Congress adjourned, hostilities had begun between Britain and the colonies. The first armed encounter of the American Revolution took place in Massachusetts in April 1775.

British lieutenant general Thomas Gage was aware that colonial militia members were being trained and reorganized into active elements known as minutemen. On the night of April 18, 1775, Gage sent troops to seize munitions being gathered at Concord. Colonial messengers, including a local silversmith named Paul Revere, rode on horseback into the countryside to give the alarm. On April 19 the British force exchanged fire with militia troops at Lexington, killing eight Americans. The American militia staged a counterattack from the cover of hedges, trees, and buildings, forcing the British to retreat to Boston.

The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. The delegates established the Congress as the central government for 'The United Colonies of America,' adopted the militia troops as their own 'Continental Army,' and appointed George Washington as commander in chief. Meanwhile, American troops clashed with the British in the Battle of Bunker Hill. After two failed assaults, British major general William Howe succeeded in penetrating American lines.

Although the Americans retreated, British losses far outweighed those of the colonists. During the winter of 1775-1776 American colonel Henry Knox brought heavy guns and mortars to Boston. In March Washington began setting up the artillery on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston. Howe, taken by surprise, removed his troops from Boston and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, to receive reinforcements. Washington foresaw that New York City, with its spacious harbor and immediate access to the interior, was the most likely place for the British to launch an invasion. In June 1776 General Howe arrived off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, with a fleet commanded by his brother, Admiral Richard Howe.

The fleet was carrying the strongest expeditionary force Britain had ever sent overseas. As both sides prepared for battle, American reluctance to declare independence was diminishing. The idea gained overwhelming support after Thomas Paine published Common Sense in January 1776. Paine's arguments denounced monarchy and dissolved any lingering attachment to Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence declaring the colonies free and independent states. In August 1776 British troops began landing in Gravesend Bay.

American troops were pushed southwestward across New Jersey and then across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Although the American army was severely weakened, Washington kept the cause alive. On Christmas night, in a blinding snowstorm, he led his troops across the Delaware in a surprise attack that overwhelmed enemy soldiers in Trenton, New Jersey. On January 3, 1777, Washington struck again in the Battle of Princeton.

He then took up a strong position on high ground at Morristown while the British retreated to New York. In 1777 the British planned to divide the colonies in two, separating New England from the southern colonies. British troops under Major General John Burgoyne attempted to reach Albany, New York, but were thwarted by American troops in the Battle of Saratoga. Howe moved south into Pennsylvania with the main British force to attack Philadelphia.

Washington attacked Howe in the BattleofGermantown, but was defeated after hard fighting and took his troops into winter quarters at Valley Forge. France had been secretly sending money and supplies to the colonists since the beginning of the Revolution. In February 1778 France signed a treaty of commerce and alliance with the United States. Thereafter, France openly supplied arms, clothing, money, and naval assistance to the new nation. At the beginning of 1779 Spain joined France in supporting the Americans, forcing Britain to face the prospect of major European war.

In December 1778 a British seaborne expedition captured Savannah, Georgia, and proceeded to gain control of other settlements in the state. The Americans, however, established control over north of the Ohio Valley. The British continued gaining territory in the South but struggled to maintain their troops in a hostile countryside. In 1781 Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis movedBritishtroops north into Virginia and fortified a position at Yorktown. In August Washington received word that the Frenchfleet was en route to Chesapeake Bay and decided immediately to attack Yorktown. The Frenchfleet arrived and drove off the British fleet, establishing a tight blockade of Cornwallis's army.

American and French troops under Washington's command laid siege to Yorktown, forcing Cornwallis to surrender in October. Yorktown marked the end of serious hostilities in North America, but 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 the new nation's boundaries as extending west to the Mississippi, north to Canada, and south to the Floridas.