The American Revolution (1775–1783) was the armed struggle by which thirteen British North American colonies won independence and founded the United States. Long-simmering grievances over “taxation without representation” boiled over with the Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Townshend Acts (1767), and Tea Act (1773). Colonists responded with boycotts, the Boston Massacre (1770), and the Boston Tea Party (1773). Britain’s punitive Intolerable Acts (1774) closed Boston Harbor and altered Massachusetts government, prompting the First Continental Congress to coordinate resistance. On April 19, 1775, British troops clashed with minutemen at Lexington and Concord—the “shot heard round the world.” The Second Continental Congress created the Continental Army under George Washington and, on July 4, 1776, adopted Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, proclaiming natural rights and separation from Britain. Early British victories in New York gave way to Washington’s surprise win at Trenton (1776). The decisive American victory at Saratoga (1777) brought French alliance, troops, money, and naval support; Spain and the Netherlands later joined. The brutal winter at Valley Forge (1777–78) forged a professional army under Baron von Steuben’s training. Southern campaigns saw British gains at Charleston and Camden (1780), but Nathanael Greene’s guerrilla strategy wore them down. The war ended at Yorktown (October 1781), where Washington, Rochambeau, and Admiral de Grasse trapped Cornwallis, forcing surrender of 7,000 British troops. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence, set the Mississippi as the western boundary, and granted fishing rights off Newfoundland. The revolution replaced monarchy with republican government: the Articles of Confederation (1781) yielded to the Constitution (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791). Its ideals of liberty, equality, and self-government inspired the French Revolution and Latin American independence movements, though slavery endured and Native lands were seized. Economically, wartime disruption spurred domestic manufacturing; socially, women managed farms and boycotts while enslaved people and Indigenous nations saw few immediate gains. The American Revolution remains the defining moment when determined colonists defeated an empire and created a nation committed to freedom and self-determination.