13 original colonies were developing rapidly. The British Parliament, protecting the interests of the British manufacturers, passed a number of laws to paralyse the rising industry and commerce in the colonies. The British government imposed duties on tea, paper, glass and other articles of general consumption.
On December 16th, 1773, North Americans, dressed as Indians, threw a cargo of tea into Boston harbour as a protest against the duties imosed on tea. This event is known as „The Boston Tea Party“.
In September 1774 the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. The colonies declared a boycott of English goods.
In 1775 the firts shots of the war were fired, when the English soldiers were trying to seize an illegal store of arms at Concord.
On July 1776 the Second Continental Congress met again in Philadelphia. The colonies declared themselves independent and signed the famous „Declaration of Independence“. The author of the document was Thomas Jefferson. The Congress appointed George Washington to take command in the American Continental Army.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE included the famous declaration „that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unlienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.“
The WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (1775-1781) lasted over 6 years. The fighting ended when Washington, aided by the French army and navy, surrounded the British forces at Yorktown in October 1781. The piece settlement signed two years later recognized the independence, freedom and sovereignity of the colonies.
Not all the citizens were united behind the revolution. A large group called „Loyalists“ supported the British monarchists and many of them returned back to England after the victory of the colonies. The revolutionary forces themselves were split into the conservative wing headed by G. Washington and the progressive wing headed by T. Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine.
George Washington became the first president. The new Constitution wasn’t addopted (1789) by all states unanimously and ratification took a long time (until 1792) because people under the leadership of Jefferson demanded additional safeguards for their liberties. And so Ten Amendents, known as the „Bill of Rights“, were added under the pressure of public ippinion. They contain the basic rights and freedoms of individual citizens. The Constitution was at that time the most demoratic in the world.
Throughout the 19th century, the US expanded its teritory but economic and political differences grew between the Northern and Southern states. In the south, the economy was based on agriculture and slavery. Northern states were more industrial and slavery was illegal. This led to the events of the years 1860 and 1861, when 11 southern states seceded from the Union and attempted to form their own government. This caused the beginning of the „Civil War“ under the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, lasting from 1861 to 1865. The North was victorious and slavery was abolished (Emancipatin Procalmation in 1863).
The twelwe years tht followed the Civil War are called the period of Reconstruction. The black people were given the right to vote and a number of the were elected into the U.S. Comgress. Although blacks were free, they remanied completely segregated in US society until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s led by Martin Luther King Jr.
