The Boston Tea Party
By 1770, there were thirteen colonies along the east coast of North America, all governed by Britain. But Britain was a long way away, and the people of the colonies became angry at the high taxes that the government made them pay.
A farmer from Virginia, George Washington, became the leader of the American army.
But the colonies did not say that they wanted to be fully independent until the summer of 1776. Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous 'Declaration of Independence', where he said that the king, George III, had broken his agreement with his people, because he had not let them have their rights: rights to life, freedom and happiness. The day of the Declaration of Independence is
another important American oliday, celebrated each year
on July 4.
The Americans finally won the war five years later, in October 1781, and
two years after that, they were free to govern themselves. In 1788 they made George Washington their first president.
In December 1773 a group of men threw
342 boxes of tea into the sea at Boston because they did not want to pay the British tax on it. This was the 'Boston Tea Party'.
The British government was
now angry too, and in April
1775 some Americans fought a group of British soldiers at Lexington and Concord, in Massachusetts. A few months later, after the Battle of Bunker Hill, near Boston, it was clear that Britain was at war with its American colonies.
George Washington
The thirteen colonies, which became known as 'states', grew by adding land to the south and west. In 1803, Jefferson, the third president, bought a piece of rich