Declaring Independence.

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The Congress dealt with the military crisis the colonies were in with England. It organized forces around Boston into the Continental Army and appointed George Washington to commander-in-chief. The Battle of Bunker Hill was the first major battle fought in the war. The colonists had made a fort on Bunker and Breeds Hills to fire on English ships approaching Boston. Thomas Gage ordered his British troops …

…later 7,000 British soldiers laid down their arms. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 meant the end of war and the recognition of the Americas as an independent country. The Continental Congress appointed John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens as a commission to conduct peace talks. The peace talks resulted in trade being established with England and the dividing of the North American continent being divided between the colonists, French, and Spanish.