As the fighting around Boston spread in the spring of 1775, delegates to the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. They made a last appeal-the Olive Branch Petition-for peace. Britain denied the appeal. With war looming, the Congress formed the Continental Army and placed George Washington in command.
At first, the Americans fought only to assert their rights as British subjects. By July of 1776, however, Congress chose complete separation from Britain when it adopted the Declaration of Independence. From that point on, Americans fought for the right to form their own country.
The Americans won some early victories at Ticonderoga, Trenton, and Princeton. The British, nevertheless, held the upper hand until their defeat at Saratoga in 1777. A few months later, France agreed to enter the war on the American side. By early 1779, the Americans, under the leadership of George Rogers Clark, controlled the Ohio Valley. By the spring of 1781, Americans in the South had pursued and weakened the forces of British General Cornwallis. Combined American and French forces trapped Cornwallis and forced him to surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781. Within two years, Britain recognized American independence in the Treaty of Paris.
