U.S. History: Leader

United States of America100 Years of History; 1776-1900

Why start a new country? • Reasons for American Revolt:

− Increased Regulation• Proclamation of 1763• Intolerable Acts

− Taxation without representation

• The stamp act

What they were seeking:

•Freedom of religion•The right to self govern•Freedom of speech/press

The Boston Tea Party English stamps from the Stamp Act

The Revolutionary War

• Americans win the war for independence at the Battle of Yorktown October 19, 1781

• Britain eventually accepts defeat and signs the Treaty of Paris in September of 1783

•The fight for independence began in Concord, Massachusetts, April 18, 1775

•Military Strategies Evolve: Guerrilla Warfare

Washington Crossing the Delaware River

Independence and The American Revolution 1775-1781• America formally declares independence from

England on July 4th 1776.

The Declaration Committee

A Nation and Its Ideals Emerge under the Constitution• Equality, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, Democracy

are the foundation of the new country

• The Articles of Confederation are first adopted but don’t give the central government a chance

• The Constitution is finally ratified by all 13 states in 1790

The Liberty Bell The United States Constitution

Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride

An Expanding Nation: The first ten years• America Pushes Beyond its Colonial Borders

− 1790-1800 Three new states are added, Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee

− Moving “West”

• Farming Was King

• George Washington: The peoples president− Defined what the American President was

• Political Parties Emerge− Federalists (Hamilton) and Democratic-Republicans

(Jefferson)

“I walk on untrodden ground”, “There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.”

- George Washington

Americans Destiny: Manifest Destiny, an“obvious fate” Louisiana Purchase 1803

• “Nothing less than a continent can suffice as the basis and foundation for the nation whose destiny is involved in the destiny of mankind.”

Change and Conflict in the American West• Mining and Ranching

• Women’s Roles

• Indian Wars

General Custer in the field

Cowboys in the West

The Joining of the Trans-Continental Railroad in Utah

Indian Wars Shatter Tribal Cultures

• Manifest destiny made no mention of the American Indian “Trail of Tears”

• Indian Removal Act of 1830 sent all Indians east of the Mississippi west to the Oklahoma Territory

• Eventually American Indians would be reduced to less than one percent of their original lands

“Many if not most, of our Indian wars have their origin in broken promises and acts of injustice upon our part”

- President Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877

Images of Planes Indians

Lakota Woman

The Civil War: WHY?

• Sectional Differences Divide the Union− The North

• Increasingly urban/industrial, by 1860 35% of the population lived in cities

• Dramatically increased Infrastructure for transport of goods (railroads)

• No longer depended on massive manual labor so their need for slaves diminished.

The Civil War: WHY?

• Sectional Differences Divide the Union − The South

• Maintained rural life and an agriculturally dominated economy

• Required the use of slaves to support plantations• Abolition of slavery was a threat to the “Southern”

way of life

•Union (North)

•Great advantage in population, farmland, factories, manufactured goods, firearms production, and railroads.

•Confederacy (South)

•Advantage of defending own soil

•Outstanding military leadership

•Hoped for the Union to tire and allow succession from the union

The Civil War: 1861-1865

President Abraham Lincoln

Confederate President Jefferson

Davis

Civil War: The outcome• 620,000 Americans are killed

• Basics: The North wins, Slaves are emancipated and the United States is once again united….well, sort of. PROCLAMATON

• The Confederate States are absorbed back into the United States.

• 1863 - Lincoln is assassinated. Johnson takes over.

• Reconstruction begins.

Reconstruction; 1865-1877

• Reconstruction Amendments: − 13th outlawed

slavery− 14th made former

slaves citizens− 15th Suffrage for

African-American men

C.W. Amendments

Reconstruction Cartoon Poster

Reconstruction: The harsh race reality

• The compromise of 1877 ended reconstruction

• Southern “Redeemers” instituted Jim Crow Laws that segregated blacks and whites.

• Redeemers also instituted poll taxes and literacy tests which severely limited the black male vote

Jim Crow Poster after Reconstruction

Innovation and Industry: The beginning of the industrial revolution•Steel, Oil, Railroads, and Electricity combine to spark the 2nd industrial revolution (Carnegie / Rockefeller)

•Inventions such as the locomotive, electric light bulb, and telegraph change America forever

•These innovations combined with a new zest for capitalism propelled the U.S. toward the 20th century at light speed

•In some cases progress meant pain “The Gilded Age”

•Labor Struggles…

•Equality…

Video: Steenstry

Across into the 20th Century

•It was a long an brutal 19th century but American was rapidly growing and on the move

•As the 20th century rapidly approached, America was beginning to make its place on the world stage in:

•Politics

•Big Business

•Immigration

•Imperialism

•Economics