美国历史PPT

Boston Massacre:
• Background: Tensions between the American colonists and the British were already running high in the early spring of 1770. • Event: On March 5, 1770, a crowd of jeering Bostonians slinging snowballs gathered around a small group of British soldiers guarding the Boston Custom House. The soldiers became engaged after one of them had been hit, and they fired into the crowd, even though they were under orders not to fire. Their shots hit and killed four civilians. • Result: The event in Boston helped to unite the colonies against Britain. What started as a minor fight became a turning point in the beginnings of the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre helped spark the colonists’ desire for American independence.
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
• On January 10,1776, Thomas Paine published a booklet called Common Sense to mobilize the colonists to strive for independence. • In the booklet, Paine described his vision of a government in which the people, through their elected representatives, would have supreme power. • Thomas Paine was the first to openly suggest independence from Britain. • The booklet was broadly circulated, and even George Washington read it. • Paine’s booklet inspired the colonists and would have a major influence on Thomas Jefferson in his writing of the Declaration of Independence.
The Boston Tea Party
Background: In the early 1770s Britain tried to help its economically distressed East India Company. It gave the company the right to sell tea directly to the colonists, at a cheaper price, rather than to colonial importers. Importers were upset and began a boycott of the East India Company’s tea along the Atlantic coast. (1)East India Company : monopoly on all tea exported to the colonies; supply retailers directly (2) Colonial merchants : loss of trade Event: On the evening of December 16,1773, in Boston, some angry businessmen disguised themselves as Indians and threw 342 chests of tea into the harbor waters. Response: The British parliament retaliated by closing the Port of Boston and by passing other laws known as the Intolerable Acts in 1774, and the colonial patriots called a Continental Congress and ordered a general boycott of English goods.
The Stamp Act:
• Time: In 1765 the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act. • Content: It required that all newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, commercial bills, advertisements, and other papers issued in the colonies bear a stamp. • Response: 1.The act was met with a great uproar in the colonies. It was denounced by those it most affected: businessmen, merchants, journalists, lawyers, and other powerful persons;
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The Sharpening Contradiction between Britain and the Colonies
Reason: Britain began to speed up its economic exploitation and plunder after the founding of the thirteen colonies in North America. It tried to control all the trade in the colonies. (Mercantilism) Especially after the Seven Year’s War, it exercised more and more strict policies upon the colonial people, trying to take more profits out of her colonies.
2. The colonists argued that they shouldn’t be taxed since they had no representation in the British government; 3. Associations known as the Sons of Liberty were formed to organize opposition to the Stamp Act; 4. Merchants boycotted English goods; 5. Stamp distributors were forced to resign and stamps were destroyed. • Result: Faced with a loss of trade, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. But it was just the beginning of the problems between the colonists and the British.
The Seven Year’s War:
• • Who were the two warring parties? The Seven Years’ War was between Britain and France. What did they fight for? They fought over the control of North American colonies. What was the result of the war? In the end, Britain defeated France. During a peace negotiation, Britain acquired French holdings in Canada and Florida from France’s ally, Spain. What were来自百度文库the effects of the war on the colonies? Britain accumulated a large debt over the course of the war. To help pay off the debt, Britain turned to the colonies to generate revenue.
Intensification of the Contradiction
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Stamp Act The Boston Massacre The Boston Tea Party First Continental Congress Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
Chapter II The Revolutionary Period
(1763-1789)
Pre-reading Questions:
• How much do you know about the Seven Years’ War? • Why was there a sharp contradiction between Britain and the Colonies? • What events intensified this contradiction? • What event marked the outbreak of the war? • Who was the leader of the American colonists and who drafted the Declaration of Independence?
Process:
• In 1774, representatives from each colony, except Georgia, met in Philadelphia. • The representatives gathered to discuss their response to the British Intolerable Acts and their relationship with Britain, and how to assert their rights with the British government. • The members agreed to boycott British goods and passed resolutions asserting colonial rights. • They also agreed to meet again in May 1775, if the British didn’t change their policies.
First Continental Congress
• Backgrounds: Indignation against England’s colonial policy reached fever pitch in the colonies after the passage of the Intolerable Acts. The Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence promoted the idea of an inter-colonial assembly.