This war can be divided into two stages. North American War of Independence Theme Oil Painting
1775 ~ 1778 is the first stage of the war. The main battlefield is in the north, and the British army has the advantage. After the war began, the British army took the initiative to put out the revolutionary fire in the colonies quickly. Its general strategy is: the navy controls the east coast of North America, and the army advances from Canada and new york to Lake plank and Hudson Valley respectively, so as to isolate the New England colony which is the most determined to Britain, and then crush other colonies one by one. Due to the weak forces, except for the expedition to Canada at the beginning of the war, the continental army was basically on the defensive and adopted the policy of waiting for the enemy to win and winning foreign aid. 1In May 775, the colonial militia took the initiative to attack and besieged Boston. 17 In June, the colonial militia won the first battle in Bunker Hill outside Boston, annihilating 1000 British troops. 1776 In March, British troops under the command of William Howe were forced to evacuate from Boston to Halifax for assistance. At the end of August, Howe led 32,000 British troops to attack new york with the cooperation of naval fleet. Washington led 19000 troops to fight positional warfare with the British, which caused heavy losses. 10, he was forced to lead the remaining 5,000 troops to evacuate to New Jersey, and the British occupied new york. On Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, Washington took advantage of the carelessness of the British army and raided Trenton and Princeton, capturing nearly a thousand enemies, which greatly boosted morale. 1in the summer of 777, john burgoyne led 7,000 British troops south from Canada in an attempt to join forces with Hao. However, Hao did not go north as planned, but led 1.8 million troops south, and captured Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was held, in September. Bourgau was besieged by 65438+2000 American troops and guerrillas because of going deep into Saratoga alone, and 5000 British troops were forced to surrender to the American troops on 10+07. The battle of Saratoga became a turning point in this war, prompting France, Spain and the Netherlands to declare war on Britain one after another. The change of the situation forced the British army to abandon Philadelphia on June 1778 and decided to retreat to new york. Subsequently, the war in the north was deadlocked.
1779 ~ 178 1 year was the second stage of the war. The main battlefield turned to the south, and the American army defeated the strong with the weak. Clinton, the new commander-in-chief of the British army, took advantage of the fact that there are many loyalists in the south and he is close to the West Indies. He decided to transfer the main force of the British army to the south, in an attempt to separate the southern States of the United States one by one, and relied on coastal bases and new york to contain the north. The Continental Army of North America tried to cooperate with French Lu Haijun to control coastal bases, and at the same time actively launched guerrilla warfare to break the British plan. 1778 At the end of the year, British troops captured Savannah, the capital of Georgia, which started a powerful offensive in the south. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/779, the French fleet under the command of American commanders Lincoln and Destin in the south attacked Savannah, the main base of British troops in the south, and was frustrated. 1in the spring of 780, Clinton led 14000 British troops to surround Charleston on both sides, forcing more than 5000 people in Lincoln's department to surrender and capturing 4 warships, which made the US military lose the most in the whole war. Later, Clinton led a British army to new york, leaving Cornwallis to command 7,000 British troops to control the southern land and coast. This facilitates the activities of militia and guerrillas in the south. The Continental Congress appointed Green as the commander of the American army in the south to cooperate with Morgan in guerrilla warfare in the south. 10 and March, he defeated the British army in Cowpens and guildford, forcing the British army to retreat from the mainland to the coast. In August of the same year, Cornwally led the southern British army to retreat to Yorktown on the Virginia Peninsula. 10 10 19, Washington commanded the United States and France16,000 people to besiege Yorktown, annihilating more than 7,000 British troops, and won a decisive victory in this war. Yorktown's victory led to the collapse of the British cabinet. 1782165438+1October 30th. The new British government reached an armistice agreement with the United States. On September 3, the following year, the two sides signed a peace treaty in Paris, and Britain was forced to recognize American independence.
From 1777 65438+ 10-17865438+March, marked by Saratoga, the main battlefield gradually turned to the south.
At this stage, the international environment is more and more favorable to the United States. After Saratoga's victory, France, Spain and the Netherlands changed their vacillating wait-and-see attitudes.
1778 In February, France signed a military alliance treaty with the United States, and France officially recognized the United States.
The reason for victory: the unity of the American people.
The American War of Independence was the first large-scale colonial war for national independence in the history of the world. Its victory opened the gap in the British colonial system and set an example for the colonial national liberation war. The War of Independence was a bourgeois revolution, which overthrew British colonial rule and founded the United States of America. At the same time, the feudal remnants of the colonial period, such as the eldest son inheritance law, limited inheritance law and service tax, were eradicated, and contract slavery was basically abolished. Thus liberating the productive forces and opening up a broad road for the development of American capitalism. As Lenin said: "The history of modern civilized America began with a great, truly liberated and truly revolutionary war."
The victory of American War of Independence promoted the bourgeois revolution in Europe and Latin America.
The American War of Independence did not solve the problem of land or slavery, which made the north and south of the United States embark on two different economic paths after independence, and finally led to the outbreak of the American Civil War.