Civil War

The American Civil War is the most defining event in American history. The twentieth century, the American century was moulded by the carnage and devastation of the Civil War. It marked the end of slavery, the fading of the great Southern aristocratic families, the dawning of a new political and economic order and the beginning of big business and government. It was the first time that the world witnessed modern war and the monstrous being that it is.

There is a rippling of inevitability about the Civil War, the very genesis of the nation is wrapped in the insidious nature of slavery, indeed before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Dutch ships had been arriving with their horrific cargoes of slaves stolen from Africa.

History has taught us over and over again that all citizens must be treated equally and not ignored like the black population was during the American Revolution when everyone was patting themselves on the back with the belief that "all men are created equal". But that doctrine had roots in truth and so it blossomed; abolitionists increased greatly in the North and slavery was at the base of most inter-regional disputes.

Simply, there can be no justification for such a heinous policy and eventually it has to be faced, branded what a monster it is, hacked down and done away for good. Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, it sold in the hundreds of thousands, shocking readers with it's account of the hell that was daily life for their fellow Americans.

By the presidential election of 1860, the Democratic party had splintered over the issue of slavery, the Republican Party under Abraham Lincoln romped home to victory. When he was elected, there were thirty-three States in the Union, but by the time of his inauguration there were only twenty-seven remaining.

The secessionist States adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their temporary capital at Montgomery, Alabama. Confederate forces seized most of the federal forts within their boundaries. Ford Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina was one of the few that remained in Federal hands and Lincoln was determined to hold it.

So when Confederate artillery bombarded the fort in the early hours of 12 April 1861, Lincoln sent out the call for the federal states to raise troops to recapture the captured forts, the Civil War had begun. The secessionists struck out to capture Washington while the North's forces were still in disarray, however the cavalry arrived just in time securing the city. There ensued something of a stand off between the two rival capitals glaring at one another across the lush countryside of Virginia.

The two sides eventually clashed in on 21 July 1861 at the Battle of Bull Run, the Northerners had the best of the initial fighting but then stepped up Thomas J. Jackson whose Virginians stood like a Stonewall, forever defining the man. It was the turning point of the battle, the rebels were soon yelping the Johnny Reb shout, which was to become a rallying cry across thousands of battlefields in the coming years, as the northerners were forced into retreat.

The Northern armies were in disarray, the Confederates never followed them, if they had, that might have been that. Many within the Union considered abandoning the secessionists, leaving them to take control of the South, Lincoln refused, calling for the enlistment of a hundred thousand men and placed Henry McClellan in command. McClellan transformed the rabble into the Army of the Potomac, high on confidence and faith.

In the spring of 1862, McClellan attacked Virginia, he made great advances before being halted by Johnston at the gates of Richmond, before been defeated by Lee in the Seven Days Battles. The Confederacy emboldened by their successive successes, invaded the North, Lee leading his forces into Maryland. McClellan met him at the Battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862, halting Lee's advance and forcing him to return to Virginia.

McClellan was relieved of his post and replaced by Burnside who was subsequently defeated by General Lee at the Battle Fredericksburg. General Lee appeared invincible humiliating Hooker, Burnside's successor at the Battle of Chancellorsville. However, Hooker was replaced by Meade who defeated Lee at the definitive Battle of Gettysburg, it turned the tide in favour of the Union forces.

In the Western Theater, the Union had been scoring successes against the Confederates under the master tactician Ulysses S. Grant, including at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Vicksburg. At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln appointed Grant as Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army, who thought similarly in total war, and believed that only total annihilation of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war.

Grant devised a coordinated strategy, outlining plans for his generals to follow, directing Meade and Butler against Lee at Richmond; Sigel to attack the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman to capture Atlanta; Crook and Averell to operate in Virginia. It worked, Lee although fighting gallantly, found himself back-pedaling, losing conflict after conflict, eventually realizing that further resistance was futile, he surrendered on 9 April 1865. Small pockets of Confederates continued fighting for a number of months but by the close of June 1865 all fighting had ceased and the American Civil War was over.

SKRÓT NAJWAŻNIEJSZYCH WYDARZEŃ NA KSEROKOPII

Reconstruction Era

In the history of the United States, the Reconstruction Era has two uses; the first covers the entire nation in the period 1865-1877 following the Civil War; the second one, used in this article, covers the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, with the reconstruction of state and society in the former Confederacy. Three amendments to the Constitution affected the entire nation. In the different states, Reconstruction began and ended at different times; federal Reconstruction policies were finally abandoned with the Compromise of 1877.

The Civil War, in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, brought to America "a new birth of freedom." And during the war began the nation's efforts to come to terms with the destruction of slavery and to define the meaning of freedom.

By the war's end it was already clear that Reconstruction would bring far-reaching changes in Southern society, and a redefinition of the place of blacks in American life.

The Civil War did not begin as a total war, but it soon became one:
a struggle that pitted society against society. Never before had mass armies confronted each other on the battlefield with the deadly weapons created by the industrial revolution.

The resulting casualties dwarfed anything in the American experience. Some 650,000 men died in the war, including 260,000 Confederates -- over one-fifth of the South's adult white male population.

At the war's outset, the Lincoln administration insisted that restoring the Union was its only purpose. But as slaves by the thousands abandoned the plantations and headed for Union lines, and military victory eluded the North, the president made the destruction of slavery a war aim -- a decision announced in the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863.

The Proclamation also authorized the enlistment of black soldiers.

By the end of the Civil War, some 200,000 black soldiers had served in the Union army and navy, staking a claim to citizenship in the postwar nation.

During the war, "rehearsals for Reconstruction" took place in the Union-occupied South. On the
South Carolina Sea Islands, the former slaves demanded land of their own, while government officials and Northern investors urged them
to return to work on the plantations.

In addition, a group of young Northern reformers came to the islands to educate the freedpeople and assist in the transition from slavery to freedom. The conflicts among these groups offered a preview of the national debate over Reconstruction.

In the 1870's, violent opposition in the South and the North's retreat from its commitment to equality, resulted in the end of Reconstruction. By 1876, the nation was prepared to abandon its commitment to equality for all citizens regardless of race.

As soon as blacks gained the right to vote, secret societies sprang up in the South, devoted to restoring white supremacy in politics and social life. Most notorious was the Ku Klux Klan, an organization of violent criminals that established a reign of terror in some parts of the South, assaulting and murdering local Republican leaders.

In 1871 and 1872, federal marshals, assisted by U. S. troops, brought to trial scores of Klansmen, crushing the organization. But the North's commitment to Reconstruction soon waned. Many Republicans came to believe that the South should solve its own problems without further interference from Washington. Reports of Reconstruction corruption led many Northerners to conclude that black suffrage had been a mistake. When anti-Reconstruction violence erupted again in Mississippi and South Carolina, the Grant administration refused to intervene.

The election of 1876 hinged on disputed returns from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, where Republican governments still survived. After intense negotiations involving leaders of both parties, the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, became president, while Democrats assumed control of the disputed Southern states. Reconstruction had come to an end.

SOME QUESTIONS

1. What was the reason for the increase of California's population from 1848 to 1852?

The discovery of gold.

2. When was the first transcontinental railroad built in the United States?

10^th of May 1869

3. What was the Homestead Act?

The Homestead Act offered free farms (`homesteads') in the West to families of settlers. Each homestead consisted of 160 acres of land and any head of a family who was at least twenty-one years of age and an American citizen could claim one. All that homesteads has to do was to move onto a piece of public land, live on it for five years and the land became theirs. If a family wanted to own its homestead more quickly than this it could buy the land after only six months for a very low price of $1.25 an acre.

4. What was the another name of the Patrons of Husbandry?

Grangers

5. When did the Battle of the Little Big Horn take place and who won?

June, 1876, the Amerindians (Sioux and Cheyenne)

6. What was the Ghost Dance?

In 1890 a religious prophet told the Sioux to dance a special dance called the Ghost Dance. He told them that if they did so a great miracle would take place. Their dead warriors would come back to life, the buffalo would return and all the white men would be swept away by a great flood.

7. What was the Centennial Exposition?

It was exposition organized to celebrate the United States' hundredth birthday as an independent nation by showing some of its achievements. The main attraction of the Centennial Exposition was the Machinery Hall.

8. Who was Andrew Carnegie?

He was one of men called `captains of industry' or robber barons'. He concentrated his investments in the iron and steel business. By the 1860s he controlled companies making bridges, rails and locomotives for the railroads. In the 1870s he built the biggest steel mill in America on the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania. He also bought coal and iron ove mines, a fleet of steamships to carry ove across the Great Lakes from Mesabi to a port he owned on Lake Eric, and a railroad to connect the part of his steel works in Pennsylvania.

9. Who and why gave the statue of Liberty to Americans?

The people of France gave it to mark the hundredth anniversary of the War of Independence.

10. What was Ellis Island?

It was a place of entry in New York harbor. All intending immigrants were examined there before they were allowed to enter the United States.

11. What was the `laissez faire'?

The idea that governments should interfere with business, and with people's lives in general, as little as possible.

12. Who was called a `Progressive'?

Someone who believed that, where necessary, the government should take action to deal with the problems of society.

13. What was the name of ship which steamed into the harbor of Havana on January 25, 1898?

Maine

14. Where was the first battle of the Spanish-American War?

In the Philippines

Background of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution (1820-1870) was of great importance to the economic development of the United States. The first Industrial Revolution occurred in Great Britain and Europe during the late eighteenth century. The Industrial Revolution then centered on the United States and Germany.

The Industrial Revolution itself refers to a change from hand and home production to machine and factory. The first industrial revolution was important for the inventions of spinning and weaving machines operated by water power which was eventually replaced by steam. This helped increase America's growth. However, the industrial revolution truly changed American society and economy into a modern urban-industrial state.

Industrial Revolution

The real impetus for America entering the Industrial Revolution was the passage of the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Americans were upset over an incident with the Chesapeake whereby the British opened fire when they were not allowed to search the ship. They also seized four men and hung one for desertion. This resulted in much public outrage and the passage of the Embargo Act which stopped the export of American goods and effectively ended the import of goods from other nations. Eventually, America went to war with Great Britain in 1812. The war made it apparent that America needed a better transportation system and more economic independence. Therefore, manufacturing began to expand.

Industrialization in America involved three important developments. First, transportation was expanded. Second, electricity was effectively harnessed. Third, improvements were made to industrial processes such as improving the refining process and accelerating production. The government helped protect American manufacturers by passing a protective tariff.

Cotton and Cloth

In 1794, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which made the separation of cotton seeds from fiber much faster. The South increased its cotton supply sending raw cotton north to be used in the manufacture of cloth. Francis C. Lowell increased the efficiency in the manufacture of cloth by bringing spinning and weaving processes together into one factory. This led to the development of the textile industry throughout New England.

In 1846, Elias Howe created the sewing machine which revolutionized the manufacture of clothing. All of a sudden, clothing began to be made in factories as opposed to at home.

Interchangeable Parts

Eli Whitney came up with the idea to use interchangeable parts in 1798 to make muskets. If standard parts were made by machine, then they could be assembled at the end much more quickly than before. This became an important part of American industry and the Second Industrial Revolution.

From Agriculture to Cities

As industries and factories arose, people moved from farms to cities. This led to other issues including overcrowding and disease. However, advances were made in agriculture too including better machines and cultivators. For example, Cyrus McCormick created the reaper which allowed quicker and cheaper harvesting of grain. John Deere created the first steel plow in 1837 helping speed up farming across the Midwest.

Communication and the Industrial Revolution

With the increased size of the United States, better communication networks became ultra important. In 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse created the telegraph and by 1860, this network ranged throughout the eastern coast to the Mississippi.

Transportation

The Cumberland Road, the first national road, was begun in 1811. This eventually became part of the Interstate 40. Further, river transportation was made efficient through the creation of the first steamboat, the Clermont, by Robert Fulton. This was made possible by James Watt's invention of the first reliable steam engine.

The creation of the Erie Canal created a route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes thereby helping stimulate the economy of New York and making New York City a great trading center.

Railroads were of supreme importance to the increase in trade throughout the United States. In fact, by the start of the Civil War, railroads linked the most important Mid West cities with the Atlantic coast. Railroads further opened the west and connected raw materials to factories and markets. A transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah.

With the great advances of the Industrial Revolution, inventors continued to work throughout the rest of the 19th and early 20th century on ways to make life easier while increasing productivity. The foundations set throughout the mid-1800's set the stage for inventions such as the light bulb (Thomas Edison), telephone (Alexander Bell), and the automobile (Karl Benz). Further, Ford's creation of the assembly line which made manufacturing more efficient just helped form America into a modern industrialized nation. The impact of these and other inventions of the time cannot be underestimated.

Industrial Revolution Inventors

The Industrial Revolution that occurred in the 19th century was of great importance to the economic future of the United States. Three industrial developments led the way to Industrialization in America: (1) transportation was expanded, (2) electricity was effectively harnessed, and (3) improvements were made to industrial processes. Following is a list of key events and dates of the Industrial Revolution.

Person	Invention	Date
James Watt	First reliable Steam Engine	1775
Eli Whitney	Cotton Gin, Interchangeable parts for muskets	1793, 1798
Robert Fulton	Regular Steamboat service on the Hudson River	1807
Samuel F. B. Morse	Telegraph	1836
Elias Howe	Sewing Machine	1844
Isaac Singer	Improves and markets Howe's Sewing Machine	1851
Cyrus Field	Transatlantic Cable	1866
Alexander Graham Bell	Telephone	1876
Thomas Edison	Phonograph, Incandescant Light Bulb	1877, 1879
Nikola Tesla	Induction Electric Motor	1888
Rudolf Diesel	Diesel Engine	1892
Orville and Wilbur Wright	First Airplane	1903
Henry Ford	Model T Ford, Assembly Line	1908, 1913

The history of the United States from 1918 through 1945 covers the post-World War I era, the Great Depression, and World War II. After World War I, the U.S. rejected the Versailles Treaty and did not join the League of Nations.

In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by an amendment to the United States Constitution. Possession of liquor, and drinking it, was never illegal. The overall level of alcohol consumption did go down, however, state and local governments avoided aggressive enforcement. The federal government was overwhelmed with cases, so that bootlegging and speakeasies flourished in every city, and well-organized criminal gangs exploded in numbers, finances, power, and influence on city politics.

During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of sustained prosperity. Agriculture went through a bubble that collapsed in 1921 and that sector remained depressed, and coal mining was being displaced by oil. Otherwise most sectors prospered. Prices were stable, and the gross national product grew steadily until 1929, when the financial bubble burst.

In foreign policy the nation never join the League of Nations, but instead took the initiative to disarm the world, most notably at the Washington Conference in 1921-1922. Washington also stabilized the European economy through the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan. The Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Jews, Italians and Slavs, who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression led to government efforts to re-start the economy and help its victims. The recovery, however, was very slow. The nadir of the Great Depression was 1933, and recovery was rapid until the recession of 1938 proved a setback. There were no major new industries in the 1930s that were big enough to drive growth the way autos, electricity and construction had been so powerful in the 1920s. GDP surpassed 1929 levels in 1940.

By 1939, isolationist sentiment in America had ebbed, but after the fall of France in 1940 the United States began rearming itself and sent a large stream of money and military supplies to Britain, China and Russia. After the sudden Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war against Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany, known as the "Axis Powers". Italy surrendered in 1943, and Germany and Japan in 1945, after massive devastation and loss of life, while the US emerged far richer and with few casualties.

Roaring Twenties

In the U.S. presidential election of 192, the Republican Party returned to the White House with the election of Warren G. Harding, who promised a "return to normalcy" after the years of war, ethnic hatreds, race riots and exhausting reforms. Harding used new advertising techniques to lead the GOP to a massive landslide, carrying the major cities as many Irish Catholics and Germans, feeling betrayed, deserted the Democrats.

Prosperity

Except for a recession in 1920-1921, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity in comparison to war-ravaged Europe: prices for agricultural commodities and wages fell at the end of the war while new industries (especially movies, automobiles, gasoline, tourist travel, highway construction and housing) flourished. Following a wave of oil discoveries that started with the Pennsylvanian oil rush of the 1860s and culminated with the oil booms in Texas, Oklahoma, California, and other areas, the United States continued as the world leader in petroleum production, now even more important in an age of automobiles and trucks.

Unions

Labor unions grew very rapidly during the war, emerging with a large membership, full treasuries, and a temporary government guarantee of the right of collective bargaining. Inflation was high during the war, but wages went up even faster. However, unions were weak in heavy industry, such as automobiles and steel. Their main strength was in construction, printing, railroads, and other crafts where the AFL at a strong system in place. Total union membership had soared from 2.7 million in 1914 to 5 million at its peak in 1919. An aggressive spirit appeared in 1919, as demonstrated by the general strike in Seattle, and the police strike in Boston. The larger unions made a dramatic move for expansion in 1919 by calling major strikes in clothing, meatpacking, steel, coal and railroads. The corporations fought back, and the strikes failed. The unions held on to their gains among machinists, textile workers, and seamen, and in such industries as food and clothing, but overall membership fell back to 3.5 million, where it stagnated until the New Deal passed the Wagner Act in 1935.

Real earnings (after taking inflation, unemployment and short hours into account) of all employees doubled over 1918-45. Setting 1918 as 100, the index went to 112 in 1923, 122 in 1929, 81 in 1933 (the low point of the depression) 116 in 1940, and 198 in 1945

The bubble of the late 1920s was reflected by the extension of credit to a dangerous degree, including in the stock market, which rose to record high levels. Government size has been at low level, causing major freedom of the economy and more prosperity. It became apparent in retrospect after the Stock Market Crash of 1929 that credit levels had become dangerously inflated. The stock market crash was also used by the increase of government funding of Herbert Hoover and the overflow of the Stock Market.

In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in an attempt to alleviate high rates of alcoholism and, especially, political corruption led by saloon-based politicians. It was enforced at the federal level by the Volstead Act. Most states let the federals do the enforcing. Drinking or owning liquor was not illegal, only the manufacture or sale. National Prohibition ended in 1933, although it continued for a while in some states. Prohibition is considered by most (but not all) historians to have been a failure because organized crime was strengthened.^[

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan(KKK) is the name of three entirely different organizations (1860s, 1920s, post 1960) that used the same nomenclature and costumes but had no direct connection. The KKK of the 1920s was a purification movement that rallied against crime, especially violation of prohibition, and decried the growing "influence" of "big-city" Catholics and Jews. Its membership was often exaggerated but possibly reached as many as 4 million men, but no prominent national figure claimed membership; no daily newspaper endorsed it, and indeed most actively opposed the Klan. Membership was verily evenly spread across the nation's white Protestants, North and South, urban and rural. Historians in recent years have explored the Klan in depth. The KKK of the 1860s and the current KKK were indeed violent. However, historians discount lurid tales of a murderous group in the 1920s. Some crimes were probably committed in Deep South states but were quite uncommon elsewhere. The local Klans seem to have been poorly organized and were exploited as money-making devices by organizers more than anything else. (Organizers charged a $10 application fee and up to $50 for costumes.) Nonetheless, the KKK had become prominent enough that it staged a huge rally in Washington DC in 1925. Soon afterward, the national headlines reported rape and murder by the KKK leader in Indiana, the group quickly lost its mystique and nearly all its members.^[11]

Great Depression

Jan 1929 to Jan 1941

Historians and economists still have not agreed on the causes of the Great Depression, but there is general agreement that it began in the United States in late 1929, and was either started or worsened by "Black Thursday", the stock market crash of Thursday, October 24, 1929. Sectors of the U.S. economy had been showing some signs of distress for months before October 1929. Business inventories of all types were three times as large as they had been a year before (an indication that the public was not buying products as rapidly as in the past); and other signposts of economic health—freight carloads, industrial production, wholesale prices—were slipping downward.

The events in the United States triggered a world-wide depression, which led to deflation and a great increase in unemployment. In the United States between 1929 and 1933, unemployment soared from 3% of the workforce to 25%, while manufacturing output collapsed by one-third. Local relief was overwhelmed. Unable to support their families, many unemployed men deserted (often going to "Hoovervilles") so the meagre relief supplies their families received would stretch farther. For many, their next meal was found at a soup kitchen, if at all.

Adding to the misery of the times, drought arrived in the Great Plains. Decades of bad farming practices caused the topsoil to erode, and combined with the weather conditions (the 1930s was the overall warmest decade of the 20th century in North America) caused an ecological disaster. The dry soil was lifted by wind and blown into huge dust storms that blanketed entire towns, a phenomenon that continued for several years. Those who had lost their homes and livelihoods in the Dust Bowl were lured westward by advertisements for work put out by agribusiness in western states, such as California. The migrants came to be called Okies, Arkies, and other derogatory names as they flooded the labor supply of the agricultural fields, driving down wages, pitting desperate workers against each other. They came into competition with Mexican laborers, who were deported en masse back to their home country.

In the South, the fragile economy collapsed further. To escape, rural workers and sharecroppers migrated north by train with hopes to work in auto plants around Detroit. In the Great Lakes states, farmers had been experiencing depressed market conditions for their crops and goods since the end of World War I. Many family farms that had been mortgaged during the 1920s to provide money to “get through until better times” were foreclosed when farmers were unable to make payments.

Worldwide, desperate governments sought economic recovery by adopting restrictive autarkic policies—high tariffs, import quotas, and barter agreements—and by experimenting with new plans for their internal economies. Britain adopted far-reaching measures in the development of a planned national economy. In Nazi Germany, economic recovery was pursued through rearmament, conscription, and public works programs. In Benito Mussolini's Italy, the economic controls of his corporate state were tightened. Some observers throughout the world saw in the massive program of economic planning and state ownership of the Soviet Union what appeared to be a depression-proof economic system and a solution to the crisis in capitalism.

The New Deal

In the United States, upon accepting Democratic nomination for president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised "a new deal for the American people," a phrase that has endured as a label for his administration and its many domestic achievements. The Republicans, blamed for the Depression, or at least for lack of an adequate response to it, were easily defeated by Roosevelt in 1932.

Unlike many other world leaders in the 1930s, however, Roosevelt entered office with no single ideology or plan for dealing with the depression. The "new deal" was often contradictory, pragmatic, and experimental. What some considered incoherence of the New Deal's ideology, however, was the presence of several competing ones, based on programs and ideas not without precedents in the American political tradition.

The New Deal consisted of many different efforts to end the Great Depression and reform the American economy. Many of them failed, but there were enough successes to establish it as the most important episode of the twentieth century in the creation of the modern American state.

The desperate economic situation, combined with the substantial Democratic victories in the 1932 Congressional elections, gave Roosevelt unusual influence over Congress in the "First Hundred Days" of his administration. He used his leverage to win rapid passage of a series of measures to create welfare programs and regulate the banking system, stock market, industry and agriculture.

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