The USA: its history, geography and political system
Contents:
|A brief history of the USA | |
|The colonial era |1 |
|A new nation |2 |
|Slavery and The Civil War |2 |
|The late 19th century |3 |
|The progressive moment |4 |
|War and peace |4 |
|The great depression |5 |
|World War II |5 |
|The Cold War |6 |
|Decades of change |7 |
|Geography and regional characteristics | |
|Short facts |8 |
|Regional Variety |10 |
|New England |10 |
|Middle Atlantic |11 |
|The South |11 |
|The Midwest |12 |
|The Southwest |12 |
|The West |13 |
|The Frontier Spirit |13 |
|A responsive government | |
|The constitution |14 |
|Bill of Rights |15 |
|Legislative Branch |16 |
|Executive Branch |16 |
|Juridical Branch |16 |
|The court of last resort |17 |
|Political parties and elections |17 |
Source:
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/factover
A brief history of the United States.
The first Europeans to reach North America were Icelandic Vikings, led by
Leif Ericson, about the year 1000. Traces of their visit have been found in
the Canadian province of Newfoundland, but the Vikings failed to establish
a permanent settlement and soon lost contact with the new continent.
Five centuries later, the demand for Asian spices, textiles, and dyes
spurred European navigators to dream of shorter routes between East and
West. Acting on behalf of the Spanish crown, in 1492 the Italian navigator
Christopher Columbus sailed west from Europe and landed on one of the
Bahama Islands in the Caribbean Sea. Within 40 years, Spanish adventurers
had carved out a huge empire in Central and South America.
THE COLONIAL ERA
The first successful English colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in
1607. A few years later, English Puritans came to America to escape
religious persecution for their opposition to the Church of England. In
1620, the Puritans founded Plymouth Colony in what later became
Massachusetts. Plymouth was the second permanent British settlement in
North America and the first in New England.
In New England the Puritans hoped to build a "city upon a hill" -- an
ideal community. Ever since, Americans have viewed their country as a great
experiment, a worthy model for other nations to follow. The Puritans
believed that government should enforce God's morality, and they strictly
punished heretics, adulterers, drunks, and violators of the Sabbath. In
spite of their own quest for religious freedom, the Puritans practiced a
form of intolerant moralism. In 1636 an English clergyman named Roger
Williams left Massachusetts and founded the colony of Rhode Island, based
on the principles of religious freedom and separation of church and state,
two ideals that were later adopted by framers of the U.S. Constitution.
Colonists arrived from other European countries, but the English were far
better established in America. By 1733 English settlers had founded 13
colonies along the Atlantic Coast, from New Hampshire in the North to
Georgia in the South. Elsewhere in North America, the French controlled
Canada and Louisiana, which included the vast Mississippi River watershed.
France and England fought several wars during the 18th century, with North
America being drawn into every one. The end of the Seven Years' War in 1763
left England in control of Canada and all of North America east of the
Mississippi.
Soon afterwards England and its colonies were in conflict. The mother
country imposed new taxes, in part to defray the cost of fighting the Seven
Years' War, and expected Americans to lodge British soldiers in their
homes. The colonists resented the taxes and resisted the quartering of
soldiers. Insisting that they could be taxed only by their own colonial
assemblies, the colonists rallied behind the slogan "no taxation without
representation."
All the taxes, except one on tea, were removed, but in 1773 a group of
patriots responded by staging the Boston Tea Party. Disguised as Indians,
they boarded British merchant ships and dumped 342 crates of tea into
Boston harbor. This provoked a crackdown by the British Parliament,
including the closing of Boston harbor to shipping. Colonial leaders
convened the First Continental Congress in 1774 to discuss the colonies'
opposition to British rule. War broke out on April 19, 1775, when British
soldiers confronted colonial rebels in Lexington, Massachusetts. On July 4,
1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence.
At first the Revolutionary War went badly for the Americans. With few
provisions and little training, American troops generally fought well, but
were outnumbered and overpowered by the British. The turning point in the
war came in 1777 when American soldiers defeated the British Army at
Saratoga, New York. France had secretly been aiding the Americans, but was
reluctant to ally itself openly until they had proved themselves in battle.
Following the Americans' victory at Saratoga, 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 the war officially ended with the Treaty
of Paris in 1783, by which England recognized American independence.
A NEW NATION
The framing of the U.S. Constitution and the creation of the United States
are covered in more detail in chapter 4. In essence, the Constitution
alleviated Americans' fear of excessive central power by dividing
government into three branches -- legislative (Congress), executive (the
president and the federal agencies), and judicial (the federal courts) --
and by including 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights to safeguard
individual liberties. Continued uneasiness about the accumulation of power
manifested itself in the differing political philosophies of two towering
figures from the Revolutionary period. George Washington, the war's
military hero and the first U.S. president, headed a party favoring a
strong president and central government; Thomas Jefferson, the principal
author of the Declaration of Independence, headed a party preferring to
allot more power to the states, on the theory that they would be more
accountable to the people.
Jefferson became the third president in 1801. Although he had intended to
limit the president's power, political realities dictated otherwise. Among
other forceful actions, in 1803 he purchased the vast Louisiana Territory
from France, almost doubling the size of the United States. The Louisiana
Purchase added more than 2 million square kilometers of territory and
extended the country's borders as far west as the Rocky Mountains in
Colorado.
SLAVERY AND THE CIVIL WAR
In the first quarter of the 19th century, the frontier of settlement moved
west to the Mississippi River and beyond. In 1828 Andrew Jackson became the
first "outsider" elected president: a man from the frontier state of
Tennessee, born into a poor family and outside the cultural traditions of
the Atlantic seaboard.
Although on the surface the Jacksonian Era was one of optimism and energy,
the young nation was entangled in a contradiction. The ringing words of the
Declaration of Independence, "all men are created equal," were meaningless
for 1.5 million slaves. (For more on slavery and its aftermath, see
chapters 1 and 4.)
In 1820 southern and northern politicians debated the question of whether
slavery would be legal in the western territories. Congress reached a
compromise: Slavery was permitted in the new state of Missouri and the
Arkansas Territory but barred everywhere west and north of Missouri. The
outcome of the Mexican War of 1846-48 brought more territory into American
hands -- and with it the issue of whether to extend slavery. Another
compromise, in 1850, admitted California as a free state, with the citizens
of Utah and New Mexico being allowed to decide whether they wanted slavery
within their borders or not (they did not).
But the issue continued to rankle. After Abraham Lincoln, a foe of
slavery, was elected president in 1860, 11 states left the Union and
proclaimed themselves an independent nation, the Confederate States of
America: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The American
Civil War had begun.
