From 1775 to 1783, the thirteen British colonies along the east coast of North America, including Massachusetts and New York, and from Maryland south to Georgia, fought in the American Revolution or War of Independence. Frustrated with leadership and taxation laws coming from Britain, the colonies launched protests. This included reaction against the Tea Act of 1773, which allowed special concessions for the British East India Company. The Company was permitted to sell tea imported from China to the colonies without paying taxes, enraging the colonists.
The Continental Congress that represented the colonies gathered to draft a Declaration of Independence. Signed in 1776, it outlined their reasons for ending their colonial relationship to Britain. The military battles between the colonial militia and British soldiers continued for several more years. France joined the colonial forces and the war came to an end in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
When the war was over, the confederation of colonies became the United States of America. This new nation unsuccessfully attempted to gain territory in what is now eastern Canada and began to consider what lay to the west. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase from France added the central states, and in 1804, President Thomas Jefferson ordered the Lewis and Clark expedition across North America to the Pacific. This period coincided with many of the strategic and political developments in the Pacific Northwest, as well as with the burgeoning trade in furs that brought otter pelts to China and Chinese tea, silk, and porcelains to Boston Harbour.
