1 History of USA

The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely populated lifestyles and towards reorganized polities elsewhere. The European colonization of the Americas began in the late 15th century, however most colonies in what would later become the United States were settled after 1600. By the 1760s, the thirteen British colonies contained 2.5 million people and were established along the Atlantic Coast east of the Appalachian Mountains. After defeating France, the British government imposed a series of taxes, including the Stamp Act of 1765, rejecting the colonists' constitutional argument that new taxes needed their approval. Resistance to these taxes, especially the Boston Tea Party in 1773, led to Parliament issuing punitive laws designed to end self-government. Armed conflict began in Massachusetts in 1775.

In 1776, in Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress declared the independence of the colonies as the "United States". Led by General George Washington, it won the Revolutionary War. The peace treaty of 1783 established the borders of the new nation. The Articles of Confederation established a central government, but it was ineffectual at providing stability as it could not collect taxes and had no executive officer. A convention wrote a new Constitution that was adopted in 1789 and a Bill of Rights was added in 1791 to guarantee inalienable rights. With Washington as the first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief adviser, a strong central government was created. Purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 doubled the size of the United States.

Encouraged by the notion of manifest destiny, the United States expanded to the Pacific Coast. While the nation was large in terms of area, its population in 1790 was only four million. Westward expansion was driven by a quest for inexpensive land for yeoman farmers and slave owners. The expansion of slavery was increasingly controversial and fueled political and constitutional battles, which were resolved by compromises. Slavery was abolished in all states north of the Mason–Dixon line by 1804, but states in the south continued the institution, to support the kinds of large scale agriculture that dominated the southern economy. The division of the country along these lines formed the major political issue of the first eight decades of the growth of the United States. Precipitated by the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860, the Civil War began as the southern states seceded from the Union to form their own pro-slavery country, the Confederate States of America. The defeat of the Confederates in 1865 led to the abolition of slavery. In the Reconstruction era following the war, legal and voting rights were extended to freed slaves. The national government emerged much stronger, and gained explicit duty to protect individual rights. However, when white southern Democrats regained their political power in the South in 1877, often by paramilitary suppression of voting, they passed Jim Crow laws to maintain white supremacy, as well as new state constitutions that legalized discrimination based on race and prevented most African Americans from participating in public life.

The United States became the world's leading industrial power at the turn of the 20th century, due to an outburst of entrepreneurship and industrialization and the arrival of millions of immigrant workers and farmers. A national railroad network was completed and large-scale mines and factories were established. Mass dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency, and traditional politics stimulated the Progressive movement, from the 1890s to the 1920s, leading to reforms, including the federal income tax, direct election of Senators, granting of citizenship to many indigenous people, alcohol prohibition, and women's suffrage. Initially neutral during World War I, the United States declared war on Germany in 1917 and funded the Allied victory the following year. After the prosperous Roaring Twenties, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the onset of the decade-long worldwide Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented his New Deal programs, including relief for the unemployed, support for farmers, Social Security, and a minimum wage. The New Deal defined modern American liberalism.[1] Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered World War II and financed the Allied war effort, and helped defeat Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in the European theater. Its involvement culminated in using newly American invented nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to defeat Imperial Japan in the Pacific War.

The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers in the aftermath of World War II. During the Cold War, the two countries confronted each other indirectly in the arms race, the Space Race, propaganda campaigns, and localized wars against communist expansion. In the 1960s, in large part due to the strength of the civil rights movement, another wave of social reforms was enacted which enforced the constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement to African Americans. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union was officially dissolved, leaving the United States as the world's sole superpower. Foreign policy after the Cold War has often focused on many modern conflicts in the Middle East, especially in response to the September 11 attacks. Early in the 21st century, the United States experienced the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a negative effect on the local economy.

The United States is the world's greatest economic power, measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The nation's wealth is partly a reflection of its rich natural resources and its enormous agricultural output, but it owes more to the country's highly developed industry. Despite its relative economic self-sufficiency in many areas, the United States is the most important single factor in world trade by virtue of the sheer size of its economy. Its exports and imports represent major proportions of the world total. The United States also impinges on the global economy as a source of and as a destination for investment capital. The country continues to sustain an economic life that is more diversified than any other on Earth, providing the majority of its people with one of the world's highest standards of living.

Hernán Cortés, a particularly brutal but capable leader, made his

way to the New World in 1504. He participated in the conquest of

Cuba and later commanded an expedition to the Yucatán, where he

heard stories of great wealth farther west among the Aztecs, who called

themselves Mexics. He set out with 500 men to find it. Montezuma,

the Aztec emperor, believed that Cortés was the god Quetzalcoatl returning to his country as foretold in Aztec mythology. To greet this

returning god, Montezuma sent him as an offering both food and a

huge disk the size of a wagon wheel in the shape of a sun and made of

solid gold. The Spanish realized that they had come upon unbelievable

wealth, and they meant to have it all. Sharp-witted and resourceful,

Cortés played the part of Quetzalcoatl and in 1519 captured Montezuma, who paid a handsome ransom for his release. With the help of

surrounding tribes who hated the Mexics, Cortés not only conquered

the Aztec Nation but also slaughtered the natives with his guns and

cannons. His conquest was also aided by the diseases his troops carried

Discovery and Settlement of the New World 7

with them, such as smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus, to which

the natives had no immunity.

The plunder the intruders seized from the Mexics inspired other

conquistadores to range up and down the continents, north, south,

east, and west, looking for precious metals. Francisco Pizarro, one such

adventurer in search of glory, was told about a civilization farther to the

south, in what is now Peru, that could provide the wealth he sought.

After several unsuccessful expeditions he gained the confidence of the

Emperor, Charles V of Spain, from whom he received support in exchange for one-fifth of all the treasure Pizarro discovered. In 1531 the

conquistador set out with several hundred men and discovered the Inca

civilization in Peru. He overwhelmed all resistance, murdered the

Emperor, Atahuallpa, and made off with a fortune in gold and silver.

These discoveries and the mines that produced such wealth enriched

Spain and financed its expansion as the powerhouse of Europe, but the

infusion of so much wealth into Spain also brought about inflation that

drove the price of goods upward to unprecedented levels.

Spaniards swarmed over the Americas. In 1565 the Spanish monarch

sent Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to establish settlements along the

North American coast. In September of that year Menéndez founded

St. Augustine in what is now Florida. It was the first permanent European settlement in North America. Colonies were also established in

the Caribbean, and in Central and South America, with viceroys appointed to represent the monarch and administer these colonies.

But absolute authority resided in the king, who ruled through the

Council of the Indies in Spain. The council members nominated officials and drafted the laws and rules by which the colonies were to be

governed.

Spanish society in the Americas consisted of several ranks. Those in

the highest rank had been born in Spain and were called peninsulares.

Next came those born in America of Spanish parents. They were known

as criollos, most of whom were landowners. These two groups formed

the upper class of society in New Spain. Those of mixed Spanish and

Indian blood were known as mestizos. Lower on the social and economic scale were the natives who had adopted Spanish life and culture

and constituted the broad laboring class. Next were the mulattoes,

those of mixed European and African blood.

Written by : Fahad Saif