What factors contributed to the American victory in the Revolutionary War?
America should not have won - British strongest nation in the world, and they went to war with their most important trade partner
Not everyone was ok with this war - Patriot Cause embodied by continental congress and Common Sense - Half were supporting patriots, some were neutral, some(loyalists) were completely against independence
Continental Congress appoints George Washington as general for Continental Army because of his fame from the French-Indian War
First 6 months, Continental Army did not win a single conflict
Soldiers would often desert because of how they didn’t want to protect lands other than their own
British General William Howe comes to New York with 10,000 trained British soldiers and 60,000 loyalists join them
Washington wages war of attrition - tire out the British until they don’t want to fight anymore
Washington makes offer to enslaved people that if they fought, they would be freed - copied British
Most black people fighting were free and from the North, 5000 supported patriot cause
Battle of Trenton - Washington crosses the Delaware river, fights Hessian soldiers (German mercenaries)
Battle of Saratoga - Most important battle; Benjamin Franklin was trying to get French support, this victory convices France to take their side
France saw this as an opportunity to weaken Britain
Spain and Holland also join against Britain
Battle of Yorktown, 1781 - French guns and ships help Washington decisively beat the British, war ends
Paris Peace Treaty - War officially ends, America recognized as independent nation, western boundary established at Mississippi River
What were the differing ideological positions on the structure and function of the newly conceived federal government?
Fifty five delegates meet in 1787 for Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
Meant to show the problems of Articles, they immediately decide to make a new one
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton
Wanted more power given to the government
How to represent the people - two plans
Are slaves counted as part of the population? Important to South because if they do, they get a lot more power
Voting for Representatives
In order for the Constitution to be valid, 9 out of 13 states had to agree
Results in two opposing parties - Federalists and Anti-Federalists
Federalists win - persuasion, more organized, give Bill of Rights for individual rights and way to protect people’s rights
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