1. A Brief History of the USA
Unit Two
History
Lesson 4
A Brief History of the USA
A Brief History of the USA

2. The historic periods of the USA
Pre-Colonial America
English Colonial America ( )
Forming of the USA ( )
The Civil War ( )
Rapid Growth of Economy ( )
A Brief History of the USA

3. Pre-Colonial America Who were the very first Americans?
The present-day United States was originally populated by people migrating from Asia via the Bering land bridge starting some 20,000 years ago.
These people became the indigenous people who inhabited the Americas before the arrival of European explorers and who are now called Native Americans.
A Brief History of the USA

4. Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was the first European to set foot on what would one day become U.S. territory when he came to Puerto Rico in He thought he had reached India, so he named the local people Indians, not knowing that he had discovered a New Continent.
The Spain grabbed enormous wealth from the Indians.
A Brief History of the USA

5. Amerigo Vespucci
He proved that the land was not India, therefore the land was named America after him.
A Brief History of the USA

6. English Colonial America (1067-1776)
The first English colony in the Americas was founded at Jamstown, Virginia in (organized by the London company)
A Brief History of the USA

7. The Second settlement
In 1620, Puritans—the Pilgrim Fathers sailed for Virginia aboard the ship Mayflower.
Reason to flee from England:
to avoid the religious persecution
Landed in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
A Brief History of the USA

8. Puritans Intolerant moralism
American values (individualism, hard work, respect of education)
A Brief History of the USA

9. Catholic Maryland (the third settlement)
Lord Baltimore have his feudal plan executed.
Quaker Pennsylvania (the fourth colonial place)
William Penn
Experiment
The spirit of liberty and equality
The idea of the melting-pot was first practiced here.
Influence Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
A Brief History of the USA

10. Forming of the USA (1776-1849) The War of Independence
The prelude
---13 colonies (desired more power to determine their own business),
---the British government (collect more taxes from the colonies.)
conflict
repealed in 1766
A Brief History of the USA

11. ---This took away the tea business from American tea merchants.
---the British government (sell tea at a lower price in the colonies through its own people.)
---This took away the tea business from American tea merchants.
--- the famous Boston Tea Party in 1773 which was considered as the prelude of the War of Independence.
A Brief History of the USA

12. The War of Independence
---In September 1774, the First Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia, which encouraged Americans to refuse to buy British goods. Colonial militia units were oraganized.
---The shot at Lexington on April 19, 1775 started the War of Independence.
A Brief History of the USA

13. The Second Continental Congress
Held in Philadelphia in May 1775
Assume the functions of a national government
Founding Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington.
Printing paper money and opening diplomatic relations with foreign
powers.
A Brief History of the USA

14. The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson.
A Brief History of the USA

15. Process of the War
Q. How did the war develop? And which battle marked the turning point of the war?
It dragged on for seven years.
Obstacles for the continental army:
No enough supplies.
Tired and hungry, while British troops fresh and well-equipped.
By the middle of December, 1776, the Revolution seemed lost.
The victory at Saratoga (1777, October)—turning point.
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A Brief History of the USA 15

16. On October 19, 1781, the British general Cornwallis was forced to surrender, the war came to an end.
The two parts signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783—America won its independence
A Brief History of the USA

17. The Establishment of Constitution
On May 25, 1787, the constitution was drafted.
In June 1789, the constitution came into effect in nine states.
Ten amendments—The Bill of Rights—were added to the Constitution in 1791.
George Washington became the first President of the United States.
A Brief History of the USA

18. 3.1 Causes of Civil War
Q. What was the essential cause of the Civil War?
1) Economic reason:
two different economic systems
2) Political reason
The North— Federal Government as a union
The South— The Confederate Government: the independence of each state
A Brief History of the USA

19. The Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861
The Civil War broke out on April 12, President Abraham Lincoln won support for the Union at home and abroad by making the war a just war against slavery.
A Brief History of the USA

20. 3.3 The Fierce War Challenges Abraham Lincoln faced:
first priority—keeping the United States one country
freedom for black people—secondary objective
He issued the famous Emancipation Proclaimation.
A Brief History of the USA

21. Gettysburg—turning point of the war
Union army defeated one Confederate army
Gettysburg’s address on 1863
A Brief History of the USA

22. The Thirteenth Amendment
After a series of battles, the Confederate army surrended on April 9, 1865, and five days later Lincoln was shot dead by actor John Wilkes Booth.
In December, the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery, was added to the Constitution.
The Thirteenth Amendment
A Brief History of the USA

23. 4.2 Post WWI to the 1940s The booming 1920s
The 1920s election—the first for women voted for a presidential candidate.
prevailing prosperity
A Brief History of the USA

24. In 1929 the stock market crashed.
4.2 Post WWI to the 1940s
The Great Depression
In 1929 the stock market crashed.
Core of the problem—immense disparity between the productive capacity and the ability of people to consume
A Brief History of the USA

25. 4.2 Post WWI to the 1940s Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal
In 1933 Roosevelt rallied the people to the banner of his program, known as the “New Deal”.
It helped the country get out of the depression
“fireside chat”
A Brief History of the USA