A Very Brief History of the United States of America

By Jon Saul

​

 The Colonial Period

​

In the 15th century, when Europeans sailed to the area of North America now known as the United States, they found Native Americans who lived in close harmony with the land (Columbus called them “Indians”, because thought he had sailed to India). “Indians” lived in tribal villages, hunted, fished and worked the land. Their crops included indigenous (native) plants, such as beans, squash, melons, and tobacco. One crop which the Europeans quickly adopted, and sent back to Europe, was corn (called ‘maize’ by the Indians) because it yielded thousands of kernels from each one planted.

​

Native American Culture

​

The Native Americans had a religion, which centered on the spirits of their ancestors, the land, the animals and the weather. The Europeans who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean treated the Native Americans in the same way as they related to other people from non-European cultures: they were considered as primitive and inferior in every way.

​

Slavery

​

Africans were routinely treated by Europeans as slaves. The Europeans brought this practice with them to the “New World”. With their superior weapons (gunpowder and iron), they fought wars, slaughtered and enslaved Native Americans in both North and South America. In South and Central America, the Europeans mixed their gene pool with the natives through rape and inter-marriage.

​

Genocide of Native Americans

​

In North America, the Europeans practiced genocide (systematic death) and all but eliminated the original inhabitants. In the U.S., by 1890, the Native American population was reduced from millions to a mere 250,000 people, 80% living on ‘reservations’.

​

Natural Resources

​

The land the Europeans conquered was a natural resource wonderland: fertile soil, many animals (including deer, raccoon, beaver, and buffalo), great forests for wood and large deposits of coal, iron ore, gold and silver.

Pioneers seek a better life.

​

For 200 years the European settlers in North America struggled to establish towns and villages along the Atlantic coast. The Europeans came seeking a better life. They fled religious, ethnic, racial and other forms of persecution. They sought freedom: a land where they could live their lives in the ways they chose. Settlers and their children died, especially over the harsh winters, trying to make a home in this land. They fought disease, famine, the weather and the “Indians”. Sometimes Native American tribes would fight with the English against the French; sometimes they sided with the French against the English. Always the number of Native Americans living in this land dwindled. The English finally defeated the French (French and Indian War 1754-1763)

​

Constant European Wars

​

Europe had been at war almost continually, between 1500 and 1700. Catholics fought Protestants and princes and nobles fought each other for land. All European countries were governed by absolute rulers (kings, emperors) with total power over their subjects. They claimed that God (the Christian God) had made their family the rulers (called the “Divine Right of Kings’). Their titles (the symbols of their power) were inherited, passed on from fathers to sons.

​

England: A Constitutional Monarchy

​

England, however, was different: England had a written law of the land that even the King, George III (1738-1820), had to obey; England had a Parliament (a law making group, legislature or congress) elected by Englishmen who could vote. In England, the King’s ‘subjects’ had legal and civil rights. When an Englishman came to live on English land the 13 colonies, the King promised to grant him the same rights as if he had stayed in England, such as the right to vote for representatives in government.

​

The English King breaks his promises

​

King George broke his promises to the colonists. He treated the land as his own. He gave huge parcels of land to his friends and family. He allowed his soldiers to eat and sleep in colonists’ houses, he taxed newspapers, tea, coffee, clothing and he taxed high! The colonists became very upset and when King George would not even listen to their complaints: then they became active.

​

The American Revolution

​

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress (a group of people representing all of the people of the 13 colonies) gathered at Independence hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They all signed a document, mostly written by Thomas Jefferson (1723-1826, who became 3rd U. S. President), that declared this land independent of England (the Declaration of Independence). This was the war of the American Revolution (1775-1783). Lead by General George Washington (1732-1799, who became the 1st U. S. President), and with much financial assistance from the King of France (Louis XVI, 1754-1793, and England’s chief enemy), the colonists defeated the English.

​

Thus this land was established as the United States of America: called a ‘great experiment” in democracy. A new nation was formed, founded on the principle that “all men are created equal”, all citizens must be treated equally under law (the U. S. Constitution), and that the government must guarantee the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to all citizens.

​

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

​

Originally, this phrase was “life, liberty and property”. However, the “Founding Fathers” thought that this would cause a political problem among the new voters because most colonists did not own property (land and other possessions). They were farm laborers, hunters, trappers, craftspeople. They had fought for freedom from the oppression of the King. They had not fought so that the rich landowners could keep their land. Moreover, in those days, a man’s property included women, children and slaves: human beings all. Although slavery was not outlawed, the phrase was changed. The right to ‘life’ means that no one can take your life. The right to ‘liberty’ means that no other person’s will limits your actions, only the law. The right to ‘the pursuit of happiness’ means that you can choose the life style that makes you happy.

​

Manifest Destiny

​

The new nation attracted increasing numbers of immigrants. More and more land was necessary and the U.S. government expanded the borders of the country. This was called “Manifest Destiny”: the frontier is to be moved west. People believed that the land called the United States was ‘destined’ to reach from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean (coast to coast). This was accomplished by conquest of the Native American lands and by purchasing land from European countries (such as the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803: 529,911,680 square miles of land for $15 million).

 

Expansion West

​

As the Americans moved west, they changed the relationship people had with this land: they changed the land by mining ore (gold, silver, coal), by clear-cutting forests for wood, by building roads and towns and villages, and by creating great farmland areas. They killed or destroyed everything in their way: people, animals, natural beauty.

​

The Civil War

​

By 1850, the southern half of the U. S. had developed an economy based on slavery. Hundreds of thousands of Africans had been captured and forced to work as slaves on southern lands, growing crops such as cotton and tobacco. Many people in the northern states believed that slavery was immoral and should be abolished (made illegal). The country split in half and there was war (the Civil War 1861-1865). During the war, on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, the 16th US President) issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all the slaves and made them American citizens.

​

Emancipation Proclamation

​

In 1865, the north defeated the south. What followed has been a century and a half of social change and adaptation for American society. Afro-Americans had been granted freedom from slavery, effectively providing the right of ‘liberty’ (by the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln in 1863). Now they had to fight for their lives (against racial murder), and for the ‘pursuit of happiness, which includes all the freedoms Americans enjoy: free speech, free assembly, free elections, and equal treatment under the law.

​

The Industrial Revolution

​

From 1865 to 1914, America focused largely on expanding and consolidating control over the land between the oceans. The Industrial Revolution brought the steam engine (James Watt, 1736-1819) and steam ships; the telegraph (Samuel Morse, 1791-1892); the electric light (Thomas Edison 1847-1931), and eventually, the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922). In 1869, the ‘golden spike” of the railroads connected the land from shore to shore. As the pioneers headed west, they worked the land and put the land to their own uses. They were forever settling the lands in the west, expanding the frontier. There were no controls on manufacturing or industry and land, air and water pollution were rampant. Living conditions on land in the cities became critical; disease and poverty were widespread.

​

Immigration

​

The population of this land grew rapidly. Waves of immigrants, once again fleeing war and persecution in Europe (and around the world), came to the U. S., to this land of freedom. They came from Germany, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Russia, Greece, Spain and many, many other countries. They brought skills and knowledge, but they also brought different foods, clothing, customs, religions and language. All their contributions changed life in the U. S., and many citizens wanted to slow the pace of this change. Immigration quotas were created, by law, to control who was allowed to come here. Millions of people each year were (and still are) accepted to live in this land.

​

World War I

​

In 1914, Europe was again at war, this time involving the entire world (World War I, called “the War to End All Wars’, 1914-1918). England, France, Russia and Italy were on one side and Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the other. All these were ‘empires’: they had colonies on every continent. When the ‘mother countries’ fought, the colonies in Africa and Asia fought as well, and war came to every continent and every ocean. Over 66 million soldiers and civilians died.

​

Originally, the United States remained neutral (did not enter the war on either side.) However, German U-Boats (submarines) sank so many U.S. ships that the U.S. joined the allies in 1917. This marked the emergence of the U. S. as a world power. The U.S. allies won the war and President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924, 28th President) created the League of Nations. This was an attempt at world government (ironically, the United States never officially joined). The defeated European empires were broken up into ethnic or historic countries and were granted democratic governments. In Russia, in 1917, there was a communist revolution and a new country was formed: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.).

​

The Great Depression

​

The victorious allies also forced the German people to pay for the costs of the war (reparations). Then, in 1929, there was a world wide economic depression (the Great Depression). The great engine of capitalist wealth, the U. S. stock market, crashed on Tuesday, October 29, 1929 (“Black Tuesday”). Millions of people lost their life savings. Stores and manufacturers went bankrupt and out of business. Across America, 13 million workers lost their jobs (1/3 of the workforce). There was mass poverty, starvation and extreme hardship. Breadlines were common: people had to stand on line for daily bread.

​

The New Deal

​

The U. S. government acted to help the people, under the leadership of President Franklyn D. Roosevelt (1882-1945, 32nd President). There should be a “New Deal” for Americans. Government funded work programs were created to build bridges, roads, and runways (the WPA or Works Progress Administration). Roosevelt instituted Social Security and other welfare programs to help the poor, the infirm (sick) and the elderly. He was so popular that he was re-elected 3 times, he died in office. (After that, the U.S. Constitution was changed to restrict any person to two terms as president (22nd Amendment 1951).

​

Adolph Hitler

​

As the people of the U. S. struggled with the economy, the combination of war reparations and the Great Depression caused terrible economic hardship in Germany. This set of circumstances allowed the dictator, Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) to seize power in 1933. His stated goal was world domination and the establishment of a ‘master race’. To this end he created death camps (concentration camps) where 8 million Jews and millions of Gypsies and other ethnic minorities were murdered (acts of mass genocide called ‘the holocaust’).

​

World War II

​

By 1939, the world was again at war, with Germany, Italy and Japan fighting against France, England, Russia, China and many others (World War II). The United States again stayed neutral, this time until Japan conducted a surprise attack against the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The U.S. sent thousands of soldiers and sailors to the Pacific and to Europe to fight the enemy.

​

The Atomic Bomb

​

In 1945, the U.S. developed an atomic weapon and President Truman (1884-1972, 34th President) decided to use the bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The devastation was unprecedented: the cities were completely destroyed and hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed. Japan immediately surrendered and the war in Europe ended shortly after. Germany was divided in two: the U.S. governed West Germany and the U.S.S.R. controlled East Germany. Even the City of Berlin was divided in two, with a wall, topped by barbed wire fence, running the length of the city.

​

The United Nations

​

Following World War II (1939-1945), there was another attempt at world government. This time the U.S. joined the United Nations, located in New York City. In 1949, there was a communist revolution in China, supported by the Soviet Union. This created a great fear of invasion and conquest in the western democracies and the United States took the lead in the ‘Cold War’. This was a war of ideologies (ideas about how to live): a war between capitalism and democracy (lead by the U.S.), on the one hand, and dictatorship and communism, on the other (led by the U.S.S.R.).

​

Post-War Prosperity & Mobility

​

The post-war era was a time of rapid economic growth in the United States (and around the world). The production of automobiles and the building of superhighways marked the growth of first cities and then suburbs. American became an extraordinarily mobile people. Small towns became cities; the South (Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami) and the West (Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Cities grew suburbs. In 1920, fully half of Americans lived in rural areas, on farms and in small towns. By 1990, 45% of Americans lived in the suburbs, 30% in cities, and less than 25% lived in rural areas.

​

The Civil Rights Movement

​

From the beginning, equality under the law for people of different races, cultures, religions, ethnicities and sexual orientations has been troublesome. At first, only white males were able to vote (enfranchised), for example. It took more than 100 years after slavery was abolished for African Americans to be able to exercise the right to vote without having to first pay a poll tax. Acceptance into mainstream society was difficult and a culture of segregation (discrimination) dominated the landscape of the south. Afro-Americans were killed and persecuted. This meant a water fountain for whites and another for ‘Negroes’. It wasn’t until 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka) that the Supreme Court of the U.S. ruled that ‘separate but equal’ was unconstitutional (illegal under the U. S. Constitution). President Eisenhower (1890-1969 34th President) sent federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 to ensure that Afro-American children could attend the same school as white children.

​

The Cold War & the Korean War

​

This ‘Cold War’ was a standoff between two ’superpowers’ (the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.) with nuclear weapons that could destroy the earth many times. The people of this land, indeed of the world, lived under the threat of nuclear war and the end of the human race. The Cold War was often ‘hot’: the U. S. fought the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Viet Nam War (1957-1975) to stop the spread of communism in Asia. Both Korea and Viet Nam (supported by Communist China) became divided nations. Ultimately, in 1975, the North Vietnamese army defeated the South Vietnamese and American armies and the country was united under communist rule. Korea remains divided to this day, with a communist North Korea and a capitalist/democratic South Korea.

​

The Viet Nam War

​

The Viet Nam war had a profound effect on the American public. The Vietnamese had beaten the French colonialists in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. The U.S. stepped in under Presidents Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy (1917-1963, 35th President) and started sending troops. At the height of the war, America had over 500,000 troops in Viet Nam. From the beginning, a vocal minority protested American involvement (called ‘hippies’ and ‘peaceniks’). By 1973, protests against the war had ended the draft (and the all-volunteer army of today was established). Towards the close of the war (1971), the U. S. population was almost equally divided on this issue. The Viet Nam war ended in 1975 with U.S. personnel air lifted off the roof of the U. S. embassy in Saigon. This was the first war that the U.S. had ‘lost’. The American people were tired of war.

Consumerism

​

The 1970’s saw the emergence of the consumer society in this land. Electronic devices hit the consumer market in a storm: first color television, then toaster ovens, then microwave ovens, then wireless devices, and on and on. By the 1980’s, young adults were called the ‘me’ generation, because they were focused on themselves: buying things for themselves, enjoying themselves, pampering themselves. Drug use among the middle class (adults and teenagers) became a serious national problem.

​

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity

​

The land became home to an increasingly diverse society: culturally, religiously, ethnically, racially, the composition of the population of the nation was changing. People from all of the world’s countries, languages, cultures, religions and ethnicities came to this land to live in freedom: to achieve the American Dream (a job, a home, a family). Concern for the natural resources and beauty of the land caused many Americans to propose strict environmental protection laws. Earth Day was established on April 22, 1970 to show support for the protection of the environment

​

Collapse of the Soviet Union

​

The cold war ended with the collapse of the economy of the U.S.S.R. in 1991. The U. S. emerged as the world’s only superpower. Since then, the U.S. has engaged in two wars in the Middle East (Iraq). New threats have emerged, in the form of dictatorships around the world that support terrorism. This is another ideological war: between those who live in this land and are resolved to work out difficulties without violence (civilization) and those who kill for power, purpose and greed.

​

Terrorism

​

The terrorist aims to destroy the common person’s trust in the security of their surroundings. The American people were safe in their land, occupied shore to shore, tamed and harnessed to their ends. But on September 11, 2001, the terror was brought to the U.S. The Twin Towers, in New York City, were attacked and destroyed. Thousands of Americans died.

Terrorists threaten trust and cooperation which are the basis for freedom. The American people must now confront this danger to the spirit of freedom in their homeland.

Computers & Electronic Devices

In the 21st century, personal computers and electronic devices have become commonplace. Communications devices (cell phones, e-mail, facsimile transmissions) have increased the speed of business transactions and personal interactions. Digital imagery has revolutionized the entertainment industry. The world has grown smaller, as people regularly communicate over large distances and travel frequently.

To maintain this mobile, fast paced life style, to maintain their freedom, Americans be able to trust each other, indeed the world, and cooperate. The freedom of each American has always been limited only by the freedom of others. There are now more people living in this land than ever before living in closer proximity than ever before.

The land is crowded and we must all recognize the danger to the land itself and the potential limitations to our own freedom that this situation presents.