RE - The End of the War Lesson

The End of the War

American Victory

The British plan to counter the French-American alliance was for General Charles Cornwallis to move the war to the southern states to try to separate those colonies from revolutionary forces in the North. He immediately succeeded in a series of British victories, but the Americans were able to prevent a complete victory in the South and, when Cornwallis pursued them into Virginia, the British troops were attacked by Lafayette, the combined French and American armies, and a French fleet. When Cornwallis surrendered his British troops at Yorktown, the American Revolution came to an end in North America.

1783 Treaty of Paris

The 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War. The United States won its independence from Great Britain and gained control of land stretching to the Mississippi River. Britain ceded Florida to Spain and certain African and Caribbean colonies to France.

The ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the military success of the American Revolution had a major impact around the world. In the decades that followed revolutions would occur that challenged authoritarian and colonial governments. The French Revolution would overthrow the monarchy in that European nation. Rebellions against French colonial rule in Haiti and Spanish colonial rule in various places in Latin America would take place. The victory of the former colonies against Britain and their assertion of natural rights was a key event in world history.

 

About this Image: Last page of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, sealed with the signet rings of the four diplomats. David Hartley was the representative of the British King, and Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams represented the United States. In these days, diplomats could use their family seals on drafts, while today they would be initialed and, only after being ratified, sealed with the Great Seal of the United States.

View the presentation on the American Revolution below.

 

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