UE 4

Civilisation américaine 1
(1LIAY4)

Christophe Chambost
(christophe.chambost@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr)
I)

II)

III) America before the United States of America

1) America before the English colonies

2) How Europeans considered native Americans

3) Early settlements in the Americas

I)

I)

a) A few words on Christopher Columbus

b) A few words on the French and America in the early 17th century
c) The Dutch in America
II) From British colonies to American states
1) The 13 British colonies

2) Heading toward independence

3) The troubled early days of a young nation (the Articles of Confederation)

4) The tenets for a stable federal state

a)

a)

a) Toward the Constitution

b) The Constitution
c) The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists
d) The Bill of Rights
e) The other amendments
III) Some Key notions in the development of the USA
1) The political parties in the USA
a)

a)

a) Their historical evolution (and the making of a two-party system)

b) The main characteristics of the Democratic and the Republican Parties
c) Some specificities of the political life in the South of the Nation
d)

2) The Frontier

3) Manifest Destiny

4) US expansion with the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary

5) Slavery and its consequences

I) America before the United States of America

1) America before the English colonies

The “Mound Builders” (Ohio river Valley) and Cahokia (early 13th century)
Some native tribes in North America:
Some native tribes in North America (cont.)
In the West: the Hopi and the Zuni (and others)
>> town planning, building canals…
In the East: many tribes >>> alliances were made (15th century…):
In the Southeast: the Choctaw, the Cherokee, the Chikasaw: loose alliance
In the Northeast: The Great league of Peace = The Iroquois League (= the
Mohawk, the Oneida, the Cayuga, the Seneca, the Onondaga)
Some common characteristics of native tribes
Religious ceremonies related to farming and hunting
Spiritual powers in living or inanimate things
Right to use the land, but not to own the land (land = common resource)
Ceremonies of gift exchange (= “potlach”)
Matrilineal societies
Yet many differences too: (religions, politics, languages…)
2) How Europeans considered native Americans:
Noble savages or evil creatures?

Justification of colonialization:
Spain / Portugal: native tribes must be converted to Christianism
Other European countries: the “Indians” do not own the land
Pretending women were mistreated
Bringing freedom (“Christian liberty”)
Mercantilism (an economic theory favoring colonizers)
Early settlements in the Americas:
The Vikings: Newfoundland (≈ 1000)
Christopher Columbus: Bahamas in 1492 (Oct. 12th)
Amerigo Vespucci: coast of South America (1499-1502)
Hernan Cortes: Aztec Empire (Tenochtitlan) in 1519
Francisco Pizarro: Inca Kingdom in the 1530s
conquests:
Military technology + epidemics = decline of native population
In Mexico: from 20 million to 2 million (16th century)
In North America (USA today): from between 2 to 5 million (late 15th century) to 250,000 (late 19th
century)
≈ 80 million native people died from 1500 to 1650.
No African slaves in Spanish colonies (using native people)
Spanish colonists outnumbered >>> assimilation and even miscegenation (pure
Spanish blood > “mestizos”)
- The French and America in the early 17th century:
1534: Jacques Cartier >>> Canada (= Iroquois name)
Early 17th century: French fur-companies >>> New France

The Dutch in America:

Henry Hudson (Dutch East India Company):
1609: Hudson River + New Amsterdam (= New York in 1664)
II) From British colonies to American states
1) The 13 British colonies
Private entreprises (charters with the King)
From 1607 to 1732: creation of 13 colonies (the “old thirteen”)
Families, indentured servants, and slavery (from 1619 onward)
Triangular trade (British colonies, West Indies, Africa)
First (failed) attempt in America: the Roanoke colony (1585 and 1587, by Sir Walter
Raleigh)
1607: Jamestown (John Smith)
1620: Plymouth (William Bradford + “Pilgrim Fathers” >>> Mayflower
compact)
1629: Massachusetts Bay (John Winthrop >>> the “City upon a hill”)
…
1732: Georgia (James Oglethorpe >>> slavery forbidden until 1751)
The 13 British colonies
 3 groups of colonies:

- The Southern colonies: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia,

Maryland.
- The Middle colonies: Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York.
- The New England colonies: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire.
 Comprehensive attitude of GB at first: “benign neglect”
…then:
- Growing British pressure over the colonies:
- Mercantilism:
Navigation acts, trade restrictions…

- Series of intercolonial wars (= the French and Indian Wars)

The Seven Years’ War (1756 / 1763) >> a costly war, but a British victory (1763 Treaty of
Paris).

Open conflict with the Indians (the “Pontiac Upheaval” in 1763) >> 1763
Royal Proclamation (first Indian reserve)

>>> = Frustration of the British colonists (feeling betrayed)

2) Heading toward independence
Navigation Acts (to pay for the Seven Years’ Wars) >>> 1765 Stamp Act…

More frustration >>> creation of American militias (The Sons of Liberty…)

Acts of open violence (1770 Boston Massacre…)

Colonists’ slogan: “No taxation without representation”

(James Otis: “Taxation without representation is tyranny”)

Political pamphlets (Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, 1776)

… More Navigation Acts (1773 Tea Act) >>> 1773 “Boston Tea Party”

… And even more Navigation Acts (1774 Coercive Acts = the “Intolerable” Acts)
1st Continental Congress (from Sept 5th, 1774 to May 10th, 1775, in Philadelphia),
then:

2nd Continental Congress (from May 10th, 1775 to March 1st, 1781)
George Washington as “Commander of the American forces”

First battles:
Boston siege (1775/1776)
Battle of Lexington and Concord (April 1775)
Battle of Bunker Hill (June 1775)

Last attempt at peace: the Olive Branch Petition (July 1775) >>> failure

King George III: “Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition”, a.k.a.
“Proclamation of Rebellion” (August 23 , 1775)
rd

Declaration of independence: July 4th, 1776 (influenced by the Age of

Enlightenment >> John Locke…)
 - Some Founding Fathers:

Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin John Adams

Roger Sherman Robert Livingstone

End of the Independence War: 1783 Treaty of Paris = Treaty of Peace between
GB and the USA“Treaty of Paris” (1783), by Benjamin West, unfinished (the British delegates refusing
to pose). From left to right: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, William Temple
Franklin
3) The troubled early days of a young nation
1776: Independence >> creation of 13 new states (each with a constitution)

Difficulty in creating a union of states, and in reaching economic stability.

Creation of a Confederation in 1777 (ratified in 1781) >> a rather loose unity.

Confederation >>> a union of states with some central authority with little power
(unanimity required)
Confederation ≠ Federation >>> a central government (above the states) with
some important powers.

The “Articles of Confederation” = the first official text creating a central

government (= the first constitution of the USA): ratified in 1781 >> effective until
1789.
Articles of confederation: >>> central government = Confederation Congress only
(unicameral). No executive power (= no president), no judicial power (no national
court of justice) .

Little power to the Confederation Congress so as to prevent some central tyrannical

power.

Confederation Congress seen as powerless: unable to levy taxes, to deal with foreign
and interstate trade (2/3 majority needed).

Anti-federalists (Thomas Jefferson) ≠ Federalists (Alexander Hamilton)

Confederation Congress: also unable to stop some farmers’ protests (The Shays’
Rebellion in 1786) >>> Dissatisfaction of the Federalists.

Desire for a new (and better) constitution of the USA.

4) The tenets for a stable Federal State
Toward the Constitution

The “Grand Convention”:

>> from May 25 to Sept 17, 1787 (Philadelphia)

>> G. Washington: president of the convention

>> 55 (young) delegates (= the “Framers” of the Constitution)

>> desire for separated powers of a Federal State ( // ideas of the Enlightenment)

>> Two plans initially submitted:

- The Virginia Plan (= the large-state plan)
- The New Jersey Plan (= the small-state plan)
- The Virginia Plan (written by James Madison) also known as “the Randolph Plan”
(Edmund Randolph = governor of Virginia)

- Three powers (legislative, executive, judiciary)

- congress = two houses (= bicameral) >> The House of Representatives and

the Senate.

- Power mainly for the Legislative (= congress) >> congress electing the
executive and the judiciary.

- State representation: proportional to its population

- The New Jersey plan (by William Paterson) :

Three powers (legislative, executive, judiciary)

Congress: one chamber only (unicameral). One Representative per state >> Equal
rights for all the states

Mainly supported by small states

Close to the previous Articles of Confederation

- The Sherman Compromise, in 1787 (a.k.a. the “Connecticut Compromise”, or
the “Great Compromise”)

A congress with two houses:

The House of Representatives: proportional representation

The Senate: Two senators per state
 The evolution of Congress through time:
In 1789/90: 59 then 65 representatives + 22 then 26 senators (North Carolina
and Rhode Island ratifying the Constitution later).
Since 1911: 435 Representatives (or congressmen/women)
Number (435): constant (1 Rep. ≈ 700,000 inhabitants)
>>> evolution of the number of Reps.: depending on census (increasing or decreasing population in
the states)… yet: total of 435 will not change.
Example: today (2022): Vermont = 1 Rep.; California = 53 Reps.

Today (2022):
50 states >>> 100 senators.
The issue of slavery in the Constitution:

The “three-fifth compromise” : one slave counts for 3/5 of a human being so
that Southern states might have more representatives (without considering
slaves as human beings).

No law to be passed against the importation of slaves before 1808.

No possibility for a slave to escape and become free in another state.

- Presentation of the Constitution

THE CONSTITUTION (created in 1787, ratified in 1788, effective in 1789)

= the framework of the federal government (and the “supreme law of the
country”)
one preamble alluding to the rights of the people… yet, NO legal force (the
rights of the people: later, in the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791)
7 articles:
Article 1: the legislative power (= Congress)

Article 2: the executive power (= the President)

Article 3: the judicial power (= the Supreme Court)

- These 3 branches (powers)= the government
- separation of powers to prevent tyranny:
Each power can control the other two powers (= “checks and balances”)