The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a political conflict involving the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain, that began as a rebellion demanding reform and evolved into a revolution resulting in a complete separation that entirely replaced the social and political order, as an outcome of the associated American Revolutionary War and the consequential sovereign independence of the former colonies as the United States. The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in 1775. The following year, the Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. Throughout most of the war, the outcome appeared uncertain. However, in 1781, a decisive victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown led King George III and the British to negotiate the cessation of colonial rule and the acknowledgment of American sovereignty, formalized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Discontent with colonial rule began shortly after the French and Indian War in 1763. Even though the colonies had fought in and supported the war directly with funds and materiel, the British Parliament imposed new taxes to ostensibly compensate for wartime costs, and transferred control of the colonies' western lands to British officials in Montreal. Representatives from several colonies convened in New York City for the Stamp Act Congress in 1765; its "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" argued that this taxation without representation and other policies violated their rights as Englishmen and therefore defied the British constitution. In 1767, though the Stamp Act was repealed, tensions flared again following Parliament's passage of the Townshend Acts. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion, King George III deployed British troops to Boston, where they killed antagonists in the 1770 Boston Massacre. In December 1773, the underground Sons of Liberty orchestrated the Boston Tea Party, during which they dumped chests of taxed tea owned by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. Parliament responded by enacting a series of punitive laws, which effectively ended self-government in Massachusetts, but also intensified support for the revolutionary cause among Americans. In 1774, twelve of the Thirteen Colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress; the Province of Georgia joined in 1775. The First Continental Congress began coordinating Patriot resistance through underground networks of committees largely built on the foundations of the Sons of Liberty. In August 1775, King George III proclaimed Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. The British attempted to disarm the colonists, resulting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, sparking the Revolutionary War. The Congress created the Continental Army which then surrounded Boston, forcing the British to withdraw by sea in March 1776, leaving Patriots in control in every colony. In May 1776, Congress voted to suppress all forms of Crown authority, to be replaced by locally created authority, and each colony created a state constitution. On July 2, the Congress passed the Lee Resolution, affirming their support for joint independence, and on July 4, 1776 they unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, having evolved into a revolution now basing their claims on universal rights and famously proclaiming that "all men are created equal". The Second Continental Congress soon after began deliberating the Articles of Confederation, an effort to establish a multi-state self-governing coordinating body capable of negotiating international treaties and prosecuting the war. The Revolutionary War continued for another five years during which France ultimately entered, supporting the revolutionary cause. On September 28, 1781, Washington commanded the Continental Army's capture of a British army under General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown, leading to the collapse of King George's control of Parliament. Consensus in Parliament soon shifted to the war ending on American terms. On September 3, 1783, the British signed the Treaty of Paris, ceding to the new nation nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes. The United States became the first nation to establish a federal republic with a written constitution based on the principles of universal natural rights, consent of the governed and equality under the law, albeit with significant democratic limitations compared to later evolution of the concept. Source: Wikipedia (en)