Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University Faculty of Letters Saiss-Fes

Department of English Professor Y. Yechouti

OVERVIEW OF US HISTORY

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada
and China). It occupies the southern part of North America and stretches from the Pacific to the
Atlantic Ocean. It also includes Alaska in the north and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean (which both
joined the other forty-eight states in 1959). The total area of the country is about nine and a half
million square kilometers. The USA borders on Canada in the north and on Mexico in the south.

The United States of America is a federal republic composed of 50 states. Washington D. C. has
been the capital of the federal republic since 1800 (From 1785 to 1790, New York City was the
capital/ From 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia was the capital.) Originally, they were 13 English
colonies on the American continent. The colonies became independent on July the 4 th, 1776
(Independence Day) and they became original states of the new nation called the USA.

The US flag is composed of stars and stripes. The flag consists of 13 red and white stripes
representing the 13 originals states with a blue rectangle bearing 50 white stars representing the
50 states of the US.

American culture encompasses the customs and traditions of the United States, including
language, religion, food and the arts. Nearly every region of the world has influenced American
culture, as it is a country of immigrants, most notably the English who colonized the country
beginning in the early 1600s. U.S. culture has also been shaped by the cultures of Native
Americans, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians.

The United States is sometimes described as a "melting pot" in which different cultures have
contributed their own distinct "flavors" to American culture. Just as cultures from around the
world have influenced American culture, today American culture influences the world. The
term Western culture often refers broadly to the cultures of the United States and Europe.

EXPLORATION

In 1492 Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator at the service of Queen Isabella of Spain, was trying
to find a way from Europe to the Far East, but he didn’t get to India/China. Instead, he found some islands
in the Atlantic Ocean near North America. He thought he was near the Indies, so he called the people
Indians. The Indians were Native Americans. So, it is by accident that this sailor discovered a new world.
Indians are also referred to as Amerindians or American Indians. European explorers and settlers
came to the new land for gold, adventure, and freedom.

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE

Culture is a set of beliefs and behavior patterns that are generally shared by the members of a
group. These values can be expressed and reinforced through art, stories, songs or
rituals/religion. Language is also crucial to the preservation of a culture.
Culture is a powerful tool, so it is no coincidence that colonial officials and the U.S. government
created policies that suppressed Native tribal cultures from first contact to the 20th century.
Indians were to be assimilated into the dominant European "civilization."

American Indians in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the
boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of
Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of
which survive as intact political communities.

The Native American peoples of the United States are descendants of the original inhabitants of
the American continent who crossed into North America via the Bering Straits of Alaska from
north-eastern Asia. The date of the crossing is variously estimated at between ten and twenty-
six thousand years ago.

Destroying the native culture

European extermination of Natives started with Christopher Columbus' arrival in San Salvador
in 1492. Native population dropped dramatically over the next few decades. Some were directly
murdered by Europeans. Others died indirectly as a result of contact with introduced diseases
for which they had no resistance -- mainly smallpox, influenza, and measles.

Later European Christian invaders systematically murdered additional Aboriginal people, from
the Canadian Arctic to South America. They used warfare, death marches, forced relocation to
barren lands, destruction of their main food supply -- the Buffalo -- and poisoning. Some
Europeans actually shot at Indians for target practice.

As more people immigrated to the new country, the Native Americans were pushed further west, north,
and south. Most of the wars between the Native Americans and the U.S. military took place in the 19th
century. By the end of that period, Native Americans had been assigned land, called reservations, by the
government. In 1924, the Congress granted all Native Americans U.S. citizenship.

Today, Native Americans live both on and off reservations. Most Native Americans strive to accept the
ways of modern life while still passing down their culture and traditions to their young.

Oppression continued into the 20th century, through actions by governments and religious
organizations which systematically destroyed Native culture and religious heritage.

American Indians today

Today there are more than half a million Indians in the United States and millions more
elsewhere in the Americas. Still trying to cope with adjustment to white civilization, they are in
all stages of development, from the most primitive to the most sophisticated. In the United
States, they still speak more than 100 different languages. A few have made money from oil and
other natural sources found on their lands, but many thousands live at near-starvation levels.
Some are educated and completely assimilated in white society; many live in nearly complete
isolation from non-Indian Americans. Relocation programs have taken hundreds of Indians to
work in cities; thousands of others cling to the security of their reservations, hoping to gain
education and assistance necessary to develop the resources of their lands and become self-
sustaining.
COLONIZATION (1585-1776)
 The British established their first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
This colony was named for King James I of England.

 People from Spain, France, Holland, England, and other countries started other villages
on the east coast of North America. Thirteen settlements became colonies of England.
They were Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire, North and South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and Georgia.

 New England was founded primarily by Puritans (The Puritans were a group of people
who grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral and
societal reforms. Escaping persecution from church leadership and the King, they came
to America.) who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.

 Some of the native people were friendly to the colonists and taught them about the land.
But other Indians attacked them. The settlers killed many Indians and took their land.
They pushed the Indians to the west.

REVOLUTION

The Causes of the American Revolution (1776-1782)

 In 1773, the British colonists got mad about all the new taxes imposed on them by Great
Britain. A group of people threw three shiploads of tea into Boston Harbor. This was one
of the major events that led to the Revolutionary War. The American Revolution started
in 1775 as a response to the Stamp Act of 1765 (taxes on printed materials). The colonists
felt that the Stamp Act was unconstitutional, but the British government said it had the
right to tax the colonists.
 The colonists were especially angry about the “taxation without representation.” They
had to pay high taxes but could not send delegates to England to vote on them. In 1773
England passed the Tea Act (taxes on imported tea), so some colonists dressed up like
Indians and dumped all the tea from a British ship into Boston harbor. This act was
 called the Boston Tea Party. To punish the colonies and control them more closely,
England passed even stricter laws. To show their unity against England, the colonies sent
representatives to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The Congress decided
to stop buying British goods (boycott).
 Although the British military succeeded in the early stages of the war, the colonists were
victorious.
 The United States declared its independence in 1776 and defeated Great Britain with help
from France and Spain in the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin Franklin, John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston drafted the
Declaration of Independence and are part of what is known as the Founding Fathers
(including George Washington, too). This document asserted the colonists’ independence
from the British monarchy.
 George Washington —a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War,
commander and chief of the Continental Army, and president of the Constitutional
Convention—became the first President of the United States under the new U.S.
Constitution.
 In 1787, the Constitution was written to establish the United States government. This
document established the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the government.
The Constitution also contains the Bill of Rights, which grants certain rights to U.S.
citizens.
 The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United
States Constitution. Proposed to assuage the fears of Anti-Federalists who had opposed
Constitutional ratification, these amendments guarantee a number of personal freedoms,
limit the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and reserve some
powers to the states and the public.

THE CIVIL WAR (1861- 1865)

 In the middle of the 19th century, white Americans of the North and South were unable
to reconcile fundamental differences in their approach to government, economics, society
and African American slavery.
 Abraham Lincoln was elected President, the South seceded to form the Confederate
States of America, and the Civil War followed, with the ultimate defeat of the South
(after four years of fighting).
 After the election of Lincoln, eleven Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina)
seceded from the union between late 1860 and 1861, establishing a rebel government, the
Confederate States of America in February 1861. The incoming Lincoln administration
and most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They
feared that it would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would
eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several small, squabbling countries.
 The Civil War broke out in April 1861. The war occurred for several reasons, but one of
the most important issues was slavery. There were also many economic differences
between the North and South.
 In 1863, Abraham Lincoln freed more than three million slaves with the Emancipation
Proclamation.
 The Civil War was the deadliest war in American history. Over 600,000 soldiers died in
the war. The fighting started in South Carolina and ended in April , 1865. The war lasted
four years, but efforts to reunite and reconstruct the country took three times as long.
 In 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at a Theatre. His assassination was part of a
plot to help the Confederacy. Lincoln’s shooter was, a famous actor.