AP US History 3.4-3.5: The American Revolution

American Revolution

A political movement in the Thirteen Colonies that began as resistance to British policies, developed into a revolution, and ultimately created the sovereign United States. The broader revolutionary period is commonly dated 1765–1783, while the war itself lasted from 1775 to 1783.

What is the difference between the American Revolution and the American Revolutionary War?

The Revolutionary War refers specifically to the armed conflict from 1775 to 1783. The American Revolution includes the preceding political resistance, the creation of new governments, the ideological transformation, and the postwar establishment of the United States.

Salutary neglect

A British policy under which the colonies were largely allowed to manage their own affairs because Britain lacked the resources or inclination to supervise them closely. The resulting tradition of self-government made later British efforts at tighter control especially controversial.

How had colonial self-government developed before 1763?

Colonial assemblies elected by property owners legislated and levied taxes, while royal governors exercised executive authority. Because British officials usually negotiated with colonial leaders rather than directly imposing every policy, many colonists became accustomed to substantial autonomy.

What role did colonial assemblies play in the development of American political identity?

They gave property-owning colonists experience with elections, legislation, taxation, and local political bargaining. This experience encouraged the belief that legitimate government should be representative and accountable to the governed.

Mercantilism

An imperial economic system in which colonies were expected to strengthen the mother country by supplying raw materials, buying manufactured goods, and following trade restrictions. British mercantilist laws limited colonial commerce and some industries to reduce competition with Britain.

How did the Navigation Acts and related trade laws affect the colonies?

They required much colonial trade to pass through English ports, restricted trade with foreign countries, and limited industries such as wool, hats, and iron. Some colonial merchants and shipbuilders benefited, but the restrictions created political resentment, especially when enforcement increased.

How did the French and Indian War contribute to the American Revolution?

The war ended in 1763 with Britain acquiring large territories but also substantial debt. Britain then sought revenue and tighter control from the colonies, increasing tensions that had previously been moderated by colonial self-government.

Why did Britain begin imposing more direct control after 1763?

Britain faced large war debts, the expense of maintaining troops in North America, and the administrative challenge of governing newly acquired territory. Parliament therefore pursued taxation, customs enforcement, and tighter imperial supervision.

Why did the British government maintain troops in North America after the French and Indian War?

Britain wanted to defend newly acquired territories, deter conflicts with Native Americans, enforce customs laws, and maintain a permanent military presence. Colonists often viewed the peacetime standing army as an instrument of control rather than simple protection.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

A British measure that reserved lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River for Native peoples and restricted colonial settlement there. Settlers, land speculators, and traders opposed it, and migration westward continued despite the policy.

How did the British military presence contribute to colonial resistance?

Troops were intended to protect imperial interests and enforce customs laws, but many colonists viewed them as a peacetime standing army imposed without their consent. Their presence heightened tensions, especially in Boston, where it preceded the Boston Massacre.

What political ideas did colonists use to criticize British rule?

They appealed to the rights of Englishmen, constitutional liberty, republicanism, liberal ideas, and the principle that legitimate government depends on the consent of the governed. They argued that arbitrary taxation and restrictions on self-government violated these rights.

How did colonial experience under salutary neglect shape the tax dispute?

Long practice of local taxation and elected assemblies led colonists to view themselves as capable of governing their own internal affairs. When Parliament began imposing direct taxes, colonists regarded the change as a violation of established constitutional expectations.

What Enlightenment ideas of John Locke influenced the American Revolution?

Locke argued that people possess natural rights, including life, liberty, and property; that governments are created through a social contract; and that government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed. If a government violates these rights, the people may alter or overthrow it.

How did Thomas Paine's Common Sense influence the revolutionary movement?

Published in 1776, Common Sense used accessible language to attack monarchy and hereditary rule and to advocate complete independence. It helped shift public opinion from seeking reconciliation with Britain toward supporting an independent republic.

Republicanism

A political ideology emphasizing civic virtue, opposition to hereditary privilege and monarchy, and government by elected representatives. Revolutionary Americans connected republican government to the protection of liberty and the political participation of independent citizens.

What was the relationship between liberalism and republicanism during the American Revolution?

Liberalism emphasized individual rights, private property, and consent of the governed, while republicanism emphasized civic virtue, representative government, and resistance to monarchy and corruption. Together, these ideas supplied much of the Revolution's ideological foundation.

What was the main purpose of the Sugar Act of 1764?

It sought to raise imperial revenue and reduce smuggling by lowering the duty on foreign molasses while strengthening customs enforcement. Colonists objected to the policy's enforcement mechanisms and to taxation imposed without colonial representation.

Why were vice admiralty courts controversial to colonists?

These Crown-controlled courts tried many smuggling cases without local juries and generally operated under rules more favorable to the prosecution. Colonists saw them as threats to traditional legal protections and local self-government.

Stamp Act of 1765

A direct British tax requiring stamps on legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, and even playing cards in the colonies. It provoked organized resistance because Parliament imposed it without colonial representatives.

Why did colonists oppose the Stamp Act even though the tax was relatively small?

Their central objection was constitutional rather than simply financial: they believed only their own elected assemblies could tax them. The act therefore became a symbol of the principle expressed as “no taxation without representation.”

No taxation without representation

A colonial argument that government should not tax people who lack elected representatives in the body imposing the tax. It challenged Parliament's claim that colonists had adequate “virtual representation” through the general interests of members of Parliament.

Virtual representation

The British claim that members of Parliament represented the interests of all British subjects, including colonists, even when colonists did not elect those members. Colonial critics rejected this idea because no representatives were accountable to specific American constituencies.

Sons of Liberty

Colonial resistance organizations that opposed British taxation and enforcement. They used demonstrations, boycotts, intimidation, and sometimes violence to make unpopular policies difficult or impossible to enforce.

Stamp Act Congress

A meeting in New York City in 1765 where delegates from nine colonies coordinated opposition to the Stamp Act. Its Declaration of Rights and Grievances asserted that colonists possessed the rights of Englishmen and should not be taxed without representation.

What did the Stamp Act crisis reveal about colonial resistance?

Resistance could be coordinated across separate colonies through intercolonial meetings, public demonstrations, and economic boycotts. It also showed that constitutional arguments about representation could unite moderates and more militant opponents of British policy.

Why did Parliament repeal the Stamp Act?

The Rockingham government faced colonial resistance, economic pressure from boycotts, and political debate over whether enforcement would require military force. Parliament repealed the act in 1766 but simultaneously asserted its authority over the colonies.

Declaratory Act

A 1766 law passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act declaring that Parliament retained full authority to legislate for the colonies. It temporarily reduced the immediate crisis while preserving the constitutional dispute that caused future conflicts.

What constitutional disagreement separated Parliament from the colonists?

Parliament claimed supreme authority to legislate for every part of the British Empire, including taxation without colonial consent. Colonists argued that their rights as Englishmen required taxation through representatives they elected and that local assemblies controlled internal taxation.

Townshend Acts

A series of 1767 measures that imposed duties on imported goods and increased British administrative and enforcement power in the colonies. Their passage renewed resistance after the repeal of the Stamp Act.

How did economic and political objections reinforce each other during the imperial crisis?

Trade restrictions, taxes, and enforcement threatened some colonial economic interests, while the absence of colonial representation made those policies appear constitutionally illegitimate. Economic resistance such as boycotts therefore became a vehicle for defending political rights.

Boston Massacre

A 1770 confrontation in which British troops stationed in Boston fired into a crowd, killing several colonists. Patriot leaders used the event as evidence that standing armies threatened colonial liberty.

Tea Act

A British law that granted the British East India Company advantages in selling tea to the colonies while maintaining a tax on that tea. Colonists resisted not only the tax but also Parliament's implied authority to impose it.

Boston Tea Party

A December 1773 protest organized by the Sons of Liberty in which taxed tea belonging to the British East India Company was dumped into Boston Harbor. The action directly challenged British taxation and imperial authority.

Intolerable Acts

Punitive laws passed after the Boston Tea Party to punish Massachusetts and suppress resistance. They restricted self-government and increased British control, but instead of isolating Massachusetts, they encouraged greater colonial unity.

How did the Intolerable Acts help unify the colonies?

Many colonists interpreted the punishment of Massachusetts as a threat to the liberties of every colony. This encouraged intercolonial cooperation and led to the formation of the First Continental Congress.

Committees of Correspondence

Intercolonial communication networks that circulated information and coordinated resistance to British policies. The First Continental Congress built on organizational networks that had developed through earlier Patriot activism.

First Continental Congress

A 1774 meeting attended by delegates from twelve colonies, with Georgia joining later. It coordinated resistance to the Intolerable Acts and helped transform local opposition into a continental movement.

What events began the American Revolutionary War?

British attempts to disarm Massachusetts colonists led to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. These clashes marked the beginning of open military hostilities.

Battles of Lexington and Concord

The April 1775 clashes in Massachusetts that began open warfare between colonial militias and British troops. Colonial resistance at Concord and the British retreat to Boston demonstrated that the conflict could not be resolved through ordinary imperial enforcement.

Battle of Bunker Hill

A June 1775 battle near Boston in which British forces captured colonial positions but suffered heavy casualties. Although technically a British victory, it showed that the inexperienced colonial army could seriously challenge British regulars.

Second Continental Congress

The provisional intercolonial government that met beginning in May 1775. It created the Continental Army, appointed George Washington commander-in-chief, directed the war effort, and later authorized independence.

How did the Continental Army affect the early war?

The army organized colonial military resistance under a central command led by George Washington. It surrounded Boston and helped force the British evacuation by sea in March 1776.

Battle of Trenton

A December 1776 American victory in which Washington's forces crossed the Delaware River and defeated Hessian troops. The surprise attack restored Patriot morale after a series of defeats and encouraged continued enlistment.

Battle of Saratoga

A major American victory in October 1777 that stopped a British campaign to isolate New England. It persuaded France that the American cause had a realistic chance of success and helped bring France into the war as an American ally.

What political change occurred in the colonies in 1776 before independence was declared?

Congress voted to eliminate Crown authority, and each colony established its own government and state constitution. These actions shifted the colonies from resistance within the empire toward independent republican rule.

Why did the American Revolution become a revolution rather than remain a colonial rebellion?

The movement progressed from protests against taxes and administrative policies to the rejection of Crown authority, creation of independent state governments, and a declaration of national sovereignty. The objective changed from restoring colonial autonomy to establishing an independent republic.

Lee Resolution

The Continental Congress resolution passed on July 2, 1776, supporting the colonies' separation from Great Britain. It provided the formal congressional basis for independence before the Declaration was adopted.

Declaration of Independence

A document adopted unanimously by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, explaining why the colonies were separating from Britain. It grounded political legitimacy in natural rights, equality, and the consent of the governed.

What political principle is expressed by the Declaration of Independence's claim that all people are created equal?

It asserts that people possess fundamental rights and that legitimate government cannot depend solely on inherited monarchy. In practice, the Revolution did not immediately extend these principles fully to women, enslaved people, Native Americans, or others excluded from political power.

What was the purpose of the Declaration of Independence's list of grievances?

The grievances presented George III's actions as violations of colonial rights and as evidence that the British government had abandoned legitimate constitutional rule. They justified separation by portraying independence as a response to repeated abuses rather than an impulsive rebellion.

Patriots

Colonists who supported resistance to Britain and, increasingly, independence. Patriots included political leaders, artisans, merchants, farmers, and enslaved or free African Americans who believed revolutionary change might advance their interests.

Loyalists

Colonists who remained loyal to the British Empire during the Revolution. They included royal officials, Anglican clergy, some merchants, enslaved people seeking freedom through British promises, and others who feared disorder, independence, or attacks on property.

How did Loyalists affect the Revolutionary War?

They provided Britain with political support, intelligence, and military recruits, especially in the southern colonies. After the war, many Loyalists fled to Canada, Britain, the Caribbean, or other parts of the empire.

What roles did women play in the American Revolution?

Women organized boycotts, produced homespun goods, managed farms and businesses, served as nurses, cooks, laundresses, and camp followers, and sometimes acted as spies or soldiers. The Revolution expanded discussion of women's civic importance but did not grant them equal political rights.

How did African Americans participate in the American Revolution?

Both free and enslaved African Americans served in Patriot and British forces, worked as laborers, sailors, guides, and soldiers, and used the conflict to pursue freedom. The British promise of freedom to enslaved people who joined them attracted many Black refugees, while some northern states began gradual emancipation after the war.

How did Native Americans generally respond to the American Revolution?

Many Native nations supported Britain because they viewed colonial expansion as the greater threat, although some individuals and nations allied with the Americans. The war weakened Native resistance and accelerated the loss of Indigenous lands after independence.

What roles did France and Spain play in the American Revolution?

France provided loans, weapons, troops, naval support, and a formal alliance after Saratoga, while Spain entered the war against Britain in 1779 and attacked British positions in the Gulf Coast and Florida. Their intervention expanded the conflict and forced Britain to divide its military resources.

Who were the Hessians, and why were they significant?

Hessians were German soldiers hired by Britain to fight in North America. Their presence reinforced Patriot claims that Britain was using foreign mercenaries against the colonies, and Washington's victory over Hessians at Trenton became a major American morale boost.