The history of the United States as covered in American schools and universities typically begins with either Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Americas or with the prehistory of the Native peoples, with the latter approach having become increasingly common in recent decades.[1]
Indigenous peoples lived in what is now the United States for thousands of years and developed complex cultures before European colonists began to arrive, mostly from England, after 1600. The Spanish had early settlements in Florida and the Southwest, and the French along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. By the 1770s, thirteen British colonies contained two and a half million people along the Atlantic coast, east of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonies were prosperous and growing rapidly, and had developed their own self-governing political and legal systems. After driving the French out of North America in 1763, the British imposed a series of new taxes while rejecting the American argument that taxes required representation in Parliament. "No taxation without representation" became the American catch phrase. Tax resistance, especially the Boston Tea Party of 1774, led to punishment by Parliament designed to end self-government in Massachusetts. All 13 colonies united in a Congress that led to armed conflict in April 1775. On July 4, 1776, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson, proclaimed that all men are created equal, and founded a new nation, the United States of America.
With large-scale military and financial support from France and military leadership by General George Washington, the American Patriots silenced the Loyalists who supported the king, captured two British invasion armies, and won the Revolutionary War. The peace treaty of 1783 gave the new nation most of the land east of the Mississippi River (except Florida). The national government established by the Articles of Confederation had no authority to collect taxes and had no executive, so a new Constitution was adopted in 1789. The new government created a system of checks and balances among the branches of government that did not exist under the old system, and it continues to be the basis of the United States federal government; in 1791 a Bill of Rights was added to guarantee rights that justified the Revolution. With Washington as the nation's first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief political and financial adviser, a strong national government was created. In the First Party System, two national political parties grew up to support or oppose Hamiltonian policies. When Thomas Jefferson became president he purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, doubling the size of American territorial holdings. A second and last war with Britain was fought in 1812. One lasting consequence of this war was the weakening of Indian resistance to occupation of their territories, encouraging further incursions by white settlers and the expansion of the United States.
Under the sponsorship of the Jeffersonian Democrats and the Jacksonian Democrats, the nation expanded beyond the Louisiana purchase, all the way to California and Oregon. The expansion was driven by a quest for inexpensive land for yeoman farmers and slave owners. This expansion came at the cost of violence against indigenous native peoples and fueled the unresolved differences between the North and South over the institution of slavery. The expansion, under the rubric of Manifest Destiny was a rejection of the advice of Whigs who wanted to deepen and modernize the economy and society rather than merely expand the geography. Slavery was abolished in all states north of the Mason–Dixon line by 1804, but many had strong economic ties related to slavery because of shipping, banking and manufacturing. The international demand for cotton led to expansion of slavery throughout the Deep South in the nineteenth century and a forced internal migration.
After 1820, a series of compromises postponed a showdown on the issue of slavery. In the mid-1850s, the new Republican power took political control of the North and promised to stop the expansion of slavery, which implied its eventual death. The 1860 presidential election of Republican Abraham Lincoln triggered the secession of eleven slave states to found the Confederacy in 1861. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the centerpiece of American history. After four years of bloody warfare, the Union, under President Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant as the commanding general, defeated the Confederate forces. The Union was saved and slavery was abolished. In the Reconstruction era (1863–77), the United States ended slavery and extended legal and voting rights to the Freedmen. The national government emerged much stronger, and because of the Fourteenth Amendment, it had the explicit duty to protect individual rights.
Reconstruction ended in 1877 as a result of complex political machinations and deals between southern Democrats and northern Republicans.[2] The withdrawal of US troops from the former slave states enabled the return to power of white, southern antebellum elites. This "powerful, conservative oligarchy"[3] enabled the creation of the system of Jim Crow which re-established the oppression of the southern black population through a system of legal segregation and an officially condoned campaign of violence and terror. Constitutional changes across the South at the turn of the century effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites. Most of the southern populace remained poor well into the second half of the 20th century. The per capita income in the South remained under half the national average until after 1945.[4]
The United States became the world's leading industrial power at the turn of the 20th century due to an outburst of entrepreneurship in the North, the arrival of millions of immigrant workers and farmers from Europe, and the Great Migration of millions of African Americans to the North for jobs and education. The national railroad network was completed with the work of Chinese immigrants, and large-scale mining and factories industrialized the Northeast and Midwest. Mass dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency and traditional politics stimulated the Progressive movement, from the 1890s to 1920s, which led to many social and political reforms. In 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed women's suffrage (right to vote). This followed the 16th and 17th amendments in 1909 and 1912, which established the first national income tax and direct election of U.S. senators to Congress.
Initially neutral in World War I, the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, and funded the Allied victory the following year. After a prosperous decade in the 1920s, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the onset of the decade-long world-wide Great Depression. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and implemented his New Deal programs for relief, recovery, and reform, defining modern American liberalism. These included Social Security and a minimum wage. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II alongside the Allies and helped defeat Nazi Germany in Europe and, with the detonation of newly invented atomic bombs, Japan in the Far East.
The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as opposing superpowers after World War II and began the Cold War, confronting one another indirectly in the arms race and Space Race. U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was built around the containment of Communism. The U.S. became involved in wars in Korea and Vietnam, ostensibly to achieve this goal. In the 1960s, especially due to the strength of the civil rights movement, another wave of social reforms were enacted during the administrations of Kennedy and Johnson, enforcing the constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement to African Americans and other minorities. Native American activism rose as tribes asserted their sovereignty, including control of education; tribal colleges have been founded and cultural revival has been strong.
But conservatism made a comeback in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, leaving the United States the world's only superpower. As the 21st century began, international conflict centered around the Middle East and spread to Asia and Africa following the September 11 attacks by Al-Qaeda on the United States. In 2008 the United States had its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, which has been followed by slower than usual rates of economic growth during the 2010s.
Indigenous peoples lived in what is now the United States for thousands of years and developed complex cultures before European colonists began to arrive, mostly from England, after 1600. The Spanish had early settlements in Florida and the Southwest, and the French along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. By the 1770s, thirteen British colonies contained two and a half million people along the Atlantic coast, east of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonies were prosperous and growing rapidly, and had developed their own self-governing political and legal systems. After driving the French out of North America in 1763, the British imposed a series of new taxes while rejecting the American argument that taxes required representation in Parliament. "No taxation without representation" became the American catch phrase. Tax resistance, especially the Boston Tea Party of 1774, led to punishment by Parliament designed to end self-government in Massachusetts. All 13 colonies united in a Congress that led to armed conflict in April 1775. On July 4, 1776, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson, proclaimed that all men are created equal, and founded a new nation, the United States of America.
With large-scale military and financial support from France and military leadership by General George Washington, the American Patriots silenced the Loyalists who supported the king, captured two British invasion armies, and won the Revolutionary War. The peace treaty of 1783 gave the new nation most of the land east of the Mississippi River (except Florida). The national government established by the Articles of Confederation had no authority to collect taxes and had no executive, so a new Constitution was adopted in 1789. The new government created a system of checks and balances among the branches of government that did not exist under the old system, and it continues to be the basis of the United States federal government; in 1791 a Bill of Rights was added to guarantee rights that justified the Revolution. With Washington as the nation's first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief political and financial adviser, a strong national government was created. In the First Party System, two national political parties grew up to support or oppose Hamiltonian policies. When Thomas Jefferson became president he purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, doubling the size of American territorial holdings. A second and last war with Britain was fought in 1812. One lasting consequence of this war was the weakening of Indian resistance to occupation of their territories, encouraging further incursions by white settlers and the expansion of the United States.
Under the sponsorship of the Jeffersonian Democrats and the Jacksonian Democrats, the nation expanded beyond the Louisiana purchase, all the way to California and Oregon. The expansion was driven by a quest for inexpensive land for yeoman farmers and slave owners. This expansion came at the cost of violence against indigenous native peoples and fueled the unresolved differences between the North and South over the institution of slavery. The expansion, under the rubric of Manifest Destiny was a rejection of the advice of Whigs who wanted to deepen and modernize the economy and society rather than merely expand the geography. Slavery was abolished in all states north of the Mason–Dixon line by 1804, but many had strong economic ties related to slavery because of shipping, banking and manufacturing. The international demand for cotton led to expansion of slavery throughout the Deep South in the nineteenth century and a forced internal migration.
After 1820, a series of compromises postponed a showdown on the issue of slavery. In the mid-1850s, the new Republican power took political control of the North and promised to stop the expansion of slavery, which implied its eventual death. The 1860 presidential election of Republican Abraham Lincoln triggered the secession of eleven slave states to found the Confederacy in 1861. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the centerpiece of American history. After four years of bloody warfare, the Union, under President Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant as the commanding general, defeated the Confederate forces. The Union was saved and slavery was abolished. In the Reconstruction era (1863–77), the United States ended slavery and extended legal and voting rights to the Freedmen. The national government emerged much stronger, and because of the Fourteenth Amendment, it had the explicit duty to protect individual rights.
Reconstruction ended in 1877 as a result of complex political machinations and deals between southern Democrats and northern Republicans.[2] The withdrawal of US troops from the former slave states enabled the return to power of white, southern antebellum elites. This "powerful, conservative oligarchy"[3] enabled the creation of the system of Jim Crow which re-established the oppression of the southern black population through a system of legal segregation and an officially condoned campaign of violence and terror. Constitutional changes across the South at the turn of the century effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites. Most of the southern populace remained poor well into the second half of the 20th century. The per capita income in the South remained under half the national average until after 1945.[4]
The United States became the world's leading industrial power at the turn of the 20th century due to an outburst of entrepreneurship in the North, the arrival of millions of immigrant workers and farmers from Europe, and the Great Migration of millions of African Americans to the North for jobs and education. The national railroad network was completed with the work of Chinese immigrants, and large-scale mining and factories industrialized the Northeast and Midwest. Mass dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency and traditional politics stimulated the Progressive movement, from the 1890s to 1920s, which led to many social and political reforms. In 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed women's suffrage (right to vote). This followed the 16th and 17th amendments in 1909 and 1912, which established the first national income tax and direct election of U.S. senators to Congress.
Initially neutral in World War I, the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, and funded the Allied victory the following year. After a prosperous decade in the 1920s, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the onset of the decade-long world-wide Great Depression. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and implemented his New Deal programs for relief, recovery, and reform, defining modern American liberalism. These included Social Security and a minimum wage. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II alongside the Allies and helped defeat Nazi Germany in Europe and, with the detonation of newly invented atomic bombs, Japan in the Far East.
The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as opposing superpowers after World War II and began the Cold War, confronting one another indirectly in the arms race and Space Race. U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was built around the containment of Communism. The U.S. became involved in wars in Korea and Vietnam, ostensibly to achieve this goal. In the 1960s, especially due to the strength of the civil rights movement, another wave of social reforms were enacted during the administrations of Kennedy and Johnson, enforcing the constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement to African Americans and other minorities. Native American activism rose as tribes asserted their sovereignty, including control of education; tribal colleges have been founded and cultural revival has been strong.
But conservatism made a comeback in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, leaving the United States the world's only superpower. As the 21st century began, international conflict centered around the Middle East and spread to Asia and Africa following the September 11 attacks by Al-Qaeda on the United States. In 2008 the United States had its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, which has been followed by slower than usual rates of economic growth during the 2010s.
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