- Native Americans crossed into North America over 30,000 years ago from Asia and established societies based around agriculture, hunting, fishing and gathering.
- European exploration of North America began in the 10th century with the Vikings, led by Leif Ericsson, but no permanent settlements were established at that time.
- Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, establishing the first permanent European colony in the Americas although he mistakenly thought he had reached Asia.
- Over the following centuries, colonies were established up and down the eastern coast of North America by several European powers including the Spanish, French, Dutch and English.
- The first successful English colony was Jamestown in 1607, followed by the Plymouth
- Native Americans crossed into North America over 30,000 years ago from Asia and established societies based around agriculture, hunting, fishing and gathering.
- European exploration of North America began in the 10th century with the Vikings, led by Leif Ericsson, but no permanent settlements were established at that time.
- Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, establishing the first permanent European colony in the Americas although he mistakenly thought he had reached Asia.
- Over the following centuries, colonies were established up and down the eastern coast of North America by several European powers including the Spanish, French, Dutch and English.
- The first successful English colony was Jamestown in 1607, followed by the Plymouth
- Native Americans crossed into North America over 30,000 years ago from Asia and established societies based around agriculture, hunting, fishing and gathering.
- European exploration of North America began in the 10th century with the Vikings, led by Leif Ericsson, but no permanent settlements were established at that time.
- Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, establishing the first permanent European colony in the Americas although he mistakenly thought he had reached Asia.
- Over the following centuries, colonies were established up and down the eastern coast of North America by several European powers including the Spanish, French, Dutch and English.
- The first successful English colony was Jamestown in 1607, followed by the Plymouth
- Native Americans crossed into North America over 30,000 years ago from Asia and established societies based around agriculture, hunting, fishing and gathering.
- European exploration of North America began in the 10th century with the Vikings, led by Leif Ericsson, but no permanent settlements were established at that time.
- Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, establishing the first permanent European colony in the Americas although he mistakenly thought he had reached Asia.
- Over the following centuries, colonies were established up and down the eastern coast of North America by several European powers including the Spanish, French, Dutch and English.
- The first successful English colony was Jamestown in 1607, followed by the Plymouth
= Indians - agriculture, hunting, gathering, fishing Vikings (1000 AD) - first Europeans, no permanent settlements - Leif Ericsson Christopher Columbus (12th October 1492) - Bahama Islands in the Caribbean (instead of India) - tobacco, potatoes, spice to Europe - Columbus Day Amerigo Vespucci - the continent named after him - described the new lands, said that Columbus had been the discoverer French, Spanish, Dutch or English explorers established new settlements, e.g. - the Spanish – Florida – St Augustine (the oldest settlement by Europeans) - the French – Louisiana territory - the Dutch – New Amsterdam first English colony – in Virginia, unsuccessful attempt (sir Walter Raleigh, 1584) Jamestown Colony – first successful permanent settlement (Captain John Smith, 1607) Plymouth Colony – second successful permanent settlement - Pilgrim Fathers = Puritans persecuted in Britain - from Plymouth in 1620, Mayflower, 102 people, 1621 the first Thanksgiving late 17th century – 13 colonies the Dutch bought Manhattan Island - New Amsterdam, seized by the British, renamed New York (1626) Harvard College (John Harvard, sponsor; 1636) New England concentrated on trade x Virginia grew tobacco slavery was introduced triangular trade: Europe – manufactured goods / American – fish, fur, wood, tobacco / Africa – slaves acts introduced by the British Parliament, high taxes on goods colonists were not represented in British parliament; their motto – no taxation without representation resulted in The Boston Tea Party (tea thrown into the sea, 1773) The War of Independence (1775 – 1783, The Revolutionary War) - the British against the patriots - George Washington - British defeated at Yorktown (1781) - the Treaty of Paris (1783) = end of the War of Independence; a free, sovereign, independent state The Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776) - signed by the Continental Congress (began to work as a national government) - in Philadelphia - the chief author: Thomas Jefferson Constitutional Convention (1787) - Founding Fathers (Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Madison, Hamilton, …) - in Philadelphia - Constitution adopted (officially 1790); Bill of Rights added (1791, the first 10 amendments) George Washington (1st president – Washington, D.C.) Thomas Jefferson (3rd president – Louisiana purchased from France) 19th century: - pioneers – frontier moved to the west (new land, hard life) - new parts colonised - transcontinental railroad - Indian wars - gold rush in California, Klondike - population growth (immigrants) slavery became a question southern and northern states differed much in economy - industrial north (factories, manufactured goods, growing cities) = the North republicans, later Union; against slavery - agricultural south (farms, plantations, dependant on labour of slaves) = the South democrats, later Confederation; defended slavery Abraham Lincoln president (republican, against slavery, 1860) 11 states left the Union = created a new government, called themselves Confederation Civil War (1861 – 1865) - the main reason = abolition of slavery - the war between the South and the North - General Lee (Confed.) surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant (Union) – 1865 - shortly after that Lincoln assassinated (Ford´s Theatre) – John Wilkes Booth Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln (1862, slavery abolished, segregation continued) Ku-Klux-Klan founded (a secret organisation against the rights for African Americans) the following years - US becoming a world power - Alaska bought from Russia - urbanization - immigrants from Europe World War I - Woodrow Wilson – president - profited from selling goods to fighting countries - 1917: sinking several American ships – Congress declared war on the Central Powers - attempt to create a League of nations 1920´s - time of prosperity, economic growth - Henry Ford, time of building (skyscrapers), jazz, Charleston, silent movie – Charlie Chaplin, prohibition Black Thursday (24 October, 1929) - stock market crash in NY (world crisis started) - result: unemployment, poverty all around the world - New Deal – big reformation, anti-crisis measures World War II - Roosevelt – president, the USA were neutral - Pearl Harbour (Hawaiian Islands, attack by Japanese, war declared in 1941) - invasion in Normandy (6th June, 1944 – Overlord) Manhattan Project - development of an atomic bomb - Hiroshima, Nagasaki – August 1945 founding of NATO (a military alliance, 1949) Cold War after the WWII - tension between the USA and the Soviet Union (Western and Eastern Bloc) Marshall plan Korean War (1950 – 1953) - UN forces incl. American soldiers – South Korea vs. China – North Korea Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) - threat of nuclear war, President Kennedy - installation of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba – Kennedy responded with a naval quarantine president J. F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas 1963 (his brother Robert assassinated in 1968) Martin Luther King - civil rights movement to end racial discrimination, Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated 1968) Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin – the first men on the Moon (1969) Vietnam War (1955 – 1973) - against communist forces - regarded as an unsuccessful military effort, opposed in the US Watergate Affair (1974) - president Richard Nixon resigned, involved in bribing terrorist attacks – WTC (2001) – New York City, Pentagon, Pennsylvania Barack Obama (2009)