Great Moments

in
American History
The (First) Thirteen Colonies
By 1733, the English settlers had established
13 colonies along the Atlantic coast

New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Delaware
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
 No Taxation Without Representation!
 Conflicts between Britain and the colonies (wanted
more freedom, self-government)

 The British Government imposed more taxes to support the Empire

The Colonies: feared that the new taxes would make trading
difficult (wanted to exercise their own control)

 The British troops might crush their civil liberties (while they came
here to escape political repression)

 1765 – Stamp Act Congress

(representatives, 9 colonies) – New York
→ resolution to
King George + English Parliament
[“no taxation without representation”]
 The Boston Tea Party
 Townshend Acts – 1767:
tax on tea + other goods → Customs
officers + British soldiers are sent to
Boston to collect the taxes

 March 5, 1770:
5 Bostonians killed (“The Boston
Massacre”) → taxes removed

 1773:
East India Company –
granted monopoly on exported tea
↓↓↓
The Boston Tea Party (disguised as
Indians, the patriots boarded a British
merchant ship & threw the tea
overboard)
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
July 4th, 1776

 We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, — That whenever
any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right
of the People to alter or to abolish it, and
to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety
and Happiness.
 A New Nation
 THE TREATY OF PARIS (1783)

The 13 colonies formed The United States of America

(independent; entire territory north of Florida, south of Canada, East
of the Mississippi River)

 1787 – The US CONSTITUTION

Checks and balances system

 3 braches of government –
balance of power: the separate and distinct powers of each is
balanced by the other two (no dictatorial authority)
 Congress – Senate + House of Representatives (legislative)
President (executive)
Federal Judiciary (Supreme Court, federal courts)

 Constitution = above all laws and regulations

All persons = equal before the law,
equally entitled to protection
 Towards Democracy
1791 – The Bill of Rights (10 amendments added)
(only 17 more up to now!)
- freedom of speech, press, religion
- the right to bear arms
- protection against illegal house searches, seizures of
property and arrest
- right to a fair trial by jury, protection against ‘cruel
and unusual punishments’
- right to assembly peacefully, protest and demand
changes etc.

The FIRST President of the United States =

George WASHINGTON (Federalist)
The First two political PARTIES:
- The Federalists - favored a strong president
and central government
- The Democratic Republicans - defended the
rights of individual states
 19th Century – Growth & Expansion
 1803: Thomas Jefferson (president)- bought huge
Louisiana territory from France for $15 million

“THE Era of Good Feelings”

period of rapid economic expansion
national network of roads & canals,
steamboats on rivers
Industrial Revolution
growth of manufacturers,
technological developments

 The Westward Movement:

settlers begin to cross the Mississippi
(push Natives farther West
and occupy their lands)
new boundaries 1816-1821
 Indiana, Illinois, Maine (free)
Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri (slave)
 Continental Power
THE MEXICAN WAR (1846-1848)
 for $15 million, Mexico surrendered enormous territory
(most of today’s California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New
Mexico, Colorado)

 1846: settlement of the border dispute with British Canada

→ US acquired today’s Oregon, Washington, Idaho

 → America = continental power (from Atlantic to Pacific)

 ‘The House Divided”
 1858: Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that the
government cannot last as long as America is half slave and
half free. Either the people against slavery will stop it forever, or
it will become lawful in all the states, old and new, north and
south alike. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not
expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be
divided”

 slavery = moral wrong, violated Declaration of independence

 1860: Lincoln = president
↓↓↓
 The Confederate States of America (South
Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee,
North Carolina – 11) – voted to leave the Union -
Secession
 The Civil War
1861-1865
 War over ideological differences
(the slavery issue): North vs. South

 The Civil War = the most traumatic episode in American

history (all others - fought abroad)
635,000 soldiers dead on both sides

TWO fundamental issues resolved

 put an end to slavery, completely
abolished by the 13th Amendment
to the Constitution (1865)

 decided that America was NOT

a collection of semi-independent
states, BUT
a single indivisible nation