Ties to the British Empire. The unification of the British colonies. The great Awakening. From unity to revolution
US deserts
Great Basin-between the Wasatch Range on the east and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range on the west. Mojave Desert, arid region in southern California, part of the Great Basin. Sonoran Desertis a large, low, arid region lying primarily in southwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and northwestern Mexico. The desert supports numerous Native American reservations and United States military bases and air force and gunnery ranges.Natural hazards: tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around the Pacific Basin.
Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the American South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers.Some parts of the American West, including San Francisco, California, have a Mediterranean climate. The humid East and the arid West. Winters in the northern part are very cold with much snowfall. In the southern part, rainfall is plentiful; summers are very hot but winters are mild. America leads the world in the production of phosphate, an important ingredient in fertilizers, and ranks second in gold, silver, copper, lead, natural gas, and coal. Petroleum production is third in the world. US hasthe following natural resources: coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber. The nation’s three chief mineral products are fuels.
3. Native Americans: their origin, their ancient and present history.
Migration began more than 20,000 years ago. In 11th century Scandinavians traveled to North America. Then the 1st recorded voyage - in 1497 Italian navigator John Carbot(sailed to Newfoundland).
Christopher Columbus, 1492, The names applied to Native Americans are (also Original Americans, Aboriginal Peoples, Aboriginal Americans, American Indians, Amerindians),
They lived scattered across the continent in small bands called tribes. They were fine craftsworkers, made pottery, baskets, carvings and wove cotton and plant-fiber cloth. They had reached a level of culture: personal wealth, fine buildings and religious.
The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. Up to 80% of some Native populations may have died due to European diseases and many tribes and cultures were completely eliminated.
In the 20th century the situation with Native Americans has changed. The Government was becoming proud of its diverse population and to try to compensate them for the unfair treatment they had received before. In 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, according to which all the Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States were declared to be citizens.
Current status of Native Americans. Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, slavery ,health problems include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease, diabetes, and New World Syndrome.
1970s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
In the state of Virginia, Native Americans face a unique problem. Virginia has no federally recognized tribes. Most Native American communities have established court systems.
One third of the Native Americans in the United States live in three states: California, Arizona and Oklahoma.
4.European colonization of North America. Two main reasons of English migration to America.
16th century the first Englishmen. Purpose: the hope of finding gold. At the beginning of the colonial period there was a strong pull to come to America for its possible imperial riches.
The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. up to 80% of some Native populations may have died due to European diseases and many tribes and cultures were completely eliminated. Originally, keeping Native Americans as slaves was tried, but eventually almost all slaves were blacks. The first African slaves arrived in the present day United States in 1526.
In North America the French, Dutch and even Russian colonists established rudimentary societies and, more importantly, elaborate trading networks, only the English established colonies of agricultural settlers, whose interests in Native Americans was less about trade than about the acquisition of land.
English migrants
The 1 reason was tied to the English Reformation. King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church in the 1530s. Appearance of Protestants or puritans. They fled from religious repression in England. Puritans came to America seeking religious freedom or in other words “religious domination”. They hoped that America would be a “redeemer nation”. Purit. social ideal- “nation of saints” or the “City upon a Hill”.
The 2 reason for English colonization was that land in England had become scarce.The population of England doubled from 1530-1680. Landholders evicted tenants from their land – a growing number of young, unemployed, often desperate people. They migrate to America as workers, servants. In Am. were a few eligible women to start the families with.
The Colony of Roanoke, resulted in failure – the lost colony of Roanoke (people were lost; discovered only mysterious word on a tree CROATOAN). England made its first successful efforts only at the start of the 17th century.
Four regions in the lands that became the eastern United States: New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay and the Southern Colonies. The frontier – the fifth colony.
5.Africans and the economic value of plantation slavery for the U.S. development
The first African slaves arrived in the present day United States in 1526. Between 1619 and 1808 about 500,000 Africans were brought to the colonies as slaves. Africans also brought the skills and trades of their homeland to North America, without the skills of Africans and their descendants, the rice fields of South Carolina and Louisiana might never have existed.
The poets Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes, jazz -the popular music. Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton
“Uncle Tom”. It is used by blacks as a derogatory (humiliating) term for members of their race. The real “Uncle Tom” was Josiah Henson ( 1789-?), a slave who escaped with his family via the Underground railroad and later attained economic success , he used part of the profits to open a manual training school; helped 118 other slaves escape to freedom.
Racism
Freedom in the wake of the Civil War was a first step in eradicating this prejudice. The civil rights era of the mid-20th century saw even more advancement, but prejudice against black Americans has not been entirely eliminated. On 18 December 1865 the outlaw of slavery.
The most prominent advocate and activist of African American civil rights was Reverend Martin Luther King. He is one of the most significant leaders in U.S. history and in the modern history of nonviolence, and is considered a hero, peacemaker.
6.Colonial America. Early colonial attempts (the Chesapeake, Puritan New England, the Pilgrims, the Middle Colonies, the Middle Colonies, etc.).
Colonial America
the 16th century. The first attempts, notably the Colony of Roanoke, resulted in failure. four regions in the lands that later became the eastern United States: New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay and the Southern Colonies. Also the frontiers.
Early colonial attempts
The Chesapeake Bay region. The first truly successful colony-the Virginia colony or James Town (on the James River). In 1607, in a region called Virginia (after Queen Eliz. I –“virgin Queen”). The venture was financed and coordinated by a joint stock company - the London Virginia Company. Searching for gold-jewelers, goldsmiths, aristocrats. They wanted individual wealth – colonies were unstable and unprofitable. Only a third of the colonists survived the first winter (the starving winter). Some turned to cannibalism. John Smith had saved the colony. John Rolfe married Pocahontas. Tobacco cultivation – cash crop. Social decentralization-few churches as religious and social centres, unmarried men, plantation were separated from each other by miles.
New England
demanded greater church reform and elimination of Catholic elements remaining in the Church of England. But whereas the Pilgrims sought to leave the Church of England, the Puritans wanted to reform it and to set a holy community.
The Pilgrims
At first they went to the Netherlands- dissatisfied with heavy Dutch influence and poor economic conditions. These men and women, sailed to America on the Mayflower, they drew up the Mayflower Compact, by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance. Most of the settlers died of starvation, including the leader, John Carver the first elected colonial governor. In 1621 the colonists enlisted the aid of Squanto and Samoset ( 2 amer.-ind. who learned to speak some English). They established good relationship with Indians-they helped them. They celebrated Thanksgiving Day and invited Indians.
The Puritans
Established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. reform the Anglican Church by creating a new, pure church in the New World. The "Great Migration” – 2000 people migrate. It is a common myth in modern American society that the Puritans came to America seeking religious freedom. They did not seek to establish toleration in America. The Puritan social ideal - "nation of saints". Puritan society was by no means a democracy. It was quite politically liberal. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson didn’t agree with the strict rules of massach. ministers – they were forced to leave massach. with followers. Started a new colony of Rhode Island- became a haven for other religious refugees.
Socially they were tightly knit. Family, marriage and wellbeing of the community – the most important thing.
Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Individual farmers. Became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center.
The Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York (first name New Amsterdam), Pennsylvania, the three counties of Delaware, and Maryland were characterized by a large degree of diversity - religious, political, economic, and ethnic.
New Netherlands 1664 – became a part of New York colony (after Duke of York, brother of engl.king). He gave some land to his friends- new colony- New Jersey.
W. Penn-Pennsylvania 1682, he belong to small relig. group – friends or Quakers(Penns.- freedom for them). Penn signed many peace agreement with Indians. 1701 a part of Penns. became Delaware – new idea – build cabins made of logs.
Philadelphia the largest city in the colony. Trade b\n New England and west Indies prospered.
The South- The Carolinas and Virginia, Georgia + Maryland(after Queen Mary)-1634 1st Catholics settled in America. leader Lord Baltimore. Then came puritans. L.B. settled a law that allows people to worship as they pleased. South of Maryland-Virginia-south of Virginia-Carolina. Charleston ( King Charles II). 1712- North and South Carolina. The 13th colony – Georgia (King George II) - (founder James Oglethorpe – had studied prisons in England). First town – Savannah. By 1750 their were more slaves in the south.
Ties to the British Empire. The unification of the British colonies. The great Awakening. From unity to revolution
By 1733 English settlers had founded 13 colonies along the Atlantic Coast, from New Hampshire in the North to Georgia in the South.Although each of the British colonies was strikingly different from the others, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries several events and trends took place that brought them together. One event that began to unify the religious background of the colonies was the Great Awakening, a Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s. It began with Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict Calvinist roots and to reawaken the fear of God. Those attracted to their messages called themselves the "New Lights," and those who did not were called the "Old Lights." One manifestation of the conflict between the two sides was the establishment of a number of universities. The Great Awakening was perhaps the first truly "American" event, and considered to be small step towards the unification of the colonies. French-Indian war 1754-1763 increased sense of American unity.
Although the American colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the British empire. Socially, the colonial elite of Boston, New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia saw its identity as British. Many of the political structures of the colonies drew upon various English political traditions, mainly Whig traditions(king-governor, The House of commons-colonial assembly, The house of Lords-Governor’s council). Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods.
The general sentiment of injustice arose soon by the Royal Proclamation of 1763: a prohibition against settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, on land which had been recently captured from France. By the 1720s most colonies had an elected assembly and an appointed governor. Contests between the two were common, with governors generally exercising greater power in the northern colonies and assemblies had more power in the south.
The Sugar and Currency acts in 1764. The Sugar Act strengthened the customs service, it was designed to raise revenue. The Currency Act forbade colonies to issue paper money. The Stamp Act, which required all legal documents, licenses, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, dice, and playing cards to carry a tax stamp. In 1767 a new chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend drew up new taxes on imports (tea, lead, paper, glass, paint) that Americans could receive only from Britain ( tea party). The Townshend Acts were meant not only to tax the colonies but also to exert British authority.