an outline of american history, 3rd edition
TRANSCRIPT
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An Outline of American History, 3rd Edition
Steven L. Rosen
Faculty of Human Culture and Science
Department of Intercultural Studies
The Prefectural University of Hiroshima
www.pu-hiroshima.ac.jp
Mail: [email protected]
Homepage: http://srosen9.tripod.com
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Chapter I The Colonization of America
Globalism starts with the discovery of America at the end of the
15th century by Columbus. As we enter the 16th century, Europe and the
rest of the world begin a period of radical change in social structure,
economy, religion, and politics. It is the end of feudal civilization in
Europe, and the beginnings of a new social order. It is also the
beginning of the Europeanization of the world. Europe would see an
incredible growth in wealth and power, and individual Europeans
would gradually experience more economic, political and religious
freedom. For the rest of the world, we should remember, the 16th
century the beginning of the end of their civilizations.
Early European Conquest: Spain and France
In 1492 Columbus discovered America, and shortly after that,
Spain, France and later England started colonies in the Americas. The
appeal of unending free land rich in natural resources was very great
and these countries actively tried to explore and settle the North
American continent.
The Spanish came in search of gold. They colonized Florida first
and, by 1600, had colonized the American southwest, spreading their
language and culture. In 1608 the French started a settlement in
Quebec in Eastern Canada and this became the beginning of New
France, the French empire in America.
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The French were mainly involved in the fur trade and had very
good relations with many of the Indian tribes in America. They
explored the region along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers down to
the Gulf of Mexico (1682) and all this land was put under French
control. It was given the name Louisiana after King Louis XIV. In 1718,
New Orleans was founded as a major trading port.
17th century French map of North America
The English Colonies
Tudor Dynasty monarch, Queen Elizabeth I
(1533-1603; reigned from 1558 till her death; Shakespeare’s queen)
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In 1584 Queen Elizabeth I of England allowed a colony to be
started on the east coast of America north of Spanish Florida. It was
named Virginia (because Elizabeth was known as the “Virgin Queen”).
Under Elizabeth, England had become a rich and powerful nation in
competition with Spain and France. Also, Elizabeth had firmly
established the Protestant religion (Church of England) as the national
religion of England (Spain and France were, of course, both Catholic).
North America gradually became a place where these European
countries would compete for colonial possessions. Religion also was a
factor in colonialism which will be discussed below.
Under the next English monarch, King James I, the colony called
Jamestown, in Virginia, was established (1607). This is really
considered the first English colony in America. King James I of
England gave the London Company the right to settle in Virginia and
North Carolina. In 1612 they started growing tobacco in Virginia and
more and more English went there. America was becoming a good
place for British merchants to invest.
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New England: the Puritans
The first Puritans arrived in America on the ship, The Mayflower (Dec., 17, 1620). In 1629 a larger group of 400 came to start the Massachusetts Bay Colony around Boston and Salem. They were then followed by a great migration of mostly English Puritans.
In 1620 the first group of Puritans landed in
Massachusetts. They were called Puritans because they wanted to
purify the Church of England (= the Anglican Church), which they
saw as corrupt. They were also called Separatists, because they wanted
to separate from the Anglican Church. Their purpose in coming to
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America was to start a religious community. The Puritans were a
product of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It was a time
when many people saw hope for freedom from the old social and
political systems in Europe.
In 1620, a ship of 102 Puritans landed in Massachusetts after a 65
day journey across the Atlantic Ocean, and set up the Plymouth Colony
there. Massachusetts’s winters are very severe and about half of them
died in the first winter. However, an Indian named Squanto (who could
speak English before they arrived!) taught them how to plant corn and
where to fish and hunt. In the fall, after their first harvest, they had a
feast which was the first “Thanksgiving.”
In 1630 other Puritans came to start the Massachusetts Bay
Company (Boston). Many of its members were quite wealthy and many
highly educated. Unlike the Virginia colony, the leaders of the New
England Puritans wanted to make a religious community that strictly
followed “God’s laws.” They saw a need for higher education for the
training of clergy, and in 1636, a wealthy colonist, John Harvard, help
to start Harvard College.
In 1692 a kind of hysteria took over the people living in the
village of Salem, Massachusetts. They believed there were witches
among them, and 14 women and 6 men are executed. Later on, they
realized that they had executed innocent people.
This community of Puritans in Salem came under many social as
well as environmental stresses and eventually died out or became
absorbed in the growing communities started by the Massachusetts
Bay Company.
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Historical and Economic Context:
British Mercantilism and Colonialism
The American colonies were part of a European system of trade called
mercantilism. Mercantilism was an economic policy where a nation’s government
tried to actively protect domestic merchants and industries through restricting
imports (through heavy tariffs and duties and shipping regulations), while
encouraging exports: more money coming in and less flowing out. 1 The
globalization (Europeanization) of the world was accomplished a clear intention by
these nations to make money through a managed trade policy—and, if necessary,
war to enforce it. Many laws were passed concerning shipping--- who could ship
goods, where they could ship them to, and shipping duties were all to control and
manage trade to get the most profits. Wars were fought in the 17th and 18th
century between England and other European countries to enforce these laws and
protect their trade routes.
Britain rose to become the world’s biggest colonial power based, in part, on
this mercantilist economic policy.
In the 1620’s we see the first mercantilist laws: tobacco from
American colonies could only be sold in Britain. This policy would
obviously help keep the price high, protecting the tobacco merchants
(but meaning higher prices for consumers).
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Then, in 1651, England passed the first law which helped to give a
monopoly to British ships: only English ships could be used for
importing goods from European countries into Britain.
In the 1660’s, the “Navigation Acts” said that all European goods
going to British colonies had to go through England first. Duties had
to be paid when the goods landed at ports in England, and then were
put on ships flying under the British flag to be transported the
colonies for sale. (The bad side of this was that the colonists in
America had to pay higher prices; the good side was that the ship
building industry in America prospered).
In 1733, heavy taxes on sugar coming into to America from French
colonies in the West Indies (i.e., the Caribbean), forced Americans to
buy sugar from British colonies instead. Also, certain products
produced in America (tobacco, rice, and sugar) had to be shipped to
England first before they could be sold to other European countries.
Ships built in New England actually sailed all over the world in the
expanding colonial trade markets and routes. In the case of North America, British
colonies produced lumber, tobacco, rice, indigo, and in the West Indies (the
Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Cuba), sugar. By the 18th century, what some
people call the “triangular trade” developed, meaning a highly profitable trade
between the Caribbean islands, the British colonies on the east coast of North
America, England, the “wine islands” of Spain (Madeira) and Africa (for slaves to
work on sugar and tobacco plantations). There was much piracy in the Caribbean
and elsewhere where pirates could thought they could take advantage of trade
routes.
Great Britain became one of the richest countries in the world thanks to
colonialism and mercantilism.2 The rise of the British East India Company as the
most powerful and world’s richest company is an example of the success of both
mercantilism and colonialism. Of course we should remember that in America,
though the British colonists became rich, the local native population of American
Indians was destroyed; in India the local population was exploited and
impoverished.
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The term mercantilism is not used when talking about the modern global
economy, but similar forms of economic protectionism are still with us today in
government trade policy.
The West Indies (Caribbean)
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The Middle Colonies
New York
In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was formed to establish a
colony in America (in the area of New York State). They bought
Manhattan Island from the Indians for about 26 dollars worth of jewels
and tools and founded New Amsterdam there. In 1664 the English king
Charles II sent warships to take the Dutch colony and rename it New
York
Pennsylvania and the Quakers
The area south of New York became New Jersey. Many Quakers
settled there. The Quakers were another of the many new Protestant
groups which were emerging in Europe and leaving to find freedom
and independence in some other place outside Europe. The Quakers
were very similar to the Puritans in many ways. They wore plain
clothes and refused to bow to anyone. But unlike the Puritans of New
England, the Quakers believed in toleration for other people’s
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religious beliefs. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by William Penn,
who was himself a Quaker.
William Penn, the founder Pennsylvania, originally a Quaker colony.3
Because of the Quaker belief in peace and love for all men,
Pennsylvania became a place of safety for Indians, who were treated
very well there. For the main city of his colony, William Penn chose
an area on the Delaware River, which he called Philadelphia (from
Greek, meaning “Brotherly Love”). This city became an important port
and later on, the first capital of America.
The Southern Colonies Develop
The people of Virginia grew tobacco as its cash crop.
Tobacco was enormously popular in Europe and this helped bring great
wealth into America’s southern colonies. Tobacco and also rice
cultivation required a large labor force, more than was available from
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whites or Indians. In the 17th century blacks were shipped from Africa
in large quantities to work on southern plantations as well as
plantations on Caribbean islands (the West Indies). The first Africans
arrived in Virginia in 1619 (on a Dutch ship). By the mid 18th century
about 20% of the population of America was African-American.
The Carolinas were given to some wealthy private
merchants in 1634 and grew quickly and became two royal colonies
(North and South Carolina) in 1729. North Carolina had mostly small
farms, but South Carolina had a large number of big plantations.
In 1732 King George II gave land north of Spanish Florida
to a group of wealthy members of British society. This new colony was
therefore called Georgia. Like the other southern colonies, Georgia
rapidly grew and became a royal colony in 1752.
Overview: Colonial Government in North America
The 13 British colonies which stretched along the east coast of North
America all had local governments based on the British model, and heavily
influenced by Democratic principles and the British system of law.
Nevertheless, each colony had its own unique history and style of
government. Three main patterns can be observed:
1) Corporate or charter colonies: In the charter colony, a group of people
were given the right to settle an area of land to start a business and
given the right to govern the colony The settler ’s didn’t own the land, but
could use the area to develop their business enterprises. The first two
colonies (Virginia and Massachusetts) followed this pattern. Usually this
pattern did not last very long; only Rhode Island and Connecticut kept
this form until the Revolution.
2) Proprietary colonies: Except for Virginia and Massachusetts, all the
other colonies started out as proprietary colonies, which means that an
area of land was given by the king to one of his friends or elite members
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of the British aristocracy; they became “the proprietors.” They owned
and managed the colony from a distance.
3) Royal colonies: Most of the colonies ended up as royal colonies meaning
that the crown (the king) took control of the colony, and the colony’s
governors were directly appointed by the King.
Summary: Colonial America
o After 1680 there was a lot of emigration from other
countries besides England to North America. Large numbers
of people came from France, Germany and Holland and
other countries, particularly from Northern Europe.
o In general, the northern colonies had a stronger
emphasis on education and religion, and in the southern
colonies agricultural grew thanks to the labor of black slaves.
Slavery was not legal in the northern colonies.
o England was becoming the most powerful country
in the world, and, in North America was gradually pushing
out the French and Dutch to become the main colonial power
there.
The Road to Revolution: the French and Indian War
As the British colonies spread west they came into conflict with the
French, particularly in the region of the Ohio Valley. The governor of
Virginia organized a group of citizens (led by George Washington) to
fight the French. It is called the French and Indian War because
Indians were helping out on both sides.
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This conflict spread beyond America when (in 1756) England
and France declared war on each other in Europe.4 When the
British finally captured the cities of Quebec and Montreal in New
France (1760), the French finally surrendered. As a result of this
victory over the French, the British colony of Canada was established in
1763.
Two very important consequences of this war were:
1) It helped to unite the 13 colonies and gave them a sense of
their own power.
2) The debts from the war led to higher British taxes which,
later on, made the Americans want independence from
England.5
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Chapter II
The American Revolution
By the end of the French and Indian war, Britain had emerged
as the most powerful country in the world. However, the cost of having
a large army meant that Britain had to raise money. One way to do this
was to force the colonists to pay taxes on imports into the colonies,
like tea, sugar, coffee, cloth and wine. The rich and powerful merchants
of America, as well as the common people did not, however, want to
have to pay British taxes. No “taxation without representation,”
they complained. They resented Britain trying to take away the great
wealth colonies from the colonies without any political
representation in London.
Resentment towards Britain and British soldiers in America
began to grow. When a group of British soldiers in Boston fired on a
crowd of protesters (March 5, 1770) people in Boston rioted. This was
the famous “Boston Massacre.” (see picture below)
In 1773, when Britain passed a law called the Tea Act, the
colonists (who loved tea) and the tea merchants became angry. The
center of anti-British activity was Massachusetts (Boston) and Boston
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tea merchants and other decided to take action to protest the new
British tea policy. Not only was there a higher tax on tea, the British
law said that the East India Company could sell directly, bypassing the
American tea merchants. American merchants felt that the Tea Act
would result in a monopoly by the East Indian Company and, in
protest; tea was thrown from British ships into Boston Harbor. This
was the famous “Boston Tea Party” which symbolized America’s
determination to be free form British rule.
This revolutionary act—destroying British tea, made the British
so angry that they started to make even stricter laws in an effort to
control their American colonies.
This, of course, only made the American colonists resent British
rule more, and helped to unite them to seek independence. In 1775
fighting started, and in July of 1776 the American Continental Congress
met in Philadelphia to formally declare independence from Britain. A
document called the “Declaration of Independence” was written
and signed which can be considered as the birth of the United States. It
stated the principles of democracy and called for revolution using force
in order to gain political freedom. Every 4th of July in America is as
Independence Day- to celebrate the day America formally declared its
independence as a separate nation. (see picture below)
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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of Americ
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare
the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
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The British army and navy were the strongest in the world at that time,
and the war was a long and hard one. Eventually the British gave up the
fight, mostly because it was hard for them to fight so far from home in an
environment very different from Europe. France was an enemy of Britain
at this time and greatly supported the colonists in their fight. In 1783 the
Treaty of Paris was signed giving the colonies independence from
England.
Creating a New Nation: the United States Constitution
The Treaty of Paris gave the American colonies the right to
govern themselves, but the hard work of building a republic had to
begin. The great challenge was how to form a government which would
you unite 13 separate colonies into one republic. In 1787
representatives from all over the former colonies were sent to
Philadelphia to write a constitution, which would serve as the legal
framework for a new system of government.
There was a big debate in writing the constitution, between the
“federalists” and the “anti-federalists.” The federalists wanted a strong
central government, which would have more power than the individual
state governments. The anti-federalists wanted strong state
governments to make most laws, leaving the national/federal
government to regulate such things as the postal service or printing
money. On September 17, 1787, after much debate and with
compromises, a constitution was accepted creating a republic with two
levels of government- state and national- but with a strong central
federal government having ultimate power over the states.
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This federal government was divided into three branches- the
executive (=the president and his cabinet), the legislative (the two
houses of the Senate and Congress), and the judicial (the court
system with the Supreme Court at the top). This simple but elegant
system was designed to make sure no single branch of government got
too much power. The founding fathers of the U.S.A. were concerned
that the president might become too powerful like a king, so the two
other branches were given powers which could prevent this from
happening.
In addition to establishing the United States system of
government, the writers of the constitution also added 10
amendments, called the Bill of Rights. These 10 amendments protect
American’s basic legal and human rights, such as the right to follow
any religion, the right of free speech, the right to a trial by a jury with
a lawyer, and the right to own a gun. These constitutional protections
are a basic part of American social life, now as in the past.
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The U.S. Constitution has served for more than two hundred
years as the basic framework for American society. Although it has
been changed or added to over time, the basic principles of
democracy (rule by the people) have not changed. However, the
fundamental problem of whether to give more power to the states or
to the central government remains even now a major theme in
American political life.
1 The term mercantilism is not used when talking about the modern global economy, but
similar forms of economic protectionism are still with us today in government trade policy.
2 The rise of the British East India Company as the most powerful and world’s richest
company is an example of the success of both mercantilism and colonialism.
3 There has been one Quaker president, Richard Nixon, who became president in 1968.
4 This is actually the first “world war,” because England and France fought each other
everywhere around the world over their colonial possessions.
5 Some colonists only hoped to become a “dominion”, like Canada, which means that the
colonies would govern themselves but still be British. Others wanted complete independence
to become a separate nation.