History of the USA – maturitní otázka (2)

 

  Otázka: History of the USA

  Jazyk: Angličtina

  Přidal(a): Annie

 

 

First settlers: Indians

Around 1000 AD: Vikings reached Newfoundland (Leif Erikson)

 

Christopher Columbus

• Italian sailoe in service of Spain
• He was supposed to find a way to India
• 1492: Columbus landed at the coast of North America but he believed it was India
• The local people were called Indians
• Three ships: Niña, Pinta and San Marina

 

Amerigo Vespucci

• Italian sailor who explored the coast of South America (Brazil)
• The new continent was named after him

 

First English colony (1607)

• The first English colony was called Virginia (after Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen,)
• Jamestown

 

Pilgrim Fathers

• 1620: a group of English Puritans in ship Mayflower landed on the north-east coast
• They escaped from England because of religious persecution
• Founded a colony called Plymouth
• During the first winter half of them died
• 1621: in November they celebrated good harvest, celebration was called Thanksgiving
• Thanksgiving Day (4^th Thursday in November)

 

Boston Tea Party (1773)

• Colonies were developing quickly and became economically strong
• British government imposed duties on imported goods (sugar, coffee, tea,)
• Colonists were angry with the taxis
• They couldn’t defend themselves because they had no representatives in the British parliament
• A group of Massachusetts colonists, dressed as Indians, threw a tea from British ship to the sea
• The beginning of the War of Independence

 

War of Independence (1775–1783)

• Conflict between Britain and the American colonists
• 1775: 2^nd Continental Congress in Philadelphia
• Colonists set up the army, their leader was George Washington (with France)
• July 4^th, 1776: Declaration of Independence (written by Thomas Jefferson) was signed
• Colonists declared themselves independent
• United States of America was established
• 1781: war ended when Washington with help of France defeated Britain at Yorktown
• Loyalist (supported Britain)
• Patriots / Revolutionaries (supported colonists)
  • Conservatives (Washington)
  • Progressives (Jefferson)
• 1783: Britain recognized the United States

 

The Constitution

• 1788: the American Constitution was adopted
• 1789: George Washington was elected the first president of the USA

 

19^th Century

• Turning point in the flow of migration – more than a million new settlers from Europe (majority from England, Scotland, Ireland and Germany)

 

Civil War (1861–1865)

• In the North the industry was developing rapidly
• In the agricultural South there was a slave system
• The first Negroes came to America and became slaves in the south colonies
• Slaves worked on plantains or served in a house
• Disagreement on the slavery question led to Civil War
• Lasted from 1861 to 1865, resulting in a victory for the North
• 1863: President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (set the slaves free)

 

Reconstruction period after the Civil War

• USA were becoming economically stronger and became the world’s leading industrial power
• The black people were given the right to vote and many were elected to the Congress
• 1886: Ku-Klux-Klan was founded
  • Secret organization as an instrument of terror against the black people

 

World War I (1914–1918)

• Allies (Britain, France, Russia) against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria)
• The USA was helping and supporting Allies but didn’t want to enter the war
• 1917: the USA entered the war and helped Britain and France
• 1918: a peace was negotiated and the Versailles Treaty ended the war the year after

 

The Roaring Twenties

• Period of economic prosperity after WWI

 

Wall Street crash

• October 24^th 1929: Wall street crash (known as Black Thursday)
  • Crash of the New York important stock market
• Years of prosperity ended and Great Depression started
  • Caused by overproduction of goods
  • Unemployment and poverty
  • Lasted till the beginning of WW II
  • Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced series of programs called New Deal (economic reforms)

 

World War II (1939–1945)

• 1939: War started in September when Poland was attacked by Germany
• 7^th December 1941: Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour (the main base of American navy)
• Day after this attack the USA entered the war
• USA defeated the Japanese in The Battle of Midway
• 6^th June 1944: Allies invaded Normandy (operation OVERLOD, General Eisenhower)
  • The defeat of Hitler and victory over Japan
• August 1945: President Truman ordered to drop of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima
• After that Japan surrendered and the war officially ended
• 1945: The United Nations Organization (the UNO) was founded

 

Post-war period

• In 1945 the USA was the strongest country in the world
  • It’s money and atomic bombs became dangerous for Soviet Union

 

The Cold War

• Tension between the democratic West (USA) and communistic East (Soviet Union)
• 1449: the birth of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• The Korean War (1950–1953)
• The Vietnam War (1965–1973)
• Testing new nuclear weapons
• The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
• The space race
• Economic expansion of the US (scientific, medical, and technological achievements)
• Cold war ended in 1989 with the collapse of communism

 

21^st Century

• Fighting the terrorism
  • 11^th September 2001: radical Islamite terrorist attacked New York and the Pentagon
  • World Trade Centre destruction
• Firs African-American President of the USA: Barack Obama (2009–2017)