Overview of U.S. History
The 15th century.
Christopher Columbus lands in the Bahamas and discovers North America.
The 16th - 17th centuries.
European explorers and settlers come to the new land for gold, adventure, and freedom. The colonists live under British laws. They establish first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. America’s first college, Harvard, is founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The 18th century.
Americans in the thirteen colonies want to be free of British rule. First Continental Congress opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. General George Washington leads the colonists in the Revolutionary War. First shots of the American War of Independence are fired at Lexington, Massachusetts. Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence and the thirteen colonies sign it. France enters into a military alliance with the colonies. British army surrenders to combined Franco-American forces. The colonies become the United States of America. Articles of Confederation are revised and the new Constitution becomes the highest law of the land. George Washington becomes the first President. First Ten Amendments, the Bill of Rights, are added to the Constitution.
The 19th century.
War of 1812 against Britain begins. The United States wins series of naval victories, but fails in attempts to invade Canada. British burn Capitol and White House. The United States and Great Britain agree on unfortified border between Canada and the United States. Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first telegraph message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland. The Republican party is formed in Wisconsin. Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President. Millions of Europeans come to America as workers during the Industrial Revolution. The new nation grows and adds more states. It expands to the Pacific Ocean. Americans fight against one another in the Civil War between the North and the South. President Lincoln frees the slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation. The period of Reconstruction begins. The territory of Alaska is purchased from Russia. The 15th amendment to the Constitution forbids the denial of right to vote on basis of race or color. The first national park – Yellowstone in Wyoming is created. Thomas A. Edison invents incandescent electric lamp.
The 20th century.
The United States grows to be one of the great powers in the world. Electric Theatre, America’s first movie house, opens in Los Angeles, California. Henry Ford introduces efficient, low-cost car, beginning the era of mass production. Panama Canal, built across Central America, opens. The nation fights in the First World War. After the war women get the right to vote for the first time. The Great Depression begins with the stock market crash. Banks, factories, and farms shut down, and many Americans are unemployed. Under President Franklin Roosevelt federal government launches New Deal program to help end the Depression. The United States enters the Second World War when Japan attacks the Hawaiian Islands. The war ended when the United States drops the first atomic bombs, and the world enters the Nuclear Age. Because of its distrust of and competition with the Soviet Union and other Communist nations, the United States enters a time of Cold War. Americans fight in the Korean War. The Civil Rights movement begins, and black and white Americans fight against segregation. President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act barring discrimination in public places based upon race or color. The Space Age begins. The United States puts the first men on the Moon in the Apollo Program. The world’s first reusable spacecraft, space shuttle Columbia, is launched. Computers are changing the nation.
EXERCISES:
I. Read the above passages carefully and try to divide them in shorter ones, indicating the time when this or that event took place.
II. Think of other important events in the history of the United States.
III. Give a survey of the 21st century.
IV. Work in groups of five or more. One student makes a sentence (tells a fact) about the Exploration period of American history. The second student repeats the first student’s sentence or corrects it if necessary. He or she tells a fact about the Colonization period, and so on for all periods of American history.
Finish these sentences with information from
the map in A.
After the American Revolution in 1783, the territory of the United States stretched from
(1) the Atlantic Ocean in the East to (2)_____________________ in the West. In 1803 President Jefferson bought the territory west of the Mississippi River from France in (3)_______________ . In the year (4)________ the U.S. obtained the land of the state of (5)_______________ from Spain. The U.S. annexed (added) the territory of (6)______________ in 1845. President Polk divided the large (7)_________________ with Great Britain in 1846, and England received the northern half in Canada. After a war in 1848, (8)___________ ceded (had to give up) the territory from the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. paid $10 million in the year (9)______ for some Mexican land in the Southwest, called (10)_______.