amerikai töri 1

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The Condensed UnillustratedHistoryNote: things in brackets [these things] are my comments

Chapter 1.Between 50,000 and 15,000 years ago people from western

Asia migrated over Beringia [where the Bering Strait is] to Alaska. The fertile land and abundant food tempted them to movethroughout North and South America. These people are calledIndians, Native Americans, American Indians, Amerindians orAmerinds [I’ll call them Indians]. They had differing lives, beliefs,traditions, languages and histories. Neighboring peoples might

speak languages as different as Hungarian and English, and theymight be friends or enemies who were at constant war. Somewere hunter-gatherers, some grew crops, some fished, and theylived in groups ranging from large families to villages of severalthousand. Since peoples [some like to call different nations“tribes” but it’s not correct!] moved into new territories and theircultures changed through time it is difficult to generalize aboutIndians. In 1500 there might have been between 250,000 and 10million people living where the US is today.

Chapter 2.In October 1492 Christopher Columbus (a Portuguese-trained

Italian mariner working for Spain), landed on the islands off thesoutheast coast of America. There had been Europeans in Americabefore this, but their visits did not have an impact on the historyof either continent. Spain soon made colonies on the Caribbeanislands and sent military expeditions that conquered the richAztec and Inca empires in Central and South America. Spanishexplorers from the colonies in Mexico and Cuba would later

explore the western and southern US territory. [even though thisis not the United States and there are no states yet I am going tocall it the US and give states for locations].

In 1539-1543 the Spaniards Hernando de Soto and FranciscoCoronado made expeditions into much of the southern US. DeSoto, sailing from Cuba, landed in Florida and traveled west,crossing the Mississippi River and going into Texas and Oklahoma.

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Coronado traveled north from Mexico and reached the centralPlains region. Later, Spain would build settlements in the US. Theoldest is St. Augustine, Florida (1565), then Santa Fe, New Mexico(1609). Very few Spanish lived in these places.

In 1497-98 the Italian mariner, John Cabot [his Englishname], working for England, reached Canada and explored thenortheast US coast. Another Italian, Giovanni Verrazano, was hiredby France to explore America. In 1524 he sailed along the Atlanticcoast and discovered the harbor of New York. In 1534 the French

Jacques Cartier also explored Canada and the St. Lawrence River,but not as far south as the US.

The European countries would use these early explorationsto claim they “owned” American territory.

Chapter 3.In 1585 a group of about 100 English settlers landed on

Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Sir Walter Raleigh led them. Theircolony failed and they returned to England, but in 1587 Raleightried another group of colonists. By 1590 this colony haddisappeared and no one knows what happened.

In 1607 England established another colony. It was in Virginiaand the colonists named their settlement Jamestown. This was abusiness venture from a group of investors, the Virginia Company,

and the colonists were their employees. They hoped to find gold,like the Spanish had. The colonists searched for gold and did notknow how to do manual labor like chopping trees or growing food.

They died of starvation, disease and Indian attacks: about 75% of the colonists died the first year. The Virginia Company sent newcolonists and slowly Virginia began to succeed. In 1613 theybegan sending valuable tobacco to England. But by 1624 thecompany was bankrupt and the English government took controlof Virginia.

In America it was hard to get enough workers, and in Englandthere were too many workers and not enough opportunity. Most of the colonists in the southern colonies would arrive to America asindentured servants: they made a contract to work for a period(usually 5-7 years) in exchange for travel to America and food,housing and clothing. Some English people were convicts or

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orphans, but most of them chose to move to America. The firstAfricans arrived in the US in 1619.

Chapter 4.In 1620 a group of extremist Anglicans arrived in America.

They had left England because they felt the Anglican Church wastoo much like the Catholic church and wanted to ‘purify’ it. Theyare called Puritans, and were strongly influenced by Calvinism.

The Virginia Company agreed to let them settle in northernVirginia, where they could form their own colony, but their ship,the Mayflower, got lost and landed instead on Cape Cod,Massachusetts (near Boston). Because they were far from anygovernment they decided to make an agreement amongthemselves. This important Mayflower Compact set up a

government to make fair laws, change them when necessary, andthe signers promised to obey the laws and to work together (thisis a main foundation of American government). Only half the 100settlers survived the first winter, but other Puritans joined theircolony. This colony was called Plymouth Plantation (also spelledPlymouth, named for the Plymouth in England), and a larger groupof Puritans began another colony near Boston. This becameMassachusetts colony in 1691. Puritans felt they should have anideal community, and it was under strict religious control. People

who would not obey were exiled or killed. The minister RogerWilliams believed that the government and religion should beseparate and in 1535 he escaped the Massachusetts authoritiesand founded the colony of Rhode Island, where people couldfollow whatever religion they liked.

Other colonies developed on the Atlantic coast. Some wereprivate property, like Pennsylvania [which promised religiousfreedom and attracted Germans, Swiss, Irish and Scots as well asEnglish], or were crown colonies. New York, a Dutch colonyoriginally called New Amsterdam, was conquered by the English in1664.

Chapter 5.By 1733 the British colonies were [north to south]: New

Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware,New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North

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Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. There were regionaldifferences:

New England (Massachusetts and its neighbors) was rocky,cold, and suitable for small farms and fishing or trade. The MiddleColonies (New York, Pennsylvania) had more religious tolerance, ahigh number of Germans, Dutch and Swedes, and better land forfarming. The main city, Philadelphia, was the largest Americancity (in 1770 it had 28,000 inhabitants [and was the secondlargest “English” city after London]). The Southern Colonies [theones named for rulers, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia] wereagricultural and the wealthy landowners had huge estates. Almostall American colonists lived within 100 km. of the coast, and/orclose to rivers. Most were farmers, but there were a few importantcities (Philadelphia, Boston, New York) as centers of trade with

England. As more colonists arrived [the population was 1 million in1750] they moved away from the coast. Settlers often made smallfarms in the wilderness. Starting around 1760 they began to settlewest of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky and Tennessee.Since they had to rely on themselves, the “pioneers” had to beindependent, self-reliant, hardworking, democratic andcooperative [American ideals even today].

Chapter 6.

Britain and France fought throughout the 18th century. InNorth America, France claimed Canada, Louisiana [the territory,not the state; the territory was about 25% of the modern US], andsome islands. René La Salle, a French fur trader, had explored theMississippi Valley [the river valley, not the state] in the 1670s. In1756 the British and French began the French and Indian War [inEurope, the “Seven Years’ War”. All the wars had different namesfor America and Europe]. The other wars had only had smallskirmishes in America, but the French and Indian War had a lot of fighting in North America. In 1763 the French gave up its claims toCanada and the US east of the Mississippi River [the treaty wascalled the Peace of Paris].

Britain won the war, but the victory was hard on the colonies.Before the 1760s the British government had not interfered muchin colonial life, and the French threat made the Americans dependon British defense. This changed after 1763. King George III had

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decreed that colonists would not move west of the AppalachianMountains because they were in conflict with the Indians there.

They had to pay special taxes because the war had beenexpensive and the British soldiers had to stay in America. Itseemed reasonable to the British government that the Americanspay more than average British citizens because they were costingmore. But many colonists objected to the taxes, and began toorganize against them.

Among the new taxes and laws was the 1765 Stamp Act.Colonists had to buy special tax stamps for things likenewspapers, wills, contracts, marriage licenses, playing cards,bills of sale, and other legal papers [the Stamp Act, therefore,taxed almost everyone in the colonies]. All the American colonieshad local governments [assemblies made up of local men, but

with royal governors]. These local assemblies traditionally hadcontrol of taxes; since they controlled the money they couldpartially control the governors.

In 1765 representatives from nine colonies formed a StampAct Congress to organize opposition to the Stamp Act. They, andmany colonists, believed that Americans were being treatedillegally because they had no representatives in Parliament – “notaxation without representation” [to be fair, the Britishgovernment said that they did have representation, the same

members of parliamentas the rest of British citizens]. Americans refused to buy stamps,or to buy or sell British goods at all. The British withdrew theStamp Act, but made stronger laws. The Declaratory Act statedthat the British government had full control over the colonies.Between 1767 and 1774 there were many other conflicts [taxriots, the “Boston Massacre” where a street fight betweencolonists and British soldiers left several dead, the “Boston TeaParty” where colonists destroyed a shipment of tea rather than letit be put in shops where it would be taxed, and the “IntolerableActs” where Boston harbor was blockaded].

In 1774 colonial leaders gathered in Philadelphia to discussthe situation. They formed the First Continental Congress, whichclaimed to be loyal to Britain but also supported autonomy. Manycolonists began organizing into support groups and militias.

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Chapter 7.In April 1775 British soldiers were ordered to seize weapons

the Massachusetts colonists had gathered. In Lexington (nearBoston) 70 local militiamen met the 700 soldiers and someonestarted shooting; more militia began attacking and about 300colonists and soldiers were killed (mostly soldiers).

In May 1775 a second Continental Congress met and beganto form a government. It established an army of 17,000, led by aformer British officer, George Washington, and sentrepresentatives to Europe to ask for aid.

Fighting spread to other colonies, and by summer 1776 theCongress decided to cut the colonies’ ties with Britain. In July 1776they published a Declaration of Independence to explain why theUS was fighting and why independence was the only solution. The

Declaration [another of the major American documents] alsostated ideals of social and political organization such as humanrights and government by consent.

The American army was badly armed, organized, andsupplied. [and many colonists were loyal to Britain; this was also acivil war] They lost many battles. But in 1778 the French alliedwith the Americans and sent money, soldiers, and supplies andthe Americans were more successful. In fall 1781 the British armysurrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. The British began withdrawing

troops and discussing peace terms. In the September 1783 Treatyof Paris [which is not the same as the Peace of Paris in 1763!] theBritish recognized the US as an independent country and withdrewrights to the US south of Canada and east of the Mississippi River.

Chapter 8. The new Americans had to form a government and a country.

Each state [former colony] acted much like an independentcountry. They had worked together under the 1781 Articles of Confederation, which had a weak central government. France wasnot recognizing a real government in the US, Britain wasexpecting the colonists to realize they were too weak to beindependent. Changes had to be made to the government system.In 1787 Congress asked the states to join to make new rules of government (the Constitutional Convention). Since the stateswere very different socially and economically they had different

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plans. The new and improved Articles of Confederation was calledthe Constitution. It gave the US a federal system of government,sharing power among the national government, states, and localauthorities. The federal government had more power than underthe Articles, and had the power to declare war, make foreigntreaties, coin money [before this every state, and even separatebanks, made their own money], collect taxes, and controlproblems between different states. Since the Americans wereworried about power, they made sure that all the rules werewritten down, power was shared, and the rules could be changed.

There were three branches of government: the executive (led bythe president) ran the country, the legislative (Congress) madethe laws, and the judicial (Supreme Court) explained andinterpreted the laws. The Congress has two parts: an equal

number of Senators (2 per state), and Representatives (based onpopulation within a state). The system of checks and balancesmade sure that each branch can be controlled by the other two.Lastly, the Constitution said that any power that the federalgovernment does not have specifically is then for a state todecide.

Nine of the 13 states had to agree to the Constitution beforeit was legal, and this happened in summer 1789. But theConstitution did not address the issue of personal rights, so in

1791 the first 10 amendments [additions], the Bill of Rights,became part of the Constitution. These guaranteed the right topeaceful assembly, free speech, choice in religion, legalsafeguards against unfair laws or government acts.

One of the most important actions in the early USgovernment was deciding who decided what the Constitutionmeant. The head of the Supreme Court [called the Chief Justice],

John Marshall, served for 35 years and strengthened the judicialsystem so that it was the final authority regarding laws. If any lawgoes against the Constitution [and the Supreme Court makes thefinal decision for this] then it is not legal.

Chapter 9.[The 1790 population was 4 million and 1820 was 9.6

million]. People began moving west into the region between theAppalachian Mountains and Mississippi River [about 120,000 in

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1790 lived in this region]. Indians who lived there defended theirlands, and there were many battles and wars between the groups.By about 1820 the US decided that traditional Indian life wasincompatible with American life and that the Indians would haveto move. In 1830 the Indian Removal Act decreed that all Indians –even the “civilized tribes” [who had completely adopted Euro-American ways] – were forced to move west of the MississippiRiver.

The government made laws organizing new territories andoutlining how they could become states [the NorthwestOrdinance, 1787]. The land between the Mississippi andAppalachians was divided at the Ohio River into the Southwestand Northwest Territories around 1790. These territories weredivided even more as the population grew. They could have local

governments and Congressional representation when theyreached 5,000 voters, and could apply to become states whenthey had 60,000 people. The Northwest Territory became Ohio,Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Andrew Jackson, who became President in 1828, was the first“average man” to become President. He was a westerner andsupported the rights of average people. He helped found theDemocratic party, extended voting rights, argued for betterbanking systems, and tried to make politics

more democratic.

Chapter 10.In 1800 the US western border was the Mississippi River. The

region between that and the Rocky Mountains was Louisiana [notthe same as the state] and belonged to France. France sold it tothe US in 1803 because it needed money for the Napoleonic Warsin Europe. President Thomas Jefferson [who also was the mainauthor of the Declaration of Independence and other documents]sent an expedition to explore Louisiana, discover its geography,animals, plant life, make friends with the Indians, and find if therewas a passage across America to the Pacific Ocean. Leading a“Corps of Discovery” of about 50 people, Meriwether Lewis andWilliam Clark traveled up the Missouri River and crossed theRocky Mountains. They reached the Pacific Ocean in December1805, and returned to St. Louis [the main frontier city on the

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Mississippi] a year later. It was possible to travel overland to thePacific, but not easy [it’s about 6 months whether you go overlandor by ship].

The northwest part of the US and southwest Canada wascalled Oregon Territory. Russia, Spain, Britain and the US all hadclaims to it. British and American claims were strongest in themiddle part [where the Oregon state part of Oregon Territory is]because of trading posts for the fur industry. By the 1830sAmericans began moving to Oregon to farm and to establish agreater American presence. In the 1840s many people left the US,where farmland had become worn out and expensive, to try abetter life in Oregon.

The mid-19th century concept of Manifest Destiny said thatGod meant for America to control the territory from the Atlantic to

the Pacific and bring civilization there. The US and Britain madeseveral agreements about the territory and almost went to war,but in 1846 agreed to split the territory where the US-Canadianborder lies today.

Texas was a Mexican region, sparsely inhabited, andthousands of Americans moved there in the 1820s and 1830s.

They rebelled in 1835, won their war, and formed the Republic of Texas. In 1845 they joined the US. The following year fightingbroke out between Mexicans and Americans. The US defeated the

Mexican army and occupied the capital city in 1847. The peacetreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 gave the US the southwest[for which they paid $25 million, about 600 million Euros]. By1848 the continental US was about the size it is today.

Chapter 11.Slavery was part of the economic system. In the northern

states it was not necessary because there was no labor shortageand farms were small. But slavery became stronger in thesouthern states [because Indians would not do such labor or werenot there, and Euro-Americans could not be forced to work]. Somepeople [called abolitionists] wanted to end slavery on moral andreligious grounds [others argued for slavery on moral andreligious grounds]. In 1808 Congress outlawed the importation of slaves into the US [the southern states had already made lawsforbidding it and also would not allow free black people to enter

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their states because they would bring dangerous ideas likefreedom]. Politicians argued about slavery in new territories andstates, focusing first on Missouri. At this time the US was“balanced” at 11 states that allowed slavery and 11 that forbadeit. The 1820 Missouri Compromise banned slavery west and northof Missouri [the state, not the river] and also “balanced” the US byadmitting Missouri and Maine as states at the same time. Duringthis time southern politicians like John Calhoun questioned theright of the federal government to make laws that harmed a state[for example, the import taxes which helped northern industriesalso hurt the southern states that relied on foreign goods]. This isthe ‘states’ rights’ doctrine. Daniel Webster, a Senator and laterthe Secretary of State, argued that the Supreme Court decided if alaw was fair, not individual states and that the states’ rights

doctrine opposed the Constitution.In 1850 Congress made another compromise between the

opposing political forces. California [another Mexican territory thathad fought a war of independence and became a republic] wouldbe admitted as a free state, people in Utah and New Mexico couldvote on the slavery issue, but it also strengthened the FugitiveSlave Act to make it a crime for people to help slaves escape.

Many people in free states were angry with this law. Somepeople organized escape routes, called “Underground Railroads”

to help slaves escape, or traveled into slave states to liberateslaves.In 1854 the Missouri Compromise ended. People in Nebraska

and Kansas wanted to apply for statehood, but Congress decidedto allow Kansans to vote on the slavery issue. People on bothsides began moving to Kansas, and there were battles betweenthem so that Kansas was not allowed to become a state.

In 1858 Dred Scott, a slave who had been living in a freestate, petitioned the Supreme Court for his freedom. He arguedthat he had become a free man from living in a free state. TheCourt said that slaves were property and did not have rights ascitizens [either of their states or the US] and could not sue in theSupreme Court.

In the 1850s the Republican Party was formed, based on theissues of slavery. In 1859 a fanatical abolitionist, John Brown,attempted to lead a slave revolt [which was a dismal failure

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because none of the local black people would join it] and wasexecuted. People in the slave states saw this as evidence thatabolitionists were willing to use force to end slavery. When theRepublican Party presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, wonthe 1860 election, South Carolina voted to leave the UnitedStates. Ten other states followed, and in February 1861 theyformed the Confederate States of America [Virginia, NorthCarolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Louisiana,

Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas formed the CSA.Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and WestVirginia [which broke off from Virginia and stayed in the Union],were slave states in the Union. This is one reason why theEmancipation Proclamation will only liberate the slaves in the CSA,not everywhere].

Chapter 12.In April 1861 the CSA attacked Fort Sumter, a Union fortress

in Charleston, South Carolina. President Lincoln and ConfederatePresident Jefferson Davis [former American Secretary of War] bothcalled for volunteer soldiers. Many Americans had difficultychoosing which side to be on [for example, former President Tylerbecame a Confederate Congressman; US General Cooke’sdaughter was married to the famous CS General Stuart; President

Lincoln and General Grant both had in-laws fighting in the CSAarmy, and General Lee had been offered command of the US armybefore he decided to join the Confederate side]. Many US militaryofficers were Southern men and joined the CSA forces. The USAwas much stronger than the CSA [the book, and people generally,say North and South for USA and CSA, but this would ignore theimportant western states]. The US had 22 million people, 5 timesmore industry, most of the weapons factories, and a strongbanking and communications system. The CSA had 9 millionpeople, 3.5 of whom were slaves [South Carolina only had 55,000white men age 18-45 out of its 700,000 population]. However, theCSA did not intend to conquer the US, or occupy it. They only hadto fight until the US got tired of trying to force them back into theUnion. Most Confederates did not own slaves [even in SouthCarolina, where whites were only 40% of the population, 90% of

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them did not own slaves]. To the CSA, this was a second AmericanWar of Independence.

The war was in two main areas, Virginia and neighboringAtlantic states, and in the Mississippi Valley. The Union armysuffered many defeats in the first year. CSA generals like RobertE. Lee and Thomas [Stonewall] Jackson were much better than theUnion generals. But in 1862 the Union navy captured the strategicport of New Orleans, then other cities like Vicksburg on theMississippi. In summer 1863 General Lee led part of theConfederate army to invade US territory. In Pennsylvania they metwith a Union force near Gettysburg. This battle was the biggestever fought in the United States. Lee retreated and the CSA wasunable to recover.

President Lincoln issued a proclamation in September 1862

that freed all slaves in the rebellious regions as of January 1863. This made the Union fight a cause of abolition in addition torestoring the Union [and encouraged black people in the CSA tosupport the US army]. Lincoln did not have any power in thosestates, but it was still a nice symbolic gesture.

By 1864 the CSA was almost out of soldiers, food, weapons,and money. In November the US Army began a destructive marchthrough Georgia and the Carolinas, splitting the Confederacy andcapturing the capital city, Richmond. In April the main part of the

Confederate army was captured. The US General U.S. Grantoffered very generous conditions of surrender [the Confederatesoldiers could just leave their weapons and go home if theypromised to stop fighting]. This surrender at Appomattox CourtHouse [which is not the same as being the court house inAppomattox, the village name was Appomattox Court House]stopped the fighting in the east.

Slavery was abolished everywhere in 1865 by the 13thAmendment. Also, states could not leave the Union.

Chapter 13.In April 1865, just after the CSA army’s surrender, an

assassin killed President Lincoln. The new president, Andrew Johnson, wanted to follow Lincoln’s plans to not punish the formerConfederacy. According to these plans, they could rejoin Americanpolitics, with full citizenship rights, as soon as they promised to

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obey the laws. Some southerners did not want to give the formerslaves the same citizenship rights that they had. They made“Black Codes” that kept blacks from voting, serving on juries,giving evidence against whites, owning land, or changingemployers. A group of radical Republicans said that the formerCSA was not obeying the laws. In 1866 there were additionalamendments to the Constitution to guarantee rights to blackpeople [the 13th Amendment ended slavery, the 14th gave theformer slaves citizenship, the 15th gave adult males the right tovote], but the southern states refused to accept them. In 1867Congress dismissed the southern state governments and put theformer Confederate states under military occupation until theyobeyed the Constitution and accepted the new amendments. By1870 the southern governments consisted of newly arrived Union

men, Southerners cooperating with “the enemy”, and black men. These people were not always honest or competent. Most whiteSoutherners were Democrats.

Some radicals made terrorist groups to threaten blacks andwhites who supported them. One group was the Ku Klux Klan [thisis the first of 3 groups with the same name]. When the federaltroops left in 1877, it marked the end of Reconstruction. Withoutthis protection, black people often suffered discriminatory laws.

In 1896 the Supreme Court said that it was legal to separate

blacks from whites and other races] if the facilities or serviceswere equal [Plessy versus Ferguson; Plessy was a 1/8 black manwho said that when he bought a ticket he should be allowed to sitwhere he pleased]. But the “separate but equal” was usuallyunequal. The Supreme Court changed this decision in 1954[Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education], saying that it wasimpossible to get an equal education in a segregated school; theyordered all public schools to integrate.

Chapter 14.In 1848 gold was discovered in northern California.

[Americans in California had fought a war of independence withMexico, like the Texans, and were an independent republic that

joined the US in 1850]. People from all over the world ran toparticipate in this “gold rush”. The population grew from 15,000 in1848 to 250,000 in 1852. There were also gold and silver mines

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and “rushes” in Nevada, Colorado, Montana, and the Dakotas inthe 1860s and 1870s.

The western territories were cut off from the US by the RockyMountains and the Great Plains. In the mid-19th century groups of Indians like the Lakota [Dakota, Sioux; they are a group of nations] lived on the Great Plains, relying primarily on buffalohunting. Euro-Americans did not live there because they thought itwas too dry for farming.

The transcontinental railroad linked the Pacific coast with theUS. Starting in 1862, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroadcompanies built a rail line from California to hub cities like Omahaand St. Louis. The railroad was completed in 1869. It becamepossible to cross the US in about a week instead of 6 months.

Texas ranchers realized they could graze cattle on the Plains

and ship beef by rail to eastern cities and to Europe. Cattle weremoved on trails to towns with railroads like Dodge City or Abilene[driving cattle is miserable and dangerous; many cowboys wereMexicans, former slaves, former Confederate soldiers].

Chapter 15.In 1862 Congress made the Homestead Act. Anyone over age

21 [soldiers could be younger, immigrants had to say they wouldstay in the US] could move onto public land and “win” about 50

ha. if they improved it with a house and crops and lived there fiveyears. They could also buy the land after six months for $200.Railroads also sold land [they owned land beside the tracks] andoffered cheap tickets. It is difficult to farm in this region becauseof the thick grass and bad weather [sometimes 45 degrees insummer, minus 45 in winter, sometimes less than 20 cm. of rain ayear]. Many homesteaders sold their farms and left. Otherslearned to live on the Plains, using barbed wire for fences, sod forbuildings, and buying modern machinery like steel plows andharvesters. They transported their crops by railroad.

The national park system began in the late 19th century. These areas are nature preserves; the first one was YellowstonePark, in the Rocky Mountains.

Chapter 16.

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[In the first part of the 19th century several smallpoxepidemics killed thousands of Plains Indians. Some peoples, likethe Mandan, were completely wiped out; others lost an estimated50-75% of their populations. They moved to new territories andformed new alliances to survive. The US government hadestablished a Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1834. There are otherIndian nations that had battles with the US over treaties andterritory.]

In the 19th century there were many US treaties with thePlains Indians. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 gave the Lakota aterritory between the Missouri River and Rocky Mountains. [Someof these Lakota tribes had been moved from Minnesota a fewyears before]. In 1874 gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a Lakota sacred site. They refused to sell the land

to the US, but miners moved there anyway.Hunters began a widespread slaughter of buffalo around

1872, destroying the Indians’ main food source. Some saw this asa way to force Indians to “civilize” by becoming Christians andsettled farmers. Some groups refused to settle on reservationsand instead fought the US Army. Others tried to escape toCanada. By 1890 the Plains Indians were settled on reservationswhere they faced problems of farming inadequate land, dealingwith dishonest government officials, starvation, and loss of

cultural and religious autonomy.[The 1887 Dawes Act gave full citizenship rights to all Indianson reservations or ‘settled’ Indians who were not living onreservations.] The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act gave citizenshiprights to the remaining Indians who had not applied or asked forit; the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act encouraged more tribalautonomy and renewal of traditional culture.

In the 1970s a political movement similar to other ethnic andgender movements began for Indians. [The situation of eachnation is different and the laws change so quickly that it wouldtake an entire course to explain it].

Chapter 17. The nation’s hundredth “birthday party” in 1876, the

Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, included a great hall of machinery and inventions. Ten million people attended. In the late

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19th century the US was becoming an industrial country. Coal andiron were the most important raw materials that helped Americanindustry. Mines were found in the Great Lakes region. Railroadsalso developed, both because they needed iron and coal andhelped they transport it and the finished industrial products. Bigcities like Chicago and Pittsburgh grew at this time. Industry grewso quickly that by 1913 more than a third of world industrialproduction came from the US.

Thomas Edison is a renowned inventor. He developed safeand practical electrical generating systems, light bulbs, and athousand other inventions.

Commerce was often run by powerful businessmen [‘captainsof industry’, ‘robber barons’] like Andrew Carnegie (steel andshipping) and John Rockefeller (oil), who developed vast industrial

empires by buying rival companies and controlling all aspects of an industry. These powerful corporations could kill all competition[monopolies], and were wealthier and had control over morepeople than some European nations. Many people were frightenedby the power the industrialists held, labor riots were common, andsometimes the government could not control them.

American industry relied on two ideas, standardization[identical parts in manufactured goods] and the assembly line [theproduct moved along a line of workers], speeded up production

and allowed the use of unskilled workers. Henry Ford first utilizedthe assembly line to make cars, cutting the time to make a Model T from 12 hours to an hour and a half. These systems mademanufactured goods cheaper and more available [and causedpolitical, social and mental problems in the labor force]. Americansociety was changing very quickly.

Chapter 18.Millions of immigrants went to the US in the 19th century. In

the first half of the 19th century, most immigrants were fromnorthern and western Europe. For example, in the 1840s Irishfleeing famine and political mistreatment went to the US [about40 million Americans today have Irish ancestry]; Germans wereanother large immigrant group [about 60 million Americans haveGerman ancestors]. Southern and Eastern Europeans beganflooding into the US around 1880. Jews fled political persecution

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[about 2 million Jews entered the US about 1880-1925] andmodern America has about 6 million people of Jewish backgroundor religion.

The government tried to control immigration. In 1892 a newimmigration center in New York, Ellis Island, opened. Immigrantshad to be free of infectious diseases [like tuberculosis andcommunism] before they could enter the US [they had alreadybeen checked in Europe; the shipping companies had to takethem back to Europe for free if they were not allowed into the US].Many immigrants stayed in the large Eastern cities like New Yorkwhen they arrived.

Native-born Americans were often alarmed by these newimmigrants [there were about a million arriving a year by 1900;the population rose from 50 million in 1880 to 75 million in 1900].

The Pacific coast states had a Chinese population since the 1860s,and the Euro-Americans made special laws against them. In 1882the US banned Asian immigration. There were more immigrationrestrictions; the most important was the Immigration Act of 1924that only allowed 115,000 immigrants a year and assigned eachcountry a quota that gave preference to nations that were alreadyin America.

Chapter 19.

In 1900 the US was the richest and most productiveindustrial nation [about 1/3 of the world’s coal, iron, and steel].Industrial cities were dirty, crowded, and dangerous. There wereno laws concerning working conditions. Women and children, andnew immigrants, were willing to work for lower wages and workershad no recourse if conditions were bad in factories or mines[often, urban women and children worked at home doing“piecework” of sewing or assembling small items; children 3 yearsold were already useful for the family economy]. Workers whotried to form labor unions were fired, strikes and riots werecommon. Some industrialists had private “armies” to stop strikers.

Some authors, journalists and social workers fought againstthe bad conditions. They published shocking reports andphotographs about factories and slum life. About 1900 the“Progressive” movement began. Traditional American beliefs werethat the government should stay out of private life or economics.

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Progressives felt that the government should take action to solvesocial problems like political corruption and bad living conditions if it was necessary.

President Theodore Roosevelt was a Progressive. He wantedto stop unfair business practices and forced monopolies or largecorporations to negotiate with labor, charge fair prices for goodsor services [it was common for railroads to overcharge farmerswho had no other way to get their crops to market or for miningcompanies to force workers to live in special camps and pay themwith credit at company stores instead of in cash]. Roosevelt alsosupported the Pure Food and Drug Act which made foodmanufacturers clean up their factories. President Wilson, whofollowed Roosevelt, was also a Progressive.

Wilson’s administration tried to make the US better for

ordinary citizens by encouraging international trade, reformingbanking, making an income tax on rich people, reducingmonopolies, supporting some labor unions, and restricting childlabor. Large businesses often kept Progressive laws from beingpassed, but some changes succeeded.

The largest labor union of the early 20th century was theAmerican Federation of Labor (A.F.L.), which represented skilledworkers like carpenters, printers, and tailors. European laborunions were often communist or socialist, but US unions did not

really want to end capitalism [there were communists andsocialists in the US, but they were separate]; instead, they wantedbetter wages, shorter working hours, and safer workingconditions. By 1904 there were 1,750,000 members of the A.F.L.

Chapter 20.In 1867 the US bought Alaska from Russia. This was the first

territorial expansion since the Mexican-American War [and fewAmericans moved to Alaska]. Around 1890, when Britain, Franceand Germany were building empires, some Americans believedthe US should also have colonies. Colonies meant better markets,raw materials, and military security. There was also a belief thatthe “Anglo-Saxon race” had a duty to take care of less ‘civilized’peoples in Asia and Latin America.

Cuba rebelled against Spain in 1895. An American warship,the Maine, was sent to Cuba in 1898 to show support; it exploded

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and Americans believed the Spanish had attacked it. The US andSpain began the Spanish-American War in Cuba and thePhilippines. When the war ended a few weeks later the USreceived much of Spain’s remaining empire (Cuba, Philippines,Puerto Rico, Guam), and wasn’t sure what to do with them. Cubabecame independent [though the US intervened repeatedly tostop revolutions there], but the other islands were Americanprotectorates until the mid- 20th century.

The US annexed Hawaii after American capitalists overthrewthe Hawaiian monarchy.

The US had been interested in Latin American independencesince the first colonies [like Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Peru,Bolivia] became free around 1820. Spain wanted European help,but President James Monroe warned Europe to not interfere in the

Americas. The US would take European involvement as a threat toits own security. This Monroe Doctrine is the beginning of USinvolvement in international affairs. In 1904 President Rooseveltfurthered the Monroe Doctrine by saying that the US wouldintervene in Latin America if necessary. The US would send troopsto Nicaragua, Haiti and the Dominican Republic to increasestability and keep Europe from having an excuse for involvement.Private industries were also encouraged to invest in Latin America.

The “Roosevelt Corollary” was demonstrated when the US

manipulated a revolution in Columbia to acquire the PanamaCanal zone and complete the Canal which would benefit Americancommerce and defense. [The US paid Columbia the price they’dasked originally for the Zone, but the power implications wereclear].

Chapter 21.Most Americans saw World War I as a European problem.

However, US sympathy and trade was on the Allied (British,French, Belgian) side. It still wanted to stay neutral even afterprovocations like American deaths on the Lusitania, the“Zimmerman telegram” in which Germany encouraged Mexico toattack the US and promised the American southwest as payment,and the sinking of American ships in the Atlantic. In April 1917 theUS finally declared war on Germany.

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At the time the US had only about 200,000 soldiers and ittook about a year to raise and train an army and move them toEurope. A million took part in battles starting in spring 1918. InNovember the war ended.

President Wilson [a professor of economics and government]wanted fair peace treaties. He believed that the vanquishednations would start new wars if they were punished too harshly.His peace plan [called The Fourteen Points] called for nationstates, free trade, self determination, and open discussion insteadof secret treaties. The French leader, Georges Clemenceau,wanted to weaken Germany so it could never fight again. TheFrench and British pushed the Versailles Treaty, ignoringAmerican advice. Wilson was disappointed, but had another planto avoid future wars by creating a League of Nations to solve

international problems diplomatically instead of militarily. The American Congress and people were suspicious of the

League, which they believed would drag the US into moreinternational problems like the one it had just solved. PresidentWilson tried to get public support for the League of Nations, buthe suffered a stroke from which he never recovered.

Chapter 22. The US was very wealthy in the 1920s. Industries prospered,

and average Americans could own cars (over 20 million in 1927),refrigerators, radios and other consumer goods. The standard of living rose greatly. The government supported American businessby making high import taxes and reducing income tax. Over half of Americans still lived in poverty [in 1929, 60% had less than$2,000 a year income for a family of 4]. Industrial workers had lowwages, poor farmers or farm workers in the South struggled in thesharecropping system [farmers “rented” the land from landlordsand paid for it with a part of the crop], agricultural prices droppedafter World War I, and farmers grew more crops than there werebuyers. By 1924 600,000 farmers had lost their farms.

In 1919 a Constitution amendment outlawed selling ormaking alcohol. Many politicians and police were involved inbreaking the law and ordinary people thought illegal drinking wasdaring and fun. Illegal importers formed organized crime gangs

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that became powerful in many cities. The amendment wasrepealed in 1933 but organized crime remained strong.

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Chapter 23. The US economy collapsed in 1929. This began the Great

Depression. Some people had been “playing” the stock market byinvesting without understanding it and without paying for theirstock shares. But profits for some companies were decreasing,which destabilized the unstable stock market even more. Panicsell-offs in October 1929 led to the so-called Wall Street Crash,and $40 billion of stock values disappeared [this was 40% of allcommon stocks in the US].

The economy collapsed because wealth was not finding itsway into workers’ and farmers’ pockets. They could not affordmany consumer goods, but factories were not cutting production.Business leaders could not recognize the problem. Europeaneconomies had also collapsed after World War I. Overseas

markets could not buy American products and foreign countriescould not repay their loans from American banks or thegovernment.

By the end of 1932 25% of workers were unemployed. Therewas no unemployment insurance. Thousands of banks closed[with 3 million bank accounts and $2.5 billion lost] and over100,000 businesses failed. Production decreased 50%, there wereno new investments, and the government policies of supportingindustry and balancing the federal budget were not helping most

Americans.In 1932 the Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected. Hehad made successful Depression policies for New York State,where he was governor, and planned to transfer his ideas to thenational government. He believed the federal government shouldbecome more involved in changing the economy and proposed a“New Deal”.

Chapter 24.Roosevelt sent many important proposals to Congress after

he took office. There were new government agencies to give jobs[like the Civilian Conservation Corps], provide money for theunemployed [Federal Emergency Relief Administration], increaseagricultural prices [Agricultural Adjustment Administration],provide electricity and flood control in the southeastern US[Tennessee Valley Authority], and assure fair prices and wages

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[National Recovery Administration]. The CCC and WPA (WorksProgress Administration) gave jobs to over 9 million people. Theirwages helped the economy recover and also started Americansfeeling hopeful for the future. Employees also built roads,hospitals, schools, parks, wrote history books, performed playsand concerts, and gathered folklore information. In 1935 thegovernment made the Social Security Act, which gave pensions toold or sick people and provided money for the unemployed.

Roosevelt’s policies were not popular everywhere. Some saidthat government jobs would make people lazy, or that thegovernment was intruding too much into private life. It looked alot like socialism as well. The New Deal did not stop the GreatDepression. In 1939 10 million workers were still unemployed. Butwhen World War II began the American factories could begin

production of war material.

Chapter 25.I n the 1930s many Americans believed they should not getinvolved in the military problems in Asia and Europe[“Isolationism”]. Congress passed Neutrality Acts which forbadeselling military equipment or lending money to countries at war.Other goods, like food, could only be sold for cash and transportedon the warring countries’ ships [this prevented US ships from

being attacked or US companies not getting paid]. The US suspended the Neutrality Act and began militaryconscription in 1940. President Roosevelt, who strongly supportedBritain, sent spare military supplies. In March 1941 the US beganthe Lend Lease Plan, allowing the president to send militarysupplies to Britain even though Britain wouldn’t pay for it[supposedly, it was just a “loan” and Britain would return theboats, bombs, bullets, boots, bacon and whatnot after they weredone using them]; the US also supplied the USSR with Lend Lease.

The Japanese had invaded Manchuria in 1931, China in 1937,and the French colony of Indochina in July 1941. The US beganreducing exports to Japan of material useful for war [airplanes,scrap metal and oil especially] in 1937, and stopped all oilshipments after the Indochina invasion. Japan received 80% of itsoil from the US. The new Japanese Prime Minister, General Hideki

Tojo, decided that Japan should take Southeast Asian oil fields, but

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must prevent American intervention first. He decided to attack theAmerican navy.

The American Pacific fleet’s base was at Pearl Harbor,Hawaii. On 7 December 1941 a Japanese attack damaged manywarships and airplanes. The US and Japan were not at war at thetime, but this attack made America enter World War II. The USdeclared war on Japan on 8 December; Germany then declaredwar on the US.

Society turned to war production, thousands of menvolunteered for the military. Some foods and products wererationed or unavailable [this was not severe like Europeanrationing; there was always plenty of food, but consumer goodswere often not available because the factories were makingmilitary supplies].

The Allies [US, Britain, France] decided to focus on theEuropean war first. In late 1942 they defeated the Axis in NorthAfrica, in 1943 they invaded Italy. In June 1944 the invasion of France began. The last big battle of the Western Front was inDecember 1944. By April 1945 the British and American troopsmet Soviet forces on the River Elbe in Germany. Germany wasdefeated and surrendered in May 1945. [In April PresidentRoosevelt died suddenly. He had been president for 12 years andhad just been reelected for a fourth term. The new president,

Harry Truman, had been vice president less than three months]. Japan conquered much of Southeast Asia and islands in thewestern Pacific, including the Philippines and Singapore, by mid-1942. In May and June 1942 the Japanese navy was defeated atthe Coral Sea and at Midway Island. In 1943 the Americans, Britishand Australians launched major attacks. By 1945 the Alliescontrolled most of the Pacific and in June had conquered Okinawa,500 km. from the Japanese home islands and planned an invasionof Japan. In August 1945 the US used atomic bombs on Japan. TheUSSR declared war on Japan and prepared to invade Manchuria.On 14 August Japan surrendered.

During the war the US government removed 100,000 Japanese people and their American-born children from theirhomes on the Pacific coast and kept them in ‘relocation centers’ inthe southwest deserts until the war was over. It was wronglyfeared they could be spies.

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Chapter 26. The US became prosperous after World War II. Income and

buying power increased, most families enjoyed a comfortablestandard of living. The presidents of the postwar period are Harry

Truman [Democrat] (1945-53), Dwight Eisenhower [Republican](1953-61) and John Kennedy [Dem.] (1961-63) [Truman andEisenhower began civil rights legislations like desegregation of government jobs, military, schools; Truman’s administrationoversaw the switch back to a peacetime economy and society,where, for example, in 2 years the US military went from 12million soldiers to 1.5 million]. During Lyndon Johnson’s [Dem](1963-69) administration, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act(1964); the administration also tried to stop poverty with huge

social support systems. Johnson wanted a “Great Society” whereall Americans could have medical care, education, and acomfortable life.

The cost of the Vietnam War took government money awayfrom social programs. Johnson was unable to stop the war or solvedomestic problems. Richard Nixon [Rep] (1969-1974) succeeded

Johnson.America was afraid of Communism and wanted to stop it

spreading like a disease through the world. Communists took over

China in 1949 and Korea in 1950. In the US Senator JosephMcCarthy began a campaign to hunt communists in America. Hisaccusations and threats led to the “McCarthy witch hunts” of themid-1950s. He never proved any of his accusations of communistsin the government and media and finally he was stopped, but hecreated a lot of fear.

Chapter 27.In 1940 there were 13 million African-Americans [10% of the

population]; 10 million lived in the southern US. In 1970 therewere 24 million, half living in the southern US. Segregation beganending in the 1940s, partly because war industries did notsegregate black people (the military was segregated until 1948).

The civil rights movement of the 1950s was led by the NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).Advances included the important Brown vs. Topeka case of 1954,

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where the Supreme Court declared separate schools for blackchildren were illegal, and the 1956 declaration that segregation of public transportation was illegal. Black people madedemonstrations, refused to use unfair companies, and insisted onbeing treated fairly. Federal troops had to stop riots againstintegration in many southern cities. In 1963 Martin Luther King, aBaptist minister, led many nonviolent demonstrations and spokeat the famous gathering in Washington in 1963 to support equalrights.

The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. Some people believedthat working peacefully for change was not enough, and radicalviolent groups like the Black Panthers and some parts of the BlackMuslims also appeared. There were riots in large cities in the1960s. By the 1980s African Americans were no longer likely to be

the poorest and least educated Americans.

Chapter 28.After World War II the US and USSR were the two largest

world powers and afraid of each other. Communism wasthreatening to spread in Europe. Supporting a policy of containment, President Truman sent $400 million aid to Greeceand Turkey to stabilize them against communism in 1947.Communism was also growing in Italy and France because the

Europeans nations were not recovering from the war. The MarshallPlan, 1947-1952 [totaling $17 billion], sent food, fuel, rawmaterial, and money to stabilize European nations and help warrecovery. The Soviets distrusted the American offers of assistanceand refused them.

NATO was founded in April 1949 as an alliance of the US and11 European nations for mutual defense.

Japan occupied Korea in WWII; after the war, Soviet forcesoccupied the northern part and Americans occupied the southernpart. Occupation ended in 1948, with local communist anddemocratic governments, both of which claimed to be the onlylegitimate government. In 1950 the north Koreans invaded thesouth and American forces supported the democratic government.

The UN quickly became involved (16 nations, but 90% Americantroops). After the 1953 cease-fire Korea was divided. [30,000

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Americans and 2.5 million Koreans and Chinese died in the KoreanConflict].

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Chapter 29. The US had a hydrogen bomb in 1952 and the Soviets in

1953. This led to a balanced threat. [O’C misinterprets theHungarian Revolution, so I’m not going to repeat him]. In the1950s the Americans and Soviets competed in military buildup of both conventional and nuclear weapons. They also competed forprestige in the “space race” of technology and exploration.

The Soviets built the Berlin Wall in 1961 to keep EastGermans from escaping, and the city was divided until 1989.

Cuba had a communist revolution in 1959. In 1961 a group of anti-Castro Cubans, helped by the US, ‘invaded’ Cuba and weredefeated quickly [the Bay of Pigs incident]. The Soviet Union sentmilitary supplies to support Cuba and in 1962 the US discoveredthe Soviet missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy decided to

blockade Cuba and tell the Soviets to remove the missiles, whichtheyfinally did [this is the Cuban Missile Crisis].

Chapter 30.Vietnam had been a French colony, then under Japanese

occupation in WWII. The French wanted their colony back, but in1954, Vietnamese communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, overthrew theFrench colonial government. Like Korea, Vietnam was divided into

communist and noncommunist countries. Communist Vietnambegan campaigns to take over the south, and the US sent advisorsand money for defense. Anti-communist containment wasespecially important because of Asia’s unstable governments andthe large communist Chinese state. By 1965 communist soldierscontrolled much of South Vietnam. President Johnson decided tosend more American troops to help the South Vietnamese [in1965 there were 25,000 American soldiers in Vietnam, but500,000 by 1968]. It was a guerrilla war, much like the Pacificisland fighting of WWII, where civilians often helped or protectedthe communists.

Postwar Americans were often not interested in “making theworld safe for democracy”, and many people, especially youngones, protested against military involvement. [Most soldiers werevolunteers, not conscripts – 75% of the troops in battle conditions,and 65% of all military].

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By about 1970 the US began sending more aid to the SouthVietnamese military so Americans could withdraw their troops.

The US made a cease-fire agreement with the North Vietnamese(and Soviets), and withdrew troops in March 1973. In March 1975,South Vietnam was captured by the communists.

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Chapter 31.Many Central and South American countries (also called Latin

America) did not like the US. In 1933, President Rooseveltsupported noninvolvement in Latin American governments.American troops, occupying Nicaragua since 1912, returnedhome; the Somoza family dictators ran Nicaragua 1937-1979, butwere usually friendly to the US. A rebel force, the Sandinistas,fought for power in the 1970s, but when they won in 1979 the USrealized they were communists and shouldn’t have been gettingAmerican support [it’s confusing, especially since the rebelsagainst these rebels are anti-antigovernment.]

There were anti-US feelings in Latin America. In 1945 the USled in founding the Organization of American States (OAS) toencourage cooperation in the Americas. Latin America had

unstable governments, economies, and social structure. In the1950s-1990s the US interfered in Guatemala, the DominicanRepublic, Panama, Chile, and Haiti. Latin America was a Cold Warfield, as the USSR supported Marxist groups and the US supporteddemocratic groups.

There were almost no Latinos [usually called Hispanics now]in the US before the end of WWII. In 1965 the immigration lawsended the quota policy and allowed people from any nation toimmigrate. In the 1980s 270,000 could immigrate a year, [but

675,000 are allowed now. The Hispanic population doubled 1990-2000 and is 35 million in 2000; half the US Hispanics were foreign-born, and most have Mexican background.] Many Latinos enteredthe US illegally.

Chapter 32.In the 1970s the US and USSR tried to normalize relations

and stop military buildup. China also normalized relations andentered the UN in 1971. But President Reagan increasedarmaments enough that America was obviously superior to theSoviet military. The Soviets could not sustain their large militaryexpenditures. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the Sovietleader and agreed to reduce nuclear missile arsenals. In the late1980s Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe.

Chapter 33.

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Things from American culture are found all over the world.American television, rock and roll music, hamburgers and ‘fastfood’, jeans and T shirts, are American. So are supermarkets.

These all became popular in the 1950s. Skyscrapers are American,and began in the 1880s in cities like Chicago and New York. [Ihave no idea why O’C thinks this is important enough to take up 4pages].

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