Discovery

DISCOVERY

There were 2-18 million Native Americans living in the current U.S .areas at the beginning of European colonization (devastating effect of European diseases / smallpox)diverse customs (farming, hunting, gathering + cultivation of maize + other food supplies: close ties to the land)

1st Europeans to arrive in North America = Norse (Greenland, Erik the Red)

around the year 1000, Leif Ericson + Icelandic Vikings reached the Eastern coast of North America - no permanent settlements

15th century Europe: need for increased trade (spices, textiles, dyes from the Far East) Christopher Columbus (Italian mariner) landed in the Caribbean looking for a Western route to Asia 1492

Further explorationsJohn Cabot (1497; Venetian in service of the British king)

- Juan Ponce de Leon (1513; Spanish) - Florida coast

(1522 conquest of Mexico)

-Amerigo Vespucci (Italian account of his voyages to The New World 1529: first maps) America

-Hernando de Soto - Florida + South-Eastern U.S., Mississippi (1539)

-Giovanni da Verrazano (Florentine) North Carolina (1524) + North, along Atlantic coast (past todays New York harbor)

-Jacques Cartier (beginning of French claims to North America)

-1578: Humphrey Gilbert patent from Queen Elizabeth I to colonize heathen and barbarous lands in the New World brother Walter Raleigh

-1585: first British colony Roanoke Island (North Carolina) abandoned

Reasons -search of wealth (stories of gold European sovereigns claim as much territory as possible)

-zeal of Spanish priests to convert indigenous inhabitants to Christianity

-European religious + political dissenters need for refuge from persecution in their homelands;

-thirst for adventure

First (European) colonies/ Settlement

-1607: 1st success -Jamestown, Virginia (King James I Virginia Company hope to make a profit from the settlement)

-early hardships (2/3 of colonists died during first winter hunger + disease)

-Jamestown endured and became Americas first permanent English colony (tobacco trade and shipping begins in 1614)

16th century: the Puritans wanted to reform the Established Church of England (it had too many practices from Roman Catholic church, while they needed simpler Protestant forms of faith and worship)

1607 the Dutch granted them asylum (BUT lower paid jobs, discrimination)

1620: a group of Puritans (The Pilgrims) crossed the Atlantic on board The Mayflower settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts

The first American settlement based upon social contract (laws + own civil government) = The Mayflower Compact

1630 John Winthrop (with a grant from King Charles I) larger Puritan colony (Massachusetts Bay):

BOSTON - a city upon a hill = the ideal community (in strict accordance with Puritan beliefs a model of intolerant moralism) the center of American Puritanism

- Boston Latin = the nations oldest public school (1635)

-Harvard = the nations oldest college (Cambridge 1636)

-first public library (1653);

-first newspaper in the colonies: Newsletter (1704)

The largest, wealthiest + most influential American city until 1760s

Roger Williams (clergyman) disagreed with the communitys decisions (he thought that the state should not interfere with religion and had objections to the colonys seizure of Indian lands)

1635 Rhode Island colony (religious freedom, separation of church and state)

Other colonies

Religious tolerance: Maryland (1634 refuge for Roman Catholics), Pennsylvania (1681 Germans, Quakers; William Penn), Delaware (refuge for Swedes)

Dutch settlers began settlement on the Island of Manhattan in the early 1620s (in 1624, the island is reportedly purchased from the local Indians for $24) renamed New Amsterdam (1664= captured by English and its name changes to New YORK )

1619 1st African slaves arrived in Virginia the system of slavery begins to develop (North and South Carolina: large tobacco and rice plantations)

1634 Massachusetts Bay + Plymouth + Connecticut + New Haven form the New England Confederation (the first attempt at regional unity for defense purposes)

A mixture of different cultures was already taking shape

by 1770: growing urban centers Philadelphia (The City of Brotherly Love 28,000 inhabitants), New York, Boston, Charleston

no feudal aristocracy, every free man had the opportunity to achieve economic independence/prosperity

By 1733, English settlers had established 13 colonies along Atlantic coast

(Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.)

The SEVEN YEARS WAR

the French controlled Canada + Louisiana (= the entire Mississippi watershed) ceaseless Wars between France and Britain (1689-1815)1754/6-1763: The Seven Years War (The French and Indian War):

William Pitt (the British Prime-Minister) invested France lost its territories in America (Canada, the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley)

1763: Peace of Paris - Britain became entitled to Canada + all North America east of Mississippi

CONFLICTS

conflicts between Britain and its colonies (they wanted more freedom + self-government)

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 reserved all Western territory (Allenghenies, Florida, Mississippi River, Quebec) to use by Native Americans (to prevent the colonies westward expansion and to avoid Indian wars)

- it was perceived as sheer disregard of the colonists rights

The new financial policy of the British Government (needed money to support the Empire)

1. The Sugar Act (1764) - increased duties on imported sugar + textiles, coffee, wines and indigo. It doubled the duties on foreign goods reshipped from England to the colonies + forbade the import of foreign rum and French wines;

2. The Currency Act (1764) - prohibiting colonists from issuing any legal tender paper money threatened to destabilize entire colonial economy of both the industrial North and the agricultural South, thus uniting the colonists against it;

3. The Quartering Act (1765) - required colonies to provide the royal troops with provisions and barracks

4. The Stamp Act (1765) (all printed materials were going to be taxed, including: newspapers, pamphlets, bills, legal documents, licenses, almanacs, dice and playing cards) - eventually nullified.

(groundless) fears that the new taxes would make trading difficult (the colonists wanted to have their own control)The British troops might crush civil liberties (while the colonists went there to escape political repression)

1765 The Stamp Act Congress (gathered representatives from 9 colonies) in New York decided to send a resolution to King George II + English Parliament [slogan: no taxation without representation]

The Act was repealed BUT it was soon replaced by the Townshend Acts 1767:

tax on tea + other goods

Customs officers + British soldiers were sent to Boston to collect

March 5, 1770: 5 Bostonians were killed (The Boston Massacre) the taxes were removed

1773: the East India Company was granted monopoly on exported tea

The Boston Tea Party (disguised as Indians, patriots boarded a British merchant ship + threw all the tea overboard)

Patriots (wanted to break free from the British Empire) Loyalists (were loyal to the Crown)

British Parliament condemned the acts (as vandalism)

passed The Intolerable/ Restraining/ Coercive Acts

(in order to restrain the independence of the Massachusetts colonial government, more British soldiers were sent to Boston port which was closed to shipping)

September 1774: The First Continental Congress (Philadelphia)

focused on the colonists rights (to life, liberty, property)

intention to boycott British trade (all English imports) + place an embargo on exports to Britaindecision to discontinue slave trade

plan to organize militias, collect and store weapons and ammunition

The AMERICAN REVOLUTION

April 19, 1775 the battles of Lexington and Concord (British soldiers American militiamen)

The AMERICAN WAR of INDEPENDENCE

(the British easily captured Lexington and Concord but were harassed by volunteers:

In June 10,000 American soldiers besieged Boston

(-the British were forced to evacuate the city in March 1776)

in May 1775: The Second Continental Congress Philadelphia

assumes the functions of a national government

establishes the Continental Army and Navy: colonel George Washington of Virginia (planter) = commander-in-chief (high number of casualties and retreat in their first attempts)

prints paper money, opens diplomatic relations with foreign powers

Thomas Paine Common Sense (pamphlet that played an important part in persuading the colonists to take the path of revolution)

Main ideas/ claims:

governments, even good ones, are at best necessary evils: they are less desirable the farther the government is from the governedignoring the loyalty many Americans still felt for the King, he argued ardently for independence; saw monarchy as an absurd form of government; George III = a Royal Bruteit made no sense for a small country like Britain (island) to rule a continent like Americaindependence would foster peace and prosperity: independent America would avoid senseless European wars and grow rich by trading with all countries (not just the mother-country)

May 10, 1776 the resolution calling for separation is adopted (Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: the United Colonies are and ought to be free and independent states!)

a committee of 5, headed by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia is appointed to prepare the official declaration

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - July 4th, 1976

(- marked the birth of a new nation

-based on the philosophy of human freedom the French and English Enlightenment political philosophy

-John Lockes heritage: the natural rights of humankind, a government based on public consent, the natural right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness)

-5 parts (introduction, preamble, body 2 parts, conclusion).

It resulted in WAR

bad for Americans at first (the British captured NY September 1776, Philadelphia 1777)

turning point: battle of Saratoga (1777) Franco-American alliance the British surrendered (Yorktown, 1781)

The Treaty of Paris (1783) Benjamin Franklin: played an important part

The 13 colonies become the United States of America independent;

- are granted all the territory North of Florida, South of Canada, East of the Mississippi River

need for new state constitutions: critical period (1780s) Articles of Confederation

May 1787, Federal Convention (Philadelphia) representatives headed by George Washington (+ Benjamin Franklin, + James Madison) drafted Constitution

3 braches of government to ensure the balance of power: the separate and distinct powers of each are balanced by the other two ( = the checks and balances system: no dictatorial authority)

The Congress (legislative) Senate + House of Representatives,

The President (executive) and

The Federal Judiciary (Supreme Court, federal courts)

The Constitution = above all laws and regulationsAll persons = equal before the law, and equally entitled to protectionAll states = equal (each must recognize and respect the laws of the others: state governments must be democratic in form, the final authority = the PeopleThe People: have the the right to change form of national government by legal means defined in Constitution

September 17, 1787 the Constitution is signed by 39 of 42 delegates

ratified in 1788 (after a bitter debate)

March 4, 1789 the new government came into existence

1791 The Bill of Rights (10 amendments are added) (less than 20 more up to now!)

- the freedom of speech, press, religion;

-the right to bear arms

- protection against illegal house searches, seizures of property and arrest

- the right to a fair trial by jury

-protection against cruel and unusual punishments

-the right to assembly peacefully, protest and demand changes

etc.

1st president of the United States = George Washington (Federalist)

First two political parties:

Federalists - favored strong president and central governmentDemocratic Republicans - defended rights of individual states