The American Revolution

CHAPTER 2 · 1775–1783 · The Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848

It begins at the ✕ by Boston: on 19 April 1775, redcoats marching to seize militia gunpowder trade fire at Lexington and Concord and lose 273 men on the retreat. For six years the war seesaws — Washington’s genius is less winning battles than keeping an army in being while Congress keeps a cause in being. The British arrows on your map show the plan that should have worked: Howe takes New York, then Philadelphia; Burgoyne drives down from Canada to cut New England off. But Burgoyne’s column dies in the woods at Saratoga in October 1777 — and that defeat, more than any victory, decides the war,

The turn: Saratoga, 17 October 1777.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.