Warm-Up:
Please complete pg. 187 #2-6
in your notebooks.
The War is Won
Victory at Yorktown
•
French warships appeared in the waters off Newport, Rhode
Island under the command of the French general, Comte de
Rochambeau
Patriot army cheered the French aid
• Washington had to wait a year for more aid to come from the
French and put a military plan into action
•
By the end of September, 14,000 American and French
troops had trapped Cornwallis’ British and Hessian troops
at Yorktown
• Americans and French began a tremendous bombardment
and British supplies began to run low
•
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Surrendered on October 19
Patriots had won the Battle of Yorktown
Independence!
•
Both British and Americans sent delegates to Paris to work
out a treaty
•
Ratified, or approved, the Treaty of Paris
Great Britain recognized the United States as an independent nation
• Nation included land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi
River and between Canada and Spanish Florida (defined territory of
new country)
• British promised to withdraw their troops
•
•
Washington maintained a strong army, planning to disband after
the peace treaty was signed
Congress refused to pay their pensions, money for service, and failed to
provide other pay
• Officers threatened to not disband the army and revolt
• Washington convinced Congress to pay pensions
• Became know as the Newburgh Conspiracy
•
Why the Americans Won…
•
The Americans had several advantages in the
war
•
•
•
Fought on their own land
Knew the local terrain and where to lay an ambusha surprise attack
Help from other nations
•
•
Success at Yorktown would not have been possible
without aid from the French
The American Revolution was a people’s movementan outcome dependent not on any one battle but on
the determination and spirit of all the Patriots
The Influence of the American Revolution
•
The ideas put forth by the Patriots bounded
back across the Atlantic to influence the French
Revolution
•
•
French rebels fought in defense of “Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity”
In 1791, enslaved Africans took up arms in the
French-held island colony of Saint Domingue,
present-day Haiti
•
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were able to shake off French rule
Became the second nation in the Americas to
achieve independence from colonial rule