With Betsy Ross’s flag held high and soldiers slowly taking the high ground, we won the battle against Britain in Yorktown with many casualties and hard work leading up to the fight. In order to understand the American revolution you first need to understand the events that lead up to us saying “Bye-bye” to King Geoge III and his malicious ruling. 

King George set acts into place like the Townshend acts that taxed imported goods, a sign that he was abusing his power over his people. King George was accused of taxation without representation, meaning that they couldn’t be taxed without an elected representative there. He would send his army into the streets and shoot down anyone who opposed him while he told them this was because he loved them. The only reason we were under his power was that England’s explorers came to America, raided our people, and took our land. We started out calm and without violence, but when the Boston Massacre happened we jumped headfirst into the bloodshed. I won’t go into who shot first or why, but the gist is that British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists who were throwing snowballs at them, kinda a weak argument right? After this, in 1773, a group of people snuck aboard a British ship and acted out the biggest and most recognizable movements in history, the Boston Tea party. They dumped 342 crates of tea into the harbor, causing England to pass new measures to hold authority over Massachusetts. 

With the events of the Boston Tea Party still fresh in people’s minds, a group of people got together to voice their concerns over the British crown. They formed the Continental Congress that consisted of many popular names, some of them included George Washington, John Jay, and Samuel Adams. They decided that they were going to demand taxes be made with a representative and denounced the maintenance of the British army in the colonies without their consent. They tried to meet again in May 1775, but the violence had already started. “On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord, Massachusetts in order to seize an arms cache,” describes History.com. At this time Paul Revere and some other riders sounded the alarm and began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoats. This battle was known as the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the mark of the “Shot heard around the world,” officially starting the revolution. 

The Continental Congress met again with the addition of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who just got back from France. They placed George Washington in charge of the meeting and the revolution. They fought in many battles, including the battle of Bunker Hill. At this point, the Continental Congress came together again and decided on sending England a goodbye letter explaining that they were leaving King George and his ruling, they named the letter “The Declaration of Independence”. The same month as the letter was made Washington got attacked multiple times by British Redcoats and had to retreat across the Delaware river. With more and more fights happening between the two parties, Washington, Hamilton, and Lafayette devised a sneak attack on the British which lead to all the American soldiers taking the bullets out of their guns to prevent one going off while they were hiding. 

The colonists attacked the British soldiers in Yorktown and cut them off with their NAVY. They had them surrounded and the fight that changed history broke out. After a week of fighting the British surrendered and the fight stopped. When the terms of surrender were established it was clear we won this war, the war that supposedly gave us our freedom back. Everyone rejoiced at the thought of them being free while King George was furious. His soldiers stayed in Charleston but were removed later. At long last, on September 3rd, 1783, England recognized our independence at the Treaty of Paris where King George signed separate peace treaties with France and Spain. It was at this point that King George no longer ruled over us in his mean and cruel ways. We were free and able to start our own government and laws. We were like children thrown into the water to figure out how to swim on our own, but it was worth it. We learned how to run a government and quickly rose in power. We were our own country now and nothing was going to change that.