AP® United States History · Unit 3 · Topic 3.5
The Campaigns of the Revolutionary War
The Revolutionary War moved through three regional phases, New England, then the middle states, then the South, and Britain lost not from want of strength but because it could never convert battlefield wins into control of the countryside, especially once Saratoga pulled France into the war.
Britain had the best army and navy on earth, but it was fighting 3,000 miles from home, trying to occupy a huge, hostile countryside with a force too small to garrison every town it won. The war ran in three rough phases. From 1775 to 1776 it centered on New England and New York, where Britain hoped to crush the rebellion fast. When that failed, fighting shifted to the middle states, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a grinding stalemate of marches and winters like Valley Forge. After 1778 the British turned south, betting that Loyalist support in Georgia and the Carolinas could roll the war back northward. It never did.
The hinge is Saratoga, New York, in 1777. A full British army under Burgoyne surrendered there, and the win convinced France that the Americans could actually win and were worth backing openly. France's entry turned a colonial rebellion into a global war: French ships and soldiers now threatened Britain's empire everywhere, from the Caribbean to India, forcing London to split its attention and resources far beyond the thirteen colonies.
That global pressure pays off at Yorktown in 1781. Cornwallis dug in on the Virginia coast expecting resupply or rescue by sea, but a French fleet sealed the Chesapeake Bay while Washington's and Rochambeau's combined armies closed in by land. Cut off from the ocean, Cornwallis had no way out and surrendered. It is the clearest proof that this war was won by coordinated armies, navies, and diplomacy working together, not by irregular militia alone, and it set the stage for the peace negotiations and the harder work of building a government that follows.
Key terms
- Saratoga
- 1777 battle in New York where an entire British army surrendered, convincing France to enter the war openly.
- Continental Army
- The regular American fighting force commanded by George Washington, as opposed to local militia.
- Yorktown
- 1781 Virginia siege where French naval power and combined land forces trapped Cornwallis, forcing his surrender.
- Franco-American alliance
- The 1778 treaty in which France recognized American independence and committed ships and troops to the war.
- Southern strategy
- Britain's post-1778 plan to retake the colonies by relying on Loyalist support in Georgia and the Carolinas.
Watch it explained
- How it worksWalk me through the war as three phases on a map: New England, then the middle states, then the South.
- How it worksHow does Saratoga in 1777 turn a colonial rebellion into a global war against Britain?
- Worked exampleTrace the Yorktown campaign in 1781 with the French fleet closing the Chesapeake behind Cornwallis.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the Revolution won mainly by militia sniping from behind trees?
Check yourself
End of topic.