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The American Revolution & Early Republic. The American Revolution was an epic political and military conflict from 1775 to 1783 in which thirteen British North American colonies threw off British rule to form the United States of America. Guided by Enlightenment ideals of liberty, popular sovereignty, and natural rights articulated in the Declaration of Independence, this revolution matters because it established the world's first modern constitutional republic and inspired democratic movements across Europe and the Americas.
Assisted by crucial military alliances with France and Spain, the Continental Army commanded by George Washington successfully defeated British forces, culminating in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The early republic subsequently drafted the U.S. Constitution in 1787, establishing a federal government with balanced powers and a Bill of Rights. However, the young nation faced immediate challenges regarding national debt, partisan polarization, and severe moral contradictions surrounding the expansion of chattel slavery and indigenous displacement.