Following the end of World War II, theCold War commenced with the United States and theSoviet Union emerging assuperpower rivals; the two countries largely confronted each other indirectly in thearms race, theSpace Race, propaganda campaigns, andproxy wars, which included theKorean War and theVietnam War. In the 1960s, due largely to thecivil rights movement, social reforms enforced African Americans' constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement. In 1991, the United Statesled a coalition and invadedIraq during theGulf War. Later in the year, the Cold War ended with thedissolution of the Soviet Union, leaving the United States as the world's sole superpower.
Approximate location of the ice-free corridor and specific Paleoindian sites, according to theClovis theory
It is not definitively known how or when Native Americans firstsettled the Americas. The prevailing theory proposes that people fromEurasia followedgame acrossBeringia, aland bridge that connectedSiberia to present-dayAlaska during theIce Age, and then spread southward, perhaps as early as 30,000 years ago.[3] These early inhabitants, calledPaleo-Indians, soon diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct groups.
By 10,000 BCE, humans had already been well-established throughout North America. Originally, Paleo-Indians hunted Ice Agemegafauna likemammoths, but as they began to go extinct, people turned instead tobison as a food source, and later foraging for berries and seeds. Paleo-Indians in central Mexico were the first in the Americas to farm, around 8,000 BCE. Eventually, the knowledge began to spread northward. By 3,000 BCE, corn was being grown in the valleys ofArizona andNew Mexico, followed by primitiveirrigation systems and, by 300 BCE, early villages of theHohokam.[4][5]
One of the earlier cultures in the present-day United States was theClovis culture (9,100 to 8,850 BCE), who are primarily identified by the use of flutedspear points called theClovis point. TheFolsom culture was similar, but is marked by the use of theFolsom point.
A later migration around 8,000 BCE includedNa-Dene-speaking peoples, who reached thePacific Northwest by 5,000 BCE.[6] From there, they migrated along thePacific Coast and into the interior.[7] Another group, theOshara tradition people, who lived from 5,500 BCE to 600 CE, were part of theArchaic Southwest.
TheAdena began constructing largeearthwork mounds around 600 BCE. They are the earliest known people to have beenMound Builders, although there aremounds in the United States that predate this culture. The Adenans were absorbed into theHopewell tradition, a powerful people who traded tools and goods across a wide territory. They continued the Adena tradition of mound-building and pioneered a trading system called the Hopewell Exchange System, which at its greatest extent ran from the present-day Southeast up to the Canadian side ofLake Ontario.[8] By 500 CE, the Hopewellians had been absorbed into the largerMississippian culture.
The Mississippians were a broad group of tribes. Their most important city wasCahokia, near modern-daySt. Louis, Missouri. At its peak in the 12th century, the city had an estimated population of 20,000, larger than the population of London at the time. The entire city was centered around theMonks Mound that stood 100 feet (30 m) tall. Cahokia, like many other cities and villages of the time, depended on hunting, foraging, trading, and agriculture, and developed a class system with slaves and human sacrifice that was influenced by societies to the south, like theMayans.[4]
In theSouthwest, theAnasazi began constructing stone and adobe pueblos around 900 BCE.[9] These apartment-like structures were often built into cliff faces, as seen in theCliff Palace atMesa Verde. Some grew to be the size of cities, withPueblo Bonito along theChaco River in New Mexico once consisting of 800 rooms.[4]
TheIndigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest were likely the most affluent Native Americans. Many distinct cultural groups and political entities developed there, but they all shared certain beliefs, traditions, and practices, such as the centrality ofsalmon as a resource and spiritual symbol. Permanent villages began to develop in this region as early as 1,000 BCE, and these communities celebrated by the gift-giving feast of thepotlatch.
In present-dayupstate New York, theIroquois formed aconfederacy of tribal peoples in the mid-15th century, consisting of theOneida,Mohawk,Onondaga,Cayuga, andSeneca.[10][11][12] Each tribe was represented in a group of 50sachem chiefs. It has been suggested that their culture contributed to political thinking during the development of the United States government.[citation needed] The Iroquois were powerful, waging war with many neighboring tribes, and later, Europeans. As their territory expanded, smaller tribes were forced further west, including theOsage,Kaw,Ponca, andOmaha peoples.[12][13]
The exact date for the settling of Hawaii is disputed but the first settlement most likely took place between 940 and 1130 CE.[14] Around 1200 CE,Tahitian explorers found and began settling the area. This marked the rise of the Hawaiian civilization, which would be largely separated from the rest of the world until the arrival of the British 600 years later.[15][16][17] Europeans under the British explorerJames Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and within five years of contact, European military technology would helpKamehameha I conquer most of the island group, and eventually unify the islands for the first time, establishing theHawaiian Kingdom.[18]
The island of Puerto Rico has been settled for at least 4,000 years. Starting with theOrtoiroid culture, successive generations of native migrations arrived replacing or absorbing local populations. By the year 1000Arawak people had arrived from South America via theLesser Antilles; these settlers would become theTaíno encountered by the Spanish in 1493. Upon European contact a native population between 30,000 and 60,000 was likely, led by a single chief called aCacique.[19] Colonization resulted in the decimation of the local inhabitants due to the harshEncomienda system and epidemics caused by Old World diseases. Puerto Rico would remain a part of Spain until American annexation in 1898.[19]
The earliest recorded European mention of America is in atreatise by the medieval chroniclerAdam of Bremen, circa 1075, where it is referred to asVinland.[a] It is also extensively referred to in the NorseVinland sagas. The strongest archaeological evidence of the existence ofNorse settlements in America is located in Canada; there is significant scholarly debate as to whether Norse explorers also made landfall inNew England.[21]
Europeans brought horses, cattle, and hogs to the Americas and took back maize, turkeys, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, beans, andsquash to Europe. Many explorers and early settlers died after being exposed to new diseases in the Americas. However, the effects of new Eurasian diseases carried by the colonists, especially smallpox and measles, were much worse for the Native Americans, as they had noimmunity to them. Theysuffered epidemics and died in very large numbers, usually before large-scale European settlement began. Their societies were disrupted by the scale of deaths.[22][23]
In 1539,Hernando de Soto extensively explored the Southeast,[26] and a year laterFrancisco Coronado explored from Arizona to central Kansas in search of gold.[26] Escaped horses from Coronado's party spread over the Great Plains, and the Plains Indians mastered horsemanship within a few generations.[4] Small Spanish settlements eventually grew to become important cities, such asSan Antonio,Albuquerque,Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.[27]
TheDutch East India Company sent explorerHenry Hudson to search for aNorthwest Passage to Asia in 1609.New Netherland was established in 1621 by the company to capitalize on theNorth American fur trade. Growth was slow at first due to mismanagement by theDutch and Native American conflicts. After the Dutch purchased the island ofManhattan from the Native Americans, the land was namedNew Amsterdam and became the capital of New Netherland. The town rapidly expanded and in the mid-1600s it became an important trading center. Despite beingCalvinists and building theReformed Church in America, the Dutch were tolerant of other religions and cultures and traded with theIroquois to the north.[28]
The colony served as a barrier to British expansion fromNew England, and as a result aseries of wars were fought. The colony was taken over by Britain asNew York in 1664 and its capital was renamed New York City.
In the early years of theSwedish Empire, Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders formed theNew Sweden Company to trade furs and tobacco in North America. The company's first expedition was led byPeter Minuit, who had been governor of New Netherland from 1626 to 1631, and landed inDelaware Bay in March 1638. The settlers foundedFort Christina at the site of modern-dayWilmington, Delaware, and made treaties with Indigenous peoples for land ownership on both sides of theDelaware River.[29][30]
Over the following seventeen years, 12 more expeditions brought settlers from the Swedish Empire to New Sweden. The colony established 19 permanent settlements along with many farms, extending into modern-dayMaryland,Pennsylvania, andNew Jersey. It was incorporated into New Netherland in 1655 after a Dutch invasion from the neighboring New Netherland colony during theSecond Northern War.[29][30]
Most French lived inQuebec andAcadia (modern Canada), but far-reaching trade relationships with Native Americans spread their influence. French colonists in small villages along the Mississippi andIllinois rivers lived in farming communities that served as a grain source for Gulf Coast settlements. The French established plantations in Louisiana along with settlingNew Orleans,Mobile, andBiloxi.
The English, drawn in byFrancis Drake's raids onSpanish treasure ships leaving the New World, settled the strip of land along the east coast in the 1600s.[4] The early British colonies were established by private groups seeking profit, and were marked by starvation, disease, and Native American attacks. Many immigrants were people seeking religious freedom or escaping political oppression, peasants displaced by theIndustrial Revolution, or those simply seeking adventure and opportunity. Between the late 1610s and the Revolution, the British shipped an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts to their American colonies.[31]
In some areas, Native Americans taught colonists how to grow local crops. In others, they attacked the settlers. Virgin forests provided an ample supply of building material and firewood. Natural inlets and harbors lined the coast, providing easy ports for essential trade with Europe. Settlements remained close to the coast due to this as well as Native American resistance and the Appalachian Mountains in the interior.[4]
The first successful English colony,Jamestown, was established by theVirginia Company in 1607 on theJames River inVirginia. The colonists were preoccupied with the search for gold and were ill-equipped for life in the New World. CaptainJohn Smith held the fledgling Jamestown together in the first year, and the colony descended into anarchy and nearly failed when he returned to England two years later.John Rolfe began experimenting with tobacco from the West Indies in 1612, and by 1614 the first shipment arrived in London. It became Virginia's chief source of revenue within a decade.
In 1624, after years of disease and Indian attacks, including thePowhatan attack of 1622, KingJames I revoked the Virginia Company's charter and made Virginia a royal colony.
New England was initially settled primarily byPuritans fleeing religious persecution. ThePilgrims sailed for Virginia on the Mayflower in 1620, but were knocked off course by a storm and landed atPlymouth, where they agreed to a social contract of rules in theMayflower Compact. About half died in the first winter.[32] Like Jamestown, Plymouth suffered from disease and starvation, but localWampanoag Indians taught the colonists how to farm maize.
Plymouth was followed by the Puritans andMassachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. They maintained a charter for self-government separate from England, and elected founderJohn Winthrop as governor.Roger Williams opposed Winthrop's treatment of Native Americans and religious intolerance, and established the colony ofProvidence Plantations, laterRhode Island, on the basis of freedom of religion. Other colonists established settlements in theConnecticut River Valley, and on the coasts of present-dayNew Hampshire andMaine. Native American attacks continued, with the most significant occurring in the 1637Pequot War and the 1675King Philip's War.
New England became a center of commerce and industry due to the poor, mountainous soil making agriculture difficult. Rivers were harnessed to power grain mills and sawmills, and the numerous harbors facilitated trade. Tight-knit villages developed around these industrial centers, andBoston became one of America's most important ports.
In the 1660s, theMiddle Colonies ofNew York,New Jersey, andDelaware were established in the former Dutch New Netherland, and were characterized by a large degree of ethnic and religious diversity. At the same time, theIroquois of New York, strengthened by years of fur trading with Europeans, formed the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.
The last colony in this region wasPennsylvania, established in 1681 byWilliam Penn as a home for religious dissenters, includingQuakers,Methodists, and theAmish.[33] The capital of the colony,Philadelphia, became a dominant commercial center in a few short years. While Quakers populated the city,German immigrants began to flood into the Pennsylvanian hills and forests, while theScots-Irish pushed into the far western frontier.
The Old Plantation, a portrait depicting a plantation inSouth Carolina in approximately 1790 withGullah slaves playing traditionalWest Africa instruments resisting forced assimilation from the planation culture.
The overwhelmingly ruralSouthern Colonies contrasted sharply with the New England and Middle Colonies. After Virginia, the second British colony south of New England wasMaryland, established as a Catholic haven in 1632. The economy of these two colonies was built entirely onyeoman farmers and planters. The planters established themselves in theTidewater region of Virginia, establishing massiveplantations with slave labor.
In 1670, theProvince of Carolina was established, andCharleston became the region's great trading port. While Virginia's economy was also based on tobacco, Carolina was more diversified, exporting rice, indigo, and lumber as well. In 1712, it was divided in two, creatingNorth andSouth Carolina. TheGeorgia Colony was established byJames Oglethorpe in 1732 as a border toSpanish Florida and a reform colony for former prisoners and the poor.[33]
Religiosity expanded greatly after theFirst Great Awakening, a religious revival in the 1740s led by preachers such asJonathan Edwards andGeorge Whitefield. AmericanEvangelicals affected by the Awakening added a new emphasis on divine outpourings of theHoly Spirit and conversions that implanted new believers with an intense love for God. Revivals encapsulated those hallmarks and carried the newly created evangelicalism into the early republic, setting the stage for theSecond Great Awakening in the late 1790s.[34] In the early stages, evangelicals in the South, such asMethodists andBaptists, preached for religious freedom and abolition of slavery.
Each of the American colonies had a slightly different governmental structure. Typically, a colony was ruled by a governor appointed from London who controlled the executive administration and relied upon a locally elected legislature to vote on taxes and make laws. By the 18th century, the American colonies were growing very rapidly as a result of low death rates along with ample supplies of land and food. The colonies were richer than most parts of Britain, and attracted a steady flow of immigrants, especially teenagers who arrived as indentured servants.[35]
Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America arrived asindentured servants.[36] Typically, people would sign a contract agreeing to a set term of labor, usually four to seven years, and in return would receive transport to America and a piece of land at the end of their servitude. In some cases, ships' captains received rewards for the delivery of poor migrants, and so extravagant promises and kidnapping were common.[4]
The firstAfrican slaves arrived in 1619.[37] Initially regarded as indentured servants who could buy their freedom, the institution of slavery began to harden and the involuntary servitude became lifelong[37] as the demand for labor on tobacco and rice plantations grew in the 1660s.[citation needed] Slavery became identified with brown skin color, and the children of slave women were born slaves, known aspartus sequitur ventrem.[37] By the 1770s, African slaves comprised a fifth of the American population.
The question of independence from Britain did not arise as long as the colonies needed British military support against the French and Spanish powers. Those threats were gone by 1765. However, London continued to regard the American colonies as existing for the benefit of the mother country in a policy known asmercantilism.[35]
Colonial America was defined by a severe labor shortage that used forms ofunfree labor, such asslavery and indentured servitude. The British colonies were also marked by a policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, known assalutary neglect. This permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders.[38]
King George III issued theRoyal Proclamation of 1763, to organize the new North American empire and protect the Native Americans from colonial expansion west of the Appalachian Mountains. Strains developed in the relations between the colonists and the Crown. TheBritish Parliament passed theStamp Act of 1765, imposing a tax on the colonies without going through the colonial legislatures. Crying "No taxation without representation", the colonists refused to pay.[40]. On March 5, 1770, in an event that would fuel anti-British sentiment in Boston, British troops opened fire on protesters inBoston, killing five people in theBoston Massacre.
On December 16, 1773, theBoston Tea Party was a direct action to protest the new tax on tea. Parliament responded the next year with theIntolerable Acts, stripping Massachusetts of its historic right of self-government and putting it under military rule, which sparked outrage and resistance in all thirteen colonies.Patriot leaders from every colony convened theFirst Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance. The Congress called for aboycott of British trade, published alist of rights and grievances, andpetitioned the king to rectify those grievances.[41] This appeal had no effect.
King George III formally ordered the end of hostilities on December 5, 1782, recognizing American independence.[52] TheTreaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783,[53] and was ratified by theCongress of the Confederation on January 14, 1784.[54]
TheArticles of Confederation were ratified as the governing law of the United States, written to limit the powers of the central government in favor of states. This causedeconomic decline, as the government was unable to pass economic legislation, levy taxes, and pay its debts.[55] Nationalists worried that theconfederate nature of the union was too fragile to withstand an armed conflict with any adversarial states, or even internal revolts such asShays' Rebellion of 1786 in Massachusetts.[56]
In the 1780s the western regions were ceded by the states to Congress and became territories. With the migration of settlers to the Northwest, soon they becamestates.[56] TheAmerican Indian Wars continued in the 1780s as settlers moved west.[57] TheNorthwestern Confederacy and American settlers began fighting theNorthwest Indian War in the late 1780s; the Northwestern Confederacy received British support, but the settlers received little assistance from the American government.[58][59]
Nationalists – most of them war veterans – organized in every state and convinced Congress to call thePhiladelphia Convention in 1787. The delegates from every state wrote a newConstitution that created a federal government with a strong president and powers of taxation. The new government reflected the prevailing republican ideals of guarantees ofindividual liberty and of constraining the power of government throughseparation of powers.[56] The constitution was ratified by a sufficient number of states in 1788 to begin forming a federal government.[60]
TheUnited States Electoral College chose George Washington as the firstPresident in 1789.[61] The national capital moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790 and finally, in 1800, to Washington, D.C.
The major accomplishment of theWashington Administration was the creation of a strong national government that was recognized by all Americans.[62] Washington's government, following the vigorous leadership of Treasury SecretaryAlexander Hamilton, assumed the debts of the states, created theBank of the United States, and set up a uniform system oftariffs and other taxes to pay off the debt and provide a financial infrastructure. Hamilton created theFederalist Party to support his programs. In 1791, to assuage theAnti-Federalists who feared a too-powerful central government, the Congress adopted theUnited States Bill of Rights by amending it to the U.S. Constitution, to guarantee individual liberties such as freedom of speech and religious practice.[63]
Thomas Jefferson andJames Madison formed an opposition Republican Party (usually called theDemocratic-Republican Party). In 1794, Hamilton and Washington presented the country with theJay Treaty which re-established good relations with Britain. The Jeffersonians vehemently protested, and the voters aligned behind one party or the other, thus setting up theFirst Party System.[64] Although the treaty passed, politics became intensely heated.[65] Serious challenges to the new federal government included theNorthwest Indian War, the ongoingCherokee–American wars, and the 1794Whiskey Rebellion, in which western settlers protested against a federal tax on liquor.[66]
Washington refused to serve more than two terms, setting a precedent for future administrations.[67]John Adams of the Federalist Party defeated Jefferson in the1796 election. War was looming with France, and the Federalists used the opportunity to try silencing the Republicans with theAlien and Sedition Acts; they also built up a large army with Hamilton at the head, in preparation for a French invasion. However, the Federalists became divided after Adams sent a successful peace mission to France that ended theQuasi-War of 1798.[64][68]
Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia, an 1861 portrait by British painterEyre Crowe
During the first two decades after the Revolutionary War, there were dramatic changes in the status of slavery among the states and an increase in the number offree blacks. Inspired by revolutionary ideals of equality, and influenced by their reduced economic reliance on the use of slaves, theNorthern states abolished slavery.
States of theUpper South mademanumission easier, resulting in an increase in the proportion of free blacks in the Upper South (as a percentage of the total non-white population) from less than one percent in 1792 to more than ten percent by 1810. By that date, a total of 13.5 percent of all blacks in the United States were free.[69] In 1807, with four million slaves already in the United States, Congress severed U.S. involvement with theAtlantic slave trade.[70]
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement that affected virtually all of society during the early 19th century and led to rapid church growth. It began around 1790 and was gaining momentum by 1800; its membership rose rapidly after 1820 amongBaptist andMethodist congregations, whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak by the 1840s.[71]
The movement enrolled millions of new members in existing evangelical denominations and led to the formation of new denominations. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements, includingabolitionism andtemperance.[72]
Thomas Jefferson heavily defeated John Adams in the1800 presidential election. Jefferson's major achievement as president was theLouisiana Purchase in 1803, which provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion west of the Mississippi River.[73] He supported expeditions to explore and map the new domain, most notably theLewis and Clark Expedition.[74]
Jefferson believed deeply inrepublicanism and advocated that it should be based on the independentyeoman farmer and planter; he distrusted cities, factories and banks. He also distrusted the federal government and judges, and he tried to weaken the judiciary. Although the Constitution specified aSupreme Court, its functions were vague untilJohn Marshall, theChief Justice of the United States (1801–1835), defined them – especially the power to overturn acts of Congress or states that violated the Constitution, first enunciated in 1803 in theMarbury v. Madison case.[75]
Americans were increasingly angered by the British violation of American ships' neutral rights to harm France, thecoercion of 10,000 American sailors needed by theRoyal Navy to fight Napoleon, and British support for hostile Indians attacking American settlers in theAmerican Midwest – with the goal of creating a pro-BritishIndian barrier state to block American expansion westward. Britain may also have wished to annex all or part ofBritish North America, although this is still heavily debated.[76][77][78][page needed][79][80] Despite strong opposition from theNortheast, especially from Federalists who did not want to disrupt trade with Britain, Congressdeclared war on the United Kingdom on June 18, 1812.[81]
Both sides tried to invade the other and were repelled. The American militia proved ineffective because the soldiers were reluctant to leave home, and efforts to invade Canada failed repeatedly. The British blockade ruined American commerce, bankrupted the Treasury, and further angered New Englanders who began smuggling supplies to Britain. Under GeneralWilliam Henry Harrison, the Americans eventuallygained naval control of Lake Erie and defeated the Indians underTecumseh in Canada,[83] whileAndrew Jackson ended the Indian threat in the Southeast. The Indian threat to expansion into the Midwest was permanently ended. The British invaded and occupied much of Maine.
In 1814, the Britishraided and burned Washington but werepushed back at Baltimore, where "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written to celebrate the American success. In upstate New York, a major British invasion of New York State was repelled at theBattle of Plattsburgh, and Andrew Jackson decisively defeated a major British invasion at theBattle of New Orleans in early 1815.[84] The Americans claimed victory on February 18, as the news broke of Jackson's victory of New Orleans and thepeace treaty that left the pre-war boundaries in place. This "second war of independence" contributed to an emerging American identity that cementednational pride over state pride.[85] The War of 1812 also dispelled America's negative perception of astanding army as opposed to ill-equipped and poorly trained militias.[86]
National euphoria after the victory atNew Orleans ruined the prestige of the Federalists, and they no longer played a significant role as a political party.[87] President Madison and most of the Republicans realized they had been foolish to allow theFirst Bank of the United States to close down, for its absence had greatly hindered the financing of the war. With the assistance of foreign bankers, they chartered theSecond Bank of the United States in 1816.[88][89]
The Republicans also imposed tariffs designed to protect the infant industries that had been created when Britain was blockading the U.S. With the collapse of the Federalists as a party, the adoption of many Federalist principles by the Republicans, and the systematic policy of PresidentJames Monroe in his two terms (1817–1825) to downplay partisanship, society entered anEra of Good Feelings and closed out the First Party System.[88][89]
Expressed in 1823, theMonroe Doctrine proclaimed the idealistic standpoint of the United States that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas. This was a defining moment inU.S. foreign policy.[90]
In 1832, President Andrew Jackson ran for a second term under the slogan "Jackson and no bank" and did not renew the Second Bank's charter, dissolving the bank in 1836.[91] He was convinced that central banking was used by the elite to take advantage of the average American, and he opted instead to implement publicly owned banks in various U.S. states, popularly known as "pet banks".[91]
The former Jeffersonian (Democratic-Republican) party split into factions over the choice of a successor to PresidentJames Monroe, and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led byAndrew Jackson andMartin Van Buren, became the Democratic Party. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828:
Jacksonians believed the people's will had finally prevailed. Through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president. The Democrats became the nation's first well-organized national party, and tight party organization became the hallmark of nineteenth-century American politics.[92]
Opposing factions led byHenry Clay helped form theWhig Party. The Democratic Party had a small but decisive advantage over theWhigs until the 1850s, when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery.
The country grew rapidly in population and area, as pioneers pushed the frontier of settlement west.[93][94] Native American tribes in some places resisted militarily, but they were overwhelmed by settlers and the army, and after 1830, were relocated to reservations in the west.[95] That year, Congress passed theIndian Removal Act, which authorized the president to negotiate treaties that exchanged Native American tribal lands in the eastern states for lands west of the Mississippi River.[96] Its goal was primarily to remove Native Americans, including theFive Civilized Tribes, from desirable lands in what's nowOklahoma.[97] Thousands of deaths resulted from the relocations, as seen in the CherokeeTrail of Tears,[97] most infamously of which resulted in approximately 4,000 of the 16,000 relocatedCherokee dying along the way in 1838.[98][99] Many of theSeminole Indians in Florida refused to move west, and fought the Army for years in theSeminole Wars.
During theCalifornia Gold Rush, some 300,000 people relocated toCalifornia from the rest of the United States and abroad following the discovery of gold in the state.
TheTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war in 1848. In the treaty, the U.S. acquired much of theAmerican Southwest, includingCalifornia andNew Mexico, with Mexico being paid $15 million in compensation. Many Democrats wanted to annex all of Mexico, but that idea was rejected byWhite Southerners, who argued that incorporating millions ofMexican people, mainly of mixed race, would undermine the U.S. as an exclusively white republic.[101] Instead, theU.S. took Texas and the lightly settled northern parts (California and New Mexico). Simultaneously, gold was discovered in California in 1848, and led to over 100,000 white settlers flocking to California in 1849, theCalifornia Gold Rush miners, known as '49ers.California grew rapidly, and by 1850,the non-native population went from 1,000 to over 125,000 people by 1850. However, many Indians were devastated by the rapid influx of the rush of white settlers in the 1850s, and to clear the state for white settlement, the U.S. government began apolicy of forcibly removing and exterminating the natives.[103]. The early 1830s to 1869, theOregon Trail and its offshoots were used by over 300,000 settlers headed to California,Oregon, and other points in the far west.Wagon trains took five or six months on foot.[104]
A peaceful compromise with Britain gave the U.S. ownership of theOregon Country, which was renamed theOregon Territory.[102] The demand forguano, prized as an agriculturalfertilizer, led the U.S. to pass theGuano Islands Act in 1856, which enabled U.S. citizens to take possession, in the name of the country, of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. Under the act, the U.S. annexed nearly 100 islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. By 1903, 66 of these islands were recognized as U.S. territories.[105]
An 1863 map of the United States during theAmerican Civil War, showing the affiliation of states and territories
Union states
Union territories not permitting slavery
Border Union states, permitting slavery
Confederate states
Union territories permitting slavery (claimed by Confederacy)
The central issue after 1848 was the expansion of slavery, with the anti-slavery elements in the North pitted against the pro-slavery elements in the South.[108] By 1860, there were four million slaves in the South. A small number of Northerners called abolitionistssought the immediate abolition of slavery, while much larger numbers in the North were opposed to the expansion of slavery and sought to put it on the path to extinction.[108]
There was resistance to slavery by both peaceful and violent means.Slave rebellions byGabriel Prosser (1800),Denmark Vesey (1822) andNat Turner (1831), caused fear in the white South, where stricter oversight of slaves was imposed, and the rights of free Black people were reduced.[citation needed]Southern white Democrats insisted that slavery was of economic, social, and cultural benefit, even to the slaves themselves.[108] Supporters of slavery argued that a sudden end to the slave economy would have a fatal economic impact in the South, causing widespread unemployment and chaos; slave labor was the foundation of their economy.[109]
Theplantations were highly profitable because of the heavy European demand for raw cotton. Northern cities and regional industries were tied economically to slavery through banking, shipping, and manufacturing, including theirtextile mills. In addition, Southern states benefited from slavery by having an increased apportionment in Congress due to the partial counting of slaves in their populations.
The issue of slavery in the new territories was seemingly settled by theCompromise of 1850, which included the admission of California as afree state in exchange for no federal restrictions on slavery placed on Utah or New Mexico.[110] A point of contention was theFugitive Slave Act, requiring free states to cooperate with slave owners when attempting to capture escaped slaves who defected via theUnderground Railroad, while punishing those who aided runaway slaves. The act garnered outrage in the North, as they were forced to play a role in Southern slavery.[111][112][113]
The Missouri Compromise was repealed in 1854 with theKansas–Nebraska Act; promoted by Stephen Douglas in the name of "popular sovereignty" and democracy, this act of Congress permitted voters to decide on the legality of slavery in each territory, and repealed theMissouri Compromise of 1820, which explicitly banned slavery in this territory. Anti-slavery forces rose in anger and alarm, forming the newRepublican Party to oppose the expansion of slavery out west. Pro- and anti- slavery settlers rushed to Kansas to vote for or against slavery, resulting in years of bloodshed and violence calledBleeding Kansas. By the late 1850s, the young Republican Party dominated nearly all Northern states, and hence the electoral colleges. The party insisted that slavery would never be allowed to expand and would therefore slowly die out.[114]
The Supreme Court's 1857 decision inDred Scott v. Sandford ruled that the Compromise was unconstitutional, and that free Black people were not U.S. citizens, and therefore unable to sue for their freedom. The decision enraged Northerners, and the Republicans worried that the decision could be used to expand slavery. The decision exacerbated tensions over slavery.[111][112][113]
Meanwhile, in 1861 and 1862, both sides concentrated on raising and training new armies. The Union successfully gained control of the border states, driving the Confederates out.[120] Lee'sArmy of Northern Virginia won battles in late 1862 and spring 1863, but he pushed too hard and ignored the Union threat in the west. Heinvaded Pennsylvania in search of supplies and to causewar-weariness in the North. In September 17, 1862, theBattle of Antietam was fought inMaryland, which would result in over 23,000 casualties in bloodiest day of the Civil War.[121]
In July 1863, Union forces under GeneralUlysses S. Grant gained control of the Mississippi River at theBattle of Vicksburg, splitting the Confederacy. In 1864, Union GeneralWilliam Tecumseh Sherman marched south fromChattanooga to captureAtlanta, a decisive victory that ended war jitters among Republicans in the North and helped Lincolnwin re-election.Sherman's march to the sea was almost unopposed. Much of the South was destroyed, and could no longer provide desperately needed supplies to its armies. In spring 1864, Grant launched awar of attrition and pursued Lee to the finalAppomattox campaign, which resulted in Leesurrendering in April 1865, ending the war after four years.[citation needed] By May 1865, the Union Army controlled all of the Confederacy and liberated all of the designated slaves.[122]
The Civil War was the world's earliestindustrial war. Railroads, thetelegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. Civilian factories, mines, shipyards, and were mobilized.[123] Foreign trade increased, with the U.S. providing both food and cotton to Britain, and Britain sending in manufactured products and thousands of volunteers for the Union Army, and a few to theConfederate army. The Union blockade shut down Confederate ports. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of about 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number ofcivilian casualties.[d] About ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and thirty percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40 died.[123] Many Black people died after being dislocated during the war and Reconstruction.[126]
After the war, the far west was developed and settled, first by wagon trains and riverboats, and then by thefirst transcontinental railroad in 1869. Many Northern European immigrants took up low-cost or free farms in the Prairie States. Mining for silver and copper encouraged development.[131]
Ex-Confederates remained in control of most Southern states for over two years, until theRadical Republicans gained control of Congress in the1866 elections. Johnson, who sought good treatment for ex-Confederates, was virtually powerless in the face of Congress and vetoed many civil rights laws;he was impeached in 1868, but the Senate'sattempt to remove him from office failed by one vote. Congress enfranchised black men and temporarily banned many ex-Confederate leaders from holding office. New Republican governments came to power based on a coalition of Freedmen made up ofCarpetbaggers (new arrivals from the North), andScalawags (native white Southerners), backed by the Army. Opponents said they were corrupt and violated the rights of whites.[136]
During Reconstruction, for a brief period, many freed blacks could vote, and even hold public office as the Republicans occupied the South. In response to Radical Reconstruction, theKu Klux Klan (KKK) emerged in 1865 as a white-supremacist terrorist organization opposed to black civil rights and Republican rule. President Ulysses Grant's enforcement of theKu Klux Klan Act of 1871 shut them down.[136] Paramilitary groups, such as theWhite League andRed Shirts emerging around 1874, openly intimidated and attacked Black people voting.[136]
Reconstruction ended after the disputed1876 election. TheCompromise of 1877 gave RepublicanRutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for removing all remaining federal troops in the South, as the Democrats regained control of the Congress, and Reconstruction came to an end in 1877. As a result, the southern states passes harsh laws on African-Americans known asJim Crow laws, that effectivelydisenfranchised Black and poor white voters by making voter registration more difficult throughpoll taxes andliteracy tests. Black people were segregated from whites in the violently enforced Jim Crow system, and lynchings and threats of violence against blacks were commonplace.[137][138][139] In 1882, the United States passed theChinese Exclusion Act (which barred all Chinese immigrants except for students and businessmen),[140] and theImmigration Act of 1882 (which barred all immigrants with mental health issues).[141]
The "Gilded Age" was a term thatMark Twain used to describe the period of the late 19th century with a dramatic expansion of American wealth and prosperity, underscored by mass corruption in government.[142] Some historians have argued that the United States was effectivelyplutocratic for at least part of the era.[143][144][145] As financiers and industrialists such asJ.P. Morgan andJohn D. Rockefeller began to amass vast fortunes, many observers were concerned that the nation was losing its pioneering egalitarian spirit.[146]
An unprecedented wave ofimmigration from Europe served to both provide the labor for American industry and create diverse communities in previously undeveloped areas. From 1880 to 1914, peak years of immigration, more than 22 million people migrated to the country.[147] Most were unskilled workers who quickly found jobs in mines, mills, and factories. Many immigrants were craftsmen and farmers who purchased inexpensive land on the prairies. Poverty, growing inequality and dangerous working conditions, along withsocialist andanarchist ideas diffusing from European immigrants, led to the rise of thelabor movement.[148][149][150]
Dissatisfaction on the part of the growing middle class with the corruption and inefficiency of politics, and the failure to deal with increasingly important urban and industrial problems, led to the dynamicprogressive movement starting in the 1890s. Progressives called for the modernization and reform of decrepit institutions in the fields of politics, education, medicine, and industry.[151]"Muckraking" journalists exposed corruption in business and government, and highlighted rampant inner-city poverty. Progressives implemented antitrust laws and regulated such industries of meatpacking, drugs, and railroads. Four new constitutional amendments – theSixteenth throughNineteenth – resulted from progressive activism, bringing thefederal income tax, direct election of Senators, prohibition, and female suffrage.[151]
AHarpers Weekly illustration byFrederic Remington depicting hundreds of boxcars and coal cars looted and burned and state and federal troops violently attacked striking workers on July 7, 1894
Skilled workers banded together to control their crafts and raise wages by forming labor unions in industrial areas of the Northeast.Samuel Gompers led theAmerican Federation of Labor (1886–1924), coordinating multiple unions. In response to heavy debts and decreasing farm prices, wheat and cotton farmers joined thePopulist Party.[153]
ThePanic of 1893 created a severe nationwide depression.[154] Many railroads went bankrupt. Labor unrest involved numerous strikes, most notably the violentPullman Strike of 1894, which was forcibly shut down by federal troops. One of the disillusioned leaders of the Pullman strike,Eugene V. Debs, went on to become the leader of theSocialist Party of America.[155]
Economic growth
Important legislation of the era included the 1883Civil Service Act, which mandated a competitive examination for applicants for government jobs, the 1887Interstate Commerce Act, which ended railroads' discrimination against small shippers, and the 1890Sherman Antitrust Act, which outlawed monopolies in business.[142]
After 1893, the Populist Party gained strength among farmers and coal miners, but was overtaken by the even more popularFree silver movement, which demanded using silver to enlarge the money supply and end the depression.[156] Financial and railroad communities fought back hard, arguing that only thegold standard would save the economy. In the1896 presidential election, conservative RepublicanWilliam McKinley defeated silveriteWilliam Jennings Bryan.[157]
Prosperity returned under McKinley. The gold standard was enacted, and the tariff was raised. By 1900, the U.S. had the strongest economy in the world.[158] McKinley wasassassinated byLeon Czolgosz in 1901, and was succeeded byTheodore Roosevelt.[159]
The period also saw a major transformation of the banking system, with the arrival of the firstcredit union in 1908 and the creation of theFederal Reserve System in 1913.[160][161] Apart from two short recessions in1907 and1920, the economy remained prosperous and growing until 1929.[158]
TheUnited States Army continued to fightwars with Native Americans as settlers encroached on their traditional lands. Gradually the U.S. purchased tribal lands and extinguished their claims, forcing most tribes onto subsidizedreservations. According to theU.S. Census Bureau in 1894, from 1789 to 1894, the Indian Wars killed 19,000 white people and more than 30,000 Indians.[163]
TheSpanish–American War began when Spain refused American demands to reform its oppressive policies inCuba.[164] The war was a series of quick American victories on land and at sea. At theTreaty of Paris peace conference the United States acquired thePhilippines,Puerto Rico, andGuam.[165] Cuba became an independent country, under close American tutelage.William Jennings Bryan led his Democratic Party in opposition to control of the Philippines, which he denounced asimperialism.[165] After defeating aninsurrection by Filipino nationalists, the United States achieved little in the Philippines except in education. Infrastructural development lost much of its early vigor with the failure of the railroads.[166]
By 1908, however, Americans lost interest in an empire and turned their international attention to the Caribbean, especially the building of thePanama Canal. The canal opened in 1914 and increased trade with Japan and the rest of the Far East. A key innovation was theOpen Door Policy, whereby the imperial powers were given equal access to Chinese business, with none of them allowed to take control of China.[167]
The women's suffrage movement reorganized after the Civil War. By the end of the 19th century, a few Western states had granted women full voting rights,[107] and women gained rights in areas such as property and child custody law.[169]
The anti-suffragist argument that only men could fight in a war, therefore only men deserved the right to vote, was refuted by the participation of American women on thehome front in World War I. The success of women's suffrage was demonstrated by the politics of some U.S. states that were already allowing women to vote, including Montana, which elected the first woman to the House of Representatives,Jeannette Rankin. The main resistance came from the South, where white leaders were worried about the threat of black women being allowed to vote. Congress passed theNineteenth Amendment in 1919, and women first voted in 1920.[172] Politicians responded to the new electorate by emphasizing issues of special interest to women, especiallyprohibition, child health, and world peace.[173][174]
AsWorld War I raged in Europe from 1914, PresidentWoodrow Wilson declared neutrality, but warned Germany that resumption ofunrestricted submarine warfare against American ships would mean war. Germany decided to take the risk, and try to win by cutting off supplies to Britain through the sinking of ships such as theRMSLusitania. The U.S.declared war in April 1917.[175]
TheAllies won in November 1918. Wilson dominated the1919 Paris Peace Conference, putting his geopolitical hopes in the newLeague of Nations as Germany was treated harshly in theTreaty of Versailles (1919). Wilson refused to compromise with Senate Republicans over the issue of Congressional power to declare war, and the Senate rejected the Treaty and the League.[178] Instead, the United States chose to pursueunilateralism.[179] The aftershock of Russia'sOctober Revolution resulted in fears of Communism in the United States, leading to aRed Scare and the deportation of non-citizens considered subversive.
Despite the Progressive-era modernization of hospitals and medical schools,[180] the country lost around 550,000 lives to theSpanish flu pandemic in 1918 and 1919.[181][182] During the "Roaring" 1920s, the economy expanded. African-Americans benefited from theGreat Migration and had more cultural power, an example being theHarlem Renaissance which spreadjazz music. Meanwhile, theKu Klux Klan had a resurgence, and theImmigration Act of 1924 was passed to strictly limit the number of new entries.[183]
A depiction of the sharp decrease of the money supply betweenBlack Tuesday and theBank Holiday when massivebank runs commences across the United States in March 1933
TheGreat Depression (1929–1939) and theNew Deal (1933–1936) were decisive moments in American political, economic, and social history.[185] Afinancial bubble was fueled by an inflated stock market, which led to theWall Street crash on October 29, 1929.[186] This, along withother economic factors, triggered a worldwidedepression. The United States experienceddeflation as prices fell, unemployment soared from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933, farm prices fell by half, and manufacturing output plunged by one-third.
State governments introduced the sales tax to pay for new programs. Ideologically, the New Deal establishedmodern liberalism in the United States.[187] TheNew Deal coalition won re-election for Roosevelt in1936,1940, and1944.[187] TheSecond New Deal in 1935 and 1936 brought the economy further left, building up labor unions through theWagner Act. Roosevelt weakened his second term by a failed effort to pack the Supreme Court, which had been a center of conservative resistance to his programs.[187] The economy essentially recovered by 1936, but long-term unemployment remained a problem until it was solved by wartime spending. Most of the relief programs were dropped in the 1940s, when the conservatives regained power in Congress through theConservative coalition.[187]
During the Depression, the United States remained focused on domestic concerns. U.S. legislation in theNeutrality Acts sought to avoid foreign conflicts; however, policy clashed with increasing anti-Nazi feelings following the Germaninvasion of Poland in September 1939 that startedWorld War II.[188] At first, Roosevelt positioned the U.S. as the "Arsenal of Democracy", pledging full-scale financial and munitions support for theAllies andLend-Lease agreements – but no military personnel.[188]
The U.S. gave the Allied war effort money, food,petroleum, technology, and military personnel. The U.S. focused on maximizing its national economic output, causing a dramatic increase in GDP, the end of unemployment, and a rise in civilian consumption, even as 40% of the GDP went to the war effort.[185] Awartime production boom led to the end of the Great Depression. Tens of millions of workers moved into the active labor force and to higher-productivity jobs. Labor shortages encouraged industries to look for new sources of workers, finding new roles for women and Black people. Economic mobilization was managed by theWar Production Board.[185] Most durable goods became unavailable or were tightly rationed, while housing for industrial jobs was in short supply. Prices and wages were controlled, and Americans saved a high portion of their incomes, which led to post-war growth.[196][197]
In the decades afterWorld War II, the United States became a global influence in economic, political, military, cultural, and technological affairs. Following World War II, the United States emerged as one of the two dominant superpowers, theSoviet Union being the other. The U.S. Senate approved U.S. participation in theUnited Nations (UN), which marked a turn away from traditionalAmerican isolationism and toward increased international involvement.[209] The United States and other major Allied powers became the foundation of theUN Security Council.[210] TheCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created in 1947.[211]
The U.S. wished to rescue Europe from the devastation of World War II, and to contain the expansion ofcommunism, represented by the Soviet Union. U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was built around the support of Western Europe and Japan along with the policy ofcontainment (containing the spread of communism).[212] TheTruman Doctrine in 1947 was the U.S.' attempt to secure trading partners in Europe, by providing military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to counteract the threat of communist expansion in the Balkans.[213][208] In 1948, the United States replaced piecemeal financial aid programs with a comprehensiveMarshall Plan, which pumped money into Western Europe, and removed trade barriers, while modernizing the managerial practices of businesses and governments.[214] Post-war American aid to Europe totaled $25 billion, out of the U.S. GDP of $258 billion in 1948.[214]
In 1949, the United States, rejecting the long-standing policy of no military alliances in peacetime, formed theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. In response, the Soviets formed theWarsaw Pact of communist states, leading to the "Iron Curtain".[214] In 1949, the Soviets performed theirfirst nuclear weapon test.[208] This escalated the risk of nuclear warfare; the threat ofmutually assured destruction, however, prevented both powers from nuclear war, and resulted the proxy wars in which the two sides did not directly confront each other.[208]
Dwight D. Eisenhower waselected president in 1952 in a landslide.[217] He ended the Korean War, and avoided any other major conflict. He cut military spending by relying on advanced technology, such as nuclear weapons carried bylong-range bombers andintercontinental missiles.[218] AfterStalin died in 1953, Eisenhower worked to obtain friendlier relationships with the Soviet Union. At home, he ended McCarthyism, expanded the Social Security program, and presided over a decade of bipartisan cooperation.[218]
Domestically, after 1948, America entered aneconomic boom: 60% of the American population had attained a "middle-class" standard of living by the mid-1950s, compared with only 31% in the 1928 and 1929. Between 1947 and 1960, the average real income for American workers increased by as much as it had in the previous half-century.[219] The economy allowed for an affordable lifestyle with large families; this created thebaby boom, in which millions of children were born at increased rates from 1945 to 1964.[220] Many Americansmoved into suburban neighborhoods.[221]
The Soviets unexpectedly surpassed American technology in 1957 withSputnik, the first Earth satellite. TheR-7 missile which launched Sputnik into space could have hypothetically dropped a nuclear bomb into U.S. air spacefrom above; new American fears regarding Soviet power began theSpace Race, a competition between the two countries to prove their technological superiority through space exploration. In 1958, Eisenhower created theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for this purpose. Angst about the weaknesses of American education led to large-scale federal support forscience education and research.[223]
Amid the Cold War, the United States entered theVietnam War, whose growing unpopularity fed already existing social movements.Feminism and theenvironmental movement became political forces, and progress continued towardcivil rights for all Americans. Acounterculture revolution in the late sixties and early seventies further divided Americans in a "culture war" but also brought forth more liberated social views.[231] Frustrations with the seemingly slow progress of the integration movement led to the emergence of more radical politics, such as theBlack Power movement.[232] The summer of 1967 saw opposing philosophies in two widespread movements, the more peacefulsummer of love and the radicallong, hot summer, which included nationwide riots.[233] Martin Luther King Jr. wasassassinated in 1968.[234] The moderngay rights movement started after theStonewall riots in 1969.[235]
A new consciousness of the inequality of American women began sweeping the nation, starting with the 1963 publication ofBetty Friedan's best-seller,The Feminine Mystique, which critiqued the American cultural idea that women could only find fulfillment through their roles as wives, mothers, and keepers of the home. In 1966, Friedan and others established theNational Organization for Women (NOW) to advocate for women's rights.[169][236] Protests began, and the new women's liberation movement grew in size and power, gaining much media attention.[237] The proposedEqual Rights Amendment to the Constitution, passed by Congress in 1972, was defeated by a conservative coalition mobilized byPhyllis Schlafly.[237][238] However, many federal laws established women's equal status under the law, such as thoseequalizing pay,employment,education,employment opportunities, andcredit between genders, andending pregnancy discrimination. State laws criminalizedspousal abuse andmarital rape, and the Supreme Court ruled that theequal protection clause of theFourteenth Amendment applied to women. Social custom and consciousness began to change, accepting women's equality. Abortion, deemed by the Supreme Court as afundamental right inRoe v. Wade (1973), is still a point of debate.
TheFall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, ended the Vietnam War.[239] In Central America, the U.S. government supported right-wing governments against left-wing groups, such as inEl Salvador andGuatemala. In South America, they supportedArgentina andChile, who carried outOperation Condor, a campaign of assassinations of exiled political opponents bySouthern Cone governments, created at the behest of Chilean dictatorAugusto Pinochet in 1975.[242][243][244]
TheOPEC oil embargo marked a long-term economic transition: energy prices skyrocketed, and American factories faced serious competition from foreign automobiles, clothing, electronics, and consumer goods. By the late 1970s, the economy suffered anenergy crisis, slow economic growth, high unemployment, very high inflation, and high interest rates (stagflation). Since economists agreed onderegulation, many of the New Deal era regulations were ended.[245] Meanwhile, the first mass-marketpersonal computers were being developed in California'sSilicon Valley.[246]
The Reagan administration's expansion of theWar on Drugs led to anincrease in incarceration, particularly among African Americans, with the number of people imprisoned for drug offences rising from 50,000 to 400,000 between 1980 and 1997.[258][259] Manufacturing industries moving out of inner cities increased poverty in those areas; poverty increased drug dealing and contributed to thecrack epidemic, which led to increased crime and incarceration.[258][260] The government alsoreacted slowly to theAIDS crisis, and banned reliable information on the disease, which led to higher infection rates.[261][262]
Reagan ordered a buildup of the U.S. military, incurring additional budget deficits.[263] The 1983invasion of Grenada and 1986bombing of Libya were popular in the U.S., though Reagan's backing of theContra rebels was mired in the controversy over theIran–Contra affair.[264] Reagan also introduced a complicated missile defense system known as theStrategic Defense Initiative. The Soviets reacted harshly because they thought it violated the 1972Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and would give the U.S. a major military advantage, so they stopped negotiatingdisarmament deals until the late 1980s.[263]
On September 20, Bush announced a "war on terror".[286][287] In October 2001, the U.S. and NATOinvaded Afghanistan and ousted theTaliban regime, which had harbored al-Qaeda and its leaderOsama bin Laden.[288] Bin Laden escaped to Pakistan, starting amanhunt.[289] The U.S. established new domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. ThePatriot Act increased the power of government to monitor communications and removed legal restrictions on intelligence sharing between federal law enforcement agencies.[290] The government'sindefinite detention of terrorism suspects captured abroad at theGuantanamo Bay detention camp led to allegations of human rights abuses and violations of international law.[291][292][293] TheDepartment of Homeland Security was created to lead federal counter-terrorism activities.[290]
These changes to the economic system created new political movements, such as theOccupy movement and theTea Party movement.[314] The recession officially ended in mid-2009.[315] Following the2010 midterm elections, Congress was ingridlock,[316] leading to theBudget Control Act of 2011.[317] The economic expansion that followed the Great Recession was the longest in U.S. history;[318][319] the unemployment rate reached a 50-year low in 2019.[320] Despite the strong economy, increases in the cost of living surpassed increases in wages.[321][322]
In 2022, followingRussia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration provided extensive military and economic aid to Ukraine, approving tens of billions of dollars in assistance and coordinating sanctions against Russia with NATO allies.[423] The U.S. also supplied advanced weaponry, including artillery and missile defense systems, while reinforcing NATO's eastern flank in response to the conflict.[424][425]
^'In addition, he [i.e.,Sweyn Estridsson, king of Denmark (reigned 1047–1076)] named one more island in this ocean, discovered by many, which is called "Vinland", because vines grow wild there, making the best wine. For [that] crops [that are] not sown, abound there, we learn not from fanciful opinion but from the true account of the Danes.'[20]
^Howe argued that, "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity."[101]
^A new way of calculating casualties by looking at the deviation of the death rate of men of fighting age from the norm through analysis of census data found that at least 627,000 and at most 888,000 people, but most likely 761,000 people, died through the war.[124][125]
^Leer, Jeff; Hitch, Doug; Ritter, John (2001).Interior Tlingit Noun Dictionary: The Dialects Spoken by Tlingit Elders of Carcross and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia.Whitehorse, Yukon Territory: Yukon Native Language Centre.ISBN1-55242-227-5.
^"Hopewell". Ohio History Central.Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. RetrievedDecember 31, 2015.
^abRouse, Irving (1992).The Tainos : Rise & Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN0-300-05181-6.OCLC24469325.
^von Bremen, Adam (1917). Schmeidler, Bernhard (ed.).Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte [Hamburg's Church History] (in Latin and German). Hannover and Leipzig: Hahnsche. pp. 275–276.
^Remini, Robert V. (2008).A Short history of the United States (1st ed.). New York: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 74–75.ISBN978-0-06-083144-8.OCLC167504400.
^Gilderhus, Mark T. (March 2006). "The Monroe Doctrine: Meanings and Implications".Presidential Studies Quarterly.36 (1):5–16.doi:10.1111/j.1741-5705.2006.00282.x.
^Anderson, David L. (1978). "The Diplomacy of Discrimination: Chinese Exclusion, 1876–1882".California History.57 (1):32–45.doi:10.2307/25157814.JSTOR25157814.
^Roger Daniels and Otis L. Graham, Debating American Immigration, 1882–present (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 14.
^abTrachtenberg, Alan (2007).The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age.
^Pettigrew, Richard Franklin (2010).Triumphant Plutocracy: The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920. Nabu Press.ISBN978-1146542746.
^Schlup, Leonard; Ryan, James G., eds. (2003).Historical dictionary of the Gilded Age. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. p. 145.ISBN978-0765603319., (foreword by Vincent P. De Santis)
^Mintz, Steven (June 5, 2008)."Learn About the Gilded Age".Digital History. University of Houston. Archived fromthe original on May 16, 2008. RetrievedJune 5, 2008.
^Paterson, Thomas G. (1996). "United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpretations of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War".The History Teacher.29 (3):341–361.doi:10.2307/494551.JSTOR494551.
^abHarrington, Fred H. (1935). "The Anti-Imperialist Movement in the United States, 1898–1900".The Mississippi Valley Historical Review.22 (2):211–230.doi:10.2307/1898467.JSTOR1898467.
^"American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. By Stephen M. Kohn. (Westport: Praeger, 1994. xviii, ISBN 0-275-94415-8.)".Journal of American History.82 (4): 1688. March 1, 1996.doi:10.1093/jahist/82.4.1688-a.ISSN0021-8723.
^"What We Do: Guantanamo".Center for Constitutional Rights. RetrievedMay 28, 2020.Since the prison opened in 2002, CCR has been at the forefront of the legal battle against indefinite detention and torture at Guantánamo, representing many current and former detainees.
^Crotty, William (2009). "Policy and Politics: The Bush Administration and the 2008 Presidential Election".Polity.41 (3):282–311.doi:10.1057/pol.2009.3.S2CID154471046.
^Baker, Peter; Cooper, Helene; Mazzetti, Mark (May 1, 2011)."Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says".The New York Times.Archived from the original on May 5, 2011. RetrievedFebruary 27, 2017.
^Bergen, Peter L. (2012).Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad. pp. 250–261.
^Eastman v Thompson, et al., 8:22-cv-00099-DOC-DFM Document 260, 44 (S.D. Cal. May 28, 2022) ("Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower – it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation's government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process... If Dr. Eastman and President Trump's plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.").
^Eisen, Norman; Ayer, Donald; Perry, Joshua; Bookbinder, Noah; Perry, E. Danya (June 6, 2022).Trump on Trial: A Guide to the January 6 Hearings and the Question of Criminality (Report). Brookings Institution. RetrievedDecember 16, 2023.[Trump] tried to delegitimize the election results by disseminating a series of far fetched and evidence-free claims of fraud. Meanwhile, with a ring of close confidants, Trump conceived and implemented unprecedented schemes to – in his own words – "overturn" the election outcome. Among the results of this "Big Lie" campaign were the terrible events of January 6, 2021 – an inflection point in what we now understand was nothing less than an attempted coup.
Jacobson, Louis (January 6, 2021)."Is this a coup? Here's some history and context to help you decide".PolitiFact. RetrievedJanuary 7, 2021.A good case can be made that the storming of the Capitol qualifies as a coup. It's especially so because the rioters entered at precisely the moment when the incumbent's loss was to be formally sealed, and they succeeded in stopping the count.
Duignan, Brian (August 4, 2021)."January 6 U.S. Capitol attack".Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. RetrievedSeptember 22, 2021.Because its object was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office, the attack was widely regarded as an insurrection or attempted coup d'état.
Chenault, Mark; Ahlstrom, Rick; Motsinger, Tom (1993).In the Shadow of South Mountain: The Pre-Classic Hohokam of 'La Ciudad de los Hornos', Part I and II.
Corbett, P. Scott; Janssen, Volker; Lund, John M.; Pfannestiel, Todd; Waskiewicz, Sylvie; Vickery, Paul (June 26, 2020). "3.3 English settlements in America. The Chesapeake colonies: Virginia and Maryland. The rise of slavery in the Chesapeake Bay Colonies".U.S. history. OpenStax. Archived fromthe original on August 8, 2020. RetrievedAugust 8, 2020.
Dangerfield, George (1963).The Era of Good Feelings: America Comes of Age in the Period of Monroe and Adams Between the War of 1812, and the Ascendancy of Jackson.
Goodman, Paul.The First American Party System. inChambers, William Nisbet; Burnham, Walter Dean, eds. (1967).The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development.
Greene, John Robert (1995).The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford.
Greene, Jack P. & Pole, J. R., eds. (2003).A Companion to the American Revolution (2nd ed.). Wiley.ISBN9781405116749.
Guelzo, Allen C. (2012). "Chapter 3–4".Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Oxford University Press, USA.ISBN9780199843282.
Guelzo, Allen C. (2006).Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America.
Howe, Daniel Walker (2009).What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. Oxford History of the United States. p. 798.ISBN9780199726578.
Jensen, Richard J.; Davidann, Jon Thares; Sugital, Yoneyuki, eds. (2003).Trans-Pacific relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the twentieth century. Greenwood.
Stanley, Peter W. (1974).A Nation in the Making: The Philippines and the United States, 1899–1921. pp. 269–272.
Thornton, Russell (1991). "The Demography of the Trail of Tears Period: A New Estimate of Cherokee Population Losses". In Anderson, William L. (ed.).Cherokee Removal: Before and After.
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