American Revolutionary War

Also called: American War of Independence, Battles of Lexington and Concord, Siege of Yorktown

The war between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain that began with the clashes at Lexington and Concord. Aided by France and Spain, the colonists won at Yorktown, and the Treaty of Paris of 1783 recognised American independence.

On 19 April 1775, when British troops marched to seize the arms depot at Concord near Boston, fighting broke out with colonial militia at Lexington and Concord — the start of the War of Independence. The Second Continental Congress appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and on 4 July 1776 declared independence.

Short of training and supplies, the Continental Army struggled at first, but after its victory at Saratoga in 1777 France made an alliance and entered the war in 1778. Spain (1779) and the Dutch Republic (1780) also fought Britain, and Russia and others formed the League of Armed Neutrality, isolating Britain; European volunteers such as Lafayette came over. On 19 October 1781 the British commander Cornwallis, besieged at Yorktown by Washington and the French, surrendered, deciding the war.

By the Treaty of Paris in 1783 Britain recognised American independence and territory as far as the Mississippi. In 1787 the United States drew up its federal Constitution, setting the framework of the republic. France, deep in debt from the war, was pushed toward its own revolution. In 1776, in the middle of the war, Jeongjo came to the throne in Joseon and founded the Kyujanggak royal library.