The founding history of the United States

The American Revolutionary War was a war between the revolutionaries of the British Empire and its thirteen North American colonies, and several European powers.

Because Britain's exploitation of the colonies seriously hindered the development of capitalism, in order to resist British economic policies, it led to the resistance of the people of North America.

Starting with the gunshots of Lexington in April 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, announcing the birth of the United States.

After the hard struggle of the North American people, Britain was finally forced to recognize the independence of the United States in 1783.

The War of Independence ended British colonial rule, achieved the country's independence, established a relatively democratic bourgeois democratic system, was conducive to the development of capitalism, and played a role in promoting the Latin American and French revolutions.

Background

American War of Independence (1775-1783), also known as the American Revolutionary War (English: American Revolutionary War) War), a war between the revolutionaries of the British Empire and its thirteen North American colonies, and several European powers.

The war began mainly to fight against British economic policies, but later because France, Spain, and the Netherlands joined the war against Britain, the scope of the war expanded far beyond British North America.

Meanwhile, many Indians fought for both sides.

During the war, the British were able to use their naval superiority to capture the colonies' seaside cities, but how to control the countryside eluded them.

The French naval victory at Beginning led to the surrender of the British army at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

The Treaty of Paris in 1783 recognized the independence of the United States. As many colonial residents fled the Thirteen Colonies and settled in the north, the war also prepared for the future establishment of Canada.

In 1607, the British came to the Atlantic coast of North America and began to establish the first colony of Virginia.

After continuous colonization, by the 1830s, the British had established 13 colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America.

During this period, a large number of immigrants moved to North America, most of them British, many from other European countries, and many black slaves trafficked from Africa.

They made important contributions to the development of North America.

At that time, the capitalist economy in the British North American colonies developed rapidly and became the mainstream of economic development.

At the same time, there are also many backward economic sectors.

The colonial governance model was established according to the British political system. Each colony had its own governor and parliament.

The Governor-General ruled the colonies on behalf of Britain and had administrative, economic and military powers, and could veto bills passed by Parliament.

After more than a hundred years of development, the economic exchanges between the British North American colonies have become increasingly close, and a unified domestic market has initially formed.

At the same time, in the long-term process of exchange and integration, English became a common language from various colonies, gradually giving rise to a different culture.

On this basis, the American nation began to take shape.

National consciousness is gradually awakening.

In the first half of the 18th century, Enlightenment ideas spread in the British North American colonies, and some outstanding thinkers emerged, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

The British North American colonies had a growing sense of nationality and democracy.

In the mid-18th century, the economy of the British North American colonies developed rapidly. Industry and commerce in the north was developed, wheat was abundant in the center, and the plantation economy in the south was prosperous.

Many products produced in North America can even compete with British products in the international market.

In the "Seven Year's War" from 1756 to 1763, Britain and France fought a long war for control of the North American colonies.

Although Britain defeated France and controlled most of North America, the long war caused financial difficulties.

As a result, the British government continued to increase taxes on the colonies in North America and implemented high-pressure policies to brutally squeeze and exploit the colonies. Britain hoped that North America would always be its source of raw materials and commodity market. , trying their best to suppress the economic development of the colonies and extract more wealth from the colonies.

The colonial people were dissatisfied with British exploitation and restraint, and the conflicts between the two sides became increasingly acute, eventually leading to the outbreak of war.

Exploitation and Resistance

The colonial people hoped to reduce their dependence on the British mainland

Since the British developed overseas colonies, in order to safeguard the monopoly interests of the British mainland, they have promulgated Some laws that restricted the economic development of the colonies, such as the Navigation Acts.

As the North American colonies developed themselves, the colonial people increasingly hoped to reduce their dependence on the British mainland and seek to develop their own economies independently.

However, this caused dissatisfaction with the British authorities, because the British authorities hoped that the North American colonies could continue to serve as a source of cheap raw materials and a market for product dumping. Therefore, the British authorities began to adopt many high-pressure policies to prevent The free development of the colonial economy.

The British authorities first issued a decree prohibiting colonial residents from exploring westward (mainly because of Potia's Rebellion in 1763), prohibited them from issuing their own banknotes, imposed heavy taxes on them, and dissolved their parliament.

In the 1960s, in order to increase tax revenue in the North American colonies, the British promulgated the "Stamp Duty Ordinance" of 1765 and the "Townshend Tax Act" of 1767.

The colonial residents felt strongly dissatisfied and launched a large-scale riot.

However, the British authorities not only ignored it, but also sent British troops to North America to shoot and kill Boston residents who resisted the tyranny of the British authorities on March 5, 1770, creating the "Boston Massacre" and making the colonial people boiling with resentment. , and later the Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773.

In 1774, the British authorities promulgated five "Intolerable Acts", which intensified the conflicts between the two sides.

Stamp Duty Ordinance

In 1765, the British came up with a new trick: stamp duty.

They stipulated that all official documents, contracts, licenses, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, documents, and wills must be affixed with tax stamps before they can be valid and circulated.

This aroused great anger among the colonial people. As a result, secret anti-British organizations such as the "Sons of Liberty" and the "Committee of Correspondence" appeared one after another, and anti-British incidents occurred everywhere. *** British goods, Driving away tax collectors, burning tax stamps, armed resistance, etc.

All this caused panic among the British authorities, who immediately sent troops to suppress it.

Anti-British anger burned in the hearts of the colonial people, and a war for independence and freedom was about to burn on the North American continent.

In 1765, the British Parliament passed a regulation to directly tax the British North American colonies in order to pass the heavy burden of military expenditure.

After the Seven Years' War, in order to further control the colonies and suppress the Indians, the British Army dispatched 10,000 troops to North America, with the locals responsible for all expenses.

On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Duty Regulations passed by the British Parliament stipulated that printed matter in the North American colonies, including newspapers, books, deeds, licenses, diplomas, playing cards, admission tickets, etc., must be stamped. The amount of the tax ranged from 2p to several pounds, and offenders were fined or imprisoned.

The regulations are scheduled to take effect on November 1.

The Stamp Act was strongly opposed by the colonial people.

The colonial people insisted that taxation decisions could be made only through their own parliaments.

Secret societies such as the "Sons of Liberty" and the "Committee of Communications" organized themselves and led the masses to destroy the tax bureau, burn tax stamps, smear tax collectors with tar and feathers, and parade them through the streets.

Before the Stamp Act came into effect in November, tax collectors throughout the colonies were forced to resign.

In October 1765, a colonial-wide convention against the Stamp Act was held in New York.

At the meeting, 14 resolutions were passed, including the refusal to pay stamp duty to Britain.

In response to the Stamp Duty Regulations, the entire colony launched a campaign to sell British goods, which resulted in a significant drop in British exports to the colonies.

Merchants and manufacturers in 30 British cities jointly petitioned Parliament to repeal the Stamp Duty Act.

On March 18, 1766, the British Parliament finally passed a resolution to abolish the Stamp Duty Ordinance.

Townshend Tax Law

A bill passed by the British Parliament in 1767 to tax the North American colonies, proposed by Finance Minister C. Townshend.

After the abolition of the Stamp Duty Ordinance, based on the proposal of Chancellor of the Exchequer Townshend, the British Parliament passed four bills to tax the colonies in the second half of 1767, collectively known as the "Townshend Acts".

The "Townsend Tax Law" passed on June 29 of this year is the second item among them.

The tax law stipulates that all paper, glass, lead, paint, tea, etc. exported from Britain to the colonies are subject to import taxes.

It also stipulates that British customs collectors have the right to break into colonial houses, warehouses, and shops to search for prohibited items and smuggled goods.

After the "Townshend Tax Act" was promulgated, it aroused the anger of the people of the North American colonies *** and demanded its repeal.

In February 1768, the Massachusetts Assembly sent a circuit letter to the colonial assemblies, reaffirming the principle of "no taxation without representation". The colonial people once again launched the anti-British goods movement and used force to resist the British tax collectors. of search and oppression.

British trade with North America dropped significantly.

The British government threatened to dissolve the New York and Massachusetts state parliaments, but met with greater resistance from the colonial people, and the British were forced to repeal the "Townshend Tax Act" in March 1770.

Boston Massacre

In 1765, after the enactment of the Quartering Regulations, the British Army sent troops to station in North America.

At that time, the 14th Regiment and the 29th Regiment stationed in Boston acted recklessly, some making things difficult for pedestrians, and some molesting women, which caused the relationship between soldiers and residents to deteriorate.

In the past five years, conflicts between the army and the local people continued to occur. The resentment between the local people and the British army had deepened, and an undercurrent of resistance gradually grew. In March 1770, this resistance reached its climax.

(On the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd of some sixty townpeople began taunting snowballs at a squad of ten redcoats.) On March 5, a conflict between British soldiers and a ropemaker Get up again.

Boston rope-making workers gathered at the customs house and threw snowballs at the British soldiers guarding the customs house.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the bells rang loudly, and people took to the streets with sticks in hand, shouting to drive away the hateful "red shrimp soldiers" (a contemptuous name for the British troops wearing red uniforms).

The mood among those gathered around the Customs House on King Street was even more passionate.

The British army came to suppress the situation. Facing the agitated people, the soldiers opened fire on the crowd in panic, killing three people on the spot. Two more people died of their injuries the next day.

The first person to be beaten to death was C. Attucks, a black mass leader who was born as a plantation slave.

This bloody incident is known as the "Boston Massacre" in history.

News of the Boston tragedy quickly spread to other cities, and people rose up to attack the British troops stationed there.

In Boston, a city of only 17,000 people, 50,000 people joined in the funeral procession for the victims.

British troops were forced to withdraw from Boston.

The morning after the incident, the British army detained Captain Thomas Preston and eight of his subordinates who had caused the tragedy.

A week later, a grand jury was sworn in.

At the request of the Inspector General, Captain Preston and eight of his subordinates were prosecuted. John Adams, the local lawyer who defended the British soldiers and acquitted them, was the one who was convicted by the United States. Respected as one of the "Founding Fathers" of the independence movement, he later became the successor to George Washington, the first president of the United States.

Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party Boston Tea Party (Boston Tea Party) is also known as the Boston Tea Party.

In 1773, the people of Boston in the North American colony opposed the British East India Company's monopoly on the tea trade.

In 1773, the British government passed the "Relief of the East India Company Ordinance" in order to dump the East India Company's accumulated tea.

The Ordinance gave the East India Company the exclusive right to sell overstocked tea to the North American colonies without paying high import duties and only levying a slight tea tax.

The regulations explicitly prohibited the sale of "private tea" in the colonies.

As a result, the East India Company monopolized the transportation and sales of tea in the North American colonies, and the price of its imported tea was 50% cheaper than "private tea".

This regulation caused great anger among the people of the North American colonies, and smuggled tea accounted for nine-tenths of consumption.

The people of New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston refused to unload tea.

An organization called the "Sons of Liberty" led by Boston revolutionary Samuel Adams, consisting of three groups of 50 locals each, dressed as Indians and sneaked onto three ships and destroyed the cargo on board. , and dumped 342 boxes of tea into the port.

At that time, the lights made the night look like daytime, and many people got up to watch the excitement. The whole process was quite peaceful and quiet.

However, this move was criticized from all sides. The British government ordered the closure of the port of Boston until they paid back the money they threw away from the tea leaves, and also sailed warships and troops into the colonies.

Former New Jersey Governor Benjamin Franklin believed that the dumped tea should be compensated and expressed his willingness to use his own money to compensate.

The British considered this a provocation against colonial rule.

"Intolerable Acts"

In 1774, the British government passed a series of "Coercive Acts" aimed at strengthening control.

Although these bills were targeted at Massachusetts, they were called "Intolerable Bills" by North American residents. Later, other ports such as Philadelphia also responded one after another, which finally led to the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.

The Beginning of the Revolutionary War

Lexington’s North American Militia On April 19, 1775, the people of Boston fired the first shot of the Revolutionary War over Lexington, Lexington The gunfire kicked off the American Revolution.

In April 1775, Thomas Gage, the governor of Massachusetts and commander-in-chief of the garrison, received news that there was a secret arms warehouse of the "Committee of Correspondence" in the town of Concord, not far from Boston.

Gage immediately ordered Major Francis Smith and John Pitcairn to lead 800 British troops to destroy it in order to dampen the morale of the militiamen.

The troops set off overnight. In the early morning of April 19, they arrived at Lexington, a small village 6 miles away from Concord.

The British army moved forward in the predawn mist after a night's march.

They were all very sleepy and yawning constantly.

Suddenly, they found more than 70 villagers standing on the grass outside the village, waiting with spears in hand.

Smith knew that these armed villagers were the Lexington militia. Residents of the colonies on the North American continent called them "Minutemen" because they acted very quickly. As soon as they heard the alarm, they would You can be up and running in under a minute and jump right into the fight.

What surprised Smith was, why did these militiamen know the British army's actions so quickly? It turned out that the "Committee of Communications" scouts had already obtained the information and hung a red light on the top of the Boston church.

The engraver Paul Revere, the messenger of the "Committee of Correspondence", immediately rode to Lexington after seeing it, notifying the anti-British leader Samuel Adams who was hiding there to evacuate, and then arrived Concord police.

American Revolutionary War Smith saw that there were only a few dozen people on the other side, and he immediately relaxed his nervousness.

Pitcairn did not pay attention to these ragged militiamen and ordered them to surrender.

But the militia led by Jonas Parker rejected the British army's request.

Pitcairn ordered the British troops to surround these militiamen.

In the chaos, someone fired the gun, and a fierce battle broke out.

After a few minutes, the gunfire gradually became sparse, and the militiamen suffered 8 deaths and 10 injuries. Because there were few people, they quickly withdrew from the battlefield and dispersed to hide.

Only one British soldier was injured.

Smith was very proud of his victory in the first battle and directed his soldiers to go straight to Concord.

When the British army arrived at the town, it was already broad daylight and the sun was rising, but no one could be seen on the streets. Every house was closed and deserted. Smith ordered a search and the British army entered every street. After rummaging around for a long time, I found nothing.

It turned out that the militiamen had already moved the warehouse and the leaders of the "Communications Committee" had also gone into hiding.

Smith felt that the situation was not good and quickly ordered a retreat.

At this time, there were loud shouts of killing and gunshots outside the town. Militiamen from nearby villages and towns had received the news and came to Concord from all directions.

Surrounded the retreating British army.

They lurked behind fences, in bushes, on house roofs, and on street corners to shoot at the British troops.

British troops fell to the ground one after another, and when the British troops raised their guns to fight back, they could not even find the shadow of the militiamen.

The British army retreated all the way to Boston, and were constantly attacked by militiamen along the way.

The battle continued until dusk, and finally it was a reinforcement force from Boston that rescued Smith and others.

On this day, the British army suffered 273 casualties and the militiamen lost 95 people. The remaining British troops ran out of ammunition. Looking back, they were still frightened. For the first time, they tasted the iron fist of the colonial people.

A soldier said: "I haven't eaten anything for 48 hours. My hat was blown off three times and two bullets penetrated my jacket.

My bayonet was also shot. Lost."

Lexington's gunfire shook the 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast.

The American Revolutionary War begins.

In order to unite against the British, the Second Continental Congress in North America decided on June 14 to establish a joint armed force of the colonies, the Continental Army, and appointed Washington as commander-in-chief.

On October 13, it was decided to establish a continental fleet.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence, declaring the birth of the United States of America.

In the early days of the war, there was a huge disparity in strength between the two sides.

Britain is the most powerful colonial country in the world, with the world's first-class navy. There are about 30,000 British troops stationed in North America, which are well-equipped and well-trained. The North American colonies have a population of only 3 million and insufficient troops. , backward equipment and lack of training.

However, the colonial military and civilians united, shared the same hatred, and had excellent leaders and military commanders. However, the British army's maritime supply lines were often disturbed, which was unpopular in North America, so it was ultimately included in the "Declaration of Independence" Under the guidance of President Washington, he led the Continental Army to fight bravely for eight years and win the War of Independence.

In 1783, the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, and Britain recognized the independence of the United States.