utilize the conservative influence in the southern areas to retrieve their unfavorable situation, so they took the offensive in the South. In December 1778, they captured the important port of Savannah, Ga., and used it as a wedge to go on into the interior of the South. In May 1780, British troops went all out on the offensive and took the important port of Charleston, S.C., and from there they marched north in an attempt to restore their colonial rule in the whole of the South. At this juncture the forces of the Continental Army, sent south by the Continental Congress to resist the British, were badly defeated in the Battle of Camden. However, the people of the South rose to defend themselves by forming guerilla bands and using mobile and flexible warfare to engage the enemy. In October 1780, the militia guerilla bands of the south annihilated one major column of the British army in the Battle of King's Mountain. This victory changed the situation of the war, and the American forces immediately turned to the offensive. General Cornwallis became unable to hold his ground in the South, as his forces were steadily reduced by attrition. In the end he was compelled to retreat to the port city of Yorktown, Va., where he waited for the British fleet to come to his rescue.

By this time the situation had undergone a fundamental change, with the British army turning from a superior to an inferior position and the American from an inferior to a superior position. The time for decisive battle had finally come.

Following the retreat of Cornwallis' forces into Yorktown, the southern militia guerilla bands and the French fleet came hard on their heels. In early September 1781, a French naval squadron of 36 ships. led by Admiral de Grasse defeated the British navy outside the port of Yorktown, cutting off completely the supply lines from the sea. Washington was then quartering his troops in the vicinity of New York. When he heard the news, he immediately combined his forces with those of the French led by General Rochambeau, as well as those under Lafayette, and rushed south to encircle the British at Yorktown. After struggling doggedly for a while, Cornwallis, having exhausted his strength and energy, led his army of 8,000 to surrender on October 19, 1781. As the British troops in their trim uniforms stepped in front of the shabbily clad American forces to lay down their arms, the American army band played the tune "The World Turned Upside Down."

After the Battle of Yorktown, the war for American independence had essentially been won. In the

course of the war, the American people had overcome all kinds of hardships and obstacles, and had fought valiantly and persistently to win their ultimate brilliant victory. The victory of the war for American independence eloquently proved: the destiny of history is decided by the popular masses, for regardless of how retrograde and rampant the reactionaries may be for a time, they will inevitably be ground to dust by the wheels of history in the end.

[Picture] The surrender of the British army at Yorktown.

During the time of the war, America began its westward expansion on a large scale. From the first, the colonies in North America had been founded on the corpses of the Indians. The British army, taking advantage of the contradictions between the Americans and the Indians, enticed the latter to fight on their side. Following their victory in the war, the American rulers took the opportunity of seizing lands from the Indians. From 1778 to 1779, George Clark, heading an armed band organized by land seekers. from Virginia, crossed the Ohio River in a westward thrust and captured Vincennes, thus paving the way for further American expansion into the west. In 1779 Washington sent John Sullivan with a force of soldiers to "annihilate" the Iroquois Indian tribe then settled in northern New York. In his instructions to Sullivan, Washington wrote: "The present aim is to completely smash and flatten their settlement, take as many prisoners as possible, the more the better, whether they are men or women, old or young... You must not only mop up their settlement, but destroy it." Thus at the time of its founding, America had already nakedly exposed its aggressive character.

On September 3, 1783, Britain and America signed the Paris Peace Treaty. This treaty provided for recognition by the British Crown of the United States (the original 13 British colonies in North America) as a free, self-governing, and independent nation, and for the acquisition by the United States of the vast territories west of the Appalachian Mountain range and east of the Mississippi River. The newly defined boundary of the United States of America was: on the north, Canada and the Great Lakes region; on the east, the Atlantic Ocean; on the south, Florida; and on the west, the eastern bank of the Mississippi River. Thus the land area of America become twice what it was at the time of the declaration of independence.

[Map] The political situation in North America after the conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783. [Major map features show territory of the United States and possessions of foreign powers on the North. American continent.]

The Paris Peace Treaty was concluded according to the proposed draft of the American delegates. It satisfied the demands of the American bourgeoisie. But it also had its compromising aspects, because it provided that British creditors were entitled to collect their debts from American debtors in hard currency and that the American Congress should recommend that the various States adopt measures for returning confiscated property of British subjects and loyalist elements to their original owners. These two provisions, however, were not strictly carried out because they were opposed by the American people.

At the time of the signing of the peace treaty with America, Britain also concluded peace with France and Spain. This treaty of peace provided for Spanish occupation of the territory west of the Mississippi River, and for Spain's regaining Florida and also Majorca Island in the western Mediterranean, which had been lost to Britain in the past. But Britain retained the important military base of Gibraltar at the southern tip of Spain. France regained Tobago in the West Indies and took Senegal on the West African coast. But Britain still possessed the vast territory of Canada. This peace treaty covered the partition of territories and colonial interests among Britain, France, and Spain.

The war for American independence was a war of national liberation, fought by the American people to break away from the oppression of British colonial rule. At that time imperial Britain was a first-rate world power with a population of 30 million, whereas America had a population of only 3 million. Britain had a numerically superior army with many experienced military commanders and excellent weapons, while the armed strength of the American people was basically composed of a militia with little military training and poor weapons and supplies. At the time Britain possessed the world's strongest navy, which could be used to transport troops and supplies and effectively blockade American ports, while America had no navy to speak of. Britain was an imperial country with vast colonies. In North America it held Canada, Florida, and the West Indies, and could use these bases to attack America, whereas America was

almost encircled by the enemy on all sides. As a comparatively developed capitalist country, Britain had greater economic strength, while the American economy at the time was still that of a backward colony. However, all these [factors] were superficial, relative, and temporary. The balance sheet of forces is not confined to a comparison of economic and military strength. More important is the balance sheet with regard to manpower and spirit. As to the nature of this war, it was an unjust and aggressive war on the British side, and a just war of national liberation on the American side. He who upholds justice gets help, he who forsakes justice does not. At that time Britain was isolated and helpless, while America received wide sympathy and aid from abroad. Among the troops that Britain used to suppress the people in North America were many mercenaries hired from small principalities in Germany, so their morale was low. On the other hand, the American troops were an army of the people. They were unafraid of violence and brave in battle. These differences in character enabled the American people gradually to turn an inferior situation into a superior one, thereby defeating Britain and ultimately securing their independence.

The war for American independence was a war of the masses. In the colonies of North America workers, farmers, handicraftsmen, seamen, fishermen, and the like were the main forces in this revolutionary war. They took an active part in the war by organizing militia contingents to attack British troops everywhere. During the war the broad masses and the soldiers braved cold and hunger, overcoming all kinds of hardships and persisting in carrying the revolutionary war through to its victorious conclusion.

During the war patriotic women also played a big role. They warmly supported the War for Independence and freedom in all ways. While men went to the front, they took over the tasks of production in the rear. They tilled fields and wove cloth, and sent food, garments, and other articles to support the front. When Washington was in a precarious situation retreating with his Continental Army into Pennsylvania, the women of Philadelphia raised a huge fund of almost £300,000 to procure winter clothes for the revolutionary army. This event deeply moved the fighters. Under fire on the battlefields, women risked their lives for the Continental Army to bring ammunition, transmit intelligence, and rescue the wounded. Some even served as artillery gunners and performed glorious war deeds. The victory in the war for

American independence was inseparable from the efforts of patriotic women.

During the war for American independence Negroes also made great contributions. In America at that time there were 600,000 Negroes, making up one-fifth of the total population. This was quite a large force. Because the plantation owners and the bourgeoisie stubbornly maintained the evil system of Negro slavery, 550,000 of the 600,000 Negroes were enslaved like beasts, devoid of any personal freedom. After the outbreak of the war, America not only failed to organize the Negroes but guarded them even more closely, thus intensifying their oppression. This seriously impeded their participation in the war. It was also one of the important reasons why the war for American independence was slow in achieving victory. Be that as it may, the Negroes still played a great role in the war. During the war, at least 5,000 Negroes fought in the American revolutionary army. In 1778, the batallions of Washington's Continental Army had an average of 54 Negroes each. There were Negroes fighting in every important battle; they fought bravely and well and repeatedly established records of distinction. In the struggle for American independence, blood was shed in common by Negroes and whites alike.

Since the war for American independence was a war of national liberation, a war of the masses, so in the course of it the American army made new and important creative contributions in tactics. These played a definite role in enabling the American people to win victory. In the 18th century, European armies were arrayed in fixed-line formations for fighting on the plains, but the revolutionary army led by Washington was the first to adopt mobile and flexible formations for dispersed warfare. Because his men knew what they were fighting for, their morale was high; because they were fighting on their own soil, they were familiar with conditions; and because they were operationally mobile and flexible, they could fight in dispersed formations that afforded the fullest scope for their fighting ability. Whether they conducted surprise raids by special columns, encirclement by heavy concentrations, or attacks in heavy fog, rain, or snow, and especially when they fought at night or in close quarters, they were able to beat the enemy, making him dizzy and exhausted from running. With respect to this kind of innovation in war tactics, Engels pointed out: "During the war for American independence, the contingents of the rebels fought against inflexible line formations. Although

the rebels were not well-drilled, they could still fire effectively from their muzzle-loading guns; they were fighting for their own vital interests, so they could not flee from battle like the mercenaries; they did not fight as the British had anticipated, in fixed line formation on the plains, but rather used their swift, mobile dispersed groups hidden in the forest to ambush the British troops. Under these conditions the fixed line formation was useless, and so the British were beaten by an enemy who could not be seen or confronted. Thus they [the Americans] invented the dispersed formation in warfare a new form of warfare produced by a change in the composition of the fighting forces."7

The Historical Significance of the War for American Independence

The war for American independence was a bourgeois revolution against colonial oppression and feudal oppression. It was the first revolution in American history.

The victory in the War for Independence enabled the 13 States in North America to cast off the bonds of British colonialism and become an independent and self-governing bourgeois democratic republic. All the injunctions promulgated by the British Government in the past were burned to ashes in the angry fire set by the revolutionary people. The economic structure and the social complexion of the colonial period were subjected to vast changes, and certain vestiges of feudalism were swept away. The 13 States were politically united into one entity, thereby promoting the development of a national economy.

In Das Kapital, Marx pointed out: "The war for American independence in the 18th century sounded an alarm for the bourgeoisie of Europe."8 The war for American independence awakened Europe and hastened the outbreak of the French bourgeois revolution.

7Anti-Duhring. People's Publishing House, 1970 ed. Pp.

165-66.

8Das Kapital, Vol. 1, Preface to the First Edition. Complete Works of Marx. People's Publishing House, 1972 ed. Vol. 23, p.11.

The war for American independence provided a successful precedent for the colonial independence and national liberation movements of the oppressed peoples. Under its impact, in the early part of the 19th century the people of Latin America successively launched revolutionary struggles against Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule and established, one after another, more than 20 independent nations.

In his letter to American workers in 1918, Lenin affirmed the historical meaning of the war for American independence in this way: "The history of modern, civilized America began with one of those great, really liberating, really revolutionary wars; ... that was the war the American people waged against the British robbers who oppressed America and held her in colonial slavery.

As a bourgeois revolution against colonial oppression and feudal oppression, the war for American

Selected Works of Lenin. People's Publishing House, 1972 ed. Vol. 3, p. 586.

independence had a great progressive significance in American history, but at the same time it also had the limitations of a bourgeois revolution. A bourgeois revolution is really only one exploiting group replacing another in seizing and holding power. The victory in the war for American independence only enabled the bourgeoisie and the plantation slaveowners to grasp political power, while the broad masses of the people were still relegated to an exploited and oppressed status.

The popular masses are the masters of history. During the war for American independence, workers, handicraftsmen, farmers, and Negroes made up the vast majority of the working people in the popula tion. They not only opposed the British colonial rule, but they also wanted to push the revolution to a still higher stage.

The American people are a great people. They have a revolutionary tradition. At present, they are in a state of new awakening. We believe that the American people will make still greater contributions to the cause of human progress in the future.

12. INDIA

The American Revolutiona

While some Englishmen were battling at home for improvements of Parliament and reforms in religion, others were adventuring across the Atlantic to establish colonies and trade in the Americas. . . . Early in the 17th century European countries began to make settlements there. In North America, colonies were established by France, Holland, and Spain as well as by England. In the 18th century, England drove France out of the eastern part of the continent and Canada. She had taken New Netherlands from the Dutch earlier, changing its name to New York.

The English Colonies in America

By the middle of the 18th century there were 13 English colonies in North America along the Atlantic Coast. Landless peasants, people seeking religious freedom, traders, and profiteers had settled there. The bulk of the population consisted of independent farmers. Infant industries had developed in such products as wool, flax, and leather. In the north there were fishing and ship-building. In the south, large plantations like feudal manors had grown up where tobacco and cotton were grown with slave labourers brought from Africa. Trade between the colonists and Europe had become lively and prosperous.

Each colony had a local assembly elected by qualified voters. These assemblies enacted laws concerning local matters, levied taxes and developed skill in self-government. However, they were under the rule of the mother country. By the 18th century, the

aCompilers' Note.-From K.S. Yajnik, R.H.Dave, Lora Tibbets, Om Prakash, B. Ghesh, T.S. Mehta, Q.M. Zaidi, R. Vajreshwari, and Arjum Dev's Social Studies: A Textbook for Secondary Schools. Vol. 1 (rev. ed.). New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), 1973. Pp 181-89. Reproduced here with permission of NCERT, New Delhi, India. The material is designed for the 9th or 10th year of an 11-year primary-secondary school cycle. (Original in English.)

colonists found the laws which the English Government imposed upon them more and more objectionable. The idea of being an independent nation grew and developed into the Revolutionary War in which the colonists gained their independence.

Causes of American War of Independence

The colonial policy of England in economic matters was the primary cause of resentment in the American colonies. . . . [I]n Europe at this time, the theories of mercantilism dominated the policies of all governments. England's application of mercantilism meant that the American colonies could not develop an economy of their own. The British Parliament had forbidden them to use non-British ships in their trade. Certain products such as tobacco, cotton and sugar could be exported only to England. Heavy duties. were imposed on the import of goods in the colonies from other places. The colonies were also forbidden to start certain industries, for example, iron works and textiles. They were forced to import these goods from England. Thus, in every possible way, the growth of industry and trade of the colonies was impeded.

The British also angered the colonists by issuing a proclamation to prevent them from moving west into new lands. English aristocrats had bought lands in America and got rents from the farmers. They wanted to keep the colonists as rentors. But many colonists rebelled against the authorities, moved into the wilderness and occupied land by hook or by crook.

As a result of continuous wars in Europe the British Government was burdened with debt. It needed money. In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act which imposed stamp taxes on all business transactions with the American colonies. Revenue stamps up to 20 shillings were to be affixed to newspapers, legal documents and other papers. This act aroused violent resentment among all sections of the colonists and led them to boycott British goods. There were uprisings in many towns and tax collectors were killed. The colonists claimed that