American History The time table of History （ 1607 — 1733 ） the establishment of North America colony belonged to England （ 1774 — 1783 ） War of Independence.

American History

The time table of History （ 1607—1733） the establishment of North America colony

belonged to England （ 1774—1783 ） War of Independence

（ 1781—1814 ） The founding of independent national sovereignty

（ 1814—1861） the different development of economy between the North and the South in the eve of war between the states （ 1814—1861） the diplomacy and polity before the war of states.

（ 1861—1877） the war of states and period of rebuilding

The time table of History（ 1877—1900 ） rapid economic development in the late of 18

00’s.（ 1889—1914） the inside and outside policy before the first

world war （ 1914—1930） the America between the first world war and

the late of 1920’s （ 1930—1940） the America in1930’s

（ 1941—1945） the America during the second world war    (1945—present） the America after the second world war     

After the discovery of New World, Spanish and Portuguese overrun ( 侵占 ) the vast land of what is today called Latin America. North America was visited mainly by explorers and traders. Portugal set up colonies in Brazil. Spain explored and colonized much of the South America and Mexico. They drove into Mexico, explored Florida, and entered the Mississippi River Basin. They went as far as California and built some settlements. Spain remained the dominant ( 占优势的 ) force in America and the dominant naval power in Europe. The French built settlements along the St. Lawrence River ( 圣劳伦斯河 ) and in the Great Lakes ( 北美五大湖 ) region.

The Founding of the Colonies

The Founding of the Colonies

At about the same time, some English adventures were also exploring the coast of North America. In 1588, the English navy destroyed the Spanish Armada ( 无敌舰队 ) and controlled the main sea routes. This marked a turning point in the course of American history, for the English began to replace the Spaniards as the most important colonists in North America. The first English settlement in the New World was established (set up) in Virginia in 1607. Between 1607 and 1733 the British established 13 colonies along the east coast of North America. The early settlers in all these 13 colonies were from different European countries, but the majority of them came from England.

The Founding of the Colonies

In the 17th century, England found itself fighting against France for world leadership in many parts of the world after having defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 and take the place of Spain as a world power. Its contest with France for the North American Continent never ceased. In 1754 there broke out what has been known as the French and Indian War (also called the Seven years’ War in Europe). Fighting began in North America in 1754 and in Europe in 1756.

The Founding of the Colonies

The Founding of the Colonies Large number of troops came

from England to join the fight against the French and their Indian allies. The war lasted 8 years and in the end the French were completely defeated. The English conquered Canada and the upper Mississippi valley and the French lost their last hope for controlling North America. As a result of the War, France ceased to be a major power in North America, but England became an important world power.

Relations Between the

Colonies and England

Each year large quantities of tobacco, cotton, grain, wine and other raw materials went to Britain from the colonies in return for Britain’s manufactured goods. Meanwhile, Britain’s merchants and adventurers reaped (gain) much money by transporting black slaves to America. On the other hand, the colonies also needed the support of their mother country.

At that time other European countries, especially France, were trying to enlarge their control in North America and this certainly endangered the existence of the English colonies and limited their expansion.

Relations Between the Colonies and England

Besides, there were the Indians to deal with. Since the expansion of the English colonies reduced the size of forests and took up much fertile soil, many Indians found it more and more difficult to make a living by hunting and farming. Whole tribes of Indians thus began to attack the English colonies. The French and the English each tried to make use of angry Indians to attack the other. After the war with French, the British government took further actions to fasten (strengthen) its control over the 13 American colonies.

…

Britain passed laws taxing (to place a tax on) sugar, cloth, wine and other goods. In 1765, the Stamp Act ( 印花税法案 ) was passed by the English parliament. These stamps had to be pasted ( 贴 ) on all newspapers and many other important papers (document). Many Americans became very angry about this tax. They refused to pay it. They warned others not to pay it. The colonies joined together and sent a message to Britain. They asked that the stamp tax be stopped. The British didn’t agree.

Relations Between the Colonies and England

Relations Between the Colonies and England

The Boston tea is famous in America. Americans were very fond of tea, and much tea was brought to the port of Boston. The British Government was looking for more ways to get money out of America. So it put a big tax on tea. They made the Bostonians angry. On the night of December 16, 1773, they rushed to the port and boarded a ship and threw all the tea, which was from China, into the sea. This is called “Boston Tea Party” (“ 波士顿倾茶事件” ). It led to a war between the people of Boston and the British soldiers and it was the immediate cause (direct cause) of the War of Independence.

Relations Between the Colonies and England

The British government was thus forced to take actions. Otherwise (or else), it would lose face before the world for its failure to control its own colonies. The Boston port was closed until the tea was paid for.

Continental Congress In the face of such a situation, the repr

esentatives from 12 colonies held a meeting in Philadelphia t o talk about their troubles with their mother country in September of 1774. This meeting was called the First Continental Congress. They stated (announced) that they were loyal to the king of England. They drew up a petition ( 请愿书 ) asking the king to grant (agree) self-government to colonies. They agreed not to import any goods from England until England repealed all the unfair laws.

Continental Congress

Neither parliament nor king listened to the petition of the First Continental Congress. Matters grew rapidly worse as England planned to send more soldiers to enforce (carry out) the law. It was impossible to deal with this problem by peaceful means. Both sides prepared to fight it out. All that was needed was a spark to light the flame of a war.

Continental Congress

The spark came in the Boston area on April 19, 1775. The commander of the British troops sent some British troops to arrest the revolutionaries. When the British troops, after a night of marching, reached the village of Lexington. Shots (gunfight) soon broke out from both sides. Many Americans nearby heard the shots and began to prepare themselves. The British soldiers were fired on from behind. It marked the beginning of the War of Independence.

保罗 里维尔的飞骑

Continental Congress

The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1775, in a house which later became known as Independence Hall. The representatives of the colonies agreed to take steps to (try to) organize an American army and appointed George Washington Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. The Congress also decided to ask help from other countries, especially France. The colonies were preparing for armed struggles. The British government was also preparing to fight a war.

The Declaration of

Independence

The colonies declared that they favored (like) independence. Finally Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were appointed to draw up the declaration of independence.

. The situation of drawing up the declaration of independence

The Congress adopted (passed) the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, a day which has been celebrated each year as Independence Day or National Day in the United States. The Declaration of Independence declared: “All men are created equal ( 人人生而平等 ). It is the right of the people to set up a new government.” A new nation, the United States of America was born.

The Declaration of IndependenceWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men

are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Right, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these right, Governments are instituted among Men…That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.

我们认为下面这些真理是不言而喻的 : 人人生而平等，造物者赋予他们若干不可剥夺的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。为了保障这些权利 ，人类才在他们之间建立政府……当任何形式的政府对这些目标具有破坏作用时，人民便有权力改变或废除它，以建立一个新的政府。

……

We therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America… in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

我们以这些殖民地的善良人民的名义和权利谨庄严宣告：这些联合殖民地从此成为，而且理应成为自由独立的合众国，它们解除对英王的一切隶属关系，而它们与大不列颠王国的一切政治联系也应从此完全废止；作为自由独立的国家，它们完全有权宣战、缔结条约、结盟、通商并采取独立国家有权采取的一切行动。

The colonies were not in a very favorable position and the war did not go well for Americans at first, because the British army was the finest and strongest in the world. The British had a navy to control the sea and a highly-developed industry and commerce to keep the army well supplied, while the American army was composed mainly of farmers and small traders, who were poorly trained and equipped. The English navy was the strongest with about 800 battle ships while the colonies had practically (nearly) none at the start of the war. The colonies had a population of about 3 million while England had about 10 million. Their manufacture (制造业 ) was not developed because of England’s colonial policy while England was the most advanced country in manufacture. What is more, there was no strong central government to raise money to support the American army.

The American Revolution

But the Americans had one thing which the English soldier lacked (be short of): high morale ( 士气 ). All this determined (decide) that the war would be tortuous ( 曲折的 ) and long.

The American soldiers endured (bear) great hardships during the winter due to their poor equipment and the extreme (very) cold. Washington proved himself to be an able leader. Franklin obtained (gain) aid from France for the Americans

After 1777, the war began to go against ( 不利于 ) the British troops. The Americans could start successful surprise attacks and kept the British soldiers on the run. In 1777, the Americans defeated the British troops in Saratoga. The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point for the Americans. As a result, the French who had a strong navy, agreed to join the war against Britain.

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In 1781, Washington with the help of the French army, encircled British troops at Yorktown on October 19. The same year, the British troops surrendered. The war ended in victory for the Americans. The peace treaty was signed in 1783. England admitted the independence of the United States. The colonists had won their freedom

The war won independence for the 13 states and started a new stage (period) in American history. The next thing for the Americans to do was to organize a new nation state and establish their central government.

The Influences of the American War of Independence

The American War of Independence was both a national liberation war and a Bourgeois revolution. The British colonial rule was overthrown and a new independent national country was set up.

The American War of Independence shows that a weak nation can defeat a strong one. It was a historic event: by smashing the fetters ( 束缚 ) of British colonial rule, the American people gained independence, which gave capitalism a chance for rapid development.

It was the first large-scale revolutionary movement of a colonial people against national oppression ( 民族压迫 ). It had great international influences. The American Revolution directly led to the French Revolution in 1789 and some (about) forty years later, the Spanish America ( 西属美洲 ) rose up one after another to overthrown Spanish-America colonial rule.

New Problem After Independence

After America won her formal independence in 1783, there appeared new problems for the newly independent states to deal with. According to the peace treaty with Britain, the new nation had an area of about 2 million square kilometers with a population of about 3.5 million. The territory extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. Most of her people lived in the 13 states or near the Atlantic coast. Of the total continental area (from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean), more than two-thirds was not occupied by the Americans yet. The first problem was how to make use of the new land west of the Appalachians ( 阿巴拉契亚山 ).

Immediately (at once) after independence, the 13 states were not very closely united (hold together). Many of them had the belief that the peace treaty had provided independence for each state, not for united country. But soon new difficulties force them to give up their false belief. After the 13 colonies won their independence, Britain reduced its importation ( 进口 ) from America. American farmers and manufacturers found it hard to sell their products abroad.

They lost much of her foreign market. What was even worse, their domestic (internal) market was flooded with (full of) foreign goods because there was no strong central government to protect it. Prices of farm products dropped sharply in the years after the war.

Nearly all the people realized that something had to be done, but the problems were so serious and wide spread that no state alone (by oneself) could deal with. Many began to see the importance of a strong central government. The Congress, set up during the Revolutionary War and still in existence, but it was too weak to deal with these problems. Sixty-five delegates (representative), including Washington and the 81-year-old Franklin, met and discussed the problems facing the nation.

Their work was to draw up a constitution and set up a central government. This was not easy. The Northern States were in favor of (support) protective tariffs and free labor while the Southern States wanted to retain (keep) the slave system and a policy of low tariff.

The American Constitution

After the repeated compromise ( 妥协 ), the work of drawing up a constitution was completed on September 17, 1787, a day which has been designated as Constitution Day of America. The appearance of constitution was a great event in American history. It established the Federal System ( 联邦制 ) which was the first in the world at that time.

The main feature of the American constitution was its division of power. For this purpose the power was divided between central government and state government. The second division of power was among the different branches (department) of the Federal government. It was called the “check and balance system” ( 相互制衡的制度 ). In this system, the power of the Federal Government was divided among three separate branches: Legislative (to make the laws), Executive (to enforce or make people obey the laws), and Judiciary (to explain the meaning of the laws and to try people charged with breaking the laws).

These three branches were balanced against each other. This made it difficult for persons like Hitler to appear in America.

Mount Rushmore ( 拉什莫尔 ) National Memorial ( 国立纪念馆 )

The faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are carved into the face of Mount Rushmore, forming the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota ( 达科他州 ). Each president was chosen to represent something different about America. George Washington represented the founding of the country. Thomas Jefferson represented faith in the common man. Abraham Lincoln represented the unity saved after the Civil War. And Theodore Roosevelt represented the progressive spirit of America.

American Presidents

American Presidents

THE END

THANK YOU!

Washington As the First President In 1788, the nation began to organize her first Federal Government. Washington was elected the first President of the United States in 1789. He chose several strong men to help him set up the government. He named Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State ( 国务卿 ). After serving his country as President for 8 years (two terms), Washington firmly refused to accept a third term ( 届 ) and returned to his hometown in Virginia ( 弗吉尼亚 ). He set a good example to later American President that no president should hold office for more than two terms, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the only exception. Washington’s contribution ( 贡献 ) to his country has always been cherished (remembered) by the American people.