Q5: The reasons, development and consequences of the war of independence.
After the 7-years war that cost England a lot of money its government tried to compensate the expanses by means of introduction of unpopular taxes in its colonies. England was afraid of the possible economic competition with American colonies, which were developing rapidly and tried to hamper this development. England is too far away from America, and all the events that occurred to its colonies had an inadequate reaction. 1764 – the quartering act obliged the colonists to house and feed English soldiers free of charge. In 1765 there was passed the stamp act – all the legal documents, newspapers, letters were to have a special tax stamp, which made the costs of this production much higher and caused violence in the colonies. The most famous slogan of that time was “No taxation without representation”. Under the pressure England had to abolish the stamp act, but instead introduced even more unpopular taxes. Among them: taxes on consumer goods (tea, coffee, tobacco and sugar). Moreover England forbade to expand the existing colonies to the west. 19th of December 1773 – the most famous example of protest – the Boston tea party. A group of colonists dressed as Indians boarded one of the ships loaded with tea in the port of Boston and threw out 342 crates of tea into the Atlantic ocean as a protest against high taxes on tea. As a response England closed the port of Boston for all the trade, which meant its actual isolation. As a response in 1774 in Philadelphia there met the first continental congress, the main decision of which was to boycott all English goods. On the 19th of April in 1775, 700 English soldiers were sent from Boston to Lexington to cease the arms depot of the colonists. Near the village of Concord they were met by a group of militia men and the first shots of the war of independence occurred there. The English soldiers had no problems to defeat militiamen, but on their way back to Boston they were surrounded by thousands of volunteers, and a local conflict turned into a full-scale war – the War of Independence. In May 1775 the second continental congress met in Philadelphia and began to act as practically the government of an independence state. In organized the army under the command of George Washington, it printed paper money, it opened relations with foreign countries, but the main thing was the preparation of the texts of the declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, which was adopted on the 4th of July in 1776. It took 8 years to win this independence. Read the text of the Declaration of Independence. Years 1775-1776 were unsuccessful to America, it lost New York and Boston, but little by little the situation changed, and the first great victory was celebrated in 1777 at Saratoga – present day state of New York. English general John Gorgoe to George Washington. After that victory France openly supported the Americans and sent them their fleet. In 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia, the English army under the command of general Corwallis was surrounded by the French fleet from the Atlantic ocean, and by the combined Franco-American army under the command of Washington and asked for peace. The peace treaty was signed in 1783 in Paris. According to it, the territory “south of Canada, north of Florida and east of the Rocky Mountains was proclaimed the United States of America”. In 1787 the American constitution was adopted. In 1789 the first US president was elected. In the year 1800 the capital of the country was moved to a newly-built town that was named after the first US president – Washington.
Q6 –The territorial expansion of the US in the 1st half of the 19th century.
After the War of Independence the USA began to develop rapidly and very soon it became obvious that it would need more territories to fulfill its development. The most important stages:
· in 1803 Napoleon getting ready for a possible war with England sold to the US for $15 mln a huge territory of Louisiana – “the Louisiana purchase” let the USA stretch from the Atlantic ocean to the Rocky mountains for the first time in its history;
· 1818 – Spain sold Florida to the USA;
· 1818 – the border between the US and Canada in the east was settled on the 49th parallel and it has existed there since;
· The territory of present-day Southern and South-Western states belonged to Mexico, which was a Spanish colony. People were dissatisfied with Mexican regime that was based on weak control from Spain. In 1835 Texas proclaimed its independence from Mexico and for 10 years it has been an independent republic – the Republic of Texas – until in 1845 it was invaded by the US. In 1846 the USA declared war on Mexico – within several month later made the government of Mexico sign a treaty according to which a huge territory in the south and southwest was sold to the USA for $15 mln which nowadays includes the following states: California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah. This event made the USA stretch between one ocean to the other for the first time.
· In 1848 after peaceful negotiations with Canada got a large territory in the north-west which now includes the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and the conterminous part of the USA was completed.
Q7 – The growing antagonism between the north and the south. The main events of the Civil War. The personality of Abraham Lincoln.
After the war of Independence the situation in the USA is marked by growing antagonism between the industrial north and the mainly agricultural south. The words of the Declaration of the Independence about liberty for all people meant nothing for 3 million African slaves. The majority of slaves lived in the south. In such states as South Carolina and Mississippi their number exceeded the number of whites. In such states as Alabama and Missouri their number were equal to the white. 3 million slaves were owned by 4 000 families, which had their lobby in the congress and made different obstacles to abolish slavery in country. A couple of congress decisions were promoted by the lobbists of slavery. In 1808 the congress passed a bill according to which the importation of slaves to America was forbidden. The real problems between the North and the South started when new states joined the Union and there was a question whether to introduce slavery in these states or not. To settle this problem in 1820 the Congress passed the famous Missouri compromise according to which slaver was allowed in the state of Missouri and Arkansas and forbidden everywhere else. The series of the following documents, however, very often contradicted the norms of the Missouri compromise and made numerous conflicts inevitable:
In 1850 the Congress forbade slavery in California and allowed the people of New Mexico and Utah to decide this issue by themselves, which led to a number of bitter clashes in the society. The same happened in 1854 in the state of Kansas and Nebraska, but the consequence was much bitter. In 1852 the famous Fugitive Slave Act was passed (Закон о Беглых Рабах) according to which the slave owners of the south got the right to recapture the slaves that managed to escape to free states. The response of literature to this document was the book “Unkle Tom’s Cabin” by Harrod Staw, which became the first American bestseller. To top it all in 1858 the Supreme Court of the US deprived all the African-Americans of citizenship and allowed slavery everywhere. Alongside with this processes the movement of abolitionists was in progress. It helped slaves escape to free states and to Canada by means of a very large network of secret routes known as “underground railroads”. Only in Ohio from 1830 to 1860 40000 slaves were saved. John Brown became a national hero of the USA for his attempt to organize a revolt against slavery in 1859. He and his supporters attacked the weapons depot and for two days held the fight against the soldiers of the regular army. He was captured and executed.
In 1854 the Republican party of the USA was formed. It was organized by people whose ideas were the abolition of slavery and the unity of the country. Its main leader of that time was Abraham Lincoln who became the 16th US president (1809-1865). He was born to a very poor family of farmer in Kentucky. His father was very kind to slaves and therefore hated by his rich neighbor and had to move to another state. Young Lincoln changed lots of jobs. He was a clark in a store, a raftsman of the Mississippi river, postmaster (very respectful position). In 1848 he passed his Law exams and soon a member of Congress. During different electoral campaigns Lincoln was famous for his speeches. In 1860 Lincoln won the elections and this became the push to the conflict because the southerners knew that the main idea of Lincoln was to abolish the slavery. Immediately after the elections South Carolina proclaimed its independence and was soon joined by 10 other southern states. They proclaimed to Confederate States of America with their capital in Richmond, Virginia, with their own president Jefferson Davis, with their own army under the command of General Robert Lee. After this in March 1861 during his speech Lincoln once again expressed his ideas on slavery and asked the 11 states to come back to the Union. On the 12th of April 1861 the southern army opened fire on the regular US troops in Fort Sumpter in the Port of Charleston, South Carolina. This was the first act of the civil war.
The South led a defensive war. At the beginning of the war the southerners managed the win a number of battles until 1862 the two armies met in Pennsylvania: the Northern army was led by General Sherman and General Grant, who later turned the US president. They met in Gettysburg where the larges battle of the civil war took place. It lasted for three days and caused 7000 victims. The North won that battle, and it was the turning point … ???
To commemorate the victims of Gettysburg battle Abraham Lincoln ordered the foundation of the Memorial Sanctuary there, where the warriors are buried. During the procedure of its opening, Lincoln pronounced his famous speech called the Gettysburg address in which he once again underlined the necessity of the abolition of slavery and the restoration of the union (not just 2 parts of separate Americas).
In 1862 Lincoln passed a Homestead act, which granted 1860 acres of land free of charge to everyone who was ready to work on it. In 1863, 1 January, the Emancipation Proclamation which granted freedom to all slaves regardless of the fact whether they were from the North of from the South. In 1864 Lincoln allowed the recruitment of African-Americans to the army of the North, which caused the mass inflow of African-American to the army of the North. In 1864 General Sherman led heavy battles in Georgia in the South, while General Grant cut the Southern army into two parts in Virginia and forced General Lee to give up Richmond in 1865. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox court house, which meant the end of the war.
On the 14th President Lincoln was assassinated by John Booth during the celebrations in the Theater of Washington.
The main results of the Civil War:
ñ slavery was finally abolished by Amendment 13 in the constitution of the USA in 1865;
ñ this war was the bloodiest in the history of the United States;
ñ never before and never after did America lose so many people in a war: 64000;
ñ this war finally showed that the USA could exist only as a united country, not a collection of semi-independent states;
ñ finally after the war the USA started rapid economic development so that by the beginning of the 20th century it became the leading industrial country in the world
Q8:The development of the USA after the civil war. The Monroe doctrine and the policy of expansionism. American imperialism on the beginning of the 20th century.
The period of the Civil War was marked by the rapid economic development in both parts of the country. As for the South, after the war it was devastated in need of rapid and concrete restoration. Was adopted by the US government – in 1855 – to 1877. During that period the main spheres of agriculture were restored and new industries were introduced. The South remained predominately rural, there was only one town with a population more than 100 000 people – New Orleans. The abolition of slavery was a very complicated matter. It didn't mean rapid changes in the attitude towards the black population. Although, certain changes occurred, for example, there were founded state legislative institutions, in which the black population took part. The white population of the South looked upon the former slaves as second-class people and introduced a number of black-codes. Segregation in schools, trains, everywhere. The most radical example was the activity of the infamous Ku Klux Klan. The member of the clan intimidated the blacks, murdered a lot of them, they introduced the so-called Lynch Law, according to which every African-American could be killed without any trial. The activities were suppressed by the government in 1872. Anyway there were many white who wanted to equal their rights at once, not gradually. Their attempts were opposed by president Johnson, who succeeded the presidency after Lincoln's assassination. As for the North industry made good progress in every sphere, i.e. in 1869 the first trans-continental railroad was opened and by the end of the 19th century the total mileage of the railroad was more than 300 000 kilometers. In Chicago Louis Sullivan introduced steel-frame construction which was used in the building of skyscrapers. Alexander Bell invented telephone, Thomas Edison invented electric bulb lamp, phonograph, the car engine were also invented, as well as the moving picture. In 1893 Henry Ford represented the idea of the first automobile. The industrial development caused the appearance of the first “masters of capital”. John Rockefeller – Oil Magnate. Andrew Carnegie was dealing with iron and steel industry. Vanderbilt and Stanford – railroad magnates. By the the beginning of the 20th century the USA became the top 1 industrial country in the world. The thing that bothered the American capital, the USA was the late-come in the world colonial system made undertake a number of steps.
The Monroe Doctrine. In 1823 the 5th US president James Monroe in his address to the congress pointed out a number of positions, known today as the Monroe doctrine. According to it, the USA claimed its exclusive right to dominate on the American continent and all the attempts of the European countries to claim certain territories of America were considered the act of hostility towards the USA. As for the end of the 19th century, the USA began its expansion with Alaska and Hawaii. In 1867 at the instigation of the US secretary of State William Seward the USA bought a huge territory of Alaska from Russia. Initially this purchase was highly criticized in mass media. With the discovery of huge deposits of oil and gas though this criticism quickly faded. In 1898 the USA simply conquered Hawaiian island with its precious Pearl Harbor. The real interest of the USA laid in the Spanish colonies. The most important was Cuba. In 1898 when the US battleship Maine was blown up in Havana under mysterious circumstances the USA declared war on Spain which lasted for ten weeks only and ended with the treaty of Paris, according to which the USA got the following territories under its control: Puerto-Rico, Cuba, Guam and the Fillipines. Although Cuba was proclaimed independent republic it was a complete economic colony of the US. In Cuba the US formed its military base in Guantanamo Bay, which remains the property of the USA till this very day. China became another object of American interest. At the beginning of the 20th century the USA declared the so-called Open Door Policy to China., claiming its rights to take part in political and economic processes there. Two was how it was carried out:
Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft
- Dollar diplomacy, which means huge investments into the economy of a certain territory until it becomes totally dependent on them. If dollar diplomacy didn't help:
- The Big Stick policy, for example, before the IWW the USA developed an idea of building the canal that would connect who oceans and make the US navy more flexible and more dangerous than the Brittish one. The problem was that the narrow piece of land belonged to the Republic of Columbia, which refused to sell it, because the conditions were discriminatory. The USA in response supported the uprising in Columbia, there appeared a pupped of state – the republic of panama – which gladly gave this land to the USA.
The period of American imperialism