The American Revolution ; A8 i, v' y0 \# @& T. } The War of Revolution between America and Britain began in April 1775 in *Lexington, Massachusetts, when soldiers from each side met and somebody fired a shot. It was called the 'shot heard round the world' because the war that followed changed the future of the *British Empire and America. But the American Revolution, the movement to make an independent nation, began many years earlier.