Some glimpses of the history of the USA
The history of USA is much shorter than the history of the other counties. It started with the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson on 4th July in 1776. This Declaration was signed by thirteen British colonies and marked the end of British domination. But protests against British rule had begun some years earlier in 1773.
In that year American rebels throw boxes of the tea from British ship into the water as a protest against high taxes, which they had to pay to British government. This “Boston Tea Party” started the war of independence, which began in 1775 and lasted 8 years. At the forefront of the revolt was George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. After this war the United States became independent and George Washington became their first president.
But the new task of the United States wasn’t easy. There were conflicts and differences between Southern and Northern States, which subsequently changed into the civil war – North against South in 1861 – 1865. It was a bloody affair and over 600 000 people died. In the end slavery was cancelled, but the anti-slavery president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in a theatre just five days after the end of war.
After the civil war people continued to move west. The first trans-continental railway was completed in 1869, but it led to conflicts between new white settlers and Native Americans, also called Indians. This “Indians wars” were very cruel and full of blood. The US Army received a big shock in 1876, when Sioux and Cheyenne tribes defeated them at the battle of Little Bighorn. No white men survived. Finally, these wars ended in 1890, when US Army killed hundreds of Native Americans at Wounded Knee.
In the First World War American soldiers were in action in Europe. But American life changed drastically in the 1920s, when lasted a prohibition (1920 – 33). That means that manufacture and sale of alcohol was banned. This led to rise a number of illegal bars and gangsters such as Al Capone. The end of this exciting times was a Wall Street Crash in 1929, which meant a deep economic depression in USA in the 1930s. The unemployment and poverty were everywhere. ¨
Then in 1941 the USA entered the Second World War and in 1945 dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. This caused the end of this war. Since then, American forces operated on a lot of places, for example in Vietnam – but this war wasn’t happy for the USA. There were many victims and the USA spent a lot of money on it (over 150 billion dollars), but the result wasn’t ideal. In the end, the USA had to leave this place in 1973, because they couldn’t win.
Meanwhile, the times were changing. John Kennedy at his fourty – fours became the youngest president in the history. But in 1963 he was assassinated and nobody know why – there is a veil of mystery around this murder. The leader of a black civil rights movement – Martin Luther King was assassinated too. But then came an optimistic wave – in 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.
So, the American history wasn’t too long, but it was very interesting. The first mentions about America comes from the end of fifteenth century, when Christopher Columbus in 1492 sailed there. Then began the wave of settlers – for example Dutch settlers who founded the city New Amsterdam, which turned up New York. First British settlers came in1620 to Massachusetts. They were called “father pilgrims” and they sailed on a ship May Flower from Plymouth. Finally, Englishmen enrolled this territory.