Editing History of the United States (section)

==Revolutionary period (1754–1793)==
{{Main|History of the United States (1776–1789)}}

=== Lead-up to the Revolution ===
{{Further|Boston Tea Party}}
[[File:Boston Tea Party Currier colored.jpg|thumb|A portrait depicting the [[Boston Tea Party]] on December 16, 1773, a prominent act of rebellion that served to dramatically escalate the [[American Revolution]], leading ultimately to the commencement of the [[American Revolutionary War]] at the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] on April 19, 1775]]
The [[French and Indian War]] (1754–1763), part of the larger [[Seven Years' War]], was a watershed event in the political development of the colonies. The influence of the French and Native Americans, the main rivals of the [[British Crown]] in the colonies and Canada, was significantly reduced and the territory of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] expanded into [[New France]] in Canada and [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]].{{Citation needed|reason=A separate government was established in Canada called the Province of Quebec under the authority of the British Army and Louisiana was given to Spain. The thirteen colonies didn't gain any territory from this war.here|date=January 2022}} The war effort also resulted in greater political integration of the colonies, as reflected in the [[Albany Congress]] and symbolized by [[Benjamin Franklin]]'s call for the colonies to "[[Join, or Die]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brands |first=H.W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLdOMa1MEqsC&pg=PA232 |title=The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |year=2010 |publisher=Random House Digital, Inc. |isbn=9780307754943 |pages=232–240, 510–512 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=TLdOMa1MEqsC&pg=PA232 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[King George III]] issued the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], to organize the new North American empire and protect the Native Americans from colonial expansion west of the Appalachian Mountains. Strains developed in the relations between the colonists and the Crown. The [[British Parliament]] passed the [[Stamp Act of 1765]], imposing a tax on the colonies without going through the colonial legislatures. Crying "[[No taxation without representation]]", the colonists refused to pay.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Edmund S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr_ruAAACAAJ |title=The Birth of the Republic, 1763–89 |year=2012 |publisher=U. of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226923420 |edition=4th |pages=14–27 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr_ruAAACAAJ |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live |orig-year=1956}}</ref>

On December 16, 1773, the [[Boston Tea Party]] was a direct action to protest the new tax on tea. Parliament responded the next year with the [[Intolerable Acts]], stripping Massachusetts of its historic right of self-government and putting it under military rule, which sparked outrage and resistance in all thirteen colonies. [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] leaders from every colony convened the [[First Continental Congress]] to coordinate their resistance. The Congress called for a [[Continental Association|boycott of British trade]], published a [[Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress|list of rights and grievances]], and [[Petition to the King|petitioned the king]] to rectify those grievances.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allison |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6x7Cmio5hoC |title=The Boston Tea Party |year=2007 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=9781933212111 |pages=47–63 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=D6x7Cmio5hoC |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> This appeal had no effect.

=== American Revolution ===
{{Main|American Revolution}}
[[File:Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrandt Peale, 1800)(cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Jefferson]], the principal author of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and a principle intellectual force behind the [[American Revolution]], wrote the first draft of the Declaration in isolation over a period of two weeks between June 11, 1776 and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 [[Market Street (Philadelphia)|Market Street]] in [[Philadelphia]]. The Declaration was unanimously adopted by the [[Second Continental Congress]] a week later, on July 4, 1776, at present-day [[Independence Hall]]]]
[[File:Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851.jpg|thumb|[[George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River|Washington's covert crossing of the Delaware River]] over the night of December 25–26, 1776, represented a major comeback for the cause of American independence following the loss of New York City, allowing Washington and the [[Continental Army]] to launch surprise attacks on the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] in [[Battle of Trenton|Trenton]] and [[Battle of Princeton|Princeton]] and recapture [[New Jersey]].]]
The [[Second Continental Congress]] voted to declare independence on July 2, 1776. The [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] presented arguments in favor of the rights of citizens, stating that [[all men are created equal]], supporting the rights of [[Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness]], and demanding the [[consent of the governed]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470756454 |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=Blackwell |year=2000 |isbn=9780631210580 |editor-last=Pole |editor-first=J. R. |edition=1st |pages=258–261 |chapter=The Declaration of Independence |doi=10.1002/9780470756454 |editor-last2=Greene |editor-first2=J. P.}}</ref> The [[Founding Fathers]] were guided by the ideology of [[republicanism]], rejecting the [[monarchism]] of Great Britain.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wood |first=Gordon S. |year=1990 |title=Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/chknt66&id=27&div=&collection= |journal=Chicago-Kent Law Review |volume=66 |page=13}}</ref> The Declaration of Independence was [[Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence|signed]] by members of the Congress on July 4.<ref name=":02" /> This date has since been [[Commemoration of the American Revolution|commemorated]] as [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Today in History - July 4 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-04/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221029013828/https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-04/ |archive-date=October 29, 2022 |access-date=April 27, 2023 |website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

The [[American Revolutionary War]] began with the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] on April 19, 1775.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Conroy |first=David W. |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470756454 |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=Blackwell |year=2000 |isbn=9780631210580 |editor-last=Pole |editor-first=J. R. |edition=1st |pages=216–221 |chapter=Development of a revolutionary organization, 1765–1775 |doi=10.1002/9780470756454 |editor-last2=Greene |editor-first2=J. P.}}</ref> [[George Washington]] was appointed general of the [[Continental Army]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Douglas S. |title=George Washington: A Biography |year=1948 |isbn=9780678028346 |page=42 |publisher=Augustus M. Kelley |author-link=Douglas Southall Freeman}}</ref> Washington's [[George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River|crossing of the Delaware River]] began a series of victories that expelled British forces from New Jersey.{{Sfn|Cogliano|2009|pp=101–102}} The British began the [[Saratoga campaign]] in 1777 to capture [[Albany, New York]], as a [[choke point]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snow |first=Dean R. |title=1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780190618759 |pages=7–9}}</ref> After American [[Battles of Saratoga|victory at Saratoga]], France, the Netherlands, and Spain began providing support to the Continental Army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Howard |title=Crucible of power: a history of American foreign relations to 1913 |year=2001 |isbn=9780842029186 |page=12 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield}}</ref> Britain responded to defeat in the [[Northern theater of the American Revolutionary War|northern theater]] by advancing in the [[Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War|southern theater]], beginning with the [[Capture of Savannah]] in 1778.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lumpkin |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lnwsAAAAMAAJ |title=From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-87249-408-4 |pages=27–30 |language=en}}</ref> American forces reclaimed the south in 1781, and the British Army was defeated in the [[Siege of Yorktown]] on October 19, 1781.{{Sfn|Cogliano|2009|p=110}}

King George III formally ordered the end of hostilities on December 5, 1782, recognizing American independence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Richard Brandon |url=https://archive.org/details/peacemakersgrea00morr |title=The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1965 |edition=1st |pages=411–412}}</ref> The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] was signed on September 3, 1783,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-10 |title=Treaty of Paris (1783) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031123838/https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris |archive-date=October 31, 2022 |access-date=April 28, 2023 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref> and was ratified by the [[Congress of the Confederation]] on January 14, 1784.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Confederation Congress's Ratification of the "Treaty of Paris" |url=https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/The-Continental-Congress-s-ratification-of-the-%E2%80%9CTreaty-of-Paris%E2%80%9D/ |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103022351/https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/The-Continental-Congress-s-ratification-of-the-%E2%80%9CTreaty-of-Paris%E2%80%9D/ |archive-date=November 3, 2022 |website=US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |language=en}}</ref>

===Confederation period===
{{Main|Confederation period}}The [[Articles of Confederation]] were ratified as the governing law of the United States, written to limit the powers of the central government in favor of states. This caused [[Financial costs of the American Revolutionary War|economic decline]], as the government was unable to pass economic legislation and pay its debts.<ref name=":52">{{Cite book |last=Van Cleve |first=George William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5r0lEAAAQBAJ |title=We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2019 |isbn=9780226641522 |pages=2–7 |access-date=November 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120192825/https://www.google.com/books/edition/We_Have_Not_a_Government/5r0lEAAAQBAJ |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Nationalists worried that the [[Confederation|confederate]] nature of the union was too fragile to withstand an armed conflict with any adversarial states, or even internal revolts such as [[Shays' Rebellion]] of 1786 in Massachusetts.{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}}

In the 1780s the western regions were ceded by the states to Congress and became territories. With the migration of settlers to the Northwest, soon they became [[U.S. state|states]].{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}} The [[American Indian Wars]] continued in the 1780s as settlers moved west.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grenier |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGCin1JJp8cC |title=The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=9781139444705 |pages=146–148 |access-date=November 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120192830/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_First_Way_of_War/JGCin1JJp8cC |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Northwestern Confederacy]] and American settlers began fighting the [[Northwest Indian War]] in the late 1780s; the Northwestern Confederacy received British support, but the settlers received little assistance from the American government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herring |first=George |title=From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 |year=2008 |isbn=9780199743773 |pages=43–44, 61–62 |publisher=Oxford University Press |author-link=George C. Herring}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E92aCwAAQBAJ |title=American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-393-25387-0 |page=343 |language=en}}</ref>

Nationalists – most of them war veterans – organized in every state and convinced Congress to call the [[Philadelphia Convention]] in 1787. The delegates from every state wrote a new [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] that created a federal government with a strong president and powers of taxation. The new government reflected the prevailing republican ideals of guarantees of [[Natural rights and legal rights|individual liberty]] and of constraining the power of government through [[separation of powers]].{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}} The constitution was ratified by a sufficient number of states in 1788 to begin forming a federal government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Countryman |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_fuBSLGMgIC |title=The American Revolution |year=1985 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8090-2563-3 |pages=193–196 |language=en}}</ref>