The War for Independence

1775-1781

That’s Weird

• The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards.”

• Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

• The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bed frame. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep.

Fun Historical Facts

• Benjamin Franklin invented several things in his lifetime. Some of his inventions include: bifocals, urinary catheter, the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, odometer, and a tool called the long arm (to grasp objects too high for him to reach)

• Of Americas Founding Fathers who became president, only, George Washington did not go to college

• Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that U.S. Supreme Court justices have to be lawyers or have any kind of legal training at all (James Byrnes, was on the court from 1941 to 1942, had little formal education and never attended college)

Timeline

5/1775Second

Continental Congress (In response to

Lexington and Concord)

6/1775Battle of

Bunker Hill

7/1775Olive Branch

Petition (rejected by King George

III)

4/1776George

Washington applauds “Common

Sense”

6/1776Congress

urges each colony to

form its own government

7/1776Declaration of Independence

(Thomas Jefferson)

Bunker Hill-1775

• British drive Patriots from hill overlooking Boston, but suffer terrible losses

• Patriots show they will not be easily defeated

Long Island-1776

• British drive Washington’s army out of New York

• Many of Washington’s troops begin to desert

Trenton-1776

• Washington’s troops cross the Delaware River at night, surprising 1,500 Hessian Mercenaries winning an inspiring victory

Saratoga-1777

• Prior to Saratoga, France was ONLY financing the Americans

• Patriots defeat British in northern New York, leading the French to join American side

• This is a turning point in the war

Yorktown-1781

• Washington joined Lafayette’s forces pinning Cornwallis and his British forces in Yorktown

• Surrounded and with no escape, Cornwallis surrenders to Washington

• Last battle of war

Winning the War

Ch 4 Sec 4

Brain Scan

• 49 of people try to do this on an airplane. What is it?– Find their house

• The average household losses 3 of these a year. What are they?– Forks

• Every year 2,000 people are injured doing this in the kitchen. What is it?– Separating frozen food with a knife

Winning the War

• Friedrich von Steuben• Prussian drill captain

who turned the Continental Army into a formidable fighting force

• Marquis de Lafayette • Young Frenchman who

helped lobby for French reinforcements

Treaty of Paris-1783

• After the surrender of Yorktown, John Adams, Ben Franklin, and John Jay were sent to negotiate a peace treaty

• Confirmed colonial independence

• Set boundaries of the new nation

Did the war become a symbol of Liberty?

• Revolutionary ideals based on democratic principles, spread across the world (egalitarianism)

• But was the Revolution a true fight for democracy????

• Many problems lie ahead in the future!!!!

Questions?

Infer what problems may lie ahead for the 13 colonies?