The French and Indian War was costly for the British. To help pay for it, they raised taxes in the colonies. Like colonists elsewhere, New Yorkers were angered by the taxes, and many were ready to fight for independence. The Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1765, was the last straw. It taxed paper products, newspapers, books, and even playing cards. It added to the burdens already placed on the colonies by the earlier Sugar Act.

In 1765, the colonists conened a Stamp Act Congress in New York City to protest the burdensome taxes. The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but passed the Townsend Acts, which imposed taxes on glass, paper, and tea, among other items. The movement toward independence was now unstoppable.

When representaties of all the colonies signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Americans were formally at war with Great Britain. One-third of the Reolutionary War (177583) battles were fought in present-day New York State. In 1776, British troops landed on Staten Island, were ferried over to Brooklyn, and engaged George Washington's outnumbered forces in a series of battles at Long Island, Manhattan, and White Plains. The British captured New York City and held it until the end of the war.

In 1777, a powerful British army from Canada tried to take control of the Hudson river. The British experienced their first major defeat at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. The American ictory persuaded France to join the war on the side of the colonies.

The Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the war, was negotiated by John Adams, Ben Franklin, Henry Laurens, and New Yorker John Jay.

The Reolution had taken a heay toll on the farms andvillages of New York. One-third of Manhattan lay in charred ruins. And about 30,000 New Yorkers who had beven loyal to Great Britain had left the state.

New York ratified the U.S. Constitution on July 26, 1788, and became the 11th state in the new Union. New York City was the capital of the country from 1785 to 1790. Natie Americans on the frontier were defeated in a series of skirmishes, and white settlers quickly moved into the central and western areas of the state.

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