Revolution and Independence

The period opens in 1763, when the Seven Years’ War ended with Britain in control of most of eastern North America — and burdened with debt. Parliament’s efforts to tax the colonies and tighten imperial control, beginning with the Sugar, Currency, and Stamp Acts, met resistance that grew into a movement. Colonists who had thought of themselves as British subjects began to argue that rights to self-government came from nature, not from Parliament.

Fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord in 1775. In 1776 the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, and the War of Independence lasted until the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The war divided colonists into Patriots and Loyalists, drew in France and Spain, forced Native nations to choose sides to protect their lands, and opened paths to freedom for some enslaved people even as slavery itself survived.

Independence raised the question of what kind of government should replace the Crown. The Articles of Confederation created a weak league of states. Debt, trade disputes, and unrest such as Shays’ Rebellion persuaded many leaders that a stronger union was needed. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 produced the Constitution, which was ratified after a vigorous public debate and took effect in 1789.