French and Indian War

    Between the 1680’s and 1750’s, England fought against France for world leadership in many parts of the world. The last of these wars was known in Europe as the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and inNorth America as the French and Indian War (1754-1760). During the war, theBritish colonies also actively fought against the French and their Indian allies, so asto gainmore land and crush the rebellious Native American tribes. Finally the Englishwon the war and a peace treaty was signed in Paris. France was forced to cede （割让）its territories in Canada and Louisiana.

British New Policy

    At that time, the British government wanted more money to pay for the huge debt left by the long wars, while the colonists wanted more rights and freedom in politics and commerce. New measures had beentaken by the British government. The Royal Proclamation（皇家宣言） of 1763 tightened control over the colonies and limit colonists’ westward expansion. Several actswere enacted（颁布） by the British parliament to tax a variety of products. The Stamp Act （印花税法案）of 1765, for example, required a stamp should be purchased from the British government and placed on all printed materials. These acts aroused great resentment in the colonies. People refused to pay the taxes. The tensions escalated from the late 1760s.

Colonists’Resistance

     The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a direct action by colonists in Boston to protest against the new tax on tea. Parliament quickly responded the next year with the Intolerable Acts.

      Patriot leaders from 12 colonies (except Georgia) held the First Continental Congress（第一次大陆会议） in Philadelphia to coordinate their resistance to the acts. The Congress called for a boycott of British trade, and petitioned the King to grantself-government. Neither Parliament nor King George listened to the appeal, sothe Second Continental Congress was called in 1775 to organize the defense ofthe colonies against the British Army.

The Second Continental Congress （第二次大陆会议）    

    On April 19, 1775, some British soldiers reached Lexington（莱克星顿）, they encountered a group of militiamen（民兵）. Fighting broke out. The first shots in American War of Independence were fired.

    In May 1775, the Second Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia and acted as a temporary government of the 13 colony-states. It established the Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence,with the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776.

The Declaration of Independence （独立宣言）

     The Declaration presented a public defense of the Independence War, and most importantly, it explained the philosophy behind the war, that men 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. The Declaration also listed ways in which the colonists had been mistreated, so as to make the American Revolution sound reasonable.

American Revolutionary War

     American Revolutionary War（美国独立战争）, also known as the American War of Independence, was fought primarily between the Kingdom of Great Britain and her Thirteen Colonies in America, resulting in the overthrow of British rule in the colonies and the establishment of the United States of America.

    The war didn’t go well for Americans at first, because the British army was the strongest in the world. The British had a highly-developed industry and commerce to keep the army well supplied, while the American army was composed mainly of farmers, craftsmen, and small traders,who were poorly trained and equipped.

     After endless hard fighting, the Americans won a great victory at Saratoga（萨拉托加） in October 1777. This was the turning point ofthe war. But then the American army was still not strong enough to beat the British. It won some battles but lost others. Washington withdrew his army south, where he went ahead with military training. Finally in 1781, with the aid of the French, the Americans won a decisive victory at Yorktown, Virginia. Then British army led by General Cornwallis was forced to surrender in October.In 1783, a peace treaty was signed in Paris and the British government acknowledged the independence of the former 13 colonies.

Significanceof the Independence War

     The American War of Independence gave the colonies right of national independence and assured US capitalism of a freedevelopment. It was the first large-scale revolutionary movement against national oppression, for political and economic liberation. The war shook the foundation of feudalism all over Europe. It directly led to the French Revolution in 1789 and some fifty years later to the revolutions in the Spanish colonies in America.

The Constitutional Convention （制宪会议）

    As a bourgeois revolution, the American Independence War didn’t solve the problem of land demanded by the laboring people. The heavy costs of the war were placed on their shoulders. Some uprisings（起义） soon took place with great dissatisfaction among the people, which surprised the plantation owners and capitalists. They thought the current government was too weak to protect their own property. Someof the leaders desperately called for a meeting to change the situation.    

    In 1787, the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia. In order to set up a strong central government, delegates agreed to draw up a new constitution. In 1789, the Constitution came into force. Two years later, the first ten Amendments （十条修正案）to the Constitution, or so-called Bill of Rights（美国人权法案）, were added. After the constitution was ratified, a President and Congress were elected under its provisions. George Washington was elected the first President of the United States and took office in 1789. He organized the first administration under the new Constitution.