The history of the USA

To understand each US government's motives to get involved in many regions throughout the world, it is worth having a look at the culture of this most fascinating and at the same time most controversial country. However, that probably only works if you know the history. That's why we would like to give those of you who are interested in the history of the US a brief overview of the country's short but eventful history.

When it all began Around 1000 AD a group of Icelandic Vikings under the leadership of Leif Ericson sailed up to the East Coast of North America. The called the place where they landed Vinland. Remains of a Viking settlement have been found in the Canadian province of Newfoundland. The Vikings may also have been to Nova Scotia and New England, but they didn't settle there and soon lost connection to the new continent. Five hundred years later, the necessity to expand trade and a navigational error led to another meeting between Europe and America. In the late 15th century, the demand for spices, fabrics and dyes from Asia was high. Christopher Columbus, an Italian seaman, was of the mistaken belief that he could reach the Far East if he sailed 6,400 kilometers West from Europe. In 1492 he talked the Spanish royal couple into financing this trip. Columbus went West, but it instead of Asia he landed on an island of the Bahamas in the Caribbean.

Columbus explored a large part of the Caribbean. He never reached the Far East, though, but he returned home with some gold and within 40 years, Spanish treasure seekers conquered a large part of South and Central America. Some of the earliest North American settlements had been founded by Spaniards - St. Augustine in Florida (1565), Santa Fe in New Mexico (1609), and San Diego in California (1769). Originally, the Europeans came to the new world to seek treasure. When Columbus and later Spanish explorers returned with stories of rich gold deposits in the Americas, the European sovereigns hurried to claim as many territory in the new world as possible - together with all the riches that could be extracted from it. These claims could only be enforced with the help of settlements in the regions. This necessity in combination with the Spanish priests' enthusiasm to convert the native Americans to Christianity, the need for people of other political and religious beliefs for a refuge outside their home country, and some people's thirst for adventure strengthened the attempts to establish colonies.

English settlements The first successful English settlement in America was founded in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. It was financed by a London company that was hoping for a profit - that never came. Of the first 105 colonists, 73 died of hunger and disease within the first seven months of arrival. However, the colony remained, finally started growing and became wealthy. The people of Virginia found out that there was money to be made with growing tobacco that they started shipping to England in 1614. In New England, the northeastern part of the present day US, English Puritans established a number of settlements. They were of the opinion that the Anglican church had taken over too many customs of the Roman-Catholic church. They came to America to flee from the persecution in the home country and establish a settlement according to their own religious ideas. A group of Puritans, called Pilgrims, crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. A considerably bigger Puritan settlement was established near present day Boston in 1630. In 1635 already some settlers starting moving on into the area of present day Connecticut.

Over the years, more and more settlers from other countries started arriving in the British colonies of North America. German peasants settled in Pennsylvania, Swedes founded the colony of Delaware, and in 1619, African slaves arrived in Virginia for the first time. In 1626, Dutch settlers bought Manhattan island off the American natives and built the city of New Amsterdam. It was conquered by the British in 1664 and renamed to New York.

Colonial period To the foreign visitor, America never seemed as just one uniform culture but rather as a mixture of different cultures. This mix of contradictory traditions was observable in the colonial period already. The narrow-minded idealism of Massachusetts was right next to the tolerant idealism of Pennsylvania and the practical, commercial agriculture of Virginia. Most American colonists worked on small farms. In the southern colonies of Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina, land owners set up large tobacco and rice plantations in the river valleys. Africans worked there, the system of slavery developed slowly from 1619 on. English people worked there to, they had bound themselves to this as compensation for free passage across the Atlantic. By 1770, several small but steadily growing urban centers had evolved, with newspapers, shops, salesmen and craftspeople. Philadelphia was the biggest city with a population of 28,000, followed by New York, Boston and Charleston, South Carolina. Unlike other countries, the US never had a feudal aristocracy. In colonial America, there was land in abundance and never enough workers.

Between 1689 and 1815, there were a number of wars between France and Britain, and North America was drawn into every one of them. Until 1756, England and France were involved in the seven-year war, known in America as the French and Indian War. British Prime Minister William Pitt invested soldiers and money in North America and got himself an empire. British troops conquered the Canadian settlements Louisburg (1758), Quebec (1759), and Montreal (1769). With the peace of Paris of 1763, Britain got Canada and all of North America that was East of the Mississippi. Britain's victory led to a conflict with its American colonies. To avoid fights with the native Americans that the Europeans called "Indians," a royal declaration forbade the settlers to settle West of the Appalachian Mountains. The British government started punishing smugglers and introduced new taxes on sugar, coffee, fabrics, and other imports. The Quartering Act forced the colonists to house and feed British soldiers. After the introduction of the Stamp Act, special tax stamps had to be attached to all newspapers, brochures, legal documents and licenses. The British politicians found these measures to be justified, since they had raised a lot of money to defend the American colonies during and after the French and Indian War. Their argument was that the colonists should carry part of these costs. But the Americans feared that the new taxes would impair their trade and that the British soldiers who were stationed in the country would destroy the civil liberties they had been enjoying so far. They worried for no reason, but these fears were the first signs of traditions that are rooted in American politics by now.

Americans mistrust the power of great governments, and after all, millions of people came to the country to escape political persecution. Americans have always insisted upon a certain level of control over the taxes raised by their government. As freeborn English, the Americans insisted that only their own colonial assemblies could raise taxes for them. They referred to the principle "no taxation without representation." In 1765, representatives of the colonies met as "Stamp Act Congress" and turned against this new tax. Salesmen refused to sell English goods, mobs threatened the people distributing the tax stamps and most colonists simply refused to use the stamps. The British parliament had to revoke the Stamp Act, but it kept the Quartering Act, raised taxes on tea and other goods and sent customs officers to Boston to collect customs duty. The American colonists again refused to play along and British soldiers were sent to Boston.

The tensions eased a little when the new British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord North, lifted the new taxes, with the exception of the tea tax. That's why a group of patriots organized the so-called "Boston Tea Party" in 1773 - dressed up as Indians they sneaked on board the British ships and threw 342 boxes of tea over board. As a consequence, the British Parliament introduced the Intolerable Acts. The independence of Massachusetts' colonial government was greatly limited and additional British troops were sent to the port of Boston, which was now closed for sea trade. The first continental congress met in 1774. Leading persons of the colonies who were turning against British repression in the colonies, met in Philadelphia. They called upon the Americans to ignore the Intolerance Acts and boycott British trade. The colonists started organizing militias and collecting weapons and ammunition.

Revolution On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers were marching from Boston in the direction of nearby Concord. By robbing a colonial weapons storage they were supposed to prevent a rebellion. Near Lexington, they were confronted by 70 people of the colonial militia. Someone, no one really knows who, fired a shot and the American War of Independence had begun. The British were quick to conquer Lexington and Concord, but when they returned to Boston they were being confronted with hundreds of volunteers from Massachusetts. By June, 10,000 Americans had joined the siege of Boston and in March 1776 the British had to evacuate the city. In May 1775 a second continental congress met in Philadelphia and slowly took over the role of a national government. A continental army and navy was founded under the command of George Washington, a plantation owner from Virginia and veteran of the French and Indian Wars. Bank notes were being printed and diplomatic relations with other countries established. On July 2, 1776, Congress decided "that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States." Thomas Jefferson from Virginia, together with a few others, wrote this Declaration of Independence that was passed by Congress on July 4, 1776.

This declaration was an open justification of the American Revolution, and included a longer list with complaints about the British King George III. It also explained - and that may be the most important part - the philosophy behind the revolution. That people have a right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," that governments can only reign with the "consent of the governed," and that any government that does not protect the people's rights can be overthrown. This political theory was originally from the British philosopher John Locke, and is a cornerstone of Anglo-Saxon political tradition. At the beginning, war was not going well for the Americans. In September of 1776 the British took over New York and Philadelphia fell one year later. Things started changing in October of 1777, when the British army under General John Burgyne surrendered in Saratoga, in northern New York. Encouraged by this victory, France seized the opportunity of humiliating its old enemy of Great Britain and signed a French-American alliance in February 1778. Despite low provisions and lack of sufficient training, the American troops fought well, but they would probably have lost the war if it hadn't been for the French financial support and support by the mighty French navy.

After 1778, the fights started moving in a southern direction. In 1781 the French navy and a French-American army under George Washington cut off 8,000 British soldiers under the command of General George Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis surrendered and shortly after that the British government suggested peace negotiations. The Peace of Paris signed in September 1783 recognized the United States' independence and granted the new nation all territories north of Florida, south of Canada and East of the Mississippi River.

Developing a constitution The 13 colonies were now free and independent states - but not yet a united nation. Since 1781 they had been governed by the "Articles of Confederation," a constitution that had only a very weak central government. The population had just rebelled against a parliament in far-away London and didn't want to replace it with a tyrannical government back home right away. The Articles of Confederation did not allow the Congress made up of representatives to pass laws or raise taxes. The was no federal justice system and no executive. The individual states were almost completely independent, they could even raise their own taxes.

In May 1787 some people came together in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. The delegates, among them George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, expanded the government and created a new and more practicable version. It established a stronger central government that had the right to raise taxes, establish diplomatic relations, keep armed forces and regulate foreign trade as well as the trade between the individual states. It established a Supreme Court and other federal courts, and a president was granted the power of the executive. The most important development, however, was the introduction of the principle of balance of power that should apply to the three government branches - executive, legislative and judicative. According to this principle, each of the three branches could control and balance the activities of the other branches. This guaranteed that no branch could assume dictatorial power. After numerous debates, the constitution was adopted in 1788. Since many Americans were afraid that a central government would not respect their liberties, ten amendments were added to the constitution in 1791 - the "Bill of Rights." This document guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of press, freedom of speech, the freedom to bear arms, protection from unreasonable search and seizure, the right to a fair trial by jury and protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

The new nation The first president of the United States, George Washington, governed the country in the style of the federalists. When peasants in Pennsylvania refused to pay the alcohol tax, Washington mobilized 15,000 men to put down the "Whiskey Rebellion." Under the leadership of his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, the federal government took over the debts of the individual states and set up the federal reserve. In 1797 another federalist, John Adams, was elected president, and in 1801 Republican Thomas Jefferson. In 1803, Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory from the French for $15 million. Now, the United States stretched as far as the Rocky Mountains. The Supreme Court as well established its authority. In 1803 Supreme Court Judge John Marshall decided that the court could overrule measures of Congress that were unconstitutional. With this, a basic principle of American constitutional law had been created. The highest authority for interpreting the constitution is the Supreme Court. If the judges rule a law to be unconstitutional, they can abolish it, even if it has been passed by Congress and signed by the president.

During the Napoleonic Wars, British and French warships harassed American merchant-ships. Jefferson prohibited American exports to Europe, but salesmen from New England protested, saying the embargo would ruin their trade. So Congress lifted the embargo in 1809. However, in 1812 war with Britain ensued over this under President James Madison. During the 1812 war the American warships had a few great victories, but the superior British navy blockaded American ports. American attempts to conquer Canada failed spectacularly and British troops took Washington, the new capital, and burned it down. In December of 1914 Britain and the US made peace. Neither side made any concessions.

The period of war was followed by quick economic growth in the US. A nationwide net of roads and waterways was built, steamboats traveled the rivers and in 1830, the first steam railway was opened in Baltimore, Maryland. The Industrial Revolution had reached America. There were spinning companies in New England and iron foundries in Pennsylvania. In the 1850s factories produced sewing machines, shoes, clothes, farming equipment, arms, watches, and rubber goods. The settlements expanded to the West down to the Mississippi, and then even beyond that. In 1828 Andrew Jackson was the first president from a poor family and born in the West, far away from the cultural traditions of the Atlantic coast. He broke the national bank's power that had controlled the economy and opened further areas for settlement. This was done by forcing Indian tribes to retreat to the areas West of the Mississippi.

Conflicts Over the optimistic sentiment of the Jackson era, a social discrepancy cast its cloud. Slavery - increasingly perceived as a social evil - would eventually divide the nation. The words in the declaration of independence - all men are created equal - didn't mean anything for 1.5 million slaves. Thomas Jefferson, slave holder himself, realized that the system was inhuman and already attacked it in his draft for the constitution, but delegates from the South insisted that the paragraphs were left out of the final version. The import of slaves was prohibited in 1808, and many Northern states abolished slavery. However, the southern economy was based on the big plantations, where slaves grew cotton, rice, tobacco and sugar. But even in some southern states there were groups of free blacks, who were working as craftspeople or salesmen. In 1820 politicians from the North and the South debated whether slavery should be allowed in the Western territories. Congress decided upon a compromise - slavery was to be allowed in the new state of Missouri and in the Arkansas territory, but prohibited in all other regions north and west of Missouri. However, the issue wasn't quite settled with this. Especially in the North, organizations were formed to abolish slavery, while the South defended slavery increasingly. The nation was also divided on the question of high customs duty that was protecting the industry in the North and raising prices in the South.

By now, thousands of Americans had settled in present day Texas that was still a part of Mexico back then. The Texans found the Mexican rule under General Santa Anna to be increasingly repressive, and in 1835 they rebelled. They defeated the Mexican army and founded the independent republic of Texas. In 1845, the United States integrated Texas. As a consequence, Mexico suspended all diplomatic relations. President James K. Polk ordered American troops into a disputed territory at the Mexican border. After a fight between Mexican and American soldiers in May 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico. In March 1847 the American army landed near Vera and in September they took Mexico City. In return for a $15 million payment, Mexico had to cede a huge area to the US - present day California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. In 1846 already the US had established their claim on the southern half of Oregon Country after a long dispute with the British part of Canada - present day Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The US grew into a continental power, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The integration of the new territories raised one question - was slavery to be allowed in the new territories? In 1850, Congress agreed to a further compromise. California was to be a free state, the citizens of Utah and New Mexico were to vote on this issue. Congress also passed the Fugitive Slave Act allowing the South to capture slaves who had escaped to the free Northern states. However, some Northern states did not enforce this law and opponents of slavery continued to help slaves escape. Harriet Beecher Stowe from Massachusetts wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," a sentimental but impressive novel against slavery that turned many readers into opponents of slavery. Over time, slavery became a central issue of American political, economic and cultural life.

In 1854 Senator Stephen Douglas from Illinois convinced Congress to let the citizens of Kansas and Nebraska vote in the issue of slavery in their states. With this, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was lifted. In Kansas, violent disputes ensued between opponents and supporters of slavery. In 1857, the Supreme Court decided that African-Americans had no civil rights and Congress didn't have the power to prohibit slavery in the Western territories (Dred Scott Decision). In the Senate elections of 1858, Abraham Lincoln ran against Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas from Illinois. In a series of historical debates with Douglas, Lincoln demanded to stop the spreading of slavery. He was willing to stop slavery in the Southern states, but at the same time he emphasized that "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half Slave and half Free."

Civil War Lincoln lost the elections for Senator, but he and Douglas were facing each other again in 1860 - this time as presidential candidates for the Democrats and Republicans. Tensions between the North and the South had been rising continuously. In 1859 the dedicated opponent of slavery John Brown had tried to organize a slave rebellion in Virginia by attacking an ammunition depot of the army. Brown was captured, sentenced and hanged quickly. For numerous people in the North he became a martyr. However, the whites in the South now believed that the Northerners were willing to lead a bloody war in order to end slavery. While Douglas tried to persuade the Southern Democrats to remain in the Union, they chose their own candidate and threatened to secede should the Republicans win. In all the Southern states and all the border states, the majority voted against Lincoln. But the North supported him and he won the elections. Some weeks later, South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina shortly after that. These eleven states declared themselves an independent nation - the Confederate States of America - and the American Civil War began.

The Southerners explained that they were not only fighting to maintain their system of slavery. After all, almost all Confederate soldiers were too poor to own slaves. The South declared to fighting for independence - a second American revolution. Usually, the Southern troops had the advantage of fighting on their own land and morale was good. They had excellent soldiers, cavalrymen and generals, but the Union's troops (North) were greater in numbers. The railways and industry of the South was not equipped for a modern war. Soon, the Union's navy was blockading the ports, leading to significant shortages of war materials and other goods in the Confederation. In order to lead the war, both sides suspended a number of civil rights, printed massive amounts of money and introduced the military draft. Lincoln had two priorities - keeping the US as one united country and abolishing slavery. He realized that he could win support at home and overseas b making the war a war against slavery. Accordingly, he published the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing all the salves in the regions that were still held by the Confederates.

At the beginning of the war, the Confederates did have a few victories, but in the summer of 1863 their commander General Robert E. Lee marched north to Pennsylvania. In Gettysburg he met the Union's troops and the biggest battle in American history followed. After two days, the Confederates had been defeated. At the same time, the Union's General Ulysses S. Grant took the strategically important city of Vicksburg on the Mississippi. Now, the Union troops controlled the entire Mississippi valley and divided the Confederation into two geographical parts. In 1864 the Union's army under General William T. Sherman marched through Georgia and left behind scorched earth. In the meantime, General Grant had not ceased fighting Lee's troops. On April 2, 1865 Lee had to give up the city of Richmond, the Confederation's capital. One week later he surrendered to Grant in the court building of Appomattox, all other Confederate units did the same. On April 14, Lincoln was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth. The Civil War was the most traumatic chapter in the United States' history. Even today, the scars have not yet disappeared. All later wars the US participated in would be fought outside their own country, but this conflict destroyed the South and put the entire region under military rule. In this war, America lost more soldiers than in any other - the total number of deaths was 635,000.

The war solved two basic issues that had been dividing the US since 1776. It ended slavery, with the 13th amendment in 1865. And it was established that America was not a collection of small half-independent states, but one big indivisible nation.