英美概况内容及翻译
英美概况复习
此为大学英语专业考试内容，下文含翻译。
USA
I. Geography
1. Geographic Features
1.1 The Eastern Highlands
Formed by the Appalachian Range.?
1. An average elevation of 800 meters above the sea level.?
2. The highest peak:? Mount Mitchell (1856 m)：the highest peak of the Appalachian Range ?
3. East: the narrow Atlantic Coast plain
1.2 The Central Plains
1. Vast plains between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains?
2. Drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries?
3. Usually divided into two regions:?
1) the Great Plains in the west: vast treeless prairies in the west and agricultural areas in the east?
2) the Central Lowland in the east: from the five Great Lakes to central Texas
1.3 The Western Mountains
High plateaus and mountainous country?
1. The Rocky Mountains: over 3,000 meters above the sea level?
The continental divide of the United States ?
2. West of the Rockies:? the Columbia Plateau in the north ?
the Colorado Plateau in the south
Grand Canyon,the Great Basin in between?
The Pacific Mountain System consists of three regions: The Cascade Range, the Sierra-Nevada, and the Pacific Coast Range.?
The Sierras contain Mount Whitney (4421m), the highest peak in the US outside Alaska.?
Death Valley in eastern California, 85 meters below sea level
2. Climate
The United States has a large size and a wide range of geographic features. Every type of climate is represented in the country: The climate is temperate in most areas, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida, polar in Alaska, semi-arid in the Great Plains west of the 100th meridian, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in Coastal California, arid in the Great Basin?
Extreme weather is common: the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the continental United States, primarily in the Midwest.
3. Rivers
The Mississippi River (Great River, Big River in Indian language) is 3,770 km long: the second longest river in the United States. It originates from Minnesota and empties into the Gulf of Mexico.?
The Missouri River is 4,090 km long. It is the longest river (longest branch of the Mississippi). It is a Mississippi tributary, flowing from the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin and emptying into the Mississippi River.
The length of the Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson combination is approximately 6,262 km?
The Arkansas River (2,364 km) is the second longest tributary of the Mississippi River. The Ohio River is the largest Mississippi tributary measured by water volume.?
The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. Rising in British Columbia, Canada, it runs 3,700 km long, emptying into the Bering Sea.
5 great lakes
II． American History
1. Where did the first Americans come from and why did they migrate to America?
Book P 4-5
2. American Civil war
The American Civil War (1861–1865), also known as the War Between the States, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the U.S. and formed the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). Led by Jefferson Davis, they fought against the U.S. federal government (the “Union”), which was supported by all the free states and the five border slave states.
2.1 The Causes
The coexistence of a slave-owning South with an increasingly anti-slavery North made conflict likely. Lincoln did not propose federal laws against slavery where it already existed, but he had, in his 1858 House Divided Speech, expressed a desire to “arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction”. Much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories. All of the organized territories were likely to become free-soil states, which increased the Southern movement toward secession. Both North and South assumed that if slavery could not expand it would wither and die.
The coexistence of a slave-owning South with an increasingly anti-slavery
North made conflict likely. Lincoln did not propose federal laws against slavery where it already existed, but he had, in his 1858 House Divided Speech, expressed a desire to “arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction”. Much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories. All of the organized territories were likely to become free-soil states, which increased the Southern movement toward secession. Both North and South assumed that if slavery could not expand it would wither and die. Southern fears of losing control of the federal government to antislavery forces, and Northern fears that the slave power already controlled the government, brought the crisis to a head in the late 1850s. Sectional disagreements over the morality of slavery, the scope of democracy and the economic merits of free labor vs. slave plantations caused the Whig and “Know-Nothing” parties to collapse, and new ones to arise (the Free Soil Party in 1848, the Republicans in 1854, the Constitutional Union in 1860). In 1860, the last remaining national political party, the Democratic Party, split along sectional lines.
2.2 Factors Affecting the Process and Results
What greatly affected the process as well as the result of the war were the differences between the South and the North in their strategies, geographical features, technology, and manpower and finance.
2.2.1 Strategies
As men poured into the armies, Northern and Southern leaders discussed strategies that would achieve victory.
Northern armies would have to invade the Confederacy, destroy its capacity to wage war, and crush the will of the Southern people to resist. The Confederacy could win by prolonging the war to a point where the Northern people would consider the effort too costly in lives and money to persist.
The South had a compelling example in the American Revolution of a seemingly weaker power defeating a much stronger one. If the North chose not to mount a military effort to coerce the seceded states back into the Union, the Confederacy would win independence by default.
Lincoln and other Northern leaders, however, had no intention of letting the Southern states go without a fight. The most prominent American military figure in the spring of 1861 was Winfield Scott, the general-in-chief of the United States Army. With a brilliant mind, Scott conceived a long-range strategy to bring Northern victory. Scott’s plan sought to apply pressure on the Confederacy from all sides. A combined force of naval and army units would sweep down the Mississippi River, d ividing the Confederacy’s eastern and western states. At the same time, the Union navy would institute a blockade to deny the Confederacy access to European manufactured goods. Should the South continue to resist even
after the loss of the Mississippi and the closing of its ports, Scott envisioned a major invasion into the heart of the Confederacy.
2.2.2 Geography
Geography played a major role in how effectively the two sides were able to carry out their strategies.
The sheer size of the Confederacy posed a daunting obstacle to Northern military forces. Totaling more than 1,940,000 km2 and without a well-developed network of roads, the Southern landscape challenged the North’s ability to supply armies that maneuvered at increasing distances from Union bases.
It was also almost impossible to make the North’s blockade of Southern ports completely effective because the South’s coastline stretched 5600 km and contained nearly 200 harbors and mouths of navigable rivers.
The Appalachian Mountains also hindered rapid movement of Northern forces between the eastern and western areas of the Confederacy while the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia offered a protected route through which Confederate armies could invade the North.
The placement of Southern rivers, however, favored the North. The Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers provided excellent north-south avenues of advance for Union armies west of the Appalachians.
2.2.3 Technology
Technological advances helped both sides deal with the great distances over which the armies fought. The Civil War was the first large conflict that featured railroads and the telegraph. Railroads rapidly moved hundreds of thousands of soldiers and vast quantities of supplies; the North contained almost twice as many miles of railroad lines as the South. Telegraphic communication permitted both governments to coordinate military movements on sprawling geographical fronts.
The combatants also took advantage of numerous other recent advances in military technology. The most important was the rifle musket carried by most of the infantrymen on both sides. The rifle musket, with an effective range of 225 to 275 meters, allowed defenders to break up attacks long before they reached the defenders’ positions.
Other new technologies included ironclad warships, which were used by both sides; the deployment of manned balloons for aerial reconnaissance on battlefields, used mainly by the North. The technology for all of these weapons had been present before the Civil War, but never before had armies applied the technology so widely.
2.2.4 Manpower and Finance
At the beginning of the war, state militias provided most of the troops for both Union and Confederate armies. Soon large numbers of civilians
were volunteering for military service. Throughout the war, the bulk of the forces consisted of volunteers.
When the number of volunteers lagged behind the growing battle casualties, both the Northern and Southern governments resorted to drafting men into the armies. The Confederacy passed the first draft act in April 1862. The Union followed almost a year later.
Although the draft itself did not produce a sufficient number of soldiers, the threat of being drafted led many to volunteer and collect a bounty, which was paid to volunteers. Some soldiers were unscrupulous enough to enlist, desert, and reenlist to collect the bounty more than once.
The Civil War, like all wars, called for great sums of money to pay troops and supply them with equipment. At the outset of the war the Confederacy depended on loans, but this source of finance soon disappeared as Southerners began to be affected financially by the cost of the war and unable to buy bonds. Instead it relied on paper money, freely printed. The Confederacy suffered greatly from severe inflation and debt throughout the war. The Confederate rate of inflation was about 9200%.
The Union financed its armies by loans and taxes to a much greater degree than the Confederacy, even resorting to an income tax. The people of the North were more prosperous than those of the South. A national banking system was established by Congress to stimulate sales of U.S. bonds. Northerners had savings with which they could buy the bonds and had earnings from which taxes could be taken.
2.3 The Process
2.6.1 Eastern Theater (1861-1863)
2.6.3 Western Theater (1861-1863)
2.6.4 Trans-Mississippi Theater (1861-1865)
3. America in World War I
World War I, military conflict, from August 1914 to November 1918, that involved many of the countries of Europe as well as the United States and other nations throughout the world.
World War I was one of the most violent and destructive wars in European history.
Of the 65 million men who were mobilized, more than 10 million were killed and more than 20 million wounded.
The term World War I did not come into general use until a second worldwide conflict broke out in 1939. Before that year, the war was known as the Great War or the World War.
1.1 Coalitions Involved
The war began as a clash between two coalitions of European countries.
The first coalition, known as the Allied Powers, included the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, and the Russian Empire.
The Central Powers, which opposed them, consisted of the empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
1.2 The Immediate Cause
The immediate cause of the war was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by a Serbian nationalist.
The fundamental causes of the conflict, however, were rooted deeply in the European history of the previous century, particularly in the political and economic policies that prevailed in Europe after 1871, the year that Germany emerged as a major European power.
2. The Great Depression
On October 24, 1929, the American stock market crashed. Billions of dollars of paper profits were wiped out within a few hours. This led to a long economic depression.
However, the post-war industrial boom and the prosperity were soon to vanish. The Great Depression in the United States, worst and longest economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world, began from the end of 1929 until the early 1940s.
2.1 The Causes
The depression was caused by a number of serious weaknesses in the economy.
It is a common misconception that the stock market crash of October 1929 was the cause of the Great Depression. The two events were closely related, but both were the results of deep problems in the modern economy that were building up through the “prosperity decade” of the 1920s.
As is typical of post-war periods, Americans in the Roaring Twenties turned inward, away from international issues and social concerns and toward greater individualism.
The self-centered attitudes of the 1920s seemed to fit nicely with the needs of the economy. Modern industry had the capacity to produce vast quantities of consumer goods, but this created a fundamental problem: Prosperity could continue only if demand was made to grow as rapidly as supply. Accordingly, people had to be persuaded to abandon such traditional values as saving, postponing pleasures and purchases, and buying only what they needed. Advertising methods were used to persuade people to buy such relatively new products as automobiles and such completely new ones as radios and household appliances. The resulting mass consumption kept the economy going through most of the 1920s.
But there was an underlying economic problem: Income was distributed very unevenly, and the portion going to the wealthiest Americans grew larger as the decade proceeded. This was due largely to two factors: While businesses showed remarkable gains in productivity during the 1920s, workers got a relatively small share of the wealth this produced. Between 1923 and 1929, manufacturing output per person-hour increased by 32 percent, but workers’ wages grew by only 8 percent. Corporate profits shot up by 65 percent in the same period.
As a result of these trends, in 1929 the top 0.1 percent of American families had a total income equal to that of the bottom 42 percent. This meant that many people who were willing to purchase new products did not have enough money to do so. To get around this difficulty, the 1920s produced another innovation—“credit,” an attractive name for consumer debt. People were allowed to “buy now, pay later.”
International problems also weakened the economy. After World War I the United States became the world’s chief creditor as European countries struggled to pay war debts and reparations. Many American bankers were not ready for this new role. They lent heavily and unwisely to borrowers in Europe, especially Germany, who would have difficulty repaying the loans, particularly if there was a serious economic downturn. These huge debts made the international banking structure extremely unstable by the late 1920s.
In addition, the United States maintained high tariffs on goods imported from other countries, at the same time that it was making foreign loans and trying to export products. This combination could not be sustained: If other nations could not sell their goods in the United States, they could not make enough money to buy American products or repay American loans.
The rising incomes of the wealthiest Americans fueled rapid growth in the stock market, especially between 1927 and 1929. Soon the prices of stocks were rising far beyond the worth of the shares of the companies they represented. People were willing to pay inflated prices because they believed the stock prices would continue to rise and they could soon sell their stocks at a profit.
In 1928 the Dow Jones industrial average, an index that tracks the stock prices of key industrial companies, doubled in value in less than two years. But the stock boom could not last. The great bull market of the late 1920s was a classic example of a specul ative “bubble” scheme. In the fall of 1929 confidence that prices would keep rising faltered, then failed.
Starting in late October the market plummeted as investors began selling stocks. On October 29, known as Black Tuesday, the worst day of the panic, stocks lost $10 billion to $15 billion in value. By mid-November almost all of the gains of the previous two years had been wiped out, with
losses estimated at $30 billion.
The stock market crash announced the beginning of the Great Depression.
2.3 R oosevelt’s New Deal
The initial government response to the Great Depression was ineffective, as President Hoover insisted that the economy was sound and that prosperity would soon return.
But business owners saw no reason to increase production while unsold goods clogged their shelves. By 1932 investment had dropped to less than 5 percent of its 1929 level. By the election year of 1932, the depression had made Hoover so unpopular that the election of the Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt was all but assured. Shortly after his inauguration in 1933, Roosevelt quickly lifted the nation’s spirits with the rapid and unprecedented actions of the New Deal.
The New Deal produced a wide variety of programs to reduce unemployment, assist businesses and agriculture, regulate banking and the stock market, and provide security for the needy, elderly, and disabled. The basic idea of early New Deal programs was to lower the supply of goods to the current, depressed level of consumption. The government sought to raise farm prices by paying farmers not to grow surplus crops and to create codes for many industries that regulated competition while guaranteeing minimum wages and maximum hours for workers. The New Deal also tried to increase demand, pumping large amounts of money into the economy through public works programs and relief measures.
Public works projects not only provided jobs but built schools, dams, and roads. The New Deal helped people to survive the depression. Unemployment was reduced, but remained high through the 1930s. Farm income rose from a low of $1.9 billion in 1932 to $4.2 billion in 1940. The demands of the depression led the United States to institute social-security programs and accept labor unions, measures that had been taken decades earlier in many European nations.
3.2.1 US and Japanese Conflict
In the final result, however, the United States had little choice in the matter. When France had fallen to Germany, Japan had begun to move into French Indo-China, which had been France's source of rubber and was thought to be rich in oil. The United States government had no desire to see Japan in possession of its own stocks of these essential resources and so threatened to place an embargo on these goods. The Japanese responded in an unexpected way. On Sunday, 7 December 1941, Japanese naval aircraft attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at anchor at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian islands. The Pearl Harbor Attack brought the United States into the war on December 8. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States
on December
The Congress
The United States
Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election.
As provided by the United States Constitution, each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives represents a district and serves a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population. The 100 Senators serve staggered six-year terms. Each state has two senators, regardless of population. Every two years, approximately one-third of the Senate is elected.
checks and balances:
The government is divided into three branches, the legislative, the executive and the judicial, each has part of the powers but not all the power. And each branch of government can check, or block, the actions of the other branches. The three branches are thus in balance. This called “checks and balances”.
What is American General Education?
见书
English
2.1 The Iberians
1) They are the earliest settlers on the British Isles.
2.2 The Celts
1) From 700 B.C. Celts came in several successive waves from the Upper Rhineland and began to inhabit British Isles.
2) The fair-haired Celts imposed themselves as an aristocracy on the conquered tribes of Iberians throughout Britain and Ireland.
3) These people found refuge in the mountains to the north and west.
4) At least two big waves of Celtic invasion can be distinguished: first the Gaels or Goidels, still found in Ireland and Scotland, came over as early as 600 B.C.; secondly the Cymric and Brythons, still found in Wales, come over before 300 B.C.
3. Roman Britain
3.1 Roman Invasion
Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410.
The Romans referred to their province as Britannia.
Prior to the Roman invasion, Iron Age Britain already had cultural and economic links with Continental Europe, but the invaders introduced new developments in agriculture, urbanization, industry and architecture, leaving a legacy that is still apparent today.
It is believed that the Celts were related with the ancient people in what is now France. They gave some help in the struggle to resist the Roman invasion of France. As a result, the Roman army, commanded by Julius Caesar, invaded England in 55 BC. He landed in Kent with several thousand Roman troops, but meeting resistance and bad weather, the Roman withdrew soon after. In the following year, Julius Caesar and the Romans went across the English Channel and invaded Britain for the second time. Julius Caesar and his soldiers did not stay long in England before they withdrew again. The invasion marked the beginning of English recorded history because Julius Caesar kept a diary and wrote down what he saw in England. The successful invasion of England by the Romans did not take place until nearly a century later, in 43 AD, headed by the Emperor Claudius I. The Romans did not meet with much resistance on the part of the natives and soon got possession of what is now England by driving many of the native Celts into mountainous Scotland and Wales. The Romans failed to conquer Scotland, they built two great walls, the Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall, along the northern border of England to prevent the Picts in Scotland from invading England.
3.2 Influences of Roman Invasion
The 3d and 4th centuries witnessed the decline of the Roman Empire. In 410 Rome abandoned Britain.
1. Roman urban civilization, baths and amphitheaters, as well Hadrian’s Wall. People who spoke Latin and wore togas. Numerous villas——vast estates worked by slaves and featuring sumptuous noble dwellings—were also established. Beyond these, the countryside remained Celtic.
2. A network of roads, still in use for 1400 years;
3. A number of towns. They introduced a system of organized government and built a network of towns, mostly walled. These town used names ending with “ster”, “cester”, or “shire” -- Leicester, Worcester and Yorkshire—deriving from castra, the Latin word for camp; the Roman capital was London.
4. Christianity; the Romans brought the new religion, Christianity, to Britain. This came at first by indirect means, probably brought by traders and soldiers, before the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, we proclaimed in 306 AD.
5. Water and sewage systems.
1.1 Anglo-Saxon
Soon after the Romans left, a band of new invaders landed in the southern part of England, in what is now the country of Kent. They were known in history as the Jutes. Other Germanic tribes came trooping after them. This continued for many years. The Saxons came from northern Germany and established their kingdoms in Essex (East Saxow), Succes (South Saxon) and Wessex (West Saxon). In the second half of the 6th century, the Angles, also from northern Germans, came and settled in the east part of England. After the newcomers had taken possession of all the land now known as England, the movement, know in history as the Anglo-Saxon Conquest, was complete. But we must bear in mind that theses Germanic tribes never obtained possession of what we now call Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The inhabitants of these countries were still Celts.
The England was divided into seven principal kingdoms, known as Heptarchy in English history: Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex were the main polities of south Britain.
The influence of Anglo-Saxon
?The Anglo-Saxons laid the foundations of the English state. They divided the country into shires, with shire courts and shire reeves, or sheriffs, responsible for administering law.
?They devised the narrow-strip, three-field farming system which continued to the 18th century. In this system, the arable land around a village was divided into three hedgeless (open) big fields. These fields were divided into narrow strips which were shared out among the villagers. Good land was thus fairly distributed. One great field was left “fallow” each year so that its soil could recover its richness after two years’ cultivation.
?They set up the basis of the English agrarian civilization and subsistence farming. There were wastelands, known as commons, which were used by villagers to graze livestock and get firewood. This system was the basis of the English agrarian civilization and subsistence farming. It helped to shape the English community life and the Anglo-Saxon concept of equality.
?They created the Witan（council or meeting of the wisemen） to advise the king, the basis of the Privy Council which still exists today.
2. Viking Invasion (800–1066)
In the 8th century, the Vikings from the
Scandinavian countries of northern Europe, Norway and Denmark, began to attack the English coast. In the process of resisting the Vikings, the 7 Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England gradually became united under Alfred the Great.
Alfred was a king of Wessex. He was not only an able warrior but also a
dedicated scholar and a wise ruler. He defeated the Danes and reached a friendly agreement with them in 879. The Danes gained control of the north and east, while he ruled the rest. He also converted some leading Danes into Christians.
He founded a strong fleet and is known as “ the father of the British navy”. He reorganized the Saxon army, making it more efficient. He translated a Latin book into English. He also established schools and formulated a legal system.
After the death of Alfred, his successors were not as capable as he had been. Taking advantage of the situation, more Dane came and set about taking possession of the entire country. The Anglo-Saxon king didn’t care for fighting, but he dreamed of buying off the Danes. As a result, more invaders came. In 1016, the Witan chose Canute, the Danish leader, as king of England. Canute, who made England part of a Scandinavian empire which included Norway as well as Denmark.
3. Norman Conquest
3.1 Norman Conquest: Cause
After the death of Canute’s son, the crown was passed to Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king.
When Edward was on his death-bed, several men laid claim to the English throne, the king of Norway, the Duke of Normandy (Edward’s cousi n), and Harold Godwinson( a brother of Edward’s wife).
William, the Duke of Normandy, claimed the Edward had promised the crown to him before his death. He became very angry when he heard that Harold had taken the crown. Harold knew that William would come to measure swords with him. he was prepared to fight, placing an army on the southern coast of England to watch for William’s coming. Several months passed by and William failed to appear. He was abiding his time. When the harvest time in England came, ma ny of Harold’s soliders went back home to gather in the crops/. The coast was thus left undefended.
William seized the chance and landed his army in Southeastern England in Sep. 1066. Harold, who had been fighting in the north, hurried back with the exhausted troops. They fought at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October. It was a close battle at first, but in the final hours William’s superiority in cavalry and archers proved decisive. Harold was killed, along with his brothers Earl Gyrth and Earl Leofwine, and the English army fled.
William became known as William the Conqueror, the first Anglo-Norman king of England.
3.2 Control of England
After Willam became the king, he took a few measures to control England Soldiers rewarded: The Normans received from William lands and titles in return for their service in the invasion.
All land was the king’s: William claimed ultimate possession of
virtually all the land in England and asserted the right to dispose of it as he saw fit.
Land confiscation: William confiscated the lands of all English lords who had fought and died with Harold and redistributed most of them to his Norman supporters.
These initial confiscations led to revolts, which resulted in more confiscations, in a cycle that continued virtually unbroken for five years after the Battle of Hastings.
Fort and castle building: To put down and prevent further rebellions, the Normans constructed a variety of forts and castles on an unprecedented scale.
Heir designation: If an English landholder died without issue, the King could designate the heir, and often chose a successor from Normandy.
Inheritance control: William and his barons also exercised tighter control over inheritance of property by widows and daughters, often forcing marriages to Normans.
No English in upper society: The Normans displaced the native aristocracy and took control of the upper ranks of society. By 1086, French names predominated even at the lower levels of the aristocracy.
3.3 The significance of Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest was a pivotal举足轻重event in English history for several reasons:
1) This conquest linked England more closely with continental Europe through the introduction of a Norman aristocracy, thereby lessening Scandinavian influence.
2) It created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe and engendered a sophisticated governmental system.
3) The conquest changed the English language and culture and set the stage for a rivalry with France that would continue intermittently until the 20th century.
4. Henry II’s Reforms
William died in Normandy in 1087. he left Normandy to his eldest son named Robert, and England to his second son named William Rufus, and all his money to his third son named Henry. William Rufus became known as William II, but he was killed brother succeeded him and became know as Henry I. Henry I died in 1135, leaving no male heir. His daughter, called Matilda, had married Geoffrey Plantagenet. Matilda’s son, named Henry, became the king,know as Henry II and founder of the Plantagenet Dynasty.
Henry II was the first king of the House of Plantagenet. By his marriage to a French princess he acquired the western half of France. To help him rule the large kingdom, the new king strengthened the Great Council, and carried out a series of reforms.
Henry II took some measures to consolidate the monarchy巩固君主制. He forced the Flemish mercenaries to leave England； recalled grants of Royal
lands made by his previous king Stephen； demolished many castles built in Stephen‘s time； strengthened and widened the powers of his sheriffs and relied for armed support upon a militia composed of English freemen. The ways Henry II reform the courts and the law.
King Henry II greatly strengthened the Court and extended its judicial work. He divided the whole country into six circuits and appointed justices to each. Cases were therefore heard before the intermittent justices who applied the law impartially. During his reign， a common law was gradually established in place of the previous laws of the local barons. He also introduced a new jury system to replace the old ordeal-based trial system. Besides， he shifted the trial of clergymen charged with criminal offenses from the Bishops court to the Kings court.
5. King John and the Greater Charter
5.1 King John succeeded his nephew Richard I in 1199.
Ten years after Henry II’s death, his third and youngest son succeeded his second son Richard, became the king and he was said to be the worst of English kings. He was defeated in a war with France and lost Normandy in 1204.
He demanded more feudal taxes and army service to revenge himself on France. The lords became angry, marched to London and forced him to sign a long document on June 17th, 1215. The document is known as the Great Charter.
King John torn up the Great Charter with the help of Pope.
War broke out and finally John lost the war and died in 1216.
5.2 The Great Charter had three sets of provisions:
The Great Charter, or the Magna Carta, is a most important document in English history. It is a s important to the English people as the Declaration of Independence to the Americans. It has been regarded as “the corner stone” of English history. It consists of 63 clauses and some of the most important provisions are as follows:
The king must promise to observe the rights of his vassals (barons) and the vassals in turn must observe the rights of their men.
The merchant is not to be deprived of his goods for small offenses, nor the farmers of his wagon and implements. No tax should be levied in the kingdom without the consent of the Great Council.
No free man shall be imprisoned or banished or punished in any way, unless convicted by a jury of his fellow citizens.
The king should permit merchants to move about freely and observe the privileges of the various towns.
5.3 Significances of the Great Charter
The Great Charter was the first step of constitutional experiment and rule of law. It tried to establish a legal relation between the king and his
barons by defining their respective rights and obligations
The Great Charter paved the way for the new-born bourgeoisie to get political power because it granted more power to the Great Council, which was the embryonic form of the English Parliament.
The chapter protected the rights of the merchant class. This facilitated the development of commerce and handicraft.
The Great Charter laid down the basic rules for the English and American legal system. It raised the problem of protecting life, property, and preventing possible abuse of power of the government.
6. Birth of Parliament
6.1 Henry III's Reign
Henry III (reign 1216-1272) was crowned at the age of 9.
He hoped that he could defeat the lords and their Charter with the help of the Pope: (advisers, church post)
Rebellion broke out with Simon V de Montfort (6th Earl of Leicester) as the leader.
The lords forced the king to dismiss his foreign advisers and to accept their own council of advisers, instead.
Montfort’s new council took control of the treasury and all state officials, and then settled down to work their reforms.
Simon called a parliament in 1265 after a battle in which Henry III was defeated and taken prisoner.
In addition to the older group, there were two knights from each shire and two citizens from each town. It was known as the “All Estates Parliament (各级议会).”
6.2 Edward I's Reign
Edward I succeeded his father, Henry III, in 1272. He conquered Wales and engaged in a long war with Scotland, but he was in constant need of money.
In 1295, he summoned the “All Estates Parliament”—more than 400 members in all. As that Parliament was followed as a model, it became known in history as the “Model Parliament (模范议会).”
6.3 Edward II's Reign
Edward II succeeded his father in 1307. He was a weak and lazy king. He left the work of government to his household favorites. A party of lords was formed against him.
Parliament made a plan to demand the public appointment of all state officials. Parliament forced Edward II to hand over the crown to his son in 1327.
1.2 Hundred Years’ War (1337 to 1453)
The Cause
The English kings’ claims to the French throne.
The Phases
The war was a series of conflicts and is commonly divided into three
or four phases:
1) the Edwardian War (1337–1360),
2) the Caroline War (1369–1389),
3) the Lancastrian War (1415–1429), and
4) the slow decline of English fortunes after the appearance of Joan of Arc (1412–1431).
It finally ended in the expulsion of the English from France.
In the early phrase, the English were on the offensive and won great victories. Henry V was once recognized as heir to the French throne, and his son was acknowledged king of France and England in 1422.
In the last phase, with emergence of Joan of Arc, the French began to act on the offensive.
The Results
By the time the war was concluded, the English had lost all the territories they had gained during the war. England underwent important political, economic and social changes.
Politically:
While the king was in constant need of money for the war, Parliament was frequently summoned to approve taxes and to issue laws. From 1343 onward, Parliament was divided into two chambers: the House of Lords, a body of leading clergymen and leading vassals, and the House of Commons, a body of small nobility (knights). The commoners were inferior politically because they were inferior economically to the great feudal landowners.
Economically:
The English failure to conquer Flanders led the government to encourage the home woolen industry. England soon became more a manufacturer of cloth and less a mere producer of raw wool.
Socially:
The war speeded up the breakdown of feudal society. The vast expenditure of war put the money class, the new bourgeoisie, in a more important position in Britain.
Joan of Arc: (Download) Hundred Years’ War (Download)
1.2 The Black Death
The Black Death cut a path—both literal and figurative—through the middle of the 14th Century. It was caused by the bubonic (腹股沟腺炎的) plague. It was Spread by rats, whose fleas carried the plague bacilli (杆状菌) from the East along trade routes, and penetrated almost all of Europe, killing at least one out of every three people in Europe.
The Black Death reached England in the summer of 1348, and it was the severest of many plagues in the middle ages, killing about 40% of the British population (3.5 million).
Direct consequences:
The agricultural labors in villages and under-masters (伙计) and journeymen (帮工,计日工) in cities went on strike for better wages. The villains (无产者) whose labor was not free struggled for full freedom. Results:
1) Higher wages and greater freedom for the wage laborers
2) Equal advantages for the villains.
3) Hastened the breakdown of the manorial system封地系统.
Or der 1349 of Edward III and “Statutes of Laborers”
In order to solve the labour shortage, Edward III issued an order in 1349. It required all grown-up men and women below sixty, having no land or other means of living, to work for landlords and proprietors at the rate before the plague.
And the Parliament also issued two statues in 1351 and 1361, collectively known as “Statutes of Laborers”. It introduced cruel punishments for those who refused to work. A general hatred was aroused against the ministers, lawyers and landlords.
Jews: The Scapegoats
Jews, supposed to carry the plague bacilli to England, were persecuted. Burning of Jews during the Black Death epidemic, 1349.
1.3 Wat Tyler’s Uprising
Causes:
Worsening of peasants’ life: a new poll tax durin g the reign of Richard II
John Ball’s preaching
John Ball, a radical clergyman, traveled through southeast England and voiced the bitterness of the peasants and their strong hatred of the nobles. Later, he was taken prisoner.
(Natural disasters and social problems finally led to the peasant uprising. In 1381 the government imposed a flat rate poll tax of one shilling a head on the peasants to fund the Hundred Years’ war. This directly caused the peasant uprising. )
Process:
Peasants rebelled in the summer of 1381. They were determined to abolish serfdom. Wat Tyler was the most important military leader. The peasants released John Ball from the county jail and drove away or killed the king’s tax collectors. They attacked th e nobles’ manor houses and monasteries, and even killed the nobles.
The peasants soon came to London in June, 1381. Richard II, aged 14, decided t play a trick on them. On June 14, the king met the rebels outside London to hear their complaints and receive their petition. held a peace talk with the peasants. The peasants demanded 1) freedom from villainage, 2) the reform of the church by a re-organization that would leave only
one bishop in England, and 3) the establishments of a all-are-equal-except-the-King society.
The King 1) promised to grant their demands and ; 2) issued a pardon to everyone who went home in peace;
Half of the peasants went home.
However during the next talk, the king broken his promise, treacherously killed Wat Tyler, put hundreds of rebels to death, suppressing the uprising.
Death of Tyler (lego video) (download)
Significance:
The peasants’ uprising gave a heavy blow to the nobles with the king as their head and shook the very foundation of the feudal society in Britain.
1.4 Wars of the Roses (1455~1485)
England was ruled by the House of Lancaster from 1399 to 1461.
The feudal nobility split into two groups: the Lancastrians and the Yorkists.
They were contending for power, wealth and ultimately for the possession of the Crown. England had become a feudal anarchy by the middle of the 15th century.
England was thrown into another series of civil wars which were fought intermittently between the Lancastrians who wore a red rose and the Yorkists who wore a white rose, from 1455 to 1485.
The Lancastrians: the nobles of the Scottish and Welsh Borders
The Yorkists: the progressive South, from East Anglia and London The war went on for 30 years. Open battles were few, but murders and revenges were common.
From 1461 the Yorkists reigned, but the wars were not concluded until 1485.
In nature the wars were a struggle between the commercial-minded gentry and the backward feudal landowners. The old feudal nobility was greatly weakened.
When Henry Tudor, founder of a new monarchy, came to the throne in 1485, the old feudal nobility had been so weakened that it was no longer an important factor in the state.
The common people were little affected and so was the economic life of the time.
Process of Wars of the Roses (download) and the th e Wars In Shakespeare’s Work (download)
1.5 The Decline of Feudalism
All these events, Hundred Years’ War (1337~1453), Black death,
WatTyler’s Uprising (1381), Wars of the Roses (1455~1485), shook the very foundation of the feudal society and marked the disintegration and decline of feudalism in Britain.
2. The Tudor Monarchy
After the ending of the Wars of the Roses, the House of Tudor ascended the throne in the person of King Henry VII. The Tudor Monarchy was known as the new monarchy because it was different from the previous monarchies.
A lot of nobles were killed during the Wars of the Roses and many big feudal households were destroyed as a result, the position of the Tudor Monarchy was greatly strengthened. The change in the balance of strength, to the advantage of the king and the bourgeoisie, paved the way for the establishment of powerful central government. The feudal separation, characteristic of feudalism, was no longer possible. To protect the interest of the commercial and landed middle classes (merchants and free farmers), on which the Tudor monarchs themselves relied for their power and popularity, the monarchy emphasized the development of trade. To secure export markets, the monarchy encouraged the foreign expansion. It was also during the Tudor Monarchy the America was discovered and the Renaissance spread into England. All this helped to prepare the conditions for the establishment of the capitalist mode of production in England. Meanwhile, large amounts of wealth needed for capitalist development were accumulated. The day for the English bourgeoisie to take over political power was not far off. The Tudor Monarchy thus served as the transitional stage from feudalism to capitalism in English history.
2.1 Henry VII
Henry VII was the first monarch of the Tudor Monarch. He gave England very firm rule by forbidding the nobles to keep excessive power. He made it clear to all foreign powers that it was dangerous for those who would hope to make trouble for England. By careful diplomacy, Henry VII gave England peace at home and abroad. This enabled him to build up England’s navy and foreign trade. England’s increased international prestige was reflected in the eagerness of other European monarchs of that time. Other European monarchs were still keen to make nation states where the monarch had “absolute power”. in other words, they still had total power and they did not discuss their policies with any consultative body. This was not possible for Henry VII because Parliament in England was already a fairly important institution which the king had to consult if the king wanted to get money.
2.2 Henry VIII and reform of the Church
He is usually remembered for his frivolous image. He had six wives one after another. He divorce twice and executed two of his wives for alleged
adultery. He strengthened control over remote border areas and local government. He did not allow aristocrats to control local government but placed it in the hands of the gentry (smaller landowners), who were appointed Justices of the Peace with full power over law and administration in rural areas. They were directly responsible to the king. In foreign affairs Henry VIII, aided by Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop and Lord Chancellor, tried to seek an active role for England in Europe. He tried to be on friendly terms with the two superpowers of the day –France and Spain.
Henry VIII’s greatest contribution was that he started the reform of the Church in England. The king believed it was time to carry out the reform because English people under the influence of the ideas preached by Martin Luther, desired the reform of the Church. By then, England had also become a centralized nation state. Common national sense was developing and many people were against the Pope’s interference in England’s i nternal affairs. Supporters of the Lollards believed it was wrong for the Church to control so much land and wealth. The king also looked covetously at the wealth of the clergy and he concluded that reform of the church was in the interest of Monarchy, viewed both politically and in terms of poverty.
The immediate cause was Henry VIII’s divorce case with involved political need. The king had married Catherine, a Spanish princess and wife of his late elder brother, of maintaining alliance with Spain, which was a major power in Europe, Henry VIII wanted to break the tie with Spain and improve relations with France. Catherine had to be taken out of the way. And to his anxiety, Catherine had failed to produce a male heir for him. The anxiety was increased by his love for Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII applied toe Pope Clement VII for a permission to divorce Catherine so that he could marry Anna Boleyn. But the Pope refused to annul his marriage for fear of offending the Spanish king, Catherine’s nephew. The angry king d ecided to take action by himself.
Henry’s reform was to cut England religious connection with the Pope, and to make this break with Rome gradually between 1529 and 1534. He asked Parliament to cut off the Pope’s revenue from England. The Act of Succession of 1534 barred Catholics from succession to the English throne. The act of supremacy至尊法案 passed in 1535 said supremacy was with the king instead of the Pope. As a result, Henry VIII took the title Supreme Head of the Church of England.
He didn’t wan t to alter theology in any way. What he did was only to get rid of Papal interference in England’s internal affairs. But his attack on the Pope’s power encouraged many people to criticize the Catholic Church. As a result, a lot f people wanted to move away from Catholicism and shift towards Protestant ideology.