Chapter 8: America Secedes from the Empire, 1775–1783

Vocabulary flashcards defining key terms, events, documents, and historical figures from Chapter 8 (America Secedes from the Empire, 1775–1783).

Second Continental Congress

A convention of colonial delegates that met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, whose most important single action was selecting George Washington to head the Continental Army.

Olive Branch Petition

A petition adopted by Congress in July 1775 professing loyalty to Britain and begging King George III to prevent further hostilities, which was flatly rejected by the king.

Hessians

European mercenaries, predominantly from German states, hired by King George III to help suppress the American colonial rebellion.

Common Sense

An influential 1776 pamphlet written anonymously by Thomas Paine arguing that lawful government derives its powers from the consent of the governed and advocating total independence from Britain.

Republicanism

A political philosophy promoted by Thomas Paine advocating a society where power flows from the people and all government officials derive authority from popular consent.

Civic Virtue

The fundamental republican belief that individuals must sacrifice their private self-interest for the collective good of the people.

Richard Henry Lee

The Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress who moved on June 7, 1776, that the United Colonies "are, and of right ought to be free and independent states."

Declaration of Independence

A formal statement drafted by Thomas Jefferson and approved by Congress on July 4, 1776, invoking universal natural rights to justify breaking political ties with Great Britain.

Loyalists

American colonists who remained loyal to King George III and fought against the rebels; also known as Tories.

Patriots

American rebels who fought against the British forces for colonial independence; also known as Whigs.

Battle of Trenton

A pivotal battle on December 26, 1776, in which George Washington recrossed the Delaware River and surprised and captured 1,000 Hessian mercenaries.

Battle of Saratoga

A decisive American victory on October 17, 1777, where British General John Burgoyne surrendered to General Horatio Gates, reviving colonial hopes and securing formal alliance and aid from France.

Model Treaty

A document drafted by the Continental Congress in the summer of 1776, authored mainly by John Adams, establishing ideal principles for foreign alliances based strictly on commercial ties rather than political or military connections.

Armed Neutrality

An alliance formed in 1780 by Catherine the Great of Russia uniting European maritime neutrals in passive hostility toward Great Britain.

Nathanael Greene

An American general in the Carolina campaign of 1781 who distinguished himself using a strategy of delay, exhausting General Cornwallis's forces by standing and retreating.

Joseph Brant

A Mohawk chief allied with the British who led Native American raids on the frontier, believing a British victory would halt American expansion westward.

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

The 1784 treaty between the United States and pro-British Iroquois nations—the first formal treaty between the U.S. and an Indian nation—under which the Indians ceded most of their land.

George Rogers Clark

An American frontiersman who seized British-held forts at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes along the Ohio River between 1778 and 1779.

Privateers

Privately owned armed vessels authorized by Congress to capture enemy ships, which disrupted British merchant shipping and boosted American morale.

Battle of Yorktown

The final major battle of the Revolutionary War in October 1781, where Washington's ground army and de Grasse's French fleet trapped General Cornwallis, forcing the surrender of his 7,000 troops.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

The peace agreement formally ending the Revolutionary War, in which Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and granted territorial boundaries extending to the Mississippi River, Great Lakes, and Spanish Florida.