The American Revolution was a rebellion and political movement in the Thirteen Colonies which peaked when colonists initiated an ultimately successful war for independence against the Kingdom of Great Britain. Leaders of the American Revolution were colonial separatist leaders who originally sought more autonomy as British subjects, but later assembled to support the Revolutionary War, which ended British colonial rule over the colonies, establishing their independence as the United States of America in July 1776.
Discontent with colonial rule began shortly after the defeat of France in the French and Indian War in 1763. Although the colonies had fought and supported the war, Parliament imposed new taxes to compensate for wartime costs and turned control of the colonies' western lands over to the British officials in Montreal. Representatives from several colonies convened the Stamp Act Congress; its "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" argued that taxation without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. In 1767, tensions flared again following the British Parliament's passage of the Townshend Acts. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion, King George III deployed troops to Boston. A local confrontation resulted in the troops killing protesters in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. In 1772, anti-tax demonstrators in Rhode Island destroyed the Royal Navy customs schooner Gaspee. On December 16, 1773, activists disguised as Indians created the Boston Tea Party and dumped chests of tea owned by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. London closed Boston Harbor and enacted a series of punitive laws, which effectively ended self-government in Massachusetts.
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