War of Independence that led to the foundation of the USA, 1775 - 1783.
Soon after the British colonies in North America had been established, the government in London saw them as a convenient way of raising revenue. By the middle of the 18th century the settlers complained that they were not represented in a parliament that passed legislation to their disadvantage. The imposition of taxes on imports into the colonies were particularly offensive, and the demand "no taxation without representation" became widespread.
The Townsend Acts of 1767, which imposed duties on a range of goods, were greeted with protest and noncompliance to such a degree that they had to be repealed. To uphold the prerogative of taxation the government upheld the duty on tea. When the merchants of Boston began to trade in tea smuggled by Dutch vessels Parliament in 1773 passed a Tea Act that gave the East India Company the monopoly over the tea trade.
When the East India Company ships arrived, merchants in New York, Philadelphia and other cities refused to accept the ordered consignments. The royal governor of Boston in Massachusetts, however, insisted that the ships in Boston harbour should be unloaded and appropriate duties paid. on 16 December 1773 an angry crowd boarded the ships and dumped their 342 chests of tea into the harbour.
The "Boston Tea Party" marked the beginning of unstoppable developments. Parliament in London passed various Acts, known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts, among others the Boston Port Bill that closed the port to all trade until compensation would be paid for the destroyed tea. The colonies rallied around Massachusetts. Fighting erupted when a British military force was sent from Boston to destroy rebel stores in another town on 19 April 1775. The event marked the beginning of the War of Independence.
The War of Independence is often also called the American Revolution. It was the first example of a Revolution of National Independence, a type of revolution that became much more frequent during the period of decolonization of the 20th century. Revolutions of National Independence are characterized by the united front of all classes of a new nation against a foreign exploiting power, rather than conflict between classes within a society.
The American troops were generally badly organized, ill-fed and ill-disciplined and consisted mainly of settler farmers who came to the war as their farm duties allowed. Its 20,000 men were opposed by 42,000 British professional soldiers, which were well equipped, well trained and experienced, and 30,000 German mercenaries. But the Americans had the determination of a revolutionary movement and history on their side, and that decided the outcome.
For the first two years the American forces had variable success. In the winter of 1777/1778 they received training from the Prussian officer Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, which improved their fighting results. France assisted with material and financial aid. Its entry into the war in 1778 proved decisive, since it kept the British navy occupied in European waters. Spain joined the American side in 1779 and the Netherlands in 1780.
By October 1781 the war on land was more or less over. It continued as a sea battle between the European powers. The colonies did not have a navy before 1775, and what they had in 1781 quickly turned into privateers that roamed the waters around the British Isles and captured British merchant ships.
The war ended with the Treaty of Paris of 3 September 1783, in which Britain recognized the independence of the new United States of America consisting of the 13 early colonies and reaching west to the Mississippi River. It also ceded Florida to Spain.