usahistory英文版美国历史简介

The United States of America History

Indians: The “first Americans”

The Discovery of the New World

Christopher Columbus (31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506)

a navigator, colonizer, and explorer

He initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World".

Pilgrim Fathers

Relations of American Indians with European settlers

The American War of Independence

What were the causes of the War of Independence

Britain’s colonial policy

The economy in the 13 colonies developed very fast

The British government was to bring the development under control and

to collect more taxes from the colonies.

“No taxation without representation”

( 无代表，不纳税）

How was the War of Independence started

The “Boston Tea Party”

?In 1773, when ships of tea reached Boston to be distributed,

several dozen Boston residents boarded the ship at night and

threw $75,000 worth of tea into the harbor. This came to be

known as the “Boston Tea Party”.

The start of the war

?In 1775, about 1,000 British soldiers were sent from Boston

to seize the military supplies of the American militia. When

they arrived at Lexington they were met by the armed militiamen.

Suddenly a shot was fired and the War of Independence began.

Boston Tea Party

The First Continental Congress—September, 1774

The Second Continental Congress

Held in Philadelphia in May 1775

Assume the functions of a national government

Declaration of Independence

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed.

On July 4, 1776, the Congress formally declared the independence

?The Declaration states: “We hold these truths to be

self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that

among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;

that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among

men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the

governed; that whenever any form of government becomes

destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to

alter or to abolish it, …”

After being printed, the copies were sent out, broadcast and read to crowds everywhere.

The document greatly encouraged the struggling people, making them

think that they should be independent and have the right to enjoy

liberty.

They were beginning to show more interests in a common cause.

Both a great influence on the course of the war and a far-reaching

influence in world history as well.

It dragged on for seven years. (1775-1783)

Obstacles for the continental army:

No enough supplies.

Tired and hungry, while British troops fresh and well-equipped.

By the middle of December, 1776, the Revolution seemed lost.

The victory at Saratoga (1777, October)—turning point.

The assistance from France

Benjamin Franklin—a messenger to Europe to get help from other countries.

The French King made two agreements with Franklin:

?France would take part in the war against England.

?They agreed to trade with each other.

?Spain and Holland joined France against England

?—a quick end to the war.

In 1781, a decisive victory at Yorktown in Virginia

On October 19, 1781, the British general Cornwallis was forced to surrender, the war came to an end.

The two parts signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783—America won its independence

The Establishment of Constitution

On May 25, 1787, the constitution was drafted.

In June 1789, the constitution came into effect in nine states.

Ten amendments—The Bill of Rights—were added to the Constitution in 1791.

The Civil War (1861-1865)

Causes of Civil War

Economic reason:

two different economic systems

North Capitalist Economy

South Plantation

Political reason

The North—Federal Government as a union

The South—The Confederate Government: the independence of each state Uncle Tom’s Cab in Published in 1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe ( l811-1896 )

An antislavery novel which had great political influence.

"So this is the little lady who made this big war.“ ---Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was elected president and opposed the expansion of slavery.

Some southern states formed the Confederate States of America in 1861.

Union army Vs. Confederate army

Comparison of Power

The North:

twenty-three states, 22 million population

abundant facilities to manufacture arms and ammunition,

clothing, and other supplies

merchant marines and the navy remained in Union hands

federal government was better able to raise fund for war

The South:

eleven states, 9 million population

military advantages:

actively preparing for war

in possession of many federal forts and arsenals

superior military leadership: a third of the regular army's

officers were from the South

fighting on its own soil

Emancipation Proclamation

issued by Pres. Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves of the Confederacy.

-This transformed the war from a war to save the Union, to a war to abolish slavery.

Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863) The turning point

Gettysburg Address

“Government of the People, by the People and for the People shall not perish from the earth”

Influence of the Civil War

Outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918)

Inevitable result of contradiction between two groups of

imperialist powers:

?Allies(协约国)—Britain, France, and Russia

?The Central European Powers(同盟国)—Germany,

Austria-Hungary and Italy

The political, economic and colonial rivalries of the great powers.

World War I

The False Prosperity in the 1920’s

1920’s = boom, prosperity, isolationism

a period of material success and spiritual frustration or confusion and

purposelessness

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

欧内斯特·海明威

1. Reputation

Spokesman for the Lost Generation

A Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1954

Life Story

1899Born in Illinois (his father was a highly respected doctor, his mother was

a singer and music teacher)

1917After graduation from High School, he left home and worked for the Star as a reporter; Rejected by the American Army because of his poor vision in one eye

1918Served as an ambulance driver in France, and then as a soldier in the Italian infantry

Wounded on both legs

1919Returned home to complete his recovery

1925Left for Paris

1936Took part in the Spanish Civil War as a journalist, on the Republican side 1940Moved to Cuba

1954Awarded the Nobel Prize

1961Committed suicide by shooting himself with his hunting gun

Major Works

In Our Time (1925) 《在我们的时代里》

Collection of short stories

Portray the world of adulthood as an arena of danger and violence The Torrent of Spring (1926) 《春潮》

The Sun Also Rises (1926) 《太阳照常升起》

The disillusionment of the lost generation

A Farewell to Arms (1929) 《永别了，武器》

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) 《丧钟为谁而鸣》

A love story, a war novel

The Old Man and the Sea (1952) 《老人与海》

a man can be destroyed but not defeated

一个人可以被毁灭(physically)，但不能给打败(spiritually)

Writing Style

“Hemingway Code heros”

Those who survive in the process of seeking to master the code, known as “grace under pressure”, with the honesty, the discipline, and the restraint.

eg: Cuban fisherman Santiago

fighting a losing battle---loss becomes dignity

iceberg theory of writing

His sentences only give one small bit of the meaning; the rest is implied

The Great Depression

1930’s = Great Depression

The stock market crash in1929

Massive unemployment, factory and mill closings, and mortgage foreclosures Core of the problem—immense disparity between the productive capacity and the ability of people to consume

World War II broke out in September, 1939 and ended in August, 1945.

Background of the war

The World Spread economic crisis

Germany and Italy began their ways of fascism and military expansion. Japan meant to conquer China and Southeast Asia by military expansion.

Two opposing military alliances:

the Allies (同盟国)and the Axis (轴心国)

the deadliest conflict in all of human history

USA attitude:

A sit-on-the-fence policy

?do trade with the warring countries, including the aggressors

?believe in “glorious isolation”

Its negative effect:

?Isolationism encouraged Nazi and Adolph Hitler to believe that

they could rely on American neutrality and their victims could

not buy munitions in US.

?Japan believed that pacifist US would not fight for the

integrity of China.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese air force attacked the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was the direct cause for America’s entrance into the war.

End of WWII

The US air force dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima On August 6 and

on Nagasaki on August 8.

On September 2, 1945, Japan surrendered.

The Cold War

United Nations in 1945—a new and better world would emerge from World

War II.

The conflict between the two superpowers Russia and the US increased

and later led to the Cold War.

Truman Doctrine

the principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or Communist insurrection. First expressed in 1947 by US President Truman in a speech to Congress seeking aid for Greece and Turkey, the doctrine was seen by the Communists as an open declaration

of the cold war

杜鲁门主义（该主义认为美国应支持受苏联军队或共产党叛乱威胁的国家或民族；该主义的首次表述出现于1947年美国总统杜鲁门在国会所作的关于要求对希腊和土耳其提供援助的演说中，这被共产党人视为公开的冷战宣言）

NATO

In 1949, the United States—in company with 11 other powers—entered into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Vietnam War

A long-time suffering for the US

Started under Eisenhower and continued by Kennedy and Johnson ?In 1965 US sent in troops to prevent the South Vietnamese government from collapsing. Ultimately, a failure

?In 1975 Vietnam was reunified under Communist control.

The Civil Rights Movement

Two other diplomatic breakthroughs:

Re-establishing US relati ons with the People’s Republic of China

Negotiating the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union

?Table Tennis Foreign Policy/Ping pong diplomacy

?Nixon–first US president visited Beijing.

?The “Shanghai Communiqué”—a new US policy:

–there was one China;

–Taiwan was part of China;

– a peaceful settlement of the dispute by the Chinese

themselves was in American interest.

Watergate Scandal of President Richard Nixon in 1972

the illegal sabotage and espionage of Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President.

Impeachment ---charge (the holder of a public office) with misconduct 弹劾（官员）

Watergate Scandal

To defeat his adversary, Nixon hired five burglars to set up wiretaps(窃听装置) to get confidential information in the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex ;

It was exposed and became the biggest political scandal in the history of America;

Because of the pressure of public, Nixon was impeached and resigned in 1974.

水门事件与华盛顿邮报

1972: 尼克松总统为竞选连任在对手竞选总部安装窃听器

被”深喉”举报给<华盛顿邮报>

尼克松威胁: 报道误导,不公正

<华盛顿邮报纸>不为所动

两年之后,尼克松成为美国历史上第一位被被弹劾的总统

<华盛顿邮报>记者Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward获普利策奖

America Since 1980’s

Ronald Regan

At sixty nine, Reagan became the oldest person ever elected as US President in 1980.

?Economic program

–reductions in income taxes and business taxes

–deep cuts in federal spending in every area except

defense

George W. Bush Period

George W. Bush: The 43rd president of the US elected in 2000

During his first term, three major tax cuts

Since 2003, America has had the fastest-growing economy

The war against terrorism

Terrorist Event on September 11, 2001

Invasion of Iraq

On March 19, 2003 an invasion of Iraq by American and British troops started, supported by small contingents from several other countries.

?“Trial of century”—the trial of Saddam began on October, 19, 2005 in Baghdad.

?Saddam is accused of crimes against humanity.