歷史今天:1781年美國獨立戰爭結束(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.
【中文譯文】
1781年美國獨立戰爭結束(10.19)
美國革命戰爭（1775至1783年），有時也成爲美國獨立戰爭，最初只是大不列顛王國和13個位於北美的英屬殖民地之間的戰爭地，而後發展成歐洲幾大國之間的全球戰爭。戰爭是美國政治革命的頂峯，即殖民者拒絕了英國議會對他們的統治權，稱這違反了英國人的權利。在1775年，革命者最終獲得了13個殖民地政府的控制權，建立了第二大陸議會，並形成了大陸軍。向國王請願對英國國會的統治干預，導致大陸國會被視爲叛國者。美國人的反應是在1776年正式宣佈作爲成立一個新國家——美利堅合衆國，要求擁有自己的主權並拒絕效忠於英國的君主制。儘管法國自1776年開始一直提供物資，彈藥和武器給叛亂分子，而英國軍隊在1777年在大陸的掠奪導致法國1778年年初正式宣戰，幫助美國拉平了與英國的軍事實力。而後兩年曆，西班牙和荷蘭共和國-——法國的盟友——也到陸續參與到戰爭中。
整個戰爭期間，英國利用他們的海軍優勢，佔領了沿海城市，但對農村的控制權（其中90％的人口居住）一直未能掌控，因爲他們的陸軍規模較小。法國的參與對戰爭起了決定性的作用，1781年法國海軍在切薩皮克的勝利致使約克鎮的第二英國軍投降。在1783年，巴黎條約結束了戰爭，並承認了美國的獨立主權和領土，北至現在的加拿大，南至現在的佛羅里達州，西至現在的密西西比河。
