[[the-american-revolution|The American Revolution]]
The American Revolution was a pivotal war in which [[thirteen-colonies|thirteen British colonies]] broke away from [[great-britain|Great Britain]] to form the [[united-states|United States of America]]. The devastating fighting lasted from 1775 to 1783, claiming an estimated 25,000 American lives from a colonial population of only 2.5 million, and produced the first radically experimental large-scale democratic republic in modern history. Its example quickly spread, inspiring revolutionary movements — most directly [[the-french-revolution|the French Revolution]] of 1789 and [[the-haitian-revolution|the Haitian Revolution]] of 1791 — across [[latin-america|Latin America]] and much of the globe.
The Rebellion
The colonists objected to being taxed by a [[parliament|Parliament]] — invoking the ancient English constitutional principle, established since the [[magna-carta|Magna Carta]], that subjects cannot be taxed without consent of their representatives — in which they had no representation, a grievance they condensed into the rallying cry "no taxation without representation". On July 4, 1776, colonial leaders signed [[the-declaration-of-independence|the Declaration of Independence]], written primarily by [[thomas-jefferson|Thomas Jefferson]], which announced that all men are created equal with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and that — as [[john-locke|John Locke]] had argued — governments derive their legitimate authority from the consent of the governed. The original draft included a passage condemning the [[atlantic-slave-trade|slave trade]], struck at the insistence of [[south-carolina|South Carolina]] and [[georgia|Georgia]] delegates — revealing that the "self-evident" truths were, from their inception, negotiated rather than absolute.
The War
The fighting began at [[lexington-and-concord|Lexington and Concord]] on April 19, 1775, after [[thomas-gage|General Gage]] sent troops to seize colonial weapons stockpiles, turning a political dispute into an armed one. [[george-washington|George Washington]], a Virginia planter, led the [[continental-army|Continental Army]], chosen by the [[continental-congress|Continental Congress]] partly because selecting a [[virginia|Virginian]] unified the colonies across regional lines. The army nearly collapsed during the brutal winter at [[valley-forge|Valley Forge]] in 1777-1778, when roughly 2,000 of Washington's 12,000 soldiers died of disease and exposure, though [[baron-von-steuben|Baron von Steuben]]'s drilling program that winter transformed the militia into a professional fighting force. [[france|France]] joined the war in 1778 and provided crucial, militarily decisive support after the American victory at [[battle-of-saratoga|Saratoga]] convinced [[louis-xvi|King Louis XVI]] the rebels could win — an irony, given that [[france|France]]'s war debt from bankrolling American liberty contributed directly to the fiscal crisis that triggered [[the-french-revolution|the French Revolution]]. The war ended when American and French forces trapped the British army at [[yorktown|Yorktown]], [[virginia|Virginia]], in October 1781 and forced its surrender. [[great-britain|Britain]] recognized American independence in the landmark [[treaty-of-paris-1783|Treaty of Paris]] of 1783.
The Constitution
The first attempt at a workable central government, the [[articles-of-confederation|Articles of Confederation]], proved too weak to enforce its own laws, and the alarming failure of the government to maintain order — exposed most dramatically when [[shays-rebellion|Shays' Rebellion]] of 1786 overwhelmed [[massachusetts|Massachusetts]] — made a stronger framework necessary. The [[united-states-constitution|Constitution]], ratified in 1788, replaced it and created the deliberately balanced system of government the [[united-states|United States]] still uses, with a separation of powers designed by [[james-madison|James Madison]] to prevent any single branch from accumulating the tyranny they had just overthrown. The new nation's founding documents promised equality but preserved the institution of [[slavery-in-america|slavery]] — the [[united-states-constitution|Constitution]] counted enslaved people as [[three-fifths-compromise|three-fifths of a person]] for congressional representation, giving slaveholding states outsized political power and delaying [[abolitionism|abolition]] by nearly a century, a contradiction between principle and practice that would haunt the country for generations.