What are the causes and course of the American Revolutionary War?

Question

What are the causes and course of the American Revolutionary War?

Answer 1

Responses are slow to come here because the answer requires a book.

Short answer - Cause = Taxes

The American colonists did NOT like paying taxes to Britain,

BUT - less than half of Americans really wanted independence.

Some wanted to stay British and many wanted to stay out of any war and be left alone.

Course of the War - Washington's Continental Army managed to stay in the field - to not be totally eliminated - despite losing most of the battles.  3 of the 4 major cities in America were taken by the British: New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, but the American army was never annihilated.

Finally - French involvement ended the war - not just the infantry and ships supplied by the French at Yorktown in October 1781, but the French threat to more important British colonies - especially in the Caribbean where sugar plantations made a great deal of money - that led Britain to just give up on the long drawn out and expensive war with the 13 American colonies.  The British realized that it wasn't worth the continued effort.  The Americans did not realize when they had been defeated.   People were supposed to surrender when you took all of their major cities.

Of course it is all much more involved that this. I doubt that you want a 100 page answer.