United States

===American Revolution and Revolutionary War===
{{Main|American Revolution|American Revolutionary War}}
{{Further|History of the United States (1776–1789)|History of the United States (1789–1815)}}
[[File:Declaration_independence.jpg|alt=See caption|thumb|''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'', a portrait by [[John Trumbull]] depicting the [[Committee of Five]] presenting the draft of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration]] to the [[Second Continental Congress|Continental Congress]] on June 28, 1776, in [[Philadelphia]]]]
After winning the [[French and Indian War]], Britain began to assert greater control over local colonial affairs, creating [[American Revolution|colonial political resistance]]; one of the primary colonial grievances was a denial of their [[Rights of Englishmen|rights as Englishmen]], particularly the right to [[No taxation without representation|representation in the British government that taxed them]]. In 1774, the [[First Continental Congress]] met in [[Philadelphia]], and passed a [[Continental Association|colonial boycott of British goods]] that proved effective. The British attempt to then disarm the colonists resulted in the 1775 [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]], igniting the [[American Revolutionary War]]. At the [[Second Continental Congress]], the colonies appointed [[George Washington]] commander-in-chief of the [[Continental Army]] and created [[Committee of Five|a committee]] led by [[Thomas Jefferson]] to write the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], adopted on July 4, 1776.<ref name="YoungNash20112">{{cite book |author1=Fabian Young, Alfred |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEzaLJ4u_MEC&pg=PA4 |title=Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation |author2=Nash, Gary B. |author3=Raphael, Ray |publisher=Random House Digital |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-307-27110-5 |pages=4–7}}</ref> The political values of the American Revolution included [[liberty]]'','' [[Natural rights and legal rights|inalienable individual rights]]; and the [[Popular sovereignty|sovereignty of the people]];<ref>Yick Wo vs. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 370</ref> supporting [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]] and rejecting [[monarchy]], [[aristocracy]], and hereditary political power; virtue and faithfulness in the performance of civic duties; and vilification of [[corruption]].<ref>Richard Buel, ''Securing the Revolution: Ideology in American Politics, 1789–1815'' (1972)</ref> The [[Founding Fathers of the United States]], which included George Washington, [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[John Jay]], [[James Madison]], [[Thomas Paine]], and [[John Adams]], were inspired by [[Greco-Roman world|Greco-Roman]], [[Renaissance]], and [[Age of Enlightenment]] philosophies and ideas.<ref>Becker et al (2002), ch 1</ref><ref name="SEoP-2006">{{cite web |date=19 June 2006 |title=Republicanism |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/republicanism/ |access-date=20 September 2022 |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref>

After the British surrender at the [[siege of Yorktown]] in 1781, American sovereignty was internationally recognized by the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)]], through which the U.S. gained territory stretching west to the Mississippi River, north to present-day Canada, and south to [[Spanish Florida]].<ref>{{cite web |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=Hunter |title=British-American Diplomacy: The Paris Peace Treaty of September 30, 1783 |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/paris.asp |publisher=The Avalon Project at Yale Law School}}</ref> Ratified in 1781, the [[Articles of Confederation]] established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.<ref name="YoungNash20112" /> The [[Northwest Ordinance]] (1787) established the precedent by which the country's territory would expand with the [[Admission to the Union|admission of new states]], rather than the expansion of existing states.<ref>Shōsuke Satō, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PY0VAAAAYAAJ History of the land question in the United States]'', Johns Hopkins University, (1886), p. 352</ref> The [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] was drafted at the 1787 [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] to overcome the limitations of the Articles; it went into effect in 1789, creating a federation administered by [[Separation of powers|three branches]] on the principle of [[checks and balances]].{{sfn|Foner|2020|p=524}} Washington [[1788–89 United States presidential election|was elected]] the country's first president under the Constitution, and the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] was adopted in 1791 to allay concerns by skeptics of the more centralized government;{{sfn|OpenStax|2014|loc=§ [https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/8-1-competing-visions-federalists-and-democratic-republicans 8.1]}}{{sfn|Foner|2020|pp=538-540}} [[George Washington's resignation as commander-in-chief#Legacy|his resignations first as commander-in-chief]] after the Revolution and later as president set a precedent followed by [[John Adams]], establishing the [[Peaceful transition of power|peaceful transfer of power]] between rival parties.<ref name="BoyerJr.20072">[[United States#Boyer|Boyer, 2007]], pp. 192–193</ref>{{sfn|OpenStax|2014|loc=§ [https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/8-1-competing-visions-federalists-and-democratic-republicans 8.3]}}