-Congress votes for independence

-British Redcoats landed at undefended Staten Island

-Started the Battle of Long Island

-Washington leaves Boston and heads to NY

-32,000 British, under Howe, greatly outnumber Washington

-storm comes in and heavy fog lets Washington escape

-British chase and Washington suffers series of defeats

-Dominant

-Larger

-More experienced

-Well trained

PROS:

-know the land

-have a reason to fight

-legistics

foreign support

CONS:

-outnumbered

-supplies and funds

-unorganized and untrained

-Washington and 2,400 troops cross the Delware on Christmas night, 1776

-surprise a garrison of 1,500 sleeping Hessians

-total rout for the Americans

-huge morale boost for the Americans

-British missed a lot of opportunities

-Americans realized a long, drawn out, guerrilla war will be most successful (British will go into debt, lose heart, and eventually foreign aid will come)

-made up about 1/5 of the population

-lived in port cities (British Trade)

-located in backwoods of S.C. (not affected by taxes)

-about 1/3 of the population

-decreasing the already small army

-Washington gives a small dosage of the disease to his soldiers to build up immunity and it works

-British plan to split the NE colonies from the rest of the colonies

-Howe captures Philly (accomplishes nothing)

-Valley Forge

-Saratoga

-Burgoyne moving south to NY to meet with Howe

-Moves very slow and gives Patriots time to grow in size

-Gates surrounds British and captures a huge number

-Proves to English and French that the war is legit