History of the United States

From ArticleWorld

The History of the United States starts well before the establishment of the country. The American landscape includes the stories of generations of different people and wars and cultural issues that have often left the nation divided.

Pre-Independence

The area presently known as the United States was once occupied by two groups of ancient people, the Adena and the Anasazi. Between 48,000 BCE and 9000 BCE, Native Americans emigrated from Asia and for centuries lived as the predominant inhabitants of North America until the mass arrival of the Europeans in the early seventeenth century.

Despite the heavy immigration of English, French, Spanish, and Dutch settlers in the 1600s, Colonial America gave way to a large labor shortage. To supply the workers, Americans adopted slavery and indentured servitude. During this time, Britain neglected the colonies and an American spirit of “no taxation without representation” grew amongst the colonist. The American Revolution started in 1763 and colonists declared the present-day United States of America in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence.

1776 to 1980

The Treaty of Paris settled the American War for Independence in 1783. In 1789, the United Stated elected George Washington as the first president. Under his presidency, America adopted the Bill of Rights and established both the executive branch of government and the federal Supreme Court.

Later, under President Thomas Jefferson, America added the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition to its history.

Upon the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848, America added the last of the continental United States.

Upon Abraham Lincoln taking the presidential office in 1861 the Southern states separated from the Union and founded the Confederate States of America. The separation sparked the Civil War. The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which formally ended slavery in America, ignited a second cause to the war. Ultimately, the North prevailed.

Despite the formal end of slavery, civil rights continued to be a problem for African Americans with the establishment of Jim Crow Laws, which legalized segregation of the races until the 1960s.

America entered World War I in 1917 and provided enough military and financial support to see the Allies to victory.

Following the Stock Market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s, America’s entrance into World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 restarted the American economy.

Following WWII, America saw the beginning of the Cold War, Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Civil Rights and feminism movements.

1980 to Today

A series of domestic tax cuts in the 1980s led by President Ronald Regan increased the American deficit.

In 1991, America saw the end of the Cold War as the Soviet Union collapsed and military action overseas in the Gulf War.

On Sept. 11, 2001, America experienced terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. President George W. Bush proclaimed a “war on terror.”

As of 2006, the United States is involved in the war in Iraq.