PROCERES OF INDEPENDENCE OF UNITED STATES

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

When Franklin was born, the United States was made up of 13 colonies governed by
England. The problems between England and the colonies began to emerge after the
War of France and India. The imposition of the Law of the Stamp and some other
intolerable acts, caused that the colonies were revealed against England. On April 19,
1775, the colonizers began a war for their freedom. During the struggle for
independence, Benjamin Franklin was sent to Europe as representative of the colonies.
In 1776, Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence and in 1778, the Treaty of
Alliance with France. In addition, he negotiated with the French to help the colonies and
became the Prime Minister of the United States in France. He collaborated in the
provision of arms, ammunition and other things for the army. He participated in the peace
negotiations with England and signed what later came to be known as the Treaty of
Peace with Great Britain (1782).
When the colonies achieved their freedom and independence, it was necessary to
establish a type of government. Although Franklin was not in optimal condition and his
health deteriorated, he participated as a delegate in the Constitutional Convention at 81
years of age.

By signing the Constitution on September 17, 1787, Franklin became the only father and
founder to sign five documents that establish the American Independence: The
Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Concordia and Commerce with France, the
Treaty of Alliance with France, The Treaty of Peace with Great Britain and The
Constitution of the United States of America.

GEORGE WASHINGTON
The eldest of six children of his father's second marriage, George Washington was born
as a member of the rancher class at the Wakefield estate in Virginia, in 1732. He lived
there and on other farms along the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, including the
one that later became known as Mount Vernon, until the age of 16. His education was
elementary, probably obtained from tutors and possibly from private schools; and also
learned land surveying. His stepbrother Lawrence, who had served in the Royal Navy,
was his mentor, after he lost his father when he was 11 years old. As a result, the young
man developed an interest in obtaining a career in the Navy, but his mother dissuaded
him.
The strategy that Washington developed consisted of constantly harassing the British
forces while avoiding general actions. Although their troops lost a number of battles and
had to give up many lands, they persisted even during the winters in Valley Forge,
Pennsylvania and those of Morristown, New Jersey. Finally, with the help of the army
and the French fleet, he won a very important victory at the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia,
in 1781.

During the next two years, and still in command of the restive Continental Army, which
had not been paid and without provisions, Washington denounced the proposals that the
army take the reins of the government, including one that proposed to make it king, but
supported the requests from the army to the Continental Congress to be duly
compensated. As soon as the Treaty of Paris was signed (1783), he resigned his
commission and returned to Mount Vernon again. The economic sacrifices and long
absences, as well as the generous loans he made to friends, damaged his vast fortune,
which consisted largely of estates, slaves, and landholdings in the west. However, he
had very little time to repair his finances because his retirement was short.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Third President of the United States of America (Shadwell, Virginia, 1743 - Monticello,
Virginia, 1826). Thomas Jefferson belonged to the aristocracy of great landowners of the
South, a position he had completed by becoming a lawyer. His intellectual concerns
brought him closer to the philosophy of the Enlightenment and liberal ideas, making him
abandon religion.

He began to participate in the politics of Virginia since 1769, defending religious

tolerance and equal public education. When the conflict between Great Britain and its
thirteen North American colonies worsened, Jefferson defended the rights of these,
publishing an essay of radical cut (Brief analysis of the rights of the British America,
1774).
During the next War of Independence, Thomas Jefferson was elected delegate of
Virginia at the Continental Convention of Philadelphia (1775), where he distinguished
himself as an orator and author of political statements. He drafted the draft of the
Declaration of Independence (1776), where he embodied the ideas of Locke; justified
the rebellion for the transgressions of King George III against the rights recognized to
citizens by the unwritten constitution of Great Britain; their defense of democracy, of
equality, of the right of peoples to dispose of themselves and of the natural right of men
"to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness" have marked the later history of the United
States .
Another fundamental document that was inspiring was the Ordinance of the Northwest
(1787): it regulated the form of expansion of the thirteen native colonies to the vast
territories to colonize in the West, establishing in them governors appointed by Congress
until they reached sufficient demographic entity to be admitted as States of the Union.
Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia in 1779-81. Then he was a member of
Congress, unsuccessfully defending the abolition of slavery. As ambassador of the
United States in Paris (1785-89) he took advantage of his experience to advise the first
government emerged from the French Revolution (1789). He was later appointed by
Washington as the first Secretary of State (Minister of Foreign Affairs) of the United
States (1790-93).

JOHN ADAMS

He helped Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence of the United States in 1776.

He was one of the main negotiators of the Treaty of Paris (1783)
Theorist politician and historian, Adams wrote to a large extent the constitution of the
state of Massachusetts in 1780
He participated in the drafting of the declaration of independence in the peace agreement
with Coronabritanica and in the drafting of the Constitution.
Successor of G. Washington in the presidency (1797), his management stood out for an
accentuated conservatism that made him unpopular and was defeated in 1800 by
Jefferson.

On June 7, 1776, Adams supported the resolution of independence presented by

Richard Henry Lee, who declared: "These colonies are and by right must be, free and
independent states," and defended the resolution until it was approved by Congress. ,
on July 2, 1776.
JORGE III

King of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover (London, 1738 - Windsor, 1820). In
1760 he succeeded his grandfather, George II as king of Great Britain and Ireland and
as elector of the German state of Hannover, which gave the family its name. The young
and inexperienced king oriented his policy towards the reinforcement of the
prerogatives of the Crown, taking advantage of the divisions within the Wig party and
using corruption, patronage and electoral fraud to win a group of supporters to control
the Parliament and govern personally.
Thus, he got rid of a political personality of weight, as was the old Pitt, to put in his
place characters he trusted and more manageable, like Bute, first, and Lord North,
later. However, the disappearance of parliamentary control was replaced by active
opposition press campaigns, in which the errors and abuses of the monarch were
criticized; in fact he was only a popular king in the provinces, where his simplicity and
agricultural hobbies were appreciated, while he was despised by the London high
society and hated by the urban popular classes.
Jorge III began his foreign policy by hastily signing peace with France in the Seven
Years War (1756-63), without counting on the opinion of his ally Prussia; the opposition
accused him on that occasion of failing to get enough of the victory. Later he had to
face the dissatisfaction of the American colonists, a matter that he took awkwardly,
increasing the fiscal pressure in spite of the traditional liberties of the Thirteen
Colonies. His obstinacy led to the Declaration of Independence, justified according to
the rebels by the tyranny of the king (1776). After a long war he had to recognize the
independence of the United States of America by the Treaty of Versailles (1783).