The War of American Independence began June 17, 1775 (at the Battle of Bunker Hill) between the British and insurgent Thirteen Colonies: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. Any New England has a population of about 2.5 million. The British could count on an army of 30,000 professional soldiers (disciplined, experienced, well armed and well paid) and the best generals in Europe, not to mention 700 warships, 2,000 merchant ships to transport troops and ammunition, as well as 150,000 sea. A formidable force! But American independence was gained at the cost of a long war of seven years, resulting in the sinking of the British.
The War of American Independence
As for the American rebels, they had only 18 000 to 20 000 men inexperienced - and sometimes even their number has reduced to 3000 men capable of fighting - had no navy and had only few well-trained general. The insurgents received no further than an army of volunteer militiamen poorly equipped, half men and half farmers. In many colonies, it will eventually require military service for all white men between the ages of 16 and 60. However, remained generally exempt from conscription administration members, pastors, students and professors from Yale, blacks, Indians and mulattos. It was a lot of people! It was also possible to escape this obligation by paying the sum of five pounds.
Furthermore, the colonists of New England were far from being all inclusive and anti-royalist. They were divided between those who advocated independence - the patriots and Republicans - and those who wanted to remain British - the Loyalists (or royal). Several terms were used to identify antagonists in the American colonies: Roundhead Puritans or (for their strict religious beliefs) associated with the Whigs against Tories associated with Monarchist. It now refers to the monarchists by Loyalists in the U.S., but Canada has long used the term United Empire Loyalists (United Empire Loyalists). As we know, the "loyalists" faithful to the mother country sided with the British and fled to Canada. That said, many people remained neutral.
At this time there appeared the word Yankee. According to a probable etymology (OED), this would be a nickname used by British soldiers to describe their opponents. Yankee comes from the Dutch word Yanke meaning "little Jan". This nickname would have appeared among the British troops as xenophobic pun intended to refer to foreign insurgents and discredit the true nature of their rebellion. The inhabitants of the colonies would have taken this derogatory term to their account through a process of semantic bravado. After independence, the English continue to use the term Yankee to refer to Americans. There was talk of the people of New England, saying "the New England or Yankee country." For their part, the French have a different interpretation of the word Yankee. According to them, it would be a distortion of the Indians of Massachusetts in the word Français Yenghi, Yanghis and Yankees. The dictionary Littré wrote in 1877:
Yankee. N.m. Nickname by which the British refer familiarly, and with a kind of smear, the people of the United States of North America. That's the word Francais, English, disfigured by the pronunciation of the redskins.
Littré cites no authority in support of his description, but certainly contradicts the definition Anglo-Saxon tradition.
On July 4, 1776, the American colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, a highly educated lawyer and Francophile at the age of 33, then November 15, 1777, the Articles of Confederation. When the Americans declared their independence, they formed a population of 2.5 million inhabitants, of which 1.95 million whites, 520,000 blacks and about 100,000 Indians. Benjamin Franklin noted, while the population doubled every twenty years. It was during the summer of 1782 that Franklin wrote the outline of the treaty calling for full independence, access to fishing grounds of the new territories, evacuation by British forces from occupied areas and the establishment of a western border on the banks of the Mississippi.
Declaration of Independence
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