<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 The British responded by closing Boston Harbor, then followed with a series of legislative acts which effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony's rights of self - government and caused the other colonies to rally behind Massachusetts .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> <P> Tensions erupted into battle between Patriot militia and British regulars when the British attempted to capture and destroy Colonial military supplies at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 . The conflict then developed into a global war, during which the Patriots (and later their French, Spanish, and Dutch allies) fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War (1775--83). Each of the thirteen colonies formed a Provincial Congress that assumed power from the old colonial governments and suppressed Loyalism, and from there they built a Continental Army under the leadership of General George Washington . The Continental Congress determined King George's rule to be tyrannical and infringing the colonists' rights as Englishmen, and they declared the colonies free and independent states on July 2, 1776 . The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, and they proclaimed that all men are created equal . </P>

Who started the independence movement in the colonies