Which 1781 battle ended the last major campaign of the American Revolutionary War?

The Siege of Yorktown ended the last major campaign of the American Revolutionary War in 1781.

American and French forces surrounded the British army commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. George Washington led the Continental Army, while the French army supported the operation on land. A French naval victory in the Chesapeake Bay prevented British ships from relieving Cornwallis or evacuating his troops.

The siege began in late September 1781. American and French troops gradually tightened their lines and captured key defensive positions. Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, effectively ending major combat in North America, although smaller military actions and political negotiations continued afterward.

Yorktown did not itself create legal independence. That outcome was formalized by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, when Britain recognized the United States as independent. Another common mix-up is Saratoga: the American victory there in 1777 was strategically crucial because it helped bring France into the war, but it did not end the conflict.