AMERICAN HISTORY

17th and 18th centuries

• What is the situation being described?
• What historical incident is Arthur Miller
evoking?
• Does this historical event relate to any
other event in the history of the US?
• Salem 1692, Witch trials and
accusations.
• Puritan rule.
• Red Scare, 1940s & 1950s:
McCarthysm.
PRECOLONIAL AMERICA

• Asian nomad people crossing the

Bering Strait 20,000 years ago.
• Leif Erikson lives in “Vinland”.
• 1492: Cristopher Columbus.
 COLONIAL AMERICA

• 1607: Jamestown, Virginia Company →

Most colonists die of hunger and disease →
Tobacco as a business.
• 1620: Mayflower Pilgrims → Religious
extremists.
 COLONIAL AMERICA

• Other more tolerant communities established in the Americas: Rhode

Island, Maryland, Pennsylvania…
• Non-British national groups arrive: German farmers in Pennsylvania,
Swedes in Delaware, Dutch in New Amsterdam (1664, 1674 New York).
 LIFE IN THE COLONIES
• Relative diversity.
• Small farms + bigger tobacco and rice plantations in
Virginia, North and South Carolina.
• Lack of a feudal aristocracy.
• English Governor + Local assemblies.
• 1733: 13 original colonies from New Hampshire to
Goergia.
• Geographical expansion as a consequence of Anglo-
French wars (1689-1815) → Treaty of Paris (1763) →
Britain gains control of Canada and all North America
east of the Mississipi River.
 WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

• Tax conflict → Stamp Act (1765).

• No taxation without representation.
• 1773: Tax Act → Boston Tea Party → Boston
harbor closed.
• 1774: First Continental Congress.
• 1775: British forces open fire in Lexington and
Concord.
 WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

• 1776: Second Continental Congress. Declaration

of Independence. George Washington appointed
Commander-in-chief of the continental army.
• 1783: Treaty of Paris → The colonies become
independent.
 WRITING A CONSTITUTION

• 1781: Articles of Confederation → Weak central

government.
• 1787-1789: American Constitution:
➢ Federal government and judiciary.
➢ Separation of Powers / Checks and balances.
• 1791: Bill of Rights.
• Federalists (Alexander Hamilton) vs. Democratic-
Republicans (Thomas Jefferson).