geographical and historical background

8/6/2019 Geographical and Historical Background

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U.S.A.

Geographical and historical

background



Geographical Position

� The United States territory consists of three separate parts, differentin size, natural features, level of development and population:

1)The main part, the United States proper, with an area of 7,800,000square kilometers. It borders on Canada in the north and on Mexicoin the south. It is washed by the Pacific Ocean in the west, the Atlantic Ocean in the east, and the Gulf of Mexico in the south-east;

2)Alaska, which occupies the north-western part of the continent of North America, including a lot of islands;

3)Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.



States and Capitals

� Alabama

� Alaska

� Arizona

� Arkansas

� California

� Colorado� Connecticut

� Delaware

� Florida

� Georgia

� Hawaii

� Idaho� Illinois

� Indiana

� Iowa

� Kansas

� Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

MichiganMinnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

NevadaNew Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

� North Dakota

� Ohio

� Oklahoma

� Oregon

� Pennsylvania

� Rhode Island� South Carolina

� South Dakota

� Tennessee

� Texas

� Utah

� Vermont� Virginia

� Washington

� West Virginia

� Wisconsin

� Wyoming



Christopher Columbus

� Christopher Columbus (c. 31October 1451 ± 20 May 1506) was anavigator colonizer, and explorer fromGenoa, Italy,whose voyages acrossthe Atlantic Ocean led to generalEuropean awareness of the Americancontinents in the Western Hemisphere.With his four voyages of explorationand several attempts at establishing asettlement on the island of Hispaniola,all funded by Isabella I of Castile, heinitiated the process of Spanishcolonization which foreshadowedgeneral European colonization of the"New World".

� Although not the first to reach the

Americas from Europe²he waspreceded by at least one other group,the Norse, led by Leif Ericson, whobuilt a temporary settlement 500 yearsearlier at L'Anse aux Meadows²Columbus initiated widespread contactbetween Europeans and indigenous

Americans.



� The term "pre-Columbian" isusually used to refer to the peoples

and cultures of the Americasbefore the arrival of Columbus andhis European successors.

� The name Christopher Columbusis the Anglicisation of the LatinChristophorus Columbus. Theoriginal name in 15th centuryGenoese language was ChristoffaCorombo, although the Italianlanguage version of the name isCristoforo Colombo.

� Columbus's initial 1492 voyagecame at a critical time of emergingmodern western imperialism andeconomic competition between

developing kingdoms seekingwealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. In thissociopolitical climate, Columbus'sfar-fetched scheme won theattention of Isabella I of Castile.



� Severely underestimating the circumference of the Earth, he estimated that awestward route from Iberia to the Indies would be shorter than the overlandtrade route through Arabia. If true, this would allow Spain entry into thelucrative spice trade ² heretofore commanded by the Arabs and Italians.Following his plotted course, he instead landed within the Bahamas Archipelago at a locale he named S an S alvador . Mistaking the lands heencountered for Asia, he referred to the inhabitants as "indios" (Spanish for "Indians").

�The anniversary

of Columbus's1492 landing inthe Americas isusually observedas ColumbusDay on 12October in Spainand throughoutthe Americas,except Canada.In the UnitedStates it isobservedannually on thesecond Monday

in October.



American

Revolution

� The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century

in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the BritishEmpire, combining to become the United States of America. They first rejected theauthority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas withoutrepresentation, and then expelled all royal officials. By 1774 each colony had established aProvincial Congress, or an equivalent governmental institution, to form individual self-governing states. The British responded by sending combat troops to re-impose direct rule.Through representatives sent in 1775 to the Second Continental Congress, the new states

joined together at first to defend their respective self-governance and manage the armedconflict against the British known as the American Revolutionary War (1775±83, also

American War of Independence).



� Ultimately, the states collectively determinedthat the British monarchy, by acts of tyranny,could no longer legitimately claim their

allegiance. They then severed ties with theBritish Empire in July 1776, when theCongress issued the Declaration of Independence, rejecting the monarchy onbehalf of the new nation. The war ended witheffective American victory in October 1781,followed by formal British abandonment of any claims to the United States with theTreaty of Paris in 1783.

� The American Revolution initiated a series of social, political, and intellectualtransformations in early American society andgovernment. Americans rejected theoligarchies common in aristocratic Europe atthe time, championing instead thedevelopment of republicanism based on theEnlightenment understanding of liberalism.

Among the significant results of the revolutionwas the creation of a representativegovernment responsible to the will of thepeople. However, sharp political debateserupted over the appropriate level of democracy desirable in the new government,with a number of Founders fearing mob rule.



� Many fundamental issues of national governance weresettled with the ratification of theConstitution of the United States

in 1788, which replaced therelatively weaker first attempt ata national government, the

Articles of Confederationadopted in 1781. In contrast tothe loose confederation, theConstitution established a strongfederated government. The

United States Bill of Rights(1791), comprising the first 10constitutional amendments,quickly followed. It guaranteedmany natural rights that wereinfluential in justifying therevolution, and attempted tobalance a strong nationalgovernment with relatively broad

personal liberties. The Americanshift to liberal republicanism, andthe gradually increasingdemocracy, caused an upheavalof traditional social hierarchy andgave birth to the ethic that hasformed a core of political valuesin the United States.



Declaration of Independence

� The United States Declaration of Independence is a statementadopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, whichannounced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with GreatBritain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of theBritish Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration

is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 todeclare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after theoutbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of theUnited States of America²Independence Day²is celebrated on July4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.

� The Declaration justified the independence of the United States bylisting colonial grievances against King George III, and by asserting

certain natural rights, including a right of revolution. Having served itsoriginal purpose in announcing independence, the text of theDeclaration was initially ignored after the American Revolution. Itsstature grew over the years, particularly the second sentence, asweeping statement of individual human rights:



� We hold these truths to beself-evident, that all men arecreated equal, that they are

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienableRights, that among these areLife, Liberty and the pursuitof Happiness.

� This sentence has beencalled "one of the best-knownsentences in the English

language" and "the mostpotent and consequentialwords in American history".

� After finalizing the text onJuly 4, Congress issued theDeclaration of Independencein several forms. It wasinitially published as a printedbroadside that was widely

distributed and read to thepublic. The most famousversion of the Declaration, asigned copy that is usuallyregarded as the Declarationof Independence, is ondisplay at the National

Archives in Washington, D.C.



� The famous wording of the Declaration has often been invoked to protect therights of individuals and marginalized groups, and has come to represent for many people a moral standard for which the United States should strive. Thisview greatly influenced Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to bethe foundation of his political philosophy, and who promoted the idea that the

Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United StatesConstitution should be interpreted.

�Although thewording of theDeclaration wasapproved on July4, the date of itssigning has been

disputed. Mosthistorians haveconcluded that itwas signednearly a monthafter its adoption,on August 2,

1776, and not onJuly 4 as iscommonlybelieved. Thesources andinterpretation of the Declarationhave been the

subject of muchscholarly inquiry.



American Civil War

� The American Civil War (1861±1865), also known as the War Betweenthe States (among other names), was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the

United States and formed the Confederate States of America, also knownas "the Confederacy." Led by Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy foughtagainst the United States (the Union), which was supported by all the freestates (where slavery had been abolished) and by five slave states thatbecame known as the border states.

� In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by AbrahamLincoln, had campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the

states in which it already existed. In response to the Republican victory inthat election, seven states declared their secession from the Union beforeLincoln took office on March 4, 1861. Both the outgoing administration of President James Buchanan and Lincoln's incoming administration rejectedthe legality of secession, considering it rebellion. Several other slave statesrejected calls for secession at this point.



� Confederate commander Robert E. Lee wonbattles in the east, but in 1863 his northwardadvance was turned back with heavy casualtiesafter the Battle of Gettysburg. To the west, theUnion gained control of the Mississippi River after

their capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, therebysplitting the Confederacy in two. The Union wasable to capitalize on its long-term advantages inmen and materiel by 1864 when Ulysses S. Grantfought battles of attrition against Lee, while Uniongeneral William Tecumseh Sherman captured

Atlanta, Georgia, and marched to the sea.Confederate resistance collapsed after Lee

surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court Houseon April 9, 1865.

�Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, whenConfederate forces attacked a U.S. militaryinstallation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state to recapture federalproperty. This led to declarations of secession by four more slave states. Bothsides raised armies as the Union assumedcontrol of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade. InSeptember 1862, Lincoln's EmancipationProclamation made ending slavery in theSouth a war goal, and dissuaded the British

from intervening.



� It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers andan undetermined number of civilian casualties. Ten percent of all Northern males 20±45 yearsof age died, as did 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18±40. Victory for the Northmeant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the

role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the reconstruction era that lasted to 1877.

The American Civil

War was one of

the earliest true

industrial wars.

Railroads,steamships, mass-

produced

weapons, and

various other

military devices

were employed

extensively. Thepractices of total

war, developed by

Sherman in

Georgia, and of

trench warfare

around Petersburg

foreshadowedWorld War I in

Europe.



Biography

www.wikipedia.com

www.deviantart.com

www.americancivilwar.com

www.usa.russiansabroad.com

� Dragan Cosmin� Gheorghe Oana

� Lupu Daniel

� Zaheu Diana

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