<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The American Revolution was a colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783 . The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America . They defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War in alliance with France and others . </P> <P> Members of American colonial society argued the position of "no taxation without representation", starting with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 . They rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them because they lacked representation in Parliament . Protests steadily escalated to the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, followed by the Boston Tea Party in 1773, during which patriots destroyed a consignment of taxed tea . The British responded by closing Boston Harbor, then followed with a series of legislative acts which effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony's rights of self - government and caused the other colonies to rally behind Massachusetts . In late 1774, the Patriots set up their own alternative government to better coordinate their resistance efforts against Great Britain; other colonists preferred to remain aligned to the British Crown and were known as Loyalists or Tories . </P>

Who were the opposing sides in the revolutionary war