An Outline of American History

1. Discovery of North America and New England Settlements

Christopher Columbus, a mariner from Italy, mistakenly believed that he could
reach the Far East by sailing 4,000 miles west from Europe.
The Spanish also established some of the earliest settlements in North America St.
Augustine in Florida (1565), Santa Fe in New Mexico (1609) and San Diego in
California (1769).
One group of Puritans, called the “Pilgrims”, crossed the Atlantic in the ship
Mayflower and settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. A much larger
Puritan colony was established in the Boston area in 1630. By 1635, some settlers
were already migrating to nearby Connecticut.
The colonies of Maryland, settled in 1634 as a refuge for Roman Catholics, and
Pennsylvania, founded in 1681 by the Quaker leader William Penn, were also
characterized by religious toleration.
2. Colonial era
By 1733, English settlers had occupied 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast,
from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south. The French controlled
Canada and Louisiana, the territory included the entire Mississippi watershed – a
vast empire with few people.
The Quartering Act forced the colonies to house and feed British soldiers: and with
the passage of the Stamp Act, special tax stamps had to be attached to all
newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents and licenses.
In 1773, a group of patriots responded to the tea tax by staging the “Boston Tea
Party”.
3. The War of Independence (American Revolution)
On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched from Boston to forestall a
rebellion of the colonists by capturing a colonial arms depot in the nearby town of
Concord. At the village of Lexington, they confronted 70 militiamen.
In May 1775, a second Continental Congress had met in Philadelphia and began
to assume the functions of a national government. It founded a Continental Army
and Navy under the command of George Washington, a Virginia planter and
veteran of the French and Indian War.
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, assisted by others, drafted a Declaration of
Independence, which the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776.
Most importantly , it explained the philosophy behind the revolution – that men
have a natural right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”; that
governments can rule only with “the consent of the governed”; that any
government may be dissolved when it fails to protect the rights of the people.
A Franco-American alliance was signed in February 1778.
The Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, recognized the independence of
the United States and granted the new nation all the territory north of Florida,
south of Canada and east of the Mississippi River.
4. Devising a Constitution
The 13 colonies were now “free and independent states” – but not yet one united
nation. Since 1781, they had been governed by the Articles of Confederation.
It established the principle of a “balance of power” to be maintained among the
three branches of government – the executive, the legislative and the judicial.
The Constitution was accepted in 1788.
In 1791, 10 amendments – the Bill of Rights – were added to the Constitution.
The Federalists favored a strong president and central government.
The Democratic Republicans defended the rights of the individual states, because
this seemed to guarantee more “local” control and accountability.
In 1812 a war started between England and America.
5. Civil War
Congress agreed on a compromise: Slavery was permitted in the new state of
Missouri and the Arkansas territory, and it was barred everywhere west and
north of Missouri.
In 1845, the United States annexed Texas, and Mexico suspended diplomatic
relations. President James Knox Polk ordered American troops into disputed
territory on the Texas border.
An American army landed near Vera in March 1847 and captured Mexico City in
September. In return for $ 15 million, Mexico was forced to surrender an
enormous expanse of territory – most of what is today California, Arizona,
Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.
Congress also passed the Fugitive Slave Act.
Harriet Beecher Stowe of Massachusetts wrote Uncle Tom`s Cabin.
In 1858 Lincoln demanded a halt to the spread of slavery.
By 1860 the tension between North and South was extreme.
In 1860 Lincoln ran for presidential elections.
A few weeks later, South Carolina voted to leave the Union. It was soon joined by
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas,
Tennessee and North Carolina. These 11 states proclaimed themselves an
independent nation – the Confederate States of America – and the American
Civil War began.
Lincoln's two priorities were to keep the United States one country and to rid
the nation of slavery.
On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
On April 14, Lincoln was assassinated by the actor John Wilkes Booth.
6. America of 1865-1914
There was racial segregation in schools, hospitals.
America began its policy of territorial expansion.
And only in April 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to Declare war on
Germany, which belonged to the Triple Alliance, and became a member of the
Entente.
7. Great Depression
On October 24, 1929 – “Black Thursday” – a wave of panic selling of stocks
swept the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
In 1932, he approved the creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation,
which lent money to troubled banks.
In the 1932 election, he was resoundingly defeated by Democrat Franklin D.
Roosevelt, who promised “a New Deal for the American people”.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put young men to work in reforestation
and flood control projects.
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) aided state and local
relief funds, which had been exhausted by the Depression. The Agricultural
Adjustment Administration paid farmers to reduce production, thus raising crop
prices.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built a network of dams in the
Tennessee River area, in the southeastern region of the United States, to generate
electricity, control floods and manufacture fertilizer.
And the National Recovery Administration (NRA) regulated “fair competition”
among businesses and ensured bargaining rights and minimum wages for workers.
In 1935, the Social Security Act established contributory old-age and survivors`
pensions, as well as a joint federal-state program of unemployment insurance.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was one of the most effective of the
New Deal measures, probably because it was based on the belief, originating with
the Puritans and almost universally accepted among later Americans, that working
for one`s livelihood is honorable and dignified, but receiving help which one
doesn`t earn – “charity” – is demeaning and robs people of their independence and
their sense of self worth.
8. World War II
In September 1939, war erupted in Europe.
On December 7, 1941, carrier-based Japanese bombers struck at Pearl Harbor
naval base in Hawaii.
In an atmosphere of war hysteria, 110,000 Japanese-Americans living in
America`s western states were forced into relocation camps.
In the hope of bringing the war to a swift end, President Harry Truman ordered
the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August
9).
9. Cold War
In 1947 Germany and Berlin were divided in two – a western zone under
American, British and French occupation, and an eastern zone under Soviet
domination.
In 1949 the United States allied with Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Portugal to
form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
That same year, Americans were jolted to learn that Soviet Union had launched
Sputnik, the Earth`s first man-made satellite.
In the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr. led a nonviolent campaign to desegregate
southern restaurants, interstate buses, theaters and hotels.
In 1963 Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas,Texas.
10. Vietnam War
After the French withdrew from Southeast Asia in 1954, President Dwight David
Eisenhower dispatched American advisers and aid to help set up a democratic,
pro-Western government in South Vietnam.
King`s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, triggered race riots in
over 100 cities.
The voters narrowly elected Republican Richard Nixon pursued a policy of
“Vietnamization”, (the U.S. policy of withdrawing its troops and transferring the
responsibility and direction of the war effort to the government of South
Vietnam) gradually replacing American soldiers with Vietnamese.
11. Time of changes
President Nixon re-established formal relations with the People`s Republic of
China and negotiated the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) with
the Soviet Union.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had been
increasing the cost of oil since 1973, and those increases fueled a general rise in
prices.
Carter`s greatest success was the negotiating of the Camp David Accord between
Israel and Egypt, which led to an historic peace treaty between the two nations.
In the presidential race of 1980, American voters elected Ronald Reagan, a
conservative Republican and former governor of California.
The United States confronted an insurgency in El Salvador, and the Sandinista
regime in Nicaragua.
In December,1987, the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which provided for the elimination of
ballistic missiles.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), commonly known as the “star wars”
ballistic missile defense system.
By late 1988 the U.S. successfully launched a redesigned space shuttle
Discovery.