The Pilgrims were a group of English Protestant extremists who sailed from Europe to North America in 1620, in search of a home where they could freely practice their religion and live according to their own Biblical laws. The various members of the group had broken away from the Church of England and moved to Amsterdam to escape religious persecution. But by 1617 a poor economy and concern over the Dutch influence on their community convinced many of them to move on, this time to the New World.
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They left the Netherlands aboard "The Speedwell" and sailed to Southampton, England, where they joined a larger group of religious separatists and boarded "The Mayflower". They departed in 1620, with 102 people aboard, their destination a section of land in the area called Northern Virginia.
Forced off course by typical North Atlantic weather, "The Mayflower" arrived at Cape Cod. Having no legal authority to colonize the area, they met to sign their own charter, known as the Mayflower Compact, in which they agreed to form a self-governing community.
The replica "Mayflower" II in use today left
Although Queen Elizabeth I of England introduced the notion of punishing criminals by sending them to another country as early as 1619, when the first cargo of convicts was sent to the New World, the term transportation seems to have come into vogue around 1680 during Charles IPs reign. It was intended to be an alternative to execution and it became a formal concept in 1717 with George Ill's 'Transportation Act'.
Between 1717 and 1775, when the American Revolution started, convicts were transported at the rate of about 1000 per annum and best estimates are that some 50,000 convicts from Britain were sent to America.
Soon after English settlement started, the Dutch founded New Netherland, a trading post and colony, that included a permanent settlement in New York (originally called New Amsterdam) in 1624, and in New Jersey in 1660. In 1638, the Swedes established a trading post and settlement called New Sweden in present-day Delaware and southern New Jersey. The Dutch claimed New Sweden in 1655. But in 1664, the English - far better established in America than the Dutch - took over New Netherland and New Sweden.
By the mid-1700's, most of the settlements had been formed into 13 British colonies. Each colony had a governor and legislature, but each was under the ultimate control of the British government.
North Caroana' _ Q Southern Coteries |
* South Caroana |
Frodamaticn toe of 1783 |
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All the land west of the Mississippi was under Spanish control, which was gradually incorporated into the (later) United States. The Native Americans were initially allowed to live between the 13 colonies and the Mississippi but were later pushed further and further west.
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The original 13 colonies right "■ Ј,,p~.. J 3x>K*amt«s
The slave trade was then also firmly established and it is estimated that by the 1750s, there were 250,000 black slaves brought from Africa supporting a white population of over 700,000.
The earliest colonists, before long, had a thriving economy. The majority of the rice, indigo, tobacco, livestock, maize, wheat and timber produced was sent for export. Trade was chiefly with Britain, whose manufacturing firms depended on raw materials from its colonies. In return, they received manufactured goods. The colonies also traded with the French, Dutch, and Spanish.
Relations between the American Colonies and Great Britain began to break down during the mid-1700's. King George III and the British Parliament believed the time had come for the colonists to start obeying trade regulations and paying their share of the cost of maintaining the British Empire. A succession of Acts of Parliament were enacted and repealed but none were accepted by the colonists, who were not represented in Parliament and so they argued that Britain had no right to tax them. The colonists expressed this belief in the slogan, "Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny."
One of the most frequently described events that define this dislike of taxation was the Boston Tea Party when a group of merchants dressed up as native Americans to disguise their identities, boarded a ship importing crates of tea and threw the crates overboard, as the tea carried excise and taxes payable to the British government.
Friction increased, and, on April 19, 1775, the American Revolution broke out between the Americans and the British. During the war - on July 4,1776 - the American Congress officially declared independence and formed the United States of America by adopting the Declaration of Independence.
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Drafting the Declaration of Independence, by Jean Leon Ferris. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin are shown left
On Oct. 19,1781, the Americans won a decisive victory at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia, when thousands of British soldiers surrendered. Within months, the British government decided to seek peace. Finally, on Sept. 3,1783, the Americans and the British signed the Treaty of Paris of 1783, officially ending the American Revolution.
At the end of the American Revolution, the new nation was still a loose confederation of states. But in 1787, American leaders got together and wrote the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution became the country's basic law and welded it together into a solid political unit. The men who wrote it included some of the most famous and important figures in American history. Among them were George Washington and James Madison of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. The authors of the Constitution, along with other early leaders such as Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, won lasting fame as the Founding Fathers of the United States.
There was initially a lot of opposition to the new Constitution, as many felt that it did not specifically guarantee enough individual rights. In response, 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights were added to the document. The Bill of Rights became law on Dec. 15,1791. Among other things, it guaranteed freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, freedom of religion and the rights to trial by jury and peaceful assembly. It was not until the 1970s or even later that all these rights were granted to Native Americans or black African-Americans.
George Washington, (1732-1799), was an American general and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and later the first President of the United States under the U.S. Constitution(1789-97). He also served as President of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
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For the role he played in winning and securing American independence, George Washington is generally recognized as one of the most important figures in all of U.S. history. Unlike many other revolutionary leaders, he voluntarily relinquished power even though some others wanted him to retain that power for life. This established an important precedent of republican democracy that served as an example around the world.
George Washington right
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Thomas Jefferson became president in 1800 and again in 1804, with a political philosophy became known as Jeffersonian democracy.
Left on the rare $2 banknote
The Louisiana Purchase, the first major action of Jefferson's presidency, almost doubled the size of the United States. In 1801, Jefferson learned that France had taken over from Spain a large area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains called Louisiana. Spain was a weak nation, and did not pose a threat to the United States. But France-then ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte-was powerful and aggressive. Jefferson viewed French control of Louisiana as a danger to the United States. In 1803, Jefferson arranged the purchase of the area from France. The Louisiana Purchase added 2,144,476 square kilometres of territory to the United States.
During the early 1800's, settlers moved westward over the Appalachian Mountains into the new states and territories and beyond. They flocked into Texas, California, and other western lands belonging to Mexico. Americans also settled in the Oregon Country, a large territory between California and Alaska owned by Britain.
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The build-up of the VVJest gave rise to changes in American politics. As areas in the Wgs-F gained large populations, they were admitted to the Union as states. But wealthy Easterners continued to control governmental and economic policy.
Western farmers and pioneers, as well as city labourers and craftworkers, soon banded together politically to promote their interests. They found a strong leader in Andrew Jackson, and helped elect him president in 1828. Jackson took steps to reduce the power of wealthy Easterners and aid the "common man." At the same time, other Americans were working for such social reforms as women's rights, improvements in education, and the abolition of slavery.
Andrew Jackson right
By 1820, American pioneers had established many frontier settlements as far west as the Mississippi River. By the 1830's, the Westward Movement had pushed the frontier across the Mississippi, into Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and eastern Texas. The land beyond, called the Great Plains, was dry and treeless, and was farmland. But explorers, traders, and others who had journeyed farther west told of rich farm-
land and forests beyond the Rocky Mountains. In the 1840's, large numbers of pioneers made the long journey across the Great Plains to the Far West.
By the mid-1840's, thousands of Americans lived in the Oregon Country and on the western land claimed by Mexico. By then, large numbers of Americans had come to believe in the doctrine of manifest destiny. That is, they thought the United States should control all of North America. Stirred by this belief, Americans demanded control of Oregon and Mexico.
The struggle over the Mexican territory began in Texas in 1835, when the American settlers there staged a revolt against Mexican rule. In 1836, the settlers proclaimed Texas an independent republic, but also requested U.S. statehood. Nine years later, the United States annexed Texas and made it a state. The United States gained more Mexican territory as a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848), which was fought between the United States and Mexico over a number of disagreements, including territorial disputes and valuable land, such as California, then part of Mexico. The treaty that ended the war gave the United States a vast stretch of land from Texas west to the Pacific and north to Oregon.
In 1853, with the Gadsden Purchase, America bought from Mexico the strip of land that makes up the southern edge of Arizona and New Mexico. The United States then owned all the territory of its present states except Alaska (purchased from Russia in 1867) and Hawaii (annexed in 1898).
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2.3.3 Racial inequality and the Civil War
The abolition movement became the most intense and controversial reform activity of the period. Beginning in colonial times, many Americans-called abolitionists-had demanded an end to slavery. By the early 1800's, every Northern state had outlawed slavery. But over the years, the plantation system of farming had spread throughout the South, and the economy of the Southern States depended more and more on slaves as a source of cheap labour.
Left a major symbol of the anti-slavery movement "Am I not a Man and a Brother?" [The question of whether to outlaw or allow slavery became an important political and social issue in the early 1800's. Throughout the years, a balance between the number of free states (states where sla^r-y was. prohibited) and slave states (those where it was allowed) had been sought. This v. meant that both sides would have an equal number of representatives in the United States Senate. As of 1819, the federal government had achieved a balance between free states and slave states. There were 11 of each.
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The long dispute between the North and South over the issue of slavery came to a head after the Mexican War ended in 1848. The vast new area the United States had acquired in the West during the 1840's created a problem Americans could not avoid. It was obvious that the new land would sooner or later be split up into territories, and then into states. Pro-slavery Americans, Southerners on the whole, argued against any restraints on slavery in the new territories and states being established. Anti-slavery Americans, mainly Northerners, wanted the federal government to outlaw slavery in the newly-acquired lands. Still others proposed the "doctrine of popular sovereignty". That is, they said the people of the territories and states should decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. All these alternatives seriously risked upsetting the balance in the Senate.
After 1854, Southerners increasingly referred to
themselves as a separate national group. In the No-
rth, abolitionists stepped up their campaign against
slavery. *"
Eleven Southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, with two others "associated" and so the flag showed 13 stars.
Right is one of the original Confederate flags, now on display at the Minnesota Historical Society.
The election of 1860 also reflected the nation's division. The Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern wings. Only the Republicans remained united. They nominated Abraham Lincoln for president and this Republican unity helped Lincoln win the election.
Lincoln had earned a reputation as an opponent of slavery, and his election was
unacceptable to the South.
The Civil War began on April 12,1861, when Southern troops fired on Fort Sumter, a military post in Charleston Harbor.
The North had superior financial and industrial strength, and a larger population than the South, but the South gained the upper hand at first. Gradually the North took more and more territory until Confederate resistance wore down, and Union armies swept through the South. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee-the commander of the Confederate Army-surrendered to the Union commander General Ulysses S. Grant.
Left General Ulysses S. Grant
The four years of bloody fighting between the North and South had a staggering effect on the nation. No other war in history has taken so many American lives.
On Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for slaves in all areas of the Confederacy that were still in rebellion against the Union.
Toward the end of the Civil War, the North set out to establish terms under which Confederate States would be readmitted to the Union. The process through which the South returned, as well as the period following the war, was called Reconstruction.
Northerners divided into two groups over Reconstruction policy. The moderates wanted to end the bitterness between the North and South, and the radicals believed the South should be punished. President Lincoln might have worked out a compromise. But assassin John Wilkes Booth shot him on April 14, 1865. Lincoln died the next day. Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. He tried to carry out Lincoln's policy, but he was unable to overcome radical opposition.
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The Reconstruction programme drafted by Congress included laws to further the rights of blacks. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution (1865) outlawed slavery throughout the United States. The 14th Amendment (1868) confirmed the citizenship of blacks, and the 15th Amendment (1870) made it illegal to deny the right to vote on the basis of race.
White Southerners loyal to their old traditions bitterly resented the new political system. Many joined the Ku Klux Klan, (KKK) a secret society that used violence to keep blacks, jews and other ethnic minorities from voting and trying to achieve equality. The original society was officially disbanded in 1869 but remained a powerful force. The KKK continued destroying the property of black people and even sometimes lynching them until the 1980s.
Right a Klan meeting with their so-called "grand wizard" in the centre.
Congress insisted that the Confederate States agree to follow all federal laws before being readmitted to the Union. Between 1866 and 1870, all the Confederate States returned to the Union.
Reconstruction had limited success. It expanded the legal rights of blacks and set up public school systems. But the old social order, based on white supremacy, soon returned to the South. The fundamental problem of the black's place in society remained to haunt future generations.
2.3.4 Growth and expansion
The long process of settling the United States from coast to coast drew to a close after the Civil War. In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which offered public land to people free or at very low cost. Thousands of Americans and immigrants started farms in the West under the provisions of the act. After 1870, settlement became so widespread in the West that it was no longer possible to draw a continuous frontier line. The United States Census of 1890 officially recognized the fact that America's frontier no longer existed.
After the Civil War, American industry changed dramatically. Machines replaced hand labour as the main means of manufacturing, increasing the production capacity of industry tremendously. A new nationwide network of railways distributed goods far and wide. Inventors developed new products the public wanted, and businesses made the products in large quantities. Investors and bankers supplied the huge amounts of money that business leaders needed to expand their operations.
The industrial growth had major effects on American life. The new business activity centred on cities. As a result, people moved to cities in record numbers, and the cities grew by leaps and bounds. The sharp contrast between the rich and the poor and other features of American life stirred widespread discontent. The discontent triggered new reform movements. The industrial growth centred chiefly on the North. The war-torn South lagged behind the rest of the country economically. In the West, frontier life was ending.
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The value of goods produced by American industry increased almost tenfold between 1870 and 1916. Inventors created, and business leaders produced and sold, a variety of new products.
The products included the typewriter (1867), barbed wire (1874), the telephone (1876), the phonograph (early form of record player) (1877), the electric light (1879), and the petrol-engine car (1885).
Although many of these inventions were originated in other countries, American entrepreneurs and their large, growing markets developed them into true consumer products.
Thomas Alva Edison left was a successful inventor and an even more successful entrepreneur.
America's rich and varied natural resources played a key role in the rise of big business. The nation's abundant water supply helped power the industrial machines. Forests provided timber for construction and wooden products. Miners took large quantities of easily available coal and iron ore from the ground.
More than 25 million immigrants entered the United States between 1870 and 1916. Immigration plus natural growth caused the U.S. population to more than double during the same period, rising from about 40 million to about 100 million.
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In the late 1800's, the American railway system became a nationwide transportation network. The total distance of all railway lines in operation in the United States soared from about 14,500 kilometres in 1850 to almost 320,000 kilometres in 1900.
A high point in railway development came in 1869, when workers laid tracks that joined the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways near Ogden, Utah. This event called the Golden Spike Ceremony marked the completion of the world's first transcontinental railway system. The system linked the United States by rail from coast to coast.
President of Central Pacific Railroad, Leland Stanford hammering in the golden spike left
The new railways spurred economic growth. Mining companies used them to ship raw materials to factories over long distances quickly. Manufacturers distributed their finished products by rail to points throughout the country. The railways became highly profitable businesses for their owners.
The business boom triggered a sharp increase in investments in the stocks and bonds of corporations. As businesses prospered, people eager to share in the profits invested heavily. Their investments provided capital that companies needed to expand their operations. New banks sprang up throughout the country. Banks helped finance the nation's economic growth by making loans to businesses. Some bankers of the era assumed key positions in American society because of their ability to provide huge sums of capital.
American author Mark Twain called this era of industrialization "The Gilded Age." Twain used this term to describe the culture of the newly rich of the period. Lacking tradition, the wealthy developed a showy culture supposedly based on the culture of upper-class Europeans. The enormous mansions of the newly rich Americans imitated European palaces. The wealthy filled the mansions with European works of art, antiques, rare books, and gaudy decorations.
Most Americans, however, had a far different idea of culture. They enjoyed fairs that exhibited industrial machines, the latest inventions, and other items related to America's material progress. The American people were eager spectators at circuses, vaudeville shows, and sporting events. Baseball became so popular after 1900 that it was called the national pastime. Also after 1900, a new kind of entertainment, the cinema, began attracting public interest.
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Theodore Roosevelt right
In 1914, long-standing problems among European nations led to the outbreak of World War I. The United States stayed out of World War I until 1917. But then, German acts of aggression convinced most Americans of the need to join the war against Germany. For the first time in its history, the United States mobilized for a full-scale war on foreign territory.
2.3.5 The rise of modern America after WW1
The role of American women changed dramatically during the 1920's. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which became law on Aug. 26,1920, gave women the right to vote in all elections. In addition, many new opportunities for education and careers opened up to women during the decade.
The decade following World War I brought sweeping changes. The economy entered a period of spectacular, though uneven, growth. The booming economy and fast-paced life of the decade gave it the nickname of the Roaring Twenties. The mass movement to cities meant more people could enjoy such activities as films, plays, and sporting events. Radio broadcasting began on a large scale. Cinemas became part of almost every city and town. The car gave people a new means of mobility. The cost of cars continued to drop and sales soared. In just 10 years between 1920 and 1930, the number of cars registered in the United States almost tripled, growing from about 8 million to 23 million.
The new role of women also changed society. Many women who found careers outside the home began thinking of themselves more as the equal of men, and less as housewives and mothers.
The modern trends of the 1920's brought about problems as well as benefits. Many Americans had trouble adjusting to the impersonal, fast-paced life of cities. This disorientation led to a rise in juvenile delinquency, crime, and other antisocial behaviour.
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The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, called the Prohibition Amendment, caused unforeseen problems. It outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States as of Jan. 16, 1920. Many otherwise law-abiding citizens considered prohibition a violation of their rights. They ignored the law and bought alcohol provided by underworld gangsters. The gangster culture, especially in Chicago and New York, was a major problem for several years.
Perhaps the most notorious of the prohibition-era gangsters was Al Capone left
The Ku Khix Klan had almost died out, but a new Klan gained a large following during the 1920's. The new Klan had easy answers for Americans who were troubled by modern problems. It blamed the problems on "outsiders," including blacks, Jews, Roman Catholics, foreigners, and political radicals.
During the 1920's, the American economy soared to spectacular heights. Wartime government restrictions on business ended. Conservatives gained control of the federal government and adopted policies that aided big business. But in spite of its growth and apparent strength, the economy was on shaky ground. Only one segment of the economy, manufacturing, prospered. Business executives grew rich, but farmers and labourers became worse off. Finally, in 1929, wild financial speculation led to a stock market crash. This triggered the worst and longest depression in America's history, still known as the Great Depression.
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The United States suffered through the Great Depression for more than 10 years. At the height of the depression in 1933, about 13 million Americans were out of work, and many others had only part-time jobs. Farm income declined so sharply that more than 750,000 farmers lost their land. The Dust Bowl, the result of a terrible drought on the western Great Plains, also wiped out many farmers. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their life savings as a result of the bank failures.
Throughout the depression, many Americans went hungry. People stood in "bread lines" and went to "sou p kitchens" to get food provided by charities. Often, two or more families lived crowded together in a small apartment. Some homeless people built shacks of tin and scraps of wood on waste ground.
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