LECTURE 2.

The continent of North America (as we know it today) formed out of the breakup of
Pangaea about 200 million years ago although it did not quite take its present shape
until around 60 million years ago. (https://truexsaracenilocalgeo.weebly.com/formation-of-north-
america.html)

Although it was quite warm a long time ago, there was a long global Ice Age. As
the last ice age, which lasted until nearly 12,000 years ago, was in the gradual
process of ending, around 15,000 years ago, the northern glaciers began to recede
and melt, creating the Great Lakes.
(https://a-z-animals.com/blog/how-were-the-great-lakes-formed-and-how-long-ago/)

About 100,000 to 80,000 years ago, a small group of Homo Sapiens (maybe a few
hundred) migrated out of Africa. “By about 40,000 years ago, a population
of Homo sapiens hunter-gatherers descended from the people that had survived the
African population crisis were living on the Eurasian plains north of the Black Sea.
These are your ancestors, if you are Asian, European, or Native American.”” When
global temperatures began to drop slowly at the beginning of the last ice age, the
forests of central Europe and Asia died.” “ The Eurasian plains lost their trees and
became grassy steppes and then frozen tundra. The onset of the ice age took
centuries, and Eurasian hunter-gatherers gradually followed the grasslands and the
animals that grazed them. People who would become the first Americans expanded
slowly eastward from Central Europe across what is now Siberia, while other
members of the same ancestral population expanded slowly westward toward the
Atlantic.”
(https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/americanenvironmentalhistory/chapter/chapter-1/)

Although some believe migrations into the Americas started up to 40,000 years ago,
the available evidence appears to suggest that anywhere between about 14,000 and
12,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians migrated in more than one wave from northeast
Asia into North America (and at least one back from NA to Asia). Traditionally, it
has been thought they crossed over land perhaps where there was no ice or glaciers
were melting. But now scientists increasingly think that they passed through dry
land that is now ocean (because then the glaciers contained much of the water and
the sea level was much lower) or took sea routes
(https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/dixon-late-ice-age.htm#:~:text=Archeological%20evidence%20indicates
%20that%20people,most%20probable%20region%20of%20origin)(https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm)
(https://www.palomar.edu/users/scrouthamel/ais130/Lectures/paleoind.htm)(https://www.palomar.edu/users/
scrouthamel/ais130/Lectures/paleoind.htm)( https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2012/jul/native-american-populations-
descend-three-key-migrations)( https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/07/mystery-of-native-americans-
arrival/)( https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/humans-colonized-americas-along-coast-not-through-
ice-180960103/)
(https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/
G1T_U5_Early_Civilizations_Americas_TG.pdf)

At any rate, dating to maybe about 13,500 years ago, we have found the first
archeological evidence of the Paleo-Indian culture, which lasted until about 9,000
years ago. This is referred to as the Clovis Culture.
(https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/paleo-indian-period) (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-
clovis-point-and-the-discovery-of-americas-first-culture-3825828/)

Moreover, linguistic evidence indicates Paleo-Siberian (Eskimo-Aleut) tribes

migrated about 6-8,000 years ago.
(https://www.palomar.edu/users/scrouthamel/ais130/Lectures/paleoind.htm)

Initially, the Paleo-Indians were living in a much colder climate than it is today and
they were in a world full of megafauna like mastodons, sabretooth tigers, giant
bison, American camels and giant sloths.
(https://www.palomar.edu/users/scrouthamel/ais130/Lectures/paleoind.htm)

By the end of the Paleo-Indian period, the climate was warming up and the
megafauna died out. Meanwhile, the humans grew more efficient at hunting and
agriculture and were developing their own complex civilizations.
(https://www.palomar.edu/users/scrouthamel/ais130/Lectures/paleoind.htm)

We should keep in mind too that not all of the Native Americans approve of the
Bering land bridge theory. And the Native American nations have their own origin
stories.

Of course there were great civilizations in the Americas before Europeans

discovered the continents and began settling them in earnest after Columbus’s
voyage in 1492. They have a rhyme about that they learned in school. In 1492
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

The most famous American civilizations are the Incas, Mayans, Olmecs and Aztecs.
But these were in South or Central America. In what is now the continental United
States though, there were also important civilizations. These include the Mississippi
Culture the Southwestern cultures and the Iroquois Confederacy.

At first there were some temporary Viking settlements on the eastern coast, which
we can learn about in the story of Leif Erikson, or Leif the Lucky, son of Erik the
Red. Leif the Lucky first set food on American shores, which they called Vinland,
in the first century AD. However, the Vikings did not stay.
(https://www.historyhit.com/who-was-leif-erikson/)

As you know, the major colonization of the Americas started after Columbus’s
voyage in 1492. The United States was initially colonized by various European
nations including the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English. The majority came from
England and began settling eastern coastal areas heavily in the 1600s. As far as I
know, most of my ancestors came around this time. And I have found some
historical records about this. One of my father’s mother’s ancestors was an Adams
who came to Boston, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, he was not a member of the
famous Adams family which produced two presidents: John Adams and John
Quincey Adams. Instead, he was someone who traded guns and alcohol with the
Native Americans and got into such arguments with the Puritans that they put him
in stocks. The use of stocks to punish him suggests he was of a lower class.

Let’s review the British colonization of North America and the colonies war for
Independence from the British crown. First, of all there was a massive population
explosion in the 13 colonies between 1700 to 1775.

Belonging to colonies, the colonists did not have so many rights but they also did
not have appropriate representation in the British political system. And they had to
pay a lot of taxes, among other things they didn’t like. So, they started to demand
representation. The British crown rejected their demands and ignored their
concerns.

So, this led to a revolutionary secessionist movement.

On 19 April 1775 “the shot heard round the world” was fired and the Revolutionary
War began.

The very name of this war—the Revolutionary War—should give us some clues
about the ideology and philosophy behind it. The revolutionaries were challenging a
monarchy and wanted to create a new, republican form of government where
citizens were represented by elected officials not ruled by a king as subjects. This
philosophy had its roots in various elements of the political, social and religious
history of Britain and Europe, but importantly, it had major roots in the ideas and
philosophies of the Enlightenment and the revolutionary, republican and liberal
traditions which stemmed from the Enlightenment. One of the major ideas
associated with these revolutionary, republican and liberal traditions was the idea of
federation or confederation.

These philosophies are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence of 4 July

1776, the procedure of the Continental Congress assembled in September 1776, the
Articles of the Confederation adopted on 15 November 1777 and the Constitution
of the United States of America adopted in 1789. The very name of the United
States of America reminds of the federalist philosophy underlying the birth and
development of this new but powerful and vibrant nation. The Revolutionary War
ended in 1783.

The same ideas were circulating in Europe around this time, and the American
Revolution was an inspiration for many people yearning for liberty after this. It
showed them it was possible to cast off the yoke of a monarchy or an oppressive
regime and that one could restructure society according to Enlightenment principles
were church and state were kept separate (a legacy from the European religious
wars they believed made political systems unstable) and each person, then still
white properties males was a citizen and had a right to participate in the political
system—not just the very wealthy or titled.

When the French saw the Americans were successful, this is when they really
decided to move forward with the French Revolution, which lasted from 1789-
1799.
This historical background is why the French sent the Americans a most famous gift
—“The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.” We call it the Statue of Liberty
now, but the original name gives a deeper meaning. It is a Statue of Liberty doing
something. What is Liberty doing? (Liberty is bringing Enlightenment). Can you
put that in your own words? (Freedom brings knowledge and wisdom, fresh insight;
slavery keeps us in ignorance while freedom gives our minds the possibility to learn
and grow, etc.)

Actually, they sent this gift in 1884-1885, in large part to commemorate the
centennial (year) of the end of the Revolutionary War and to honor the alliance that
the Americans and French had had during the war. They also wanted to encourage
progressive thinking back home in France and thought this was a way to help
French people notice America’s successes as a democratic republic and make the
right choices for France’s political future, which was suffering from the tensions
between
those favoring democratic rule and others insisting on the divine right of kings (they
had a constitutional monarchy at this time.)

Obviously, 1885 was after the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861-1865.
So we’ve jumped a bit ahead. Let’s look at America’s early wars and pattern of
expansion.

So the Revolutionary War got us the original 13 Colonies and enabled us to turn
them into states with a federal center uniting them.

You all know about General George Washington, but most people don’t know
about Francis Marion, who was the Swamp Fox and South Carolina’s most famous
guerilla fighter.

The Indian Wars lasted throughout the expansion period and involved many
different fights and the gradual destruction or displacement of Native American
tribes or their resettlement on reservations. This process made it possible for white
colonists to settle these not empty but emptied lands.

Then, in 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased this huge chunk of territory called the
Louisiana Purchase.

While the War of 1812 against the British had no immediate outcome, the United
States’ success against the British and their native allies, ended European support to
native attacks against West-moving settlers and also gave the Americans a
psychological boost that encouraged their expansionism. The most famous battle of
this war is probably the Battle of New Orleans where General Andrew Jackson,
who grew up near my house and later became president, beat the British.

In 1819 they bought Florida.

In 1846 the U.S.A. and Britain signed a treaty that gave America the lower part of
the Oregon Territory and the British the upper part.

The Mexican-American War of 1846-1858 started because of a border dispute after

the U.S. annexation of the Republic of Texas and resulted in the acquisition of
massive amounts of territory from Mexico. So when people tell Hispanic-
Americans to “go home” or “speak English,” a lot of the time they aren’t talking to
immigrants but people whose ancestors were already living here. Moreover, many
Hispanic people have Native American blood, more so than white people.

Then they had the Civil War which was from 1861-1865.

In 1867 they bought Alaska from Russia.

In 1898 they annexed Hawaii.

Today we take it for granted that the United States is a strong, unified state power.

So many American children repeat this mantra every morning at the start of the school day.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it
stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

However, Americans cannot forget the facts of its establishment and its very name—the United
States.

The difference is that the confederation requires a constitution though the states only give up
very limited competencies, while an alliance is based on a treaty.

Nevertheless, even though a confederation is a union, it is still a very weak one since it is
comprised of very states that retain (keep) most of their sovereign power.

And, predictably, the first confederation of the USA turned out to be very weak, especially
because the states wanted to preserve as much independence and power as possible, rendering
the center too ineffective.

“The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty
years. A fugitive slave clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The
Constitution gave the federal government the power to put down domestic rebellions, including
slave insurrections.”

There was also the infamous 3/5ths clause which counted a slave as 3/5ths of a person when
counting how many representatives a state could have in the congress.

(https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-
constitution-and-slavery)
Of course, the slaves weren’t even getting to vote here, just their owners.

Anyway, despite this compromise, tension between the federal center and the states continued
even after the constitution was ratified—and as the Abolitionist movement gathered steam
(grew).

So, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president, starting with South Carolina the Southern
states started to secede from the Union because they worried that he would try to restrict their
rights to own slaves.

However, in neither the Articles of the Confederation nor the Constitution is the right to secede
mentioned anywhere. Generally, a sovereign state has the right to secede from a confederation
though. Not so much a federation.

Thus, the issue of states’ rights became mixed up in the moral and economic issue of slavery. It
was also a question of whether the Western states added through the expansion would be able to
have slaves or not, too.

So as mentioned, one of the main reasons for the Civil War was about states wanting to
maintain the right to choose whether or not they could have (or import) slaves. And the reason it
was so important for the Southern states is because their economic survival depended on it.

The North had a much larger population of people able to work, with many Indentured Servants
and other kinds of free, lower class people coming from Europe, and was Industrializing rapidly
so it could still become wealthy and rich without slaves, whereas the Southern states were
entirely dependent on slavery for its economic survival. So, there was that aspect too.
Moreover, the Union General William Sherman also led an extremely destructive march
through the South that wrecked much of what was left of the economy. We have this memory
immortalized in the film Gone With the Wind.

GENERAL SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA

So, in SC growing up, people still remembered that. They also taught us in school about
“carpetbaggers” who came to exploit the people after their defeat in the war. So this, too,
affected the economic development of the South, which lagged behind the north for a very long
time, and still does.

You can see this from a Wall Street Journal article.

Meanwhile, as mentioned, the North had a major Industrialization boom! And by the 1920s the
USA was a very wealthy country.
 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Indigenous populations lived in what is now the United States before European colonists began
to arrive, mostly from England, after 1600. By the 1770s, thirteen British colonies contained
two and a half million people. They were prosperous and growing rapidly, and had developed
their own autonomous political and legal systems. The British Parliament asserted its authority
over these colonies by imposing new taxes, which the Americans insisted were unconstitutional
because they were not represented in Parliament. Growing conflicts turned into full-fledged war
beginning in April 1775. On July 4, 1776, the colonies declared independence under a
document written by Thomas Jefferson from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the
United States of America.
With large-scale military and financial support from France and military leadership
by General George Washington, the Patriots won the Revolutionary War and peace
came in 1783. During and after the war, the 13 states were united under a weak
federal government established by the Articles of Confederation. When these
proved unworkable, a new Constitution was adopted in 1789; it remains the basis of
the United States federal government,and later included a Bill of Rights. With
Washington as the nation's first president and Alexander Hamilton as his chief
financial advisor, a strong national government was created. In the First Party
System, two national political parties grew up to support or oppose Hamiltonian
policies. When Thomas Jefferson became president he purchased the Louisiana
Territory from France, doubling the size of American territorial holdings. A second
and last war with Britain was fought in 1812. The main result of that war was the
end of European support for Native American (Indian) attacks on Western settlers.

After 1820, a series of compromises postponed a showdown on the issue of slavery.

In the mid-1850s, the new Republican power took political control of the North and
promised to stop the expansion of slavery, which implied its eventual death.
The 1860 presidential election of Republican Abraham Lincoln triggered the
secession of eleven slave states to found the Confederacy in 1861. The American
Civil War (1861-1865) was the centerpiece of American history. After four years of
bloody warfare, the Union, under President Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant as the
commanding general defeated the South with Robert E. Lee as its foremost general
The Union was saved, slavery was abolished, and the South was impoverished. In
the Reconstruction era (1863–77), the United States ended slavery and extended
legal and voting rights to the Freemen. The national government was much
stronger, and because of the Fourteenth Amendment it now had the explicit duty to
protect individual rights. Reconstruction ended in 1877 and from the 1890s to the
1960s the system of Jim Crow kept blacks in segregation. The entire South
remained poor until the 2nd half of the 20th century, while the North and West
grew rapidly and prospered. The per capita income in the South remained under
half the national average until after 1945.
The United States became the world's leading industrial power at the turn of the
20th century due to an outburst of entrepreneurship in the North and the arrival of
millions of immigrant workers and farmers from Europe. The national railroad
network was completed, and large scale mining and factories industrialized the
Northeast and Midwest. Middle class dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency
and traditional politics stimulated the Progressive movement from the 1890s to
1920s, which pushed for reforms and allowed for women's suffrage and
the prohibition of alcohol. Initially neutral in World War I, the U.S. declared war on
Germany in 1917, and funded the Allied victory the following year. After a
prosperous decade in the 1920s, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the onset of
the decade-long world-wide Great Depression. Democrat Franklin D.
Roosevelt became president and implemented his New Deal programs for relief,
recovery, and reform, defining modern American liberalism. After the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States
entered World War II alongside the Allies and helped defeat Nazi Germany in
Europe and, with the detonation of newly invented atomic bombs, Japan in the Far
East.
The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as opposing superpowers after
World War II and began the Cold War, confronting one another indirectly in
the arms race and Space Race. U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was built
around the containment of Communism, and the country participated in the wars
in Korea and Vietnam to achieve this goal. Liberalism won numerous victories in
the days of the New Deal and again in the mid-1960s, especially in the success of
the civil rights movement, but conservatism made its comeback in the 1980s
under Ronald Reagan. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union dissolved in
1991, leaving the United States the only superpower. As the 21st century began,
international conflict centered around the Middle East and heightened significantly
following the September 11 attacks and the War on Terrorism that was
subsequently declared. The United States experienced its worst economic recession
since World War II in the late 2000s, which has been followed by slower than usual
rates of economic growth during the 2010s.
Colonial history of the United States
After a period of exploration sponsored by major European nations, the first
settlements were established in 1607 Europeans brought horses, cattle, and hogs to
the Americas and, in turn, took back to Europe maize, turkeys, potatoes, tobacco,
beans, and squash. The disease environment was deadly for many explorers and
early settlers exposed to new diseases. The impact of new disease was even worse
on the Native Americans, especially smallpox and measles. They died in very large
numbers, usually before large-scale European settlement began.
Spanish, Dutch, and French colonization
Spanish explorers were the first Europeans with Christopher Columbus' second
expedition, which reached Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493; others reached
Florida in 1513.[8] Quickly Spanish expeditions reached the Appalachian Mountains,
the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon[9] and the Great Plains. In 1540, Hernando
de Sotoundertook an extensive exploration of Southeast. Also in 1540 Francisco
Vásquez de Coronado explored from Arizona to central Kansas. [10] The Spanish sent
some settlers, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental
United States at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565, but it attracted few permanent
settlers. Spanish settlements that grew to become important cities include Santa
Fe, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa
Barbara and San Francisco.
The American Revolutionary War began at Concord and Lexington in April
1775 when the British tried to seize ammunition supplies and arrest the
Patriot leaders.

Trumbull's Declaration of Independence

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia,
declared the independence of "the United States of America" in the Declaration of
Independence. July 4 is celebrated as the nation's birthday. The new nation was
founded onEnlightenment ideals of liberalism in what Thomas Jefferson called the
unalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", and dedicated
strongly to republican principles. Republicanism emphasized the people are
sovereign (not hereditary kings), demanded civic duty, feared corruption, and
rejected any aristocracy.
Civil War
The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S.
military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. In response to the attack, on
April 15, Lincoln called on the states to send detachments totaling 75,000 troops to
recapture forts, protect the capital, and "preserve the Union", which in his view still
existed intact despite the actions of the seceding states. The two armies had their
first major clash at the First Battle of Bull Run, ending in a Union defeat, but, more
importantly, proved to both the Union and Confederacy that the war would be much
longer and bloodier than originally anticipated.

Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

In the 1920s the U.S. grew steadily in stature as an economic and military world
power. The United States Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles imposed by
its Allies on the defeated Central Powers; instead, the United States chose to pursue
unilateralism. The aftershock of Russia's October Revolution resulted in real fears
of communism in the United States, leading to a Red Scare and the deportation of
aliens considered subversive.
While public health facilities grew rapidly in the Progressive Era, and hospitals and
medical schools were modernized, the nation in 1918 lost 675,000 lives to
the Spanish flu pandemic.
In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol were prohibited by
the Eighteenth Amendment, Prohibition. The result was that in cities illegal alcohol
became a big business, largely controlled by racketeers. The second KKK grew
rapidly in 1922-25, then collapsed. Immigration laws were passed to strictly limit
the number of new entries. The 1920s were called the Roaring Twenties due to the
great economic prosperity during this period. Jazz became popular among the
younger generation, and thus the decade was also called the Jazz Age.

The Great depression (1929–39) and the New Deal (1933–36) were decisive
moments in American political, economic, and social history that reshaped the
nation.
During the 1920s, the nation enjoyed widespread prosperity, albeit with a weakness
in agriculture. A financial bubble was fueled by an inflated stock market, which
later led to the Stock Market Crash on October 29, 1929. This, along with many
other economic factors, triggered a worldwide depression known as the Great
Depression. During this time, the United States experienced deflation as prices fell,
unemployment soared from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933, farm prices fell by half,
and manufacturing output plunged by one-third.
In 1932, Democratic presidential nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt promised "a New
Deal for the American people. The desperate economic situation, along with the
substantial Democratic victories in the 1932 elections, gave Roosevelt unusual
influence over Congress in the "First Hundred Days" of his administration. He used
his leverage to win rapid passage of a series of measures to create welfare programs
and regulate the banking system, stock market, industry, and agriculture, along with
many other government efforts to end the Great Depression and reform the
American economy. The New Deal regulated much of the economy, especially the
financial sector. It provided relief to the unemployed through numerous programs,
such as the Works Progress Administration(WPA) and (for young men) the Civilian
Conservation Corps.

World War II

The Japanese crippled American naval power with the attack on Pearl Harbor,
knocking out all the battleships
In the Depression years the United States remained focused on domestic concerns
while democracy declined across the world and many countries fell under the
control of dictators. Imperial Japan asserted dominance in East Asia and in the
Pacific. Nazi Germanyand Fascist Italy militarized to and threatened conquests,
while Britain and France attempted appeasement to avert another war in Europe. US
legislation in the Neutrality Acts sought to avoid foreign conflicts; however, policy
clashed with increasing anti-Nazi feelings following the German invasion of
Poland in September 1939 that started World War II. Roosevelt positioned the US
as the "Arsenal of Democracy", pledging full-scale financial and munitions support
for the Allies—but no soldiers. Japan tried to neutralize America's power in the
Pacific by attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which catalyzed American
support to enter the war and seek revenge.

American corpses sprawled on the beach of Tarawa, November 1943.

The Allies—the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union, as well as China, Canada and
other countries—fought the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. The Allies
saw Germany as the main threat and gave highest priority to Europe. The US
dominated the war against Japan and stopped Japanese expansion in the Pacific in
1942. After losing Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines to the Japanese, and drawing
the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942), the American Navy inflicted a decisive
blow at Midway (June 1942). American ground forces assisted in the North African
Campaign that eventually concluded with the collapse of Mussolini's fascist
government in 1943, as Italy switched to the Allied side. A more significant
European front was opened on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in which American and Allied
forces invaded Nazi-occupied France from Britain.

The Cold War, counterculture, and civil right

President Kennedy's Civil Rights Address, June 11, 1963.

Following World War II, the United States emerged as one of the two dominant
superpowers, the USSR being the other. The U.S. Senate on a bipartisan vote
approved U.S. participation in the United Nations (UN), which marked a turn away
from the traditionalisolationism of the U.S. and toward increased international
involvement.
In the decades after World War II, the United States became a global influence in
economic, political, military, cultural, and technological affairs. Beginning in the
1950s, middle-class culture became obsessed with consumer goods. White
Americans made up nearly 90% of the population in 1950.
In 1960, the charismatic politician John F. Kennedy was elected as the first and—
thus far—only Roman Catholic President of the United States. The Kennedy family
brought a new life and vigor to the atmosphere of the White House. His time in
office was marked by such notable events as the acceleration of the United States'
role in the Space Race, escalation of the American role in the Vietnam War,
the Cuban missile crisis, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the jailing of Martin Luther
King, Jr. during the Birmingham campaign, and the appointment of his
brother Robert F. Kennedy to his Cabinet as Attorney General. Kennedy was
assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, leaving the nation in
profound shock.
Martin Luther King, Jr., who had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to
achieve equality of the races, was assassinated in 1968. Following his death others
led the movement, most notably King's widow, Coretta Scott King, who was also
active, like her husband, in the Opposition to the Vietnam War, and in the Women's
Liberation Movement. Over the first nine months of 1967, 128 American cities
suffered 164 riots.[146] Black Power emerged during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The decade would ultimately bring about positive strides toward integration,
especially in government service, sports, and entertainment.Native
Americans turned to the courts to fight for their land rights. They held protests
highlighting the federal government's failure to honor treaties. One of the most
outspoken Native American groups was the American Indian Movement (AIM). In
the 1960s, Cesar Chavez began organizing poorly paid Mexican-American farm
workers in California. He led a five-year-long strike by grape pickers. Then Chávez
formed the nation's first successful union of farm workers. It later became
the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

Close of the 20th century

Ronald Reagan produced a major realignment with his 1980 and 1984 landslide
elections. Reagan's economic policies (dubbed "Reaganomics") and the
implementation of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 lowered income taxes
from 70% to 28% over the course of seven years. [157] Reagan continued to downsize
government taxation and regulation.[158] The US experienced a recession in 1982,
but the negative indicators reversed, with the inflation rate decreasing from 11% to
2%, the unemployment rate decreasing from 10.8% in December 1982 to 7.5% in
November 1984,[159] and the economic growth rate increasing from 4.5% to 7.2%.
[160]

Reagan ordered a buildup of the US military, incurring additional budget deficits.

Reagan introduced a complicated missile defense system known as the Strategic
Defense Initiative (dubbed "Star Wars" by opponents) in which, theoretically, the
U.S. could shoot down missiles with laser systems in space. Though it was never
fully developed or deployed, the Soviets were genuinely concerned about the
possible effects of the program and became more willing to negotiate.[161]
Reagan's rollback policy of weakening Communist states in critical regions
involved covert funding and assistance to anti-Communist resistance movements
worldwide. Reagan's interventions against Grenada and Libya were popular in the
US, though his backing of the Contra rebels was mired in the controversy over
the Iran–Contra affair that revealed Reagan's poor management style.[162]
Reagan met four times with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ascended to
power in 1985, and their summit conferences led to the signing of the Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Gorbachev tried to save Communism in the Soviet
Union first by ending the expensive arms race with America, [163] then by shedding
the East European empire in 1989. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ending the
US–Soviet Cold War.

In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of

"high crimes and misdemeanors" for lying about a sexual relationship with White
House intern Monica Lewinsky but was later acquitted by the Senate. The failure of
impeachment and the Democratic gains in the 1998 election forced House
Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, to resign from Congress.
The presidential election in 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore was one of
the closest in US history and helped lay the seeds for political polarization to come.
The vote in the decisive state of Florida was extremely close and produced a
dramatic dispute over the counting of votes. The US Supreme Court in Bush v.
Gore ended the recount with a 5–4 vote. That meant Bush, then in the lead, carried
Florida and the election.
21st century

The September 11 attacks led to theWar on Terror.

On September 11, 2001 (9/11), the United States was struck by a terrorist
attack when 19 al-Qaeda hijackers commandeered four airliners and intentionally
crashed into both twin towers of the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon,
killing nearly 3,000 people, mostly civilians. In response on September 20,
President George W. Bush announced a "War on Terror". On October 7, 2001, the
United States and NATO then invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime,
which had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.
The federal government established new domestic efforts to prevent future attacks.
The controversial USA PATRIOT Act increased the government's power to monitor
communications and removed legal restrictions on information sharing between
federal law enforcement and intelligence services. A cabinet-level agency called
the Department of Homeland Security was created to lead and coordinate
federal counter-terrorism activities. Some of these anti-terrorism efforts,
particularly the US government's handling of detainees at the prison at Guantanamo
Bay, led to allegations against the US government of human rights violations.
In 2003, from March 19 to May 1, the United States launched an invasion of Iraq,
which led to the collapse of the Iraqi government and the eventual capture of Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein, with whom the US had long-standing tense relations. The
reasons for the invasion cited by the Bush administration included the spreading of
democracy, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction (a key demand of the
UN as well, though later investigations found parts of the intelligence reports to be
inaccurate),] and the liberation of the Iraqi people. Despite some initial successes
early in the invasion, the continued Iraq War fueled international protests and
gradually saw domestic support decline as many people began to question whether
or not the invasion was worth the cost. In 2007, after years of violence by the Iraqi
insurgency, President Bush deployed more troops in a strategy dubbed "the surge".
While the death toll decreased, the political stability of Iraq remained in doubt.
In 2008, the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq war, along with the 2008
financial crisis, led to the election of Barack Obama, the first African-
American President of the United States.
After his election, Obama reluctantly continued the surge by sending 20,000
additional troops until Iraq was stabilized. Then he officially ended combat
operations in Iraq on August 31, 2010, but kept 50,000 in Iraq to assist Iraqi forces,
help protect withdrawing forces, and work on counter-terrorism. In December 15,
2011, the war was declared formally over and the last troops left the country. At
the same time, Obama increased American involvement in Afghanistan, starting a
surge strategy using an additional 30,000 troops, while proposing to begin
withdrawing troops at a later point. With regards to Guantanamo Bay, President
Obama forbade torture but in general retained Bush's policy regarding the
Guantanamo detainees, while also proposing that the prison eventually be closed.
In May 2011, after nearly a decade in hiding, the founder and leader of Al
Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, was killed in Pakistan in a raid conducted by US naval
special forces acting under President Obama's direct orders. While Al Qaeda was
near collapse in Afghanistan, affiliated organizations continued to operate in Yemen
and other remote areas as the CIA used drones to hunt down and remove its
leadership.

Recession and recent events

President Barack Obama signs thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In addition to responding to the economic crisis, the 111th Congress passed major
legislation such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Repeal Act, which were signed into law by President Obama. Following the 2010
midterm elections, which resulted in a Republican-controlled House of
Representatives and a Democratic-controlled Senate,[190] Congress presided over a
period of elevated gridlock and heated debates over whether or not raise the debt
ceiling, extend tax cuts for citizens making over $250,000 annually, and many other
key issues.[191] These ongoing debates led to President Obama signing the Budget
Control Act of 2011 and theAmerican Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 - which resulted
in budget sequestration cuts going into effect in March 2013 - as well as an increase
in taxes primarily for the wealthy. As a result of growing public frustration with
both parties in Congress during this time period, the approval rating fell to an
average of 15% favorable in the Gallup polls in 2012-13, the lowest ever recorded
and well below the average of 33% from 1974 to 2013.
Other major events that have occurred during the 2010s include the rise of new
political movements across the world, such as theconservative Tea Party
movement in the US and the international populist Occupy movement. There was
also unusually severe weather over the summer of 2012, and over half the country
experienced record drought. Hurricane Sandy caused massive damage to coastal
areas of New York and New Jersey in late October. The ongoing debate over the
issue of rights for the LGBT community, most notably that of same-sex marriage,
began to shift in favor of same-sex couples, and has been reflected in dozens of
polls released in the early part of the decade, President Obama becoming the first
president to openly support same-sex marriage, and the 2013 Supreme
Court decisions in the cases of United States v. Windsor and Perry v.
Hollingsworth. As of June 2013, debates continue over the ongoingsequestration, as
well as tax reform, same-sex marriage, immigration reform, gun control, and US
foreign policy in the Middle East.