*Note*
yellow= date/time
green= place
red= event
blue= famous figure
orange= terms to know
yellow= date/time
green= place
red= event
blue= famous figure
orange= terms to know
Our Story: How It All Happened
Previously, on April 18, 1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes alerted the whole town of Lexington, east of Concord, that the British were coming. Once the redcoats approached Lexington, Captain John Parker led his minutemen to fight against the rebels. A shot was fired, which set off more bullets, beginning the battle. No one knew who fired the first shot, and they all thought the minutemen fired first. As the battle raged on, the British troops continued on to Concord, and then to Boston, but the militia were already there, and they fired on the British. That left over 200 men wounded, and 73 dead, making this an American victory. That first fired bullet later became known as the "shot heard 'round the world." After the battle of Lexington and Concord ended, that made the Americans move one step closer to start the American Revolution.
By late 1775 and early 1776, more and more Americans thought that independence could solve their problems between Congress and King George III. In January 1776, a writer named Thomas Paine published a pamphlet called Common Sense, which convinced thousands of American colonists that it was "time to part." After the Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the Americans declared themselves a new nation, which meant the American Revolution had begun. That's when the Americans were split into two sides: the Patriots-- Americans who supported independence-- and the Loyalists-- Americans who remained loyal to Great Britain. During late August of 1776, the British armies defeated George Washington's forces on New York's Long Island. On Christmas night, Washington and his troops surprised the British and drove them away from Trenton, New Jersey. A year later on October 17, 1777, The Battle of Saratoga became the first major American victory in the war. As the cold weather approached, Washington and his troops suffered with a lack of food, clothing, and shelter while camping during the winter at Valley Forge. Not long after that, help arrived when France, Spain, and other European nations declared war on Britain and joined the Americans to fight. As for the British, they only had Native American allies, but they managed to raid the American settlements. During 1778 and 1779, an officer, George Rogers Clark, seized British posts in present-day Illinois, and his victories strengthened the American position in the West. Meanwhile, John Paul Jones, an American naval officer, raided British ports, and became a naval hero after stating his famous words,"I have not yet begun to fight," when his ship was badly damaged.
By 1780, as the American Revolution raged on, the Patriots used the hit-and-run technique, called the guerrilla warfare, as a way to kill the marching British troops suddenly, and get away without being seen. Because of that technique, the war was at a critical point. On 1781, the Battle of Yorktown became the final battle of the American Revolution once the American and French forces surrounded the British. And, by fighting on their own land with their own supplies, the Americans won the war. But, the American Revolution didn't end yet. After the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, the Revolutionary War ended. Later in 1791, the long fight for independence became an influence for France to begin the French Revolution. Aside from that, in America, the creation of a new nation had just begun.