HISTORY OF THE USA
2. Immigration and the creation of the USA.
1. Native Americans.
2. Immigration and the Creation of
the USA.
3. Racial Inequality and the Civil
War.
1. Based on anthropological and genetic
evidence, scientists generally agree that most native
Americans descend from people who migrated from
Siberia across the Bering Strait, at least 12000 years ago.
One result of these successive waves of migration is that
large groups of Native Americans with similar languages
and perhaps physical characteristics as well, moved into
various geographic areas of North, and then later, Central
and South America. While many native American groups
retained a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle through the
time of European occupation of the New World, in some
regions, especially in the Mississippi River valley of the
US, they built advance civilizations with monumental
architecture and large-scale organization into cities and
states.
The European colonization of the Americans forever
changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In
the 15th to 19th centuries their populations were ruined, by
the results of displacement, disease and in many cases by
wars with European groups and enslavement by them.
The first native American group encountered by
Columbus, the 250000 Arawaks, were violently enslaved.
Only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was
extinct before 1650.
In the 19th century, the Westward expansion of the US
expelled large numbers of Native Americans from vast
areas of their territory, either by forcing them into
marginal lands farther and farther west, or by outright
slaugher. Under President Andrew Jackson, Congress
passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced
the Five Civilized Tribes from the east onto western
reservations, primarily to take their land or settlement.
The forced migration was marked by great hardship and
many deaths. Its route is known as the Trail of Tears.
Conflicts generally known at the time as “Indian Wars”
broke out between US forces and many different tribes.
Well-known battles include the atypical Native American
victory at the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the
slaughter of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890,
when the US cavalry attempted to destroy the Sioux [su:]
Nation and killed all the men, women and children they
could find. On January 31, 1876 the US government
ordered all surviving Native Americans to move into
reservations. Probably the most famous leader of the
Native Americans was Geromino (1829 – 1909). He was
leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought long against
the invasion of settlers of European descent on tribal
lands. His forces became the last major force of
independent Indian warriors who refused to acknowledge
the US Government in the American West. This came to
an end in 1886, when Geromino surrendered to US Army
General Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. He was a
prisoner initially, but later a celebrity.
In the late 19 th century reformers in efforts to civilize
Indians adapted the practice of educating native children
in Indian Boarding Schools. These schools, which were
primarily run by Christians proved traumatic to Indian
children, who were forbidden to speak their native
languages, taught Christianity instead of their native
religions (both in violation of the US Constitution) and in
numerous other ways forced to abandon their Indian
identity and adopt European-American culture.
Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on
reservations, forced cultural assimilation, outlawing of
native languages and culture of the 1950s and 1960s and
slavery had negative effects on Native Americans’ mental
and physical health. Contemporary health problems
include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease and diabetes.
According to 2003 US Census Bureau estimates that a
little over one third of the 2,786,652 Native Americans in
the US live in three states: California with 413,382,
Arizona with 294,137 and Oklahoma with 279,559. The
largest tribes surviving in the US by population were
Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa, Apache,
Blackfoot, Iroquois and Pueblo.
Tension increased and on April 19, 1775, the American
In 1492, Columbus, an explorer and trader sailed
westward from Spain, seeking a short sea route to the
Orient. He found, instead, a vast “New World” as it
became known later, although Columbus himself named it
the “Other World”. following Columbus’ voyage,
explorers, soldiers and settlers from several European
countries sailed to this land, soon called America, after
Amerigo Vespucci, by most Europeans. Vespucci made
voyages to the New World for Spain and Portugal
beginning in 1497.
The discovery of the existence of America caused a wave
of excitement in Europe. To many Europeans, the New
World offered opportunities for wealth, power and
imperialism. During the 1500s Spaniards moved into what
is now the Southeastern and Western US. In 1565, the
Spanish founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest
permanent settlement by Europeans in what is now the
US. The English and French began exploring eastern
North America in about 1500. At first both nations sent
only explorers and fur traders to the New World. But after
1600 they began establishing permanent settlements there.
The French settlements were chiefly in what is now
Canada and the south of the USA. The English
settlements included the 13 colonies that later became the
US. Bartholomew Gosnold in 1607 established the first
permanent English settlement in North America at
Jamestown in Virginia. Jamestown became the first real
English colony and eventually led to the creation of the
US of America. Many historians believe the US would
have become Spanish territory if it had not been for
Gosnold.
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. 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. In England they joined a
larger group of religious separatists and boarded “The
Mayflower”. They departed in 1620, with 102 people
aboard, their destination was Northern Virginia. Forced
off course by 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.
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.
By the mid-1700s, 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. All the land west of the
Mississippi was under Spanish control, which was
gradually incorporated into the (later) United States.
The slave trade was then also firmly established and by
the 1750s, there were 250,000 black slaves brought from
Africa supporting a white population of over 700,000.
In matters of trade England had a consistent imperial
policy. The Colonies were expected to supply the mother
country with raw and semi-finished materials, including
furs, fish, rice, tobacco and timber. In exchange they
received manufactured goods from the homeland. Since
Britain’s treasury was almost empty after different wars,
Parliament asked the colonists to pay higher taxes. But
there was serious opposition to this “taxation without
representation” (the British Parliament did not contain
any American-elected members). One of the frequently
described events that define this dislike of taxation was
the Boston Tea Party when a group of merchants dressed
up as native Americans boarded a ship importing crates of
tea and threw the crates overboard, as the tea carried
excise and taxes payable to the British government.
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
US of America by adopting the Declaration of
Independence. On October 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 US. The Constitution became the
country’s basic law and joined it together into a solid
political unit. The men who wrote it were the most
famous and important figures in American history.
Among them were George Washington, James
Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin
Franklin. The authors of the Constitution, along with
other early leaders such as Tomas Jefferson, won lasting
name as the Founding Fathers of the US.
There was initially a lot of opposition to the new
Constitution, as many felt that it did not 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. Only in 1970 th or even later 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 US under the US
Constitution (1789 – 97). For the role he played in
winning and securing American independence, George
Washington is recognized as one of the most important
figures in all of US history. Unlike many other
revolutionary leaders, he himself resigned even though
some others wanted him to retain that power for life.
Thomas Jefferson became president in 1800 and again in
1804. The Louisiana Purchase, the first major action of
Jefferson’s presidency, almost doubled the size of the US.
In 1801, Jefferson learned that France had taken over
from Spain a large area between the Mississippi River and
the Rocky Mountains called Louisiana. France – then
ruled by Napoleon was powerful and aggressive. In 1803
Jefferson arranged the purchase of the area from France.
The Louisiana Purchase added 2,144,476 square
kilometers of territory to the US.
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
such social reforms were introduced as women’s rights,
improvements in education, and the abolition of slavery.
By the mid-1840s thousands of Americans lived in the
Oregon Country and on the western land claimed by
Mexico. At that time large numbers of Americans
believed that the US should control all of North America.
That’s why Americans demanded control of Oregon and
Mexico. The struggle over the Mexican territory began in
Texas in 1835, when the American settlers rebelled
against Mexican rule. In 1836, the settlers proclaimed
Texas an independent republic, but also requested US
statehood. Nine years later, the US annexed Texas and
made it a state. The US gained more Mexican territory as
a result of the Mexican War (1846 – 1848). The treaty
that ended the war gave the US a vast stretch of land from
Texas west to the Pacific and north to Oregon.
3. Racial Inequality and the Civil War.
Beginning in colonial times, many Americans – called
abolitionists – had demanded an end to slavery. By the
early 1800s, 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.
The question of whether to outlaw or allow slavery
became an important political and social issue in the early
1800s. Till 1819 there was achieved a balance between
free states and slave states. There were 11 of each. After
1854, Southerners increasingly referred to themselves as a
separate national group. In the North, abolitionists started
their campaign against slavery. Eleven Southern states
separated from the Union and formed the Confederate
States of America, with two others “associated” and so
flag showed 13 stars.
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 to win the election.
Lincoln had 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
was broken 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. The four
years of bloody fighting between the North and South had
a terrible effect on the nation. No other war in history has
taken so many American lives.
On January 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. The process through which the South
returned to the Union 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. Vice president Andrew
Johnson became president. He tried to carry out Lincoln’s
policy, but he was unable to overcome radical opposition.
The Reconstruction programme drafted by Congress
included laws to extend the right of blacks. The 13 th
Amendment to the Constitution (1865) outlawed slavery
throughout the US. The 14th Amendment (1868)
confirmed the citizenship of blacks, and the 15 th
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.
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.