The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a political conflict involving the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain, culminating in the American Revolutionary War and the independence of the colonies as the United States. The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in 1775. The following year, the Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. Throughout most of the war, the outcome appeared uncertain. However, in 1781, a decisive victory by Washington and the Continental Army in the Siege of Yorktown led King George III and the British to negotiate the cessation of colonial rule and the acknowledgment of American independence, formalized in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Discontent with colonial rule began shortly after the French and Indian War in 1763. Even though the colonies had fought in and supported the war, the British Parliament imposed new taxes to compensate for wartime costs and transferred control of the colonies' western lands to British officials in Montreal. Representatives from several colonies convened the Stamp Act Congress in 1765; its "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" argued that taxation without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. In 1767, tensions flared again following British Parliament's passage of the Townshend Acts. In an effort to quell the mounting rebellion, King George III deployed British troops to Boston, where they killed protesters in the Boston Massacre in 1770. In December 1773, Sons of Liberty activists instigated the Boston Tea Party, during which they dumped chests of tea owned by the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. London responded by enacting a series of punitive laws, which effectively ended self-government in Massachusetts but also intensified the revolutionary cause.

In 1774, twelve of the Thirteen Colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress; the Province of Georgia joined in 1775. The First Continental Congress began coordinating Patriot resistance through underground networks of committees. Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Continental Army surrounded Boston, forcing the British to withdraw in March 1776, and leaving Patriots in control in every colony. In August 1775, King George III proclaimed Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. In 1776, the Second Continental Congress began deliberating the Articles of Confederation, an effort to establish a self-governing rule of law. On July 2, they passed the Lee Resolution, affirming their support for independence, and on July 4, 1776, they unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, which famously proclaimed that "all men are created equal".

The Revolutionary War continued for another five years during which France ultimately entered the war, supporting the colonial cause. On September 28, 1781, Washington led the Continental Army's most decisive victory at the Siege of Yorktown, leading to the collapse of King George's control of Parliament and consensus in Parliament that the war should be ended on American terms. On September 3, 1783, the British signed the Treaty of Paris, ceding to the new nation nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes. The United States became the first large-scale modern nation to establish a federal constitutional republic based on a written constitution, extending the principles of consent of the governed and the rule of law over a continental territory, albeit with the significant democratic limitations typical of the era.

After the Glorious Revolution in Great Britain and subsequent copycat revolts in Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland between 1688 and 1692, Great Britain unofficially adopted a policy of "salutary neglect," or leaving the colonies alone to govern themselves.^{[citation needed]} As a result of this new policy, as well as the ideals of liberty which had been borne out of the Glorious Revolution, new government systems (as exemplified by William Penn's Frame of Government of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Charter of 1691), religious institutions (as exemplified by the democratic nature of Congregational Protestantism in New England and the First Great Awakening across the colonies), and, occasionally, attitudes towards slavery (as exemplified by Massachusetts and, at least initially, Georgia banning the practice) emerged, though the latter of these three was less common. This British policy changed significantly after the French and Indian War, during which the British state had spent heavily to protect the colonies, prompting the Thirteen Colonies to seek greater autonomy from Britain. Partially out of existential fear that the colonies would one day eclipse Great Britain itself as the center of the British Empire, the British political establishment, especially after taking massive swaths of land from the former territories of New France, felt the need to assert their authority over colonial affairs. After the Revolution, one colonist, Capt. Levi Preston, of Danvers, Massachusetts, was asked why the Americans rebelled against England, responded, "…we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should."

The Thirteen Colonies were established in the 17th century as part of the English Empire and became parts of the British Empire after the union of England and Scotland in 1707. The development of a unique American identity can be traced to the English Civil War (1642–1651) and its aftermath.^{[citation needed]} The Puritan colonies of New England supported the Commonwealth government responsible for the execution of King Charles I. After the Stuart Restoration of 1660, Massachusetts did not recognize Charles II as the legitimate king for more than a year after his coronation. In King Philip's War (1675–1678), the New England colonies fought a handful of Native American tribes without military assistance from England, thereby contributing to the development of a uniquely American identity separate from that of the British people.

In the 1680s, Charles and his brother, James II, attempted to bring New England under direct English control. The colonists fiercely opposed this, and the Crown nullified their colonial charters in response. In 1686, James finalized these efforts by consolidating the separate New England colonies along with New York and New Jersey into the Dominion of New England. Edmund Andros was appointed royal governor and tasked with governing the new Dominion under his direct rule. Colonial assemblies and town meetings were restricted, new taxes were levied, and rights were abridged. Dominion rule triggered bitter resentment throughout New England. When James tried to rule without Parliament, the English aristocracy removed him from power in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This was followed by the 1689 Boston revolt, which overthrew Dominion rule. Colonial governments reasserted their control after the revolt. The new monarchs, William and Mary, granted new charters to the individual New England colonies, and local democratic self-government was restored.

After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the British Empire became a constitutional monarchy with sovereignty in the King-in-Parliament. Aristocrats inherited seats in the House of Lords, while the gentry and merchants controlled the elected House of Commons. The king ruled through cabinet ministers who depended on majority support in the Commons to govern effectively. British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic proudly claimed that the unwritten British constitution, with its guarantees of the rights of Englishmen, protected personal liberty better than any other government. It served as the model for colonial governments. The Crown appointed a royal governor to exercise executive power. Property owners elected a colonial assembly with powers to legislate and levy taxes, but the British government reserved the right to veto colonial legislation.