历史今天:1781年美国独立战争结束(10.19)
【英文原文】
The American Revolutionary war (1775–1783), Also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers. The war was the culmination of the political American Revolution, whereby the colonists rejected the right of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them without representation, claiming that this violated the Rights of Englishmen. In 1775, revolutionaries gained control of each of the thirteen colonial governments, set up the Second Continental Congress, and formed a Continental Army. Petitions to the king to intervene with the parliament for them resulted in Congress being declared traitors and the states in rebellion the following year. The Americans responded by formally declaring in 1776 their independence as a new nation, the United States of America, claiming sovereignty and rejecting any allegiance to the British monarchy. Although France had been providing supplies, ammunition and weapons to the rebels beginning in 1776, the Continentals' capture of a British army in 1777 led France to formally enter the war on the side of the United States in early 1778, which evened the military strength with Britain. Spain and the Dutch Republic – French allies – also went to war with Britain over the next two years.
Throughout the war, the British were able to use their naval superiority to capture and occupy coastal cities, but control of the countryside (where 90% of the population lived) largely eluded them because of the relatively small size of their land army. French involvement proved decisive, with a French naval victory in the Chesapeake leading at Yorktown in 1781 to the surrender of a second British army. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.
【中文译文】
1781年美国独立战争结束(10.19)
美国革命战争（1775至1783年），有时也成为美国独立战争，最初只是大不列颠王国和13个位于北美的英属殖民地之间的战争地，而后发展成欧洲几大国之间的全球战争。战争是美国政治革命的顶峰，即殖民者拒绝了英国议会对他们的统治权，称这违反了英国人的权利。在1775年，革命者最终获得了13个殖民地政府的控制权，建立了第二大陆议会，并形成了大陆军。向国王请愿对英国国会的统治干预，导致大陆国会被视为叛国者。美国人的反应是在1776年正式宣布作为成立一个新国家——美利坚合众国，要求拥有自己的主权并拒绝效忠于英国的君主制。尽管法国自1776年开始一直提供物资，弹药和武器给叛乱分子，而英国军队在1777年在大陆的掠夺导致法国1778年年初正式宣战，帮助美国拉平了与英国的军事实力。而后两年历，西班牙和荷兰共和国-——法国的盟友——也到陆续参与到战争中。
整个战争期间，英国利用他们的海军优势，占领了沿海城市，但对农村的控制权（其中90％的人口居住）一直未能掌控，因为他们的陆军规模较小。法国的参与对战争起了决定性的作用，1781年法国海军在切萨皮克的胜利致使约克镇的第二英国军投降。在1783年，巴黎条约结束了战争，并承认了美国的独立主权和领土，北至现在的加拿大，南至现在的佛罗里达州，西至现在的密西西比河。
