Now what do you think about when you think about the American Revolution? American rebels dumping tea into the Boston River. Washington’s armies armed with guns and bayonets charging towards those Brits. Paul Revere on horseback. You’ve seen the movies: The Patriot, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Crossing. You’ve got a pretty good idea on what went down. But did you know that the American Revolutionary War was a war that was fought and won at sea? Did you know that it was, in fact, a “world war”?

This week, on Invisible Cities, Uma and author Sam Willis talk about how thirteen isolated colonies, who, in 1775 began a war with Britain without a navy or an army, won their independence from the greatest naval and military power on earth?