PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA
70,000- 1,000 B.C.E.	- The first Native Americans appear as people cross the Bering Strait from Asia to North America - A great cultural diversity develops - over 1,000 different languages - "High" cultures develop in Central and South America (Mayas, Aztecs, Incas) - There is evidence that African and Phoenician sailors may have made voyages to the Caribbean as early as 1000 B.C. - for instance, on the southeastern coast of Mexico stone statues sculpted in basalt rock which realistically portray Negroid faces stand facing the east; similar likenesses of black people have been identified on ceramic objects found elsewhere in Mexico - Other evidence of early transatlantic contacts ranges from the Roman coins excavated in various parts of the western hemisphere to the Irish legends about St. Brendan's missionary voyage across the ocean around 500 C.E. - Islamic and Portuguese sources mention trade contacts between people from West Africa and Brazil throughout the 14th and 15th centuries (this may explain why Spanish explorers found black people, free and enslaved, in Honduras and Panama at the beginning of the 16th century, that is, before Europeans brought the first African slaves to their colonies in America)
c. 1000 C.E.	- According to the Norse sagas, the Vikings (who maintained outposts and settlements on Greenland for about 500 years from the end of the 10th century) send an expedition led by Leif Erikson to Vineland (now Newfoundland) to establish a permanent colony there - Although it survives only two years, they continue their exploration and exploitation of the North American continent for the next three hundred years or so
	IMPULSES TO EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
ll^th-15^thcenturies	- Decline of feudalism: - increased use of money instead of exacting labor from peasants - dividing community lands among individual farmers - free farmers and wage laborers are less attached to the soil; they are potential immigrants - the poorer classes seek broader opportunities in a new world - Development of Eastern trade with the Far East (Italian merchants) - Accumulation of capital - banking and joint stock companies - Rise of towns and a new merchant class - Technological developments - printing, maps, navigating instruments, caravel ships - The rise of nation states:

	- Middle Ages Christian community divided into national communities - strong monarchies (Spain, France, England) - expansion and conquest, rivalries in the search for prestige and control - a nation should be economically independent - acquiring colonies as a source of raw materials, wealth, and power - Cultural changes: - Renaissance - belief in man's limitless possibilities and capacities - new spirit of optimism, self confidence, spirit of curiosity and adventurousness - Religious changes: - the Reformation (1517; Luther, Calvin) - division of Christianity - Protestantism strengthens national independence by rejecting the authority of the Pope and leads to rivalry and competition among nations - the missionary impulse - against secular authority, belief in the kingdom of God on Earth - Calvinism: gloomy faith (predestination), revolting against rulers, leads to more democratic systems of government
1492-1498	- Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, explores the Caribbean including the Bahamas, Hispaniola, and Cuba - His four trips do not produce material rewards
1493	- A declaration by the Pope dividing the "New World" between Portugal and Spain; territories are claimed by right of discovery
1497	- John Cabot, sailing for Britain, explores North America
1498	- Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Spain, explores the South American coast
1507	- The New World is referred to as "America" by a German mapmaker who erroneously credits Amerigo Vespucci with the discovery of the continent
	SPAIN
1513 1518 1539 1565	- Juan Ponce de Leon, sailing for Spain, explores Florida - Hernan Cortes defeats Aztec emperor Montezuma in Mexico - Hernando de Soto explores what is today the Southeast United States - St. Augustine (Florida) is founded by Spanish settlers, becoming the first permanent European settlement in North America - Explorations of New Mexico (1608, Santa Fe - the oldest continuously inhabited town in North American), Texas, and California - The Spanish Conquistadors center their attention on the gold mines and other riches of Central and South America - Exploitation of Indians - No real colonization, small numbers of rich land- and mine-owners,

	few colonists from lower classes
	FRANCE
1524 1534 1615 1673 1682	- Giovanni de Verrazano, sailing for France, explores the Hudson River and Manhattan Island regions - Jacques Cartier, sailing for France, explores the coast of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island (Canada); he will later explore the St. Lawrence River as far as Quebec (founded in 1608) and Montreal - good land and climatic conditions - Discovery of Lakes Huron and Ontario (two of the five Great Lakes) - French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet discover the interior of North America including the remaining Great Lakes and the Mississippi River - French explorer LaSalle reaches the mouth of the Mississippi and claims the surrounding territory, which he names Louisiana for Louis XIV of France - Friendly relations with the Indians - development of fur trade - By the end of the 17th century the French are outnumbered by the British by 20/1, but they effectively block the British from moving westward and crossing the Appalachian Mountains - French troops are supported by the Indians, who are given guns to hunt wild animals (for furs to be sold to French traders) and to resist the British
	THE DUTCH
1613 1624	- The Dutch settle in Manhattan - the colony is called New Netherlands, the main settlement is New Amsterdam - Autocratic rule of a tiny minority of Dutch is established over the rest of the residents of the colony (French, Swedish, Black)
	ENGLAND
	- Political situation in England: - strong monarchs but not absolute - Henry VIII (breaks with the Pope), Queen Elizabeth I (encourages "Sea Dogs" to pirate Spanish ships) - supremacy of law - habeas corpus, Parliament, common law - the monarchy depends on public support - for instance, justices of the peace are private citizens who are not paid for their services - Developments in economy: - feudalism disappears early - free yeomen, tenants or wage laborers - not much distinction between the nobility and the rich bourgeoisie - development of textile industry, shipbuilding - joint-stock commercial companies chartered by the Crown and given monopolistic privileges - investment of capital in foreign trade - sheep-herding and enclosures result in rural unemployment and

	poverty - Religious changes: - conflicts in Europe are advantageous for Britain - immigration from Europe to Britain of Jews and Protestants - skilled - workers, artisans, businessmen - growing influence of Puritanism (based on Calvin's doctrine) in opposition to the Crown and the Anglican Church - it seeks to return Christianity to its "pure," Biblical roots by cleansing the Church of England of the Roman Catholic Church's ritual and hierarchy - Puritanism believe religion should be applied to daily life and to the functioning of government; decentralization of church-state control (Congregationalists) - the Stuarts (James I, Charles I) antagonized the Puritans - reason to leave for the New World - emergence of other obscure religious groups (Anabaptists, Quakers)
	ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF NORTH AMERICA
	- during the first 100 years after Columbus' discovery of the new World, the English pirate Spanish ships carrying goods from America to Spain (Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh - "Sea Dogs")
1585 1587	- Sir Walter Raleigh sponsors a colony (108 men) on Roanoke Island (today, North Carolina) - The colony lasts for one year, most return to England, others are killed by hostile Indians - Another attempt to settle the colony also fails when the colony disappears without a trace sometime before 1591 ("Lost Colony")
1588	- English Navy defeats Spanish Armada
1590	- Richard Hakluyt publishes an anthology of notable voyages to the New World with accounts by English explorers and settlers including Francis Drake, Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh - It stimulates English interest in the exploration and colonization of the New World
1606	- The Virginia Company of London (investment of about 100,000 pounds) is chartered by King James I to found colonies in America
1607 1608	- Three ships take 100 settlers to America - Jamestown is established under the leadership of Captain John Smith, who enforces discipline - The colony attracts mostly young single men, adventurers, and indentured servants (60% of settlers, contract laborers bound to service for 4 to 7 years, mostly poor, displaced individuals from overcrowded English cities and enclosed farms) - The first six years - starving time - Conflicts between settlers and Powhatan Indians - While exploring, Smith falls into the hands of chief Powhatan

1612 1613 1616 1617 1619 1619 1619 1622 1624 1625	- Pocahontas saves Smith from being killed by Powhatan's men - Smith is injured in an explosion and returns to England - John Rolfe plants tobacco as a crop - Pocahontas is captured as hostage for English prisoners of Powhatan - She converts to Christianity and is baptized as Rebecca - Rolfe marries Pocahontas to assure peace with Powhatan (peace lasts for 8 years) - Rolfe and Rebecca/Pocahontas go to England, where she dies before embarking on a trip back to Virginia - Ninety young women are sent to Jamestown by the London Company - A Dutch ship brings twenty blacks, who become indentured servants; slavery develops somewhat later - House of Burgesses, the first representative legislative body in colonial America, is created in Virginia; it will continue to exist until the Revolution - John Rolfe brings African slaves to Jamestown to harvest tobacco along with indentured whites - Powhatans, under a new chief, attack Jamestown, killing 350 settlers - English respond with equal violence - Virginia Company goes bankrupt and is dissolved; Virginia becomes the first royal colony Virginia colony's population reaches 1,400; in 1640 it is 8,000 even though 15,000 immigrants have arrived (mortality is high)
1620	- Plymouth near Cape Cod (Massachusetts Bay) is established by a group of Puritans called Separatists (they first migrated to Holland in 1609 seeking religious tolerance) - Arriving in America on board of the Mayflower, they sign the Mayflower Compact, a precedent for later voluntary democratic agreements - At Massachusetts Bay, they remain beyond the London Company's control, thus becoming the first group of independent, "squatter" colonists - Half of the settlers die during the first winter - harsh weather and poor soil - The settlers are not good farmers but they are disciplined - The Indian Squanto acts as their advisor and interpreter - Governor William Bradford writes a history of the colony
1629	- A group of Puritans (many rich and educated) called Congregationalists establish a commercial company to get the King's charter to settle in America - they are not favored by the Stuarts but they get the charter (a privilege) because the monarchy wants to get rid of them

1630	- The colony of Massachusetts is established - about 1,000 settlers arrive - The harsh climate and poor soil make farming difficult, which leads to a diversified economy and urbanization - Land is usually granted to a group (often a congregation) and then towns subdivide it among families - no sharp class distinctions, communities of small farmers - Profitable fishing industry, including whaling, develops as well as small-scale manufacturing, shipbuilding and trans-Atlantic commerce - Boston becomes the main town, its prosperity based mostly on trade with the Caribbean - triangular trade: molasses, a by-product of the process of refining sugar from the sugarcane plantations in West Indies, is taken to New England, where it is used to make rum, which is then taken to Africa, where it is used as currency to buy slaves, who are then taken to West Indies and sold to sugarcane plantation owners as labor - John Winthrop becomes the first governor of Massachusetts
	PURITANISM
	Puritanism is divided into two main groups: - Presbyterians - all churches should be controlled by a central synod (a regular meeting of church members) - Congregationalists - more democratic, each congregation is self- governing - In practice, Presbyterians prevail - Puritan beliefs are based on Calvin's doctrine, whose main points are: - total depravity: inability of man to work out his own salvation; man is hopeless, the source of all evil - unconditional election: although God is under no obligation to save anyone, he does save those whom he chooses, with no reference to their faith or good works; this belief is a consequence of the doctrine of predestination: all things are present in the mind of God, he knows before the beginning of the world who will be saved and who will be damned - limited atonement: Christ did not die for everyone but only for those who are to be saved and thus become Saints - irresistible grace: God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or refused - perseverance of the Saints: those whom God has chosen have henceforth the whole power to do what God wants - A theocracy is created - political power belongs to the government established by Church members (the founders of Church and the colony are the first, self-declared Saints, while new members have to prove to the elders their spiritual "regeneration" to be admitted into the Church)

1657	- The General Court, the colonial legislature, is elected by adult male Church members (in 1691, a property holding requirement is introduced to limit the number of those qualified) - Each congregation is self governing, decisions are taken at town meetings - Every town is required to establish a church, pay the salary of a minister, and build a meeting house where the town meetings are held under the supervision of the minister, who represents the Church (that is, the owners of the colony) - The Bible and the sermon hold central importance - social order is impossible without an established religion - The population is not scattered, so it is easy to enforce rules of morality by law - Lack of privacy and intolerance towards dissenters - The work ethic and material progress are emphasized - despite its pessimistic implications, the Puritan doctrine stimulates hard work: man's main goal in life is looking for signs of God's grace, and material prosperity is assumed to be such a sign - The "Half-way Covenant" is adopted as a compromise formula permitting the church to admit new, young members before they can produce proof of their "regeneration" and without giving them full privileges of being a member; it is intended to keep church attendance high while power is retained by the "Visible Saints," the old and dominant Puritan families
1692	- Charles II revokes Massachusetts' charter and it becomes a royal colony - Hysteria over the presence of alleged witches in Salem leads to trials by a special court and execution of 19 individuals - 14 of them women; over 150 people are imprisoned; they are freed later and one of the judges apologizes
1834 1691	- Lord Baltimore (George Calvert) establishes Maryland, combining the profit motive with the intention to provide a haven for fellow Roman Catholics - It is a feudal type colony, which leads to conflicts between the residents and the owner despite the Act of Toleration (passed in 1649) - Tobacco plantations, indentured servants and slaves - Maryland becomes a royal colony
1635 1636	- Massachusetts becomes the "Mother" of other New England Colonies because of religious quarrels and challenges to orthodoxy - Roger Williams is exiled from the colony for advocating separation between church and state (he also defends the land rights of Indians) - He founds Providence (Rhode Island) and establishes a policy of religious tolerance there

1636 1638	- Thomas Hooker leaves Massachusetts with a group of followers and founds Hartford (later the colony of Connecticut) - The colony obtains a charter which gives it political independence - Anne Hutchinson is banished from Massachusetts for opposing obedience to the laws of the Puritan community; she and her followers go to Rhode Island, where they found their own settlement
1638	- Sweden establishes a colony, New Sweden in what is present day Delaware; the colony is dominated by Swedish and Dutch settlers
1639 1679	- Puritan settlers found New Hampshire, placing themselves under Massachusetts' protection - New Hampshire becomes a royal colony
	* * *
1649	- English Civil War breaks out - King Charles I is executed - Puritan Oliver Cromwell creates a Commonwealth in place of the monarchy (1649-60)
1649	- Virginia has 300 black slaves
1651	- Cromwell's First Navigation Act is passed by Parliament - The nationalistic commercial theory of mercantilism is developed: - government regulates trade - large merchant and battle fleets are necessary to compete with other nations in the pursuit of the limited wealth of the world - the value of exports should exceed the value of imports, resulting in a net flow of gold and silver to the mother country - protection of home industries against foreign competition - colonies are a source of raw materials and a market for manufactured goods - Trade and Navigation Acts: - colonial interests are subordinated to those of the mother country - colonial trade must be carried only in English or colonial ships - foreign goods imported to the colonies must be shipped through England (channeling commerce through English ports in order to concentrate profits and promote shipping) - "bounties" are paid to encourage production of certain materials and goods in the colonies - colonies are forbidden to compete with English manufacturers and merchants - certain enumerated goods of colonial origin - such as indigo, sugar and tobacco - may only be shipped to England or to other English colonies - all imports to the American colonies from other European countries must be transported from England on English ships
1656	- Virginia prohibits Indian slavery

1660	- Restoration of Charles II - the Royal House of Stuart returns to the throne in England, ending the Interregnum
1662	- Virginia's population reaches 25,000
1663 1691	- Charles II gives a charter to eight noblemen to establish the colony of Carolina - The colony is divided into North and South Carolina - North Carolina is populated by migrants from Virginia (farmers who escape because of debts, religious refugees - Quakers); chief exports: tobacco and timber products - South Carolina is populated by planters who bring slaves with them from Barbados in the West Indies (soon slaves outnumber the whites by a ratio of 2/1); chief exports: rice and indigo - Charleston in S.C. is the main port of entry for slaves; it is also a town where many French Protestant refugees settle, hence the French tone of the city
1664	- After a naval blockade and without a shot being fired, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant (despotic and hated by the colonists, who are not interested in defending the colony) surrenders New Netherlands to English forces - The English rename the colony New York in honor of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II and future king himself - It will remain a proprietary colony until the Revolutionary War - The Dutch are permitted to stay and are granted religious freedom - Because of its geographical location, New York becomes a political, industrial, and trade center
1664	- New Jersey is established when the Duke of York turns over the lands between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers to two noble proprietors; in 1702 it becomes a royal colony - The colony has a large Quaker population
1664	- Maryland passes a law that makes all blacks lifelong slaves; conversion to Christianity does not bring about release from servitude. Later New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia pass similar laws
1675-76	- King Philip's War - Indian attacks on Puritan towns
1676	- Nathaniel Bacon leads a group of frontiersmen from Western Virginia in a rebellion against Virginia Governor William Berkeley which results in Bacon's burning of Jamestown - Bacon's rebels also crush the Susquehannock Indians, who have been attacking the settlers of Western Virginia - The rebellion is caused by falling tobacco prices and scarcity of land for freed indentured servants - The rebellion disintegrates when Bacon dies suddenly
1681	- William Penn, a Quaker, receives a charter from King Charles II

	making him proprietor of Pennsylvania (his father, Admiral William Penn, was a friend of the Stuarts) - Penn recruits settlers with promotional literature - Many settlers are Quakers, who believe in direct inspiration from God and man's natural goodness; they are pacifists - The "Pennsylvania Dutch" - German settlers fleeing wars, taxation and religious oppression; they retain their cultural uniqueness; 225,000 arrive in the next eighty years - Scots-Irish immigration (Ulster Scots) becomes prevalent; most settle in Western Pennsylvania, on the frontier - French Huguenots become quickly assimilated - Portuguese-Spanish Jews add to the mercantile and craft elite of the cities - Pennsylvania government permits religious tolerance and seeks friendly relations with local Indian tribes - Slavery is not allowed - Philadelphia is the first colonial town built according to a plan
1686	- King James II deprives the colonies north of Pennsylvania of their independent status and dissolves their colonial legislatures - The Dominion of New England is established as a new administrative area - Sir Edmund Andros becomes Governor with extraordinary powers
1688	- King James II is removed from the throne in what is known as the Glorious Revolution, caused by James II's Catholicism, disregard for traditional civil liberties, and absolutist acts - American colonists have similar objections to James II
1689	- William and Mary of Orange become King and Queen of England - Parliament passes a Bill of Rights protecting the liberties of Englishmen - Edmund Andros is jailed and the Dominion of New England is dissolved - New England colonies one by one reestablish their representative assemblies - Parliamentary power is reasserted in England, but royal control is reimposed on the American colonies
1689-97	- The War of the League of Augsburg, known as King William's War in America, where it involves mostly frontier raids against the French
1700	- Colonial population is about 275,000; Boston is the largest city with 7,000 inhabitants
1702-13	- Queen Anne's War (the War of Spanish Succession) - In America, the British and colonists fight French, Spanish and Indians
1703	- Delaware breaks away from Pennsylvania and forms a separate

	government
1732 1753	- Georgia colony is founded by General James Oglethorpe and his partners (20 proprietors) - Oglethorpe sees the colony as a haven for those in debtors' prisons, while the king sees it as a buffer between the Carolinas and Spanish Florida - Georgia becomes a royal colony
1733	- Molasses Act places high duties on all sugar, rum and molasses from non-British islands in the Caribbean - It is designed to protect British planters in the West Indies - The colonists evade the restriction by smuggling
1734	- Jonathan Edwards, a Congregationalist clergyman, preaches a series of sermons in western Massachusetts that initiate the Great Awakening, a religious revival which is a reaction to Puritan orthodoxy and conservatism - It stresses personal religious experience, bringing a more tolerant and democratic spirit - New ideas: deism (God as remote creator) and stress on reason (influence of the Enlightenment) - Edwards is well educated in science; unlike Calvinists, for whom God's purposes were mysterious, he interprets the world in terms comprehensible to the human mind - He frightens his congregation with visions of the terrifying fate that awaits most men in order to show by contrast how great God's mercy can be - Traveling preachers find fertile ground for conversions on the frontier - Churches are divided between Old Lights (traditionalists) and New Lights - Growth of toleration of religious diversity; the Baptist, Methodist, and other churches begin to grow
1745-48	- King George's War (the War of Austrian Succession in Europe) - New Englanders capture the French fort of Louisburg at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River (it is returned to the French at the conclusion of the war) - Fighting continues on the frontier in the Ohio Valley
1750	- Over 1,000,000 live in colonial America
1751	- The first sugar cane is grown in America, introduced into Louisiana by Catholic missionaries from San Domingo - It is used to make rum
1753	- The first steam engine is brought to America - It is used to pump water in a New Jersey copper mine
1754	- The French and Indian War (the Seven Years War in Europe) begins - Initially the colonists and English troops suffer defeats; then, with the

1755 1758 1763	support of Iroquois allies, they defeat the French, taking Niagara and forts of Lake Champlain - British General Edward Braddock is mortally wounded in a French and Indian ambush near Fort Duquesne in western Pennsylvania; twenty-three year-old George Washington assumes command of the retreating army of British and colonial troops - British troops drive the French from Fort Duquesne, which they rename Pittsburgh - Treaty of Paris concludes the French and Indian War - France gives Britain all its territories in North America including Canada and all lands east of the Mississippi River, holding on to a few islands in the Caribbean and to the port city of New Orleans - The war doubles the British national debt - Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, forms an alliance of Northern tribes and resists the British (an attack on Detroit) until 1766
1754	- At the Albany Congress, an intercolonial meeting, Benjamin Franklin presents his Albany Plan to unify the English colonies in America - The plan is later rejected by individual colonial assemblies and by the British government
1760	- George III becomes King of England - He changes prime ministers frequently, which destabilizes England's colonial policy - no prime minister stays in power long enough to work out and administer an effective system of running the colonies
1760	- The population of the 13 colonies is approximately 1.6 million
1763	- Proclamation of 1763 is issued by King George - it forbids American settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains - 10,000 British troops are left in the colonies for their protection
1764	- Prime Minister Grenville's government imposes new taxes on the colonists to help pay the cost of the French and Indian War and the ongoing protection of the American colonies - The Sugar Act places new taxes on sugar, wines, coffee, indigo and other products imported directly to America - An accompanying act provides a means of more effective enforcement of existing acts - customs officials are given a right to search ships and warehouses for smuggled goods
1764	- The Committee of Correspondence is formed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives to communicate common grievances with other colonies
1765	- The Stamp Act - the first direct tax laid on the colonies - introduces a tax on all printed materials such as newspapers, legal documents, pamphlets, almanacs and playing cards - Many colonists refuse to pay the tax - Samuel Adams and James Otis establish the Sons of Liberty and

	organize a boycott of British goods
1765	- The Quartering Act requires colonists to provide housing and provisions to British troops, which contributes to fear of tyranny - It is also resented because troops compete with workers for jobs
1765	- The Stamp Act Congress meets in New York City in October to protest taxation without representation and other British measures as violations of the colonists' rights as British citizens - A petition is sent to George III - Nonimportation agreements are formed by merchants to apply pressure on Britain's economy - British officials are troubled and attacked - British merchants suffer losses
1765	- Philadelphia, with its agricultural exports, shipbuilding and iron forging, is the leading economic center of the American colonies
1766	- Under Prime Minister the Marquis of Rockingham the Stamp Act is repealed by Parliament on the same day that it passes the Declaratory Act, which affirms Parliamentary supremacy over American colonies "in all cases whatsoever" - feeling victorious Americans pay no attention to this act
1767	- Prime Minister Charles Townshend takes advantage of the situation and the Townshend Acts place duties on colonial importation of glass, lead, paints, paper and tea for the purpose of paying for the defense and administration of the American colonies - Widespread American boycotts of British goods result, several colonial legislatures protest the acts - The Massachusetts General Court sends a "Circular Letter" to the legislatures which asks for support in resisting the Townshend duties - In response the royal governor dissolves the Massachusetts legislature
1768	- Two British regiments sail to Boston, where the customs administration is now centered
1768	- A newspaper, The Boston Gazette, publishes "The Liberty Song," possibly America's first patriotic song
1769	- Daniel Boone, ignoring the Proclamation of 1763 prohibiting settlers from crossing over the Appalachian mountains, leads an expedition to the Kentucky region
1770	- March 5, British troops fire upon American colonists at the Boston Massacre - Three colonists are killed, eight are injured - Crispus Attucks, an African American, is one of the first casualties - The British governor withdraws the troops from the city, the soldiers are put on trial
1770	- Population of the American colonies is about 2,205,000
1772	- Rhode Island merchants attack and burn the British customs ship

Gaspee

1773 - The Cabinet of Lord North repeals the Townshend duties with one
exception - King George III insists on keeping the three-penny tax on
tea as a symbol of Britain's right to tax its colonies

• A virtual tea monopoly is granted to the East India Company - it has the right to bypass American merchants and sell directly

• A widespread boycott of British tea results, even though as consumers the act benefits colonists

• Samuel Adams organizes in Massachusetts a network of committees of correspondence which carry on agitation and organize resistance; the action spreads to other colonies

• The Boston Tea Party - led by Adams, a group of patriotic Americans disguised as Indians board the East India Company ships and unload 342 cases of tea into the waters of Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act

1774 - March, the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts are passed by Parliament in
response to the Boston Tea Party and the continuing rebelliousness of
Massachusetts

• Four regiments of troops are sent to Boston

• The Boston Port Act forbids any trade ships from entering or leaving Boston harbor until the East Indian company is paid for the destroyed tea

• The Administration of Justice Act allows British officials accused of crimes in Massachusetts to be tried in British, rather than American, courts

• The Government Act dissolves the Massachusetts Assembly and provides that all Massachusetts officials be appointed by the King or the royal governor; the act also limits the number of town meetings in the towns of the colony to one a year

• The Quartering Act authorizes the army to quarter troops wherever needed in all British colonies

• The Quebec Act creates a government for British Canada and grants rights to French Catholics (this is seen as a promotion of Catholicism in America, thus a threat to the Protestant majority in the colonies)

- The Southern boundary of Canada is defined as the Ohio River, which

means that it includes a territory claimed by various American colonies

1774 - September, the First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia with

representatives from all of the colonies except Georgia

- The delegates are divided into two groups:

• the radicals, mainly from New England, are a small majority; they advocate resistance by force

• the moderates, mainly wealthy and conservative men, hope for some compromise

- The Congress issues the Suffolk Resolves which oppose the Coercive

	Acts and other British measures (Massachusetts representatives understand the Resolves as an approval of armed resistance; others mean only a commercial boycott) - To satisfy the moderates, a Declaration of Rights and Grievances and a petition which assert the rights of colonists and colonial assemblies are sent to the King - The Continental Association is formed to boycott British imports - Safety and inspection committees are created to make sure that the boycott is obeyed by all merchants - Royal governments collapse in one colony after another
1775	- Population in the thirteen mainland colonies reaches 2.5 million (men outnumber women) - Throughout the colonial period the population doubles each generation - Blacks constitute nearly 20%; they outnumber whites in South Carolina - Indians are not counted - Philadelphia is the largest town with 34,000 inhabitants
	COLONIAL CULTURE
1636 1647 1693 1702 1746 1754 1764 1766 1740	EDUCATION - Harvard is established as a theological college - A law is passed in Massachusetts which requires all towns of over 50 families to provide an elementary school - The New England Primer teaches alphabet through religion - To secure the expansion of their own doctrines, other churches follow in establishing colleges - The Anglican Church in Virginia opens the College of William and Mary - The Congregationalists in Connecticut establish Yale when a group of conservative Puritan professors leave Harvard - The Presbyterians in New Jersey establish the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) - The Anglicans in New York establish King's College (now Columbia University) - The Baptists in Rhode Island establish the College of Rhode Island (now Brown University) - The Dutch Reformed Church in New Jersey establishes Queen's College (now Rutgers University) - The only non-church-related college is the College and Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) - natural and physical sciences; the first medical school - These oldest American universities are now known as the Ivy League

1639

1690

1704-1776

1735

1732-1757

1757 1757

NEWSPAPERS AND BOOKS

• The first printing press is set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts; it publishes only religious works and is censored by the authorities

• The first newspaper, Publick Occurrences, is published in Boston; it is suppressed by the British governor after four days

• The Boston News-Letter becomes the first successful newspaper; it publishes shipping news, gossips and rumors

• By 1775 there are 37 newspapers appearing once a week in 11 colonies

• American press acquires considerable freedom as a result of the Zenger case

• John Peter Zenger is jailed after his newspaper, the New York Weekly Journal, criticizes the New York Assembly; accused of seditious libel, he is acquitted when he proves that what he printed was true

• Relatively few books are printed in the colonies, most are imported from England

• A few rich Americans gather large private libraries - Cotton Mather, a minister in Boston, and William Byrd, a planter in Virginia, own more

than 4,000 volumes each

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790)

• The most versatile and famous American of his time, a typical product of the Enlightenment

• Born in Boston, he moves to Philadelphia in 1723 to seek more freedom from the oppressive Puritan atmosphere

• By occupation he is a printer (like his brother, from whom he learned the trade)

• He didn't receive any formal education, but taught himself four languages and science

• He becomes the owner of the Pennsylvania Gazette

• He writes his famous "Poor Richard's Almanac," published annually it is a compilation of weather predictions, proverbs and epigrams; common sense and wit

• Franklin's civic contributions to Philadelphia include a circulating library, a fire company, a general hospital, an academy (the College and Academy of Philadelphia), the American Philosophical Society (originally called the Junto Club); he serves as the deputy postmaster general of the colonies

• He invents the Franklin stove, the lighting rod (flies a kite during a thunderstorm to prove that lightning is electricity), the bifocal lens, a harmonica

• Whale oil street lamps, designed by Franklin, are installed on a few streets in Philadelphia

• Franklin Represents Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress, presenting

1776 1781

1787

1770

1776-79

1779 1783 1785-89

1789-93

1797 1801-09

his "Plan of Union"

• He also represents several colonies in England before the Revolution

• he successfully argues before the House of Commons for repeal of the Stamp Act

• He helps draft the Declaration of Independence

• He represents the United States in France, helps negotiate the Peace Treaty of 1783

• He takes part in the Constitutional Convention

• His Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a classic text of the Enlightenment, a manual for those who want to succeed in life, be self-made men; Franklin's style is characterized by clarity of thought, precision of language, a ready wit

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)

• A lawyer, planter, agricultural scientist, architect, philosopher, statesman, diplomat

• He starts building his home, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia

• He has complete faith that, enlightened by free education, Americans could under democratic-republican institutions govern themselves better than under any other system

• As a member of a 5-man committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress, he writes most of the Declaration of Independence

• As a member of Virginia's state legislature, he lays the groundwork for religious freedom and a public school system in his state and secures the founding of the University of Virginia (he designed the campus - the library and residence halls)

• he believed in the rationality of man and saw America's future as an egalitarian, agricultural society of small landholders

• He becomes governor of Virginia

• He becomes a congressman

• He serves as the US minister to France

• During the debate over the ratification of the US Constitution he becomes the leader of the Antifederalists (later Democratic-Republicans, also known as Republicans)

• He serves as the as the first US secretary of state (he resigns from office as a result of a conflict with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton)

• He becomes the vice-president of the US

• He serves two terms as president of the US

• His greatest achievement as president is the buying of Louisiana in 1803

1775

THE REVOLUTION

• The Massachusetts representatives to the First Continental Congress return to their colony convinced that Massachusetts would get the other colonies' support in the struggle with the English

• Massachusetts reorganizes its local legislature and a Committee of Safety headed by John Hancock is created

• Boston is occupied by British troops, but elsewhere in the colony local militias prepare for a war

• On April 19, the American Revolution begins 19 when some 1,000 troops are sent from Boston to destroy the colonists' arsenal in Concord (some 18 miles from Boston); the redcoats are also ordered to arrest rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock

• Paul Revere and others warn the militiamen, who confront the British at Lexington and Concord

• The British reach Concord and destroy the arsenal but on their way back to Boston they are shot at from behind walls, trees, etc.

• 273 British soldiers and 93 Americans are killed

- In May, the Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia

• Benjamin Franklin, who has just returned from England after 12 years abroad, attends

• In June, the Congress appoints George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (he is a Virginian, so he can ensure the support of the South)

• Washington is an experienced officer and a good leader; a man of flawless honor, honesty, courage and determination, he inspires confidence and obedience; he is very strict, too, which causes desertions

• There are few other American officers who have ever commanded troops

• The Congress still rejects a declaration of independence

• All British authority disappears - local legislative assemblies and committees of safety are appointed throughout the thirteen colonies

• In June, the battle of Bunker Hill takes place - the British win but suffer heavy losses; they remain in Boston for the rest of the year

• In August, the king declares the colonies to be in rebellion

• Professional soldiers and Hessian mercenaries are sent to America

• Colonial militias use guerilla tactics to harass the enemy

• Foreign volunteers join the rebels - Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Marquis de Lafayette, Comte de Rochambeau, Baron von Steuben

• Canada refuses to join the rebellion and resists invasion - Montreal falls to the Americans, Quebec doesn't

• In December, the Prohibitory Act imposes an embargo on American goods, American ships are seized, a blockade of American ports is




	established - Neither side is able to accumulate enough military strength to win a final victory - The British win most of the battles in the early phases of the war but are not able to hold more than a small area of the US
	The British side - The British government is not very efficient and the war is not popular in Britain - English liberals even support America in order to discredit the King and end his personal rule - Englishmen are reluctant to enlist - Eventually about 30,000 to 50,000 colonial loyalists serve in the British army, but the British generals distrust them and do not do much to induce cooperation - The Hessian mercenaries (30,000) fight with little enthusiasm
	American Problems - Lack of strong government - Americans are generally reluctant to pay taxes and submit to discipline - The Continental Congress has no legal basis to act as a government until 1781, when the Articles of Confederation are ratified - The Congress cannot collect taxes and often individual states refuse to cooperate (all have economic difficulties) - Internal division with the Congress: - some see the Revolution as a struggle for democracy and are against a strong central government - the representatives of the wealthy classes want their interests to be protected by an effective central government - problems with reaching agreement as to the conduct of the war, the choice of generals, diplomats, etc. - The Congress issues paper money (not enough silver and gold in America), which causes great inflation - Money has to be borrowed from France, Spain, and Holland - Few men enlist, there is a general lack of public spirit as many Americans live quite comfortable lives (some make fortunes during the Revolution, especially in areas where there are no military campaigns) - The colonial population is divided along various lines: - Patriots: northern merchants, craftsmen, farmers, rich Southern planters - Loyalists: Northern upper classes, prosperous farmers in the middle colonies, Southern farmers (who remain loyal to the king to oppose rich planters) - up to 1/3 of the population remains neutral and disinterested,




	unaffected by the conflict - Washington's army rarely has more than 16,000 soldiers, and sometimes less than 3,000 - The British army is usually more than 30,000
1778	- The French are sympathetic with the ideas of the Declaration of Independence - They also want to avenge the defeat in the war with England in 1763 - Benjamin Franklin is sent to France in 1776 and becomes very popular there - A significant number of French volunteers join the American army - France officially enters the war; Spain joins follows in 1779 and Holland in 1780 - Finally Britain will has to fight at Gibraltar and in the West Indies as well - France supplies guns and ammunition for the Continental Army but there is a lack of food and clothing and the soldiers are paid in worthless paper money
1776	- January, Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" is published and is widely read - Paine offers a clear and persuasive argument for independence from Britain: the colonies can govern themselves better than the British could do it for them - Paine calls for a new society, free from tyranny and exploitation - In May, the Second Continental Congress meets; states are urged to form their own governments - On July 4, Declaration of Independence, drafted by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (writes most of the text), is adopted by the Second Continental Congress
	The Declaration of Independence - Inspiration from the English Revolution of 1688 and from Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and David Hume - All men are given by God equal and "inalienable" rights - The passage denouncing slave trade is omitted on the insistence of some Southerners - The God-given, natural (and thus "inalienable") rights of man as individual include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - Political rights of man as a social being (citizen): the compact theory of government (government by, for and of the people); political power comes not from God but from the people; government is representative (republicanism) and responsible before the people - they have the right and duty to remove it if it does not fulfill its role to protect and benefit citizens - Twenty-seven grievances are listed and the king is accused of tyranny




	and oppression - The whole world and posterity are addressed, not the English king and Parliament; the Declaration is an appeal to reason
1776	- After the Declaration of Independence is issued, the British evacuate Boston and land in New York City (15,000 soldiers and a large fleet), where they win battles in Brooklyn and several other places - After losses in the New York area, Washington's Continental Army (only a little over 3,000 ill-equipped and exhausted soldiers) flees to New Jersey and eventually Pennsylvania - Generals Montgomery and Arnold suffer defeats in their invasion of Canada - New York City is held by British till 1783 - General Washington crosses the icy waters of the Delaware River on Christmas night and takes a thousand British and Hessian soldiers prisoner in a surprise attack at Trenton, New Jersey
1776-78	- In state after state colonial charters are replaced by constitutions (submitted to the people for ratification) that incorporate bills of right (to protect citizens against government tyranny), provide for direct election of governors and property qualifications for voting are lowered - The rights of Loyalists are curtailed and their property is often confiscated - Pennsylvania is the most radically democratic - originally it has a one-house legislature and no governor
1780 .	Slavery - Slavery virtually ends in the North during the Revolutionary era - Massachusetts adopts a bill of rights that applies to blacks and whites equally - Pennsylvania begins the gradual abolition of slavery - An estimated 5,000 blacks (mostly New England freedmen) serve in the army and navy
1777	- On January 3, Washington takes Princeton - The victories and Trenton and Princeton are psychologically important because they help re-establish American morale - The British plan to cut off New England fails; their invasion from Canada is stopped at Saratoga, fortified by Tadeusz Kosciuszko; the British force of 5,700 soldiers surrenders - In early autumn the British take Philadelphia but will soon withdraw in order to concentrate on holding New York - For the rest of the year Washington struggles to maintain his army - France officially recognizes the independence of the United States
1777	- The Second Continental Congress acts as the unified government for the Revolution, but the states retain their autonomy in most matters - The Articles of Confederation are adopted by Congress and submitted




	to the colonies for ratification - The Articles provide a loose system of government for the new nation but little authority to carry out responsibilities - They prove to be defective and inadequate - no power to collect taxes, enforce Congress's decisions, or solve disputes among states - Besides, the Articles are ratified by the states only in 1781
1777	- Congress adopts the American flag - thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue background
1778	- The US and France sign a treaty of alliance and a treaty of amity and commerce which says that if the British and French were to go to war France would not make peace until the independence of the US was assured - In July, France declares war on Britain
1778	- In June, Americans lose at Monmouth, New Jersey, the last important battle in the North - 175 frontiersmen wage a successful campaign through the Illinois wilderness - George Washington and his Continental Army, without adequate supplies and shelter, spend the winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania - In December, the British attack and seize Savannah, Georgia
1779	- Between May-November, Americans defeat the British and their Indian allies (a league of five Iroquois tribes - the Five Nations) on the New York and Pennsylvania western frontiers - American naval captain John Paul Jones attacks British warships in their home waters, raising American morale and prestige
1780	- In May, the British win the Battle of Charleston, South Carolina, inflicting heavy casualties on the Americans - over 5,000 American soldiers surrender in the worst American defeat of the Revolutionary War - But Southern militiamen succeed in confining British control to coastal cities
1781	- The British decide to head north to Virginia - Washington abandons the siege of New York and, accompanied by Rochambeau's French army, traps the British at Yorktown - On October 19, British General Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 men to an army of 1,600 American and French troops - The French also provide a key naval blockade - Scattered fighting continues for over a year while peace negotiations are taking place in Paris, with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Jon Jay as American envoys
1782	- Many Loyalists (Tories) begin to leave the United States for Canada and elsewhere; about 100,000 will leave
1783	- The Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War is signed




	- Britain recognizes American independence and promises the withdrawal of British forces from the American territory (all land east of the Mississippi except Florida) - Americans promise to respect the rights and property of Loyalists and to help British merchants collect all debts owed to them by Americans
	THE CONFEDERATION
1785-90	- New York is the first capital of the US
	- Two tendencies appear after the Revolution: democratic (radical) and aristocratic (conservative) - Democrats believe that the government should be controlled by the people, that its powers should be strictly limited, and that it should protect the interests of the average citizen - Conservatives (rich merchants, landowners) believe that the masses are too ignorant and lacking self-discipline to have political power; they favor a strong government composed of "the wise, the rich and the well-born" - Both groups will influence the development of the US: the democrats shape the distinctive ideals of the American people such as equality and freedom; the conservatives make possible the accumulation of capital and economic growth
1785	- The Land Ordinance of 1785 is passed by Congress - Seven states have huge land claims (some overlapping), while six jealous states without access to the west (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland) have none and demand that western lands be used for the common benefit of the nation as a whole (the sale of the lands to private owners could provide a source of national revenue) - Indian claims are ignored - The northwestern territories are to be divided into townships (36 square miles), in turn to be divided into lots of 640 acres each, with one lot set aside for public education - If 60,000 people settle within a territory, it will qualify for admission as a state - Freedom of religion, jury trials, and other rights are guaranteed - Slavery is abolished in the territory - The Ordinance resolves land disputes among states
1785-89	- Jefferson represents the US in Paris
1786	- The Ordinance of Religious Freedom is adopted by the Virginia legislature - written by Thomas Jefferson, this statute would later become the model for the first amendment to the Constitution - Generally, the church is deprived of its privileges after the Revolution largely thanks to the loyalist sympathies of the clergy
1783-88	- Paper currency printed during the war becomes worthless - inflation




	reaches 200% and the Confederation's debt deepens - States impose their own tariffs on domestic and foreign trade - In 1786, Congress adopts a new coinage system based on the Spanish dollar, replacing British pounds used during the colonial era
1786-87	- Daniel Shays leads a rebellion of 1,200 debtor farmers in an attack against a federal arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts - an important incident in influencing the creation of a new Constitution.
1787	- The Northwest Ordinance enacted by Congress provides for the eventual incorporation of three to five new states in the Northwest Territories, with the establishment of a bicameral legislature, freedom of religion, the right to trial by jury, public education, and a ban on slavery
	THE CONSTITUTION
1787	- Between May 25 and September 27, 55 delegates from 12 states convene in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, with George Washington presiding over the meeting - Others present include Benjamin Franklin and James Madison; absent are John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (abroad as diplomats) - The Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise) is presented to solve the problem of representation in the legislature - It reconciles the Virginia and New Jersey Plans - proportional representation (favored by large states) in the House of Representatives and equal representation (favored by small states) in the Senate - The three-fifth compromise is also adopted - slaves are to be counted at three-fifths for purposes of representation in Congress (this artificially increases the representation of the Southern states, whose white population is smaller than that of the North); importation of slaves will not be prohibited before 1808; a fugitive slave clause is incorporated; slavery is not mentioned by name - The federal system is established: - division of power between the national and state governments (prohibited and delegated, and reserved powers) - federal laws are binding upon state officials - the federal government has authority over individuals, controls foreign policy and national defense, and has the power to collect taxes - state governments are forbidden to do things that would interfere with federal authority or threaten national unity; they can't coin money or issue paper money - the system of checks and balances: three autonomous branches with interlocking and overlapping powers to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful - the Congress: legislative powers (enumerated and implied - the "necessary and proper" clause), overseeing and investigating powers




	(impeachment) - the president: chief administrator, commander-in-chief of the army, chief diplomat; has legislative initiative, veto power, power to appoint judges - the judiciary: the Supreme Court has the implied power of judicial review (to judge on the constitutionality of laws and actions) - congressional control of territories (lands which are not states) - The Constitution is endorsed by Congress after seventeen weeks of secret sessions, signed by 42 delegates and sent for ratification by the minimum of 2/3, or 9 of the 13, states
1788	- The Constitution is opposed mainly by farmers, who see it as an attempt to establish an aristocratic, or at least an upper-class, government - The Federalist Papers begin to be published in New York newspapers, campaigning for the ratification of the Constitution - 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, all three using the same pen name (Publius) - Federalist No. 10 - Madison argues that the sheer size of the new republic would prevent any one faction (interest group) from becoming dominant; minority rights must be respected and protected by the democratically chosen majority placed in charge of the government - Anti-federalists criticize the Constitution for the absence of civil rights guarantees and demand a bill of rights, stressing democratic reliance on state and local government
1789	- The Constitution is in effect after receiving the approval of the requisite nine states
	THE NEW REPUBLIC
1789	- April 30, George Washington takes the oath of office as the first president of the United States - John Adams is vice-president (Washington minimizes his role, relying on the advice of his cabinet members)' - Henry Knox is the Secretary of War; Alexander Hamilton is the Secretary of the Treasury, Thomas Jefferson is the Secretary of State - Washington tries to discourage and mediate differences within the cabinet, but in the end he inclines towards the Hamiltonian vision of federalism, which will lead, in 1793, to Jefferson's resignation from the cabinet
1789	- The Federal Judiciary Act is passed by Congress which creates a six- man Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and five Associate Justices - John Jay becomes the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court - The act also provides for an Attorney General and for a judicial system of thirteen district courts and three circuit courts
1789	- The French Revolution begins




	- The initial American approval diminishes after the execution of the French king and queen - It further diminishes after the French minister (ambassador) Citizen Edmond Genet overestimates public sympathy for the Revolution and begins to campaign for American support directly, bypassing official diplomatic channels; Washington demands his recall
1789 1791	- Twelve constitutional amendments are proposed which aim to prevent the government from becoming too oppressive to the people - James Madison, a former Federalist, now moves closer to the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican camp and leads the Congress, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, to adopt the Bill of Rights - Ten of the proposed articles are ratified - The First Article guarantees religious freedom, freedom of speech and press, the right to assembly and petition - The Fifth Article declares that no person can be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law - The Sixth and Seventh guarantee trial by jury - All this is to protect the majority from the oppression of a minority invested with political power
1790	- Thanksgiving is celebrated for the first time as a national holiday
1790	- Philadelphia becomes the nation's capital, but Federal City is to be created on "neutral" territory to avoid political rivalries among the states and between the North and the South - The site is chosen by Washington on the border of Virginia and Maryland, which give land for a Federal District of Columbia - The city is planned by the French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant - Congress refuses to give money for the complete realization of his plans; they will be rediscovered in 1901 and partly carried out
1790	- Hamilton submits his Reports on Public Credit which outlines his financial program: - The main objective is to establish the federal government's financial credibility, both at home and abroad - Congress should pay foreign debts in full, assume state debts, and pay the national debt at face value to actual holders of government bonds (objections from Jeffersonians - by now bonds are mostly in the hands of speculators; objections from Southerners - Northern states have greater indebtedness)
1791	- The United States conducts its first census - American population is 3,929,214
1791	- Hamilton's Reports on Banking and Manufacturing calls for a high tariff (a tax on imported goods) and federal aid for public works projects (e.g., transportation systems) to promote US industry - A tradition of national government support of commercial capitalism is established; opponents protest that it favors the upper classes from




	the North (industrialists, financiers, speculators, merchants) - The Bank of the United States is approved using the implied powers argument - The conflict between Jefferson and Hamilton over the interpretation of the constitution is an occasion to formulate two different visions of the US: - Federalists (strongest in the Northeast) favor strong central government, loose (broad) interpretation of the Constitution, encouragement of commerce and manufacturing, close ties with Britain, order and stability - Jefferson's Republicans, or Democratic Republicans (strong in the South and West) place emphasis on states' rights, strict (narrow) interpretation of the Constitution, preference for agriculture and rural life, closer ties with France, civil liberties and trust in the people
1791	- Congress passes the Whiskey Tax on the recommendation of Hamilton - In 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion breaks out when western Pennsylvania farmers protest the tax - Washington calls out 13,000 troops to put down the insurrection; Hamilton leads the troops and the protesters disperse - The incident confirms the power of the national government to enforce its laws within states; for most westerners this provides additional reasons to support the Jeffersonian opposition to the Federalists' ideas
1791	- Vermont becomes the first new state to join the original thirteen United States
1793	- France declares war on Britain - British blockade of the French West Indies begins - Federalists associate Republicans with Jacobins (who institute the Reign of Terror after seizing power in France) - The Proclamation of Neutrality is issued by Washington declaring American nonalliance and neutral trading rights - These rights are violated by British - they seize and search American ships and arrest crewmen, who are then "impressed" into the British navy - American frontiersmen are attacked by Indians, encouraged by the British in Canada
1794 1795	- Under the Jay Treaty, the British agree to leave the Northwest Territory (which they never completely left after 1783) and permit Americans access of small ships to the West Indies - The problem of "impressments" remains unresolved - the British continue to seize American ships and "impress" sailors - Pinckney's Treaty opens the Mississippi River - it guarantees to




	Americans the right from Spain to load goods at New Orleans without duties; Spain gives up claims to a large territory north of Florida
1796	- Washington warns against political divisions at home (factions) and permanent political ties abroad in his farewell address, largely written by Hamilton
1797-99	- Federalist John Adams is inaugurated as president; Republican Thomas Jefferson is vice-president
1798	- Undeclared naval warfare between the US and France, chiefly in the West Indies - Angered by the Jay Treaty, France abandons the 1778 Alliance with the US and begins seizing American ships - Adams sends three negotiators to France; they are received by Talleyrand's three agents, referred to as X, Y and Z, who demand bribes - Anti-French sentiment rises in America - US arms - George Washington is in charge with Hamilton as second- in-command; the Department of the Navy is created and an army of 10,000 is raised
1798	- The Alien and Sedition Acts, inspired in part by the anti-French hysteria and designed to silence the Republican ("disloyal") opposition and strengthen the federal government: - Two Alien Acts provide for detention and deportation of "dangerous" foreigners - The Naturalization Act imposes 14 year probation for immigrants before citizenship (immigrants are considered likely to vote for Republicans) - The Sedition Act: criticism of government is libel, tried by federal judiciary - ten Jeffersonian editors are convicted and fined for "defaming" the government (Jefferson will later pardon all of them and pay them back their fines with interest after his presidential victory in 1800)
1798	- The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, drafted by James Madison for Virginia and secretly by Vice-President Thomas Jefferson for Kentucky, protest the Alien and Sedition Acts - They promote the compact theory of government (state sovereignty) and the doctrine of nullification - a state has the right to refuse to obey what it sees as an unconstitutional federal action
1799	- Eli Whitney develops the idea of mass production by introducing interchangeable parts - The following year he wins a government contract to manufacture muskets with virtually identical parts
1800	- Less than three years after his retirement from the presidency, George Washington dies at the age of 67 at his Mount Vernon, Virginia,




	plantation
1800	- Napoleon's new government agrees to the termination of the 1778 Alliance; the Treaty of Mortefontaine restores normal diplomatic relations between France and the US, ending an undeclared naval war
1801	- Washington D.C. is established as the nation's capital - moved from Philadelphia
1801	John Marshall - January, John Marshall, a Virginia Federalist, is nominated as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by President Adams - he will continue to represent Federalist principles long after the Federalist party has disappeared from the scene - "Midnight appointments" of fifteen Federalist judges are signed by Adams just before his terms as president comes to an end - Opposition to Adams' move will lead to the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison: - When new Secretary of State Madison refuses to deliver a justice of the peace appointment to Marbury (one of Adams' "midnight appointments"), the latter asks the Supreme Court to order Madison to perform his duty; the Court avoids addressing the issue; instead, it points out that the Judiciary Act invoked by Marbury (it is this act that gives the court the power to issue orders - writs of mandamus - to administration officers) is itself unconstitutional, and thus invalid; the conclusion is that the court not only cannot issue a verdict in the case, but that the Judiciary Act is thus null and void - The power of judicial review is thus assumed by the Supreme Court - it becomes the highest guardian and interpreter of the Constitution - Throughout his term Marshall, who demonstrates his impartiality in Marbury v. Madison, reveals himself as a genuine Federalist by giving national laws precedence over state laws and restricting the power of states to interfere with commercial activities of individuals (property rights, sanctity of contracts)
	JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACY
1801	- Inauguration of Jefferson as president - After 35 ballots, the House of Representatives solves the electoral deadlock (a tie in electoral college votes) by choosing, in part because of Hamilton's influence, Jefferson over Aaron Burr (this helps lead to a duel, in 1804, in which Burr kills Hamilton) - The first to reside in the White House, Jefferson, in his inaugural address, promises to reduce the size and spending of the government (a smaller army and navy, fewer diplomatic missions abroad) - He represents republican ideals in their purest form - America as a country of small farmers and planters - But he will quickly federalize his views, realizing that the country




	needs transportation, industry, commerce, etc., which could only develop under the protection of the federal government - He keeps the Hamiltonian system intact
1803 1805 1807	- Louisiana Purchase - over 820,000 square miles of land beyond the western border of the United States are bought from France - In 1763 France cedes the territory to Spain; in 1800 Spain returns it to France; in 1802 Spain closes New Orleans to US ships - Napoleon hopes to rebuild the French overseas empire, but fails to recover Santo Domingo (Haiti), now in control of black rebels under Touissant L'Ouverture (Napoleon sends a Polish legion to put down the insurrection) - In April Robert Livingston and James Monroe negotiate the purchase of Lousiana for $15 million (originally, they were authorized to offer $10 million for the port of New Orleans only), thus doubling the land of the United States at the cost of 3 cents an acre - Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Congress adopt a loose construction of the Constitution in approving the deal (the Constitution makes no provision for land purchase by the federal government) - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark begin their exploration of the vast Northwest territory; traveling from the Mississippi River, they follow the Columbia River to the Pacific Coast, gathering geographic and scientific information - Zebulon Pike explores the territory that later becomes the American southwest, discovering Pike's Peak, the famous Colorado mountain named for him - His travel accounts stimulate commercial interest in the territory - in the 1820s the Santa Fe trail from St. Louis is opened
1803	- Hostilities between France and Britain are renewed - The US is the largest neutral trader with both sides - After the naval victory at Trafalgar in 1805, Britain controls the seas and imposes a blockade on the continent - Harassment of US neutral shipping is resumed, including "impressment" of American crewmen into the British navy, leading to public antipathy toward the British
1805	- Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated for his second term as president
1806 1807	- The First Non-Importation Act is passed by Congress which forbids the importation from England of enumerated items - The Embargo Act is passed, meant as "peaceable coercion" of Europeans to respect US neutrality - The Federalist faction tries, but fails, to block this measure - The act forbids all American ships to set sail for foreign ports - It is widely protested in states with maritime interests, such as those in New England




1809	- In attempting to secure free trade (to support exports for agrarian production), Jefferson ironically encourages the growth of domestic industries (a Hamiltonian goal) and is forced to regulate the economy with the police powers of the state - France agrees to stop interfering with American trade; non- intercourse is applied to Britain - The Embargo Act is repealed
1808	- A steamboat travels from New York City to Albany in 32 hours, traveling at the top speed of 5 mph, inaugurating the era of commercially successful steamboat navigation
1810	- James Madison is inaugurated as president
1811	- The congressional elections drastically change the situation in both houses - nationalists and "War Hawks," led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, win majorities - Westerners blame the British for promoting new attacks by Indians on the frontier - "War Hawks" call for mobilization for war with Britain (Britain is a "better" enemy since no territorial gains are to be expected from a war with France)
	THE WAR OF 1812
1812	- In June, President Madison delivers his War Message, stressing Britain's interference with neutral shipping, "impressments" of sailors, and provocation of Indian attacks - Northern states oppose the war (they rely on trade with Britain rather than France) - Southern and Western states vote in favor of the war - The war is largely a matter of national honor - by trying to impose on the US a form of quasi-colonial trade, Britain threatens directly America's rights as an independent nation - That is why the War of 1812 is also called the Second War of Independence (its Federalist opponents call it Mr. Madison's War) - The US in unprepared for the war - the government lacks money, a large army, competent generals, and unanimous support of the states - During the first year the British a more successful - they capture Detroit and join forces with the confederacy of Indian tribes under the leadership of Chief Tecumseh
1813	- In April, the Americans invade Canada and burn the Canadian Capital at York (Toronto) - September, after winning a crucial naval battle on Lake Erie, the Americans secure control of the Great Lakes - In October, Tecumseh is killed at the Battle of the Thames
1814	- In May, General Andrew Jackson defeats Indians in the South, shattering Britain's hopes of seizing the port of New Orleans




	- In August, British troops capture and burn Washington, D.C. in reprisal for burning York - In September, the British attack on Fort McHenry near Baltimore fails - The event inspires Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" - In September, a naval victory by the Americans on Lake Champlain forces an invading British army to return to Canada - On December 24, a peace treaty is signed in Ghent, Belgium - status quo is restored, no gains or losses for either side
1815	- On January 8, before the news about the end of the war reaches him, General Jackson defeats 5,300 British troops at the Battle of New Orleans - The British casualties top 2,000, while only 13 Americans are killed - Insignificant from the military point of view (it can't have any impact on the peace terms), the battle gives Americans a sense of victory and boosts their national pride; Jackson emerges as the greatest war hero - The Hartford Convention, a meeting of Federalist antiwar delegates from five New England states, adopts a series of states' rights proposals in the form of amendments to the Constitution, such as eliminating the 3/5th rule, limiting presidential terms (to end the "Virginia dynasty"), and requiring a 2/3 majority for a declaration of war, commercial regulations and admission of new states - News of the New Orleans victory brings the Convention to an end; the Federalist party is branded as disloyal, which hastens its disappearance from public view after the war
	- Effects of the war: - reassures American political and economic independence - weakens Indian tribes and strengthens expansionists - brings to national prominence spokesmen for Southern and Western interests - Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun - the birth of economic nationalism, called by Henry Clay the American System - protective tariffs, federal support for internal improvements, rechartering a national bank - paradoxically, relations with England improve quickly, making the US and England the closest of allies ever since a kind of isolationism is produced in America - let Europe handle its own problems and "hands off America"
	THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS
1817	- James Monroe is inaugurated as president as the last of the Revolutionary generation (the Virginia Dynasty) - Having discredited themselves by opposing the War of 1812, the Federalists lose the presidential election and congressional elections - The "Era of Good Feelings" begins and ushers in a one-party system -




	in 1820 Monroe is unopposed for reelection, winning all electoral college votes but one - American national security is assured abroad and American economy prospers under the protection of the federal government
1818	- The Convention of 1818 defines the border with Canada as the 49^thparallel from Minnesota to Oregon and provides for joint occupation of Oregon to offset Russian claims
1818	- General Andrew Jackson continues to fight Seminole Indians in Florida
1818	- The construction of the Erie Canal through New York State begins - The 350 mile long canal (completed in 1825) connects the Hudson River with Lake Erie, providing a continuous inland water route to the Great Lakes region
1819	- The President's House in Washington, D.C., burned by the British during the War of 1812, becomes known as the "White House" when it is repaired and given a gleaming coat of white paint
1820	- The Adams-Onis Treaty is signed - formerly controlled by Spain, Florida becomes a US territory; the western borders of Louisiana are defined so as not to include Texas
1824	- The Monroe Doctrine is presented to Congress by President Monroe - It proclaims that the Americas will no longer be the object of European colonization and that the US would consider dangerous the attempt of any European nation to extend its political system to the Western Hemisphere - The US will not interfere with any existing European colonies in the New World or interfere in European internal affairs - Although the Doctrine is a "paper tiger" since the US has no means of militarily enforcing it, it becomes one of the most fundamental principles of American policy and by the end of the 19^th c. will be recognized and respected by the world's superpowers
1824	- The Republicans fail to agree on one nominee for president; four candidates emerge - Andrew Jackson receives the most popular votes, but not an electoral college majority (more votes than the other candidates combined) - As provided by the 12^th Amendment, the choice from the top three candidates (Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay) goes to the House of Representatives - With the support of Clay, Adams is chosen; Jackson's supporters denounce the decision as "corrupt bargain" (Clay is promised the position of Secretary of State) and join forces to create a new political party - They are very well organized and create a powerful and effective opposition




	- After the 1826 congressional elections, they control the Congress, practically making it impossible for Adams to carry out his policies
1824 1830-1831 1838	Native Americans - The Bureau of Indian Affairs is created - Continuing a colonial tradition, the US signs treaties with "sovereign" Indian tribes, but most of those treaties are ignored in the rush for Western land - The Indian Removal Act leads to the resettlement of 100,000 Indians, mainly Cherokees from Georgia and Seminoles from Florida, to the West - Ruling in the case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Supreme Court defines the Indians as a "domestic dependent nation" - This means that the government of the United States, and not individual states, should have the exclusive power to negotiate agreements with the Indians - In practice the ruling is ignored - The Cherokee tribe (15,000 people) is forced to move to Indian territory west of the Mississippi River - the Trail of Tears claims 4,000 lives - Seminoles continue to fight a guerilla war in Florida until the early 1840s
1826	- Founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (distant relatives) both die on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
	JACKSONSONIAN DEMOCRACY
1828	- Supporters of John Quincy Adams for reelection are now called the National Republicans and Andrew Jackson's followers are called the Democratic Republicans (their party will evolve into the Democratic Party) - Jackson's victory is a turning point in American political history - Preceded by the first campaign organized by professionals and conducted on a massive scale, it is seen as the political triumph of the common man - Jackson is easily elected, chiefly with the votes of the South and the West - He opens a new era, called Jacksonian Democracy - He is the first "outsider" ("Westerner") in the White House - he represents the state of Tennessee - His election reflects the democratization of political life and institutions, particularly in the West - When new states are admitted to the Union, they grant political rights to a greater number of people than was originally done in the East - Practically all white males have the right to vote, property




	qualifications for public office are abolished, and the number of non-elective or appointive offices is limited so a greater number of people can participate directly in government - Civil service reforms: - rotation of public officers to reduce corruption; in practice, a spoils system is created - presidential appointments are based on political loyalty and treated as rewards to supporters - the president relies on informal advisors (Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet) - Jackson favors limited government, but in fact strengthens the presidency - he uses the veto power twelve times (more than the six previous presidents combined)
1829	- Noah Webster completes his monumental American Dictionary of the English Language, after working on it for 20 years
1830	- The railroad age begins as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad carries its first passengers in a horse-drawn excursion train
1830	- The Preemption Act gives some claim priorities to squatters (pioneers who settle western lands before obtaining a legal title) - Another such act is passed in 1841
1830s 1847	- In 1830 The Book of Mormon is published - Joseph Smith establishes the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints - Smith is murdered by a mob in Illinois as the Mormons travel westward from upstate New York to escape persecution (for polygamy) - Brigham Young leads their exodus to Utah - They establish their New Zion at the Great Salt Lake - Efficient irrigation turns the colony into a thriving religious community
1832 1833	- The bill to recharter the Second Bank of the United States is vetoed by President Jackson - Objectively speaking, the Bank plays a very important and positive role in stabilizing the currency system and promoting economic - But Jackson considers it unconstitutional (despite the Supreme Court's earlier decision on its constitutionality), a financial monopoly that privileges the wealthy and is partly controlled by foreign investors, which is a threat to national security - Congress fails to override the veto - Jackson withdraws government funds from the Bank of the United States and distributes them to 23 selected state-chartered "pet" banks - These banks contribute to inflation by printing paper currency
1827	- Congress passes a new tariff which protects New England's industry against the competition of European manufacturers - The tariff is opposed by the Southerners, who call it the Tariff of Abominations, because they depend on imported products and fear that




1830 1833	Britain might respond to it by stopping the importation of Southern cotton, rice, tobacco, and sugar - John C. Calhoun, then Jackson's vice-president, issues anonymously his "South Carolina Exposition and Protest" in which he maintains that any state has the right to declare federal law null and void if it violates the interests of the state - This is known as the Nullification Doctrine (invented by Jefferson and Madison in their 1798 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which were drafted as a protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts) - The state legislature adopts measures to enforce this ordinance - even allowing for military preparations and secession if the federal government resorts to force - No other states support South Carolina - The issue causes a break between Jackson and Calhoun - In the famous debate in Congress between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina, Webster argues that individual states have no right to nullify laws made by Congress because the government of the US was not created by states but by the people and no one state can decide for all the other states what is constitutional and what is not - Jackson call nullification an "impractical absurdity" and issues a proclamation against South Carolina's threat to secede - Henry Clay's Compromise Tariff is passed and South Carolina withdraws its nullification ordinance
1834 1837	- Wild speculation in land, canals, and roads begins - McCormick's reaper is a breakthrough in farming - John Deere's steel-blade plow is patented
1835	- The name "Whig" is formally adopted by a new US political party that emerges in response to Jackson's policies
1836	- Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville writes a report on American society, Democracy in America, after traveling 7,000 miles throughout the United States
1836	- Martin Van Buren is elected President - he runs on the Democratic ticket and agrees to follow Jackson's policies - To reduce the negative consequences of Jackson's bank policies, he establishes a federal subtreasury system that is independent of state and private banks
	THE MEXICAN WAR
1821 1821	- Mexico wins independence from Spain and is recognized by the US - The Mexicans invite Anglos into Texas under the condition that the settlers convert to Catholicism and observe Mexican laws - Moses Austin is the first American to receive a tract of land in Texas from the Mexican government, which promises more free land to




1829 1831	American settlers - Mexico abolishes slavery - Mexico passes an anti-colonization law to prevent Americans from further colonizing Texas - But illegal American immigration continues
1835	- Mexican President Santa Anna proclaims a unified constitution for all Mexican territories, including Texas - Anglo-American settlers in Texas announce that they intend to secede from Mexico rather than give up their "right" to slavery
1836	- President Santa Anna leads a siege on the Alamo at San Antonio in an attempt to defend his idea of a unitary state - Mexican soldiers overwhelm the fort and 200 American settlers are killed, but their heroic defense inspires Texans to secede and declare independence - They name Sam Houston commander of their army - The Texans defeat the Mexicans and capture Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto - They ratify their own constitution, which formally legalizes slavery in Texas, elect Sam Houston as president, and send an envoy to Washington to demand annexation or recognition of the independent Republic of Texas - The US, England, and France recognize the Republic of Texas - The annexation of Texas will remain a controversial issue for the next nine years - it is supported by pro-slavery Southerners and opposed by anti-slavery Northerners
1843	- Supported by John Calhoun, President Tyler pushes for the annexation of Texas as a slave state
1844	- Santa Anna warns that he would consider the American annexation of Texas as an act of war against Mexico
1844	- James Polk, a Democrat, defeats Whig Henry Clay for the presidency - Polk is a somewhat unknown pro-slavery, pro-annexation Democrat - His aggressive expansionist views on acquiring Texas, Oregon, and California are shared by many Americans
1845	- President Polk decides to treat Texas as a state, though it is still a Mexican territory under international law - He sends a detachment of the US army, led by General Zachary Taylor, to the southwestern border of Texas to guard against "invasion" from Mexico - He authorizes negotiations with Mexico for the purchase of Texas, New Mexico, and California - Texas joins the Union as the twenty-eighth state
1846	- In May, when negotiations with Mexico fail, Polk orders General Taylor to move the American troops further south to a position near the

37




	left bank of the Rio Grande River, which has always been recognized as Mexican territory - Mexican forces attack Taylor's men at Fort Texas - At the request of President Polk Congress approves a declaration of war with Mexico - The war is yet another issue that divides the North and the South
1848	- The United States wins the Mexican War - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed by the Senate, ending the war - The US acquires over 500,000 square miles of territory in the Southwest, including what shall become the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado - Texas is also conceded to the US, with its boundary at the Rio Grande - The US pays $15 million for the Mexican Cession
1853	- The Gadsden Purchase - for $10 million, Mexico agrees to cede a rectangular strip of territory along the present-day border of Arizona and New Mexico, which provides part of an ideal route for a railroad to the Pacific Ocean
	* * *
1845	- Journalist John O' Sullivan, editor of the expansionist magazine The Democratic Review, coins the term "manifest destiny": 1) God is on our side; 2) America's mission is to expand freedom
1847	- The Oregon Treaty is signed with Great Britain setting the boundary between the United States and Canada at the 49th parallel
1849	- Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican War, is elected president
1849	- Henry David Thoreau publishes "Civil Disobedience," an essay that grows out of his refusal to pay taxes supporting the Mexican War (he was jailed for one night and bailed out by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson)
1849	- 80,000 people (the "forty-niners") rush to California (by sea around Cape Horn, via Panama, or overland) after gold is discovered in the Sacramento River Valley
1850	- President Taylor dies of cholera and vice-president Millard Fillmore assumes office
1850	- The value of manufactured goods exceeds that of agricultural products
	SLAVERY AND THE ROOTS OF THE SECTIONAL CONFLICT
1794	- Eli Whitney invents his cotton gin, a machine for quickly separating the seeds from newly-picked cotton; the invention leads to the birth of "King Cotton" - cotton quickly becomes a major American export
1804	- By now the northern states have passed laws giving freedom to

38




	former slaves
1806	- A ban on all slave importation to the United States, to become effective January 1, 1808, is requested by President Jefferson (a slave owner himself) in a message to Congress
1817	- The American Colonization Society is organized to buy land in West Africa for the resettlement of free blacks
1820	- In 1819 the Union has 11 free and 11 slave states - Missouri applies for admission as a slave state, the first from the Louisiana Purchase territory; this would upset the balance of free and slave states (since 1791 the entry of new free and slave states has balanced each other) - The South fears the North's domination in the Senate and Northern population growth (which gives the North an advantage in the House of Representatives) - The Missouri Compromise is proposed by Henry Clay which provides for the admission of Missouri as a slave state, to be in turn balanced by the admission of Maine (created from a territory ceded by Massachusetts) as a free state - Additionally, there is to be no slavery in the rest of Louisiana Territory above 36° 30'
1821	- The colony of Liberia is established by the American Colonization Society on the west coast of Africa and is settled by 130 American blacks (Congress appropriates money to fund the undertaking); eventually about 15,000 African Americans will settle there
1823	- Denmark Vesey, a free African American (a carpenter who buys his freedom with money won in a street lottery while his children remains slaves), plans a rebellion against enslavement; 9,000 free and slave blacks arm themselves and prepare to attack Charleston, South Carolina, but the plot is betrayed; Vesey and 35 other leaders are hanged
1831 1854	- Abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, to encourage the end of enslavement - To show his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he will burn the Constitution in public for its "support" of slavery
1832	- Nat Turner leads a revolt of enslaved African Americans in Southampton County, Virginia - 70 slaves kill 60 whites in 2 days - Between 100-200 Virginia slaves are slaughtered in search of Turner, who is executed when found - The uprising so shakes Southern states that they pass more stringent laws related to slaves, increase censorship against abolition, and make military preparations to prevent further uprisings - Slavery is institutionalized and defended as a "positive good" despite




	the fact that 3/4 of Southerners do not own slaves - A typical planter has only a few slaves, but a typical slave lives on a big plantation - Slave codes are made increasingly strict - The Deep South has the most large plantations, the Upper South and new states have fewer
1833 1836-1844	- The first national abolitionist organization, the American Anti- Slavery Society, is organized in Philadelphia - The Female Anti-Slavery Society is organized in Philadelphia by Lucretia Mott - Slavery is abolishes in Britain's overseas colonies - America is becoming increasingly isolated as a nation that allows slavery - By 1840 there are about 2,000 abolitionist societies with nearly 2,000 members. They organize the so-called "underground railroad," by which way slaves escaping from the South are conducted to Canada, where they automatically become free - at least 1,00 slaves a year are freed by the underground railroad - Congress adopts the "gag rule" - abolitionist petitions are left unanswered
1848	- Frederick Douglass, an African American, begins publication of an abolitionist newspaper, The North Star
1848	- The Free Soil movement begins, opposing the spread of slavery into the new territories
1850	- Harriet Tubman escapes from enslavement in Maryland and becomes an active worker helping other slaves escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad
1851	- Congress adopts the Compromise of 1850, based on five resolutions proposed by Henry Clay: - California is admitted as a free state; the territories of New Mexico and Utah are organized without any restriction on slavery, to be decided in a popular referendum later; slave trade is abolished in the District of Columbia; a more stringent Fugitive Slave Act is issued - The new Fugitive Slave Act denies jury trial and the right to testify in courts to slaves and requires that escaped slaves be returned to their owners; anyone helping an escaped slave is subject to six months' imprisonment and fines - In an effort to weaken the impact of the new law, many northern states begin to pass "personal liberty laws" intended to make it difficult for Southern plantation owners to regain their escaped slaves - After California is admitted as a free state, there are 15 slave and 16 free states
1853	- Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, begins to appear as a




	serial in the anti-slavery publication The National Era - The complete novel is published in 1852 - it will sell over one million copies within a year and also be adapted as a stage play, thus reaching even more people
1854	- The Kansas-Nebraska Act creates two new territories with "squatter" or "popular sovereignty" concerning the question of slavery - The act effectively cancels the Missouri Compromise from 1820 - Opponents to this act form the basis of the new Republican Party - the party is made up of former Whigs, anti-slavery Democrats, and Free- soilers
1855 1861	- Bleeding Kansas: - A local civil war breaks out in the territory of Kansas between free- soilers and slavery supporters - 200 people are killed in a struggle to decide if slavery will be allowed in Kansas when it becomes a state - Originally proslavery forces prevail with considerable help from Missourians who cross the border and vote in the referendum on slavery - John Brown, a passionate abolitionist, follows his sons to Kansas and leads a raid at Potawatomi Creek in which five proslavery settlers are killed - Kansas enters the union as a free state
1856	- "The Caning of Sumner" - Charles Sumner, the outspoken anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts, gives a speech against the pro-slavery elements in the Senate; three days later, South Carolina representative Preston Brooks beats Sumner unconscious with a cane
1857	- In the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court denies African Americans the rights of American citizenship; additionally, the Missouri Compromise is declared unconstitutional (Congress has no right to prohibit slavery in a territory)
1859	- The Lincoln-Douglas debates bring Abraham Lincoln to national attention - The two candidates for representative of Illinois in Congress, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, meet for a series of seven debates; slavery is the main subject
1859	- On October 16, John Brown leads a group of 21 whites and blacks in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia - A day later they are captured by a company of Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee - 10 of Brown's men, including his two sons, are killed in a bitter fight - Brown is tried for conspiracy and then hanged on December 2, becoming a martyr to many abolitionists, - "John Brown's Body," with the refrain "John Brown's body lies a-




	mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on, " will soon become one of the most popular American songs
	* * *
1854 1858	- Commodore Matthew Perry sails to Japan, which has been closed to foreigners for almost two hundred years, opening that country to trade with the United States - The first American consul to Japan completes an agreement between the two countries which opens up additional ports for trade, grants residence rights to American citizens, and establishes diplomatic relations
1856	- The "Ostend Manifesto" argues that Cuba must be annexed as a slave state and that if Spain refuses to sell the island it should be taken by force - The public reaction is negative and the proposal falls from view - But in 1858 President Buchanan will try to get Congress to give him the authority to purchase Cuba
1856	- Democrat James Buchanan is elected president
1857	- Congress acts to authorize the US annexation of any small island that is unclaimed by other governments - The US annexes Jarvis Island and Baker's Island, located in the mid- Pacific, and, in 1858, Howard's Island
1860	- There are two factions within the Democratic Party which cannot come to an agreement about nominating one common candidate for president - As a result, Republican Abraham Lincoln is elected president - he wins with a clear majority of electoral votes without getting a single vote in ten Southern states (the population advantage of the North over the South is enough to guarantee his victory) - In his final message to Congress, outgoing President James Buchanan stresses that states have no legal right to secede, yet neither does the federal government have the basis to prevent such an action
1860	- Over half of the population is still engaged in farming - There are over 30,000 miles of railroad tracks and 50,000 miles of telegraph wires - 16% of the population lives in towns of 8,000 or over - Only 0.5% own 100 or more slaves - There are 4,500,000 blacks, 500,000 of them are free - Two-thirds of the 4 million slaves are engaged in cotton-growing
	THE CIVIL WAR
1860	- On December 20, South Carolina legislature convenes and votes to secede from the Union
1861	- In February, seven Southern states of the Deep South - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas -




	call the Confederate States of America into being in Montgomery, Alabama; Jefferson Davis becomes president - On March 4, Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as president of the US - He emphasizes that the Union is "perpetual" and declares that no state has the right to leave the Union; he also says that he will use all the power available to the federal government to prevent disunion; however, he adds, the Union will not commit the first act of war - On March 11, the Confederate States of America adopt a Constitution that guarantees the existence of slavery forever - Forts at Pensacola (Florida) and at Charleston (South Carolina - Fort Sumter) are still in federal hands - After a month of hesitation, Lincoln sends more soldiers to Fort Sumter to relieve those stranded there since December
1861	The resources of the two sides: - population: North - 22 million, South - 9 million (1/3 are slaves) - soldiers: North - 1,500,000, South - 1,080,000 - workers: North - 1,300,000, South - 110,000 -factories: North - 110,000, South - 1,800 The advantages of the South: - it is defending, while the North is attacking - the region to be attacked is vast - the South has better soldiers and generals
	- The South tries to exert pressure on Britain by stopping cotton exports, but the strategy fails - Britain has a surplus of cotton and public opinion is strongly with the North - The British government inclines towards the South; officially it remains neutral but British shipyards build ironclad vessels for the Confederacy until American pressure forces Britain to stop helping the South - The French government also supports the Confederacy - Emperor Napoleon III will invade Mexico and install a puppet government there hoping to help the Southerners, but the Mexicans will resist strongly and in the end the French will be too busy there to help the Confederacy (they will withdraw in 1867)
1861	- On April 12, the American Civil War begins when South Carolina troops fire on Fort Sumter (it surrenders in 36 hours) - The states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas will secede from the Union in the coming months - Though they are also slave states, the "border states" of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri will remain loyal to the Union (they fear that if they joined the Confederacy they would be the first to be invaded by the Union) - In June, the Confederate capital is moved to Richmond, Virginia, only




	100 miles from Washington, D.C. - On July 22, Congress passes a resolution declaring that the war is being fought to "preserve the Union," not to destroy slavery - On November 1, Lincoln appoints George McClellan as General-in- Chief of the Union army and calls for 100,000 troops for three years - The Union strategy will be to gain control of the Mississippi River (to cut the Confederacy in two)
1861	- On July 21, the battle of Bull Run, the first attempt by the Union to invade Southern territory - Both armies are inexperienced, but the Confederates win, mainly thanks to the leadership of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson - For the remainder of 1861 nothing important happens - An effective blockade of the Confederate coasts is started
1862	- The North wins over the South in the West (Kentucky and Tennessee) - On April 25, Union soldiers capture New Orleans - General Ulysses Simpson Grant begins to attract public attention as the Union's ablest military commander - In July, Congress passes the militia act, authorizing Lincoln to enlist black soldiers - blacks are used only as scouts, laborers, spies, kitchen workers, and nurses until after the Emancipation Proclamation; until 1864, black soldiers are paid only half of what white soldiers are paid - 185,000 Blacks enlist by the war's end - On September 17, the Battle of Antietam (Maryland) is a standoff and the bloodiest battle of the Civil War - Confederate General Lee loses a quarter of his army - Union General McLellan's losses are even greater, but the Confederate army's invasion of the North is stopped
1862	- With Southern representatives absent, Congress grants a charter to the Union Pacific Company to construct a transcontinental railroad through the territory of Nebraska in the north - Construction begins in 1867 and in May 1869 the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific lines meet at Promontory Point, Utah
1862	- In April, slavery is abolished in Washington, D.C. and in June in the Western territories - September 23, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, declaring freedom for slaves living in states under the control of the Confederacy (but not in the slave states which have decided to stay with the Union), is published, to take effect on January 1, 1863
1863	- March 3, The Conscription Act (Enrollment Act) is passed, demanding enrollment of males ages 20-45 in the Union Army; payments of $300 may be used for an exemption - June 20, West Virginia is admitted as the 35th state - its constitution mandates the gradual emancipation of slaves




1863	- Between July 1-3, the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is fought - it is a decisive Union victory - Over 50,000 casualties during a three-day battle - The Union victory halts the Southern advance into Union territory and leads to the retreat of Lee's army - On November 19, Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
1863	- On July 4, the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, ends - 29,000 rebel troops surrender giving the Union control of the Mississippi river and splitting the Confederacy in two (automatically, the states beyond the Mississippi - Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas - are out of the war) - After Gettysburg and Vicksburg the Union's victory is just a matter of time - but it will take two more years to end the war
1863	- On December 8, Lincoln issues a proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction - He offers pardons to Confederates who take a loyalty oath (except high Confederate officials and those who left the US government or military service) and allows rebel states to reenter the Union if 10% of those who voted in 1860 take an oath of allegiance to the Union and accept the emancipation of slaves - The plan doesn't say anything about blacks and their condition after being freed (Lincoln believes in the deportation of American blacks to Central America or Africa) - As it stands, Lincoln's plan would restore the South of 1860 minus slavery - Under Lincoln four states are readmitted
1964	- In July, Congress passes the Wade-Davis Bill (killed by Lincoln's "pocket veto") - it would have imposed harsh reconstruction requirements on the South
1864	- After considerable successes in the West, General Grant is appointed General-in-Chief of all Union armies
1864	- On September 2, using total war tactics, General William T. Sherman burns Atlanta and continues his march to the sea - 62,000 Union soldiers sweep a 60-mile wide path of destruction in Georgia, severely weakening the Confederacy - On December 22, Sherman enters Savannah, completing his march to the sea
1864	- On November 8, Lincoln defeats Democrat George McClellan (former commander of the Union army) in the election of 1864
1865	- On February 1, Congress proposes the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude everywhere in the United States (it is ratified by December) - On March 3, the Freedmen's Bureau is founded to aid former slaves to provide medical care, education, and jobs to the emancipated blacks




1865	- On March 4, Lincoln is inaugurated for his second term with Andrew Johnson (a Southern Democrat from Tennessee who remained loyal to the Union when the war started) as vice-president, pledging "malice toward none, and charity for all"
1865	- On April 9, the Civil War ends when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia - On April 18, General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders to Sherman in North Carolina, effectively ending the Civil War
1865	- Casualties: 200,000+ died in battle (WWI - 120,000, WWII -300,000), 400,000 died from disease, 375,000 were wounded
	THE RECONSTRUCTION
1865	- On April 14, Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth - Four conspirators are quickly tried and hanged
1865	- President Johnson moves to reconstruct the South on his own initiative - He prefers to call the process "restoration," emphasizing his leniency towards the rebelling Southern states - He readmits the remaining seven rebel states by proclamation and sends civil governors to the South to arrange for the election of state constitutional conventions - Former Confederate officials are formally disqualified, but many are elected to state legislatures
1865	- Johnson's administration offers little protection to blacks - Southern states begin to pass "Black Codes," laws which subject former slaves to a variety of restrictions on their freedom: - blacks are forbidden to testify against whites in courts - vagrancy and apprenticeship laws prevent blacks from migrating - blacks cannot serve on juries, bear arms, or hold large meetings - The purpose of Black Codes is to make sure that freedmen, although legally free, will still be available to plantation owners as cheap labor - In the opinion of the Republican Radicals in Congress, the Black Codes are proof that the war has been fought in vain - they are seen as efforts to restore slavery - Some Radical Republicans are genuinely interested in the freedmen's rights, but many are afraid that in the next presidential election the Democratic Party (supported by most Southerners) may defeat the Republicans, thus depriving the North of all the benefits of victory - When the Thirty-ninth Congress convenes (the first session since Lincoln's death), led by Thaddeus Stevens the Radicals deny admittance to the newly-chosen Congressmen and Senators from the South since many of them are former Confederate leaders




	- The Radicals in Congress create a Joint Committee on Reconstruction which makes new proposals concerning the terms on which the seceded states should be readmitted
1865	- The Ku Klux Klan is formed by an ex-Confederate soldier in Pulaski, Tennessee - It is one of many secret societies set up to terrorize blacks; others include the Knights of the White Camellia, the Boys of 76, and the Council of Safety
1866	- Over President Johnson's veto, the Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which gives citizenship to former slaves - In Congressional elections, Republicans increase their majority in Congress, forming solid anti-Johnson majorities in both houses
1866	- The 14th Amendment (ratified 1868) grants rights and privileges of American citizenship to freedmen and gives the federal government the responsibility to protect equal rights under the law to all American citizens - The amendment automatically abolishes the 3/5 clause, thus reducing the South's representation in the House as compared to the situation before the war - Bloody race riots erupt in Memphis and New Orleans
1866	- After 12 years of effort, a telegraph cable between England and the United States is successfully laid across the Atlantic Ocean
1867	- The First Reconstruction Act passes over Johnson's veto - It temporarily places the South under military rule; states may be readmitted if their new state constitutions give the voting right to blacks - The act leads to anti-discrimination statutes and marks the beginning of Congressional "Radical Reconstruction" - military rule, confiscation and redistribution of property, aid to schools, Republican control of state and politics ("carpetbaggers" and "scalawags")
1868	- The impeachment crisis: - In order to control the presidential office Congress passes an act which makes it impossible for the president to dismiss cabinet members without consulting the Senate - Johnson dismisses his Secretary of War - Congress impeaches Johnson on eleven charges but he is saved from being convicted by one vote in the Senate
1868	- Ulysses S. Grant is elected president; the vote of 450,000 freedmen is essential
1869	- The 15th amendment (ratified 1870) guarantees that no male citizen will be deprived of the right to vote because of race, color or previous condition of servitude - Black legislators and "carpetbaggers" fill state legislatures




	- Sixteen blacks are elected to Congress, two of them serve as senators - In 1902 John Burgess will write of the Reconstruction as the "unholy alliance" of corrupt carpetbaggers and ignorant Blacks
1870	- The Force Acts (KKK Acts) are passed by Congress - they seek to enforce the 15th Amendment by giving federal protection to black voters, and authorize the use of federal troops against the KKK - By December all Southern states meet the Reconstruction requirements
1872	- Grant wins a second term as president - Congress passes the General Amnesty Act which restores political privileges to thousands of former Confederates - Local and state governments created with the support of black votes begin to collapse - only South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana remain in the hands of the Radicals; restoration of White Supremacy begins - The influence of the Republican Party gradually diminishes in the South and the influence of the Democratic Party increases
1875 1883	- The Civil Rights Act, the last success of the Republican Radicals, states that no citizen can be denied the equal use of public facilities such as inns, restaurants, etc. on the basis of race or skin color - In the so-called Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court will strike down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, ruling that Congress may not legislate on civil rights unless a state passes a discriminatory law and declaring that the 14th Amendment does not prohibit racial discrimination by private citizens
1876	- The disputed presidential election is resolved by a special congressional committee in favor of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who promises that upon becoming president he will withdraw federal troops from the South
1877	- President Hayes ends the presence of federal soldiers in the South, leaving the rights of African Americans unprotected - The fall of the last radical governments restores "home rule" in the South - So-called "Redeemers" and "Bourbons" (usually rich planters, former Confederate soldiers and civil officers) seize power; they are economically progressive but extremely conservative in their social attitudes - Measures like property qualifications, the literacy test, the poll tax, and the grandfather clause are used to deny blacks the voting right
1881	- One Southern state after another begins to pass "Jim Crow" laws, which provide a means for whites to maintain racial segregation - "Jim Crow" laws prohibit interracial marriage and segregate the races in schools, churches, restrooms, libraries, public parks, transport, etc.
	- Sharecropping, a system of farm tenancy, becomes the predominant




	labor system for free blacks: - the planter provides land, equipment, seed, and even houses, while the tenant and his family work and give a half of the crop to the landlord - theoretically this "crop-lien" system provides jobs for thousands of freedmen and poor whites, but in practice it perpetuates poverty and economic dependence - sharecroppers have to buy various goods they need from the landlord, but since they don't have money they buy on credit which is later deducted from their share of the crop - frequently the tenant thus has to give his entire crop to the landlord or the store owner (often the same person) in return for supplies, becoming economically enslaved
	THE END OF THE FRONTIER
	- between the already organized states and the territories close to the Pacific coast lies the Western Country which is scarcely inhabited, the only exception being Utah, settled by the Mormons, and California, settled by the "forty-niners" - the Western Country falls into two divisions: - the Great Plains, comprising about 1/5 of the area of the US - the Rocky Mountains and the deserts between the Rockies and the Pacific ranges - Both territories are discouraging for pioneers, the obstacles being lack of timber, scarcity of water, and hostile Indians
	The Conquest of the Indians
	- During the Civil War the western frontier begins to move beyond the Mississippi River and onto the Great Plains, which are inhabited by various tribes of Plains Indians
	- The conflicts which result are caused by two things: - transcontinental railroads are built across the Plains and railway companies are given huge land grants on traditional Indian hunting grounds - the white man begins to exterminate the buffalo, which is the main source of food and resources for the Indian
	- First buffaloes are killed to "clear" the ground for the railroads, then they are killed only for sport, and finally whites find a way to use buffalo hide for commercial leather - Hired teams of hunters are sent out to the plains and kill buffaloes by the thousands - The most famous of them, "Buffalo Bill" (William F. Cody), claims to have killed nearly 4,300 buffaloes in less than two years - Between 1870 and 1900 approximately 15 million buffaloes are killed and only a few herds are left, surviving under government protection - With the main economic support of the nomadic Indians thus gone, once peaceful tribes become militant




1874 1886	- In the Southwest, the Navajos and Apaches fight a regular war in Arizona and New Mexico; both are eventually defeated and forced onto reservations - The most famous Indian wars are fought on the Plains with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, Apache, Kiowa, and Comanche Indians, who are skilled horsemen and warriors - The Red River war breaks out on the southern Plains - The rebel Indians are chased across the plains and eventually defeated by five separate army columns - Geronimo, an Apache chief in Arizona, surrenders after ten years of fighting and is exiled to Florida and then to Oklahoma; this ends organized resistance of Native Americans in the Southwest
1862	- In the northern Plains, the wars begin with the Sioux uprising in Minnesota under chieftain Little Crow
1864	- Troops attack an Indian camp at Sand Creek in Colorado, killing about 300 unsuspecting Cheyenne, most of them women and children
1865-1868	- The Sioux resist the whites successfully in the north - As a result reservation boundaries are negotiated with commissioners sent out by Congress - The Indian Peace Commission creates two reservations, one in Oklahoma and one in the Dakotas, for all Plains Indians
1874 1885	- An expedition led by General George Armstrong Custer discovers gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Sioux tribal homeland guaranteed to them "forever" by a treaty from 1868 - They decide to defend the place against white gold-diggers - Custer is defeated by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull at the Battle of the Little Big Horn River in Montana when his soldiers (over 200 men) are ambushed and killed - The event is known as "Custer's Last Stand" - But in the months that follow the Indians are scattered into small bands and hunted down by federal troops; by 1877 they are squeezed into reservations or driven to Canada - Crazy Horse is imprisoned after he refuses to stay on the reservation and is stabbed to death (probably by another Indian) while in military custody - Sitting Bull escapes to Canada - He is allowed to return to the US and tours with Buffalo Bill's "Wild West Show"
1889	- Wovoka, an Indian prophet who sees himself as a messiah, begins preaching the "Ghost Dance" religion on Indian reservations in the West - The government tries to put an end to the movement by rounding up




1890	its leaders - Suspected of being at the head of the "Ghost Dance" movement, Sitting Bull is killed by an Indian employed by the army - After Sitting Bull is killed by Indian police, some of his followers are surrounded by federal troops at Wounded Knee Creek and ordered to surrender - Shots are fired and eventually 200 Indians (including women and children) are killed - The Wounded Knee massacre marks the end of Indian resistance
	- The white man not only wants to take the Indians' land but also force them to adopt his style of life - The Indian reservations are run by various religious denominations and old tribal rituals, customs and traditions are suppressed and various brands of Christianity are taught - There are about 170 reservations, whose lands are usually very poor, so the Indians depend largely on what the federal government gives them - They are often cheated out of their best land, so by the end of the 19th century 60% of reservation land ends up in white hands
1887	- The Dawes Severalty Act is passed by Congress which provides for 160 acres to be given individually to each Indian family; those who renounce tribal life are promised US citizenship - It is an attempt to force the Indians to abandon the traditional communal, tribal system of land ownership and deal with them singly - The real purpose of the Dawes Act is to make reservation land available for white settlement - Many Indians will prove to be poor farmers and will sell their land to white farmers and speculators - Those who resist assimilation are punished by having their children sent to boarding schools in distant places, where the children are forced to wear school uniforms, speak English and forget about tribal life
	- Many agents working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs are crooks and plain thieves who make fortunes selling out the interests of those whom they are to protect
1889	- Under pressures from white farmers, the federal government opens up for settlement Oklahoma, the region which was since 1834 reserved for the Indians - An estimated 50,000 settlers grab 2 million acres of land in one afternoon on April 2 - As a result of a whole series of "land runs" the Indians are left homeless
	A Series of Frontiers
	- By 1860 there are two chief frontiers:




	- the borders of the Great Plains - the mining frontier of the far West
	- Between 1860 and 1890 the space between the two frontiers is settled by cattlemen and farmers, who are preceded by miners
	- After the first gold rush in 1849 in Sacramento Valley, California, come new strikes in Colorado (1858, Pike's Peak), Nevada (1859, the Comstock Lode yields about 350 million dollars in gold and silver in twenty years), Arizona, Montana, Idaho, and Dakota (Black Hills, 1874-76) - The frontier begins to move eastward - The last of the gold rushes is the Klondike gold rush to Alaska in 1897-98
	- The gold rushes in America double the world's gold supply and huge silver discoveries change the world currency situation - They help to support the construction and operation of seven transcontinental railroads
	- Rich strikes produce shanty towns with countless bars, brothels, gambling houses, etc. - The boom towns flourish during the boom and are later abandoned and left as ghost towns
	The Cattle Kingdom
	- Once the threat of Indian attacks is removed, the Plains open up for the white man's exploration
	- The treeless grasslands turn out to be ideal for grazing livestock
	- At the same time the development of transcontinental railroads provides the way to ship the cattle to the East
	- Texas ranchers begin to send their cattle north to feed freely on the open range, which is still part of the public domain - Driven by cowboys along the trails, the cattle fatten on the way to the central and northeastern Plains and are shipped by train to packinghouses in Midwestern cities
	- There are four main trails to the cow towns rail centers northward: - the Goodnight-Loving Trail, ending at Cheyenne, Wyoming - the Western Trail, ending at Dodge City, Kansas - the Chisholm Trail, ending at Ellsworth, Abilene, or Wichita, all in Kansas - the Sedalia Trail, ending at Sedalia or Kansas City, both in Missouri
	- Some cattle are driven directly to gold and silver mining camps to feed mining communities
	- The cowboy rapidly becomes a folk hero
1875-1885	- The so-called cattle kingdom booms on the Plains - During this time almost 300,000 cattle annually are fattened on the free pastures of the Plains and shipped to the East




1885-1887	- A succession of extremely cold winters and hot summers brings the cattle kingdom down as millions of cattle die on the open range before reaching their destination - The large corporations, both American and foreign, which have invested in the cattle kingdom go bankrupt
	- The farmers' frontier moves onto the Plains, which means fencing of the grazing lands - Also, farm breeding of cattle in the Midwest turns out to be too competitive
	- The introduction of sheep onto the Plains contributes to the downfall of the cattle kingdom as sheep destroy the range
	The Farmers' Frontier
	- From the outset federal laws aim to pass the public lands into private hands as quickly as possible
	- Yet, although the government hopes to encourage individual family homestead farms, federal laws actually help large corporations to buy and resell the land
	- The cost of public land and the minimum lot size are reduced over the years to help small farmers
	- Land can also be acquired by squatting upon it before it is opened up for public sale
1841	- Under the Preemption Act, squatters have the right to buy land at the minimum price of 1.25 dollars an acre
	- But labor groups in the East want the government to distribute public land freely as a means of drawing off excess labor from the East and causing a rise in wages
1848	- The Free Soil party is created
1862	- But it is only during the Civil War that the federal government decides to give in to the demand of the free-soilers - The Homestead Act is passed which provides that any citizen or intended citizen who is either 21 years old or the head of a family can get 160 acres of land for free and become owner after five years of continued residence - Some 400,000 settlers will become homesteaders
	- The problem, however, is that the 160-acre size is inadequate for the conditions of the West (not enough water) - So Congress passes a series of other acts which provide for free distribution of public land in exchange for the planting of trees, building private irrigation system, etc.
1862	- The Morrill Act provides land grants for the establishment of agricultural colleges to teach modern methods of farming (each state receives 30,000 acres for every congressman it has to fund a college); many will be later transformed into leading state universities in the




	Midwest
	- More important than Congressional acts in advancing the westward movement of the farmers' frontier are technical advances in farming methods - Cultivation of the Plains is made possible by mechanization
1834 1880	- The first mechanical reaper is patented by Cyrus McCormick - The reaping and threshing processes are combined in one machine - the combine harvester - The large combines are powered by horses and mules - the famous "thirty-mule team"
1874	- Farmers want to enclose the open ranges of the Plains, but the region lacks the timber for building wooden fences - Joseph F. Glidden invents the barbed wire - it takes up no ground space or soil, does not create shade, can be easily erected, and is not affected by the weather
1868	- James Oliver patents a chilled-iron plow with a mirror smooth, chilled-iron moldboard - it becomes known as "the plow that broke the Plains"
	- As a result of mechanization, farm output triples in value
1862	- The Department of Agriculture is created which sponsors scientific research and experiments in agriculture
	- The farm revolution is accompanied by parallel developments in industry - Agricultural industries develop (farm machinery production) and technologies for storing and milling grain are developed - Some cities flourish as food-processing centers (Chicago)
	- Gustavus Swift is the first to slaughter cattle in Chicago for shipment East; he introduces refrigerated railroad cars and pioneers manufacture of meat by-products - fertilizers, soap, glue, lard, tallow, etc.
	- Most of the farmers in the prairie states come from the older states, but about 40% are foreign immigrants, chiefly Scandinavians, Germans, Poles, and Czechs
	- The farmers, attracted by cheap land, improves rail transportation and the new opportunities resulting from mechanization, are the last group to settle the West
1890	- Although much western land still remains to be settled, the Bureau of the Census announces the end of the frontier line
1893	- Frederick Jackson Turner delivers his paper called "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago - He argues in it that the existence of the frontier throughout American history has been the single most unique and influential factor that determined the development of American society - a place of




	opportunity that served as a "safety valve" for social and political tensions
	THE MACHINE AGE: THE ROBBER BARONS AND INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM
	- The Period between the Civil War and World War I is the classic period of Victorian capitalist expansion based on the doctrine of laissez-faire, which favors the free play of individual initiative
	- The basis for economic expansion is development of heavy industries, which sell their output mainly to other industries - It is, thus, producers' goods capitalism - goods to make other goods, such as structural steel, coal for factory use, and timber for railroads - Some consumer industries develop as well - meatpacking, stove manufacture, kerosene refining, etc.
	- The necessary conditions to create a successful industrial society are: rich natural, human and capital resources, a market of adequate size, and supportive national values and institutions
	- America owns almost half of the world's known iron, 2/3 of its copper, 1/3 of its lead, abundant coal supplies, forests rich in timber, large farming areas, rich sources of other minerals like oil, sulfur, salt, and precious metals
	- Following the Civil War, there is an adequate labor supply - war veterans, women and children (whose employment is not restricted), and millions of immigrants from eastern and Southern Europe - The mass migration and the opening of the West creates a huge domestic market
	- Crucial to the development of the market is the development of transportation - the network of highways, canals, and railroads which put all parts of the market within reach of the manufacturing centers in the East
	- The federal government supports industrial growth by passing protective tariffs and other acts (the Homestead Act, the Pacific Railway Act, the National Bank Act)
	- The character and the attitudes of the nation are being shaped by various champions of the cult of success - Russell Conwell, a Baptist minister, writes several best-selling books and gives the same lecture, "Acres of Diamonds," more than five thousand times to audiences across the country, reaching several million people in all - His message is that anyone can get rich if he tries hard enough - He writes: "I say you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich... The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community. Let me say here clearly ... ninety-eight out of one hundred of the rich men of America are honest. That is why they are




	rich... I sympathize with the poor, but the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small. To sympathize with a man whom God has punished for his sins ... is to do wrong ... Let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings."
	The Railroad Systems
	- The railroads play the most important role in the process of industrialization by uniting all sections of the country, bringing raw materials and foodstuffs to the industrial centers and carrying finished products to the domestic markets and to ports of shipment for foreign trade
	- In the eastern states railroad construction develops greatly in the 1850s - It is halted when the Civil War breaks out and then is resumed after the war ends
	- The tendency is toward consolidation of shorter rail lines
	- A number of great rail systems are established; - the New York Central, from New York City to Chicago (owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt) - the Erie (in New York state) - the Atlantic Coast Line - the Pennsylvania - the Illinois Central (from Chicago to New Orleans)
1862 1869	- The federal government charters two railroad companies to build a railroad from the western border of Nebraska to the eastern border of California - The companies are given land occupied by the tracks and a grant of ten square miles of public land for every mile of tracks they lay and up to 48 thousand dollars in loans per route mile (later the land grant is doubled and more credit is offered) - The Union Pacific starts from Nebraska and the Central Pacific from Sacramento in California - The construction is done by three thousand Irish and ten thousand Chinese over a period of four years - Both railroads use longer, twisting routes to get subsidies from the towns they go through - They meet in Utah at Promontory Point and on May 10 their tracks are joined by a golden spike
1872	- The owners of the companies make fortunes on the entire undertaking by making contracts with themselves - they create construction firms and overpay them for construction - The Credit Mobilier scandal erupts in the press - In order to prevent congressional investigation, one of the directors of the companies involved in the construction of the transcontinental




	railroad offers shares to congressmen, Cabinet officers, and even to Vice-President Schuyler Colfax
	- By 1890 twelve important rail system have been built west of the Mississippi, including six transcontinental ones - They are organized by a handful of powerful, often unscrupulous "railroad kings" - The capital for construction comes from the sale by the railroads of much of the land granted by the federal and state governments (more than 185 million acres of land are granted to railroad corporations), loans from local governments eager for rail facilities, and from private (often foreign, especially British) investors
	- James J. Hill, owner of the Northern Pacific, deliberately colonizes the West - He offers cheap passage for willing farmers who agree to settle near his western tracks - He also sends agents to Europe to attract immigration and has newcomers met at New York and safely transported to the West - He builds entire towns with churches, schools, banks, and services
	- Other railroad kings are less interested in meeting the people's needs and more in making profits - Jay Gould becomes famous for corruption and speculation
	The Robber Barons
	- The railroad kings are the first of the so-called "Robber Barons," the most enterprising businessmen who are responsible for the industrial boom
	- The development of the railroads would not be possible without the development of a steel industry - The Pittsburgh-Midwest complex develops, including new industrial cities on the Great Lakes like Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee - Pittsburgh becomes the industrial center of a region rich in oil, coal and gas - It is within easy reach from lake Superior's open-cast pits where iron ore is exploited - Later huge deposits of easily accessible iron ore are discovered in Minnesota - the Mesabi Range - In the South, steel production develops in Birmingham in Alabama
	- Smaller firms, involved in various stages of production, begin to merge into larger corporations
	- Andrew Carnegie becomes the first steel king - A poor immigrant from Scotland, he begins as a telegraph clerk at the age of 17, but within a few years builds one of the largest fortunes in America




1880 1901	- The Carnegie Steel Company has a monopoly of the steel industry - When he sells out to J.P. Morgan for nearly 500 million dollars, his company is turned into the giant US Steel Corporation - After retiring from business, Carnegie will promote his "gospel of wealth," a philosophy based on social Darwinism ("survival of the fittest") according to which wealthy people have an obligation to society and should use their wealth to advance social causes through philanthropy
	- J.P. Morgan, the son of a banker, begins by investing in railroads after the Civil War - By the end of the century, his J.P. Morgan and Co., an investment banking house, gathers an inner group of financiers and bankers who virtually control the nation's economy through gentleman's agreements, interlocking directorates and other devices - Morgan's company owns 32 railroad systems, 34 banks, 10 insurance firms, and numerous industrial corporations - The US Steel becomes the first billion dollar corporation in the world
1859 1870 1882 1899	- Another fortune is made by John D. Rockefeller - He starts as a bookkeeper in Cleveland, then becomes a merchant and begins to accumulate money - When oil is discovered in Pennsylvania, Rockefeller opens a refinery in Cleveland realizing that by operating refineries he will be able to control the whole oil industry - The Standard Oil Company of Ohio is incorporated in Cleveland - Rockefeller organizes the Standard Oil Trust (which includes 77 companies - 90% of the nation's oil refineries and pipelines - whose total stock is held in trust by a nine-member board) to bypass the laws of individual states which set limits to the running of his organization - The trust is immediately successful and becomes the example upon which other large corporations will model their organization - Rockefeller makes secret agreements with railroads to ship oil with them if they gave him discounts; he thus drives the competition out of business - He develops the use of railroad tank cars and oil pipelines - Standard Oil is a holding company which controls many other companies - Rockefeller soon moves into iron, copper, coal, shipping, and banking (he creates the Chase Manhattan Bank) - He lives 98 years and makes about 2 billion dollars in his lifetime, by the end of the 19th century becoming the richest man alive
	- The "Robber Barons" realize that unrestrained competition is an evil and they use various devices which are to guarantee secure dominant positions to their corporations in their particular fields of production




	- The pool is one such device - it takes the form of an agreement by which several supposedly competing companies establish prices, regulate output, and divide markets among themselves - But a pool is only an informal, gentlemen's agreement, not recognized by law, so it can be easily broken
	- That is why the trust is invented and first tested by Rockefeller - It is a plan under which a group of corporations entrust their stocks to a small board of trustees, which is authorized to control the whole combination of companies - The original stockholders of the various corporations are entitled to dividends from the earnings of the trust
	- When some states pass anti-trust laws on the ground that trusts restrain trade, the holding company is developed - it is a corporation that gets control of other companies by buying them or by securing majority stock control while member firms remain theoretically independent - The system works through interlocking directorships - one man may serve on the boards of several companies - Morgan's group has 341 directorships in 112 corporations, which are worth 22 billion dollars
	- Many Americans are suspicious of all big corporations because of their monopolistic character - But the Supreme Court in a number of cases interprets the 14th Amendment so as to protect corporations against any state legislation (corporations are chartered by states) that might deprive them of "life, liberty or property without due process of law" (corporations are considered persons under the law)
1890	- The Sherman Antitrust Act is passed which prohibits monopolies by declaring illegal "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce" - However, holding companies remain beyond the reach of the act being financial agreements rather than industrial corporations - At the same time, the act will be used by companies to stop labor unions from organizing strikes (defined as conspiracies in restraint of trade) - Moreover, the government will not use the act too often and the Supreme Court will interpret it as applying to monopolies of interstate commerce and not to manufacturing
	- Many things in the political and legal system in fact encourage trustification - For instance, patent laws give inventors exclusive rights for 17 years, so it is enough for a firm simply to buy up patent rights in a given field and thus exclude rivals




	- The United Shoe Machinery Company excludes competition in the shoe industry by buying up 6,000 patents covering all aspects of shoe manufacture
	- Protective tariffs passed by Congress which are to protect national industries against foreign competition in fact help trusts in fixing prices and making high profits by excluding low-priced foreign goods
	IMMIGRANTS AND THE CITY FRONTIER
	- The Economic boom of the post-Civil War period creates the large American city - The big cities become the domain of immigrants - The proportion of the population mix changes over time
	- Already in 1790 it is estimated that the culturally dominant English group constitutes less than half of the nation's population - ^lA are of African descent, another ^lA are European, including Irish, Scotch-Irish, Scotch, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, and others
	- As a result of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the acquisition of Florida, numerous Spanish are added
	- The influx of immigrants in the 19th century happens in two major phases: (1) between 1820 and 1860 and (2) after the Civil War
	- In the first phase the largest group are the 1.6 million Irish, 1.5 Germans, 800,000 British immigrants
	- The second wave is a real flood - during the first ten years after the Civil War 3,250,000 immigrants arrive - The structure of this second-wave, or "new," immigration is different from the previous, "old" one - the "old" immigrants came mostly from Northwestern Europe, while the "new" come chiefly from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe - The "new' immigrants are predominantly Catholic, Jewish, or Orthodox in religion and peasant in background - They are believed to be less skilled, less literate, and more difficult to assimilate that the "old" immigrants - They are ideal material as factory hands for mass production
	- In the 1860s the steam-powered ship is introduced on the Atlantic crossing which makes possible the construction of special passenger liners
	- Between 1860 and the 1920s the structure of European immigration is as follows: - Britain - 4 million, Ireland - 2.5, Scandinavia - 2.2, Italy - 4.6, Germany - 4.5, Russia - 3.4, Poland - 1 - The immigrants are an enormous gift to the US - most of them are men of working age (80% between 14 and 44 years)
	- The Germans, who escape from oppressive taxation, military service and economic instability, are excellent farmers; they also establish the




	great brewing industry in Midwestern cities like St. Louis and Milwaukee
	- The Scandinavians are also excellent farmers - they settle in Minnesota and the nearby countryside, which is very much like their home country
	- The Irish mostly find employment as unskilled workers, taking the toughest jobs; Irish girls are popular as domestic servants - The Irish dominate the Catholic Church in the US
	- The British are often skilled workers and quickly advance to commanding positions as foremen, managers, and trade union organizers - American employers often find British immigrants arrogant and well- organized
	- Two noticeable groups which are not assimilated either to each other or to Protestant America are Jews and Catholics - Members of each group live together, go to school together, intermarry, and cultivate their native languages and traditions
	- By World War I there are about 2.25 million Jews in the US, although the exact figure is difficult to estimate since Jews are neither a nationality nor a race - they are Polish, German, Russian, etc. - German Jews assimilate relatively quickly, while East European Jews, who are much more conservative in religious matters, live together in large informal ghettos (about 400,000 in New York City) - Most Jews are working class, but many of them advance quickly thanks to their strict family ideals, care for education and self- improvement
	- Catholic Americans are divided by nationality - Irish, German, Polish, Italian, Puerto Rican, Chicano, or Cuban - but the church is dominated by the Irish and Germans - The Catholic Church rapidly grows as the number of immigrants from Catholic countries increases - by 1900 it has about 12 million followers - Catholicism remains for a long time a working class religion and Catholics rarely occupy high offices in politics or business - The Protestant upper classes prevent Jews and Catholics from entering the establishment - Upper class Jews and Catholics are not recognized and have to form their own organizations and clubs
	- Italians are the most typical of the "new" immigrants - They are the largest immigrant group after 1900 - Most of them are men who want to earn enough money in America to return home to their villages and live in dignity; almost 30% come from Sicily - They mostly live in the big cities (only 10% find employment in




	agriculture); because they are very poor, they are often willing to act as strikebreakers - They monopolize street cleaning, building of subways and public construction in general, work as barbers (they eliminate French barbers) and waiters (they eliminate blacks) - They are organized under the padrone system - an established Italian- American work-boss meets the new arrivals at the docks, puts them into work-gangs, and performs many social and advisory services for them (negotiating with the police, interpreting, banking, etc.) - They live in tight communities, called "little Italies" - They struggle with the Irish, who have dominated the Church - It takes some time before they build their own churches with their own priests (they have different saints and different feast days) - Most Irish-Americans support the Republican Party, most Italians - the Democratic party - It is only in 1928 that American Catholics unite in the Democratic Party when Al Smith becomes the first Catholic nominee for the presidency - Their most famous statesman is Fiorello La Guardia, a Congressman in the 1920s and mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945
	- The Polish immigration on a larger scale starts after 1865 - most immigrants are peasants, originally from the German sector of partitioned Poland, but later also from the Austrian and the Russian sectors - Most of them settle in Northeastern states (especially New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) and the Midwest (Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin) - They work as factory hands, miners, or small farmers in suburban areas
	- About 2 million Canadians settle in the US, entering through the largely unchecked boundary between the two countries - most of them are Protestants (as opposed to French Canadians from Quebec)
	- In the first decades of the 20th century several hundred thousand Mexicans cross the border and find employment on the cotton, rice, citrus, beet, and vegetable farms in California, New Mexico and Texas; but many also go to the northern cities, particularly Chicago - On the social ladder they are between Poles and Italians on one side and blacks on the other
1871 1882	- The worst legal discrimination is suffered by Asians - The Chinese immigration starts in the 1860s when Chinese contract laborers are brought over to build the Central Pacific railroad - They are not accepted by the white population - during a riot in Los Angeles 23 Chinese are lynched (there are 6,000 in town) - The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed by Congress - it is renewed




1886	every ten years and becomes permanent in 1902 (the law will only be changed in 1943) - Riots break out against the Chinese in Seattle, Washington; at least 400 Chinese are forcibly removed from their homes; federal troops are required to restore order
1907	- The fate of Japanese immigrants is similar - After 1885 about 100,000 Japanese settle in California, where they are hated by white workers because they are ready to work for lower wages - they are called the "yellow peril" - The Congress is ready to pass an exclusion law but a secret agreement (called the "gentlemen's agreement") is reached between the governments of the US and Japan to stop Japanese immigration - When a new immigration law is passed in 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Act) giving specific nations an annual quota (2% of the nationality's total US population in 1890), the Chinese and the Japanese are excluded from the system - During World War II Japanese-Americans will be interned in camps
1892 1906	- In the 19th century immigration is largely uncontrolled by the government - Ellis Island opens in New York City - It will process over 20 million immigrants before it closes in 1954 - The Federal Bureau of Immigration is founded
	THE CITY FRONTIER
	- The cities in which most immigrants settle come to dominate American society and culture - The urbanization of the US reflects the rate of immigration - The South stays relatively non-urban and attracts few immigrants, while in the North 75% of the population lives in cities (in 1920, 51% of all Americans live in cities) - Besides immigrants, rural and small town Americans also move into cities, seeking job opportunities, higher wages, entertainment, and other advantages of city life
1871	- The cities develop very quickly, in an unplanned manner, and are poorly administered, which creates opportunities for corruption and provides for the emergence of city bosses whose political power is based on immigrant voters - A classic example is New York's Tweed Ring - William "Boss" Tweed's gang swindles New York City out of 100 million dollars by bribery, high price city contracts, etc. - In 1868 Tweed becomes a state senator and forces through the legislature a new city charter which gives his ring total control of the city's finances - Tweed is exposed in a series of articles published in the New York




	Times - He is convicted on corruption charges and spends the rest of his life in jail - New York City is no exception - in other large cities machines like the Tweed Ring win control and power by offering jobs or giving help with police and judges for votes
	- City construction is the nation's largest single industry after the transcontinental railroads are finished - Many innovations are introduced which make possible the building of houses, factories, and offices
1871	- A fire destroys 4 square miles of Chicago's downtown area, killing 300 people and leaving 90,000 homeless
1884	- The world's first true "skyscraper" - the ten-story building of the Home Life Insurance Company - is constructed in Chicago - The invention of the steel skeleton upon which floors and walls are hung is one of the biggest steps ever made in architecture - Chicago, the nation's second largest city by 1890 (1 million inhabitants), is the center of architectural innovation
	- The housing situation is tragic in some cities, with the concentration of people reaching 447 per acre in New York City (it is 100 in Berlin and 130 in Paris) - Cities do not have street paving, sewage removal and pure water supplies
1878 1880 1882	- Thomas Edison establishes the Edison Electric Light Company; it soon eats up its rivals and becomes General Electric - Edison perfects the electric bulb - Edison's steam powered central station begins to supply electricity and the first electric street lights appear in New York - He patents over 1,000 inventions, including, in 1887, the phonograph
	- The question of city traffic is one of the most important issues - The concentration of high-rise buildings in downtown sections results in traffic jams and transportation problems - Early solutions include the horse-drawn omnibus (first introduced in the 1830s) and the horse railway (1850s); in the 1870s and 1880s the electric-powered streetcar is introduced, then the overhead railway (New York's "El" is built in the 1870s), the subway (Boston, 1890s), and the cable car (San Francisco) - White-collar districts begin to develop in the suburbs
	LABOR MOVEMENTS
	- The most important effect of industrialization for the American workingman is the transformation of the skilled craftsman into a factory worker - This means the loss of the bargaining power that his skills and tools




	gave him in the past - Competition for jobs increases as a result of the increased employment of women, children, and freedmen
	- Employers use several tactics to prevent the emergence of strong labor unions: - the "yellow dog" contract - a worker's agreement not to join a union during the period of his employment - the blacklist - circulated among employers to identify troublemakers - the injunction - an order issued by a court prohibiting certain acts, such as, for instance, sit-in strikes or boycotts - use of strikebreakers (called "scabs") to fill the jobs of striking workers - the open shop - employment is not determined by union membership or nonmembership
1869 1886	- The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor is founded - A very democratic and progressive organization, it admits both skilled and unskilled workers and will use both arbitration and strikes and boycotts to achieve its goals - Its membership will reach 700,000 within the next 15 years - It begins to decline after a series of unsuccessful strikes
1881 1886	- Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States is formed - The American Federation of Labor is organized by Gompers - He will hold the position of the president (except for one term) for almost 40 years - The union does not attack the capitalist system but criticizes its imperfections; it does not affiliate itself with any political party or adopt any ideology - It is conservative and gathers only skilled workers, excluding blacks and immigrants - It relies on professional organizers and trained clerical staff - By 1900 its membership will reach 500,000
1905	- The Industrial Workers of the World ("Wobblies") is founded to oppose the conservative policies of unions like the American Federation of Labor - This radical organization attracts mostly unskilled workers (miners, lumbermen) but wants to unite all labor in a single trade union - Its membership never exceeds 60,000 and it declines after 1913 - During and after World War I many of its members are sentenced to prison terms for opposing American entry into the war
1880-1900	- Close to 25,000 strikes are staged involving more than 6 million workers - Almost half of them ends in failure while another 15% end in




	compromise
1877	- The Great Railroad Strike begins in the Eastern states and spreads to some areas west of the Mississippi when the railroads cut wages by 10 percent - The strike lasts over two weeks and violence and bloodshed result - It is finally broken by federal troops sent in by President Hayes and the workers go back to work at even lower wages
1886	- A protest meeting in Haymarket Square in Chicago is interrupted by a bomb thrown among the police trying to disperse the crowd; seven policemen are killed and 60 people are wounded - Eight anarchists are arrested and found guilty of murder (four are hanged, one commits suicide, and three are imprisoned)
	- In the public mind, labor strife begins to be associated with violence and anarchy
1892	- The Homestead Steel Strike erupts at Carnegie's steel mill in Pennsylvania - The strike lasts five months and is a landmark in the history of the U.S. labor movement - 300 Pinkerton detectives are brought to protect strikebreakers and the management gets the governor to send in 7,000 militiamen; the strike leaves ten people dead; only 20% of the 24,000 strikers are taken back by Carnegie Steel, while the rest are blacklisted by many employers - The union which organized the strike collapses
1894	- Pullman Palace Car Company workers in Pullman near Chicago strike in protest of the reduction in wages - Members of the American Railway Union support them in a sympathy strike, paralyzing most of the railroads in the Midwestern United States - they refuse to handle trains carrying Pullman cars - The federal government accuses the strikers of "interfering with interstate commerce and postal service" (the fact that the Pullman cars do not carry mail is disregarded by the authorities) - A court injunction orders the strikers to end the protest - Federal troops are sent to enforce the order - The strike's initiator, Eugene V. Debs, is tried for refusing to obey the injunction and is sent to prison
1892	- Although the Sherman Antitrust Act is sometimes used against the unions (declared to be "conspiracies in restraint of trade"), some of their objectives are eventually enacted into law - The eight-hour workday is established for all federal employees and by decisions of the Supreme Court maximum working hours are set for women and children
	THE FARMERS' REVOLT
	- The post-Civil War period is a time of rapid economic growth on the




	one hand and social unrest and change on the other - Especially among farmers discontent is high - They are isolated and thus denied the advantages and conveniences of city life - Their income is dependent on weather conditions, which are unpredictable - They have to pay high prices for farm machinery and all city-made goods and are charged excessive rates for shipping their crops to markets - They pay higher taxes as owners of landed property than industrial workers or businessmen - Their profits are reduced by competition on international markets from Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Russia - As a result, they claim, despite the economic growth of the country in general they are not getting their share of the national income - To help themselves they begin to join a number of organizations and to support various movements
1867	- The first organization of American farmers, known as the Grange (the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry), is founded to provide social and educational opportunities for rural inhabitants - It promotes new scientific agricultural techniques and organizes farmers in their struggle against the monopolistic practices of the railroads and grain elevator owners - However, most cooperatives created by members of the Grange collapse eventually as a result of inexperienced and inefficient management and the aggressive hostility of private competitors
1873	- The first Farmers' Alliances are created - Their efforts will result in the creation of the Populist Party in 1891; its candidates will run for the presidency between 1892-1908
	- Historically, farmers are debtors and victims of economic crises - That is why they support inflation, that is, cheap money - paper money issued without the backing of gold or silver - 420 million "greenback" paper dollars are issued by the federal government during the Civil War to help pay for the Union's military effort - After the war the Greenback Movement emerges and, in 1875, the National Greenback Party is formed but it will decline in the 1890s
1880	- The National Farmers' Alliance is created - The organization has two branches - the Northwestern and the Southern Farmers' Alliance - The Southern branch is more powerful as it is joined by all kinds of farmers - tenants, sharecroppers, farm-owners, and farm-workers (but not blacks)




	- By 1888 its membership reaches 3 millions
1892 1902	- The National Farmers' Alliance founds a "third" party, called the Populist Party, which gathers many Grangers, Greenbackers, and Laborites (supporters of the National Labor Reform Party) - Over one million voters support the Populist Party candidate in the presidential elections - The party's demands include government ownership of railroads, telegraphs and telephones, free coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, an eight hour day, popular election of senators, and the secret ballot - The Populists will form a coalition with the Democrats, but they will be defeated by the Republicans - The Republicans' victory is a triumph of the cities, whose inhabitants vote for "sound money," protective tariffs, and generally for pro-big- business attitudes - The Populists fail as a party but as a reform movement they will see many of their objectives taken up by the Progressives at the beginning of the 20th century
	* * *
1867	- The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars and annexes the Midway Islands
1872	- The Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming) is established for the enjoyment of the public
1873	- The "Salary Grab" - Congress votes salary increases to members of all three branches of the federal government, including a 50% retroactive increase for congressmen and senators; public protest forces Congress to repeal its own "back-pay steal" the following year
1873-1879	- The United States experiences an economic depression - over 5,000 companies go out of business after a stock market panic, the result of overtrading, overproduction, and overspeculation - By 1879, 10,478 businesses will have closed and 3 million men lost their jobs
1876	- The United States celebrates 100 years as a nation - The Centennial Exposition is opened by President Grant in Philadelphia in May - The focus of the fair is Machinery Hall, a 13-acre building that displays America's inventions of recent decades, including the telephone (just invented by Alexander Graham Bell), the telegraph, the mimeograph, and a 2,500 horsepower engine, later bought by the Pullman sleeper-car factory - In the six months the fair is open, almost 10,000,000 people visit its grounds
1880	- The population of the United States has reached 50,100,000, of which




	6,600,000 are foreign born
1880	- Railroad mileage reaches 93,000
1880 1895	- George Eastman patents a roll of film for cameras - Eastman's daylight loading Kodak pocket camera is introduced
1881	- Republican James Garfield becomes president - He is a supporter of civil service reform - July 2, the president is shot by a disappointed office seeker named Charles J. Guiteau - Garfield dies two months later and vice-president Chester A. Arthur replaces him in the White House
1881 1887 1893 1898	- The Hawaiian Islands are declared to be part of the American system - The Senate ratifies a treaty with Hawaii guaranteeing the US sole rights to build a naval base at Pearl Harbor - Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii is overthrown by powerful American settlers (sugar planters), who establish the Republic of Hawaii - The Senate declares that Hawaii is to keep its own government, and warns that any nation interfering with that government will be considered hostile to the US - In 1898 Hawaii is finally annexed by the US
1882 1894	- The first parade is held in New York City to honor the observance of Labor Day - Congress declares the first Monday in September National Labor day and a legal holiday - it is a sign that the labor movement and the status of labor are becoming central to the nation's concerns
1882	- The Immigration Act denies entry into the US to undesirables like criminals, the insane, etc.
1883	- The Pendleton Act is passed, providing for competitive examinations before the Civil Service Commission to determine the qualifications of candidates for federal offices - 10% of government jobs are to be available under the new "merit system"
1883	Begun in 1869, the Brooklyn Bridge is completed and opened by Chester A. Arthur and New York Governor Grover Cleveland - New Yorkers are convinced that it is the eighth wonder of the world
1885 1889	- Democrat Grover Cleveland becomes president - He will expand the merit system by adding 12,000 positions to the civil service list - He believes the government should not become involved in economic and social problems - Despite his support for the idea of minimal government, during his first term the administration is expanded when the Department of Agriculture is created
1885	- The American Economic Association is established when a group of young economists become disillusioned with the premises standing




	behind the philosophy of laissez-faire, this despite the fact that America is now the world's leading industrial power - They argue that the state must contribute actively in the way of "positive aid" to prevent further degradation of the working class or the "American Dream" will turn into a nightmare of class warfare - WoodroW Wilson and Henry Adams are among the 186 founding members
1886	- The Statue of Liberty, a gift to the United States from France, is unveiled in New York City harbor
1887	- The Interstate Commerce Act is passed, giving the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to control the unfair practices of the railroads (pooling agreements, discriminatory rates for small shippers like farmers, secret rebates to large shippers)
1888	- Congress establishes the Department of Labor
1888	- Republican Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, is elected president
1888	On the theory that prosperity flows directly from protection, tariffs are raised to the unprecedented rate of approximately 50%
1893	- President Cleveland is inaugurated for a second term after winning the 1892 election (the only instance of two nonconsecutive terms in the White House)
1893	- The Panic of 1893 - four years of deep depression begin with the crash of the New York Stock Market - Unemployment reaches 20 percent, the highest level in American history up to that time
1894	- Jacob S. Coxey, a Populist, leads 500 people, known as "Coxey's Army," from Ohio to Washington, D.C. in protest against unemployment - Underlying their protests is their sense that the government refuses to protect working people against exploitation - Coxey is arrested for walking on the Capitol lawn and the "army" melts away
1895	- A boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana almost leads to a war - The United States threatens to intervene militarily if the British, who are accused of violating the Monroe Doctrine, do not accept international arbitration - The British give in and an open conflict is avoided
1895	- Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks dies (the fifth vice-president to die in office) - this prompts the Congress to pass, in 1896, the Presidential Succession Act - members of the cabinet, in order of the creation of their offices, should succeed to the duties of the presidency if the president and /or vice-president is unable to serve, dies, resigns or




	is removed from office
1896	- Republican William McKinley wins the presidential election
1898	- New York City's population of almost 3.5 million makes it the second largest city in the world
	THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
1895	- Supported by American sugar planters, Cubans revolt against Spanish rule - General Valeriano Weyler is sent from Spain to put down the uprising - Disgusted by Weyler's "reconcentration" policy, Americans sympathize with the Cubans - The "Yellow Press," led by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, fans the flames of imperialism
1898	- A letter written by Duprey de Lome, Spanish minister to the US, to a friend in Cuba, is published in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal and reprinted in other newspapers across the country; it describes President McKinley as a weak man
1898	- The battleship Maine blows up in Havana harbor, killing over 260 of its crew - "Remember the Maine" becomes the rally cry when the Spanish- American war break out
1898	- President McKinley delivers his war message to Congress - When a war resolution is adopted, Spain breaks off diplomatic relations with the US
1898	- The "Rough Riders," or volunteer cavalry, is organized in April - Theodore Roosevelt resigns his post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy to become second in command of the Rough Riders
1898	- On May 1, Admiral Dewey attacks the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines - The battle lasts seven hours and Spain loses 381 sailors and all its ships; there is no damage to US vessels, and only eight men are wounded
1898	- On June 10, 647 American Marines land at Guantanamo Bay, beginning the invasion of Cuba - June 20, 17,000 American troops, including Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders," invade Santiago - July 1, Theodore Roosevelt leads two regiments into a charge up San Juan Hill, which is taken by the end of the day - July 26, three months after it began, the war is ended; 5,000 soldiers are dead, but only 379 are battle casualties - the rest die from food poisoning, diseases, accidents, etc.
1898	- Under the Treaty of Paris (signed in December) Spain cedes the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the US (the US pays over $400 million for these territories)




1899	- The US asks for an "open door" policy by which all nations will receive equal treatment from China - The US, Germany, and Great Britain peacefully resolve a conflict over control of Samoa and other Pacific islands (the US needs Pacific islands as coaling stations where steamboats sailing from America to the Far East can refuel)
1899 1901 1902	- An insurrection against American presence in the Philippines breaks out - The Philippine-American war ends with American victory - The Philippine Government Act is passed by Congress which authorizes a commissioner, picked by the president with the advice and consent of Congress, to run the islands and declares the inhabitants to be citizens of the archipelago, not of the United States - On July 4, a civil government is established by presidential order
1900	- McKinley wins a second term as president; Theodore Roosevelt is vice-president
1901 1903 1914	- A treaty is signed between Great Britain and the US which authorizes the US to build and control a canal across the Central American Isthmus - After the Colombian government rejects a treaty with the US, Panamanian rebels declare Panama's independence - The US immediately recognizes the new Panamanian government and the two countries sign a treaty giving Americans permanent rights to a 10-mile wide strip of land in return for $10 million and an annual charge - The Panama Canal is open for shipping - The right to operate the canal will be transferred to Panama only in 1999
1901	- President McKinley is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz as he attends a reception in Buffalo - He dies of his wounds a week later and Theodore Roosevelt becomes president - Roosevelt is a well-educated, well-traveled, and well-off WASP
	PROGRESSIVISM
	- The emergence of populism and of labor unions in the last quarter of the 19th century is accompanied by similar tendencies toward reforming the political, economic, and social system in the US - The reform movement in various spheres of life climaxes during the first fifteen years of the 20th century - It is called Progressivism and its adherents are called Progressives
	- The general tendency is toward making government organization and processes on the federal, state, and local levels more democratic and to promote legislation which would directly benefit the people




	economically and socially
	- One of the sources of the reformatory ideas is the rise of social sciences (sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics) - Many distinguished scholars and scientists emerge, the most famous of them being William James, a pioneer psychologist - His popular lectures, published in 1907 under the title Pragmatism, give a name to a school of American philosophy (Charles S. Peirce is another representative)
	- James's pragmatism in philosophy is extended into the field of education by John Dewey - Dewey's test of an idea is "Does it work?" - if it does, then it must be true - He introduces various educational innovations, such as "democracy in the classroom" and "learning by doing"
	- In economics, Henry George attacks the doctrine of laissez-faire without rejecting capitalism
	- The Utopian socialist Edward Bellamy writes a number of popular books (such as Looking Forward) in which he describes a Utopian socialist state
	- In journalism, the so-called "muckrakers" regularly expose corruption in politics and abuses in business - In 1902, Ida Tarbell publishes The History of the Standard Oil Company - Through their publications, such as Frank Norris' The Octopus about the Southern Pacific Railroad and Lincoln Steffens' The Shame of the Cities (which exposes corruption in various municipal governments), "muckraking" journalists have a direct impact on the course of political action - For instance, in 1906, the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act are passed by Congress, largely due to the publication of Upton Sinclair's muckraking novel, The Jungle
	- On the federal level, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson will represent Progressive ideas
	- Among the most important political reforms of the period are: - the initiative - a certain portion of voters (usually 10%) may initiate or propose a law by petition - the referendum - a certain portion of the voters can request a referendum concerning some law that has passed the legislature - the recall - a certain portion of the voters (usually 25%) can, by signing a petition, remove an officeholder before the expiration of the term for which he has been elected or appointed - the 17th Amendment (1913) - senators are to be elected directly and not by state legislatures




	- the 19th Amendment - it gives women the vote
	- Among economic reforms are: - the 16th Amendment (1913) - it introduces income tax - several important decisions of the Supreme Court against trusts (more than 200 antitrust actions are brought in the first two decades of the 20th century) - the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) - consumer protection laws (the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act) - the conservation of natural resources (national parks, dams, irrigation, etc.)
	- The most important social reforms are: - laws regulating hours and wages that are passed by a number of states - restrictions on the labor of women and children - health and safety standards in factories
	- Despite Progressivism's successes, many problems remain unsolved - In fact, the Progressive era is a period of increased racism and ethnic hostilities - Black and ethnic ghettos grow in major cities
	AFRICAN AMERICANS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
1881	- The Tuskegee Industrial Institute is founded by Booker T. Washington in Alabama - It becomes the best-known black educational institution, with about 1,500 students and 200 faculty members - Washington advocates self-improvement of blacks through a vocational (technical rather than classical) education, and from this base he rises to national prominence as the chief spokesman for the black middle class in the South - His moderate, accommodationist views on race relations are presented in his Atlanta Compromise
1896 1898	- In the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, the United States Supreme Court rules that segregation is not necessarily discrimination and therefore it is legal to provide "separate but equal" public facilities, allowing for racial segregation at places like railways, hotels, restaurants, and hospitals - The ruling provides the legal basis for establishing a system of segregated schools in the South - The Supreme Court also upholds a state law requiring a literacy test to qualify for voting
1900	- The National Negro Business League is formed in Boston, sponsored by Booker T. Washington
1903	- W.E.B. DuBois, a black intellectual from the North who is opposed to Booker T. Washington's moderate policies, publishes Souls of Black




1905	Folk - He founds the Niagara Movement, which demands the voting right and other civil rights for blacks, the elimination of Jim Crow laws, and an end to the political and economic subordination of blacks
1909	- W.E.B. DuBois helps found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to fight southern lynching and racial segregation - This interracial organization (he is the only black among the original founders) will use lawsuits in federal courts as the most effective strategy
	WOMEN
1848	- A women's rights convention is held at Seneca Falls, New York - Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton issue a Declaration of Sentiments
1869 1878	- Wyoming passes the first law in the United States giving women the right to vote - The National Woman Suffrage Association is formed with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as its first president - The Women's Suffrage Amendment is introduced into Congress for the first time
1874 1876 1881 1881	- The Women's Christian Temperance Union is formed - It promotes temperance, blaming alcohol drinking for family violence, unemployment, poverty, accidents and health problems - The first amendment relating to prohibition is proposed - Kansas is the first state to prohibit the sale of liquor - President Hayes, whose wife is nicknamed Lemonade Lucy because she serves no alcohol in the White House, decrees that no alcoholic beverages are to be sold at military posts
1889 1931	- Social reformer Jane Addams opens the Hull House in Chicago; it provides social and cultural activities for the neighborhood poor - A pacifist, Addams is co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - The settlement house movement helps slum dwellers by creating neighborhood centers that provide social services such as counseling, rehabilitation for the disabled, child welfare, athletics and recreation, hobby and interest groups, classes in citizenship and English for immigrants, and manual training - Through involvement of educated, middle-class women in the movement, social work becomes a profession in America
1890	- The National Women's Suffrage Association and the American Women's Suffrage Association, both formed in 1869, merge to consolidate the women's suffrage movement
1890	- Wyoming enters the Union as the first state to have women's suffrage
1901	- Carrie Nation begins a crusade against alcohol, using an ax to




	demolish the interiors of saloons
1913	- Alice Paul creates the Congressional Union, which will in turn organize the National Woman's Party in 1917 - The Union and then the Party fight for a federal women's suffrage amendment
	* * *
1902	- 140,000 United Mine workers go on strike that lasts through spring and summer - In October, President Roosevelt summons both sides to the White House to reach a settlement - A commission of arbitration is formed to investigate the miners' grievances; it makes recommendations as to which demands should be met (shorter hours, a 10 percent wage increase, and an "open shop") - The federal government assumes the role as the arbitrator of such disputes
1902	- President Roosevelt begins his "trust busting" campaign by ordering the Justice Department to use the Sherman Antitrust Act against a railroad company, which is then dissolved following a ruling by the Supreme Court
1903	- The Wright Brothers fly the first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1904	- Theodore Roosevelt is elected president - He announces his "Square Deal," promising Americans safety and prosperity by solving social problems and regulating big business
1904 1907	- The Roosevelt Corollary is formulated in the president's annual message to Congress - According to it, by way of the Monroe Doctrine the US assumes police powers in the Western Hemisphere to prevent European interference - The Corollary is tested when the US intervenes in the Dominican Republic after it defaults on national and international debts - The United States Marines are sent to Honduras to help suppress a revolution there - By 1917 the US will have interfered in Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama as well, mainly to give military protection to American business interests (investments reflecting America's "dollar diplomacy")
1905 1906	- Roosevelt urges Russia and Japan, which have been at war since February 1904, to negotiate for peace - Inviting the two powers to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the president uses a strong hand to help the belligerents reach resolution - Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation
1907	- Roosevelt sends the "Great White Fleet," all sixteen US battleships




	and cruisers, on a round-the-world cruise, also known as the "show of the flag tour"
1908	- William Howard Taft is elected president - Taft articulates a slight variation on Roosevelt's "big stick" policy ("speak softly but carry a big stick") that comes to be known as "Dollar Diplomacy" - Taft says that he wishes to substitute "dollars for bullets" in his dealings with Latin America, with American capital bringing healthy reform to corrupt governments
1912	- The Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party is formed by Progressive Republicans lead by Robert M. LaFolette - The party nominates Theodore Roosevelt as its candidate in the presidential elections, advocating antitrust legislation, regulation of labor relations (employment of women and children, workman's compensation, minimum wages), the initiative, referendum, and recall, direct election of senators, direct primaries, and women's suffrage
1912	- The split in the Republican Party helps Democrat Woodrow Wilson win the presidency - Wilson, a lawyer by education, was previously a political scientist and president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey (in two years he changed New Jersey, one of the most corrupt states, into a model progressive state) - His version of Progressivism is known as the "New Freedom" - He will continue to fight trusts and regulate private business
	WORLD WAR I
1914	- June 28, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Crown Price of Austria, is murdered in Sarajevo - The Austro-Hungarian Government sends an ultimatum to Serbia and five days later declares war - By mid-August, Germany has declared war on Russia and France; Great Britain declares war on Germany; Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia
1914	- The United States issues a formal statement that it will remain neutral and asks the countries involved in the war to respect international law, which states that neutral seas are open seas and that neutral shipping is thus protected - In fact, President Wilson supports the Allies (the Triple Entente: Britain, France, and Russia) against the Central Powers (the Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) - The general attitude in the US is that Americans should stay out of the war and reap the profits from trade
1915	- Germany begins unrestricted submarine warfare around the British Isles




	- Wilson warns Germany that the United States will hold it responsible for any loss of property and life - In May, the great ocean-going British passenger ship Lusitania is sunk without warning, losing 1198 of its 1924 passengers, including 128 Americans (according to the Germans, the ship was carrying munitions, though the British deny this) - The US first demands immediate reparations from Germany and respect for the rights of neutral nations - Germany claims it will allow Americans to travel in well-marked, neutral, unarmed ships
1915	- United States bankers arrange a much needed $500 million loan to the British and French
1915	- President Wilson initiates a preparedness program and rearmament
1916	- In March, German U-boats sink the French vessel Sussex in the English Channel; three Americans lose their lives - The US warns Germany that the United States will break off diplomatic relations unless such attacks are discontinued - Despite the warning, Germany will resume attacks in January 1917
1916	- The Council of National Defense is established and the National Defense Act passed, increasing the regular army to 175,000 and the national guard to 450,000
1916	- Wilson is reelected for a second term, having run on the slogan "He kept us out of war" - He appears before Congress and outlines his conditions for American participation in the resolution of the conflict in Europe, calling for a "peace without victory"
1917	- Puerto Rico becomes an unincorporated territory of the US - Puerto Ricans receive US citizenship; the governor and the supreme court are appointed by the president, the legislature is elected by the Puerto Ricans
1917	- Germany declares that it will resume unrestricted submarine warfare and that all neutral ships, armed or unarmed, sailing into a German war zone will be attacked without warning - In response, Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany - The same day, the American steamship Housatonic is sunk without warning
1917	- British secret service agents intercept a telegram from the German foreign minister Alfred Zimmerman to the German ambassador to Mexico - In it, foreseeing war with the United States as inevitable, Zimmermann instructs the German ambassador to urge Mexico to join the Central Powers if the US declares war on Germany; in return, Mexico will receive California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona




1917	- On April 2, Wilson reads his war message to Congress and on April 6 he signs a declaration of war against Germany - He says in a famous phrase: "The world must be made safe for democracy" - The vote in Congress is overwhelmingly in favor of war - One notable "no" comes from Jeanette Rankin, a former suffrage activist, who in 1916 became the first woman ever elected to Congress; in 1940 she will be elected to Congress again and will be the only member of Congress to vote against US entry into World War II
1917	- Wilson forms the Committee on Public Information (CPI), which recruits thousands of people in the arts, advertising, and film industries to mobilize public support of the war - It works out a system of voluntary censorship in the press, and enlists 75,000 "four-minute men" to give public speeches about the "bloodthirstiness" of Germans
1917	- There are about 200,000 men in the army when the US enters the war - Immediately about 2.8 million men are drafted and about 2 million voluntarily enter the service - In April, the American expeditionary force, led by General John J. Pershing, begins to arrive in France - By the end of the war about 2 million American soldiers will go overseas, of whom 1,4 million will engage in active fighting, participating prominently in several crucial campaigns - In May, the Selective Service Act authorizing registration and draft of all men between 21 and 30 military service is passed by Congress, authorizing 488,000 men for the army and the conscription of 500,000 - The war is financed by the sale of so-called Liberty Bonds to the public and special taxes (on income, inheritance, liquor, tobacco, theater tickets, etc.)
1917 1918	- The War Industries Board is created to oversee the production of all American factories; it reorganizes production, allocates raw materials, and sets prices and output; antitrust restrictions are lifted on manufacturers who cooperate with the board - The Fuel Administration introduces daylight saving time, rations coal and oil, and imposes gasless days; the Railroad Administration and the War Shipping Board coordinate arms shipment to the Allies - The Food Administration under Herbert Hoover oversees food production and distribution; it encourages people to plant "victory gardens" in their back- and front-yards - The War Labor Board is created to standardize wages and hours, protect the right of labor to bargain collectively, and discourage strikes; labor leader Samuel Gompers will sit on the board
1917	- The Espionage Act is passed by Congress which imposes sentences of




1918	up to twenty years in prison for anyone found guilty'of aiding the enemy, obstructing the recruitment of soldiers, or encouraging disloyalty; it allows the postmaster general to remove from the mails any materials that may incite treason or insurrection - Congress passes the Sedition Act, imposing harsh penalties for anyone using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the government, flag, or armed forces - Approximately 1,500 pacifists are imprisoned under these laws
1917	- In November, the Bolsheviks overthrow the government in Russia and will soon make peace with Germany; the United States does not immediately recognize the new government
1917	- In December, the United States declares war against Austria-Hungary - American troops start arriving in Europe; General John P. Pershing is the commander of the expeditionary force
1918	- In January, President Wilson sets forth his famous "Fourteen Points" for peace in the world in a speech before Congress - He proposes adjustment of existing boundaries and colonial claims, creation of new nations (including Poland), freedom of the seas, free trade, reduction of armaments and, in the last point, asks for the creation of a League of Nations to resolve future conflicts peacefully - The final offensive of the Allies takes place in the Meuse-Argonne region in September -1.2 million American soldiers take part in it - In October, Germany forms a parliamentary government and, with the collapse at the front, mutiny in the navy and revolution in Munich, the Kaiser abdicates - An armistice is signed on November 11 at 11:00 am; the war ends
1919	- In January, the Versailles peace conference begins; President Wilson attends the conference in person - It ends in June with the signing of the Versailles Treaty - The Germans are asked to admit their guilt, to give up the rich Alsace-Lorraine and her overseas colonies, and pay reparations of some $15 billion - In the final treaty, Wilson's proposal to create the League of Nations is accepted by all signatories; it will be established in 1920 - Instead of presenting the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations Covenant to the US Senate (whose agreement is required by the Constitution), Wilson goes on a tour of the cpuntry to rouse public opinion in favor of the project - The president is already quite sick and proceeds against the advice of his doctors - he suffers a stroke later that month and never fully recovers from the effects - Meantime, the Senate refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles by a




	vote of 55 to 39 - Although the US does not formally join the League of Nations, it will participate in many of its activities
	* * *
1919	- The postwar years are marked by social unrest and violence in the US - Over 3,600 strikes are organized, including a general strike in Seattle, the Boston Police strike, and the Great Steel Strike involving 350,000 workers
1919	- Racial and labor tensions generate fear of radicalism, largely a result of the Communist victory in Russia - A "red scare" mounts after a series of bombings, including one of the house of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer - The Federal Bureau of Intelligence under J. Edgar Hoover is created to implement anti-Communist measures - Attacks, known as "Palmer raids," are made on private homes of suspected Communist sympathizers; 6,000 people are arrested - By the end of the year about 300 radicals are deported to the Soviet Union - Under the category of the "Reds" Palmer includes "radical union agitators and socialists, to say nothing of hysterical women"
1917 1918 1919	- During WWI over 500,000 blacks, often encouraged by northern labor agents, migrate from the rural South to industrial cities in the North and the Midwest - Race riots break out in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and other cities - Racial tensions increase and riots take place in St. Louis, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York City, and Omaha, killing hundreds of blacks and many whites - Disturbances occur across America during what is later called the "Red Summer," over 100 people die and 1,000 are wounded - W.E.B. DuBois organizes the first Pan-African Congress in Paris
1919 1929 1933	-The 18th Amendment, passed by Congress in 1917, takes effect; it prohibits the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors - The Volstead Act is passed over the president's veto to enforce prohibition - Any beverage containing more than 0.5 percent of alcohol is defined as liquor and is made illegal - The Prohibition is the culmination of a long campaign which combined moralism with a distrust of German-American brewers - The 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act prove a failure for no effective means of their enforcement are developed - A presidential commission is created to investigate the problem; its report, published in 1931, declares that prohibition was a mistake




	- The 21st Amendment is passed which repeals the 18th Amendment and returns control of the liquor production and sale to the states
1919 1923	- The 19th Amendment grants the right to vote to women - The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is submitted to Congress for the first time; it will be finally adopted by Congress in 1972 but in 1982 the deadline for ratification will pass without the necessary approval by the required number of states
	THE ROARING TWENTIES
	- It is generally assumed by historians that the 19th century came to a delayed end with World War I - Thus the 1920s are often considered the first truly 20th century decade in American history
1920 1923	- Warren G. Harding, an obscure Ohio senator, is elected president - He is a small-town editor who is ignorant of national politics, naive and conservative, a man of limited abilities and a womanizer who likes to spend time in Washington with his old friends, smoking and drinking - For the next 12 years the presidency will be controlled by Republicans who oppose US admission to the League Nations - Harding dies unexpectedly while on a speaking tour - He is replaced by Calvin Coolidge, who completes Harding's term and then is elected for a second term - Coolidge is Massachusetts' former governor, remembered for handling the Boston Police strike (he fired the entire force and hired new policemen); he is an inactive president - the best description of the man is offered by a White House usher, who said: "No other President in my time ever slept so much"
	- During Harding's presidency several top government officials (including cabinet members) will be responsible for a series of scandals, such as misappropriation of veterans' funds or leasing national oil reserves to private businessmen in return for "loans" - In the Teapot Dome scandal (the largest scandal in Washington before the Watergate affair of 1972-74), Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall will be sentenced to one year in prison for granting drilling rights to some oil magnates for a "small gift" of 400,000 dollars; he becomes the first cabinet member in the nation's history to go to jail for dishonoring his office
1928	- Herbert Hoover, Harding's and Coolidge's secretary of commerce, defeats in the presidential race Democrat Alfred E. Smith, the first Catholic candidate to run for the White House
	- Economic prosperity in the 1920s is based on real gains in productivity and technological and scientific advances - The country's electrification is an important factor as it increases




	productivity and lowers costs - Industry produces more for the consumers' market as opposed to the producers' market (raw and construction materials, fuel, etc.) - The new products introduced in the 1920s include household appliances like refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, radios, wristwatches, cigarette lighters, Kodak cameras, artificial silk stockings, and many more - Each year inn the 1920s brings up to 90,000 patents - The number of telephones increases greatly, to 20 millions by the end of the decade
1913 1917	- But the most important new mass product is the automobile, the most important symbol of the 1920s - The first commercial automobiles are made already in the 1890s and between 1900 and 1910 hundreds of companies enter the business - Some are producing up to 10,000 cars a year (Cadillac, Buick, Studebaker, Ford) - Ford adopts the conveyor belt system used in the meat-packing industry - Ford becomes the largest maker in the world, making 622,000 cars a year, 50% of the total car production in the US - At first cars are expensive, but in 1908 Ford revolutionizes the automobile industry by introducing the Model T, which costs 850 dollars; over the years its price is lowered and in 1927 it is only 290 dollars - The Model T, called the "tin lizzie," becomes the most popular car of the period- 15 million are produced between 1908 and 1927 - Its design is very simple and it is strongly built of first-class materials; its high wheels can go nearly everywhere - Henry Ford, truly a self-made made, is one of the first to understand that increased productivity means lower costs and lower selling prices - In 1914, he raises the minimum wage to five dollars a day, while elsewhere the average remains two dollars - Other businessmen consider him insane, but workmen come to Detroit by the thousands to get a job at Ford's plant - Ford knows that well-paid workers will be better workers and that they will be able to buy cars themselves, thus returning the money earned to him
	- The automobile revolutionizes the lifestyle of Americans - It brings increased mobility, increased farm production, and increased personal freedom - The roads not only make it possible for car owners to travel to distant places, but also help bring the farmer closer to the city, ending his isolation




	- The tractor and the bus appear soon - Cars and busses free the cities of tons of manure and thousands of dead horses - Instead, however, it brings junkyards, air pollution, devastation of the landscape, and road accidents - It also stimulates the growth of other related industries, like oil production, glass making, rubber production, service and repair, tourist accommodations, roadside souvenir sales, and so on
	- Throughout the 1920s inflation and unemployment remain at a very low level - But as a result of overproduction, food prices decline and many farmers suffer income losses - As workers gain important benefits, like insurance plans, medical services, profit-sharing and bonuses, the labor movement is weakened and membership declines because unions are viewed as subversive and un-American
	- Consumption becomes a dominant cultural ideal and installment buying becomes widespread ("buy now, pay later")
	- Consumerism is encouraged by the he motion picture industry - Movie palaces are built in most large cities and national trends in fashion, leisure, recreation, etc. are shaped as millions attend movies weekly
	- Development of mass culture is also promoted by the radio - The first radio station begins to broadcast in 1920 - By 1927 there are 700 stations and about 10 million families have radio sets at home - The radio industry is controlled by a few giant firms, such as Westinghouse and General Electric, which later create jointly the radio Corporation of America (RCA) - National radio networks are created by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Columbia Broadcasting Company (CBS), originally using phone lines - Stations feature news, sports events, variety entertainment shows, and advertisements - By the end of the 1920s 40 percent of American households own radios
	- Professional sports flourish (baseball, college football, boxing)
	- Jazz is brought from the South to Northern cities and becomes immensely popular among both blacks and whites
	- The "flapper" becomes the symbol of the "new woman" - independent, liberated, fashionable - Many women become active in the Young Woman's Christian Association (YWCA), the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the




	League of Women Voters, and other organizations
	- New York's Harlem becomes the center of a thriving African- American culture - Black writers and artists stop imitating white models and begin to explore their African heritage, displaying its richness and racial pride - Notable representatives include writers Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston and painter Aaron Douglas
1916 1925	- Marcus Garvey becomes the first black nationalist leader, gaining widespread following after arriving in the US from Jamaica - His Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), founded in Jamaica in 1911, advocates racial pride and a return to Africa, and claims 4 million members - He sponsors the Black Star Line, a shipping company to develop trade with African countries - Convicted of mail fraud, he is deported to Jamaica
	- Fear of immigrants and radicalism is evident in the handling of the case of two anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti - In April 1920 five men shoot a paymaster and guard of a shoe factory in a Massachusetts town and escape with the payroll - Sacco, a shoemaker, and Vanzetti, a fish-peddler, are arrested in Boston and charged with the murders - They receive the death sentence although no convincing evidence has been presented that they had anything to do with the robbery - The arguments given include the fact that the accused are Italian, speak poor English with heavy accents, and openly support anarchist ideas - Committees to save Sacco and Vanzetti are created in many countries and demonstrations are staged in many European and American cities - But the court upholds its decision and the two men are electrocuted in 1927
1921 1924	- Annual immigration limits are set (less than 360,000) and national quotas established (3 percent of the total number of persons of each nation residing in the US in 1910) - The Immigration Act lowers the number of immigrants admitted in any one year to 164,000 (further reduced to 150,000 five years later), and the national quotas a reduced to 2 percent based on the 1890 census to reduce the number of immigrants form Southern and East-Central Europe; immigration from Asia is banned completely
	- The Ku Klux Klan begins to target liberals, Catholics, Jews, and foreigners as well as blacks - By 1925 the Klan claims 4 million members - Its activities include "night riding," often culminating in tar-and-




1925	feathering or whipping, and even in hanging or burning at the stake - Many Klansmen, who claim that they are fighting against sin and depravity, show unhealthy interest in such actions as stripping and beating of "sinful" women - One of the bosses of the Klan is convicted of raping his secretary on a train and hiding her when she took poison (she died a few days later without medical help) - With events like that, the image of the Klansmen as protectors of the white woman's virtue is damaged and by the 1930s the membership diminishes to about 50,000; the Klan never recovers as a mass organization after that
1925	Religious fundamentalism gains ground in provincial America - A biology teacher, John T. Scopes, is taken to court for breaking a Tennessee law forbidding the teaching of evolution in state-supported schools - the case is known as the "Monkey Trial" - Scopes is convicted but the ruling is reversed by the Tennessee Supreme Court on a technicality (the state law will only be repealed in 1967)
1921-1922 1928 1929 1931	- Despite the isolationist tendencies at home, the US participated in international politics on a limited scale - The Washington Naval Conference takes place to prevent a naval arms race between the world's superpowers, to maintain the "open door" policy in China, and to prevent disputes over Pacific island possessions; on the initiative of the US president, similar conference will take place in Geneva in 1927 and in London in 1930 - The French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand and US Secretary of State Frank Kellog sponsor the Kellog-Briand Pact; signed by 14 countries (later by 48), it outlaws war as an instrument of national policy, but has no provision for enforcement; Briand and Kellog are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 - When Germany fails to pay its war debts in 1923-24 and France occupies the Ruhr, a loan from private American banks to revive the German economy is arranged by an American banker, Charles Dawes; in 1925 Dawes will receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his initiative - American banks again help reduce German debts and reparations to Britain and France to prevent the collapse of the country's economy - America declares a moratorium on the payment of European war debts to the US in the face of the depression in Europe
	- Throughout the 1920 the US intervenes in several Latin American countries - the Dominican Republic (where American troops remain until 1940), Nicaragua, Colombia, and Mexico to protect American business interests

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1929

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

• On October 29, "Black Tuesday," the American stock market crashes, starting the financial panic that leads to the virtual collapse of the economy and plunges the US into the Great Depression

• The crash means that the value of millions of shares goes down drastically and an unprecedented situation is created: for some shares there are no buyers at all

• The causes of the depression:

• throughout the 1920s American economy becomes dependent on a few basic industries (construction, automobile) which begin to decline by the end of the decade

• the market for durable manufactured goods - cars, radios, electrical appliances, etc. - doesn't grow as fast as production and large numbers of workers and farmers are deprived of the benefits of the economic boom; layoffs in the construction and automobile industries further contribute to the shrinking of the market

• American exports to Europe begin to decline, first as a result of Europe's economic recovery (made possible largely with American loans) and then of the depression (to which the US government also contributes by demanding payment of European countries' war and postwar debts to America and by raising tariffs to protect domestic manufacturers experiencing financial difficulties; unable to sell its products in America, Europe is unable to buy American products as well)

• despite the falling prices of American food, Europe cannot not afford to buy it and the situation of American farmers deteriorates; the overproduction of food thus becomes one of the causes of the economic depression that starts in the late 1920s

• following the failure of many farmers to pay their debts to banks, the banking system begins to collapse as many small banks go bankrupt and many large banks maintain inadequate reserves and make unwise loans to business

• overspeculation on the stock market

• credit buying is accompanied by repossession - repossessed, second­hand goods compete with newly manufactured goods on the market

• rich Americans tour around the world spending money outside the US or save money instead of investing it in industry

• unequal distribution of wealth - 30% of income is pocketed by the 5% at the top

- Many farmers, especially from the so-called Dust Bowl (the southern part of the Great Plains), lose their farms - because of overproduction and falling prices and because of soil erosion, droughts, deforestation and extensive farming - and become migrant farm-workers (many leave




	for California to become fruit pickers)
	- Between 1929 and 1932 approximately 85,000 businesses fail; for millions of people, bank failures mean the loss of their savings
	- Blacks are affected by the depression more than any other minority ("the last to be hired, the first to be fired") - They suffer increased intimidation and violence - The most notorious example of prejudice and discrimination are the so-called Scottsboro Cases from 1932: nine black youth, accused of raping two white women, are found guilty and eight are sentenced to death without being provided adequate legal counsel - In 1932 and 1935 the Supreme Court reverses the convictions (the last of the "Scottsboro boys" will be released from prison in 1976)
1932	- One-fourth of the work force is unemployed (between 14 and 16 million) - National income falls from 81 billion dollars in 1929 to 41 billion dollars in 1932 - President Hoover, a progressive and a self-made man, initiates radical actions to help farmers and businesses by raising tariffs, lending money to banks and companies, and encouraging home construction - Although correct in principle, the measures he takes are too moderate and they come too late - In 1932 he creates the Reconstruction Finance Corporation which gives large federal loans to banks and corporations to enable them to recover - Hoover's assumption is that if the government helps big business, business will recover and begin to reinvest and create jobs for workers - He opposes the idea of direct relief to the people (charity, etc.) - He is more a victim than an author of the depression
1932	- Meanwhile, social unrest increases - In June, over 200,000 unemployed WWI veterans march on Washington, D.C., demanding immediate advance payment of their war-service benefits, a bonus approved by Congress in 1924 but to be paid only in 1945 - On the order from the president, the "bonus army" is removed by force from their camps around the city - Throughout the nation homeless men build shacks for themselves using flattened tin cans, cardboard and tar paper, or they live in abandoned factories or freight cars - Thousands of young people take to the road, becoming "hoboes"
1932	- Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, previously as assistant secretary of the Navy and governor of New York (where he first tests his recovery plan) defeats Hoover in the presidential race - He promises Americans a "New Deal," but it is Hoover's unpopularity




	that helps him win the election
1933	- The main goals of Roosevelt's program are: relief (immediate help to the poor and unemployed), recovery (helping banks and other businesses resume their normal activities) and reform (reforming the economic system to prevent future depressions - Immediately after his March 4 inauguration, Roosevelt declares a four-day "bank holiday"; after studying the situation of banks, the Treasury Department resupplies them with funds (over a billion dollars); to restore the public's confidence in banks, bank deposits up to $2,500 will be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and banks will be encouraged, and later required, to join the federal reserve system - On March 9, Roosevelt calls a special session of Congress; during the "hundred days" Congress enacts a series of emergency laws launching the New Deal plan - On March 12, the president gives his first "fireside chat" - a radio address to the nation in which he explains his policies - He forms a group of special advisors called the "brain trust," which includes several academicians from Columbia University - He appoints several distinguished experts on economic and social matters to high positions in the cabinet, including Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor, the first woman ever in the cabinet
1933	- The Civil Works Administration, the Public Works Administration, and later, in 1935, the Works Progress Administration provide relief to the unemployed through public works - slum clearance, construction of roads, public facilities like playgrounds, parks, post offices, schools, hospitals, airports, reservoirs and power plants, reforestation, flood control, rural electrification, etc. - The WPA also runs programs for writers, artists, actors, and musicians (under the Federal Arts Project artists decorate public buildings; under the Federal Theater Project actors and musicians ■entertain in subsidized shows) '- In total, 122,000 public buildings are erected, 77,000 bridges and 245 airports are built, 664,000 miles of highways are laid
1933	- Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act subsidies are paid to farmers to voluntarily reduce production in order to raise prices - The Farm Credit Act offers low-interest loans to farmers
1933	- The Tennessee Valley Authority becomes a model development of the New Deal period - This independent public corporation is chartered by Congress to develop interstate conservation projects by regulating rivers and building dams to prevent floods and erosion, operating electric power plants, and selling electric power at low rates to promote rural




	electrification - The plan covers seven states (Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) and benefits approximately 3 million people
1933	- The Civilian Conservation Corps gives employment to 500,000 young men in road construction, reforestation, prevention of soil erosion, and irrigation
1933	- The National Industrial Recovery Administration and the National Labor Relations Board establish codes that promote fair competition for business and regulate matters between employers, employees (employment standards such as minimum wages and maximum hours) and consumers
1933	- On November 16, the US and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations
1934	- The Securities and Exchange Commission is created to regulate the stock market and restrict speculation and market manipulation
1935	- A system of social welfare is created by the Social Security Act to provide unemployment compensation and pensions to retired and disabled persons as well as subsidies to the states for various projects, such as maternity and infant care services and assistance to crippled children and the blind
1935	- The Indian Reorganization Act returns tribal lands previously open to public sale to the Native Americans
1936	- Roosevelt is reelected - The second New Deal is introduced which concentrates more on social problems, as opposed to economic problems which dominated the first phase
1937	- After the Supreme Court nullifies key New Deal acts, Roosevelt submits to Congress a plan to "pack" the Court with additional judges who would support him (an additional member for each one over 70 years of age) - Between 1937 and 1941 most of the "Nine Old Men" die or retire and Roosevelt is able to replace them with his own nominees without resorting to "packing" the Court
1937	- A recession that lasts nine months results in the rise of unemployment and general disillusionment
1938	- The "New" Agricultural Adjustment Act is passed to replace the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1936 - It offers loans and subsidies to farmers for limiting crops and storing surpluses in order to raise food prices
	WORLD WAR TWO
1935-	- Congress passes four neutrality acts which forbid Americans to export




1939	arms and offer loans and credit to any country fighting a war; non-military goods can be purchased from the US on a "cash and carry" basis
1936-1937	- American volunteers from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade fight on the side of the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War
1939	- September 1, Germany invades Poland and World War II begins
1940	- President Roosevelt issues a proclamation of neutrality and at the same time asks Congress to pass a law to allow the US to provide aid to the Allies
1940	- In October, under the Selective Service and Training Act, the government begins the first peacetime military draft and registration of all men between 21 and 35 - 16.4 register and 1 million are selected by lot for one year of military training - The defense budget is tripled and expansion of the navy begins
1940	- President Roosevelt wins his second reelection and begins his third term in the White House, the first ever president to do so
1941	- The Lend-Lease Act authorizes the president to lend or lease arms and equipment to nations whose defense is considered vital to the US
1941	- The Atlantic Charter is issued by President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, proclaiming war aims and common principles
1941	- In a speech in Congress President Roosevelt declares that the aim of the government is to guarantee to all Americans the four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear
1941	- The Manhattan Project begins; after four years of work the first atomic bomb will be tested on July 16, 1945
1941	- In September an undeclared naval war begins between the US and Germany after a German U-boat fires on an American destroyer and sinks another (in October); American merchant ships are allowed to be armed and carry supplies for European countries
1941	- On December 7, while negotiations between Japan and the US are going on in Washington, D.C., the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing almost 2,400 Americans and destroying or damaging about 20 ships and 175 airplanes - On December 8, the US declares war against Japan and three days later against Germany and Italy
1941	- The War Powers Act enables the president to requisition property, regulate transportation services, ration foods and other supplies, etc.
1941	- The minimum draft age is lowered to 18 and the maximum raised to 44 - 31 million men will be registered and almost 10 million will be




	conscripted, including 5 million volunteers - Over 250,000 women enlist for noncombatant duty
1941-1942	- 110,000 Japanese-Americans are removed from their homes to relocation camps in California, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Arkansas, where they live communally behind barbed wire
1942	- New government agencies are created to direct the war effort, including the Office of Price Administration, the War Production Board, and the National War Labor Board, established to regulate production and prices of consumer goods, ration scarce and valuable commodities, and mediate in labor disputes and stabilize wages (unions agree not to stop production by striking) - The Office of War Information directs a propaganda campaign to mobilize Americans for the war; the movie industry makes films and newsreels that portray the war as a crusade to save the world from tyranny
1942	- The Great Depression is over with the unemployment falling below 10% (largely due to the enlistment of over 12 million Americans during the war) and millions of dollars in government military contracts pumped into the economy - Within a year after the Pearl Harbor attack the US will spend over 47 billion dollars on military supplies - During the war 85,000 tanks, almost 300,000 planes and 70,000 warships will be built - The manufacture of many consumer goods, including automobiles, will be prohibited or significantly reduced and controlled by the government - The total industrial production doubles during the war years - Average weekly earnings rise from 25 to 45 dollars The number of employed women increases from 12 to 18 millions; by the end of the war they constitute about 35% of the workforce
1942	- In August, Americans begin their offensive in the Pacific with an attack on the island of Guadalcanal in the south Pacific; the battle lasts six months
1942	- In November, the combined British and American offensive in North Africa begins; the German forces will surrender in May 1945
1943	- In July and August, the Allies overrun Sicily and in September they land in Italy - The Italian government removes Mussolini and surrenders but the fighting goes on as the German army occupies most of the country - Rome will only be captured in June 1944
1943	- In November, the second offensive begins on central Pacific islands
1944	- In June American bombers begin regular attacks on Japan and American forces land in the Philippines, whose reconquest is




	completed by February of 1945
1944	- On June 6 - "D-Day" - Allied forces commanded by American General Dwight Eisenhower land on Normandy beaches - Within a month over 1 million American soldiers arrive in France - Paris is liberated on August 28 - Allied forces enter Germany on September 12
1944	- President Roosevelt is elected for an unprecedented fourth term
1944	- In November, Roosevelt and Churchill meet with Stalin for the first time - Their second meeting will take place at Yalta in February 1945
1944	- In December the Germans launch a surprise counteroffensive against the Allies in the Battle of the Bulge but they fail to break their defense lines
1945	- The Allies resume their offensive and cross the Rhine in March
1945	- President Roosevelt dies on April 12; Vice-President Harry Truman takes over
1945	- Germany capitulates on May 9
1945	- In July, the Potsdam conference takes place
1945	- In June Americans capture Okinawa and are only 350 miles from Japan
1945	- On July 26, Japan rejects the Allies' demand to surrender - On August 6, Americans drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima; three days later another bomb is dropped on Nagasaki - The Japanese surrender on August 10
	- American war losses are: approximately 293,000 men killed in battle, while some 116,000 die in accidents or from diseases; about 670,000 men are wounded in combat - These casualties are minor compared to the other Allies and to the Axis powers - The total cost of the war for the US amounts to about 315 billion dollars
	THE COLD WAR ^
	- As a superpower, after World War II the'US assumes leadership in the free world as an "iron curtain" is dropped across Europe
1947	- On march 12, President Truman delivers a speech in Congress in which he proclaims that US foreign policy should focus on the containment of the Soviet Union's expansion and Communist aggression; he pledges America's aid to any country threatened by Communism; the policy becomes known as the Truman Doctrine - Congress approves $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey to fight Communist guerillas
1947	- A new Department of Defense, the national Security Council, and the




	Central Intelligence Agency are established - The CIA will collect information and engage in secret political and military operations around the world
1948	- Congress approves the Marshall Plan and grants $12 billion of economic assistance to sixteen European countries; Soviet bloc countries reject American aid
1948 1949	- After the British, French and American occupation zones in Germany are merged, the Soviet Union seals off West Berlin and prohibits all land traffic between the city and West Germany - For almost a year all needed supplies are airlifted by the American Air Force - In October, Germany is officially divided
1949	- In September, the Soviets explode their atomic bomb; the arms race begins
1949	- Twelve Western European countries and the United States form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - The Soviet bloc responds with creating the Warsaw Pact
1949	- In December, the nationalist forces are defeated by the Communists in China; Mao Tse Tung takes control of the government
1951	- American occupation of Japan ends when a peace treaty is signed - Americans are given military bases in Japan
1948 1950 1951 1953	- The Republic of (South) Korea and the People's Republic of (North) Korea are established and the Americans and the Soviets withdraw their forces - In June, North Korea attacks South Korea - The Security Council of the United Nations authorizes a "police action" to protect South Korea - The so-called Korean War is fought mostly by American forces - Peace negotiations begin - North Korea and the United Nations reach an armistice agreement and a cease-fire is established
1947	- The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) begins investigations of Communist subversion in the US (in the government, the film industry, the media, the academia, etc.)
1949-1951	- Over fifty Communist leaders are convicted under the Smith Act from 1940 - it set penalties for teaching or advocating revolution
1947-1951	- Under the Federal Loyalty Program, over 200 federal employees are dismissed as security risks and some 2,000 resign - Similar programs aimed at identifying and neutralizing the threat of Communist infiltration are launched by state and local governments, universities, schools, labor unions, and other institutions and organizations
1950	- Alger Hiss, a State Department official, is convicted and sentenced to




	five years in prison as a Soviet spy
1950	- Under the McCarran-Wood Act, Communist organizations are required to register with the government and publish their records - Many Communists are denied passports; foreigners believed to be Communists are denied US visas
1950 1954	- Senator Joseph McCarthy makes a speech in which he claims he has a list of 205 known Communists employed in the State Department - In his sensational investigations that follows no evidence is produced that any government employee has Communist ties; "McCarthyism" becomes a word for charges made without proof and accompanied by publicity - After he begins to allege Communist subversion in the US Army, the Senate votes to condemn McCarthy for his conduct as "unbecoming a member of the US Senate"; his influence quickly diminishes
1951 1953	- Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets and become the only US citizens put to death in peacetime for espionage - On June 19, the Rosenbergs are electrocuted
1952	- Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II and of NATO (1950), is elected president; Richard Nixon becomes vice-president - Eisenhower pledges to bring the Korean War to "an early and honorable end" and six months later a truce is signed - He continues Truman's "containment" policy
1958	- Alarmed by Soviet successes in space exploration, Congress passes the National Defense Education Act to strengthen the American , educational system, especially in the mathematics and science curriculums; close to $1.4 billion will be spent on loans, fellowships, and grants

95

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