The Revolutionary War created a new nation, with new maps that placed Boston on the eastern edge of a sovereign republic.
After the British evacuated from Boston in March 1776, the war shifted to other regions. The mid-Atlantic and South became critical battlegrounds, with their strategic ports and abundant land—much of which was the political domain of Indigenous nations. Across eastern North America, Continental and British forces sought control over resources, territory, and trade.
The British defeat at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781 marked the last major military engagement of the Revolution. Although the thirteen colonies had declared independence in 1776, Yorktown’s outcome strengthened their position and set the stage for final negotiations. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the war, securing independence for a new nation—one that didn’t yet have an agreed-upon name or territorial identity.
By this point, Boston’s role had shifted from a strategic center of military resistance to a powerful national symbol. The city that Britain had once viewed as a distant colonial port was now part of an expanding continental republic. Regions that had once been important to Boston, like Acadia, were now separated by an international border. New political lines, economic networks, and social geographies would redefine the city’s place in the United States—and the nation’s role in the world.