Урок "The Revolutionary War and the Creation of the USA"

Lesson 4

Subject: The Revolutionary War and the Creation of the USA

Aims:

• to give students general information about the struggle of the Americans for Independence

• to check Ss’ knowledge on the subject

Procedure:

1. Greetings + daily routine

2. Revision:

1. Answer the questions

Who were the first Europeans to arrive in North America?

Name the nations that were trying to establish their colonies in America.

What were the reasons for British people to immigrate to what is now the USA?

Questions p40

1. True or false p40

2. Complete the sentences p40

3. Find synonyms p41

4. Watch the video “Making the Thirteen Colonies the Southern Colonies” and fill in the gaps

Of all 13 _______ Virginia (1607) was the first to be established and Georgia was the _____ (1732). The Southern colonies were quite different from other English colonies because their economic _________ depended on the use of a large _______ of slaves. The use of slaves allowed many English people grow _______. The colonists brought their language, ________, religions and racial beliefs to America and they adapted the old ways of doing things to make them work in a _________ new land. Most changes were made in how they __________ and their daily life, but others were in the _______ they made and the ways they governed. Things like these __________ together during the almost 200 years that England ruled in America and helped lay the ______________ of the unique culture of the United States.

Their diverse histories and economies made each of the colonies different from the others. However, throughout the 17^th and 18^th centuries, several events and trends brought them together in various ways. As the colonies grew closer together, they began to drift away from Great Britain.

1. The Revolutionary War and the Creation of the USA

1. Was the American Revolution Inevitable?

The European countries of Spain, France and Britain all had important interests in North America, not least because these colonies promised future wealth and were strategically important to the sugar, tobacco and coffee islands of the Caribbean

By the mid-eighteenth century, the British North American colonies were well-established settlements, closely tied into Atlantic and Caribbean trading networks. Although religious beliefs provided the motivation for many settlers, others also saw the colonies as an opportunity to own their own land, work for themselves or find their fortune. From fish and furs to tobacco and timber, it seemed that great wealth could be made from securing exclusive mercantile access to these lands, which also traded closely with the sugar isles of the Caribbean.

Competition over these resources intensified the conflict between Britain, France and Spain (the major European powers in the Americas), and the British colonies had to be defended from French and Native American attacks.

Who should meet these costs became the question of the day.

1. Video “A Brief History Of America’s Independence” Part 1

Fill in the Gaps

It all started back in ______ with the first successful English settlement, Jamestown Virginia... soon followed by Plymouth Massachusetts. Over the next 130 years, cities developed and in _____, the entire East Coast was established as a thirteen British colonies. The British were not the only ones establishing colonies... the French were starting their own colonies in the area now known as Canada. Then the French and British started getting into arguments over the territory...

And then from _____ to _____ the French and the Indians fought against the British and the colonists in the French and Indian War also known as the Seven Years War. The colonists and the British won the war. To make it official, the British and the French signed the Treaty of Paris in _____. Not only did the treaty end the war, but also granted the British control the territory from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains.

But the war left the British with a bunch of debt so they taxed the American colonists A LOT and then in _____ they passed the Stamp act and all important papers and documents needed to be produced in Great Britain and have a special stamp and the American colonists had to pay for this too. Even with the new territory the colonists were very angry that the British were robbing them and their hard-earnings by making them pay unreasonable taxes on things like tea and postage and there was nothing they could do about it because they didn't even have any representation in the British Parliament.

They had had enough. So they decided to stop paying taxes completely.

...But they were just getting started. In _____, three British ships delivering tea from the East India Tea Company were ambushed by colonists disguised as American Indians. They dumped all the tea into the harbour. This act of aggression went down in history as the Boston ______ Party. The British were steamed and started assembling troops to move against the American colonists. Paul Revere, a silversmith from Boston received this top secret information and jumped on his horse... warning... "The British are coming, the British are coming!" The next morning on April,19, ______ the first attacks from the colonists against the British happened in Lexington, Massachusetts with the "shot heard round the world." This marked the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Answer the Questions to the video:

• What countries argued over the US territory? (GB & France)

• What did the treaty of Paris give to the countries?

• Why did the British tax the American colonists?

• What did the Stamp Act mean?

• What was the reason of the Boston Tea Party

• When did the Revolutionary war start?

1. The Events Before The War:

1. Video “War for Independence”

America's war for independence was tremendously important because it made it possible for a new form of government called _____________ to come into the world at a time when almost everyone was still ruled by Kings and Queens. The war for independence was a long hard-fought struggle between the ______________ army of Britain (the most powerful country on earth) and a raggedy collection of American colonists. It lasted for _____ long years and by the time the war was over 27,000 American and 10,000 British soldiers had lost their lives. As the leaves were just changing colour in __________ of 1774 the colonies were experiencing a lot of trouble because of unfair __________, lack of representation in the British Parliament and the restriction of colonial freedoms. Even so less than __________ of the colonists really wanted independence from Britain. Nevertheless, the First Continental Congress was meeting that October and was warning people to be prepared to fight if American ____________ were not restored. Early in the next year in 1775 the situation grew worse when the King declared the colony of Massachusetts to be an open rebellion and commanded that Boston's main patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Handcock be arrested.

With the arrival of summer in ________ Thomas Jefferson and other members of a special congressional committee were busy at work writing the Declaration of Independence, America's most famous _____________ document. They wrote that all men are born with certain god-given rights and are created equal. They describe all the ways that Britain had taken away the rights of the ___________ and they declare that America must be independent to form a new democratic nation. The United States of America was born here within the walls at the Statehouse at the colony of Pennsylvania on the fourth of July 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was presented to congress. This room was unusually quiet that day as men stepped forward ____________ their names to the document for all of them realized the great importance and danger of what they were doing. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence ______________ was a very controversial and confusing issue for while some hated slavery others were slave owners still others were slave owners who also hated slavery. Thomas Jefferson for example had called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” yet both he and George Washington, who also held anti-slavery views, possessed large Virginia ___________ and owned hundreds of slaves. The continental congress believed that the problem of slavery had to be solved at a later time because right then the war had to be won and strong union of states created.

• When was the Declaration of Independence signed? {4^th of July 1776)

• What did it declare?

• What issue was controversial and confusing

1. “Schoolhouse Rock- No More Kings”

1. H/A