On April 19, 1775, the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington, Massachusetts. For six and a half years, the American colonists fought the British for their independence. They won that independence on October 19, 1781 when the British forces surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. What had started as a fight for the rights of English people in the 13 colonies ended in the creation of an independent nation — the United States of America. This war is also called the American Revolution and the American War of Independence.