CEX 10
The Making of the
USA through
Landmarks,
Cultural Artefacts
and Historical
Figures
Historical Timeline
USA HISTORY: A TIMELINE
First English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now the state
1585
Carolina. Known as the “Lost Colony”
1607 Jamestown, Virginia, founded by English settlers, who begin growing tobacco
Plymouth Colony, near Cape Cod, is founded by the Pilgrim Fathers, whose example
1620
is followed by other English Puritans in New England.
Hundreds of thousands of Africans brought over and sold into slavery to work on
17th-18th c.
cotton and tobacco plantations.
Britain gains control of territory up to the Mississippi river following victory over
1763
France in Seven Years' War
American Revolution: George Washington leads colonist Continental Army to fight
1775
against British rule.
4 July - Thomas Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence endorsed by
1776
Congress; colonies declare independence.
1789 George Washington elected first president of USA.
1803 France sells Louisiana territories to USA.
1808 Atlantic slave trade abolished.
1830 Indian Removal Act
1838 Trail of Tears: Native Americans driven from their homelands
Residual resistance by indigenous people crushed as immigration from Europe
19th c. assumes mass proportions, with settlers moving westwards and claiming "manifest
destiny" to control North America; number of states in the union rises from 17 to 45.
USA HISTORY: A TIMELINE
1854 Opponents of slavery, or abolitionists, set up Republican Party.
1860 Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln elected president.
Eleven pro-slavery southern states secede from Union and form Confederate
1860-61 States of America under leadership of Jefferson Davis, triggering civil war with
abolitionist northern states.
Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Confederate states
1863
to be free.
Confederates defeated; slavery abolished under Thirteenth Amendment. Lincoln is
1865
assassinated.
1890 US troops defeat Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee.
1917-18 US intervenes in World War I, rejects membership of League of Nations.
1924 Congress gives indigenous people right to citizenship.
13 million people become unemployed after the Wall Street stock market crash of
1929-33 1929 triggers what becomes known as the Great Depression. President Herbert
Hoover rejects direct federal relief.
President Franklin D Roosevelt launches "New Deal" recovery programme which
1933
includes major public works.
Japanese warplanes attack US fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii; US declares war
1941 on Japan; Germany declares war on US, which thereafter intervenes on a massive
scale in World War II, eventually helping to defeat Germany
1945 US drops two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders.
USA HISTORY: A TIMELINE
1947 US enunciates policy of aid for nations it deems threatened by communism
in what became known as the Truman Doctrine. Cold War with Soviet Union
begins.
America's programme to revive ailing post-war European economies - the
1948 Marshall Plan - comes into force. Some $13bn is disbursed over four years
and the plan is regarded as a success.
Racial segregation in schools becomes unconstitutional; start of campaign of
1954
civil disobedience to secure civil rights for Americans of African descent.
1964 US steps up its military intervention in Vietnam.
Civil Rights Act signed into law; it aims to halt discrimination on grounds of
1964
race, colour, religion, nationality.
1968 Black civil rights leader Martin Luther King assassinated.
Vietnam ceasefire agreement signed. The campaign had claimed some
1973
58,000 American lives.
11 September - Co-ordinated suicide attacks on various high-profile targets,
2001 prompting the US to embark on a ''war on terror'' which includes the invasion
of Afghanistan and Iraq.
October - USA Patriot Act approved by the Senate, giving the government
2011 greater powers to detain suspected terrorists, eavesdrop on communications
and counter money-laundering.
USA HISTORY: A TIMELINE
2003 March - Missile attacks on Baghdad mark the start of a US-led campaign to
topple the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. US forces advance into central
Baghdad in early April.
July - Senate report says US and allies went to war in Iraq on "flawed"
2004 information. Independent report into 11 September 2001 attacks highlights deep
institutional failings in intelligence services and government.
April-May - Millions of immigrants and their supporters take to the streets to
2006
protest against plans to criminalise illegal immigrants.
November - Democratic Senator Barack Obama becomes the first black
2008
president of the United States.
First "Tea Party" rally held in protest at Obama administration's plans to bail out
2009 banks and introduce healthcare reform. The populist and libertarian movement
acts as focus for conservative opposition to the president's reform plans.
May - US forces kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in an operation in the
2011
Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
September - Anti-capitalist protesters take to the streets of major cities, marching
2011 under the slogan "Occupy Wall Street", against "corporate greed" and increasing
government debt. The protests inspire marches in other cities worldwide.
The US town of Ferguson has seen rioting and looting after a jury decided not to
2014 bring charges over the killing of Michael Brown, a black teenager, shot by a
white police officer on 9 August.
EARLY SETTLEMENT
• In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and
Wampanoag Indians shared an
autumn harvest feast.
• For the next few centuries individual
colonies and states celebrated In present-day USA, Thanksgiving
thanksgiving days. is held on the last Thursday of
• In 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed November.
Thanksgiving a national holiday, to be One of its iconic depictions is
held in November. Norman Rockwell’s ‘Freedom from
Want’ (Saturday Evening Post, 6
March 1943)
COLONIAL LIFE
By 1733 the English owned 13 separate
colonies along the Atlantic coast.
1. New England group: most were small
farmers or craftsmen, others depended
on trade. Ex: Boston grew into a busy
port.
2. The Middle colonies: many had
German, Swedish or Dutch ancestors.
Most lived by farming. In big cities such
as Philadelphia and New York there
were a growing number of merchants.
By 1770 Philadelphia was the largest
New England: New Hampshire, city in America, with 28,000 inhabitants.
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
Connecticut. 3. Southern colonies: wealthy
Middle colonies: New York, landowners farmed large plantations of
Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware. tobacco and cotton. Their prosperity
Southern colonies: Virginia, North depended on slavery.
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia
SEEDS FOR REVOLUTION
In 1763, victory in the Seven Years’ War gave
Britain control over most of North America. But
it had also removed the colonists’ fear of
France. British protection now was
unnecessary.
Britain’s attempts to assert its sovereignty and
impose taxes on the Thirteen Colonies created
increasing discontent.
In 1795 the British Parliament passed the
Stamp Act: colonists had to buy special tax
stamps and attach them to newspapers,
licenses, and legal papers.
The “Stamp Act Congress” met in New York
with representatives from 9 colonies. The
British Parliament withdrew the Act.
In 1767 new taxes were placed on tea, paper,
paint and other imported goods.
1770: Boston Massacre. British soldiers killed
Boston Massacre 1770:
five civilians. Anti-British feeling intensified. All Samuel Adams “No taxation
duties removed except for tea. without representation”
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY, 1773
Tensions culminated in the Boston Tea
Party (16 December 1773).
Britain’s responded by passing a set of
laws to punish Massachusetts: the so-
called “Intolerable Acts”.
Powers of the colonial assembly of
Massachusetts were reduced.
Boston harbour was closed.
In 1774 the first Continental
Congress, at Carpenter’s Hall,
Philadelphia, was formed to oppose
British oppression.
The Continental Congress encouraged
Americans to support the people of
Massachusetts and boycott British
products.
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
IN MODERN AMERICAN CULTURE
The patriotic rhetoric associated with the 1773 episode has
been recently appropriated by the Conservative Tea Party.
Its mission statement claims to ‘return our country to the The Tea Party and
Constitutional principles that have made America the Obamacare
“shining city on a hill.”’
Members of the Tea Party claim links with the ‘Founding
Fathers’ mainly through their opposition to taxation,
particularly related to Obamacare.
They have recently opposed the Iran Nuclear Deal, and
been associated with Donald Trump’s campaign to
become the next Republican candidate.
FROM COLONIES TO
STATES, 1773-87
1775: War begins. Second Continental
Congress convenes.
It cuts political ties with Britain and declares
the colonies “free and independent states”
1776: 4 July: The Second Continental
Congress issues the American Declaration
of Independence, written by Thomas
Jefferson.
1781: (1 March) the Congress ratifies the
Articles of Confederation, prelude to the
American Constitution.
1787: Proclamation of the US Constitution.
THE ICONS OF A NATION
In 1812 war broke out between Britain and the new United States. Britain
wanted to force American soldiers to help fight against Napoleon; the US
wanted to extend into Canada.
The war ended in December 1814 with no clear winner, but it was regarded by
the Americans as a second war of independence, and gave rise to some of
the most iconic symbols of American patriotism.
Uncle Sam, the personification of the United
States, was originally Samuel Wilson, a The Star Spangled Banner, the
butcher who supplied meat to the American US national anthem, written by
Francis Scott Key in 1814.
soldiers.
WESTWARD EXPANSION
1783-1898
The Trail of
Tears at the
National
Park
Service
After 1783 there were years of growth and expansionism as more people set off for
the new territories between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River
(Treaty of Paris).
Tensions with Native Americans grew and the American government’s Initial policies
of peace-making treaties were soon abandoned.
In 1830 The Indian Removal Act was passed.
WESTWARD EXPANSION
Like the Massachusetts Puritans who hoped to build a "city upon a hill”,
nineteenth-century pioneers believed that America had a divine obligation
to stretch the boundaries of their noble republic to the Pacific Ocean. In
1845 newspaper editor John O’Sullivan coined the phrase ‘manifest
destiny’ to describe this mindset.
NORTH AND SOUTH
The Declaration of Independence stated that
“all men are created equal”. Yet, in 1810
there were 1.2 million slaves in the USA.
In 1808 the Atlantic slave trade had been
abolished.
Some people in the north opposed slavery
on religious and moral grounds.
As the country spread West and new states
were created, there were continuous
controversies whether slavery should be
allowed in the new territories.
In 1850 California was admitted as a free
state while Utah and New Mexico were
given the right to decide whether or not they
would allow slavery.
In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act
established the same conditions for these
two territories. Pro-slavery Missourians
began to pour into Kansas.
1861-5: THE CIVIL WAR
By the mid-century there were important cultural,
political and economic differences between
Northern and Southern states.
Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in 1860
moved many Southern states to secede from the
Union.
The American Civil War began on 12 April 1861,
between the Confederacy of southern states and
the northern Union.
On 1 January 1863, while the war was still in
progress, Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation and abolished
slavery.
The bloodiest battle of the war was Gettysburg, 1-
3 July 1863. About 50,000 casualties, at least
8,000 deaths.
At the dedication of the National Cemetery on 19
November, Lincoln delivered his emblematic
Gettysburg Address.
The war ended on 9 April 1865 with the North’s
victory.
IMMIGRATION, RAILROADS
AND THE WEST
Westward expansion was closely related to
the expansion of the railroads, and to new
immigration waves. Immigrants were not
only integral to the construction of the
transcontinental railroads that facilitated
western expansion, but they also used the
railroad to migrate west and to form new
immigrant settlements in western states and
territories.
The construction of the first American
transcontinental railroad was made
possible by Chinese and Irish
immigrants. The former were brought
in by the Central Pacific, whereas the
latter, many of them veterans from the
Civil War, were hired by the Union
Pacific.
WAVES OF MIGRATION
• Second Immigration Wave, c. 1820-1870:
Mostly Irish (fleeing the Great Famine) and
Germans. Also Chinese when gold was
discovered in California in 1848. The point of
entry was Castle Garden, New York.
• Third Immigration Wave, 1881-1920: ‘New’
immigrants from Europe, encountered greater
hostility than previous waves, especially Jewish
immigrants, Roman Catholics, and Japanese.
New point of entry was Ellis Island. New
immigrants were greeted by the Statue of
Liberty, dedicated in 1886.
• Fourth Immigration Wave, After 1965: Most
new immigrants, both legal and illegal, are
Hispanics from Mexico, the Caribbean, and
Central America. Between 1990 and 2000, the
Hispanic population of the United States
increased 63 percent—from 22.4 million to 35.3
million residents.
THE EMERGENCE OF A
SUPERPOWER
• By 1900 the US dominated the new industrial
world, based on oil and electricity.
• At the end of the 1920s, the United States was
the largest economy in the world.
• With the destruction wrought by World War I,
Europeans struggled while Americans flourished.
• “The Roaring Twenties” roared on jazz and gin.
• The US became the first nation to build its way of
life on selling vast quantities of goods that gave
ordinary people easier and more enjoyable lives.
• People had money to spend on consumer goods
such as ready-to-wear clothes and home
appliances like electric refrigerators
• The most important consumer product of the
1920s was the automobile.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND
ROOSEVELT’S NEW DEAL
• The stock market crash of 1929 plunged the United States into a deep
economic crisis, known as The Great Depression.
• In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt became President: “I pledge you, I pledge
myself, to a new deal for the American people”
• Roosevelt summarized the New Deal as a "use of the authority of
government as an organized form of self-help for all classes and groups
and sections of our country.“
• Government organizations, called “agencies” were set up to help the
nation recover.
• During the 1930s, the combination of the Great Depression and the memory of
World War I contributed to pushing the United States towards isolationism.
Isolationists advocated non-entanglement in international politics.
• However, on 7 December 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, near
Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the
attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.
• The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to
declare war on Japan.
“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America
was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan”
THE AMERICAN CENTURY
• On 6 August 1945 an American B-29 bomber
dropped the world’s first deployed atomic
bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city
and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of
thousands more would later die of radiation
exposure.
• The defeat of Germany and Japan in the
Second World War, and the development of
nuclear weapons, elevated the US to the
category of superpower, in direct competition
with the USSR.
• The phrase ‘American Century’ was coined
by Henry Luce, editor of Time magazine, in
1941 to describe what he saw as the future
role of the US in the world.
A SUPERPOWER IN CRISIS:
VIETNAM
After the end of French colonial domination, Vietnam was
temporarily divided between an anti-Communist South
and a Communist North. In 1956, South Vietnam refused
to rejoin the Communist North. A reunification war
followed, with the US supporting the South.
Vietnam was the longest war in American history and the
most unpopular American war of the 20th century. It
resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and in an
estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths.
VIETNAM IN AMERICAN
CULTURE
Artist Maya Lin’s
explanation
Bruce Springsteen:
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in, 25 March
Born in the USA (1984)
1969
21ST CENTURY US: SHOCKS &
AFTERMATHS
