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Historical development: The USA- from colony to superpower

Table of contents
Excursion: Chistoh Columbus
15. to 18. century
The colonial time
War of independence
The United States of Americ
American civil war
Post-war period
The 20th century
The Korea war
10.The 21st century
11.Summary
12.The Presidentens of the USA
13.Sources and Bestädigung
Historical development: The USA- from colony to superpower
The Vikings discovered the country already 429 years in front of him. They needed exactly three weeks for the passage from Greenland and founded “Hop”- todays port from New York. Only attacks of the Indians forced the Vikings to the task. But only since Columbus America discovered there are historical datas.

1.Excursion:
Chistoh Columbus: The greatest mistakes

Discoverer of all times is him regarded as the greatest one. And yet: Columbus has ever accomplished none of his aims. He discovered neither India nor the passage between Atlantic and Pacific. His glory was primarily based on mistakes, he sold this one as triumphant successes again and again:
Columbus discovered America. In reality the Vikings reached the country already 429 years in front of him. They needed exactly three weeks for the passage from Greenland and founded “Hop”- todays port from New York. Only attacks of the Indians forced the Vikings to the task.
He was a brilliant sailor. On the contrary: The discoverer couldn't handle the instruments and slipped up around hundreds of sea miles. Because of this he had “to couple” every half hour. Valuing the speed of the ship, calculating over the compass course and location. A pure game of chance - at Columbus mostly won.
His theories were pioneering. Columbus was convinced to be able to reach India over a west route faster than over the known east route. However, this acceptance was based on a miscalculation: he valued the circumference of the earth at 28000 kilometers-around a quarterly low than he is actual one. Even then his critic whose calculations were correct were right.
The royal house financed his journeys. Already half of the costs of the first journey took Columbus itself - by doing himself with a slaver named Gianotto Berardi together, for the money he promised natives in return for it.
He died as a poor man. He was one of the richest men of Spain. His fortune amounted 4000 goldpesos - an incalculable value.
Source: “tv Hören und Sehen” 2. 15. to 18. century
The settlement of the North American territories started in 1550. Spanish settlers found 1565 St. Augustine, after that Santa Fee in today's New Mexico 1609 and San Diego in south Californien 1769.
The settlement of the East coast by British immigrants was carried out at the same time. But they weren't viable. A durable settlement of Englishes emigrants was indicated in 1607. In the area from Chesapeake Bay an the city Jeamstown ( in today`s Virginia). From 105 settlers survived only 32 persons thr first seven month. Most settlers died of malnutrition and illnesses.
The first European settlers left Europe at the time of the makeup between feudalism and the unrestricted rule and at the same time a strong population increase. They come across Indian nations, which they look at three different viewpoints. From the view of the missionaries the souls of the inianischen heathens had to be saved. From the Italian viewpoint the Indians had to be defeated and taken advantage of serving Christians. The representatives of the classic orientated ancient times for the position admire the Indians because of their nearness to the nature. these three contradictory points of view characterized the Indian policy of the USA in the centuries after 1492.
The next greater Immigration followed 1620 by the “pilgrim fathers” with the Mayflowerin today`s Massachusetts. They founded the settlement Plymouth. Already 1635 emigrate settlers in today's Connecticut.
Roger Williams establish the colony Rhode Island. The colony Maryland came into being as a refuge for Roman Catholics. Pennsylvania (1681) stood out due to its religious tolerance. Much farmer established himself in this region. Swedish emigrants founded the colony Delaware. Already 1629 Dutch traders buy the island Manahatta ( today`s Manhatten) from indians and establish New Amsterdam. 1664 became the town forcibly and re-legally into English power and named from now on New York.
The most immigrants were from England, France, Germany, Ireland and Spain. They populate the south of North America like Florida, Texas and Californien. The Frances preferred more and more to the north (Canada).
At once argued France, Dutch, Sweden, Russian, the British and Spain with six European powers for the domination in north America. With the time crystallized out the Spaniards and primarily the Frenchmen and the British as ambitions powers. Spain extended in the south and west of noth America, the Frances in the northwest. The British claimed the east for themselves. Particularly the British and Frenchmen fought very much for the dominance in the north America. Their interests differed strongly from each other. France was mainly interested in the fur trade. To this they entered into contracts with different Indian tribes. The close connection was remarkable which ones the Frenchmen built up with the indianischen inhabitants. So many France trapper married Indian women.
The immigrated Englishmen were usually farmers. They looked on for country on which they could sit down durably. They try to acqurie this land with contracts or wars with or against the Indians.
1763 the Frenchmen surrendered in the “Peace from Paris” and retired from Nodamerika. The British had won the upper hand. The superseding of the popular Frenchmen didn't please the Indians. They were forced to deal in with the British. The British were from looked meanly and unfriendly. They gave no generous presents to the Indians like it had made the Frenchmen. The annoyance against the British grew increasingly. In the same year twelve to fifteen tribes still combined against the British. Quite a number of forts fell into the hands of the Indians. The British came terribly into needs. But the Indians broke their teeth at the fort Detroit. The association of the Indians broke and North America was secured for the British.

3. The colonial time
In the year 1733 the North American continent also surrounded 13 English colonies next to Spanish and French mandate areas. The area reaches from New Hamshire in the north to South Carolina in the south. France lost their Canadian colonies.
The victory of the Englishmen had also bitter sides for the people in the colonies. The liberties of the settlers were limited, p.e. it was forbidden to settle in the west of the Appalachen. Smuggler were capture. Extra tax for sugar, coffee, textieles and so on. After indroduction of the Stamp Act all newspapers and legal documents have to tax. The difficulties intensified by the fact that the Americans were missing the representative office. The opinion consolidated, that the taxation is wrong without say. 1765 was the first meeting of 9 states came which declined the Stamp Act. The British government had to give way to the pressure, but could succeeded the Quatering Act. With the introduction of a customs duty on tea the patience of the Americans achieved a sensitive threshold again. It came to an easy diversion only when the new British Minister of Finance froze all taxes except for the tea tax.
1773 was the Boston Tea Party. Radical American patriots dressed up as Indians and attacked ships in the port of Boston. They threw altogether 342 boxes with tea to the basin. Terewith a chain of events started.This was the beginning of the independence of the United States of America.
The british reacted with the Intolerable Acts. Troops were transferred to Boston, the port were closed and the trade stopped. The Americans reacted with the first continental convention of Philadephia in September 1774. All colonies were asked to resist the restrictions of the brits and to stop the trade with the brits. Furthermore it was decided to build militias and to collect weapons. This was the evening before of the American revolution.

4. War of independence
On April 19th 1775 700 British soldiers marched from Boston to Concord. The brits had heared that there should be an illegal weapon depot. They were held back at Lexington by 70 members of a militia. Somebody, nobody knows who, fired a shot and the American war of independence had started. The Britons conquered Lexington and Concord. Hundreds of volunteers from Massachusetts pursued the arms and started a siege of Boston. Till June 10000 Americans had come to siege and the brits had to leave the town in March 1776.
In May 1775 the second Continental convention met in Philadelphia. Slowly developed a manner of the national government. The convention founded an army and navy. Money was printed and diplomatic relations with other countries were made p.e. with France. On July 4th 1776 the Declaration of Independence was put into effect.
For the Americans the war didn't proceed particularly well at the beginning. In September 1776 the brits conquered New York and a year later Philadelphia. Only with the victory in Saratoga the situation changed. France used the opportunity and kicked next to the United States into the war. The war negotiations ended after the battle of Yorktown in 1781. In September 1783 the war parties signed the peace of Paris. The United States of America were recognized by Great Britain now, too.
5. The United States of America
After the war the fathers of the independence were filing at the constitution. The first president of the United States of America became the revolution general Georeg Washington from Virginia.1797 the föderalist John Adams followed him. 1801 the co-author of the declaration of independence Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the USA. Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory of the French government for the USA in the year 1803. The selling price amounted 15.000.000 dollar. Because of the Napoleonic wars in Europe it came repeated to tensions between the USA and Great Britain. This conflict ended 1812 in a renewed war between the USA and Great Britain. The Americans could obtain some victories at sea, but they were hopelessly nevertheless subjected to the greatest naval power of the world. The test of the Americans to march in Canada failed miserably. The brits marched in in the capital Washington and devastated the whole town. The White House and the capitol weren't spared. An attempt of the brits to conquer New Orlando in the south failed. The two war parties agreed on a peace in December 1814, although none of the parties moved away of there point of view.
The following years are the years of the construction and an enormous economic growth. Infrastructures were created and the United States grew and grew. It was the move of the industrialization in America. Texas, one of the largest states of the federation joins the union in 1845. But the joining also showed a conflict between the industrial and modern north and the agricultural and distinguished south. The question of the slavery became more and more a splitting topic. Special the question whether the slavery should be permitted or didn't in new territories, brought the young nation in permanent conflicts. The already partly industrialized north wasn't dependent on slaves. For the southern states were the slaves a great economic importance. The hard work in the cotton fields under the strong sun couldn't be accomplished by the fair-skinned Europeans. The Monroe doctrine of 1823 was also significantly in conflictarising north-south. She was the beginning of the isolationism, America wanted constantly
concentrate on the own continent. The southern states lost their most important market for agricultural products – Europe. this measure Seemed importantly to the north because the industry of one's own would be strengthened so and the interior power would be boosted. 1860 was the republican Araham Lincoln elected as president. Licoln, confessing opponent of the slavery was intolerably for many people in the southern states and it came unstoppably to the separation of the community. Lincoln and its government declared big areas of the west at U.S. territory: Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana. The settlement of these areas was important for them. So they said goodbye to the Homestead Act on May 20th 1862. Persons over 21 years could great a 160 Acres patch and cultivate it. It belonged to them if they lived 5 years in the country.

6. American civil war
The federal state South Carolina renounced the union some weeks after the choice Abraham Lincolns. Few days later followed the states Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, threshing floor sea and North Carolina. These states explained themselves to an independent new nation – The Confederate States of America. A war lay in the air.
What was the war about? Around the abolition of the slavery? Around the characteristic of preservation de culture? Around independence? All this pionts were argumentation bases and were decision bases. But this got clear only later. The different economic interests were decisive.
President Lincoln favored the union general Robert E. Lee to the leadership of the union troops. But Lee decided in favor of his native country Virginia. This should prolong the war decisively. The southern states, under its president Jefferson Davis had an brilliant commander at that time and a excellent motivated army because it was about their essential interests.
The north states were far superior numerically,were equipped better but they had problems in the military leadership. This was seen particularly in the first months of the war. After the firing the Forts Sumter by the confederations it came to the first open battle at Bull Runn. The battle was decided fast and the south had gained its first victory. It followed far successful slaughter for the south. Successes failed to appear for the north. It came to that that the south could hope for support from Europe because the Europeans were dependent on the cotton. First this fact made the liberation of the slaves to the important war aim. On September 23rd 1863 Lincoln passed the emancipation acts of the blacks. Now no European politician could stand up for the things of the south in front of the public. The turn came only after two years. Generally Robert E.Lee wanted to reach a decision of the war and marched into Pennsylvania. In the battle of Gettysburg which lasted three days the north states could stand the ground for the first time. After this victory the sheet turned and the war ended on April 2nd 1865. The north states won.
The war was past!But for which price? More than 600000 soldiers had lost their life in this war. And the liberation of the slaves? There had been a 13th additional article to the constitution of the United States, still the slaves were freed but they weren't with equal rights for a long time. Today, this conflict is still had out in some parts of the USA. And the south? He was destroyed. His Existensbasis was destroyed. The discontinued of the slaves destroyed the plantation nature. The big plantations were divided up and it formed some middle company. The economy and the finances changed to the north. Today, the aftereffects of the bloody war still have to be felt, too. Lincoln has reached one aim. The USA weren't a nation of slack once more. They were an unbreakable nation-state draws lots for connected states. But Abraham Lincoln didn't experience these consequences any more, he still was murdered in the same year.

7. Post-war period
In the post-war period generals and armies lost meaning. The society of the USA is always more characterized by industry and economy. The west becomes more and more aim of the speculator and adventurer. In California is found gold and the great trek starts. New states join the union and 1898 the USA commands a war against Spain. America climbs to the economy giant, on the test to isoloate itself from Europe.

8. The 20th century
The first World War forced the Americans to give up their isolation and to involve themselves in the world politics. They entered 1917 in the war. The twenties were marked by the great high which goes through the economy. Nothing seemed impossible. First the great stock exchange crash 1929 with the black Friday put an end to the impossibility. The first global world economic crisis was rung in and made rich people to poor and poor people to poorest. In the second World War America had to participate in the world politics once again. The war could be won without greater problems thanks to the enormous economic strength. The USA occupied Germany and helped at the reconstruction of Europe.

9. The Korea war
The first Russian satellite gave the Americans a fright. In due hurry they developed an Apollo-space-travel pro-grief and the first manned moon flight took place in 1969. The Cuba crisis brought the world near to the precipice. A third World War seemed possible.President John F. Kennedy played poker highly, but he could prevent a war with the Russian leader Chrustschow.
The sixties symbolized in the USA a new departure and a criticism of the scales being necessary. The civil rights movement gained an abolition of the segregation politics. The most important break in U.S. after-war history was the Vietnam war. The war traumatized the United States always more. The war which started slowly with Dwight D. Eisenhower and escalated under Lyndon B. Johnson ended with the withdrawal of the last American troops from Saigon in 1975. President Nixon, 1959 still opponents of John F. Kennedy at the presidential elections, fell about the Watergate affair in 1974 and stepped down.
The eighties of the 20th century were marked by an arms race without the same. The foreign currency of president Ronald Reagan was: The USA must become the leadership power in the world. The concept opened and the USSR caved under Gorbachev.

10. The 21st century
The new millennium brought a new dimension of the fright with the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001. In the consequence it came to the war in Afghanistan after the regime of the Taliban had ruling there decided not to follow the decisions of the UN-security council to extradite the presumed originator of the stops, Osama bin Laden, to the USA. The war in Afghanistan was the first in this in a number of measures " fight against the terrorism ". Since then is it unite an essential main emphasis on the outside and domestic policy forms of the American.

In this "fight against the terrorism" Iraq moved increasingly into the center of the interest of the American government at the end of the year 2002. Repeated the Iraqi regime was accused under Saddam Hussein:
to violate human rights,
to support the terrorism and particularly the Al-Qaida ,
to develop or have weapons of mass destruction and violate the UN-resolution 1441 with that.
On March 20th 2003 American and British troops started the third gulf war with under the leadership of the USA.
Worldwide protests followed. Worldwide protests followed.
Critics had doubts about the identification of the war under international law. After only 3 weeks Baghdad was occupied and the end of the war was announced. The brief Saddam Hussein could be taken captive in December 2003. Since then the occupying powers are engaged in winning and keeping control over the country and see themselves contrary to a rebellion of the natives, which speaks in many bloody independent actions. In the meantime it was announced that the Iraq had no mass destruction weapons. No-one knows the actual reason for the war. Nevertheless President Bush was elected on November 2nd the second time.
11. Summary
1607
Erste englische Ansiedlung in Jamestown
1683
Eintreffen von Krefelder Mennoniten mit dem Schiff "Concord"
1776 – 1783
Unabhängigkeitskrieg der 13 Kolonien von England
1783
Pariser Friede - Ende des Unabhängigkeitskrieges
1787
Verabschiedung der amerikanischen Verfassung
1789
Wahl George Washingtons zum ersten Präsidenten der "Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika"
1791
Erklärung der Menschenrechte ("Bill of Rights")
1800
Washington wird Hauptstadt
1812 – 1814
Krieg mit Großbritannien in der Amtszeit von James Madison
1823
Monroe-Doktrin
1845
Aufnahme von Texas in die Union
1846-1848
Krieg mit Mexiko in der Amtszeit Präsident J.K. Polks (USA erhalten Kalifornien und Neumexiko)
1848
Beginn des Goldrausches nach Kalifornien

1861-1865
Sezessionskrieg der 11 Südstaaten (Konföderierte Staaten von Amerika) gegen die Nordstaaten in der Amtszeit Präsident Abraham Lincolns
1862
Homestead Act
1866
Civil Rights Act
1914
Eröffnung des Panama-Kanals
1917
Eintritt in den Ersten Weltkrieg in der Amtszeit Präsident Woodrow Wilsons
1929
Schwarzer Freitag an der New Yorker Börse, Beginn der Weltwirtschafts-Krise
1941
Eintritt in den Zweiten Weltkrieg in der Amtszeit Franklin D. Roosevelts
1950-1953
Korea-Krieg
1955
Vereinigung der Gewerkschaftsverbände AFL und CIO zum Dachverband AFL-CIO
1955
Beginn der Busboykotte von Martin Luther King in Alabama
1962
Kuba-Krise
1969
Landung des Astronauten Armstrong auf dem Mond
1972-1974
Watergate-Affaire, auf die der Rücktritt von Präsident Nixon folgte
2001
George W.Bush wird 43. Präsident
11.09.2001
Terroranschläge auf New York und Washington
07.10.2001
Beginn der Operation "Enduring Freedom" mit Militärschlägen gegen Afghanistan
20.03.2003
Beginn der Operation "Iraqi Freedom" mit Militärschlägen gegen den Irak
12.The Presidentens of the USA
Präsident Authority time Lifetime 1 George Washington 1789-1797 22.2.1732-14.12.1799 2 John Adams 1797-1801 30.10.1735-4.7.1826 3 Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809 13.4.1743-4.7.1826 4 James Madison 1809-1817 16.3.1751-28.6.1836 5 James Monroe 1817-1825 20.4.1758-4.7.1831 6 John Quincy Adams 1825-1829 11.7.1767-23.2.1848 7 Andrew Jackson 1829-1837 15.3.1767-8.6.1845 8 Martin van Buren 1837-1841 5.12.1782-24.7.1862 9 William Henry Harrison 1841-1841 9.2.1773-4.4.1841 10 John Tyler 1841-1845 29.3.1790-18.1.1862 11 James Knox Polk 1845-1849 2.11.1795-15.6.1849 12 Zachary Taylor 1849-1850 24.11.1784-9.7.1850 13 Millard Fillmore 1850-1853 7.1.1800-8.3.1874 14 Franklin Pierce 1853-1857 23.11.1804-8.10.1869 15 James Buchanan 1857-1861 23.4.1791-1.6.1868 16 Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865 12.2.1809-15.4.1865 16a Jefferson Davis 1861-1865 3.6.1808-6.12.1889 17 Andrew Johnson 1865-1869 29.12.1808-31.7.1875 18 Ulysses Simpson Grant 1869-1877 27.4.1822-23.7.1885 19 Rutherford Bichard Hayes 1877-1881 4.10.1822-17.1.1893 20 James Abram Garfield 1881-1881 19.11.1831-19.9.1881 21 Chester Alan Arthur 1881-1885 5.10.1829-18.11.1886 22 Stephen Grover Cleveland 1885-1889 18.3.1837-24.6.1908 23 Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893 20.8.1833-13.3.1901 24 Stephen Grover Cleveland 1893-1897 18.3.1837-24.6.1908 25 William McKinley 1897-1901 29.1.1843-14.9.1901 26 Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 27.10.1858-6.9.1919 27 William Howard Taft 1909-1913 15.9.1857-8.3.1930 28 Thomas Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921 28.12.1856-3.2.1924
29
Warren Gamaliel Harding

1921-1923
2.11.1865-2.8.1923 30 Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929 4.7.1872-5.1.1933 31 Herbert Hoover 1929-1933 10.8.1874-20.10.1964 32 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1933-1945 30.1.1882-12.4.1945 33 Harry Spencer Trumann 1945-1953 8.5.1884-26.12.1972 34 Dwight David Eisenhower 1953-1961 14.10.1890-28.3.1969 35 John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1961-1963 25.9.1917-22.11.1963 36 Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969 27.8.1908-22.1.1973 37 Richard Milhous Nixon 1969-1974 9.1.1913-22.4.1994 38 Gerald Rudolph Ford 1974-1977 14.7.1913 39 James Earl Carter 1977-1981 1.10.1924 40 Ronald Wilson Reagan 1981-1989 6.2.1911 41 George Herbert Walter Bush 1989-1993 12.6.1924 42 William Jefferson Clinton 1993-2001 19.8.1946 43 George Walker Bush 2001-2008 6.7.1946

Sources:
Horst Dippel „Geschichte der USA“ Verlag: C.H. Beck, München 1996
Günter Moltmann „USA Ploentz“ Verlag: Ploentz
Hellmuth Günther Dahms „Grundzüge der Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten“ Verlag: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft

Bestätigung:
Hiermit bestätige ich, Marie Hering, diese Lernleistung alleine und nur mit den von mir angegebenen Mitteln erarbeitet zu haben.
Datum Unterschrift

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