designed to strip away self-government in Massachusetts. The thirteen colonies stood together. When the first shots fired in the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 there began the American War of Independence. The Patriots then slowly took control of all thirteen colonies, ejecting all British officials by mid-1776. While the goal of attaining independence was sought by a majority known as Patriots, a minority known as the Loyalists wished to remain as British subjects loyal to the king. When the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, deliberations conducted by notable figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and John Adams resulted in a decision for full independence. Thus, the Declaration of Independence, unanimously ratified on July 4, 1776, was a radical and decisive break. The United States of America became the first colony in the world to successfully achieve independence in the modern era. According to R. R. Palmer the new American nation: inspired the sense of a new era. It added a new content to the concept of progress. It gave a whole new dimension to ideas of liberty and equality made familiar in the Enlightenment. It got people into the habit of thinking more concretely about political questions, and made them more readily critical of their own governments and society. It dethroned England and set up America as a model for those seeking a better world. In 1775, the Patriots established the Continental Army as a defense force. The British Army returned in force in August 1776, and captured New York City, which became their base until the war ended in 1783. The British, using their powerful navy, could capture major ports, but 90% of the Americans lived in rural areas where they had full control. After the capture of a British invasion force moving down from Canada in the Saratoga campaign of 1777, France entered the war as an ally of the US, and added the Netherlands and Spain as French allies. Britain suffered casualties which it could not replace and had no major allies and few friends in Europe. The British strategy was then refocused on the South, where they expected large numbers of Loyalists would fight alongside the regulars. Far fewer Loyalists took up arms than Britain needed; royal efforts to control the countryside in the South failed. When the British army tried to return to New