American history

By Lina and Frida

AMERICAN HISTORY

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a sailor and adventurer who was born in 1451 in Genua (Italy).

Isabella and Fernando

In April 1992, Columbus had a kind of contract (=Vertrag) with Isabella and Fernando (the catholic queen and king of Castile):

They instructed Columbus to travel into the west, respectively through the Atlantic ocean, to the Asian continent and bring them expencive were, e.g. gemstones (=Edelsteine), pearls, spices (=Gewürze) and also of course silver and gold.

In return Isabella and Fernando promised Columbus to give him great offices (=Ämter) and a part of the profit which he was going to make.

The 3rd Aug. 1992 was the day Christopher Columbus entered the sea (in Andalusia) with three ships: Niña, Pinta and Santa María.

The three ships

On 12th Oct. 1412 Columbus finally arrived ...

... but not in India as he had expected.

Christopher Columbus

This was the way he wanted to travel but he didn't knew that there was a whole continent in his way

Christopher Columbus arrived at a whole continent which was completely unknown back then: He found America.

Before Columbus has gotten there, nobody exept the people who have already lived there, even knew about this huge part of the earth.

The reason why there are people living in America who are called "Indians" is that Columbus thought he was in India so he called the people there Indians because the European sailors called every resident (=Einwohner) in the Asian region like that

On 20th May 1506 Columbus died in Valladolid.

In this video, you can find a summary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus which is really easy to understand.

THE ACTS

> Backgroundinformation:

In 1756 started a war which lasted 7 years (that's why it's called "seven years war"). After it had endet in 1763, King George III. of Britain needet very much money. This caused lots of laws and disputes in America ...

> The Sugar Act

- 1764

Samuel Adams

- The British released a law that made the colonists pay higher taxes on sugar than before.

- This law cursed first protests and some people got angry.
=> "The sons of liberty" got founded by some men around Samuel Adams

> The Stamp Act

- 1765

- The British made a law which basically saidthat every document, every newspaper and even every dice or card game had to have a stamp on it.

=> The American got really really angry because they didn't wanted to accept the British to control them

=> The protesters got so angry that the Stamp Act got withdrawn

("No taxation without representation": The Colonists didn't wanted to accept the rules made by the British because they didn't even had a representation in the British parlament who could've approved them)

THE ACTS

> Townshend Act

- 1767

- It basically said that when the colonists bought things from Britain they used in everyday life (e.g. glass, leather or paint), they hat to pay taxes on them

=> of course this caused much more anger in the 13 colonies. George Washington even had to send 4000 soldiers to keep the protesters under control.

> Tea act

- 1773

- Tea was a very popular drink back then but of course the british put higher taxes on it.

This act was the straw that broke the camel's back: The colonists developed into two groups:

*The Loyalists (Loyal to britain)

*The Patriots (wanted to fight back)

=> The tea party

In December 1773 lots of Patriots entered three British ships that had very much tea inside when they arrived at Boston harbour and threw it all into the water. The Britain lost about 1 Million Dollars with the tea.

Independence day

The Britain and the 13 colonies had a pretty good relationship, they've traded were with each other and everyone was happy.

But then the British started to control the colonists and they used them for the problems with their finances.

The colonists got split into two groups: The loyalists accepted the way their mothercountry treated them and the Patriots didn't.

The relationship between the colonies and Britain got worse and even worse ...