Which two battles in Massachusetts marked the opening of the American Revolutionary War?

The Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the opening of the American Revolutionary War.

The fighting took place on April 19, 1775, in Massachusetts. British troops marched from Boston toward Concord to seize colonial military supplies. Local militia confronted the British first at Lexington, where shots were exchanged, and later at Concord, where colonial forces resisted the advance.

The British column then retreated toward Boston under repeated attacks from militia members gathered from surrounding communities. The day transformed a political crisis into open warfare. It followed years of disputes over taxation, representation, imperial authority, and the military occupation of Boston.

The battles are often associated with the phrase “the shot heard round the world,” but the phrase was coined later by Ralph Waldo Emerson in a poem. Lexington and Concord were not the first violent clashes between colonists and British authorities, yet they began the sustained armed conflict that became the Revolutionary War.