The first inhabitants of South America were the American Indians. There is evidence that they were from Asia. Approximately 9000 years before our era, they crossed the Bering Strait, and then descended to the south, passing through the entire territory of North America. It was these people who created one of the most ancient and unusual civilizations in South America, including the mysterious states of the Aztecs and Incas. The ancient civilization of the South American Indians was ruthlessly destroyed by the Europeans, who began colonizing the continent in the 1500s.
Capture and looting
By the end of the 1500s, most of the South American continent had been taken over by Europeans. They were attracted here by huge natural resources - gold and precious stones. During colonization, Europeans destroyed and plundered ancient cities and brought diseases from Europe that wiped out almost the entire indigenous population - the Indians.
Modern population
There are twelve independent states in South America. The largest country, Brazil, covers almost half of the continent, including the vast Amazon Basin. Most of the inhabitants of South America speak Spanish, that is, the language of the conquerors who sailed here from Europe on their sailing ships in the 16th century. True, in Brazil, on whose territory the invaders once landed - the Portuguese, the official language is Portuguese. Another country, Guyana, speaks English. Native American Indians still survive in the highlands of Bolivia and Peru. The majority of the inhabitants of Argentina are white, and in neighboring Brazil there are a large number of descendants of African black slaves.
Culture and sports
South America has become the home of many unusual people and a hospitable home that brought together many different cultures under its roof. Bright colorful houses in La Boca, the bohemian quarter of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. This area, which attracts artists and musicians, is inhabited mainly by Italians, descendants of settlers from Genoa who sailed here in the 1800s.
The most favorite sport on the continent is football, and it is not surprising that it was the South American teams - Brazil and Argentina - that became world champions more often than others. Pele played for Brazil - the most outstanding footballer in the history of this game.
In addition to football, Brazil is famous for its famous carnivals, which are held in Rio de Janeiro. During the carnival, which takes place in February or March, millions of people pass through the streets of Rio in the rhythm of the samba, and millions more spectators watch this colorful action. The Brazilian carnival is the most massive holiday held on our planet.
The history of the United States, as taught in schools and universities, usually begins either with the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492 or with the prehistory of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and ends with the events of recent decades.
The indigenous population lived in what is now the United States until the arrival of European colonists, mostly from England, around the 1600s. By the 1770s, the Thirteen British Colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America had over two and a half million people. The colonies prospered, grew, and developed their own autonomous legal and political systems. The British Parliament sought to assert its power over the colonies by imposing ever new taxes, which the Americans considered unconstitutional because they were not represented in Parliament. The escalation of conflicts in April 1775 resulted in a full-scale war, and on July 4, 1776, the American colonies declared independence, and became the United States of America.
With the huge military and financial assistance of France and the competent leadership of General George Washington, the American rebels won the war for independence, and in 1783 a peace treaty was signed. During and after the war, the 13 states were united by the Articles of Confederation, which established a weak federal government. When this system became ineffective, the US Constitution was adopted in 1789, and later the Bill of Rights was included in it. Washington became the first president and Alexander Hamilton the financial adviser. The First Party System arose - two national parties arose around a dispute about support or resistance to Hamilton's policies. During the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the United States bought Louisiana from France, doubling the territory. The second and last war with Great Britain was fought in 1812, its result was the end of the support of the European powers for the attacks of the Indians on the North American settlers.
With the sponsorship of the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democrats, the American nation began to occupy the lands of Louisiana, reaching as far as California and Oregon. The expansion was driven by the discovery of vast amounts of inexpensive land for farmers and slave owners, and was accompanied by violence against the native population and a growing difference between North and South regarding the institution of slavery. By 1804, slavery had been abolished in all states north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but flourished in the southern states thanks to the great demand for cotton.
After 1820, a series of compromises delayed the issue of slavery. In the mid-1850s, a new Republican Party took over in the North and promised to stop the spread of slavery. When Republican Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, eleven southern states seceded from the United States and formed the Confederacy in 1861. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the army of the North, under the command of General Ullis Grant, defeated the forces of the south, commanded by Robert E. Lee. The union was preserved, and slavery was abolished. During the era of Reconstruction of the South (1863-1877), the United States expanded the rights of freedmen, the national government was strengthened, and the 14th amendment to the constitution was adopted, which recognized the equality of all US citizens. Reconstruction was completed in 1877, but after the withdrawal of troops, a number of states passed laws to restrict the rights of blacks, their segregation and oppression, collectively known as the Jim Crow Laws. Most blacks remained dissatisfied with their position until the 2nd half of the 20th century.
At the turn of the 20th century, with the explosion of entrepreneurship in the North and the arrival of millions of workers and farmers from Europe, the US became the world's leading industrial power. The construction of the national railroad network was completed, and mining and construction of factories began in the Northeast and Midwest. Mass dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency and traditional politics led to the era of Progressivism (1890-1920s), during which many political and social reforms were carried out. In 1909, the 16th Amendment to the constitution established a single national income tax, in 1912 the 17th Amendment introduced direct election of senators, and in 1920 the 19th Amendment guaranteed women's suffrage.
Initially neutral, in the First World War in 1917 the United States declared war on Germany and contributed to the victory of the Entente. After the prosperous 1920s, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 began the decade of the Great Depression. Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ended the Republican dominance of the political arena and, by launching the New Deal, saved the country's economy. Modern American liberalism was laid, it was established social Security, the minimum wage and help for the unemployed. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. The United States made a significant contribution to the victory over Hitler's Germany and, especially, over Imperial Japan in the Pacific, where atomic bombs were first used.
After the end of World War II, the Cold War began between the USSR and the USA, which resulted in an arms race, a space race, proxy wars and propaganda campaigns. The US staked on the policy of containment of communism, relying on Western Europe and Japan. To stop the spread of communism, the US also intervened in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In the 1960s, there were active civil rights movements demanding equal rights for African Americans.
The Cold War ended in 1991 with the collapse of the USSR, and the United States became the only superpower in the world. Al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001 in the United States led to US intervention in the Middle East, incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2008, the United States experienced the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and in the 2010s it emerged from it and began slow economic growth.
Pre-Columbian America
It is not completely known how and when the Native Americans settled in America and the territory of the modern United States. The prevailing theory today suggests that humans migrated from Eurasia through the then-existing land corridor between Chukotka and Alaska, called Beringia. Migration began about 30,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago when the end of the ice age led to sea levels rising and the land corridor disappeared. These early inhabitants, called Paleo-Americans, soon spread throughout the Americas and split into many peoples.
The pre-Columbian period begins with the appearance of the first people in America and ends with the beginning of the active influence of Europeans on the American continent. Although Columbus technically made his voyages between 1492 and 1504, significant European influences on American history began decades and even centuries after Columbus's first landing.
colonial period
After a period of exploration by the great European nations, the colonization of the Americas began. The first successful English settlement was established in 1607. Europeans brought horses, cattle and pigs to America, and exported turkeys, corn, potatoes, pumpkins, tobacco and beans. Many explorers and early settlers died from local diseases, but the impact of European diseases on the indigenous population, especially smallpox and measles, was much stronger. Due to their lack of immunity from imported diseases, large numbers of Native Americans died in epidemics before the founding of major European colonies.
Spanish, Dutch and French colonization
The Spaniards were the first Europeans to visit what is now the United States. Christopher Columbus during the Second Expedition, November 19, 1493 landed on Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon reached Florida in 1513. Spanish expeditions quickly reached the Appalachians, Mississippi, Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. In 1540, Hernando de Soto led an extensive expedition into what is now the Southwestern United States. That same year, Francisco Vazquez de Coronado explored Arizona and Kansas. Small Spanish settlements later became large cities: San Antonio in Texas, Albuquerque in New Mexico, Tucson in Arizona, Los Angeles and San Francisco in California.
The New Netherland occupied the Hudson River Valley and was centered on present-day New York. The Dutch traded furs with the Indians in the north, preached Calvinism, and founded the Reformed Church in America. Despite the fact that the colony passed to Great Britain in 1664, the Dutch left a rich legacy in American cultural and political life. In culture, this is a secular breadth of views, mercantile pragmatism in cities, rural local traditionalism and religious tolerance. Notable Dutch Americans included Martin Van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
New France existed from 1534 to 1763. The first French settlements were established in Quebec, Acadia and Louisiana. Many French villages were located along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, the cities were New Orleans, Mobile and Biloxi. The French had close relations with the Indians of the Great Lakes and the Midwest.
British colonization
The East Coast strip of the modern United States, along with a few Dutch and Swedes, was mostly colonized by the British. The first English settlement was in 1607 at Jamestown on the James River in Virginia. The affairs of the colony were not going well, many colonists died from starvation and disease, in 1622, during the uprising of the Powhatan Indians in Virginia, hundreds of English settlers died. Only at the end of the 17th century, with the arrival of a new wave of settlers, many of whom were exiled prisoners, was it possible to organize a stable economy based on the export of tobacco. Other conflicts with the Indians were King Philip's War in New England and the Yamasee War in the Carolinas.
New England was populated mainly by Puritans seeking religious freedom. In 1620 the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony, which became the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. The middle colonies - New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware were characterized by great religious diversity. The first English colony south of Virginia was the Carolinas, and Georgia, the last of the Thirteen Colonies, was founded in 1733. People of different religious denominations came to the English colonies to escape persecution in Europe. The religiosity of the colonists increased dramatically after the First Great Awakening in the 1740s.
Each of the 13 American colonies had a different form of government, but as a rule they were all governed by a governor appointed from London and a local elected legislature that made laws and imposed taxes. The colonies grew rapidly and attracted many immigrants from England. Tobacco, rice and cotton plantations brought many black slaves from the British West Indies, and by 1770 black slaves made up one-fifth of the population of the colonies. The question of independence from Great Britain did not arise as long as the colonies needed British military assistance against the Indians, French and Spaniards. But by 1765, these threats began to fade.
18th century
Political integration and autonomy
The French and Indian War (1754-1763, American theater of the Seven Years' War) was a turning point in the political development of the colonies. Canada and Louisiana were annexed to Great Britain, French and Indian influence was greatly reduced. The war led to greater integration of the colonies, which was reflected in the Albany Congress and Benjamin Franklin's "Join or Die" call. In 1765, Benjamin Franklin created the concept of the United States.
After the annexation of the French American possessions, King George III issued the Royal Declaration of 1763, according to which the colonists were forbidden to settle in the Indian territories so as not to spoil relations with them, and to protect the North American possessions, a network of British forts was built, which the colonists were supposed to maintain. In 1765, the British Parliament, bypassing the colonial legislatures, passed the Stamp Duty Act, which taxed the trade in a number of goods in the colonies. The question was raised whether the British Parliament had the right to tax Americans who were not represented in it. During the protests under the slogan "No taxation without representation" in the late 1760s and early 1770s, American colonists refused to pay taxes.
The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a direct response by Boston activists to the imposition of a new tax on tea. The British brought troops into Boston, limited local government and demanded compensation. in 1774 the leaders of the American patriots gathered at the First Continental Congress and decided to defend their rights. The Second Continental Congress in 1775 decided to organize a defense against the British. The American Revolutionary War began with the Battle of Concord and Lexington in April 1775, when British troops attempted to disarm the local militia and arrest Patriot leaders.
American Revolution and War of Independence
The Thirteen Colonies began the War of Independence in 1775, and on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, proclaimed the Declaration of Independence of the United States. George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the American forces. Although tactically he was inferior to the British, losing many battles, strategically he made a sure bet on guerrilla tactics. In 1776, he forced the First of four British armies to leave Boston, at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 he stopped the advance of the British (Second Army) and secured the Northeast of the United States. At the same time, the United States called on the French, who entered into an alliance and brought Spain and the Netherlands into it.
The British shifted their actions to the south, but in 1781 Washington defeated the third English army at Yorktown. The Americans experienced great supply problems, lacking ammunition, equipment, clothing and even food, however, successfully using guerrilla tactics, they controlled most of the territory. The British held only New York and a few other points.
Loyalists, on whom the British counted too heavily, made up no more than 20% of the population, and were never organized. After the defeat at Yorktown in 1781, the British began to seek peace. The Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 confirmed the status of the United States as an independent state. The United States became the first European colony to achieve independence.
The first years of the Republic
Confederation and constitution
In the 1780s, the issue of western territories was resolved. The states ceded these lands to Congress, and territories were established there, which, as they were settled, became new states. The Nationalists feared that the Confederacy would be too weak to endure an international war, or even internal rebellions such as Shays' Rebellion in 1786 in Massachusetts. Therefore, in 1787, the Philadelphia Convention was convened, which adopted the US Constitution. The constitution provided for a strong central government, headed by a president with broad powers. In order to avoid dictatorship, power was divided into three branches. To appease anti-Federalists who feared too much federal power, the Bill of Rights was passed in 1791, including the first ten amendments to the US constitution.
Even during the preparation of the draft constitution, disagreements arose between the free northern and slave-owning southern states. The constitution was adopted through compromises. Three-fifths of the number of slaves in the southern states were equated to free when calculating the participation of states in the federal government (while the slaves themselves had no rights), this increased the influence of the southern states in parliament. At the same time, Congress pledged to ban the international slave trade in 20 years (which it did in 1807).
First Presidents
The first President of the United States was the hero of the Revolutionary War, George Washington. He was unanimously elected by the electoral college. In 1789, the US capital was moved from New York to Philadelphia, and in 1800 to the newly built city of Washington, DC. The main achievement of the Washington administration is the creation of a strong federal government. Under the leadership of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, the Bank of the United States was created, and the public debt was partially repaid. John Adams and Alexander Hamilton created the Federalist Party of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison created the Republican (Democratic-Republican) Party.
In 1794, Washington and Hamilton, with the support of the Federalists, concluded the Jay Treaty with England, restoring good relations between the countries. The treaty passed despite Republican opposition. The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was the first test of federal power. Western settlers rebelled against the federal alcohol tax. Washington called in the state militia and personally led the army against the rebels. Washington refused to run for a third presidential term, thus creating an unspoken rule for subsequent presidents.
In the 1796 presidential election, Federalist John Adams defeated Republican Thomas Jefferson. The Federalists passed the Alien and Unrest Acts. In 1798-1800, an undeclared Quasi-War was waged between revolutionary France and the United States. The war was fought at sea for control of trade with England, which the French sought to cut off. Adams sent a diplomatic mission to Paris and ended the war. Another achievement of Adams is the creation of the Federal Army, which was preparing under the threat of a French invasion.
Slavery
Within two decades of independence, the Northern States, inspired by revolutionary ideals of equality, abolished slavery. In some states, the abolition has been gradual. The states of the Upper South made it easier to leave at will, as a result of which, by 1810, up to 10% of all blacks were freedmen there. On average, up to 13.5% of blacks were free in the country. However, in the Deep South, due to the development of cotton cultivation, the demand for slaves was high and freedmen were few. The internal slave trade flourished there and brought good profits. In 1809, President James Madison banned US participation in the Atlantic slave trade.
19th century
Era of Jeffersonian Democrats
Thomas Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election. His main achievement was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The territory of the United States almost doubled, and many settlers rushed west of the Mississippi. Jefferson, himself a scientist, sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition to study the purchased lands, which reached the Pacific coast. The Marbury v. Madison case set the precedent that gave the Supreme Court the power to strike down congressional and state laws that were inconsistent with the constitution.
War of 1812
During the Napoleonic Wars and the Continental Blockade, the British commandeered American ships and drafted American sailors into the British fleet, and supported Indian attacks in the Midwest. The Americans were angered by such actions and also desired to annex all or part of British North America. Despite the strong opposition of the Federalist Party and the Northeastern States, who did not want to harm trade with England, on June 12, 1812, the US Congress declared war on Britain.
The war went badly for both sides. Both sides unsuccessfully tried to invade enemy territory. The American high command, except for the last year of the war, was incompetent. The American militia proved ineffective, the American soldiers rushed home, and the offensive in Canada failed. The English blockade disrupted American trade, ruined the treasury, and irritated New England merchant circles, which traded in smuggling with Britain. Finally, General William Henry Harrison's American forces took control of Lake Erie and defeated Tecumseh's Indians in Canada, while General Andrew Jackson eliminated the Indian threat in the Southeast. The Indian threat of colonization of the Midwest was eliminated. Along with this, the British captured most of Maine.
The British made a daring raid on the US capital - Washington, and burned down government buildings. However, an attack on Baltimore was repulsed in 1814. The British offensive in upstate New York was also repulsed. And finally, in early 1815, Andrew Jackson defeated the British corps at the Battle of New Orleans, becoming the most famous hero of the war.
On December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed. It was decided to maintain the status quo and pre-war borders. The peace treaty with the most powerful of empires, the news of which reached the United States simultaneously with the news of Jackson's victory at New Orleans, was perceived as a victory for the United States. The losing side was the Indians. The promises of the British about the creation of an independent Indian state were not fulfilled, military support ceased. The Federalist party, which opposed the war, also lost - it lost popularity forever.
Era of Good Feelings
The Federalist Party, after the end of the War of 1812, weakened, lost popularity, and no longer played a prominent role. The Republican Party remained the only major party, thus ending the First Party System.
The euphoria after the Anglo-American War, which was called the Second Revolutionary War, was called the Era of Good Feelings. The 5th President of the United States, James Monroe, in 1823 proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, according to which European powers should not colonize the Americas or interfere in their affairs. The doctrine was adopted under the influence of American and British concerns about Russian and French expansion in America.
During the war with England, the Bank of the United States was closed, and in 1816, President Madison established the Second Bank of the United States. But very quickly the central bank began to be perceived as a threat to the average American by the elite, and in 1832 President Andrew Jackson, running for a second term, promised to close the bank. The license of the US Second Bank was not renewed.
Indian resettlement
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the President of the United States to negotiate with the Indians for the purchase of their land and the issuance of land across the Mississippi River in return. The primary goal was to remove the Indians, including the Five Civilized Tribes, from the US Southeast, which was claimed by many settlers. Jacksonian Democrats demanded the forced removal of Indians who did not want to move, Whigs and religious leaders were against such a measure as inhumane. During the Cherokee migration, called the Road of Tears, thousands of Indians died and many of the Seminoles in Florida refused to leave, leading to the Seminole Wars.
Second party system
In the 1820s, the Jeffersonian Republican Party became the only major party in the United States, and an active process of factional division within it began. In 1828, the Democratic Party was formed, followed by the Whig Party in 1833, and the Second Party System began, lasting until 1860, when the Whig Party disbanded over a debate over slavery. The Democratic Party advocated the preservation of slavery, an agrarian society and conservatism, the Whigs - for industrialization, modernization and reform.
Second Great Awakening and abolitionism
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious movement that began in the 1790s, peaked in the 1820s, and continued into the 1840s. The movement was led by Baptist and Methodist preachers who attracted millions of new members to existing evangelical organizations as well as creating new ones. The awakening stimulated the development of many reform movements, including abolitionism.
After 1840, the growing abolitionist movement, influenced by preachers, proclaimed a crusade against the sin of slavery. William Lloyd Garrison in 1831 founded the largest anti-slavery newspaper, the Liberator, since 1840 the former slave Frederick Douglass wrote articles in it, and in 1847 he began publishing his own newspaper, the North Star. Many opponents of slavery, including Abraham Lincoln, rejected Garrison's religious rhetoric, regarding slavery as a social evil rather than a sin. The abolitionists also created the Underground Railroad, a secret escape route for slaves to the North and Canada.
Clear Destiny and Expansion to the West
The population of the American colonies and the United States grew at a very rapid pace, and the settlers moved to the West, developing new lands. The Louisiana Purchase produced an even greater land surplus. On the western outskirts of the United States formed the American Frontier, better known in Russia as the Wild West. In the Wild West, a special way of life was established - the development of desert lands, the creation and protection of communities, the establishment of law and order, the construction of farms, communications, markets and the formation of new states. From the early 1830s to 1869, more than 300,000 people walked the Oregon Road to the Pacific Ocean. Mass migration to the West gave rise to the concept of Manifest Destiny, according to which the US mission was to expand from ocean to ocean.
Numerous American settlers moved to Texas and California, which were part of Mexico. In 1836, the Republic of Texas declared independence, and in 1845, long and difficult negotiations culminated in the annexation of Texas to the United States. This led to the start of the Mexican-American War. The Whig Party opposed the war, while the Democrats supported the war and expansion. During the war, American troops captured Mexico City and in 1848 the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty was signed, Mexico recognized the annexation of Texas, and transferred vast territories to the United States - California and New Mexico. Gold was discovered in Northern California at the same time, and the California Gold Rush began - even more colonists moved to the West Coast. After the annexation of new lands, President James Polk also annexed the lands of Oregon to the United States, creating the Oregon Territory there.
Division between North and South
After the expansion of the United States to the west, the issue of slavery began to escalate. Back in 1820, the Missouri Compromise was concluded - the state of Maine was admitted to the union free, and Missouri - slave-owning, it was agreed to accept two states in the USA - one free and one slave-owning. Both sides - northern abolitionists and southern slave owners - became more active and sought to establish their own rules in the new western territories. Finally, in 1850, the Compromise of 1850 was brokered by Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas. California was admitted as a free state, in return the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, obliging the federal government to seek out and capture southern runaway slaves even in the northern states and return them to their owners. In response to this law, abolitionists stepped up their criticism of slavery, in particular, it was then that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
In 1854, Senator Douglas introduced the Kansas and Nebraska Act in the name of freedom and democracy, which passed and repealed the Compromise of 1820. From now on, the population of each new state itself chose whether to be free or slave. Anti-slavery forces organized a new Republican Party. On the eve of Kansas becoming a state, many radical supporters and opponents went there to establish their own rules in the state by voting. As a result, this resulted in the Kansas Civil War, which went down in history as "Bleeding Kansas". By the end of the 1850s, the Republican Party was victorious in most of the northern states, winning a majority of the electoral college votes. This meant that slavery would no longer be allowed to expand and would be doomed to a slow death.
Slavery flourished in the South thanks to the cultivation and sale of cotton, which was in great demand in Europe. By 1860 there were 4 million slaves in the South. Slave owners made big profits and were well represented politically - for 50 of the first 72 years of US independence, slave owners were the head of state, and only slave owners were re-elected. There were occasional slave uprisings: in 1800 by Gabriel Prosser, in 1822 by Danmark Vesey, in 1831 by Nat Turner, and in 1859 by John Brown. But only dozens of people participated in all of them, and they all failed, causing only a tightening of control over fugitive and freed slaves.
In 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election and promised to end slavery throughout the country. In response, seven southern states announced their withdrawal from the United States and the creation of the CSA - the Confederate States of America. On February 8, 1861, Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was under federal ownership, in an attempt to disarm. Abraham Lincoln responded by calling on the army to crush the Confederacy in April, and four more states joined in. Four slave states - Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri - remained in the United States and became known as the border states. Another state - West Virginia - arose as a result of separation from Virginia, which also remained in the United States.
Civil War
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. In response, President Lincoln drafted 75,000 men into the army on April 15 and ordered the return of the forts, the defense of the capital, and the preservation of the Union. The US and CSA armies met at Bull Run, and the Union was defeated in the first battle of a war that dragged on for several years.
The war was fought in two theaters - Western and Eastern.
There are many legends and more or less reliable stories about brave sailors who visited North America long before Columbus. Among them are Chinese monks who landed in California around 458, Portuguese, Spanish and Irish travelers and missionaries who allegedly reached America in the 6th, 7th and 9th centuries.
It is also believed that in the X century. Basque fishermen fished on the Newfoundland shallows. The most reliable, obviously, is information about Norwegian navigators who visited North America in the 10th-14th centuries, getting here from Iceland. It is believed that the Norman colonies were not only in Greenland, but also on the Labrador Peninsula, Newfoundland, New England, and even in the Great Lakes region. However, the settlements of the Normans already in the XIV century. fell into disrepair, leaving no discernible traces in relation to the links between the cultures of the northern part of the American and European continents. In this sense, the discovery of North America began anew in the 15th century. This time, the British reached North America before other Europeans.
English expeditions in North America
English discoveries in America begin with the voyages of John Cabot (Giovanni Gabotto, or Cabbotto) and his son Sebastian, Italians in the service of the English. Cabot, having received two caravels from the English king, had to find a sea route to China. In 1497, he apparently reached the shores of Labrador (where he met the Eskimos), and also, possibly, Newfoundland, where he saw Indians painted with red ocher.
It was the first in the 15th century. meeting of Europeans with the "redskins" of North Akhmerica. In 1498, the expedition of John and Sebastian Cabot again reached the shores of North America.
The immediate practical result of these voyages was the discovery of the richest fish hops off the coast of Newfoundland. Entire fleets of English fishing boats were drawn here, and their number increased every year.
Spanish colonization of North America
If the English sailors reached North America by sea, then the Spaniards moved here by land from the southern regions, as well as from their island possessions in America - Cuba, Puerto Rico, San Domingo, etc.
The Spanish conquerors captured the Indians, plundered and burned their villages. The Indians responded with stubborn resistance. Many invaders have found death on land they have never conquered. Ponce de Leon, who discovered Florida (1513), was mortally wounded in 1521 by the Indians while landing in Tampa Bay, where he wanted to establish a colony. In 1528, the Indian gold hunter, Narvaez, also died. Cabeza de Vaca, the treasurer of the Narvaez expedition, wandered for nine years in the southern part of the North American continent among the Indian tribes. At first he fell into slavery, and then, freed, he became a merchant and healer. Finally, in 1536, he got to the shores of the Gulf of California, already conquered by the Spaniards. De Vaca told a lot of wonderful things, exaggerating the wealth and size of the Indian settlements, especially the "cities" of the Pueblo Indians, which he happened to visit. These stories aroused the interest of the Spanish nobility in the regions north of Mexico, and gave impetus to the search for fabulous cities in the southwest of North America. In 1540, Coronado's expedition set out from Mexico in a northwestern direction, consisting of a detachment of 250 horsemen and foot soldiers, several hundred Indian allies and thousands of Indians and Negro slaves enslaved. The expedition passed through the waterless deserts between the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers, capturing with the cruelty usual for the Spanish colonialists the "cities" of the Pueblo Indians; but neither the expected gold nor precious stones were found in them. For further searches, Coronado sent detachments in different directions, and he himself, having wintered in the Rio Grande Valley, moved north, where he met the Prairie Pawnee Indians (in the current state of Kansas) and got acquainted with their semi-nomadic hunting culture. Finding no treasure, disappointed Coronado turned back and. having collected the remnants of his troops along the way, in 1542 he returned to Mexico. After this expedition, the Spaniards became aware of a significant part of the mainland within the current states of Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas and the southern parts of the states of Utah and Colorado, discovered the Grand Canyon of Colorado, received information about the Pueblo Indians and prairie tribes.
At the same time (1539-1542), the expedition of de Soto, a member of Pizarro's campaign, was equipped in the southeast of North America. As soon as the stories of Cabez de Vac reached him, de Soto sold his property and equipped an expedition of a thousand people. In 1539 he sailed from Cuba and landed on the west coast of Florida. De Soto and his army wandered for four years in search of gold across the vast territory of the present US states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and southern Missouri, sowing death and destruction in the country of peaceful farmers . As his contemporaries wrote about him, this ruler was fond of killing Jews like a sport.
In northern Florida, de Soto had to deal with the Indians, who since the time of Narvaes and vowed to fight the newcomers not for life, but for death. The conquerors had a particularly difficult time when they reached the lands of the Chicasawa Indians. In response to the excesses and violence of the Spaniards, the Indians once set fire to de Soto's camp, destroying almost all food supplies and military equipment. Only in 1542, when de Soto himself died of a fever, did the miserable remnants (about three hundred people) of his once richly equipped army on makeshift ships barely reach the coast of Mexico. This ended the Spanish expeditions of the 16th century. deep into North America.
By the beginning of the XVII century. Spanish settlements occupied a fairly large territory both on the Atlantic coast of North America (in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina) and on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. In the west, they owned California and areas that roughly corresponded to the current states of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. But in the same XVII century. Spain began to push France and England. The French colonies in the Mississippi Delta separated the possessions of the Spanish crown in Mexico and Florida. To the north of Florida, further penetration of the Spaniards was blocked by the British.
Thus, the influence of Spanish colonization was limited to the southwest. Shortly after the Coronado expedition, missionaries, soldiers, and settlers appeared in the Rio Grande Valley. They forced the Indians to build forts and missions here. San Gabriel (1599) and Santa Fe (1609), where the Spanish population was concentrated, were among the first to be built.
The steady weakening of Spain, especially from the end of the 16th century, the fall of her military, and above all, naval power, undermined her position. The most serious contenders for dominance in the American colonies were England, Holland and France.
The founder of the first Dutch settlement in America, Henry Hudson, in 1613 built huts for storing furs on the island of Manhattan. The city of New Amsterdam (later New York) soon arose on this site, which became the center of the Dutch colony. The Dutch colonies, half the population of which were British, soon passed into the possession of England.
The beginning of French colonization was laid by entrepreneurs-fishermen. As early as 1504, Breton and Norman fishermen began to visit the Newfoundland shallows; the first maps of the American shores appeared; in 1508, an Indian was brought to France "for show". Since 1524, the French king Francis I sent navigators to the New World with the aim of further discoveries. Particularly noteworthy are the voyages of Jacques Cartier, a sailor from Saint-Malo (Brittany), who for eight years (1534-1542) explored the vicinity of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, climbed the river of the same name to the island, which he named Mont Royal (Royal Mountain; now , Montreal), and called the land along the banks of the river New France. We owe him the earliest news about the Iroquois tribes of the river. St. Lawrence; very interesting is the sketch and description he made of the fortified Iroquois village (Oshelaga, or Hohelaga) and the dictionary of Indian words he compiled.
In 1541, Cartier founded the first agricultural colony in the Quebec region, but due to a lack of food, the colonists had to be taken back to France. This was the end of the French colonization of North America in the 16th century. They resumed later - a century later.
Founding of French colonies in North America
The main driving force behind French colonization for a long time was the pursuit of valuable furs. The seizure of land did not play a significant role for the French. The French peasants, although burdened with feudal duties, remained, unlike the dispossessed English yeomen, landowners, and there was no mass flow of immigrants from France.
The French began to gain a foothold in Canada only at the beginning of the 17th century, when Samuel Champlain founded a small colony on the Acadia Peninsula (southwest of Newfoundland), and then the city of Quebec (1608).
By 1615, the French had already reached the lakes of Huron and Ontario. Open territories were given by the French crown to trading companies; the lion's share was taken by the Hudson's Bay Company. Having received a charter in 1670, this company monopolized the purchase of furs and fish from the Indians. Along the banks of rivers and lakes, posts of the company were set up on the path of Indian nomads. They turned the local tribes into "tributaries" of the company, entangling them in networks of debts and obligations. The Indians were soldered, corrupted; they were robbed, exchanging precious furs for trinkets. The Jesuits who appeared in Canada in 1611 diligently converted the Indians to Catholicism, preaching humility before the colonialists. But with even greater zeal, keeping up with the agents of the trading company, the Jesuits bought furs from the Indians. This activity of the order was no secret to anyone. Thus, the governor of Canada, Frontenac, informed the government of France (70s of the 17th century) that the Jesuits would not civilize the Indians, because they wished to keep their guardianship over them, that they were concerned not so much about the salvation of souls, but about the extraction of all good, missionary but their activities are an empty comedy.
The beginning of English colonization and the first permanent English colonies of the 17th century.
The French colonizers of Canada very soon had competitors in the person of the British. The British government considered Canada a natural extension of the British crown's possessions in America, based on the fact that the Canadian coast had been discovered by Cabot's English expedition long before Jacques Cartier's first voyage. Attempts to establish a colony in North America by the British took place as early as the 16th century, but all of them were unsuccessful: the British did not find gold in the North, and the seekers of easy money neglected agriculture. Only at the beginning of the XVII century. the first real agricultural English colonies arose here.
The beginning of the mass settlement of the English colonies in the XVII century. opened a new stage of the colonization of North America.
The development of capitalism in England was associated with the success of foreign trade and the creation of monopoly colonial trading companies. For the colonization of North America, by subscription to shares, two trading companies were formed, which had large funds: London (South., or Varginskaya) and Plymouth (Northern); royal charters placed at their disposal the lands between 34 and 41 ° N. sh. and unlimitedly inland, as if these lands belonged not to the Indians, but to the government of England. The first charter to found a colony in America was given to Sir Hamford D. Kilbert. He made a preliminary expedition to Newfoundland and was wrecked on the way back. Gilbert's rights passed to his relative, Sir Walter Reilly, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. In 1584, Reilly decided to establish a colony in the area south of the Chesapeake Bay and named it Virginia in honor of the "virgin queen" (lat. virgo - girl). The following year, a group of colonists set off for Virginia, settling on Roanoke Island (in the current state of North Carolina). A year later, the colonists returned to England, as the chosen place turned out to be unhealthy. Among the colonists was the famous artist John White. He made many sketches of the life of the local Algokin Indians 1 . The fate of the second group of colonists who arrived in Virginia in 1587 is unknown.
At the beginning of the XVII century. Walter Reilly's project to create a colony in Virginia was carried out by a commercial Virginia company, which expected large profits from this enterprise. The company, at its own expense, delivered settlers to Virginia, who were obliged to work off their debt within four to five years.
The place for the colony (Jamstown), founded in 1607, was chosen unsuccessfully - swampy, with many mosquitoes, unhealthy. In addition, the colonists very soon turned the Indians against them. Disease and skirmishes with the Indians in a few months claimed two-thirds of the colonists. Life in the colony was built on a military basis. Twice a day, the colonists were collected by drumming and formation, sent to the fields to work, and every evening they also returned to Jamestown for lunch and for prayer. Since 1613, the colonist John Rolfe (who married the daughter of the leader of the Powhatan tribe - the "princess" Pocahontas) began to cultivate tobacco. From that time on, tobacco became for a long time an item of income for the colonists and, even more so, for the Virginia Company. Encouraging immigration, the company gave the colonists land plots. The poor, who worked off the cost of the journey from England to America, also received an allotment, for which they made payments to the owner of the land in a fixed amount. Later, when Virginia became a royal colony (1624), and when its administration passed from the company into the hands of a governor appointed by the king, with the presence of qualified representative institutions, this duty turned into a kind of land tax. The immigration of the poor soon increased even more. If in 1640 there were 8 thousand inhabitants in Virginia, then in 1700 there were 70 thousand of them. planters, big businessmen.
Both colonies specialized in growing tobacco and therefore depended on imported English goods. The main labor force on the large plantations of Virginia and Maryland were the poor who were taken out of England. Throughout the 17th century "indentured servants", as these poor people were called, obliged to work off the cost of the journey to America, made up the majority of immigrants to Virginia and Maryland.
Very soon, the labor of indentured servants was replaced by the slave labor of Negroes, who began to be imported into the southern colonies from the first half of the 17th century. (the first large batch of slaves was delivered to Virginia in 1619),
Since the 17th century free settlers appeared among the colonists. The English Puritans, the "Pilgrim Fathers", some of whom were sectarians who fled from religious persecution in their homeland, went to the northern, Plymouth colony. In this party there were settlers adjoining the Brownist sect 2 . Leaving Plymouth in September 1620, the May Flower ship with pilgrims arrived at Cape Cod in November. In the first winter, half of the colonists died: the settlers - mostly townspeople - did not know how to hunt, cultivate the land, or fish. With the help of the Indians, who taught the settlers how to grow corn, the rest in the end not only did not die of starvation, but even paid the debts for their passage on the ship. The colony founded by the Plymouth sectarians was called New Plymouth.
In 1628, the Puritans, who had suffered oppression during the years of the Stuarts, founded the colony of Massachusetts in America. The Puritan Church enjoyed great power in the colony. The colonist received the right to vote only if he belonged to the Puritan church and had good feedback preacher. Under this arrangement, only one-fifth of the adult male population of Massachusetts had the right to vote.
During the years of the English Revolution, emigrant aristocrats (“cavaliers”) began to arrive in the American colonies, who did not want to put up with the new, revolutionary regime in their homeland. These colonists settled mainly in the southern colony (Virginia).
In 1663, eight courtiers of Charles II received a gift of land south of Virginia, where the Carolina colony was founded (subsequently divided into South and North). The culture of tobacco, which enriched the large landowners of Virginia, spread to neighboring colonies. However, in the Shenandoah Valley, in western Maryland, and also south of Virginia, in the wetlands of South Carolina, there were no conditions for growing tobacco; there, as in Georgia, they cultivated rice. The owners of Carolina made plans to make a fortune on the cultivation of sugar cane, rice, hemp, flax, the production of indigo, silk, i.e. goods that were in short supply in England and imported from other countries. In 1696, the Madagascar variety of rice was introduced into the Carolinas. Since then, its cultivation has become the main occupation of the colony for a hundred years. Rice was bred in riverine swamps and on the seashore. Hard work under the scorching sun in the malarial swamps was shouldered by black slaves, who in 1700 made up half the population of the colony. In the southern part of the colony (now the state of South Carolina), slavery took root to an even greater extent than in Virginia. Large slave planters, who owned almost all the land, had rich houses in Charleston, the administrative and cultural center of the colony. In 1719 the heirs of the first owners of the colony sold their rights to the English crown.
North Carolina was of a different character, populated mainly by Quakers and refugees from Virginia - small farmers who were hiding from debts and unbearable taxes. There were very few large plantations and Negro slaves there. North Carolina became a crown colony in 1726.
In all these colonies, the population was mainly replenished by immigrants from England, Scotland and Ireland.
Much more motley was the population of the colony of New York (formerly the Dutch colony of New Netherland) with the city of New Amsterdam (now New York). After the capture of this colony by the British, it was received by the Duke of York, brother of the English king Charles II. At that time, there were no more than 10 thousand inhabitants in the colony, who, however, spoke 18 different languages. Although the Dutch were not in the majority, Dutch influence in the American colonies was great, with wealthy Dutch families enjoying great political weight in New York. Traces of this influence remain to this day: Dutch words entered the language of the Americans; Dutch architectural style left its mark on the appearance of American cities and towns.
The English colonization of North America was carried out on a large scale. America was presented to the poor in Europe as a promised land, where they could find salvation from the oppression of large landowners, from religious persecution, from debt.
Entrepreneurs recruited immigrants to America; not limited to this, they staged real raids, their agents soldered people in taverns and sent drunk recruits to ships.
English colonies arose one after another. Their population increased very rapidly. The agrarian revolution in England, accompanied by the mass dispossession of the peasantry, drove out of the country many robbed poor people who were looking for an opportunity to get land in the colonies. In 1625, there were only 1,980 colonists in North America; in 1641, there were 50,000 immigrants from England alone 2 . According to other sources, in 1641 there were only 25,000 colonists in the English colonies 3 . In 50 years the population grew to 200,000 4 . In 1760 it reached 1,695,000 (including 310,000 Negro slaves), 5 and five years later the number of colonists almost doubled.
The colonists waged a war of extermination against the owners of the country - the Indians, taking away their land. In just a few years (1706-1722), the tribes of Virginia were almost completely exterminated, despite the "family" ties that connected the most powerful of the leaders of the Virginian Indians with the British.
In the north, in New England, the Puritans resorted to other means: they acquired land from the Indians through "trade deals." Subsequently, this gave reason to official historiographers to assert that the ancestors of the Anglo-Americans did not encroach on the freedom of the Indians and did not seize, but bought their lands, concluding agreements with the Indians. For a handful of gunpowder, a drop of beads, etc., one could "buy" a huge plot of land, and the Indians, who did not know private property, usually remained in the dark about the essence of the deal concluded with them. In the Pharisaic consciousness of their legal "rightness", the settlers expelled the Indians from their lands; if they did not agree to leave the land chosen by the colonists, they were exterminated. The religious fanatics of Massachusetts were especially ferocious.
The church preached that the beating of the Indians was pleasing to God. Manuscripts of the 17th century it is reported that a certain pastor, having heard about the destruction of a large Indian village, from the church pulpit praised God for the fact that six hundred pagan "souls" were sent to hell that day.
The shameful page of the colonial policy in North America was the scalp bounty (“scalp bounty”). As shown by historical and ethnographic studies (Georg Friderici), the philistine opinion that the custom of scalping has long been very widespread among the Indians of North America is completely wrong. This custom was previously known only to a few tribes of the eastern regions, but even among them it was used relatively rarely. It was only with the advent of the colonialists that the barbarian custom of scalping really began to spread more and more widely. The reason for this was primarily the intensification of internecine wars fomented by the colonial authorities; wars, with the introduction of firearms, became much more bloody, and the spread of iron knives made it easier to cut the scalp (previously used wooden and bone knives). The colonial authorities directly and directly encouraged the spread of the custom of scalping, appointing bonuses for the scalps of enemies - both Indians and whites, of their rivals in colonization.
The first prize for scalps was awarded in 1641 in the Dutch colony of New Netherland: 20 m of wampum 1 for each scalp of an Indian (a meter of wampum was equal to 5 Dutch guilders). Since then, for more than 170 years (1641-1814), the administration of individual colonies has repeatedly appointed such bonuses (expressed in British pounds, in Spanish and American dollars). Even Quaker Pennsylvania, famous for its relatively peaceful policy towards the Indians, in 1756 appropriated £60,000. Art. especially for Indian scalp prizes. The last premium was offered in 1814 in the Indiana Territory.
As mentioned above, Pennsylvania, a colony that was founded in 1682 by a wealthy Quaker, the son of an English admiral, William Penn, was some exception to the cruel policy of destroying the Indians for his like-minded people persecuted in England. Penn sought to maintain friendly relations with the Indians who continued to live in the colony. However, when wars began between the English and French colonies (1744-1748 and 1755-1763), the Indians, who had made an alliance with the French, became involved in the war and were forced out of Pennsylvania.
In American historiography, the colonization of America is most often presented as if the Europeans colonized "free lands", that is, territories that were not actually inhabited by Indians 1 . In fact, North America, and its East End in particular, according to the conditions of economic activity of the Indians, it was rather densely populated (in the 16th century, about 1 million Indians lived on the territory of the present USA). The Indians, who were engaged in hunting and slash-and-burn agriculture, needed large land areas. Driving the Indians off the land, "buying" land from them, the Europeans doomed them to death. Naturally, the Indians resisted as best they could. The struggle for land was accompanied by a number of Indian uprisings, of which the so-called "war of King Philip" (the Indian name is Metakom), a talented leader of one of the coastal Algonquin tribes, is especially famous. In 1675-1676. Metacom raised many tribes of New England, and only the betrayal of a group of Indians saved the colonists. By the first quarter of the XVIII century. the coastal tribes of New England and Virginia were nearly wiped out.
The relations of the colonists with the locals - the Indians were not always hostile. Simple people- poor farmers very often maintained good neighborly relations with them, adopted the experience of the Indians in agriculture, learned from them to adapt to local conditions. So, in the spring of 1609, the colonists of Jamestown learned from captive Indians how to grow corn. The Indians set fire to the forest and planted corn interspersed with beans between the charred trunks, fertilizing the soil with ash. They carefully looked after crops, spudded corn and destroyed weeds. Indian corn saved the colonists from starvation.
The inhabitants of New Plymouth were no less obliged to the Indians. After spending the first hard winter, during which half of the settlers died, in the spring of 1621 they cleared the fields left by the Indians and sowed in the form of an experiment 5 acres of English wheat and peas and 20 acres - under the direction of one Indian - corn. Wheat failed, but corn sprouted, and has been the main agricultural crop in New England ever since throughout the colonial period. Later, the colonists achieved good harvests of wheat, but it did not displace corn.
Like the Indians, the English colonists stewed meat with grains and vegetables, roasted corn kernels, and ground grain into flour using Indian wooden chairs. Traces of many borrowings from Indian cuisine are reflected in the language and food of Americans. So, in the American language there are a number of names for corn dishes: poon (corn tortilla), hominy (hominy), maga (cornmeal porridge), heisty pudding (“improvised” flour custard pudding), hald korn (hulled corn), sakkotash (dish of corn, beans and pork) 2 .
In addition to corn, European colonists borrowed from the Indians the culture of potatoes, peanuts, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, some varieties of cotton and beans. Many of these plants were taken by Europeans from Central and South America in the 17th century. to Europe and from there to North America. So it was, for example, with tobacco.
The Spaniards, the first of the Europeans to adopt the custom of smoking tobacco from the Indians, assumed the monopoly of its sale. The colonists of Virginia, as soon as the food problem was solved, began to experiment with local varieties of tobacco. But since they were not very good, they sowed all the comfortable lands in the colony free from crops of corn and other cereals with tobacco from the island of Trinidad.
In 1618 Virginia shipped £20,000 worth of tobacco to England. Art., in 1629 - for 500 thousand. Tobacco in Virginia served as a medium of exchange during these years: taxes and debts were paid with tobacco, the first thirty suitors of the colony paid for brides brought from Europe with the same "currency".
Three groups of English colonies
But according to the nature of production and economic structure, the English colonies can be divided into three groups.
In the southern colonies (Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia), plantation slavery developed. Here arose large plantations belonging to the landed aristocracy, more connected by origin and economic interests with the aristocracy of England than with the bourgeoisie of the northern colonies. Most of all goods were exported to England from the southern colonies.
The use of Negro slave labor and the labor of "indentured servants" has received the most wide use. As is known, the first Negro slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619; in 1683 there were already 3,000 slaves and 12,000 "indentured servants" 1 . After the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), the British government gained a monopoly on the slave trade. Since that time, the number of Negro slaves in the southern colonies has been ever increasing. Before the Revolutionary War, South Carolina had twice as many blacks as whites. At the beginning of the XVIII century. in all the English colonies of North America there were 60 thousand, and by the beginning of the war for independence - about 500 thousand Negro slaves 2 . Southerners specialized in the cultivation of rice, wheat, indigo and, especially in the early years of colonization, tobacco. Cotton was also known, but until the invention of the cotton gin (1793), its production played almost no role.
Next to the vast lands of the planter, tenants settled, renting land on the basis of sharecropping, mining, or for money. The plantation economy demanded vast lands, and the acquisition of new lands proceeded at an accelerated pace.
In the northern colonies, united in 1642, in the year of the beginning of the civil war in England, into one colony - New England (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut), Puritan colonists prevailed.
Located along the rivers and near the bays, the New England colonies remained isolated from each other for a long time. Settlement went along the rivers connecting the coast with internal parts mainland. All large territories were captured. The colonists settled in small settlements organized on a communal basis, initially with periodic redistribution of arable land, then only with a common pasture.
In the northern colonies, small-scale farming took shape, and slavery did not spread. Great importance had shipbuilding, trade in fish, timber. Maritime trade and industry developed, the industrial bourgeoisie grew, interested in freedom of trade, constrained by England. The slave trade became widespread.
But even here, in the northern colonies, the rural population was the overwhelming majority, and the townspeople kept cattle for a long time and had vegetable gardens.
In the middle colonies (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania), farming developed on fertile lands, producing crops or specializing in raising livestock. In New York and New Jersey, more than in others, large-scale land ownership was widespread, and land owners leased it out in plots. In these colonies, the settlements were of a mixed nature: small towns in the Hudson Valley and Albany and large land holdings in Pennsylvania and in parts of the colonies of New York and New Jersey.
Thus, several ways of life coexisted in the English colonies for a long time: capitalism in the manufacturing stage, closer to English than, for example, to Prussian or Russian of the same time; slavery as a way of manufacturing capitalism until the 19th century, and then (before the war between the North and the South) - in the form of plantation slavery in a capitalist society; feudal relations in the form of survivals; a patriarchal structure in the form of small-owner farming (in the mountainous western regions of the North and South), among which, although with less force than among the farming of the eastern regions, capitalist stratification took place.
All processes of development of capitalism in North America proceeded in the peculiar conditions of the presence of significant masses of free farming.
In all three economic regions into which the English colonies were divided, two zones were created: the eastern one, inhabited for a long time, and the western, bordering with Indian territories, the so-called "frontier" (frontier). The frontier receded continuously to the west. In the 17th century it passed along the Allegheny Ridge, in the first quarter of the 19th century. - already on the river. Mississippi. The inhabitants of the "border" led a life full of dangers and a hard struggle with nature, which required great courage and solidarity. These were “bonded servants” and farmers who fled from the plantations, oppressed by large landowners, urban people who fled taxes and the religious intolerance of sectarians. Unauthorized seizure of land (squatterism) was a special form of class struggle in the colonies.
The mainland of North America was deserted at the moment when the Lower and Middle were replaced in the eastern hemisphere, and the Eurasian Neanderthal gradually turned into homo sapiens, trying to live in a tribal system.
The American land saw a man only at the very end of the Ice Age, 15 - 30 thousand years ago (From the latest research:).
Man came to the territory of America from Asia through a narrow isthmus that once existed on the site of the modern Bering Strait. It was from this that the history of the development of America began. The first people went south, sometimes interrupting their movement. When Wisconsin glaciation was coming to an end, and the earth was divided by the waters of the ocean into the Western and Eastern hemispheres (11 thousand years BC), the development of people began who became aborigines. They were called the Indians, the native inhabitants of America.
He called the aborigines Indians Christopher Columbus. He was sure that he was standing off the coast of India, and therefore it was an appropriate name for the natives. It took root, but the mainland began to be called America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, after Columbus' error became apparent.
The first people from Asia were hunters and gatherers. Having settled down on the land, they began to engage in agriculture. At the beginning of our era, the territories of Central America, Mexico, and Peru were mastered. These were the Mayan, Inca (read about), Aztec tribes.
The European conquerors could not come to terms with the idea that some savages created early class social relations, built entire civilizations.
The first attempts at colonization were made by the Vikings in 1000 AD. According to the sagas, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, landed his detachment near Newfoundland. He discovered the country, calling it Vinland, the country of grapes. But the settlement did not last long, disappearing without a trace.
(clickable) When Columbus discovered America, the most diverse Indian tribes already existed on it, standing at different stages of social development.
In 1585 Walter Raleigh, favorite of Elizabeth I, founded the first English colony on the island in North America Roanoke. He called her Virginia, in honor of the virgin queen (virgin).
The settlers did not want to do hard work and develop new lands. They were more interested in gold. Everyone suffered from a gold rush and went even to the ends of the earth in search of an attractive metal.
The lack of provisions, the brutal treatment of the Indians by the British and, as a result, the confrontation, all this put the colony in jeopardy. England could not come to the rescue, as at that moment it was at war with Spain.
A rescue expedition was organized only in 1590, but the settlers were no longer there. Famine and confrontation with the Indians depleted Virginia.
The colonization of America was in question, as England was going through hard times (economic difficulties, war with Spain, constant religious strife). After the death of Elizabeth I (1603) on the throne was James I Stuart who didn't care about the Roanoke Island colony. He made peace with Spain, thereby recognizing the enemy's rights to the New World. It was the time of the "lost colony", as Virginia is called in English historiography.
This state of affairs did not suit the Elizabethan veterans who participated in the wars with Spain. They aspired to the New World out of a thirst for enrichment and a desire to wipe the nose of the Spaniards. Under their pressure, James I gave his permission to resume the colonization of Virginia.
To make the plan come true, the veterans created joint-stock companies, where they invested their funds and joint efforts. The issue of settling the New World was resolved at the expense of the so-called "rebels" and "loafers". That is how they called people who found themselves homeless or without means of subsistence in the course of the development of bourgeois relations.
Colonization of America by Europeans (1607-1674)English colonization of North America.
Difficulties of the first settlers.
Reasons for the colonization of America by Europeans. Relocation conditions.
The first Negro slaves.
Mayflower Compact (1620).
Active expansion of European colonization.
Anglo-Dutch Confrontation in America (1648-1674).
Map of the European colonization of North America in the XVI-XVII centuries.
Map of the expeditions of the discoverers of America (1675-1800).
English colonization of North America. The first English settlement in America appeared in 1607 in Virginia and was named Jamestown. The trading post, founded by members of the crews of three English ships under the command of Captain K. Newport, served at the same time as an outpost on the path of the Spanish advance to the north of the continent. The first years of Jamestown's existence were a time of endless disasters and hardships: diseases, famine and Indian raids took the lives of more than 4 thousand of the first English settlers of America. But already at the end of 1608, the first ship sailed to England, on board of which there was a cargo of wood and iron ore. In just a few years, Jamestown turned into a prosperous village thanks to the extensive plantations of tobacco previously cultivated only by the Indians laid there in 1609, which by 1616 became the main source of income for the inhabitants. Tobacco exports to England, which in 1618 amounted to 20 thousand pounds in monetary terms, increased by 1627 to half a million pounds, creating the necessary economic conditions for population growth. The influx of colonists was greatly facilitated by the allocation of a 50-acre plot of land to any applicant who had the financial means to pay a small rent. Already by 1620 the population of the village was approx. 1000 people, and in all of Virginia there were approx. 2 thousand people. In the 80s. 17th century exports of tobacco from two southern colonies - Virginia and Maryland (1) rose to 20 million pounds.
Difficulties of the first settlers. The virgin forests, stretching for more than two thousand kilometers along the entire Atlantic coast, abounded with everything necessary for the construction of dwellings and ships, and the rich nature satisfied the needs of the colonists for food. The increasingly frequent calls of European ships into the natural bays of the coast provided them with goods that were not produced in the colonies. The products of their labor were exported to the Old World from the same colonies. But rapid development northeastern lands, and even more so moving inland, beyond the Appalachian mountains, was hampered by the lack of roads, impenetrable forests and mountains, as well as the dangerous neighborhood with Indian tribes hostile to aliens.
The fragmentation of these tribes and the complete lack of unity in their sorties against the colonists became the main reason for the displacement of the Indians from the lands they occupied and their final defeat. The temporary alliances of some Indian tribes with the French (in the north of the continent) and with the Spaniards (in the south), who were also worried about the pressure and energy of the British, Scandinavians and Germans advancing from the east coast, did not bring the desired results. The first attempts to conclude peace agreements between individual Indian tribes and the English colonists who settled in the New World turned out to be ineffective (2).
Reasons for the colonization of America by Europeans. Relocation conditions. European immigrants were attracted to America by the rich natural resources of the distant continent, which promised rapid material prosperity, and its remoteness from European strongholds of religious dogmas and political predilections (3). Not supported by the governments or official churches of any country, the exodus of Europeans to the New World was financed by private companies and individuals, driven primarily by an interest in generating income from the transportation of people and goods. Already in 1606, the London and Plymouth companies were formed in England, which actively engaged in the development of the northeast coast of America, including the delivery of English colonists to the continent. Numerous immigrants traveled to the New World with families and even entire communities at their own expense. A significant part of the new arrivals were young women, whose appearance was met with sincere enthusiasm by the single male population of the colonies, paying the cost of their "transportation" from Europe at the rate of 120 pounds of tobacco per head.
Huge, hundreds of thousands of hectares, plots of land were allocated by the British crown to the representatives of the English nobility as a gift or for a nominal fee. Interested in developing their new property, the English aristocracy advanced large sums for the delivery of compatriots recruited by them and their arrangement on the lands received. Despite the extreme attractiveness of the conditions existing in the New World for newly arriving colonists, during these years there was a clear lack of human resources, primarily for the reason that only a third of the ships and people embarking on a dangerous journey - two a third died on the way. The new land was not distinguished by hospitality either, meeting the colonists with frosts unusual for Europeans, severe natural conditions and, as a rule, the hostile attitude of the Indian population.
The first Negro slaves. At the end of August 1619, a Dutch ship arrived in Virginia, bringing the first black Africans to America, twenty of whom were immediately bought by the colonists as servants. Negroes began to turn into lifelong slaves, and in the 60s. 17th century slave status in Virginia and Maryland became hereditary. The slave trade became a regular feature of commercial transactions between East Africa and the American colonies. African chieftains readily traded their men for textiles, household items, gunpowder, and weapons imported from New England (4) and the American South.
Mayflower Compact (1620). In December 1620, an event took place that went down in American history as the beginning of the purposeful colonization of the continent by the British - the Mayflower ship arrived on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts with 102 Calvinist Puritans, who were rejected by the traditional Anglican Church and did not later find sympathy in Holland. These people, who called themselves Pilgrims (5), considered the only way to preserve their religion to move to America. While still aboard a ship crossing the ocean, they entered into an agreement between themselves, called the Mayflower Compact. It reflected in the most general form the ideas of the first American colonists about democracy, self-government and civil liberties. These notions were developed later in similar agreements reached by the colonists of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and in later documents of American history, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Having lost half the members of their community, but surviving in a land they had not yet explored in the harsh conditions of the first American winter and the crop failure that followed, the colonists set an example for their compatriots and other Europeans, who arrived in the New World already prepared for the hardships that awaited them.
Active expansion of European colonization. After 1630, at least a dozen small towns arose in Plymouth Colony, the first New England colony that later became the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in which the newly arrived English Puritans settled. Immigration wave 1630-1643 Delivered to New England ca. 20 thousand people, at least 45 thousand more, chose the colonies of the American South or the islands of Central America for their residence.
Over the course of 75 years after the appearance in 1607 on the territory of the modern United States of the first English colony of Virginia, 12 more colonies arose - New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Northern Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The credit for founding them did not always belong to subjects of the British crown. In 1624, on the island of Manhattan in Hudson Bay [named after the English captain G. Hudson (Hudson), who discovered it in 1609, was in the Dutch service], Dutch fur traders founded a province called New Netherland, with the main city of New Amsterdam. The land on which this city developed was bought in 1626 by a Dutch colonist from the Indians for $24. The Dutch never managed to achieve any significant socio-economic development of their only colony in the New World.
Anglo-Dutch Confrontation in America (1648-1674). After 1648 and up to 1674, England and Holland fought three times, and during these 25 years, in addition to hostilities, there was a continuous and fierce economic struggle between them. In 1664, New Amsterdam was captured by the British under the command of the king's brother Duke of York, who renamed the city New York. During the Anglo-Dutch War of 1673-1674. The Netherlands managed to restore their power for a short time in this territory, but after the defeat of the Dutch in the war, the British again took possession of it. From then until the end of the American Revolution in 1783 from r. Kennebec to Florida, from New England to the Lower South, the Union Jack flew over the entire northeast coast of the continent.
(1) The new British colony was named by King Charles I in honor of his wife Henrietta Maria (Mary), sister of Louis XIII of France.
(2) The first of these treaties was concluded only in 1621 between the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indian tribe.
(3) Unlike most Englishmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, and even Germans, who were forced to move to the New World primarily by political and religious oppression in their homeland, Scandinavian settlers were attracted to North America primarily by its unlimited economic opportunities.
(4) This region of the northeastern part of the continent was first mapped in 1614 by Captain J. Smith, who gave it the name "New England."
(5) From Italian. peltegrino- literal, foreigner. Wandering pilgrim, pilgrim, wanderer.
Sources.
Ivanyan E.A. History of the USA. M., 2006.