The American Revolution: How a Colony Became a Nation

By the mid-1700s, Great Britain ruled thirteen COLONIES stretched along the eastern coast of North America. These colonies were home to farmers, merchants, craftspeople, and thousands of enslaved people who had no say in their own governance. Britain's Parliament passed laws and collected TAXES from the colonists, but colonists had no elected representatives in Parliament — a system they called TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. This felt deeply unjust to many colonists who believed they deserved the same rights as British citizens living in England. The tension building between Britain and the colonies would eventually ignite one of the most consequential revolutions in world history. Understanding why it happened is the first step to understanding how the United States was born.