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American history

History of the United States

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"American history" redirects here. For the history of the continents, see History of the Americas.

The United States of America is located in the middle of the North American continent, with Canada to the north and the United Mexican States to the south. The United States ranges from the Atlantic Ocean on the nation's east coast to the Pacific Ocean bordering the west, and also includes the state of Hawaii, a series of islands located in the Pacific Ocean, the state of Alaska located in the northwestern part of the continent above the Yukon, and numerous other holdings and territories.

The first known inhabitants of the area now known as the United States are believed to have arrived over a period of several thousand years beginning approximately 20,000 years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska. The first solid evidence of these cultures settling in what would become the US begins as early as 15,000 years ago with the Sandia and Clovis tribes.

Relatively little is known of these early settlers compared to the Europeans who colonized the area after the first voyage of navigator Christopher Columbus in 1492 for Spain. Columbus' men were also the first documented Old Worlders to land in the territory of the United States when they arrived in Puerto Rico during their second voyage in 1493. The first European known to set foot in the continental U.S. was Juan Ponce de León, who arrived in Florida in 1513, though there is some evidence suggesting that he may have been preceded by John Cabot in 1497.

Pre-Colonial America

There is an article about Pre-Columbian

Monk's Mound in Cahokia, Illinois, at 100 feet high is the largest man-made earthen mound in North America, was part of a city which had thousands of people around 1050 AD

Archaeological as well as geological evidence suggests that the present-day United States was originally populated by people migrating from Asia via the Bering land bridge starting some 20,000 years ago.^[1] These people became the indigenous people who inhabited the Americas prior to the arrival of European explorers in the 1400s and who are now called Native Americans.

Many cultures thrived in the Americas before Europeans came, including the Puebloans (Aztec) in the southwest and the Adena Culture in the east. Several such societies and communities, over time, intensified this practice of established settlements, and grew to support sizeable and concentrated populations. Agriculture was independently developed in what is now the eastern United States as early as 2500 BC, based on the domestication of indigenous sunflower, squash and goosefoot.^[2] Eventually, Mexican maize and legumes were adapted to the shorter summers of eastern North America and replaced the indigenous crops.

The first European contact with the Americas was with the Vikings in the year 1000. Leif Erikson established a short-lived settlement called Vinland in present day Newfoundland. It would be another 500 years before European contact would be made again.

Several medieval Arabic sources also suggest that Muslim explorers from Islamic Spain and Northwest Africa may have travelled in expeditions across the Atlantic to the Americas between the 9th and 14th centuries.

Colonial America

there is a complete article European colonization of the Americas

After a period of exploration by various European countries, Dutch, Spanish, English, French, Swedish, and Portuguese settlements were established. Columbus was the first European to set foot on what would one day become U.S. territory when he came to Puerto Rico in 1493. In the 15th century, Europeans brought horses, cattle and hogs to the Americas.

Spanish exploration and settlement (1493 – various dates)

There is a complete article about New Spain

An anachronous map showing areas of the United States and other territories pertaining to the Spanish Empire over a period exceeding 400 years

Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to come to what is now the United States, beginning with Christopher Columbus' second expedition, which reached Puerto Rico in November 19, 1493. The first confirmed landing in the continental US was by a Spaniard, Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened La Florida.

Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. In 1540, De Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present US and, in the same year, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican Indians across today's Arizona-Mexico border and traveled as far as central Kansas. Other Spanish explorers include Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Gaspar de Portolà, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Tristán de Luna y Arellano and Juan de Oñate.

The Spanish sent some settlers, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565 and later Santa Fe, New Mexico, San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Most Spanish settlements were along the California coast or the Santa Fe River in New Mexico.

French colonization (1564-1803)

[edit] English/British Colonial America (1585-1776)

Main article: Colonial America

The Mayflower, which transported Pilgrims to the New World, arrived in 1620.

In 1607, the Virginia Company of London established the Jamestown Settlement on the James River, both named after King James I

The strip of land along the seacoast was settled primarily by English colonists in the 17th century, along with much smaller numbers of Dutch and Swedes. Colonial America was defined by a severe labor shortage that gave birth to forms of unfree labor such as slavery and indentured servitude, and by a British policy of benign neglect (salutary neglect) that permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders.

The first successful English colony was established in 1607, on the James River at Jamestown. It languished for decades until a new wave of settlers arrived in the late 17th century and set up commercial agriculture based on tobacco. Between the late 1610s and the revolution, the British shipped an estimated 50,000 convicts to its American colonies.^[5] One example of conflict between Native Americans and English settlers was the 1622 Powhatan uprising in Virginia, in which Indians had killed hundreds of English settlers. The largest conflict between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century was King Philip's War in New England. [1]

New England was founded primarily by Puritans who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, were characterized by a large degree of diversity. The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina, with Georgia Colony the last of the Thirteen Colonies established in 1733. Several colonies were used as penal settlements from the 1620s until the American Revolution.

[edit] Formation of the United States of America (1776-1789)

Washington's crossing of the Delaware, one of America's first successes in the Revolutionary war

The presentation of the Declaration of Independence

Main article: History of the United States (1776-1789)

The United States declared its independence in 1776 and defeated Great Britain with help from France and Spain in the American Revolutionary War. As Seymour Martin Lipset points out, "The United States was the first major colony successfully to revolt against colonial rule. In this sense, it was the first 'new nation.'" (Lipset, The First New Nation (1979) p. 2)

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, still meeting in Philadelphia, declared the independence of a nation called "the United States of America" in the Declaration of Independence, primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson. July 4 is celebrated as the nation's birthday. The new nation was dedicated to principles of republicanism, which emphasized civic duty and a fear of corruption and hereditary aristocracy.

The Boston Tea Party in 1773, often seen as the event which started the American Revolution

The structure of the national government was profoundly changed on March 4, 1789, when the people replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The new government reflected a radical break from the normative governmental structures of the time, favoring representative, elective government with a weak executive, rather than the existing monarchical structures common within the western traditions of the time. The system of republicanism borrowed heavily from Enlightenment Age ideas and classical western philosophy in that a primacy was placed upon individual liberty and upon constraining the power of government through division of powers and a system of checks and balances.

The colonists' victory at Saratoga led the French into an open alliance with the United States. In 1781, a combined American and French Army, acting with the support of a French fleet, captured a large British army led by General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The surrender of General Cornwallis ended serious British efforts to find a military solution to their American problem.

A series of attempts to organize a movement to outline and press reforms culminated in the Congress calling the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[edit] Westward expansion (1789–1849)

Main article: History of the United States (1789–1849)

Economic growth in America per capita income

Territorial expansion of the United States, omitting Oregon and other claims.

George Washington—a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, commander and chief of the Continental Army, and president of the Constitutional Convention—became the first President of the United States under the new U.S. Constitution. The Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, when settlers in the Monongahela River valley of western Pennsylvania protested against a federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks, was the first serious test of the federal government.

The Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, gave Western farmers use of the important Mississippi River waterway, removed the French presence from the western border of the United States, and provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion. In response to continued British impressment of American sailors into the British Navy, Madison had the Twelfth United States Congress— led by Southern and Western Jeffersonians — declare war on Britain in 1812. The United States and Britain came to a draw in the War of 1812 after bitter fighting that lasted until January 8, 1815. The Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, essentially resulted in the maintenance of the status quo ante bellum; however, crucially for the U.S., the British ended their alliance with the Native Americans.