The history of the United States of America begins with the
settlement of the North American continent by humans around
15,000 BC. Gradually, numerous Indian cultures formed on the
continent. In 1492, Christopher Columbus visited the West Indies
and during his second voyage in 1493, he personally landed on
the island of Puerto Rico, after which the existence of America
became known in Europe. In 1498, John Cabot made a sea voyage to
the shores of modern-day New England, and in 1513, the Spanish
navigator Juan Ponce de Leon reached the shores of Florida. With
the arrival of Europeans, the colonial history of America began.
Most of the colonies were formed after 1600. The Spanish built
small settlements in Florida and the southwest, and the French
along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. By the 1770s,
the population of the thirteen British colonies along the
Atlantic coast east of the Appalachians was 2.5 million.
At the dawn of its independence in 1776, the United States
consisted of only thirteen provinces that were part of British
North America. After declaring independence in 1776, it had to
fight twice with Great Britain in the Revolutionary War and the
War of 1812. Under the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Great Britain
officially recognized the independence of the United States, but
continued to support allied Indian tribes resisting the U.S.
Army until the end of the Second Anglo-American War in 1815.
Immediately after the Revolutionary War, the United States
began to expand westward, supported by the American belief in
Manifest Destiny, according to which God had ordained the
existence of their nation in America from the Atlantic to the
Pacific Ocean. The main territory of the United States was
formed by 1912, when the last state, Arizona, was formed in its
continental part. By this time, the territory of the states of
Alaska and Hawaii also belonged to the United States, but they
were admitted to the Union as states in 1959.
The basis
of the US Constitution is the text approved in 1788, which
included the US Declaration of Independence. The highest
authority supporting constitutional law in the United States is
the Supreme Court. Subsequently, a number of amendments were
adopted to the basic law, which, in particular, prohibited
slavery (the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, 1865)
and granted women the right to vote (the Nineteenth Amendment,
1920). The prohibition of slavery was a painful process that
affected the interests of many citizens and vast regions of the
American South, which provoked the collapse of the state and the
civil war in 1861-1865. It was followed by a long period of
Reconstruction. Despite the prohibition of slavery, the results
of Reconstruction were a compromise, and until the mid-20th
century the United States remained a country where racial
segregation reigned.
After the Civil War, the United
States experienced rapid economic growth, an increase in the
standard of living, and an era of progressivism. It ended with
the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. The measures taken by
the government supported citizens who suffered during the
economic downturn, which became a new stage in the creation of a
welfare state in the United States. The recovery of the American
economy was facilitated by military orders from the government,
which increased sharply with the onset of World War II and then
the Cold War, which led to the transformation of the United
States into a world superpower.
According to one theory, the first people (Paleo-Indians) appeared in
America about 15 thousand years ago, having entered Alaska through the
frozen or shallow Bering Strait.
Paleogeneticists who studied the
genome of a girl who lived in the Tanana Valley in Alaska about 11.5
thousand years ago came to the conclusion that the ancestors of all
American Indians migrated in one wave from Chukotka to Alaska in the
late Pleistocene about 20-25 thousand years ago, before Beringia
disappeared about 20 thousand years ago. After that, the "ancient
Beringians" were isolated from Eurasia in America. Between 17 and 14
thousand years ago, they split into northern and southern groups of
Paleo-Indians, from which the peoples who populated North and South
America were formed.
According to the calculations of geneticist
Theodore Schurr from the University of Pennsylvania, carriers of
mitochondrial haplogroup B arrived in North America before 24 thousand
years ago. T. Schurr and S. Sherry believed that the migration of
carriers of mitochondrial haplogroups A, B, C and D preceded Clovis and
occurred 15-20 thousand years ago. The second migration associated with
the supposed carriers of mitochondrial haplogroup X from the Clovis
culture took place after the formation of the Mackenzie Corridor 14-13
thousand years ago.
Artifacts from the late Paleolithic Cooper's
Ferry site on the Salmon River (Columbia Basin), Idaho (mammal bone
fragments, burnt charcoal remains) have been dated to 15,280–16,560
years ago. Stone tools from Idaho are similar to the late Pleistocene
industry of Kamishirataki 2 in Hokkaido, Japan. This suggests that
humans initially migrated to the Americas along the Pacific coast, but
does not exclude subsequent human migrations at a later time through the
ice-free corridor (IFC) from Beringia to present-day Dakota that opened
between the Cordilleran and Laurentide continental ice sheets at the end
of the Pleistocene, as suggested by paleogenomics. According to some
estimates, Paleo-Indians appeared in Idaho in the 13th millennium BC,
since some of the most ancient arrowheads in the United States were
found in Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls.
DNA was sequenced
from coprolites of pre-Clovis people from Paisley Cave in Oregon, dating
back 14,290 to 12,750 years ago, and mitochondrial haplogroups A2 and B2
were determined. The Y-chromosomal haplogroup Q-L54*(xM3) and
mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a were determined for a representative of
the Clovis culture Anzick-1 from Montana, who lived 12.5 thousand years
ago. The ancient Beringians USR1 and USR2, who lived on the Rising Sun
River in the Tanana Valley in Alaska 11.5 thousand years ago, were found
to have the same mitochondrial haplogroups as the A2 and B2 haplogroups.
n., had mitochondrial haplogroups C1b and B2. A sample from the On Your
Knees cave on Prince of Wales Island (Alexander Archipelago in Alaska)
aged 9730-9880 years ago was determined to have mitochondrial haplogroup
D4h3a. The Kennewick Man from Washington state, who lived 9,300 years
ago, was found to have Y-chromosome group Q1a3a (M3) and mitochondrial
haplogroup X2a. The Kennewick Man, found in Washington state, who lived
9,300 years ago, was found to have Y-chromosome group Q1a3a (M3) and
mitochondrial haplogroup X2a. The 10,700-year-old mummy from Nevada's
Spirit Cave has been identified as having the Y-chromosomal haplogroup
Q1b1a1a1-M848.
About 10,000 years before the present, the glacier retreated, the sea level rose, the climate of America changed, and the megafauna became extinct. There is a Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, which suggests that the extinction of the megafauna is associated with the fall of a meteorite. Climate change forced humans to change their lifestyle, which became the transition from the Paleoindian period to the Archaic. People began to hunt smaller game, eat fish and shellfish. Tools became more diverse. The first burials with signs of violent death date back to this era. Around 4000 BC, the climate of North America became close to the modern one, humans began to lead a more sedentary lifestyle, and more and more traces of long-term settlements are found in the archaeological layers of that era. In the Great Lakes region at this time, native copper began to be used, from which knives and jewelry were made using the cold forging method. The Archaic Period lasted from 8000 BC to 1000, and was the longest historical period in North American history.
The Woodland Period in North American chronology is the period from
about 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in eastern North America. It begins at the end
of the Archaic Period and ends with the emergence of the Mississippian
culture. The Woodland Period is characterized by the slow development of
stone and bone tools, leather goods, textile production, land
cultivation, and shelter construction. Some Woodland peoples continued
to use spears and atlatls until the end of the period, when they were
replaced by bows and arrows.
The major technological achievement
of the Woodland Period was the widespread use of pottery, which emerged
in the late Archaic Period, and the increasing complexity of its forms
and ornamentation. The increasing spread of the agricultural way of life
also meant that nomadic tribes were replaced by permanent settlements,
although the final transition to an agricultural way of life for the
Indians occurred much later, with the Mississippian culture.
The Mississippian culture existed in the Midwest, East, and Southeast
of the modern United States from approximately 800 to 1600 CE, and had
great regional variations. It is characterized by the construction of
large earthworks, especially burial mounds. At this time, people lived
in large cities surrounded by suburbs, and these cities had trade links
with each other. Cahokia in what is now Illinois is considered the
largest of these cities.
The Mississippian culture originated in
the Mississippi River Valley, from which it got its name. From there it
spread up the tributaries of the Mississippi. People at this time ate
almost exclusively corn, social inequality and complex religious rituals
developed, and the so-called Southeastern Ceremonial Complex developed.
In the late phase of the period (1400-1500), the Mississippian culture
experienced a severe crisis, and many cities were abandoned (Cahokia was
abandoned before 1400). Conquistador Hernando de Soto still saw some
Mississippian cities during his voyage of 1541-1542, but French
explorers, when they discovered the Mississippi River in the 1680s, no
longer found any signs of this culture.
The "discovery of America" by Europeans, which changed the
historical destinies of the continent and all of humanity, was made in
October 1492 by Christopher Columbus at the head of a Spanish
expedition. Columbus, in particular, discovered the American Virgin
Islands and Puerto Rico (second expedition of 1493). In 1497-1498,
Captain J. Cabot reached the shores of New England, although the details
of that voyage are unknown. In 1513, the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce
de Leon discovered the Florida Peninsula, where the first permanent
European colony was founded in 1565, with the city of St. Augustine
founded.
In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine in the
French service, sailed from Cape Fear to Newfoundland and described the
coast. A year later, his journey was repeated by Estevan Gomes. In the
late 1530s, Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi and reached the
Arkansas River Valley. In 1540–41, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's
expedition to the Missouri River basin led to the discovery of the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado.
The Englishman Walter Raleigh proposed to
Queen Elizabeth to found a colony on the American coast, received
official permission to do so in 1584, and on July 2, 1584, reached the
American coast in the Outer Banks area. In June 1585, the first colony
was founded, which soon had to be evacuated. In the spring of 1586, the
Roanoke Colony was founded, which mysteriously disappeared a few years
later. But an exploration of the area around Roanoke Island showed that
this area was inconvenient for colonization, and a decision was made to
look for a more convenient coast further north, in the Chesapeake Bay
area.
In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the
Dutch East India Company, explored the coast of New England, visited New
York Bay, and sailed up the river that was named after him.
The first English settlement in America was founded in 1607 in
Virginia and was named Jamestown. The trading post, founded by crew
members of three English ships under the command of Captain Newport,
also served as a guard post on the Spanish advance into the interior of
the continent. In just a few years, Jamestown had become a prosperous
settlement thanks to the tobacco plantations established there in 1609.
By 1620, the population of the settlement was about 1,000 people.
European immigrants were attracted to America by the rich natural
resources of the distant continent, and its remoteness from European
religious dogmas and political preferences. The exodus to the New World
was financed primarily by private companies and individuals who received
income from the transportation of goods and people. In 1606, the London
and Plymouth Companies were formed in England, which began to develop
the northeastern coast of America. Many immigrants moved to the New
World with their entire families and communities at their own expense.
Despite the attractiveness of the new lands, the colonies experienced a
constant shortage of human resources.
On July 30, 1619, Virginia
Governor George Eardley first convened an elected Assembly for a 6-day
session in a church building in Jamestown. This was the first meeting of
a representative legislative body in the Americas. At the end of August
1619, a Dutch ship arrived in Virginia, bringing black Africans to
America, twenty of whom were bought by the colonists as slaves.
In December 1620, the ship "Mayflower" with 102 Puritan Calvinists
arrived on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts. This event is considered
the beginning of the purposeful colonization of the continent by the
English. They entered into an agreement between themselves, which became
known as the Mayflower Agreement. It reflected in its most general form
the ideas of the first American colonists about democracy,
self-government and civil liberties. Later, similar agreements were
concluded between the colonists of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode
Island. After 1630, at least a dozen small towns arose in Plymouth
Colony, the first colony of New England, which later became the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, where newly arriving English Puritans settled.
The immigration wave of 1630-1643 brought about 20 thousand people to
New England, and at least 45 thousand more settled in the colonies of
the American South or on the islands of Central America. Thirteen
Colonies
During the 75 years following the establishment of the first
English colony of Virginia in 1607, 12 more colonies emerged:
Plymouth Colony (1620) and Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628), which were
united in 1692 to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Province of
Maryland (1632)
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
(1636)
Colony of Connecticut (1636)
Province of New York (1665)
Province of New Jersey (1665)
Province of Carolina (1665), in 1712
divided into:
Province of North Carolina
Province of South
Carolina
Province of New Hampshire (1679)
Province of Pennsylvania
(1681)
Province of Georgia (1732)
The first colonists of North
America were not distinguished by either uniform religious beliefs or
equal social status. For example, shortly before 1775, at least a third
of the population of Pennsylvania were already Germans (Lutherans),
Mennonites, and representatives of other religious faiths and sects.
English Catholics settled in Maryland, French Huguenots settled in South
Carolina. Swedes settled Delaware, Polish, German and Italian artisans
preferred Virginia. Farmers recruited hired labor from among them. The
colonists often found themselves defenseless against Indian raids, one
of which in 1676 served as an impetus for an uprising in Virginia, known
as Bacon's Rebellion. The uprising ended inconclusively after Bacon's
unexpected death from malaria and the execution of 14 of his most active
comrades.
Beginning in the mid-17th century, Great Britain tried
to establish complete control over the economic operations of the
American colonies, implementing a scheme in which all industrial goods
(from metal buttons to fishing vessels) were imported by the colonies
from the mother country in exchange for raw materials and agricultural
goods. Under this scheme, English entrepreneurs, as well as the English
government, were extremely uninterested in developing industry in the
colonies, as well as in the colonies’ trade with anyone other than the
mother country.
Meanwhile, American industry (mainly in the
northern colonies) achieved significant success. American industrialists
were especially successful in building ships, which made it possible to
quickly establish trade with the West Indies and thereby find a market
for domestic manufacture.
The English Parliament considered these
successes so threatening that in 1750 it passed a law prohibiting the
construction of rolling mills and iron-cutting workshops in the
colonies. The colonies' foreign trade was also subject to oppression. In
1763, the Shipping Acts were passed, according to which goods were
allowed to be imported and exported from the American colonies only on
British ships. In addition, all goods destined for the colonies had to
be loaded in Great Britain, regardless of where they were being
transported from. In this way, the mother country tried to bring all
foreign trade of the colonies under its control. And this does not
include the many duties and taxes on goods that the colonists personally
imported home.
In 1753, the French began to penetrate into the Ohio River Valley. Virginia Governor Dinwiddie sent a diplomatic mission there, and then a small army, but it was defeated in the Battle of Fort Necessity. At the same time, the Albany Congress met, at which the colonies tried to unite in the face of the French threat, but the Albany plan for unification was not approved by the king. England decided to fight on its own and sent two infantry regiments to the colonies under the command of Edward Braddock. However, Braddock's expedition was unsuccessful. In the first stage of the war, the French won several victories, in particular, they defeated the British in the Battle of Fort Carillon, but Great Britain managed to turn the tide of the war: in 1758, Louisbourg fell, in the same year the French surrendered Fort Duquesne, and in September 1759, Quebec, the last French outpost in North America, fell. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was concluded, according to which France ceded all its possessions in America to England and Spain.
After the end of the French and Indian War, the British government of
Grenville left an army in the colonies, and to support it, in 1765,
Parliament introduced the Stamp Act in the American colonies. The
colonial assemblies were inclined to accept the tax, but it caused
protests among the people. Under threat of violence, the colonists
forced the distributors of stamps to resign from their positions.
Deputies of the provincial assemblies met at the Stamp Act Congress,
which petitioned the king to abolish the stamp tax. In the summer of
1765, the First Rockingham Government came to power, abolishing the
stamp tax, but simultaneously issued the Explanatory Act, which stated
that Parliament had the right to impose taxes in the colonies. In 1767,
Minister Charles Townshend managed to push through Parliament the
Townshend Acts, which imposed duties on a number of goods. In 1770, the
colonies declared a boycott of British goods, but the boycott did not
last long, and in 1770, the North government abolished all duties except
for the duty on tea.
In 1773, the British government passed a law
allowing tea to be sold directly from India to the colony, believing
that the low price of tea would force the colonists to accept the duty.
The residents of Boston did not allow the tea to be unloaded in their
port, and on December 16, 1773, they threw all the tea into the sea.
This event became known as the "Boston Tea Party". In response, the
North government passed repressive laws against Massachusetts. The port
was blockaded until the city authorities paid compensation for the
destroyed cargo. The Massachusetts Assembly called on the colonies to
meet in congress to jointly discuss this problem.
On September 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia, bringing together 55 delegates from all the colonies except Georgia. The congress formulated demands on the mother country: the "Declaration of Rights" contained a statement of the rights of the American colonies to "life, liberty, and property," and the "Continental Association" document developed at the same congress sanctioned the resumption of the boycott of English goods in the event of the British crown's refusal to make concessions in its financial and economic policies. The declaration also expressed the intention to reconvene the next Continental Congress on May 10, 1775, if London remained adamant in its intransigence. The mother country's response was not long in coming - the king put forward a demand for the complete subordination of the colonies to the authority of the British crown, and the English fleet began a blockade of the northeastern coast of the American continent. General Gage was ordered to suppress "open rebellion" and enforce the Repressive Acts by force if necessary. The First Continental Congress, and especially London's reaction to its decisions, had clearly demonstrated to the Americans that their strength lay in unity and that they could not count on the British Crown's favor and lenient attitude toward their demands for independence.
In April 1775, the British military clashed with Massachusetts
militias, known as the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The British
detachment was defeated, retreated to Boston, and the militia began to
besiege Boston. On May 10, the militia captured Fort Ticonderoga. That
same day, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, declaring
the Massachusetts militia the Continental Army, with George Washington
declared its commander. It was also decided to strike at the British
army in Canada: in the fall, an offensive against Quebec was launched by
two armies. But these armies were defeated near Quebec and retreated to
Fort Ticonderoga. The failure of the offensive against Canada showed
that the war could not be won without allies, and to conclude an
alliance, it was necessary to declare independence.
On June 7,
1776, Richard Henry Lee proposed that Congress consider the issue of
independence. On June 28, the draft Declaration of Independence, drafted
by Thomas Jefferson, was ready. It was discussed for three days, after
which it was officially adopted on July 4, 1776. That same year, each of
the Thirteen Colonies created its own constitution, and thus the
colonies were transformed into states. The state of New York was formed
on June 10, 1776, and the state of North Carolina only on December 18.
In March 1776, the British army left Boston, but in August, soon
after declaring independence, it landed on the coast of New York State,
and the New York and New Jersey Campaign began. The Continental Army was
defeated in the Battle of Long Island and left New York. Washington,
after a series of defeats, was forced to retreat through New Jersey to
Pennsylvania. The British held New York City until the conclusion of a
peace treaty in 1783, turning it into their main stronghold in North
America.
Following the retreating American troops, the British
army invaded New Jersey, but here Washington counterattacked: on
Christmas night, in December 1776, his army crossed the Delaware and
defeated the enemy at Trenton and Princeton.
The British plan for
the 1777 campaign, developed in London, was to organize a simultaneous
offensive from Canada and along the Hudson River to capture Albany in
1777 and cut off New England from the southern colonies (Saratoga
Campaign). But the Canadian army under General Burgoyne was defeated at
Saratoga and capitulated, with the condition of repatriation to Great
Britain, but the Continental Congress did not approve the terms of their
surrender, and the surrendered army remained in America until the end of
the war.
The victory at Saratoga accelerated France's entry into
an alliance with the United States, which was concluded in 1778. Spain
and the Netherlands then joined the alliance, and a new Anglo-French War
began.
The British then concentrated their forces on attempts to
capture the southern states. Having a limited contingent of troops, they
relied on the mobilization of loyalists. Such tactics helped them hold
their positions in the northwestern territories, despite the defeat of
Canadian troops when they tried to advance on Albany.
At the end
of 1778, the British fleet landed troops and captured the capital of
Georgia, the city of Savannah. In 1780, Charleston was captured. But the
loyalists who gathered under the British banner were not enough to
advance deep into the country, and the British had to be content with
control over the port cities. A further offensive on North Carolina and
Virginia stalled, guerrilla warfare began in the occupied territories,
and the loyalist units were killed.
The remnants of the British
army headed to the city of Yorktown, where they were going to board the
ships of the British fleet. But the fleet clashed with the French fleet
in the Chesapeake Bay and retreated. The trapped troops of British
General Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington in October 1781.
When news of this defeat reached Great Britain, Parliament resolved to
begin peace negotiations with the American rebels.
In 1781, the U.S. Congress ratified the Articles of Confederation, giving birth to the American Confederacy: a loose association of states with a very weak federal government. The country was governed by an assembly of members who acted on behalf of the state they represented. This unicameral assembly, known as the Congress of the Confederation, had little power and was unable to act independently of the states. There was no Chief Executive Officer and no judiciary. Congress had no power to impose taxes, regulate domestic or international commerce, or negotiate with other states. The government's inability to cope with emerging problems led to demands for reform and even talk of secession by the states. When Congress's attempts to improve the Articles of Confederation failed, national leaders met in Philadelphia in 1787 to create a new Constitution. It was ratified in 1788, and from 1789 a new federal government began to assemble, which marked the end of the Confederate period.
According to the peace treaty with Great Britain, the western border
of the United States was established along the Mississippi River, and
the northern, in turn, along the Great Lakes. Previously, the British
left the territories between the Mississippi and the Appalachian
Mountains to their Indian allies. Florida was returned to Spain.
After the end of the Revolutionary War, the United States continued to
wage war with the Indians in the Northwest Territories, which ended in
1795 with the signing of the Greenville Peace Treaty, according to which
the Indian confederation recognized the sovereignty of the United States
and allowed white settlers onto their lands. In addition, the United
States negotiated with Spain over the disputed Southwest Territories,
where active hostilities with the Indians were also taking place.
According to the Treaty of Madrid, concluded in the same year of 1795,
Spain recognized these lands as US possession and demarcated the border
between them and Spanish Florida along the 31st parallel. In 1798, the
Mississippi Territory was created there.
After the Anglo-American
War of 1812-15, the Indians lost the support of Great Britain and were
unable to offer significant resistance to American expansion. In the
1830s, by decisions of Congress and the Jackson administration, many
Indians were evicted beyond the Mississippi River.
Since the
beginning of the 19th century, thousands of Americans left the
increasingly densely populated eastern United States and headed west of
the Mississippi, to a completely undeveloped region called the Great
Plains. At the same time, New Englanders flocked to forest-rich Oregon,
while people from the southern states settled the vast expanses of
Texas, New Mexico, and California.
The main means of transport
for these pioneer settlers were horse- or ox-drawn wagons. Caravans of
several dozen wagons each set out on their journey. It took an average
of six months for such a caravan to get from the Mississippi Valley to
the Pacific coast.
After gold was discovered in California in
1848, the so-called California Gold Rush began, increasing the flow of
settlers. For a number of religious groups, resettlement to sparsely
populated western territories provided an opportunity to avoid external
influence and conflicts with representatives of the main faiths and
authorities. One example of this is the Mormons who settled in Utah in
1847.
In 1803, thanks to the successful actions of American diplomats, a deal was concluded between the United States of North America and France, which was called the Louisiana Purchase, and allowed the United States to almost double its territory. But the main achievement of this deal for the United States at that time was the provision of the Mississippi River, an important transportation artery, which had previously been a border river, at the complete disposal of American farmers and traders.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the United States maintained neutrality
and attempted to trade with all belligerents, but both France and Great
Britain discouraged trade with their adversaries. After the defeat of
the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), the British fleet
blockaded American ports in an attempt to prevent Franco-American trade
relations. Moreover, the British continued to treat Americans as
rebellious subjects on their ships and forced sailors from intercepted
American ships to serve in the Royal Navy. In addition, Great Britain
entered into an alliance with the Indian tribes and supported their
resistance to American expansion into Indian territory. In 1812,
Congress declared war on England. After heavy fighting that lasted until
1815, a peace was concluded, as a result of which the warring parties
remained within their former borders, but Great Britain refused to ally
with the Indians, who had suffered the most in the conflict. The United
States emerged from the war with confidence in its own strength, in
particular due to its impressive victory in the decisive battle with the
British near New Orleans.
Despite the end of hostilities, there
were still many contentious issues between the United States and Great
Britain, including the borders between the United States and British
Canada. These were largely resolved during the post-war negotiations
that culminated in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818. The remaining
unresolved issues, in particular the status of the modern Northwest of
the United States, were settled by the conclusion of the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846.
The war with England led to the decline of the Federalist Party, the disintegration of the First Party System, and the transition to a one-party system, which coincided with the presidency of James Monroe. During these years, raids by Florida Indians led to the First Seminole War, a treaty was concluded with England on the demilitarization of the Great Lakes, Illinois and Alabama were annexed to the Union, but Missouri's application for admission to the Union led to disputes about the admissibility of the spread of slavery to new territories and the adoption of the Missouri Compromise. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams managed to negotiate with Spain and the Adams-Onís Treaty was concluded, which recognized Spain's right to Texas, clarified the western border of the United States, and transferred eastern and western Florida to the United States. Monroe's second term coincided with the formation of independent states in South America. In 1822, the United States recognized Colombia, then Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. The following year, it became known that the French army had suppressed the revolution in Spain, and fears arose that France, with the support of the Holy Alliance, would try to return the Spanish colonies. In his 1823 address to Congress, Monroe declared that the United States would not interfere in the affairs of the existing colonies, but was prepared to protect the interests of those states that had already achieved independence. This statement became known as the Monroe Doctrine.
According to the treaty of 1818, the border between the United States and British North America was drawn along the 49th parallel from Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains. The Oregon Territory, located west of the Rocky Mountains, was recognized as free for joint use by the British and Americans. The Americans repeatedly tried to gain full control over Oregon. On June 15, 1846, a treaty was signed between the United States and Great Britain, according to which the border between British and American possessions in Oregon was also drawn along the 49th parallel.
In the presidential election of 1824, four candidates from the same party (Democratic-Republican) competed for the presidency, and Andrew Jackson won. However, his policies led to a split within the party and the end of the one-party system. To win the elections of 1828, Jackson created the Democratic Party, and his opponents (supporters of John Quincy Adams) created the National Republican Party, which in 1832 turned into the Whig Party. Its founder and first leader was Henry Clay.
In 1835, General Santa Anna removed the President of Mexico Gomez
Farías from power, abolished the Mexican Constitution of 1824 and
declared the creation of a new centralist state. This led to uprisings
in the northern states of Mexico. The Mexican government sent an army
here, led by the president himself, General López de Santa Anna. In the
spring of 1836, he managed to capture the Alamo mission, but a month
later, detachments of the Texan army defeated the Mexicans in the Battle
of San Jacinto, and their president was captured and signed a treaty on
the independence of Texas, and was transported to the United States.
Mexico refused to ratify the treaty signed by the captive president, and
despite the cessation of hostilities, the status of Texas remained
legally uncertain. The Mexicans asked the United States to recognize
their state, but Congress refused, expecting that Texas would first be
recognized by a European power.
Calls began in the United States
for the recognition and annexation of Texas, but this proposal was
opposed by politicians in the northern states, who did not want to add
more slave states to the United States. During the presidential election
of 1844, James Polk was the Democratic candidate, whose platform
included the annexation of Texas. Polk's victory in the election showed
that public opinion generally supported the annexation of Texas. In
February 1845, the annexation of Texas was debated in the Senate and
reached a deadlock (26 votes for and 26 votes against), but then the
senator from Louisiana changed his mind, and the treaty with Texas was
adopted. On July 4, 1845, the Texas Convention approved the U.S.-Texas
Treaty, and on December 29, 1845, President Polk formally admitted Texas
to the United States.
In April 1846, the Mexican army crossed the Rio Grande and surrounded
the American Fort Brown. Taylor's army advanced to relieve the fort and
defeated the Mexicans at the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of
Resaca de la Palma. On May 13, the United States declared war on Mexico,
and at the same time, Congress gave the president permission to form an
army for the war. In June, Taylor launched an offensive in northern
Mexico, approached Monterrey, and took it by storm on September 24.
President Polk assumed that the fall of Monterrey would force Mexico to
negotiate, but the Mexicans decided to move on to a protracted war. Then
the American command decided to change strategy and launch an offensive
on Mexico City from Veracruz. On October 22, Taylor was ordered to
suspend hostilities in Mexico and transfer part of his troops to General
Scott for an offensive on Veracruz. Upon learning of Taylor's weakening,
General Santa Anna sent an army north and attacked Taylor on February
22, 1847, at Buena Vista, but the American army held its position at the
Battle of Buena Vista.
In March 1847, Scott's Mexican Campaign
began: Scott's army landed at Veracruz on March 9 and laid siege to the
city. The city surrendered on March 29. Scott began his march on Mexico
City and defeated the enemy in a defensive position at the Battle of
Cerro Gordo. Scott occupied the city of Puebla, where, after a short
pause, he began his march on Mexico City. On August 19-20, the battles
of Contreras and Churubusco took place. On September 13, Chapultepec
Castle fell, and on September 14, John Keetman's infantry brigade was
the first to enter Mexico City. The fall of the capital forced the
Mexican side to negotiate, and as a result, the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo was signed on February 2, 1848. Mexico renounced its claim to
Texas and ceded all of Upper California to the United States, thereby
losing 55% of its territory.
In 1853, Mexico ceded more territory
to the United States in a deal called the Gadsden Treaty, which finally
formed the new U.S.-Mexican border.
Immediately after the end of the Mexican War, the country became
increasingly embroiled in disputes over slavery. The 1848 presidential
election was won by Zachary Taylor, who in 1849 declared his readiness
to admit California to the Union as a free state, contrary to the rules
of the 1820 compromise. This led to a bitter dispute, which resulted in
the Compromise of 1850: the southern states agreed to the annexation of
California, but in their interests, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed.
In May 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, which decreed that the
status of slavery in Kansas would be decided by its residents
themselves. In July of that year, abolitionists from the northern states
met for a convention and united into the Republican Party, the goal of
which was to combat the spread of slavery.
Supporters and
opponents of slavery began to flock to Kansas, which led to armed
clashes and the beginning of the Civil War in Kansas. Ultimately, the
stubborn resistance of free farmers forced Congress to recognize the
state as free of slavery by 1859.
Meanwhile, the Republicans
quickly seized power in Michigan: in the 1856 elections, they occupied
all the seats in the Michigan delegation to the US Congress and all the
highest positions in Michigan. In 1857, Radical Republican Zachary
Chandler became a senator, and in 1859, Michigan Governor Kinsley
Bingham also entered the U.S. Senate, and now the party was under the
control of Radicals who were ready to end slavery at any cost.
Following the victory of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln in the
1860 election, eleven southern states declared their secession from the
United States, forming a new rebel nation, the Confederate States of
America.
In April 1861, the first battle took place in South
Carolina, during which Confederate forces captured Fort Sumter, a
federal stronghold. The war was initially fought with varying success
and was fought primarily in Virginia and Maryland. The turning point
came in 1864, when Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as
commander-in-chief. The Union army under William Sherman successfully
advanced from Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia, defeating forces led by
Confederate generals Johnston and Hood. During the famous "March to the
Sea," Sherman's army destroyed about 20% of all farms in Georgia and
reached the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah in December 1864. The war ended
with the surrender of General Lee's army in Virginia on April 9, 1865.
Reconstruction, the period following the end of the Civil War, lasted
from 1865 to 1877. During this time, the "Reconstruction Amendments"
were added to the Constitution, expanding civil rights for African
Americans. These amendments included the Thirteenth Amendment, which
outlawed slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship
to all persons born or naturalized in the United States; and the
Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed the right to vote for men of all
races. In response to Reconstruction, a number of Southern organizations
emerged, including the Ku Klux Klan, which opposed the civil rights of
people of color. The violence of such organizations was countered by the
federal army and the authorities, who passed, in particular, the Ku Klux
Klan Act of 1870, declaring the Klan a terrorist organization. However,
in the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Cruikshank, civil rights were
entrusted to the states. The failures of the Republican governments were
aggravated by the economic crisis of 1873. Eventually, the Republican
governments lost the support of voters in the southern states, and the
Democrats returned to power in the South, who did not restore slavery,
but passed discriminatory laws called Jim Crow laws. In 1877, the
participation of the army in government in the South was terminated. As
a result, African Americans became second-class citizens, and the racist
principles of white supremacy continued to dominate public opinion. The
monopoly of the Democratic Party on power in the southern states
continued until the 1960s.
The expansion of gold prospectors,
farmers and owners of vast ranches to the "Wild West" was accompanied by
numerous conflicts with the Indians. The last major armed conflict
between white Americans and the Native population was the Black Hills
War (1876-77), although isolated skirmishes with small groups of Indians
continued until 1918.
The end of the 19th century was a time of powerful industrial
development in the United States. The classic of American literature,
Mark Twain, dubbed this era the “Gilded Age.” The wealthiest class of
American society bathed in luxury, but did not forget about
philanthropy, which Carnegie called the “Gospel of Wealth,” supporting
thousands of colleges, hospitals, museums, academies, schools, theaters,
libraries, orchestras, and charities. John D. Rockefeller alone donated
over $500 million to charity, which amounted to more than half of his
total income. An unprecedented wave of immigrants (mostly from Europe)
brought to the United States not only labor for American industry, but
also created a variety of national communities that populated the
sparsely populated western territories.
It is believed that the
modern American economy was created during the “Gilded Age.” In the
1870s and 1880s, the overall economy, wages, wealth, national product,
and capital in the United States grew at the fastest rate in the
country's history. Thus, between 1865 and 1898, wheat crops increased by
256%, corn by 222%, coal production by 800%, and the total length of
railroad tracks by 567%. The corporation became the dominant form of
business organization. By the beginning of the 20th century, per capita
income and industrial output in the United States were the highest in
the world. Per capita income in the United States was twice that of
Germany and France, and 50% higher than that of Britain. During the era
of the technological revolution, businessmen built new industrial cities
in the Northeastern United States with city-forming factories and plants
that employed hired workers from various European countries.
Multimillionaires such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon, Andrew
Carnegie, John Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the Astor family
acquired a reputation as robber barons. Workers began to organize into
what were then small trade unions such as the American Federation of
Labor.
By 1871, the U.S. government decided that treaties with
the Indians were no longer necessary and that no Indian nation or tribe
should be considered an independent people or state. By 1880, the mass
shooting of the American bison had almost completely disappeared, and
the Indians had lost their main source of income. The government forced
the Indians to abandon their traditional way of life and live only on
reservations. Many Indians resisted this. One of the leaders of the
resistance was Sitting Bull, a Sioux chief. The Sioux dealt the American
cavalry several stunning blows, winning the Battle of the Little Bighorn
River in 1876. But the Indians could not live on the prairies without
buffalo, and, exhausted by hunger, they eventually submitted and moved
to reservations.
The "Gilded Age" was followed by the "Progressive Era", characterized by high political activity of the middle class and the lower classes, which led to large-scale social and political reforms. In particular, four new constitutional amendments were adopted - from the 16th to the 19th. One of the goals of the Progressive movement was to combat corruption at the political elite of the United States. Some Progressives also advocated closing drinking establishments and adopting Prohibition. The Progressives were joined by supporters of granting women's voting rights, as well as improving health care and modernization in a number of other areas of public life. At first, the Progressive movement acted only at the local and regional levels and only after some time captured the entire nation. The Progressives borrowed many ideas from Western Europe, in particular the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1914. Progressive ideas were shared by many US political leaders, including Republicans Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, Charles Hughes, Herbert Hoover and Democrats William Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and others.
At the beginning of the war, the United States was dominated by the
desire to maintain neutrality. President Wilson, shocked by the
destructive nature of the conflict and concerned about the possible
adverse consequences for the United States if military action dragged
on, tried to act as a mediator between the opposing sides. But his
peacemaking efforts were unsuccessful, mainly because both sides did not
lose hope of winning a decisive battle. Meanwhile, the United States was
increasingly embroiled in a dispute over the rights of neutral countries
at sea. Great Britain controlled the situation on the oceans, allowing
neutral countries to conduct trade while blockading German ports.
Germany tried to break the blockade using a new weapon - submarines.
In 1915, a German submarine sank the British passenger ship
Lusitania, killing more than 100 American citizens. Wilson immediately
told Germany that unprovoked submarine attacks on neutral shipping were
a violation of accepted international law and must be stopped. Germany
agreed to cease unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, but only
after Wilson threatened to take the most drastic measures. However,
several more American ships were sunk in February and March 1917, and
Zimmermann's telegram to the Mexican government proposing an alliance
against the United States forced Wilson to seek Congressional approval
for the country to enter the war. As a result, on April 6, 1917,
Congress declared war on Germany.
The United States immediately expanded the scale of economic and
naval aid to the Allies and began preparing an expeditionary force to
enter combat on the Western Front. According to the law on limited
military service adopted on May 18, 1917, 1 million men aged 21 to 31
were called up for military service.
Since the beginning of March
1918, the Allies had been holding back a powerful German offensive. By
the summer, with the support of American reinforcements, they had
managed to launch a counteroffensive. The US Army successfully operated
against the enemy's wedged Saint-Mihiel group and took part in the
general offensive of the Allied forces.
In order to effectively
organize the rear, Wilson took unprecedented measures of state control
over the economy. The Federal Control Act, passed on March 21, 1918,
placed all railroads in the country under the control of William McAdoo,
and a specially created War Railroad Administration was to put an end to
competition and ensure strict coordination of their activities. The War
Industries Administration was given expanded powers to control
enterprises in order to stimulate production and prevent unnecessary
duplication. Guided by the Food and Fuel Control Act (August 1917),
Herbert Hoover, head of the federal food administration, fixed wheat
prices at a high level and introduced so-called "meatless" and
"wheatless" days in order to increase food supplies to the army. Harry
Garfield, head of the Fuel Administration, also took tough measures
regarding the production and distribution of fuel resources. In addition
to solving military problems, these measures brought considerable
benefits to the poor social strata, in particular farmers and industrial
workers.
In addition to the large expenditures on developing its
own military machine, the United States provided such large loans to the
Allies that between December 1916 and June 1919, the latter's total debt
(including interest) rose to $24,262 million. A serious flaw in Wilson's
domestic policy was his failure to reliably protect civil liberties: war
hysteria at home resulted in the persecution of German-Americans,
members of anti-war groups, and other dissenters.
In January
1918, Wilson submitted to Congress his "Fourteen Points," a general
declaration of US war aims. The declaration outlined a program for
restoring international stability and called for the creation of a
League of Nations. This program was in many ways at odds with the war
aims previously approved by the Entente countries and included in a
number of secret treaties.
In October 1918, the Central European
countries approached Wilson directly with a peace proposal, over the
heads of their European opponents. After Germany agreed to make peace on
the terms of Wilson's program, the president sent Colonel E. M. House to
Europe to secure the Allies' consent. House successfully carried out his
mission, and on November 11, 1918, Germany signed an armistice
agreement. Despite the preliminary agreement on its terms, the
differences in the positions of Europe and America indicated that
serious contradictions would arise during the post-war negotiations.
Another problem was the virtual disintegration of old Europe, which did
not promise a quick and easy restoration of economic life.
During the peace negotiations, Wilson subordinated all other tasks to
the creation of the League of Nations. To achieve this goal, he made a
number of compromises, in particular on indemnities and territorial
issues, hoping to subsequently adjust them within the framework of the
future League. At the negotiating table with the other participants of
the "Big Four" - Lloyd George, representing Great Britain, Clemenceau,
representing France, and Orlando, representing Italy - Wilson proved
himself to be a very skillful diplomat. The Treaty of June 28, 1919
became the culmination of his political career. However, in the United
States itself, after the victory of the Republicans in the 1918
elections, internal political friction increased. Senator Lodge led the
movement against the League of Nations, he and his supporters managed to
block the consideration of the treaty in the Senate for a long time and
disrupt its ratification. The opposition senators were supported by
Republicans who feared the political consequences of Wilson's diplomatic
triumph, ethnic groups whose countries had suffered under the Versailles
agreements, and radical progressives who believed that the United
States' international commitments would hamper the further development
of American democracy.
The American camp of supporters of the
League of Nations was unexpectedly weakened when Wilson, who had
undertaken an exhausting propaganda tour of the country in support of
the peace treaty, fell seriously ill in the midst of the debates. The
"Red Scare" caused by fear of communism added to the disillusionment
that had gripped the country after the war. It was clear that the Senate
would not pass the treaty without amendments, but Wilson refused to
compromise, and the Senate twice rejected it (in November 1919 and March
1920). Therefore, the United States formally remained in a state of war
until July 2, 1921, when Congress (now under the Harding administration)
finally passed a joint resolution of both houses, officially declaring
the end of hostilities. The League of Nations began its work without the
participation of the United States.
The era of "prosperity" is the period of economic growth in the
United States in the 1920s. In literature, the era of "prosperity" most
often means unhealthy, dubious prosperity. Post-war America became a
leader in economic growth rates, which further strengthened its leading
position in the world. By the end of the 1920s, America produced almost
as much industrial output as the rest of the world. The average worker's
wage increased by 25%. The unemployment rate did not exceed 5%, and in
some periods even 3%. Consumer credit flourished. Prices were maintained
at a stable level. The rate of economic development in the United States
remained the highest in the world. After the end of Woodrow Wilson's
second presidential term, the Republicans came to power for 12 years:
Warren Harding (1921-1923), then after his death Calvin Coolidge
(1923-1929) and Herbert Hoover (1929-1933). The population of the United
States was tired of progressive reforms, and therefore the transition to
conservatism was more opportune than ever. During this period, the
Republicans saw their main goal as:
stability,
ensuring reliable
economic indicators,
helping firms organize their activities, opening
foreign markets for them.
However, the period of economic boom
began very unpleasantly: government orders and foreign demand for
American goods decreased. Soldiers returning from the front could not
find work. The number of unemployed increased from 0.5 million to 5
million. In 1920, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, "Prohibition",
came into force. Smuggling of alcohol and home-made moonshine began. In
this regard, in 1920-21, there was a decline in the economy and only
1923 began with a recovery process.
The reasons for the rise of
the American economy are seen in the United States' emergence as a
leader in international politics and its transformation into the
financial center of the world. Having considerable funds at their
disposal, American monopolies successfully renewed their fixed capital,
and new plants and factories were built. In 1924, at the initiative of
the United States, the Dawes Plan for the restoration of the German
economy was adopted: Germany was allocated a loan, a significant part of
which was provided by US banks. The desire of the United States to
promote economic stability in Europe was explained by the desire to
conquer new markets for American goods, as well as the desire to prevent
the spread of communist ideology. At the same time, in 1921, the United
States provided charitable assistance to Soviet Russia, where famine was
raging. By 1929, the total volume of American exports amounted to 85
million dollars in monetary terms.
President Harding formed a
cabinet of ministers from prominent financiers, millionaires and people
knowledgeable in economics. In 1921-1932, the post of US Secretary of
the Treasury was occupied by the multimillionaire E. Mellon. On his
initiative, the tax rate on incomes exceeding $ 1 million was reduced
first to 66-50%, and in 1926 to 20%. Wartime laws adopted to control the
price level were repealed. The use of antitrust laws against
corporations ceased, having been effectively annulled by the Supreme
Court through various clarifications and interpretations. At the same
time, persecution intensified and its number decreased by 1.5 times by
1930. In 1925, Calvin Coolidge declared: "The business of America is
business", which in domestic policy meant following the principles of
Laissez-faire, which opened up freedom of action for businessmen and
guaranteed them from government interference in the activities of the
private sector of the economy. The high protective tariffs of the late
19th century, which were declared one of the foundations of prosperity,
were reinstated. The national debt was reduced, taxes were lowered.
During the years of prosperity, the increase in per capita income
and production efficiency led to a 40% increase in GNP. The country
achieved the highest standard of living in the world, with low
unemployment, low inflation and low interest rates on loans. Industrial
production as a whole increased by 72% by 1929. The production of
consumer goods developed especially successfully. The impetus for its
development was the widespread use of electrical energy. Electrified
homes of Americans began to be equipped with household appliances:
radios, refrigerators, and so on. By the end of the 1920s, most
industrial enterprises switched to electricity.
During the
presidency of Coolidge, extremely low purchase prices were set for
agricultural raw materials to be used in industry. The concentration of
capital occurred mainly in the electric power industry, automobile
manufacturing, radio and the developing film industry. By 1928, the
national wealth of the United States had reached $450 billion.
Big business became even bigger. Corporations such as General Motors,
Chrysler, General Electric, US Rubber and others came to the fore. By
increasing the production of goods and capturing markets, such companies
received more and more profit, which was spent on further development
and expansion of production capacities. As a result, even more goods
were produced, which were eagerly bought by consumers. In the 1920s, the
United States became the world's largest creditor and increased the
share of loans provided by 58%.
Henry Ford and his Model T, the
first mass-produced car in world history, can be considered a symbol of
America in the 1920s. This vehicle was affordable to many, since its
price was less than $300, and the average annual salary of an industrial
worker was $1,300. As a result, the car ceased to be a luxury and turned
into a means of transportation. In the 1920s, the number of automobiles
increased by 250%, and by 1929 it exceeded 25 million cars, while the
population of the United States at that time was 125 million people.
The development of the automobile industry contributed to:
the
development of infrastructure (the construction and development of
roads, hotels, gas stations, fast food outlets). Legislative acts of
1916, 1921 and 1925 provided for the creation of a nationwide network of
numbered highways. By 1929, 250,000 miles of modern highways had been
built - 1.5 times more than existed 20 years earlier;
the growth of
American exports, since the car became the main export product;
the
development of the chemical and steel industries (production per year
increased by 20%), the fuel and energy complex (oil production increased
by 1.5 times), the production of glass, rubber, etc.;
the emergence
of new jobs: every 12th worker was employed in the automobile industry;
the development of conveyor production (this allowed capitalists to
reduce the number of workers, leaving only the most resilient and
hard-working, who received higher wages).
In general, the 1920s
were the time of the formation of a consumer society. The average
American was subjected to massive influence from manufacturers of goods:
he was constantly besieged with calls to buy and buy even more. In
connection with this, modern advertising began to develop. Manufacturers
did everything to force the buyer not to put money aside for later, but
to spend it immediately. Those who did not have the necessary amount
with them were offered a purchase in installments. The concept of life
on credit appeared, when most cars, refrigerators, and radios were
purchased in this way. However, the problem of uneven distribution of
income was not taken into account: two-thirds of American families were
unable to purchase even basic necessities.
Part of the monopoly
profits was converted into securities (shares), which absorbed
undistributed income. Stocks were valued because they were bought and
could be used to make money. The country was advertising easy paths to
wealth through stocks. And by 1929, at least 1 million Americans were
playing the stock market, investing all their limited funds in buying
stocks and expecting success. General Motors Finance Committee Chairman
J. Raskob claimed at the time that if you saved $15 a week and used that
money to buy stocks, you could accumulate $80,000 in 20 years. Owners of
securities got into huge debts and actively used loans.
For the first time in American history, there were more people living
in cities than in rural areas, which resulted in the emergence of urban
agglomerations (the so-called "rural population decline" in the decade
of prosperity was 6.3 million people).
By the end of 1929, the
United States was producing 5.4 million cars annually. The United States
accounted for 48% of the industrial production of the entire capitalist
world - 10% more than Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan
combined. The lion's share of production came from large corporations,
which can be called the creators of prosperity. The volume of production
increased 4.5 times, and the total market value tripled.
The
development of the US economy was not constant: in 1924 and 1927 there
were minor, short-term downturns. But each time after that, the American
economy continued to develop with renewed vigor.
However, in
1929, at the end of October, the Great Depression began and after 4
years the United States lay in economic ruins. Living on credit did not
lead to endless and unhindered growth. In the banking sector, 5 thousand
banks were closed in the 1920s. Industrial production fell by a third,
unemployment increased by 20%. A decline in agriculture was already
evident in 1921. There were also problems in the international arena:
persistently seeking debt repayment from the European powers (in total,
the Entente countries owed about 20 billion dollars), the Americans
contributed to the increase in customs duties on European goods.
At the same time, during the period of prosperity, such industries as
coal, light (footwear, food and textile) industry, shipbuilding did not
develop properly. Coal production decreased by 30%. The economic boom
led to a crisis of overproduction: by 1929, the market was overflowing
with various goods, but these goods were no longer in demand.
The Great Depression in the United States began with the stock market
crash in late 1929 and lasted until the country entered World War II.
The spiraling deflation made the production of goods unprofitable. As a
result, production declined, while unemployment increased sharply, from
3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933. The rural areas of the Great Plains suffered
from drought, which, combined with poor agricultural practices that led
to widespread soil erosion, caused an environmental disaster. Cities
were covered in dust storms for several years. The population, deprived
of housing and means of subsistence in the Dust Bowl, migrated further
west, mainly to California, taking any low-paying job and driving down
wages there, which were already low due to the economic crisis. Local
authorities sought a way out of the situation by deporting illegal
immigrants from Mexico. In the American South, the already fragile
economy was collapsing. Rural residents migrated en masse to the North
in search of work in industrial centers, in particular, Detroit. In the
Great Lakes region, farmers, suffering from falling prices for their
products, filled the courts with cases of private bankruptcy.
From the USA, the crisis spread to the rest of the capitalist world.
Industrial production fell by 46% in the USA, by 24% in Great Britain,
by 41% in Germany, and by 32% in France. The stock prices of industrial
companies fell by 87% in the USA, by 48% in Great Britain, by 64% in
Germany, and by 60% in France. Unemployment reached colossal
proportions. According to official data, in 1933, there were 30 million
unemployed people in 32 capitalist countries, including 14 million in
the United States. These circumstances required government intervention
in the economy, the use of government methods of influencing spontaneous
processes in the capitalist economy in order to avoid upheavals, which
accelerated the transformation of monopoly capitalism into
state-monopoly capitalism. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt, the
candidate of the Democratic Party, came to power in the United States,
offering the American people a "New Deal", as his policy was later
called. The Republicans, who were blamed if not for the onset of the
economic crisis, then for the inability to cope with it, suffered a
crushing defeat in the 1932 presidential elections and were unable to
occupy the White House for many years. The success of the "New Deal" was
such that Roosevelt became the only president in the history of the
United States who was re-elected four times in a row, and he remained in
power until his death in 1945. Although many of his administration's
measures were later considered controversial, a number of innovations
from that period, such as the Social Security program, the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Securities and Exchange
Commission, are still in effect in the United States today. President
Roosevelt's most successful initiative was to help the unemployed, who
were recruited by the federal government to work in the Civilian
Conservation Corps and a number of other government services. It should
also be noted that this course was initiated by the previous president,
Hoover, who created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (the Act of
January 22, 1932), which assisted in financing trade, industry, and
agriculture, and provided loans to banks and insurance companies. Over
the course of a year, the corporation issued loans totaling $2 billion.
This did not stop the crisis, but it delayed it. There were other
actions to end the crisis, but they had only a partial effect and did
not bring the expected result. The budget spent a lot on anti-crisis
measures, but not enough. Overall, Hoover's contribution to the fight
against the crisis cannot be overlooked.
Although the measures
taken by the Roosevelt administration prevented further contraction of
production or, at least, eased the consequences of the economic crisis
for the general population, ultimately the Great Depression in America
ended only with the outbreak of World War II. The administration began
financing military orders, while the production of civilian goods was
sharply reduced, and their consumption was subject to quotas. This
allowed the economy to cope with the difficulties. From 1939 to 1944,
production increased almost twofold. Unemployment fell from 14% in 1940
to less than 2% in 1943, although the labor force increased by 10
million people.
As in World War I, the United States did not enter World War II for a
long time. However, already in September 1940, the United States
provided weapons assistance to Great Britain under the Lend-Lease
program, which, after occupying France, was fighting alone against Nazi
Germany. The United States also supported China, which was waging war
against Japan, and declared an embargo on oil supplies to Japan. After
Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941, the Lend-Lease program was
extended to the USSR.
On December 7, 1941, Japan unexpectedly
attacked the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, justifying its actions
by citing the American embargo. The very next day, the United States
declared war on Japan. In response, Germany declared war on the United
States.
In the Pacific theater of military operations, the
situation for the United States was initially unfavorable. On December
10, 1941, the Japanese launched an invasion of the Philippines, and by
April 1942, they had occupied it entirely. Most of the American and
Filipino troops there were captured. But the Battle of Midway on June 4,
1942, was a turning point in the Pacific War.
On November 8,
1942, American troops under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower,
consisting of three corps (western, central and eastern), supported by
one British division, landed on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and on the
Mediterranean coast in Algeria, in territories controlled by the puppet
Vichy government. By May 1943, German and Italian forces in North Africa
were defeated.
On July 10, 1943, the American 7th Army and the
British 8th Army successfully landed on the southern coast of Sicily.
The Italians had long understood that the war into which the Duce had
dragged them was not in Italy's interests. King Victor Emmanuel III
decided to arrest Mussolini. When Mussolini was arrested on July 25,
1943, the new Italian government, led by Marshal Badoglio, began secret
negotiations with the American command to conclude an armistice. On
September 8, Badoglio officially announced the unconditional surrender
of Italy, and on September 9, 1943, the American 5th Army landed in the
Salerno area. According to the decision of the Tehran Conference, where
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met, the second front of the war with
Germany was opened on June 6, 1944, when the troops of the USA, Great
Britain and Canada landed in Normandy. The operation ended on August 31
with the liberation of the entire northwestern part of France. Paris was
liberated on August 25 with the support of French partisans. On August
15, American and French troops landed in the south of France, where they
liberated the cities of Toulon and Marseille. After a series of military
failures in the fall and winter of 1944, at the end of March 1945, the
6th, 12th and 21st Allied Army Groups crossed the Rhine, and in April
they surrounded and defeated the Ruhr group of German troops. On April
25, the 1st American Army met with Soviet troops on the Elbe River. On
May 8, Nazi Germany capitulated.
In the Pacific theater of
military operations, the largest naval battle in history took place in
Leyte Gulf in October 1944. The Japanese fleet suffered catastrophic
losses, after which the American Navy gained absolute supremacy at sea.
Japanese aviation also suffered catastrophic losses from the superior US
Air Force. On October 20, the Americans, under the command of General
Douglas MacArthur, began landing on the island of Leyte (southern
Philippines) and cleared it of Japanese troops by December 31. On
January 9, 1945, the Americans landed on the main island of the
Philippine archipelago, Luzon. During January and February, most of the
Japanese troops on Luzon were defeated, and on March 3, Manila was
liberated. By May, most of the Philippines had been liberated, with only
the remnants of Japanese troops in the mountains and jungles continuing
to resist until August.
On February 19, 1945, the US Marines
landed on the island of Iwo Jima, where the Japanese put up strong
resistance. However, by March 26, the island was captured. On April 1,
American troops landed on the island of Okinawa with the support of the
US Navy and the British Navy and captured it by June 22.
In 1942,
the Manhattan Project was launched in the United States, which resulted
in the creation of an atomic bomb by the summer of 1945.
In July
1945, the Allies presented Japan with an ultimatum, but it refused to
surrender. On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 Superfortress bomber
dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and on August 9 on Nagasaki, which
led to massive destruction (see Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki). This is the only example of the combat use of nuclear weapons
in human history. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced the
unconditional surrender of Japan. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender
was signed on September 2, 1945, on board the USS Missouri.
In U.S. history, the years 1945–1964 were a period of economic growth
and prosperity. Politically, it was a period of triumph for the Black
Civil Rights Movement, which ended racial segregation laws in the
southern states.
On December 4, 1945, the U.S. Congress approved
the country's entry into the United Nations, thereby moving away from
its traditional policy of isolationism toward greater involvement in
international relations. After World War II, the United States became
one of the world's two superpowers, along with the USSR, and the Cold
War began, in which both countries tried to increase their influence in
the world and began an arms race. The result was a series of conflicts,
including the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the
consequences of the Cold War was also the "space race" between the
United States and the USSR.
The first half of the 1950s was
marked by the McCarthy era, which was expressed in sharp anti-communism
and persecution of political opponents, who were called "anti-American".
These years were also accompanied by increased propaganda of racism and
chauvinism. However, by the second half of the 1950s, the fight against
racial segregation gradually gained momentum, and in 1963, John Kennedy,
under pressure from numerous protests, introduced a civil rights bill to
Congress that prohibited segregation in all public places. The White
House during this period was occupied mainly by Democrats Harry Truman
(1945-1953), John Kennedy (1961-1963) and Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969),
but for most of the 1950s, Republican Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)
remained president. In 1960, the charismatic leader John Kennedy was
elected president of the United States. He was shot in Dallas, Texas on
November 22, 1963, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy was a shock
to the American people.
President Lyndon Johnson, who came to power in 1963, proclaimed the
policy of the "Great Society", which was understood as measures to
reduce social inequality. Throughout the 1960s, a number of social
programs were launched. Racial discrimination was prohibited by law.
During this period, the United States became involved in the Vietnam
War, the unpopularity of which contributed to the emergence of anti-war
social movements, in particular among women, minorities and youth.
Feminism and the environmental movement began to play a significant role
in domestic politics. In addition, the United States, like much of the
Western world, was captured by the "counterculture revolution" in the
1960s.
1968 was one of the turning points in US history. On April
4, the leader of the black civil rights movement Martin Luther King was
assassinated in Memphis, and on June 5, US Senator and presidential
candidate Robert Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles.
In 1969, Lyndon
Johnson was succeeded as US President by Richard Nixon. By this time,
the post-war period of economic prosperity had ended, and the US was in
the midst of a deep economic crisis of the 1970s, which was explained by
the aggravation of international economic competition, followed by a
sharp increase in the prices of oil and other goods. Although Nixon
promised to end the Vietnam War during the election, it continued for
several more years, despite the protests of American citizens (an
example of anti-war demonstrations is the article Shooting at Kent State
University). Only in 1973, American troops were finally withdrawn from
South Vietnam after the conclusion of the Paris Agreement. The Americans
lost 58 thousand people during the war. Nixon used the conflict between
the Soviet Union and China, which was advantageous for the US, by moving
towards rapprochement with China. A thaw, known as detente, set in in
the Cold War. In August 1974, Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace due
to the Watergate political scandal. Under his successor, Gerald Ford,
the pro-American South Vietnamese regime fell.
In 1976, Jimmy
Carter was elected president of the United States. The United States was
suffering from an energy crisis, economic growth had slowed,
unemployment and interest rates on loans remained high. Carter was known
on the world stage as a mediator in the conclusion of the Camp David
Accords between Israel and Egypt. In 1979, Iranian students seized the
American embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats hostage.
Carter failed to resolve this conflict and lost the 1980 election to
Republican Ronald Reagan, who promised to "bring morning to America."
Upon coming to power, Reagan began implementing the so-called
"Reaganomics" policy, which consisted of stimulating production by
reducing taxes while cutting social programs. In 1982, the United States
experienced another short-term recession, when unemployment and
bankruptcies were close to the level of the Great Depression. But the
situation changed dramatically the following year: inflation fell from
11% to 2%, unemployment to 7.5%, and economic growth increased from 4.5%
to 7.2%. This is at least partly due to the fall in oil prices and the
spread of energy-saving technologies.
At first, Reagan adhered to
a course of tough confrontation with the USSR and called the Soviet
Union an "evil empire." But the rise to power in the USSR in 1985 of
Mikhail Gorbachev and the policy of Perestroika he began changed
Soviet-American relations. Reagan met with Gorbachev four times and
signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Their partnership
hastened the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
On September 11, 2001, the United States was struck by a series of
al-Qaeda-sponsored terrorist attacks. Nineteen suicide bombers took
control of four airliners, killing the crews, and flew the planes toward
Washington, D.C. (one into the Pentagon, two into the Twin Towers, and
one short of the terrorists' target). Within two hours, both World Trade
Center towers had completely collapsed, causing massive damage to the
surrounding area and blanketing Manhattan in clouds of toxic dust. In
total, 2,977 people were killed in the attacks. In response, President
George W. Bush declared a "war on terror" on September 20. On October 7,
2001, the United States and NATO invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the
Taliban regime, which had provided safe haven for al-Qaeda and its
leader Osama bin Laden.
Following the terrorist attacks, the
federal government took new domestic measures to prevent future attacks.
The Department of Homeland Security was created to direct and coordinate
federal counterterrorism activities. Some of these counterterrorism
measures, particularly the U.S. government's treatment of detainees at
Guantanamo Bay, have led to allegations of human rights abuses against
the U.S. government.
From March 19 to May 1, 2003, the United
States launched an invasion of Iraq, which resulted in the collapse of
the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration's
stated reasons for the invasion included spreading democracy,
eliminating weapons of mass destruction, and liberating the Iraqi people
from their government's dictatorship. Despite some initial successes
early in the invasion, the ongoing war in Iraq led to international
protests and a gradual decline in domestic support for Bush, as many
began to question whether the invasion was worth the cost. In 2007,
George W. Bush deployed more troops as part of the strategy. Although
the death toll declined, political stability in Iraq remained in
question.
In 2008, the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq War, as well
as the 2008 financial crisis, led to the election of the first black
U.S. president, Barack Obama. Following his election, Obama reluctantly
continued military action in Iraq until August 31, 2010, when he
declared an end to hostilities. However, 50,000 U.S. troops were kept in
Iraq to assist Iraqi forces, protect withdrawing forces, and combat
terrorism until December 15, 2011, when the war was officially ended and
the last troops left the country. At the same time, Obama increased
American involvement in Afghanistan, beginning a surge strategy using an
additional 30,000 troops, proposing to begin withdrawing troops in
December 2014. Obama banned torture but generally maintained Bush's
policies regarding detainees at Guantanamo Bay, also proposing to close
the prison.
In May 2011, after nearly a decade in hiding,
al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in a
raid by U.S. Navy SEALs acting under the direct orders of President
Obama. While al-Qaeda was on the verge of collapse in Afghanistan,
affiliated organizations continued to operate in Yemen and other remote
areas as the CIA used drones to track down and remove its leadership. On
December 28, 2014, President Obama formally ended the combat mission in
Afghanistan and promised to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops by the
end of 2016, with the exception of embassy guards.
In September
2008, the United States and much of Europe entered the longest recession
since World War II, often referred to as the “Great Recession.” The
financial crisis threatened the stability of the entire economy in
September 2008, when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and other giant banks
found themselves in serious trouble. Beginning in October, the federal
government provided $245 billion to financial institutions through the
Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The recession officially ended in
June 2009, and the economy has slowly begun to recover. The unemployment
rate peaked at 10.1% in October 2009, after rising from 4.7% in November
2007, and returned to 5.0% in October 2015. However, overall economic
growth in the 2010s remained weaker than in previous decades.
The
debate over LGBT rights, particularly same-sex marriage, began to shift
in favor of same-sex couples, reflected in dozens of polls released
early in the decade. In 2012, President Obama became the first president
to openly support same-sex marriage. In June 2015, the Supreme Court
legalized same-sex marriage nationally.
In 2010, Barack Obama, despite Republican resistance, achieved the
passage of a health care reform law.
In 2011, the American army,
at Obama's behest, participated in the NATO intervention in Libya.
On November 8, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The 2016 election was controversial after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russian government operatives interfered in the election “to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process.” This, along with questions about potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, led to the FBI, Senate, and federal investigations. In September 2019, a political crisis erupted in the United States over a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The global COVID-19 pandemic, which has arrived in the United States, was first confirmed in January 2020. By February 2, the Trump administration had restricted travel to and from China. On March 11, the WHO declared the virus a pandemic. In March, many state and local governments issued stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the virus and reduce the burden on hospitals. By March 26, the United States had the highest number of known cases of any country, according to The New York Times. By March 27, the country had more than 100,000 cases. On April 2, at the direction of President Trump, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the CDC issued additional prevention guidelines for long-term care facilities. On April 11, the U.S. death toll became the highest in the world, reaching 20,000, surpassing Italy. On April 19, CMS implemented new rules requiring nursing homes to inform residents, their families, and representatives about COVID-19 cases in their facilities. On April 28, the total number of confirmed cases nationwide surpassed 1 million. As of May 2022, the United States has officially recorded more COVID-19 deaths than any other country, with the death toll reaching 1 million, and the U.S. death toll surpassing that of the Spanish flu pandemic, although the Spanish flu killed 1 in 150 Americans, while COVID-19 has killed 1 in 500 Americans. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy in the United States was cut by more than a year in 2020 and unemployment rose to its worst levels since the Great Depression. In 2021, life expectancy in the United States was cut by about half a year.
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an African American man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after police officer Derek Chauvin pinned his neck to the pavement with his knee. Floyd's death sparked widespread anti-racism protests. The protests included calls to defund the police under the slogan "Defund the police." On June 16, President Trump signed an executive order on police reform that should encourage police departments to recruit officers from the local communities they patrol, reduce the use of police violence, and prioritize the use of social workers and mental health workers over police officers.
Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Joe Biden and Senator
Kamala Harris defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Harris
is the first woman, the first black and Asian vice president, and Biden
became the oldest president when he took office. For the first time, the
election was held in compliance with sanitary measures related to the
spread of coronavirus infection, and mail-in voting became the main way
to cast a vote for one candidate or another.
Since the election,
Trump has repeatedly made statements about allegedly massive fraud in
the election, about the "stealing" of 2.7 million votes by Democrats.
On January 6, 2021, the Congress building was seized by Trump
supporters during the Electoral College vote count. This led to the
blocking of Donald Trump's Twitter account, and then all of the
Republican leader's social media accounts. There was also an additional
effort by Democrats to renew the campaign to remove President Trump from
office.
On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of the
United States. In the first days of his presidency, he reversed several
of Trump's executive orders: he stopped the withdrawal from the WHO and
the Paris Agreement on climate change, stopped the construction of a
wall on the border with Mexico, allowed citizens from several Muslim and
African countries to enter the United States, and canceled the
construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline at the request of
environmentalists. On March 2, he imposed sanctions on Russia for
allegedly attempting to poison Alexei Navalny in August 2020.
In
foreign policy, Biden oversaw the complete withdrawal of US troops from
Afghanistan (2021) and ended the war in Afghanistan, which led to the
fall of the Afghan government and the seizure of control by the Taliban.
In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine (2022), he imposed sanctions
on Russia and announced the provision of civilian and military aid to
Ukraine. During the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, Biden condemned the actions
of Hamas and other Palestinian militants as terrorism, announced
military support for Israel, and sent limited humanitarian aid to
Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.