The Saratoga campaign is the 1777 American Revolutionary War campaign widely regarded as a turning point that encouraged French support.
British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne led the main British force south from Quebec through the Hudson River valley. The strategy aimed to divide New England from the other colonies, but American resistance disrupted the plan. The campaign included fighting in New York and Vermont, including the Battle of Bennington and the Battles of Saratoga.
Burgoyne surrendered his army to American General Horatio Gates on October 17, 1777. The surrender demonstrated that the American forces could defeat a major British army in the field.
The victory helped persuade France to enter a formal alliance with the United States in 1778. French military and financial assistance became a major factor in the later war. Saratoga is therefore often described as a turning point, although the war continued for several more years before the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781.