Ar*xerEcan histewy

PMK-&&LMMIAL AMERICA

Read this description of some of the early peoples of Central and North America'

Other complex cultures flourished in otherparts of the Americas. These peoples variedinormously, ranging from poor nomadic foodgatherers of the interior plains of North AmericaIo opulent fishing societies of the Pacific North-*esi, from the woodland hunting tribes of whatis now the northem United States to the wealthyand powerful peoples of Central America.iog*ilrr, aepeniling upon population estimatesreionstructed in oui own times, they constitutedffiffi;;;-u"i*""" r*v and one hundredmillion people, of which about ten million livedin North America. Many areas in the westernhemisphere contained denser populations thanregions of Western Europe in the age ofCfristopher Columbus. America was no1 ayacant rr asteland awaiting the arrival of"cir,ilized Europeans".

Consider. for erample. the chiefdoms of the

Pacific \orthuest. uhich included. anongothers. such grouF: :s fie Tlinsiis oi s.-uthenAlaska. the \ot-ria ofl \-1::;.'.ti;: I:1.:,:' "r;i

--L:

Yurok of nonhern Ce,l:c:n-.. ;::.c ::'::-::were blessed nith an m;re.iit'ir n;l-- e:i" r'li::1l:i.:based on the vast Slrrck.-i.--s;.:s;;;lii1salmon. and abundant edit'ie pl::rts. Th: i"reesucculent fish annualll'make lheu uat upsreamto spa'*'n and then return to the sea. and rhe

indigenor:s peoples leamed to make nets and

weirs to harvest this crop. The natives of theregion also developed techniques to preserveth;ir fish, thus assuring sufficient food in seasons

af scarcity. The natural abundance encouragedthe formation of a sedentary society even thoughagriculture remained generally undeveloped.

Hr':.,i.i ,;:,:ss the conthent. from the GrealL--:. lr -;: -{iianric seaboard, lived groups of;,:.=:i::ei ;ulrures. Speaking such languages as

Sr..:ian. -{lgonquian, and Iroquoisan, they formedcu.mplicared societies that often differed markedlyItom one another. Relying upon agriculture, as

u'eil as on fishing, hunting, and trapping, thepeoples of the Eastern Woodlands built stablevillages, some of them with as many as fivethousand inhabitants. Living either inbirch-covered wigwams or in rectangularlonghouses, they usually palisaded their villageswith log stockades, They also possessed, in theirlight hirchbark canoes, a reliable means ofcommerce and communication with other tribes.

FromThe Free and the Unfree, P.N. Carroll and !7. Noble, Penguin 1977

€X$fCISC 1 List as many differences and similarities as you can between the peoples of thePacific Northwest and the peoples of the Eastern rtrfloodlands.

64 American history

-!

The signing of the Declararionof American Independence

Erercise 3

Exercise 4

AMERICAN INDEPENDENGE

By the end of the 18th century, the whole of the Eastern coasr of North Americahad been colonized, largely by the British. The guiding principle for these coloinieswas the widely-held mercantilist view that they should supply the mother countrywith raw materials and not compete in manufacturing. when Britain asked thecolonists to contribute towards the cost of maintaining the British army throughcentrally-raised t-xes, there was serious opposition to this'taxation withoutrepresentation' (the British Parliament did not contain any American-electedmembers).

After the taxes had been repealed, rhere was relative peace everywhere exceptBoston, but when Parliament exempted the tea of the nearly bankrupt British EastIndia Company from import duties, numerous merchants throughout the colonieswere th.reatend with bankruptcv, and colonial opinion united against the British.So, when the first cargocs of this tea arrived in Boston harbour, the AmericanPatriots boarded the tlree ships on the night of 16 December 1773 and threw thetea into the sea - the famous Boston Tea Party-

Parliament reacted to this'act of vandalism'by closing Bostonharbour. Representatives from every colony except Georgiamet in Philadelphia in September 1774 and replied byimposing a trade embargo on Britain. As war becameinevitable, the colonists mer for a second time in Philadelphiain May 1776 andmade George \flashington their commander-in-chief. The formal Declaration of Independence was madeon 4 July 7776,including the famous declaration'that all menare created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator withcertain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty,and the pursuit ofhappiness'.

The American war of Independence lasted over six years. The French enteredthe war, providing decisive military and economic assistance, after the Americanvictory in the Battle of Saratoga in october 1777 . Thefighting ended when\fs5hington, aided by the French army and navy, surrounded the British forces atYorktown in October 1781. The peace settlement signed two years later recognizedthe independence, freedom and sovereignty ofthe thirteen colonies.

1 what decision by the British Parliament helped rhe cause of Americanindependence, and how?

2 \tr7hat was the'Boston Tea Party'?3 u7hat did representatives of the American colonies decide to do at their first

meeting in Philadelphia?4 \X/hat happened at the second meeting?5 tU7hy was the Battle of Saratoga the turning-point in the war?

the following events in their correct chronological order.

The Boston Tea Party

The Battle of Yorktown

The Battle of Saratoga

The Declaration of Independence

The colonists'first meeting in Philadelphia

Put

trIrtru

66 American history

Fr

lTHE WAR 0F SECESStoil (1861-1865)

Expansion brought problems, not least because of the very different societies of theNorth and the South. The problem of slavery was first raised over the status ofMissouri when it was admitted into the Union in 1821.

The anti-slavery movement gained tremendous support after publication of a bookcalledUncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and political divisions overslavery in the Whig and Democtatic parties led to the formation of the RepublicanPa"ty, whose main principle was opposition to the extension of slavery. \trfhen theRepublican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was elected President in 1860, SouthCarolina announced that its Union with all other states was dissolved and wasimmediately followed by Mississip,pi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Lousiana andTexas, which together formed a Codederacy with a constitution based on slavery.The Northerners did not want wrer md I incoln in his opening speech as Presidentdeclared that he would not interfere wi& slavery in the Southern states, but merelyaffirmed the constitutional right of 6e LIninn to determine the status of new states.

Lincoln refused to allow secession to disrupt the Union, however, and, as civil warbecame inevitable, Virginia also seceded on the constitutional grounds that everystate in the Union enjoyed sovereign righs; Nebraska, North Carolina andTennessee quickly followed. The twenty-three states of the industrial North, witha population of22,0001000, were, therefore, opposed by eleven Southern states,almost 410001000 of whose 9,0(X),000 inhabitants were slaves.

The three main theatres of action when war broke out in 186lwere the sea, the Mississippi Valley and the Eastern seaboardstates. Although the Union had naval superiority, it was unableto establish an efficient blockade until 1863. In the MississippiValley in the I7'est, General Grant and his forces gradually splitthe Confederacy in two, while in Virginia, Union forcessuffered numerous defeats against ttre two brilliant Southerngenerals, Robert E. I-ee and Thomas 'Stonewdl']ackson. Butthe South was unable to obtain ths decisive victory it needed togBin foreig[ rco,gnition.

The war became a lost cause for the South after the Battle ofGettysburg in July 1863, although it heroically fought on unrilApril 1865, when Lee and his army were forced to surrender atAppomattox, Virginia. The war had cost the lives of 618,000men - over half from disease.

EXgfCiSg 6 Complete the following sentences to obtain a brief summary of the American Civil\Var.

The prime cause of the war was . . .

The first state to secede from the Union was . . .

This was followed by . . .The main theatres of war were . . .The Confederacy inflicted defeats on rhe North but was unable . . .Victory was achieved by the Union forces at . . .

I2

3

45

6

The Battle of Gettysburg

68 American history

WORLD WAR II

Roosevelt once said in defence of his New Deal that continuing unemployment and

insecurity were partialll'to blame for the disappearance of democracy in Germany,

Italy and Spain, where the ordinan'people had turned to strong governments for

their intervention. This rise oi totalitarian governments influenced his foreign

policy, which was in opposirion to the isolationist basis of Congress's neutrality

acts.-Once war had.o*. ,o Europc. ttrv Americans were truly neutral. Roosevelt

was, therefore, able to provi,Je atl possible aid to Great Britain 'short of war' and

still become the fust President rc be elected for a third term'

Relations wlth Japan continued to worsen and, while

negoriarion-" were undenvay between the two countries, the

Jafanete arna;ked lhe.\merican naval base at Pearl Harbor in

Hawaii on rle morning of 7 December 1941' Congress

responded bv imrnediatell' declaring war on Japan'

Although Roo:er-elt and Churchill decided that the main

theatre of the srar should be Europe, the American navy

obtained seseral rictories against the Japanese in 1942 and

gradualll'rrconquered one island after another in the Pacific'

in Europe the Germans were slowly pushed back on all sides

before surrendering on 8 May 1945. Vhile the Japanese

position was equally hopeless, they refused to-surrender and

ih. prorp.., of a heavy loss of life convinced the Allies to drop

atomic bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki on 9

August, leading to Emperor Hirohito's formal surrender on 2

September 1945.

The United Nations Charter had been drafted at the Potsdam

peace conference in Jull' 1945. This ended American

isolarionism and recognized the nation's important role in

international al-iairs.

EXgfCiSe 12 Complete this table n'ith intormadon from the passage.

Date

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Pearl Harbor

Germany surrenders

Japan surrenders

1942-4

6 June 1 944

July 1945

6 August 1945

Churchill, Truman and Stalin at the Potsdam Conlerence

72American history

CIVIL RIGHTS

The issue that dominated Americar politics in the 1950s and 1960s was civil rights.

Numerous Presidents attempted to improve the situation of black people (andother minorities) in American sociery. President Truman appointed the first blackjudge in the Federal court s]'stem and some progress was made towards racialintegration in schools, restaurants and uansportation in the South by Eisenhower,Kennedy and Johnson, despite congressional opposition. The blacks themselves,led by people like the Reverend ltartin Luther King, became increasingly active inattempting to improve their starus and numerous non-violent protests began in1960 to speed up the end of segregation. In the mid-1960s these mass

demonstrations often degenerated into violent clashes, as the militant Black Powermovements replaced the non-violent organizations.

Exercise {4 1 Who opposed the post-war Presidents intheir attempts to lessen racialdiscrimination?

2 What did Martin Luther King rvant to end?3 How did the Black Power movement differ

from King?

'I have a dream that my four litde childrenwill one day live in a nation where they willnot be iudged by the colour of their skin butby the content oftheir character.'

Exercise 15

Have Martin Luther King's words, spoken in -\la:-:r L.:--:er LLng on a civil Rights1963, come true? :-.::-:

Exercise 16 Discussion

\tat d,--r 1'ou knorr airut --:e F.,.i'.;,1tr c,t black people aad other minority ethnicg:roups ln -\men;a tc^iai-? Ii n hich secrors har-e black people been mostsuccessi-ul? Har-e Dr Krng's .i,reams been realized? Discuss the findings of'the 1990census repruiuced L,elow.

Source: US Bnreau of the Census

Blacks' income lags behind whhes'

MedianfamityF $32,274incomere

Gains made in educationFour years of high Four years of collegeschool or more or more

d\e ". ^1* | 11980 | 11e88

.p\. ts' -;)' 1'd*I'i--1 rQT_l-l ll I I cp^1$\' s'""'s'I I ll I lJlr-r r:+-t

Blacks Whites

Larger percentage ofblacks jobless

Blacks Whites

l-_-lwrrites flalacks

11.7%

74 American history

RIGHT.WING RECONSTRUCTION

The election of Ronald Reagan and a Republican administration in 1980led to anattempt to cut back the amount of national government finance available for non-defence spending, especially social prograrnmes. This together with tax cutsproved popular and helped the nation enter a period of non-inflationary growth.

Abroad Reagan replaced the policl' of d6tente (an easing of tense political relationswith Communist nations'i with a tougher line against the Soviet Union, which hecalled the'evil empire'. He also took a hard line against terrorism, which includedinvading Grenada aad car4ing out an air-raid on Libya. The success of hisapproach helped restore American confidence in its role as world leader.

Ex-President Ronald Reagan, standing beneath a portrait of Karl Marx,addresses members of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet

Towards the end of his second term, however, President Reagan adopted a softerline in foreign affairs, at least towards the Soviet Union. Urged on by massive peace

movements in the $Testern world, the two superpowers made significant progresstowards nuclear disarmament, a process which was continued by Reagan'ssuccessor as President, George Bush.

EXefCiSg 19 I In which sector did President Reagan cut government spending most of all?2 In what way was his initial foreign policy different from that of his predecessors?3 How did his foreign policy change towards the end of his Presidency?

76 American history