While the war did lead to American independence, it was not strictly between England and the American colonies. By the end of the war, it had become an international conflict involving England, France, Spain, the Dutch Republic, several allied German states and several native american tribes.

A Second Continental Congress was convened which would act as a de-facto government for the colonies, denying the right of Parliament to govern the colonists without giving Americans equal representation in Parliament. That same year, British troops were dispatched to sieze arms from colonial militias in Massachusetts resulting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. After the fighting, both sides were stunned that the Americans had forced the British into a tactical retreat back into Boston, where they endured an 11-month siege.

In 1776, after attempts at reconciliation with the British king failed, the Second continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence, which severed all political ties to Britain and established the United States of America. The war raged on in colonial America for another five years. Major fighting in the colonies ended in 1781 with the defeat of British Lord General Charles Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown. The war didn't officially end until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.