The history of the United States started with the arrival of Native Americans in North

America around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many disappeared in
the 1500s. The arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 started the European colonization of
the Americas. Most colonies were formed after 1600, and the early records and writings of
John Winthrop make the United States the first nation whose most distant origins are fully
recorded.[1] By the 1760s, the thirteen British colonies contained 2.5 million people along the
Atlantic Coast east of the Appalachian Mountains. After defeating France, the British
government imposed a series of taxes, including the Stamp Act of 1765, rejecting the
colonists' constitutional argument that new taxes needed their approval. Resistance to these
taxes, especially the Boston Tea Party in 1773, led to Parliament issuing punitive laws
designed to end self-government in Massachusetts. Armed conflict began in 1775. In 1776, in
Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress declared the independence of the colonies as
the United States. Led by General George Washington, it won the Revolutionary War with
large support from France, and additional help from Spain[2] and the Netherlands.[3] The
peace treaty of 1783 gave the land east of the Mississippi River (including portions of Canada
but not Florida) to the new nation. The Articles of Confederation established a central
government, but it was ineffectual at providing stability as it could not collect taxes and had
no executive officer. A convention in 1787 wrote a new Constitution that was adopted in
1789. In 1791, a Bill of Rights was added to guarantee inalienable rights. With Washington
as the first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief adviser, a strong central government
was created. Purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 doubled the size of the
United States. A second and final war with Britain was fought in 1812, which solidified
national pride.

Encouraged by the notion of manifest destiny, U.S. territory expanded all the way to the
Pacific Coast. While the United States was large in terms of area, by 1790 its population was
only 4 million. However, it grew rapidly, reaching 7.2 million in 1810, 32 million in 1860,
76 million in 1900, 132 million in 1940, and 321 million in 2015. Economic growth in terms
of overall GDP was even greater. Compared to European powers, the nation's military
strength was relatively limited in peacetime before 1940. Westward expansion was driven by
a quest for inexpensive land for yeoman farmers and slave owners. The expansion of slavery
was increasingly controversial and fueled political and constitutional battles, which were
resolved by compromises. Slavery was abolished in all states north of the Mason–Dixon line
by 1804, but the South continued to profit from the institution, mostly from the production of
cotton. Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 on a platform of halting
the expansion of slavery. Seven Southern slave states rebelled and created the foundation of
the Confederacy. Its attack of Fort Sumter against the Union forces there in 1861 started the
Civil War. The defeat of the Confederates in 1865 led to the impoverishment of the South
and the abolition of slavery. In the Reconstruction era following the war, legal and voting
rights were extended to freed slaves. The national government emerged much stronger, and
because of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, it gained explicit duty to protect individual
rights. However, when white Democrats regained their power in the South in 1877, often by
paramilitary suppression of voting, they passed Jim Crow laws to maintain white supremacy,
as well as new disenfranchising state constitutions that prevented most African Americans
and many Poor Whites from voting. This continued until the gains of the civil rights
movement in the 1960s and the passage of federal legislation to enforce uniform
constitutional rights for all citizens.

The United States became the world's leading industrial power at the turn of the 20th century,
due to an outburst of entrepreneurship and industrialization in the Northeast and Midwest and
the arrival of millions of immigrant workers and farmers from Europe. A national railroad
network was completed and large-scale mines and factories were established. Mass
dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency, and traditional politics stimulated the
Progressive movement, from the 1890s to the 1920s. This era led to many reforms, including
the Sixteenth to Nineteenth constitutional amendments, which brought the federal income
tax, direct election of Senators, prohibition, and women's suffrage. Initially neutral during
World War I, the United States declared war on Germany in 1917 and funded the Allied
victory the following year. Women obtained the right to vote in 1920, with Native Americans
obtaining citizenship and the right to vote in 1924. After a prosperous decade in the 1920s,
the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the onset of the decade-long worldwide Great
Depression. Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt ended the Republican dominance of
the White House and implemented his New Deal programs, which included relief for the
unemployed, support for farmers, Social Security, and a minimum wage. The New Deal
defined modern American liberalism.[4] After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941,
the United States entered World War II and financed the Allied war effort, and helped defeat
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in the European theater. Its involvement culminated in using
newly invented nuclear weapons on two Japanese cities to defeat Imperial Japan in the
Pacific theater.

The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers in the aftermath of
World War II. During the Cold War, the two countries confronted each other indirectly in the
arms race, the Space Race, propaganda campaigns, and localized wars against communist
expansion, notably the Korean War and Vietnam War. The goal of the United States in this
was to stop the spread of communism. In the 1960s, in large part due to the strength of the
civil rights movement, another wave of social reforms was enacted which enforced the
constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement to African Americans and other
racial minorities. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union was officially dissolved in
1991, leaving the United States as the world's only superpower. After the Cold War, the
United States' foreign policy has focused on modern conflicts in the Middle East. The
beginning of the 21st century saw the September 11 attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda in 2001,
which was later followed by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2007, the United States entered
its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, which was followed by slower-than-
usual rates of economic growth during the early 2010s. Economic growth and unemployment
rates recovered by the rest of the 2010s, although these economic gains were stalled in
2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early history
Main articles: Prehistory of the United States, History of Native Americans in the United
States, and Pre-Columbian era
See also: Native Americans in the United States

This map shows the approximate location of the ice-free corridor and specific Paleoindian
sites (Clovis theory).
It is not definitively known how or when Native Americans first settled the Americas and the
present-day United States. The prevailing theory proposes that people from Eurasia followed
game across Beringia, a land bridge that connected Siberia to present-day Alaska during the
Ice Age, and then spread southward throughout the Americas. This migration may have
begun as early as 30,000 years ago[5] and continued through to about 10,000 years ago, when
[6]
the land bridge became submerged by the rising sea level caused by the melting glaciers.
These early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, soon diversified into hundreds of culturally
distinct nations and tribes.

This pre-Columbian era incorporates all periods in the history of the Americas before the
appearance of European influences on the American continents, spanning from the original
settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the early modern
period. While the term technically refers to the era before Christopher Columbus' voyage in
1492, in practice the term usually includes the history of American indigenous cultures until
they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades
or centuries after Columbus's initial landing.

Paleo-Indians

The Cultural areas of pre-Columbian North America, according to Alfred Kroeber.

By 10,000 BCE, humans were relatively well-established throughout North America.
Originally, Paleo-Indian hunted Ice Age megafauna like mammoths, but as they began to go
extinct, people turned instead to bison as a food source. As time went on, foraging for berries
and seeds became an important alternative to hunting. Paleo-Indians in central Mexico were
the first in the Americas to farm, starting to plant corn, beans, and squash around 8,000 BCE.
Eventually, the knowledge began to spread northward. By 3,000 BCE, corn was being grown
in the valleys of Arizona and New Mexico, followed by primitive irrigation systems and early
villages of the Hohokam.[7][8]

One of the earliest cultures in the present-day United States was the Clovis culture, who are
primarily identified by the use of fluted spear points called the Clovis point. From 9,100 to
8,850 BCE, the culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South
America. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, New Mexico.
The Folsom culture was similar, but is marked by the use of the Folsom point.

A later migration identified by linguists, anthropologists, and archeologists occurred around

8,000 BCE. This included Na-Dene-speaking peoples, who reached the Pacific Northwest by
5,000 BCE.[9] From there, they migrated along the Pacific Coast and into the interior and
constructed large multi-family dwellings in their villages, which were used only seasonally in
the summer to hunt and fish, and in the winter to gather food supplies.[10] Another group, the
Oshara Tradition people, who lived from 5,500 BCE to 600 CE, were part of the Archaic
Southwest.

Mound builders and pueblos

The Adena began constructing large earthwork mounds around 600 BCE. They are the
earliest known people to have been Mound Builders, however, there are mounds in the
United States that predate this culture. Watson Brake is an 11-mound complex in Louisiana
that dates to 3,500 BCE, and nearby Poverty Point, built by the Poverty Point culture, is an
earthwork complex that dates to 1,700 BCE. These mounds likely served a religious purpose.

The Adenans were absorbed into the Hopewell tradition, a powerful people who traded tools
and goods across a wide territory. They continued the Adena tradition of mound-building,
with remnants of several thousand still in existence across the core of their former territory in
southern Ohio. The Hopewell pioneered a trading system called the Hopewell Exchange
System, which at its greatest extent ran from the present-day Southeast up to the Canadian
[11]
side of Lake Ontario. By 500 CE, the Hopewellians had too disappeared, absorbed into
the larger Mississippian culture.

The Mississippians were a broad group of tribes. Their most important city was Cahokia,
near modern-day St. Louis, Missouri. At its peak in the 12th century, the city had an
estimated population of 20,000, larger than the population of London at the time. The entire
city was centered around a mound that stood 100 feet (30 m) tall. Cahokia, like many other
cities and villages of the time, depended on hunting, foraging, trading, and agriculture, and
developed a class system with slaves and human sacrifice that was influenced by societies to
[7]
the south, like the Mayans.

In the Southwest, the Anasazi began constructing stone and adobe pueblos around 900 BCE.
[12]
These apartment-like structures were often built into cliff faces, as seen in the Cliff
Palace at Mesa Verde. Some grew to be the size of cities, with Pueblo Bonito along the
Chaco River in New Mexico once consisting of 800 rooms.[7]

Northwest and Northeast

The K'alyaan Totem Pole of the Tlingit Kiks.ádi Clan, erected at Sitka National Historical
Park to commemorate the lives lost in the 1804 Battle of Sitka.
The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest were likely the most affluent Native
Americans. Many distinct cultural and political nations developed there, but they all shared
certain beliefs traditions, and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and
spiritual symbol. Permanent villages began to develop in this region as early as 1,000 BCE,
and these communities celebrated by the gift-giving feast of the potlatch. These gatherings
were usually organized to commemorate special events such as the raising of a Totem pole or
the celebration of a new chief.

In present-day upstate New York, the Iroquois formed a confederacy of tribal nations in the
mid-15th century, consisting of the Oneida, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. Their
system of affiliation was a kind of federation, different from the strong, centralized European
monarchies.[13][14][15] Each tribe had seats in a group of 50 sachem chiefs. It has been
suggested that their culture contributed to political thinking during the development of the
United States government. The Iroquois were powerful, waging war with many neighboring
tribes, and later, Europeans. As their territory expanded, smaller tribes were forced further
west, including the Osage, Kaw, Ponca, and Omaha peoples.[15][16]

Native Hawaiians

Main article: History of Hawaii

Polynesians began to settle in the Hawaiian Islands between the 1st and 10th centuries.
Around 1200 CE, Tahitian explorers found and began settling the area as well. This marked
the rise of the Hawaiian civilization, which would be largely separated from the rest of the
world until the arrival of the British 600 years later. Europeans under the British explorer
James Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and within five years of contact,
European military technology would help Kamehameha I conquer most of the people, and
eventually unify the islands for the first time; establishing the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Norse exploration

Leif Erikson discovers America by Christian Krohg, 1893

The earliest recorded European mention of America is in a historical treatise by the medieval
[note 1]
chronicler Adam of Bremen, circa 1075, where it is referred to as Vinland. It is also
extensively referred to in the 13th Century Norse Vinland Sagas, which relate to events
which occurred around 1000. Whilst the strongest archaeological evidence of the existence of
Norse settlements in America is located in Canada, most notably at L'Anse aux Meadows and
it is dated to circa 1000, there is significant scholarly debate as to whether Norse explorers
also made landfall in New England and other areas of the USA.[17] In 1925, President Calvin
Coolidge declared that a Norse explorer called Leif Erikson (c.970 – c.1020) was the first
[18]
European to discover America.

European colonization
Main article: Colonial history of the United States

European territorial claims in North America, c. 1750

  France
  Great Britain
  Spain
After a period of exploration sponsored by major European nations, the first successful
English settlement was established in 1607. Europeans brought horses, cattle, and hogs to the
Americas and, in turn, took back maize, turkeys, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, beans, and
squash to Europe. Many explorers and early settlers died after being exposed to new diseases
in the Americas. However, the effects of new Eurasian diseases carried by the colonists,
especially smallpox and measles, were much worse for the Native Americans, as they had no
immunity to them. They suffered epidemics and died in very large numbers, usually before
large-scale European settlement began. Their societies were disrupted and hollowed out by
[19][20]
the scale of deaths.

First settlements

Main articles: Spanish colonization of the Americas, Dutch colonization of the Americas,
New Sweden, and French colonization of the Americas
Spanish contact

Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to reach the present-day United States, after
Christopher Columbus's expeditions (beginning in 1492) established possessions in the
Caribbean, including the modern-day U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, and (partly) the U.S.
Virgin Islands. Juan Ponce de León landed in Florida in 1513.[21] Spanish expeditions
 [22]
quickly reached the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon,
and the Great Plains.[23]

The Letter of Christopher Columbus on the Discovery of America to King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella of Spain
In 1539, Hernando de Soto extensively explored the Southeast,[23] and a year later Francisco
Coronado explored from Arizona to central Kansas in search of gold.[23] Escaped horses
from Coronado's party spread over the Great Plains, and the Plains Indians mastered
[7]
horsemanship within a few generations. Small Spanish settlements eventually grew to
become important cities, such as San Antonio, Albuquerque, Tucson, Los Angeles, and San
Francisco.[24]

Dutch Mid-Atlantic

The Dutch West India Company sent explorer Henry Hudson to search for a Northwest
Passage to Asia in 1609. New Netherland was established in 1621 by the company to
capitalize on the North American fur trade. Growth was slow at first due to mismanagement
by the Dutch and Native American conflicts. After the Dutch purchased the island of
Manhattan from the Native Americans for a reported price of US$24, the land was named
New Amsterdam and became the capital of New Netherland. The town rapidly expanded and
in the mid 1600s it became an important trading center and port. Despite being Calvinists and
building the Reformed Church in America, the Dutch were tolerant of other religions and
[25]
cultures and traded with the Iroquois to the north.

The colony served as a barrier to British expansion from New England, and as a result a
series of wars were fought. The colony was taken over by Britain in 1664 and its capital was
renamed New York City. New Netherland left an enduring legacy on American cultural and
political life of religious tolerance and sensible trade in urban areas and rural traditionalism in
the countryside (typified by the story of Rip Van Winkle). Notable Americans of Dutch
descent include Martin Van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor
[25]
Roosevelt and the Frelinghuysens.

Swedish settlement

In the early years of the Swedish Empire, Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders formed
the New Sweden Company to trade furs and tobacco in North America. The company's first
expedition was led by Peter Minuit, who had been governor of New Netherland from 1626 to
1631 but left after a dispute with the Dutch government, and landed in Delaware Bay in
March 1638. The settlers founded Fort Christina at the site of modern-day Wilmington,
Delaware, and made treaties with the indigenous groups for land ownership on both sides of
the Delaware River. Over the following seventeen years, 12 more expeditions brought settlers
from the Swedish Empire (which also included contemporary Finland, Estonia, and portions
of Latvia, Norway, Russia, Poland, and Germany) to New Sweden. The colony established
19 permanent settlements along with many farms, extending into modern-day Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. It was incorporated into New Netherland in 1655 after a
Dutch invasion from the neighboring New Netherland colony during the Second Northern
 [26][27]
War.

French and Spanish conflict

Giovanni da Verrazzano landed in North Carolina in 1524, and was the first European to sail
into New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay. A decade later, Jacques Cartier sailed in search
of the Northwest Passage, but instead discovered the Saint Lawrence River and laid the
foundation for French colonization of the Americas in New France. After the collapse of the
first Quebec colony in the 1540s, French Huguenots settled at Fort Caroline near present-day
Jacksonville in Florida. In 1565, Spanish forces led by Pedro Menéndez destroyed the
settlement and established the first European settlement in what would become the United
States — St. Augustine.

After this, the French mostly remained in Quebec and Acadia, but far-reaching trade
relationships with Native Americans throughout the Great Lakes and Midwest spread their
influence. French colonists in small villages along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers lived in
farming communities that served as a grain source for Gulf Coast settlements. The French
established plantations in Louisiana along with settling New Orleans, Mobile and Biloxi.

British colonies

Further information: British colonization of the Americas

Excerpt of a Description of New England by English explorer John Smith, published in 1616.

The Mayflower, which transported Pilgrims to the New World. During the first winter at
[28]
Plymouth, about half of the Pilgrims died.
The English, drawn in by Francis Drake's raids on Spanish treasure ships leaving the New
World, settled the strip of land along the east coast in the 1600s. The first British colony in
North America was established at Roanoke by Walter Raleigh in 1585, but failed. It would be
twenty years before another attempt.[7]

The early British colonies were established by private groups seeking profit, and were
marked by starvation, disease, and Native American attacks. Many immigrants were people
seeking religious freedom or escaping political oppression, peasants displaced by the
Industrial Revolution, or those simply seeking adventure and opportunity.

In some areas, Native Americans taught colonists how to plant and harvest the native crops.
In others, they attacked the settlers. Virgin forests provided an ample supply of building
material and firewood. Natural inlets and harbors lined the coast, providing easy ports for
essential trade with Europe. Settlements remained close to the coast due to this as well as
Native American resistance and the Appalachian Mountains that were found in the interior.[7]

First settlement in Jamestown

Squanto known for having been an early liaison between the native populations in Southern
New England and the Mayflower settlers, who made their settlement at the site of Squanto's
former summer village.
The first successful English colony, Jamestown, was established by the Virginia Company in
1607 on the James River in Virginia. The colonists were preoccupied with the search for gold
and were ill-equipped for life in the New World. Captain John Smith held the fledgling
Jamestown together in the first year, and the colony descended into anarchy and nearly failed
when he returned to England two years later. John Rolfe began experimenting with tobacco
from the West Indies in 1612, and by 1614 the first shipment arrived in London. It became
Virginia's chief source of revenue within a decade.

In 1624, after years of disease and Indian attacks, including the Powhatan attack of 1622,
King James I revoked the Virginia Company's charter and made Virginia a royal colony.

New England

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914, Pilgrim Hall
Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts
New England was initially settled primarily by Puritans fleeing religious persecution. The
Pilgrims sailed for Virginia on the Mayflower in 1620, but were knocked off course by a
storm and landed at Plymouth, where they agreed to a social contract of rules in the
Mayflower Compact. Like Jamestown, Plymouth suffered from disease and starvation, but
local Wampanoag Indians taught the colonists how to farm maize.

Plymouth was followed by the Puritans and Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. They
maintained a charter for self-government separate from England, and elected founder John
Winthrop as the governor for most of its early years. Roger Williams opposed Winthrop's
treatment of Native Americans and religious intolerance, and established the colony of
Providence Plantations, later Rhode Island, on the basis of freedom of religion. Other
colonists established settlements in the Connecticut River Valley, and on the coasts of
present-day New Hampshire and Maine. Native American attacks continued, with the most
significant occurring in the 1637 Pequot War and the 1675 King Philip's War.

New England became a center of commerce and industry due to the poor, mountainous soil
making agriculture difficult. Rivers were harnessed to power grain mills and sawmills, and
the numerous harbors facilitated trade. Tight-knit villages developed around these industrial
centers, and Boston became one of America's most important ports.

Middle Colonies

Indians trade 90-lb packs of furs at a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in the 19th
century.
In the 1660s, the Middle Colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware were established
in the former Dutch New Netherland, and were characterized by a large degree of ethnic and
religious diversity. At the same time, the Iroquois of New York, strengthened by years of fur
trading with Europeans, formed the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.

The last colony in this region was Pennsylvania, established in 1681 by William Penn as a
[29]
home for religious dissenters, including Quakers, Methodists, and the Amish. The capital
of colony, Philadelphia, became a dominant commercial center in a few short years, with
busy docks and brick houses. While Quakers populated the city, German immigrants began to
flood into the Pennsylvanian hills and forests, while the Scots-Irish pushed into the far
western frontier.

Southern Colonies

The extremely rural Southern Colonies contrasted greatly with the north. Outside of Virginia,
the first British colony south of New England was Maryland, established as a Catholic haven
in 1632. The economy of these two colonies was built entirely on yeoman farmers and
planters. The planters established themselves in the Tidewater region of Virginia, establishing
massive plantations with slave labor, while the small-scale farmers made their way into
political office.

In 1670, the Province of Carolina was established, and Charleston became the region's great
trading port. While Virginia's economy was based on tobacco, Carolina was much more
diversified, exporting rice, indigo, and lumber as well. In 1712 the colony was split in half,
creating North and South Carolina. The Georgia Colony – the last of the Thirteen Colonies –
was established by James Oglethorpe in 1732 as a border to Spanish Florida and a reform
[29]
colony for former prisoners and the poor.

Religion

Religiosity expanded greatly after the First Great Awakening, a religious revival in the 1740s
which was led by preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. American
Evangelicals affected by the Awakening added a new emphasis on divine outpourings of the
Holy Spirit and conversions that implanted new believers with an intense love for God.
Revivals encapsulated those hallmarks and carried the newly created evangelicalism into the
[30]
early republic, setting the stage for the Second Great Awakening in the late 1790s. In the
early stages, evangelicals in the South, such as Methodists and Baptists, preached for
religious freedom and abolition of slavery; they converted many slaves and recognized some
as preachers.

Government

Main article: Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies

Each of the 13 American colonies had a slightly different governmental structure. Typically,
a colony was ruled by a governor appointed from London who controlled the executive
administration and relied upon a locally elected legislature to vote on taxes and make laws.
By the 18th century, the American colonies were growing very rapidly as a result of low
death rates along with ample supplies of land and food. The colonies were richer than most
parts of Britain, and attracted a steady flow of immigrants, especially teenagers who arrived
as indentured servants.[31]

Servitude and slavery

[32]
Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America arrived as indentured servants.
Few could afford the cost of the journey to America, and so this form of unfree labor
provided a means to immigrate. Typically, people would sign a contract agreeing to a set
term of labor, usually four to seven years, and in return would receive transport to America
and a piece of land at the end of their servitude. In some cases, ships' captains received
rewards for the delivery of poor migrants, and so extravagant promises and kidnapping were
common. The Virginia Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company also used indentured
[7]
servant labor.

[33] [34]
The first African slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619, just twelve years after the
founding of Jamestown. Initially regarded as indentured servants who could buy their
freedom, the institution of slavery began to harden and the involuntary servitude became
[34] [citation
lifelong as the demand for labor on tobacco and rice plantations grew in the 1660s.
needed]
Slavery became identified with brown skin color, at the time seen as a "black race",
[34]
and the children of slave women were born slaves (partus sequitur ventrem). By the
1770s African slaves comprised a fifth of the American population.

The question of independence from Britain did not arise as long as the colonies needed
British military support against the French and Spanish powers. Those threats were gone by
1765. However, London continued to regard the American colonies as existing for the benefit
of the mother country in a policy known as mercantilism.[31]

Colonial America was defined by a severe labor shortage that used forms of unfree labor,
such as slavery and indentured servitude. The British colonies were also marked by a policy
of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, known as salutary neglect. This
permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders.
[35]

Road to independence

Map of the British and French settlements in North America in 1750, before the French and
Indian War
An upper-class emerged in South Carolina and Virginia, with wealth based on large
plantations operated by slave labor. A unique class system operated in upstate New York,
where Dutch tenant farmers rented land from very wealthy Dutch proprietors, such as the
Van Rensselaer family. The other colonies were more egalitarian, with Pennsylvania being
representative. By the mid-18th century Pennsylvania was basically a middle-class colony
with limited respect for its small upper-class. A writer in the Pennsylvania Journal in 1756
summed it up:

The People of this Province are generally of the middling Sort, and at present pretty much
upon a Level. They are chiefly industrious Farmers, Artificers or Men in Trade; they enjoy in
are fond of Freedom, and the meanest among them thinks he has a right to Civility from the
greatest.[36]

Political integration and autonomy

Join, or Die: This 1756 political cartoon by Benjamin Franklin urged the colonies to join
together during the French and Indian War.
The French and Indian War (1754–63), part of the larger Seven Years' War, was a watershed
event in the political development of the colonies. The influence of the French and Native
Americans, the main rivals of the British Crown in the colonies and Canada, was significantly
reduced and the territory of the Thirteen Colonies expanded into New France, both in Canada
and Louisiana. The war effort also resulted in greater political integration of the colonies, as
reflected in the Albany Congress and symbolized by Benjamin Franklin's call for the colonies
to "Join, or Die". Franklin was a man of many inventions – one of which was the concept of a
[37]
United States of America, which emerged after 1765 and would be realized a decade later.

Taxation without representation

Following Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America, King George III issued
the Royal Proclamation of 1763, with the goal of organizing the new North American empire
and protecting the Native Americans from colonial expansion into western lands beyond the
Appalachian Mountains. In the following years, strains developed in the relations between
the colonists and the Crown. The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act of 1765, imposing
a tax on the colonies, without going through the colonial legislatures. The issue was drawn:
did Parliament have the right to tax Americans who were not represented in it? Crying "No
taxation without representation", the colonists refused to pay the taxes as tensions escalated
in the late 1760s and early 1770s.[38]

The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a direct action by activists in the town of Boston to protest
against the new tax on tea. Parliament quickly responded the next year with the Intolerable
Acts, stripping Massachusetts of its historic right of self-government and putting it under
military rule, which sparked outrage and resistance in all thirteen colonies. Patriot leaders
from every colony convened the First Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance to
the Intolerable Acts. The Congress called for a boycott of British trade, published a list of
[39]
rights and grievances, and petitioned the king to rectify those grievances. This appeal to
the Crown had no effect, though, and so the Second Continental Congress was convened in
1775 to organize the defense of the colonies against the British Army.

Common people became insurgents against the British even though they were unfamiliar
with the ideological rationales being offered. They held very strongly a sense of "rights" that
they felt the British were deliberately violating – rights that stressed local autonomy, fair
dealing, and government by consent. They were highly sensitive to the issue of tyranny,
which they saw manifested by the arrival in Boston of the British Army to punish the
Bostonians. This heightened their sense of violated rights, leading to rage and demands for
[40]
revenge, and they had faith that God was on their side.

American Revolution
Main articles: American Revolution and History of the United States (1776–1789)
See also: Commemoration of the American Revolution
The American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts in April
1775 when the British tried to seize ammunition supplies and arrest the Patriot leaders. In
terms of political values, the Americans were largely united on a concept called
Republicanism, which rejected aristocracy and emphasized civic duty and a fear of
corruption. For the Founding Fathers, according to one team of historians, "republicanism
represented more than a particular form of government. It was a way of life, a core ideology,
[41]
an uncompromising commitment to liberty, and a total rejection of aristocracy."

Reading of The Declaration of Independence originally written by Thomas Jefferson,

presented on July 4, 1776.

Washington's surprise crossing of the Delaware River in December 1776 was a major
comeback after the loss of New York City; his army defeated the British in two battles and
recaptured New Jersey.
The Thirteen Colonies began a rebellion against British rule in 1775 and proclaimed their
independence in 1776 as the United States of America. In the American Revolutionary War
(1775–83) the Americans captured the British invasion army at Saratoga in 1777, secured the
Northeast and encouraged the French to make a military alliance with the United States.
France brought in Spain and the Netherlands, thus balancing the military and naval forces on
[42]
each side as Britain had no allies.

George Washington

General George Washington (1732–99) proved an excellent organizer and administrator who
worked successfully with Congress and the state governors, selecting and mentoring his
senior officers, supporting and training his troops, and maintaining an idealistic Republican
Army. His biggest challenge was logistics, since neither Congress nor the states had the
funding to provide adequately for the equipment, munitions, clothing, paychecks, or even the
food supply of the soldiers.

As a battlefield tactician, Washington was often outmaneuvered by his British counterparts.

As a strategist, however, he had a better idea of how to win the war than they did. The British
sent four invasion armies. Washington's strategy forced the first army out of Boston in 1776,
and was responsible for the surrender of the second and third armies at Saratoga (1777) and
Yorktown (1781). He limited the British control to New York City and a few places while
[43]
keeping Patriot control of the great majority of the population.

Loyalists and Britain

John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence (1819)

The Loyalists, whom the British counted upon heavily, comprised about 20% of the
population but suffered weak organization. As the war ended, the final British army sailed out
of New York City in November 1783, taking the Loyalist leadership with them. Washington
[43]
unexpectedly then, instead of seizing power for himself, retired to his farm in Virginia.
Political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset observes, "The United States was the first major
colony successfully to revolt against colonial rule. In this sense, it was the first 'new
 [44]
nation'."

Declaration of Independence

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, declared the
independence of the colonies by adopting the resolution from Richard Henry Lee, that stated:

That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection
between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that
measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a
Confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely together.

On July 4, 1776 they adopted the Declaration of Independence and this date is celebrated as
the nation's birthday. On September 9 of that year, Congress officially changed the nation's
name to the United States of America. Until this point, the nation was known as the "United
[45]
Colonies of America".

The new nation was founded on Enlightenment ideals of liberalism and what Thomas
Jefferson called the unalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". It was
dedicated strongly to republican principles, which emphasized that people are sovereign (not
hereditary kings), demanded civic duty, feared corruption, and rejected any aristocracy.[46]

Early years of the republic

Main article: History of the United States (1789–1849)
See also: First Party System and Second Party System
Confederation and Constitution

Reading of the United States Constitution of 1787

Further information: Articles of Confederation and History of the United States Constitution

Economic growth in America per capita income. Index with 1700 set as 100.
In the 1780s the national government was able to settle the issue of the western regions of the
young United States, which were ceded by the states to Congress and became territories.
With the migration of settlers to the Northwest, soon they became states. Nationalists worried
that the new nation was too fragile to withstand an international war, or even internal revolts
[47]
such as the Shays' Rebellion of 1786 in Massachusetts.

Nationalists – most of them war veterans – organized in every state and convinced Congress
to call the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. The delegates from every state wrote a new
Constitution that created a much more powerful and efficient central government, one with a
strong president, and powers of taxation. The new government reflected the prevailing
republican ideals of guarantees of individual liberty and of constraining the power of
government through a system of separation of powers.[47]

The Congress was given authority to ban the international slave trade after 20 years (which it
did in 1807). A compromise gave the South Congressional apportionment out of proportion
to its free population by allowing it to include three-fifths of the number of slaves in each
state's total population. This provision increased the political power of southern
representatives in Congress, especially as slavery was extended into the Deep South through
removal of Native Americans and transportation of slaves by an extensive domestic trade.

To assuage the Anti-Federalists who feared a too-powerful national government, the nation
adopted the United States Bill of Rights in 1791. Comprising the first ten amendments of the
Constitution, it guaranteed individual liberties such as freedom of speech and religious
practice, jury trials, and stated that citizens and states had reserved rights (which were not
[48]
specified).

President George Washington

George Washington legacy remains among the two or three greatest in American history, as
Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, hero of the Revolution, and the first President
of the United States.

Reading of the Farewell address of President George Washington, 1796

George Washington – a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, commander-in-
chief of the Continental Army, and president of the Constitutional Convention – became the
first President of the United States under the new Constitution in 1789. The national capital
moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790 and finally settled in Washington DC in 1800.

The major accomplishments of the Washington Administration were creating a strong

national government that was recognized without question by all Americans.[49] His
government, following the vigorous leadership of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton,
assumed the debts of the states (the debt holders received federal bonds), created the Bank of
the United States to stabilize the financial system, and set up a uniform system of tariffs
(taxes on imports) and other taxes to pay off the debt and provide a financial infrastructure.
To support his programs Hamilton created a new political party – the first in the world based
on voters – the Federalist Party.

Two-party system

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison formed an opposition Republican Party (usually called
the Democratic-Republican Party by political scientists). Hamilton and Washington presented
the country in 1794 with the Jay Treaty that reestablished good relations with Britain. The
Jeffersonians vehemently protested, and the voters aligned behind one party or the other, thus
setting up the First Party System.

Depiction of election-day activities in Philadelphia by John Lewis Krimmel, 1815

Federalists promoted business, financial and commercial interests and wanted more trade
with Britain. Republicans accused the Federalists of plans to establish a monarchy, turn the
[50]
rich into a ruling class, and making the United States a pawn of the British. The treaty
 [51]
passed, but politics became intensely heated.

Challenges to the federal government

Serious challenges to the new federal government included the Northwest Indian War, the
ongoing Cherokee–American wars, and the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion, in which western
settlers protested against a federal tax on liquor. Washington called out the state militia and
personally led an army against the settlers, as the insurgents melted away and the power of
[52]
the national government was firmly established.

Washington refused to serve more than two terms – setting a precedent – and in his famous
farewell address, he extolled the benefits of federal government and importance of ethics and
[53]
morality while warning against foreign alliances and the formation of political parties.

John Adams, a Federalist, defeated Jefferson in the 1796 election. War loomed with France
and the Federalists used the opportunity to try to silence the Republicans with the Alien and
Sedition Acts, build up a large army with Hamilton at the head, and prepare for a French
invasion. However, the Federalists became divided after Adams sent a successful peace
[50][54]
mission to France that ended the Quasi-War of 1798.

Increasing demand for slave labor

Main article: Slavery in the United States

Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia. Painted upon the sketch of 1853
During the first two decades after the Revolutionary War, there were dramatic changes in the
status of slavery among the states and an increase in the number of freed blacks. Inspired by
revolutionary ideals of the equality of men and influenced by their lesser economic reliance
on slavery, northern states abolished slavery.

States of the Upper South made manumission easier, resulting in an increase in the proportion
of free blacks in the Upper South (as a percentage of the total non-white population) from
less than one percent in 1792 to more than 10 percent by 1810. By that date, a total of 13.5
[55]
percent of all blacks in the United States were free. After that date, with the demand for
slaves on the rise because of the Deep South's expanding cotton cultivation, the number of
manumissions declined sharply; and an internal U.S. slave trade became an important source
of wealth for many planters and traders.

[56]
In 1807, Congress severed the US's involvement with the Atlantic slave trade.

Louisiana and republicanism under Jefferson

Jefferson saw himself as a man of the frontier and a scientist; he was keenly interested in
expanding and exploring the West.
Jefferson's major achievement as president was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which
[57]
provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion west of the Mississippi River.
Jefferson, a scientist himself, supported expeditions to explore and map the new domain,
[58]
most notably the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Jefferson believed deeply in republicanism
and argued it should be based on the independent yeoman farmer and planter; he distrusted
cities, factories and banks. He also distrusted the federal government and judges, and tried to
weaken the judiciary. However he met his match in John Marshall, a Federalist from
Virginia. Although the Constitution specified a Supreme Court, its functions were vague until
Marshall, the Chief Justice (1801–35), defined them, especially the power to overturn acts of
Congress or states that violated the Constitution, first enunciated in 1803 in Marbury v.
[59]
Madison.

War of 1812

Main article: War of 1812

Territorial expansion; Louisiana Purchase in white.

Thomas Jefferson defeated Adams for the presidency in the 1800 election. Americans were
increasingly angry at the British violation of American ships' neutral rights to hurt France, the
impressment (seizure) of 10,000 American sailors needed by the Royal Navy to fight
Napoleon, and British support for hostile Indians attacking American settlers in the Midwest
with the goal of creating a pro-British Indian barrier state to block American expansion
westward. They may also have desired to annex all or part of British North America,
[60][61][62][63][64]
although this is still heavily debated. Despite strong opposition from the
Northeast, especially from Federalists who did not want to disrupt trade with Britain,
[65]
Congress declared war on June 18, 1812.

Oliver Hazard Perry's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began
with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history:
[66]
"We have met the enemy and they are ours". This 1865 painting by William H. Powell
shows Perry transferring to a different ship during the battle.
The war was frustrating for both sides. Both sides tried to invade the other and were repulsed.
The American high command remained incompetent until the last year. The American militia
proved ineffective because the soldiers were reluctant to leave home and efforts to invade
Canada repeatedly failed. The British blockade ruined American commerce, bankrupted the
Treasury, and further angered New Englanders, who smuggled supplies to Britain. The
Americans under General William Henry Harrison finally gained naval control of Lake Erie
[67]
and defeated the Indians under Tecumseh in Canada, while Andrew Jackson ended the
Indian threat in the Southeast. The Indian threat to expansion into the Midwest was
permanently ended. The British invaded and occupied much of Maine.

The British raided and burned Washington, but were repelled at Baltimore in 1814 – where
the "Star Spangled Banner" was written to celebrate the American success. In upstate New
York a major British invasion of New York State was turned back at the Battle of
Plattsburgh. Finally in early 1815 Andrew Jackson decisively defeated a major British
invasion at the Battle of New Orleans, making him the most famous war hero.[68]

With Napoleon (apparently) gone, the causes of the war had evaporated and both sides agreed
to a peace that left the prewar boundaries intact. Americans claimed victory on February 18,
1815 as news came almost simultaneously of Jackson's victory of New Orleans and the peace
treaty that left the prewar boundaries in place. Americans swelled with pride at success in the
"second war of independence"; the naysayers of the antiwar Federalist Party were put to
shame and the party never recovered. Britain never achieved the war goal of granting the
Indians a barrier state to block further American settlement and this allowed settlers to pour
[68]
into the Midwest without fear of a major threat. The War of 1812 also destroyed
America's negative perception of a standing army, which was proved useful in many areas
against the British as opposed to ill-equipped and poorly-trained militias in the early months
of the war, and War Department officials instead decided to place regular troops as the
nation's main defense.[69]

Second Great Awakening

Main article: Second Great Awakening

A drawing of a Protestant camp meeting, 1829.

The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement that affected the entire
nation during the early 19th century and led to rapid church growth. The movement began
around 1790, gained momentum by 1800, and, after 1820 membership rose rapidly among
Baptist and Methodist congregations, whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak
[70]
by the 1840s.

It enrolled millions of new members in existing evangelical denominations and led to the
formation of new denominations. Many converts believed that the Awakening heralded a new
millennial age. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform
movements – including abolitionism and temperance designed to remove the evils of society
[71]
before the anticipated Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Era of Good Feelings

Main article: Era of Good Feelings

Era of Good Feelings

As strong opponents of the war, the Federalists held the Hartford Convention in 1814 that
hinted at disunion. National euphoria after the victory at New Orleans ruined the prestige of
the Federalists and they no longer played a significant role as a political party.[72] President
Madison and most Republicans realized they were foolish to let the Bank of the United States
close down, for its absence greatly hindered the financing of the war. So, with the assistance
[73][74]
of foreign bankers, they chartered the Second Bank of the United States in 1816.

Settlers crossing the Plains of Nebraska.

The Republicans also imposed tariffs designed to protect the infant industries that had been
created when Britain was blockading the U.S. With the collapse of the Federalists as a party,
the adoption of many Federalist principles by the Republicans, and the systematic policy of
President James Monroe in his two terms (1817–25) to downplay partisanship, the nation
entered an Era of Good Feelings, with far less partisanship than before (or after), and closed
out the First Party System.[73][74]

The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that
European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas. This was a defining
moment in the foreign policy of the United States. The Monroe Doctrine was adopted in
response to American and British fears over Russian and French expansion into the Western
[75]
Hemisphere.

In 1832, President Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, ran for a second term
under the slogan "Jackson and no bank" and did not renew the charter of the Second Bank of
[76]
the United States of America, ending the Bank in 1836. Jackson was convinced that
central banking was used by the elite to take advantage of the average American, and instead
[76]
implemented state banks, popularly known as "pet banks".

Westward expansion
Indian removal

Main article: Indian removal

The Indian Removal Act resulted in the transplantation of several Native American tribes and
the Trail of Tears.
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the president to
negotiate treaties that exchanged Native American tribal lands in the eastern states for lands
[77]
west of the Mississippi River. Its goal was primarily to remove Native Americans,
including the Five Civilized Tribes, from the American Southeast; they occupied land that
settlers wanted. Jacksonian Democrats demanded the forcible removal of native populations
who refused to acknowledge state laws to reservations in the West; Whigs and religious
leaders opposed the move as inhumane. Thousands of deaths resulted from the relocations, as
[78]
seen in the Cherokee Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears resulted in approximately 2,000–
[79][80]
8,000 of the 16,543 relocated Cherokee perishing along the way. Many of the
Seminole Indians in Florida refused to move west; they fought the Army for years in the
Seminole Wars.

Second Party System

Main articles: Second Party System and Presidency of Andrew Jackson

Henry Clay
After the First Party System of Federalists and Republicans withered away in the 1820s, the
stage was set for the emergence of a new party system based on well organized local parties
that appealed for the votes of (almost) all adult white men. The former Jeffersonian
(Democratic-Republican) party split into factions. They split over the choice of a successor to
President James Monroe, and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian
principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the Democratic Party. As
Norton explains the transformation in 1828:
Jacksonians believed the people's will had finally prevailed. Through a lavishly financed
coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had
elected the president. The Democrats became the nation's first well-organized national party,
[81]
and tight party organization became the hallmark of nineteenth-century American politics.

Opposing factions led by Henry Clay helped form the Whig Party. The Democratic Party had
a small but decisive advantage over the Whigs until the 1850s, when the Whigs fell apart
over the issue of slavery.

Behind the platforms issued by state and national parties stood a widely shared political
outlook that characterized the Democrats:

Horace Greeley's New York Tribune—the leading Whig paper—endorsed Clay for President
and Fillmore for Governor, 1844.
The Democrats represented a wide range of views but shared a fundamental commitment to
the Jeffersonian concept of an agrarian society. They viewed the central government as the
enemy of individual liberty. The 1824 "corrupt bargain" had strengthened their suspicion of
Washington politics. ... Jacksonians feared the concentration of economic and political
power. They believed that government intervention in the economy benefited special-interest
groups and created corporate monopolies that favored the rich. They sought to restore the
independence of the individual (the "common man," i.e. the artisan and the ordinary farmer)
by ending federal support of banks and corporations and restricting the use of paper currency,
which they distrusted. Their definition of the proper role of government tended to be
negative, and Jackson's political power was largely expressed in negative acts. He exercised
the veto more than all previous presidents combined. Jackson and his supporters also opposed
reform as a movement. Reformers eager to turn their programs into legislation called for a
more active government. But Democrats tended to oppose programs like educational reform
mid the establishment of a public education system. They believed, for instance, that public
schools restricted individual liberty by interfering with parental responsibility and
undermined freedom of religion by replacing church schools. Nor did Jackson share
reformers' humanitarian concerns. He had no sympathy for American Indians, initiating the
[82][83]
removal of the Cherokees along the Trail of Tears.

The great majority of anti-slavery activists, such as Abraham Lincoln and Mr. Walters,
[84]
rejected Garrison's theology and held that slavery was an unfortunate social evil, not a sin.
[85]

Westward expansion and Manifest Destiny

Main article: American frontier

Officers and men of the Irish-Catholic 69th New York Volunteer Regiment attend Catholic
services in 1861.
The American colonies and the new nation grew rapidly in population and area, as pioneers
pushed the frontier of settlement west.[86] The process finally ended around 1890–1912 as the
last major farmlands and ranch lands were settled. Native American tribes in some places
resisted militarily, but they were overwhelmed by settlers and the army and after 1830 were
relocated to reservations in the west. The highly influential "Frontier Thesis" of Wisconsin
historian Frederick Jackson Turner argues that the frontier shaped the national character, with
[87]
its boldness, violence, innovation, individualism, and democracy.

The California Gold Rush news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the
rest of the United States and abroad.
Recent historians have emphasized the multicultural nature of the frontier. Enormous popular
attention in the media focuses on the "Wild West" of the second half of the 19th century. As
defined by Hine and Faragher, "frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of
communities, the use of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states".
They explain, "It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging
of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America."[87] The first settlers in
the west were the Spanish in New Mexico; they became U.S. citizens in 1848. The Hispanics
in California ("Californios") were overwhelmed by over 100,000 gold rush miners. California
grew explosively. San Francisco by 1880 had become the economic hub of the entire Pacific
Coast with a diverse population of a quarter million.

From the early 1830s to 1869, the Oregon Trail and its many offshoots were used by over
300,000 settlers. '49ers (in the California Gold Rush), ranchers, farmers, and entrepreneurs
and their families headed to California, Oregon, and other points in the far west. Wagon-
[88]
trains took five or six months on foot; after 1869, the trip took 6 days by rail.

Manifest destiny was the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across the
continent. This concept was born out of "A sense of mission to redeem the Old World by
[89]
high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven".
Manifest Destiny was rejected by modernizers, especially the Whigs like Henry Clay and
[90]
Abraham Lincoln who wanted to build cities and factories – not more farms. Democrats
strongly favored expansion, and won the key election of 1844. After a bitter debate in
Congress the Republic of Texas was annexed in 1845, leading to war with Mexico, who
[91]
considered Texas to be a part of Mexico due to the large numbers of Mexican settlers.

The American occupation of Mexico City in 1848

The Mexican–American War (1846–48) broke out with the Whigs opposed to the war, and
the Democrats supporting the war. The U.S. army, using regulars and large numbers of
volunteers, defeated the Mexican armies, invaded at several points, captured Mexico City and
won decisively. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war in 1848. Many Democrats
wanted to annex all of Mexico, but that idea was rejected by southerners who argued that by
incorporating millions of Mexican people, mainly of mixed race, would undermine the
[92]
United States as an exclusively white republic. Instead the U.S. took Texas and the lightly
settled northern parts (California and New Mexico). The Hispanic residents were given full
citizenship and the Mexican Indians became American Indians. Simultaneously, gold was
discovered in California in 1849, attracting over 100,000 men to northern California in a
matter of months in the California Gold Rush. A peaceful compromise with Britain gave the
[91]
U.S. ownership of the Oregon Country, which was renamed the Oregon Territory.

The demand for guano (prized as an agricultural fertilizer) led the United States to pass the
Guano Islands Act in 1856, which enabled citizens of the United States to take possession, in
the name of the United States, of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. Under the act
the United States annexed nearly 100 islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. By
[93]
1903, 66 of these islands were recognized as territories of the United States.

Sectional conflict and Civil War

Divisions between North and South

Main articles: Origins of the American Civil War and History of the United States (1849–
1865)

United States map, 1863

   Union states
   Union territories not permitting slavery
   Border Union states, permitting slavery
   Confederate states
   Union territories permitting slavery (claimed by Confederacy)
The central issue after 1848 was the expansion of slavery, pitting the anti-slavery elements in
the North, against the pro-slavery elements that dominated the South. A small number of
active Northerners were abolitionists who declared that ownership of slaves was a sin (in
terms of Protestant theology) and demanded its immediate abolition. Much larger numbers in
the North were against the expansion of slavery, seeking to put it on the path to extinction so
that America would be committed to free land (as in low-cost farms owned and cultivated by
a family), free labor, and free speech (as opposed to censorship of abolitionist material in the
South). Southern whites insisted that slavery was of economic, social, and cultural benefit to
all whites (and even to the slaves themselves), and denounced all anti-slavery spokesmen as
[94]
"abolitionists". Justifications of slavery included economics, history, religion, legality,
social good, and even humanitarianism, to further their arguments. Defenders of slavery
argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing
economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their
economy. They also argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread
[95]
unemployment and chaos.

Religious activists split on slavery, with the Methodists and Baptists dividing into northern
and southern denominations. In the North, the Methodists, Congregationalists, and Quakers
included many abolitionists, especially among women activists. (The Catholic, Episcopal and
[96]
Lutheran denominations largely ignored the slavery issue.)

Compromise of 1850 and popular sovereignty

The issue of slavery in the new territories was seemingly settled by the Compromise of 1850,
brokered by Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas; the Compromise included the
admission of California as a free state in exchange for no federal restrictions on slavery
[97]
placed on Utah or New Mexico. The point of contention was the Fugitive Slave Act,
which increased federal enforcement and required even free states to cooperate in turning
over fugitive slaves to their owners. Abolitionists pounced on the Act to attack slavery, as in
[98]
the best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
The Compromise of 1820 was repealed in 1854 with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, promoted by
Senator Douglas in the name of "popular sovereignty" and democracy. It permitted voters to
decide on the legality of slavery in each territory, and allowed Douglas to adopt neutrality on
the issue of slavery. Anti-slavery forces rose in anger and alarm, forming the new Republican
Party. Pro- and anti- contingents rushed to Kansas to vote slavery up or down, resulting in a
miniature civil war called Bleeding Kansas. By the late 1850s, the young Republican Party
dominated nearly all northern states and thus the electoral college. It insisted that slavery
[99]
would never be allowed to expand (and thus would slowly die out).

Plantation economy

The Southern slavery-based societies had become wealthy based on their cotton and other
agricultural commodity production, and some particularly profited from the internal slave
trade. Northern cities such as Boston and New York, and regional industries, were tied
economically to slavery by banking, shipping, and manufacturing, including textile mills. By
1860, there were four million slaves in the South, nearly eight times as many as there were
nationwide in 1790. The plantations were highly profitable, due to the heavy European
demand for raw cotton. Most of the profits were invested in new lands and in purchasing
more slaves (largely drawn from the declining tobacco regions).

The United States, immediately before the Civil War. All of the lands east of, or bordering,
the Mississippi River were organized as states in the Union, but the West was still largely
unsettled.
For 50 of the nation's first 72 years, a slaveholder served as President of the United States
[100]
and, during that period, only slaveholding presidents were re-elected to second terms. In
addition, southern states benefited by their increased apportionment in Congress due to the
partial counting of slaves in their populations.

Slave rebellions

Slave rebellions, by Gabriel Prosser (1800), Denmark Vesey (1822), Nat Turner (1831), and
most famously by John Brown (1859), caused fear in the white South, which imposed stricter
oversight of slaves and reduced the rights of free blacks. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
required the states to cooperate with slave owners when attempting to recover escaped slaves,
which outraged Northerners. Formerly, an escaped slave that reached a non-slave state was
presumed to have attained sanctuary and freedom under the Missouri Compromise. The
Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford ruled that the Missouri
Compromise was unconstitutional; angry Republicans said this decision threatened to make
slavery a national institution.

President Abraham Lincoln and secession

After Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election, seven Southern states seceded from the union
and set up a new nation, the Confederate States of America (Confederacy), on February 8,
1861. It attacked Fort Sumter, a U.S. Army fort in South Carolina, thus igniting the war.
When Lincoln called for troops to suppress the Confederacy in April 1861, four more states
seceded and joined the Confederacy. A few of the (northernmost) "slave states" did not
secede and became known as the border states; these were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky,
and Missouri.

During the war, the northwestern portion of Virginia seceded from the Confederacy. and
[101]
became the new Union state of West Virginia. West Virginia is usually associated with
the border states.

Civil War

Main article: American Civil War

The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when elements of 100,000 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 (Battle of Manassas), ending in a Union defeat, but, more
importantly, proved to both the Union and Confederacy that the war would be much longer
[102]
and bloodier than originally anticipated.

Lincoln with Allan Pinkerton and Major General John Alexander McClernand at the Battle of
Antietam.
The war soon divided into two theaters: Eastern and Western. In the western theater, the
Union was relatively successful, with major battles, such as Perryville and Shiloh along with
Union gunboat dominance of navigable rivers producing strategic Union victories and
[103]
destroying major Confederate operations.

Warfare in the Eastern theater began poorly for the Union as the Confederates won at
Manassas Junction (Bull Run), just outside Washington. Major General George B. McClellan
was put in charge of the Union armies. After reorganizing the new Army of the Potomac,
McClellan failed to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia in his Peninsula
Campaign and retreated after attacks from newly appointed Confederate General Robert E.
[104]
Lee. Meanwhile, both sides concentrated in 1861–62 on raising and training new armies.
The main action was Union success in controlling the border states, with Confederates
largely driven out of Maryland, West Virginia (a new state), Kentucky and Missouri. The
autumn 1862 Confederate campaign into Maryland was designed to hurt Union morale and
win European support. It ended with Confederate retreat at the Battle of Antietam, and
Lincoln's warning he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 if the states
did not return. Making slavery a central war goal energized Republicans in the North, as well
as their enemies, the anti-war Copperhead Democrats. It ended the risk of British and French
intervention.

Lee's smaller army won at the Battle of Fredericksburg late in 1862, causing yet another
change in commanders. Lee won again at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, while
losing his top aide, Stonewall Jackson. But Lee pushed too hard and ignored the Union threat
in the west. Lee invaded Pennsylvania in search of supplies and to cause war-weariness in the
North. In perhaps the turning point of the war, Lee's army was badly beaten at the Battle of
[105]
Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863, and barely made it back to Virginia. On the homefront,
industrial expansion in the North expanded dramatically, using its extensive railroad service,
and moving industrial workers into munitions factories. Foreign trade increased, with the
United States providing both food and cotton to Britain, And Britain sending in manufactured
products and thousands of volunteers for the Union Army (plus a few to the Confederates).
The British operated blockade runners bringing in food, luxury items and munitions to the
Confederacy, bringing out tobacco and cotton. The Union blockade increasingly shut down
Confederate ports, and by late 1864 the blockade runners were usually captured before they
could make more than a handful of runs.

Modern recording of Gettysburg Address originally spoken by U.S President Abraham

Lincoln

The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.

In the West, on July 4, 1863, Union forces under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant
gained control of the Mississippi River at the Battle of Vicksburg, thereby splitting the
Confederacy. Lincoln made General Grant commander of all Union armies. Grant put
General William Tecumseh Sherman in charge of the Western armies. In 1864, Sherman
marched south from Chattanooga to capture Atlanta, a decisive victory that ended war jitters
among Republicans in the North who feared they might fail to reelect Lincoln in 1864.
Lincoln won a landslide. The last two years of the war were bloody for both sides, With
Sherman marching almost unopposed through central and eastern Georgia, then moving up
through South Carolina and North Carolina, burning cities, destroying plantations, ruining
railroads and bridges, but avoiding civilian casualties. Sherman demonstrated that the South
lacked the long-term ability to resist a northern invasion. Much of the heartland of the
Confederacy was physically destroyed, and could no longer provide desperately needed food,
horses, mules, wagons, boots or munitions to its combat armies. In spring 1864 Grant,
realizing that Lee was unable to replenish casualties, while Lincoln would provide
replacements for Union losses, launched a war of attrition against Lee's Army of Northern
Virginia. This war of attrition was divided into three main campaigns. The first of these, the
Overland Campaign forced Lee to retreat into the city of Petersburg where Grant launched
his second major offensive, the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign in which he besieged
Petersburg. After a near ten-month siege, Petersburg surrendered. However, the defense of
Fort Gregg allowed Lee to move his army out of Petersburg. Grant pursued and launched the
final, Appomattox Campaign which resulted in Lee surrendering his Army of Northern
Virginia numbering 28,000 on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Other Confederate
armies followed suit and the war ended with no postwar insurgency.

The American Civil War was the world's earliest industrial war. Railroads, the telegraph,
steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. The mobilization of
civilian factories, mines, shipyards, banks, transportation and food supplies all foreshadowed
the impact of industrialization in World War I. It remains the deadliest war in American
history, resulting in the deaths of about 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of
[106]
civilian casualties. About ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30
[107]
percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40 died. Its legacy includes ending slavery
in the United States, restoring the Union, and strengthening the role of the federal
government.

According to historian Allan Nevins, the Civil War had a major long-term impact on the
United States in terms of developing its leadership potential and moving the entire nation
beyond the adolescent stage:
The fighting and its attendant demands upon industry, finance, medicine, and law also helped
train a host of leaders who during the next 35 years, to 1900, made their influence powerfully
felt on most of the social, economic, and cultural fronts. It broke down barriers of
parochialism; it ended distrust of large-scale effort; it hardened and matured the whole people
emotionally. The adolescent land of the 1850s…rose under the blows of battle to adult estate.
The nation of the post-Appomattox generation, though sadly hurt (especially in the South) by
war losses, and deeply scarred psychologically (especially in the North) by war hatreds and
greeds, had at last the power, resolution, and self-trust of manhood.[108]
Emancipation

See also: Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War and Emancipation
Proclamation

First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln by Francis Bicknell

Carpenter[109]

Modern reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 giving

freedom to all African Americans who resided within the Confederacy but not those within
the Union.
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham
Lincoln on January 1, 1863. In a single stroke it changed the legal status, as recognized by
the U.S. government, of 3 million slaves in designated areas of the Confederacy from "slave"
to "free". It had the practical effect that as soon as a slave escaped the control of the
Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the slave
became legally and actually free. The owners were never compensated. Plantation owners,
realizing that emancipation would destroy their economic system, sometimes moved their
slaves as far as possible out of reach of the Union army. By June 1865, the Union Army
controlled all of the Confederacy and liberated all of the designated slaves.[110] Large
numbers moved into camps run by the Freedmen's Bureau, where they were given food,
shelter, medical care, and arrangements for their employment were made.

The severe dislocations of war and Reconstruction had a large negative impact on the black
[111]
population, with a large amount of sickness and death.

Reconstruction Era

Main article: Reconstruction Era

See also: History of the United States (1865–1918)

Freedmen voting in New Orleans, 1867.

Reconstruction lasted from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 to the
Compromise of 1877.[112]

The major issues faced by Lincoln were the status of the ex-slaves (called "Freedmen"), the
loyalty and civil rights of ex-rebels, the status of the 11 ex-Confederate states, the powers of
the federal government needed to prevent a future civil war, and the question of whether
Congress or the President would make the major decisions.
The severe threats of starvation and displacement of the unemployed Freedmen were met by
[113]
the first major federal relief agency, the Freedmen's Bureau, operated by the Army.

Three "Reconstruction Amendments" were passed to expand civil rights for black Americans:
the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal
rights for all and citizenship for blacks; the Fifteenth Amendment prevented race from being
used to disenfranchise men.

Radical Reconstruction

Ex-Confederates remained in control of most Southern states for over two years, but changed
when the Radical Republicans gained control of Congress in the 1866 elections. President
Andrew Johnson, who sought easy terms for reunions with ex-rebels, was virtually powerless
in the face of the Radical Republican Congress; he was impeached, but the Senate's attempt
to remove him from office failed by one vote. Congress enfranchised black men and
temporarily stripped many ex-Confederate leaders of the right to hold office. New Republican
governments came to power based on a coalition of Freedmen made up of Carpetbaggers
(new arrivals from the North), and Scalawags (native white Southerners). They were backed
by the U.S. Army. Opponents said they were corrupt and violated the rights of whites.[114]