APUSH Chapter 8: American Revolution

Key Concepts

• How various American Indian tribes during the American Revolution attempted to forge advantageous political alliances with one another and with European powers to protect their interests, limit migration of white settlers, and maintain their tribal lands
• How the Patriot cause succeeded despite considerable loyalist opposition and Great Britain's apparent overwhelming military and financial advantages.
• How the colonists' belief in the superiority of the republican self-govt based on natural rights of the people found its clearest American expression in Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence

The American Revolution: The War Rages on’

• Following the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress occurred in 1775. They drafted new appeals to Britain, but anticipating that they would be in vain, the colonies prepared for war with an army and navy. George Washington is commander in chief.
  • colonies sending mixed signals want to be loyal but are also fighting them shows how disorganized the colonies still are
• Battle of Bunker Hill (1775): pyrrhic victory for the British; they get the hill back from the colonists but suffer many casualties in the process boosted colonial morale
• Olive Branch Petition: colonies profess loyalty to the British crown and plead against further violence. However, the British were insulted by their defeat at Bunker Hill and officially declared the colonies in rebellion hires German mercenaries known as Hessians - this means war
• At one point, colonies invade Canada in the hopes of adding more people to the cause and stop Britain from using it as a base no longer just a defensive war.
• Thomas Paine's Common Sense: many Loyalists were afraid of punishment for war -this pamphlet convinced many neutrals that revolution was necessary.
  • a 'tiny' island (Britain) can't control the colonies
  • govt. power comes from "consent of the governed"
  • not just independence, but a whole new form of govt (a republic)
  • inspired by Enlightenment ideas - John Locke said everyone has natural rights
• Declaration of Independence: approved July 4th, 1776. After Richard Henry Lee declares the colonies should be independent, Thomas Jefferson drafts a formal document.
• Declaration of the Rights of Man: French independence document that was inspired by the American Revolution international impact

American Revolution Battles

• After the Declaration of Independence, the conflicts between Loyalists and Patriots became more violent
  • Loyalists were afraid of the aftermath, often elderly. and concentrated where the Anglican Church was strongest. They made up about 16% of the population, but the British didn't really care for them
  • Patriots were younger and mostly located in New England (except for British naval base in NY). Often drove out loyalists and sold their estates to finance the o war. Traitor
• Battle of Long Island (1776): Washington tries to attack the British at a NY seaport but is outnumbered and barely escapes.
• Battle of Trenton (1776): Washington crosses the Delaware River, surprising some drunk Hessians on Christmas and defeating them.
• Battle of Saratoga (THE TURNING POINT!)!
• British try to capture Hudson River valley to paralyze the colonial cause General Burgoyne is surrounded by land and sea and is forced to surrender.
• HUGE morale boost for colonies, allows them to get financial aid from France (who also wants to get revenge on Britain after the French and Indian War). Britain offers home rule (?) and the colonies refuse
• Model Treaty: agreement written up by Continental Congress guiding US diplomats dispatched to France. Specifically stated no political or military connection with France, just commercial> even though it wasn't beneficial for them, it shows how strictly the colonists believed in an idealistic. utopian and peaceful future for the nation

End of the Revolution + Miscellaneous

• Armed Neutrality: European countries who were annoyed by Britain's dominance over the seas (which intensified by the American Revolution) demanded more rights, led by Catherine the Great of Russia.
• Many Indian tribes sided with the British in the hopes it would prevent further expansion west (no more colonial encroachment on their land). Eventually a small American force was sent in to stop them and, in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Indians ceded most of their land → first American and Indian treaty
• Privateers: pirates hired by Congress to attack enemy shipping, deeply affected British trade→ some in Parliament called on the govt to end the war so they wouldn't lose more
• Battle of Yorktown (1781): British general Cornwallis is forced to surrender to the French and American army after they are surrounded by land and sea →despite it, fighting continued for a year.
• Treaty of Paris 1783: Britain formally recognizes America as an independent nation and extended their boundaries. Americans, in exchange, had to promise not to persecute Loyalists and return confiscated land + had to repay debts