War of Independence. Страноведение Америки.

INTRODUCTION Revolt in 1775–83 of the British North American colonies resulted in the establishment of the USA. It was caused by opposition in the colonies to British economic exploitation and by the unwillingness of the colonists to pay for a British army garrisoned in America. It was also fuelled by the colonists' antimonarchist sentiment and their desire to participate in the policies affecting them. Significance of the theme is in the fact that revolutionary ideologies led great to social change in the early USA. Titles of nobility and hereditary rights that perpetuated wealth and power were abolished in every state, beginning the decay of the class structure. Religious freedom was expanded, and the First Amendment separated church and state. Moral objection to slavery grew, contributing to its abolition in many Northern states and territories. Education was improved and became more accessible, even to women. It is the American War of Independence that made British colonies to turn into the world’s most independent and powerful states. The subject of the research is American War of Independence. Its topics are causes, duration, weak points and subsequences of the War. This aims of the paper are: 1) to follow the history of the American War of Independence, 2) to elaborate a set of educational materials on the given theme. Hence the primary objectives of the survey given here are: a) to carry out an analysis of the events of the late 18th century in the British colonies in North America on the basis of vast historical material published in the USA; b) to elaborate a set of tests, crucial problems and source-materials for educational discussion. Topicality of the research is proved by the fact that the process which took place before and during the 1776-1783 period when 13 British colonies’ aspiration for independence broke out into the War of Independence is very remarkable for it has many unique features, on the one hand, and for many historical parallels that took place a century later when the world-wide spread colonial system began to collapse.

INTRODUCTION 2 1. AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE: FROM COLONIES TO STATES 3 1.1 Causes of the War 3 1.2 Duration of the War 5 1.3 Weak Points of the Strategies 10 1.4 Impact of the War 12 2. METHODOLOGICAL WORKING-OUTS ON THE THEME “AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE: FROM COLONIES TO STATES” 13 2.1 The source-materials and tests 13 2.2 Questions for discussion 26 CONCLUSION 27 LIST OF REFERENCES 29

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