The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was the armed conflict in which thirteen British colonies in North America, having declared independence as the United States of America, fought and defeated Great Britain to secure that independence. The war grew from escalating political disputes over taxation, representation, and colonial self-governance that followed the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and it ended with the Treaty of Paris (3 September 1783), by which Britain recognized American sovereignty over territory stretching to the Mississippi River. The conflict drew in France, Spain, and the Netherlands as belligerents against Britain, making it a global as well as a colonial war.

Armed hostilities began at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on 19 April 1775, more than a year before the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776. The war was fought across the eastern seaboard, the frontier, the Caribbean, the Atlantic, and - in its later phases - as far as Gibraltar and India. Major campaigns included the siege of Boston (1775-1776), the New York and New Jersey campaign (1776-1777), the Saratoga campaign (1777), the Valley Forge encampment (1777-1778), the southern campaign (1778-1781), and the Yorktown campaign (1781), which effectively ended major land combat. The Continental Army, commanded by General George Washington, was supplemented by state militias and, after 1778, by French regular forces under commanders including Rochambeau and Lafayette.

The war's combatants were not limited to Continental soldiers and British Regulars. Loyalists - colonists who remained loyal to the Crown - formed their own military units and fought throughout the conflict, particularly in the South. Many Native American nations allied with Britain, viewing the colonists' westward expansion as a greater threat than continued British rule. Enslaved and free black colonists served on both sides. Hessian and other German auxiliary troops fought for Britain under contract with their sovereigns.

Historians generally trace the war's origins to British fiscal and administrative policies imposed after the Seven Years' War, including the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), and the Intolerable Acts (1774), which colonists argued violated their rights as British subjects. The colonial grievance of “no taxation without representation” reflected a constitutional dispute over whether Parliament held authority over colonies that elected no members to it. Whether the Revolution was primarily a conservative defense of existing rights, a radical political transformation, or an early modern independence movement remains a subject of scholarly debate - see Conservative Revolution Viewpoint and Radical Revolution Viewpoint.

The Treaty of Paris established American independence and fixed borders from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River, between the Great Lakes and Florida. Britain retained Canada; Spain received Florida. The war's outcome established a republic on Enlightenment principles, influenced the French Revolution, and accelerated political debate about colonial rule and popular sovereignty in Europe and the Americas. The Revolution's relationship to slavery - whether it advanced, delayed, or was simply separate from abolition - is actively debated by historians. See Debate: The Revolution and Slavery.

The question of the war's causes, character, and meaning has never been fully settled. Nationalist, Loyalist, British imperial, Marxist, progressive, and libertarian historiographical traditions have each produced distinct interpretations of the same events. For a full treatment of the historiographical record, see American Revolutionary War - History.

There is broad scholarly consensus on the war's basic chronology, major engagements, and treaty terms. Consensus among historians of early America holds that the conflict was both a war for independence and a civil war among colonists. Significant interpretive disagreement persists on causes, the role of economic interests, the meaning of the Revolution for enslaved people, and its ideological character. See Consensus: Revolutionary War Historiography.

• Whig (Patriot) Viewpoint - The traditional Anglo-American interpretation: the Revolution as a principled defense of constitutional liberty against executive tyranny.
• Loyalist Viewpoint - The perspective of colonists who remained loyal to the Crown, viewing the rebellion as illegitimate and destructive of good order.
• Conservative Revolution Viewpoint - The argument that the Revolution was essentially conservative, preserving existing colonial institutions and rights rather than creating new ones.
• Radical Revolution Viewpoint - The argument that the Revolution represented a genuinely radical break from inherited political and social structures.
• Economic Causation Viewpoint - The interpretation, associated with Progressive historians, that economic interests and class conflict were primary drivers of the conflict.
• British Imperial Viewpoint - British and imperial historiographical perspectives on the war's causes, conduct, and consequences.
• Native American Viewpoint - The perspectives of Native nations whose lands, alliances, and sovereignty were directly affected by the war's outcome.
• Enslaved Peoples' Viewpoint - The perspectives and choices of enslaved people navigating a war fought, in part, over principles of liberty that did not apply to them.

• American Revolutionary War - History
• Debate: American Revolutionary War
• Debate: The Revolution and Slavery
• Consensus: Revolutionary War Historiography
• Declaration of Independence
• Articles of Confederation
• Treaty of Paris (1783)
• American Revolution (political and social history)
• Seven Years' War
• Continental Congress
• Loyalists

1. Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford University Press, 2005. Standard narrative history of the war and its political context.
2. Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Harvard University Press, 1967. Influential analysis of colonial political thought as the driver of revolutionary ideology.
3. Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Knopf, 1992. Argues for the Revolution's transformative social character against conservative interpretations.
4. Becker, Carl. The History of Political Parties in the Province of New York, 1760-1776. University of Wisconsin Press, 1909. Early Progressive-school argument for economic and class causation.
5. Ferling, John. Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence. Oxford University Press, 2007. Military history emphasizing the contingency of the American victory.
6. Frey, Sylvia R. Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age. Princeton University Press, 1991. Examines the choices and experiences of enslaved people during the war.
7. Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country. Cambridge University Press, 1995. Analysis of Native American nations' experiences and decisions during the conflict.
8. Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. Knopf, 2011. History of Loyalists during and after the war.
9. Mackesy, Piers. The War for America, 1775-1783. Harvard University Press, 1964. British strategic perspective on the war's conduct.
10. Bemis, Samuel Flagg. The Diplomacy of the American Revolution. Indiana University Press, 1957. Standard treatment of the international and diplomatic dimensions of the conflict.