In 1775, tension had risen between Great Britain’s 13 North American Colonies and the colonial government that represented the British crown. Armed conflict between British troops and colonial militiamen broke out in April 1775 and by the following summer, a full-scale war for independence was raging. When France joined the conflict in 1778, the civil war became international. Americans finally won independence after the British surrender at Yorktown, although fighting would not stop until two years later.