Washington began earning decorations by arming troops from the Virginia colony to support the British Empire during the Franco-Indian War (1754-1763), a conflict he unwittingly helped initiate.
The Continental Congress appointed Washington Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in 1775. The following year, the British were evicted from Boston, lost the city of New York and were defeated in Trenton, New Jersey, to the surprise caused by Washington crossing the river Delaware. Due to their strategy, revolutionary forces captured the two main British combat armies at the Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of Yorktown. In negotiation with Congress, the colonial states and the French allies, he maintained a weak army and a fragile nation amid the threats of disintegration and failure. After leading the American victory in the War of Independence, he resigned his military posts and returned to life in his Mount Vernon plantation, an act that brought him even more renown.
In 1787, he presided over the Philadelphia Convention that outlined the Constitution of the United States of America and in 1789, he was unanimously elected as the first president of the United States. He tried to create a nation capable of sustaining peace with its neighboring countries. His Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793 served as the basis for avoiding any involvement in foreign conflicts. He supported plans to build a strong central government by paying the national debt, implementing an effective fiscal system and creating a national bank. Washington avoided war and maintained a decade of peace with Great Britain with the signing of the Treaty Jay in 1795. For this reason it is considered as one of the fathers of the fatherland.
