Revolution

On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched from Boston to forestall a rebellion of the colonists by capturing a colonial arms depot in the nearby town of Concord. At the village of Lexington, they confronted 70 militiamen. Someone fired a shot, and the American War of Independence began. By June, 10,000 American soldiers had besieged Boston, and the British were forced to evacuate the city in March 1776. In May 1775, a second Continental Congress had met in Philadelphia and began to assume the functions of a national government. It founded a Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington. On July 2, 1776, the Congress finally resolved that “These United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states”. Thomas Jefferson drafted a Declaration of Independence, which the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776.

The Declaration presented a public defence of the American Revolution. It explained the philosophy behind the revolution that man have a natural right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”; that Governments can rule only with “the consent of the governed”; that any government may be dissolved when it fails to protect the rights of the people.

At first the war went badly for the Americans. The tide turned in October 1777 when a British army under General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga. A Franco-American alliance was signed in February 1778. American troops generally fought well, but they might have lost the war if they had not received aid from the French treasury and the powerful French Navy.

The Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783, recognised the independence of the United States and granted the new nation all the territory North of Florida, south of Canada and east of the Mississippi River.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 940