The closing of independence from Great Britain by the people of the 13 Colonies. Calling themselves the United States of America, these people wrote a Declaration of Independence, defied the authority of their main country, and ended up winning a war to protect that independence. The Revolution certainly ended with the victory in the Revolutionary War; however, the Revolution began long before that, maybe even with the settlement in America (far away from England) of people who wanted to govern themselves and who wanted to have a direct say in the way they were governed.