Inflation
- When Congress ran out of hard currency(silver and gold), it borrowed money by selling bonds to american investors and foriegn governments
- It also printed paper money called continentals. As congress printed more and more money, it’s value plunged, causing rising prices.
Profiteering
- With Congress struggling to equip the Army, Americans smuggle arms from europe
- Some government officials engaged in profiteering, selling scarce goods for a profit. Corrupt merchants either hoarded goods, or sold defective merchandise like spoiled meat, cheap shoes, and defective weapons.
Marquis De Lafayette
- A French military leader, Lafayette, offered great assistance to the american’s cause
- Joined Washington’s staff and was at Valley Forge
- He frequently lobbied for French reinforcements and led a command in Virginia during the last years of the War.
Friedrich Von Stuben
- A prussian captain and talented drill master Von Stuben volunteered his services to “make regular soldiers out of country bumpkins”.
- He taught them to stand at attention, execute field maneuvers, fire and reload quickly, and wield bayonets. With the help of European leaders, the Americans became an effective fighting force.
Charles Cornwallis
- After failing to capture the divisions lead by Lafayette and Von Stuben, Cornwallis camped at Yorktown in an effort to take Virginia
- However, he would lose and ultimately surrender.
Treaty of Paris
- In 1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which cofirmed the US Independence and set the boundaries of the new nation.
- The US now stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, and from Canada to the Florida border.
- After the war, European nations recognized the USA
Egalitarianism
- During the War, class distinctions between the Rich and Poor began to blur.
- These changes stimulated a rise of egalitarianism,______ . That belief fostered a new attitude, the idea that ability, effort, and virtue, defined one’s worth.