The focus of today's video lecture is to discuss how the events of the American Revolutionary War unfolded. There is a lot that we will leave out, but understanding a few basic ideas and having a general timeline will be helpful. One thing that we need to remember is that when hostilities broke out between the colonies in Great Britain, there was no such thing as an American or Continental Army. Instead, many colonies had unorganized volunteers called militia.
The Minutemen of Massachusetts are a good example. It wasn't until after the shot heard around the world at Lexington and Concord in 1775 that the Continental Army was created when the Continental Congress adopted the Massachusetts militia and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief. The prospect of victory against Great Britain seemed very slim.
Britain had a powerful and well-trained professional military force and they had the largest navy. The American forces were not trained. consisted of volunteers, not professional soldiers, and were poorly equipped.
America also had no navy. What America did have, however, was time. Since the Americans were fighting on their own soil, they did not have to necessarily defeat Great Britain. What they had to do was outlast them.
If they could drag the war on long enough, Britain would eventually give up and recognize American independence. We begin our timeline in April 1775. That's when British forces stationed in Boston marched to Lexington and Concord to seize weapons that the colonial militia were storing. The troops were met by the Minutemen after being warned that the British were coming, and pushed them back to Boston and laid siege to the city.
While British forces remained trapped in Boston, a small American force led by Ethan Allen were victorious against the British forces in Fort Ticonderoga near Lake George. As a result of this important victory, American forces were able to seize the large cannons stationed at the fort. In June, the British army trapped in Boston led an attack on Bunker Hill.
Although the British won this battle, it was hard fought and the Americans were able to inflict serious casualties against the British. The Battle of Bunker Hill demonstrated that the Americans would be a force to be reckoned with. The following month, the Continental Congress officially adopted the Massachusetts Militia and sent George Washington to command them.
While Washington and the newly created Continental Army kept the British trapped in Boston, American commander Henry Knox began transporting the captured guns from Fort Ticonderoga to aid in the siege of the city. By March 1776, he reached Washington's army in Cambridge outside Boston. Waking up one morning to find the city surrounded by cannons, the British commander decided to evacuate the city.
Boston was now liberated. The British left Boston. However, by September 1776, another British force landed in New York City. Washington's army and the British fought a series of battles from Long Island to northern Manhattan.
Outgunned and outnumbered, Washington retreated. The British had full control of New York City, but Washington did not allow the Continental Army to be captured. On the night of December 26th, 1776, Washington led a surprise attack across the Delaware River into Trenton, New Jersey.
This small victory provided a well-needed morale boost for the Continental Army. The turning point of the Revolutionary War, and perhaps for history itself, took place in October of 1777 at the Battle of Saratoga. The American victory at the Battle of Saratoga stopped the British from being able to fully control the Hudson River. It was also the first major victory for the Americans.
This victory proved that the Americans stood a chance against Britain. and convinced the French to sign an alliance with the United States, which took place the following February. In December of 1777, George Washington took the army to its winter encampment at Valley Forge. Although the conditions at Valley Forge were miserable, Washington, with the help of Prussian military commander Baron von Steuben, drilled and trained the American army throughout the winter. When the Continental Army emerged the following spring, it was a much more disciplined and prepared fighting force.
Skirmishes and battles, especially throughout the South, continued for the next three and a half years until 1781. In October, the British army, under the leadership of Lord Cornwallis, converged in Yorktown, Virginia. Washington saw an opportunity to trap them. He marched his army to Virginia and besieged the city from the land.
Meanwhile, French naval forces sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and prevented the British from escaping by sea. Surrounded by land and sea, the British commander had no choice but to surrender. After the siege of Yorktown, support for the continuation of the war began to erode in England.
On September 3, 1783, Great Britain officially recognized America's independence when they signed the Treaty of Paris. After eight years of war, America was now an independent nation.