The History of the USA Timeline and Key Concepts PDF

The History of the USA timeline and key concepts Pre-Columbian Era (prior to the coming of Christopher Columbus) - Native Americans, Vikings and other tribes and civilizations (i.e., Aztec, Maya, Inca…) - “Currently, about 2.9 million people id...

The History of the USA timeline and key concepts Pre-Columbian Era (prior to the coming of Christopher Columbus) - Native Americans, Vikings and other tribes and civilizations (i.e., Aztec, Maya, Inca…) - “Currently, about 2.9 million people identify themselves as Native American alone, while an additional 2.3 million identify them as Native American mixed with another ethnic group” The Age of Discovery (the old world vs the New World) - 12 October 1492 = discovery of America by Columbus → Columbus’s day - not discovery but conquest or encounter (because America was already inhabited by various cultures and civilizations) - mistakenly believing that he had landed in the East Indies, Columbus named the indigenous people “Indians” The Age of Exploration (1500s - 1800s) - Colonialism = European settlers from Spain, Portugal, England, Italy, France (first settlements) - America as land of opportunity: new horizons, new navigation routes, new sources of wealth and new products - brutal relations between European colonists and Native Americans → destruction of the indigenous population (killed by Europeans or dead from diseases brought by Europeans). Today, Native American cultural groups are striving to preserve and maintain old traditions to keep them from being lost forever 1565 - first permanent European settlement in North America, St Augustine (present-day Florida), founded by the Spanish (Spain’s goals: conquer, convert or become rich) 1607 - Jamestown (Virginia) → King James I - economic reasons - founded by English settlers, who begin growing tobacco 1620 - Plymouth (New England, now Massachusetts) - religious reasons  - founded by the Pilgrim Fathers (aboard the Mayflower) → a radical Puritan faction - in 1621 the Pilgrims shared a harvest feast with the Pokanokets (Native Americans) to celebrate the harvest and their survival → first Thanksgiving - today: Thanksgiving is on the third Thursday of November (national holiday) 17th and early 18th centuries - 13 colonies (from Massachusetts in the north to Georgia in the south = 1,600 km of coastline) - diversity among the colonies (economy, religion…) - administered by a royal governor (+British troops) 17th - 18th centuries - Atlantic slave trade - slavery = the treatment of human beings as property, deprived of personal rights - hundreds of thousands of Africans brought to America and sold into slavery to work on cotton and tobacco plantations (southern coast) → dehumanization, mistreatment, abuse - a lot of them died during the journey (lack of hygiene and diseases, thrown overboard for being sick or as discipline, committed suicide or starved themselves to avoid further suffering) 1775 - 1783 - War of Independence / War of Revolution - the British increased taxes in the colonies (i.e., Stamp Act in 1765) → Boston Tea Party (1773) = the colonists dumped a cargo of British tea into Boston harbor in protest at the Crown's attempt at taxation → strong desire for independence - 13 colonies vs motherland England (King George III), American ‘Patriots’ vs pro-British ‘Loyalists’ - George Washington leads the Continental Army to fight against British rule - Treaty of Paris (1783) = the British Crown formally recognized its former colonies as a new and independent nation: the United States of America 4 July 1776 - Declaration of Independence - first formal statement by a nation’s people asserting their right to choose their own government - a five-man committee (including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin) met in Philadelphia to discuss American independence - the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4 (national holiday)  - “all men are created equal” → the Declaration was a document celebrating liberty and equality, but completely ignoring the reality of slavery - “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” 1787 - Constitution - “We The People” (motto) - purpose: to form a stable political system - Founding Fathers → leaders who initiated the Revolutionary War and framed the Constitution (“without them, there would be no United States of America”). The term "Founding Fathers" was first used in 1916 by Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States - however… the nation that the Founding Fathers created ensured that the rights of white, property-owning men were protected, but ignored the rights of black people, natives and women - in 1790 all thirteen states approve the Constitution - basic principles such as popular sovereignty, republicanism, separation of powers, federalism, individual rights… 1789 - George Washington elected first president of USA 1791 - Bill of Rights → guarantees civil liberties 1808 - Atlantic slave trade abolished (but slavery still present) 1830 - Indian Removal Act - relocation of Indians - Trail of Tears = march of thousands of indians 1854 - opponents of slavery, or abolitionists, set up Republican Party - Abolitionist Movement → to abolish slavery, led by free Black people and white supporters - the Underground Railroad = enslaved people were helped to escape from southern plantations to the North via a network of safe houses 1860 - Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln elected president → he wanted to keep the United States united as one country 1861 - 1865 - Civil War (The War Between the States) - eleven pro-slavery southern states secede from Union and form Confederate States of America, triggering civil war with abolitionist northern states (North = The Union vs South = The Confederacy)  - causes: economic differences between north (manufacturing and industry) and south (farming), slavery, westward expansion… - in 1863 Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State…in rebellion,…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free” - in 1865 the Confederates were defeated (readmitted to the United States), slavery was abolished under Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer after the Civil War - Reconstruction Era - Civil War = the deadliest war ever fought on American soil - the south was devastated (roads, farms, and factories in ruins) - thousands of men had been killed 1870 - Black people could vote (Fifteenth Amendment) 1917-1918 - WWI 1920 - Women could vote (Nineteenth Amendment) 1924 - Indian Citizenship Act - citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. (but until 1957, some states barred Native Americans from voting) 20s - Roaring Twenties - urbanization (more people in cities than on farms), consumerism (people spent money on goods such as clothing, movies, home appliances, automobiles…), modern society, progress - Jazz Age (hedonism, excitement, dance, jazz bands, parties… i.e., The Great Gatsby by F.S. Fitzgerald) - Prohibition Era = the 18th Amendment (1919) banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors” → people simply went to illegal speakeasies, where liquor was controlled by organized crime figures (i.e., Chicago gangster Al Capone) - Red Scare = anti-Communist movement + Ku Klux Klan (KKK) = American white supremacist terrorist organizations and hate groups whose primary targets were African Americans 29 October 1929 - Wall Street Crash (Black Tuesday) - stocks in great excess of their real value → billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors  - Great Depression = economic crisis → bank failures, decreased industrial production, unemployment, farm foreclosures (Dust Bowl = southern plains suffered severe dust storms during a drought in the 1930s, people and livestock were killed and crops failed) - in 1933 President Franklin D Roosevelt launches the "New Deal" recovery programme to restore prosperity 7 December 1941 - Pearl Harbor Attack by Japan - more than 2,000 people killed and the Pacific fleet seriously damaged - surprise attack → “a day which will live in infamy” (F.D. Roosevelt) 8 December 1941 - President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan → WWII 6 and 9 August 1945 - Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks - atomic bombs (Oppenheimer) - between 150,000 and 246,000 people killed (most of whom were civilians) - Japan surrenders → end of WWII 1947 - 1991 - Cold War - a period of geopolitical tension, a sense of mutual distrust and enmity that never developed into open warfare (hence the term “cold” war) - USA (capitalism) vs Soviet Union (communism) → the two superpowers - the Arms race (the hydrogen bomb, threat of nuclear destruction) and the Space race (Soviet Union = Sputnik, first artificial satellite, Laika, first dog, Yuri Gagarin, first man, Valentina Tereshkova, first woman but USA = Neil Armstrong, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission → first man on the moon, 1969) - Red Scare and McCarthyism = the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of alleged communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United States - 1950 - 1953 Korean War (north, backed by the Soviets vs south, backed by the Americans) → the Korean peninsula remains divided today - 1955 - 1975 Vietnam war (communist North Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh and Viet Cong - vs South Vietnam, backed by the U.S.) → proxy war = war fought between groups or smaller countries that each represent the interests of other larger powers, and may have help and support from these. In 1975, communist forces seize the capital of South Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam surrenders. North and South Vietnam are formally unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (communist rule).  Devastating consequences for American soldiers who fought the Vietnam War → PTSD, hostile mood at home (anti-war movements in the USA), no government support… - Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961) and Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) → dispute between USA and Soviet Union on Cuban territory - Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), disintegration of the Soviet Union (1991) → end of the Cold War 60s - Civil Rights Movement - progress but also discrimination → desire of African Americans to win the equality and freedom (examples of civil rights: the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to a public education and the right to use public facilities) - nonviolent protests and civil disobedience - Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) → black woman who refused to give her seat on the bus to a white passenger. After her arrest, King organized a boycott of the city’s buses - Martin Luther King and the March on Washington (1963) → 250,000 people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in a show of unity and support. King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. After the march, King and other march organizers met with Kennedy and Vice President Johnson at the White House to discuss the need for support for civil rights legislation → Civil Right Act (1964) = aims to halt discrimination on grounds of race, color, religion, nationality - J.K. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and King in 1968 - today: Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement → born in 2013 from the need to tackle police brutality against Black Americans 11 September 2001 - Twin Towers Attack - series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda (leader: Osama bin Laden) against targets in the United States → the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history - 2 planes into the Twin Towers (New York), 1 plane into the Pentagon (Washington D.C.), 1 plane in a field in Pennsylvania → thousands of people killed - U.S. president: George W. Bush following the attack - War on Terror (GWOT = Global War on Terrorism)  - the attacks caused extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous U.S. effort to combat terrorism (main targets: militant Islamist movements like Al-Qaeda, Taliban and their allies) - invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq 2008 November - Democratic Senator Barack Obama becomes the first black president of the United States 2011 - 2014 US troops are pulled out of Afghanistan → end of the war (Obama) today - USA are more divided than ever - political, economic and social problems - melting pot = various immigrant groups tend to “melt together,” abandoning their individual cultures and eventually becoming fully assimilated into the predominant society (multiculturalism) vs salad bowl = integration of different cultures while maintaining their separate identities (interculturalism) → in the salad bowl model, different cultures are brought together - like salad ingredients - but do not form together into a single homogeneous culture, each culture keeps its own distinct qualities - different opinions on the American Dream = the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved; every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life