BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
However, as far as wars go, it was not much of a war. The units of the Continental army commanded by George Washington fought in nine battles and won only three of them. Major battles between two large armies or naval forces were extremely rare. The most common events were short-lived engagements, many being skirmishes, which involved less than 200 or 300 men on each side. On the high seas, short battles involving two or three ships were far more common than extended fighting between fleets. Less than 8,000 Americans who resisted the armed forces of the Crown and who were registered in a militia unit or the Continental army died on the battlefield. More than that died of disease and other non-battle-related causes. And even more than that also died as prisoners of war. The number of non-registered colonists who fought for and against the Crown is not known. The total number of men, women and children who died while fighting for the colonial cause will never be known. Nor will we ever know the number of civilians who died as victims of the war.
One way to view the American Revolutionary War is that it started as a civil war between the colonists and the homeland. Once the colonies voted for independence from the British Empire in 1776, the conflict became a war of separation or a war to remain independent. One might even refer to the events as a war of secession from the empire (from the perspective of the opposition colonists) and a war to preserve the empire (from Parliament's perspective).
Within weeks of hearing the news of Cornwallis' surrender, Parliament decided to end its military campaign against the American colonies. This would free up both the army and navy to concentrate on preserving other parts of the empire.
The armed struggles between loyalists to and opponents of British rule within each colony were parts of a civil war in each colony. These within-colony civil wars included widespread terrorist acts, massacres, brutality and destruction of property by both sides. The extent of the brutality and violence by the members of both sides in these civil wars shocked even the soldiers of the Crown.
For some, the American Revolution was a war. This, however, was not the case for everyone. The leaders of the Revolution separated the revolution from the war. John Adams claimed that the Revolution had occurred before the first shot was fired in the war. The American Revolutionary War--or the War for Independence--was the second world war in human history. Battles were fought and men were killed, wounded or captured either on land or off the coast of five continents. The Seven Years War (better known to Americans as the French and Indian War [1754-1763]), fought by Britain against France and Spain, was the first world war.
The conventional dates for this war are April 19, 1775, to October 17, 1781. The first date is associated with the military engagements at Lexington and Concord and along the route from Concord to Boston. Whether any of these events in Massachusetts were battles is still being debated. The date marking the end of the major military part of the war coincides with General Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, Virginia. However, small-scale fighting occurred in several colonies for a period of months after Cornwallis' defeat. The signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 is another date used to represent the end of this war.