The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which the Thirteen American Colonies broke from the British Empire and formed an independent nation, the United States of America. The war began with the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783 in which Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States. The American Revolution established the United States as a sovereign nation and set the course for a new era of democratic ideals of individual liberty and limited government.