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 (4th 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: 2nd Continental Congress in Philadelphia
- Colonists set up the army, their leader was George Washington (with France)
- July 4th, 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
19th 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 24th 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
- 7th 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
- 6th 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
21st Century
- Fighting the terrorism
- 11th 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)
