Victory and Confederation

Or Victory In Spite of the Odds

• Spain and France had secretly sent arms to the Patriots• To weaken Britain’s global power

• The Patriots tried to convince France to send troops but the French wanted to make sure the Patriots could win

• At the Battle of Saratoga, the Patriots won

• The French government formally recognized the Patriots’ cause and entered the war as their ally

• In 1781, British General Cornwallis decided to invade Virginia• If the Americans continued to control

Virginia, more troops and supplies would enter the South and help the Patriots

• But then something happened• The British were defeated at the Battle

of Yorktown

• During the surrender, a British military band played a popular nursery tune, ‘The World Turn’d Upside Down’

• The Treaty of Paris, was signed on September 3, 1783• John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and

John Jay conducted most of the negotiations for the United States

• And a new nation was born• The United States of America

• But even before independence, the Patriots had created a document for the new nation

• It was called the Articles of Confederation• And it created a weak central

government

• After all, they had just fought against a powerful king• So, naturally, they feared a powerful

government

• The Articles only created a Congress• No President• No Supreme Court

• And that Congress did not even have the power to tax – to levy taxes

• No power to regulate foreign trade• Approval of nine states to enact new laws• Could not regulate trade between states• And there was no national army

• A violent rebellion against state taxes in Massachusetts – Shays’ Rebellion – made Americans realize that they did need a stronger government

• But there was one accomplishment• The Northwest Ordinance• It established a method for a new territory

to become a new states