1.

The US cultural diversity

- For hundreds of years, America has proved itself as the mightiest territory on this planet, has
appeared to be the mythical “promised land” to people from all corners of the globe. Therefore,
this country has become a land of immigrants. The immigrants have come to America, bringing
their own cultures to make America as a cradle of cultures as it is today.
- America (A) was once described as a “melting pot”. However, “a salad bowl” or “vegetable
soup” have replaced this metaphor. In a salad bowl or vegetable soup, different ingredients are
all mixed together to make one thing, and each ingredient still retain its own characteristic. The
two metaphors both refer to different groups of people, races and waves of immigrants, who
have chosen A to reside.
- A has become home to immigrants from all around the world. In 1815, the population of the US
was 8.4 million. Over the next 100 years, A took in about 35 million immigrants, with the
greatest numbers coming in the late 1800 and the early 1900s. In 1882, 40 thousand Chinese
arrived and between 1900 and 1907, there were more than 30 thousand Japananese
immigrants. The largest numbers of the “new immigrants” were from central, eastern and
southern Europe, who brought different languages and cultures to the US.
- Immigrants’ appearance on A land had some advantages. The most important is that they
brought their own cultures and languages to make the US multi-cultural and the most distinctive
culture in the world.
- In terms of languages, for example, Native American people spoke more than 300 different
languages but in fact, American has no official language due to the huge number of languages
spoken. However, the majority of the population (about 82%) speaks English as a native
language. Spanish is the second most common language, which accounts for 12% of the US
population. In addition, some other languages spoken are French, German, Italian and Asian
languages, such as Chinese or Vietnamese, etc.

2. The most important events in the US history.

- The most important event in the US history is the Declaration of Independence.
- The Declaration of Independence was the result of revolutionary war which started by conflict
between England and its colonies. Because the mother country imposed new taxes on colonies,
the colonists resented them and resisted the quartering of soliders. Insisting that they could be
taxed only by their own colonial assemblies. After that, all the taxes were removed exept one on
tea. In 1773, a group of patriots responded by staging the Boston Tea Party. They boarded
British ships and dumped 342 crates of tea into Boston Habour. This provoked the British
Parliament to close Boston Habour to shipping.
- In 1774, the Colonial leaders convened the first Continental Congress to discuss colonies’
opposite to British rule. War broke out on April 19, 1775 in Lexington, Massachusetts. On July 4,
1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence.
- The turning point in the war came in 1777 when American soldiers defeated the British Army at
Saratoga, New York. Following the American’s victory, France and America signed treaties of
alliance, and France provided the Americans with troops and warships.
- The last major battle of the American Revolution took place at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. A
combined force of American and French troops surrounded the British and forced their
surrender. Fighting continued in some areas for two more years and officially ended with the
Treaty of Paris in 1783, by which England recognized American independence.
- In 1787, the Constitution of the US was created. The Consitution, supreme law of the US, divides
government into 3 branches: Legislative (Congress), executive (the president) and judicial (the
federal courts).
- In 1789, 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights to safeguard individual liberties were made
to the Constitution. In 1803, T. Jefferson, the third president, purchased the vast Louisiana from
France, doubled the size of the US and added more than 2 million square kilometers of territory.

3. US, a society of immigrants

- In the US history, there were 4 most important immigrations. The first one was between 1500s
and 1700s. The main components were Spanish, French, British, German, Dutch and Swiss. In
the 1500s, Spanish explorers were attracted by the story of the New World’s gold and they came
and settled in what is Florida now. French fur traders also wanted to seek for prospects of
wealth and they came and set up trading from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and
down the Missisippi River. Besides, British were the first to colonize on a large scale, came for
profit and also for religious persecution. Successful English colony founded at Jamestown,
Virginia. After that, throughout the 1600s and 1700s, permanent settlements were established
along the East Coast. German settled in Pennsylvania, Swedes founded the colony of Delaware
and the Dutch settled in New York. Many immigrants wanted to preserve their traditions,
religion and languages but the fact that they were living among English white Anglo-Saxon
Protestant (WASP) made they learn English and adopt English customs.

- The second immigration was the old immigration between 1840 and 1880. The components
were Chinese, Northern and Western Europe, Irish and more Germans. During the period
between 1840 and 1860, the US received the greatest flood of immigrants ever: 10 million
people came to American, making its population larger than any single European country. By
1860, it was calculated that 13 of every 100 people in the US were recent immigrants. In the
mid-1800s, thousands of Chinese emigrated to California and most of them worked on railroad.
Up until 1880, the majority of immigrants came from northern and western Europe to escape
poor harvests, famines or political disorder. Between 1845 and 1860, hundreds of thousands of
Irish people were sent to the US to escape starvation caused by the serious blight on the potato
crop in Ireland. From 1852 to 1854, the peak years of German immigration over 500000
 Germans came to live in the US. Between 1840 and 1880, northern and western Europeans
were referred to as “Old immigration”.

- The immigration occurred in the late 1800s was the Southeastern European. It consisted of
Latin, Slavic and Jewish people from Southern and Eastern Europe: Italians, Hungarians, Poles,
Russisans, Rumanians and Greeks. This immigration had some advantages and disadvantages as
follows. First, the languages, customs and appearance of these immigrants distinguished them
from the earlier immigrants. Between 1900 and 1920, the number of immigrants sometimes
rose to as many as a million a year. This influx of immigration affected American cities because
they populated densely in largest cities such as NY and Chicago and formed “Little Italy” or
“Chinatown”, where they preserved their customs and languages. In 1890, in NY, 8 out of 10 of
American residents were foreign-born while in 1893, in Chicago, the population was mainly
Czech and Poles.

- The last significant was Recent immigration after the 1920. The main components were
Mexican, Latin American, Cuban and Asia (Cambodian, Vietnamese). The number of immigrants
has increased dramatically, between 600.000 and 700.000 people per year when refugees are
included, posing assimilation problem for America. Many Cambodians and Vietnamese
emigrated so as to flee from destruction of Vietnam war. Here, they and Cubans seem to be
successful and become prosperous. Mexican-Americans, making up 1/5 of California’s total
population, are not so easily assimilated. They still have strong sense of their own culture and
often marry among themselves.

4. American traditional beliefs and values…

- The US has been viewed as “the land of opportunity”, attracting immigrants from all over the
world. There are 6 basic values that become traditional American values. Three represent the
traditional reasons why immigrants have been dawn to America: the chance for individual
freedom, equality of opportunity and material wealth. In order to achieve these benefits, there
were prices to be paid: self-reliance, competition and hard-work.
- The first one is “Individual freedom and self-reliance”. The early settlers came to America to
escape controls placed by kings, governments, churches, noblemen and aristocrats. Declaration
of Independence and Constitution enabled them: to form a new nation with government in the
hands of people; to separate church from government in order to limited power of church; to
get rid of aristocratic society. There would be no ruling class of nobility in the new nation.
- Individual freedom is the most basic of all American values. It has continued to attract
immigrants to the US. By Freedom, Americans mean the desire and the right of all individuals to
control their own destiny without outside interference from government, a ruling noble class,
the church or any other organized authority.
- Self-reliance is the price to be paid for individual freedom. Individuals must learn to rely on
themselves to keep freedom. They should take care of themselves, solve their own problems,
and stand on their own feet. “their whole destiny is in their own hands” (Tocqueville). For
 example, young people achieve financial and emotional independence from their parents by age
18-21.
- The second beliefs and values is equality of opportunity and competition. Americans do not
mean that everyone is/should be equal. By equality, Americans mean equality of opportunity:
each individual must have equal chance for success. Life is a race for success, and everyone
should have an equal chance to enter the race and win. And the fact is that millions of
immigrants have succeeded, hopes and dreams of many immigrants are fulfilled here, lower
class can rise to a higher social position.
- Price to be paid for equality of opportunity is competition. Because life is a race, a person must
run the race, must compete with others to succeed. Successful people are honored by being
called Winners, but those who are not successful are dishonored by being called losers. The
pressures of competion in an American life begin in childhood and continue until retirement
from work. These pressures causes American to be energetic but it also place a constant
emotional strain on them.
- The third reason why immigrants have traditionally come to America is to have a better life,
raise their standard of living. In fact, majority of immigrants were able to improve their standard
of living, their children could have the opportunity for a better life, American Dream came true
for many of immigrants. They achieved material success and became very attached to material
things. Therefore, material wealth became a value to American people.
- Material wealth is the measure of social status in the US. American rejected the Euroopean
syystem of hereditary aristocracy and titles of nobility, they had to find a substitute for judging
social status. However, Americans have paid a price for material wealth: HARD WORK. Only by
hard work could these natural resources be converted into material possession, allowing a more
comfortable standard of living.
- Traditionally, Material wealth has been seen as a natural reward for hard work, tangible
evidence of Americans’ abilities. “The difference in material possession reflected a difference in
personal abilities” (J. Madison, 4th US President). In the 21st century, it is hard for average
workers to achieve material success because they work hard, but they are low-paid. Most
Americans, however, still believe in the value of hard work. They believe that people should
hold a job and should not live off welfare payments from government.
- In America, what works is what counts. Most pioneers who went west had not trained
themselves, but they trusted they would able to devise any problems and dangers they faced.
This “can-do” spirit is something Americans are proud of today. They like to think they are
natural-born do-it-yourselfers.