Native Americans and European settlers
The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, are believed to have migrated from Asia, beginning between 12,000 and 40,000 years ago.Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After Europeans began settling the Americas, many millions of indigenous Americans died from epidemics of imported diseases such as smallpox.
In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the region were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies. Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
In 1674, the Dutch ceded their American territory to England; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680.By the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism. All legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonial population grew rapidly. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding the Native Americans (popularly known as "American Indians"), who were being displaced, those thirteen colonies had a population of 2.6 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain; nearly one in five Americans were black slaves. Though subject to British taxation, the American colonials had no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.
美国人民是个勇敢而爱好自由的民族. 他们原本来自世界各地, 是许多不同的文化、种族和宗教, 经过长时期的共存结合而形成的, 渐渐他们以身为美国人而自豪.
17世纪以前, 北美广大原野仅有印第安人和爱斯基摩人居住, 但经过百余年的移民, 这里已成为欧洲国家人民的新家园, 而其中最主要为英国人所建立的13州殖民地, 这13州殖民地宣布脱离英国而独立. 几经协商与改革, 联邦体制的美国, 于法国大革命前夕, 正式登上世界舞台. 早期的美国很欢迎外来的移民, 这些移民使她迅速地成长. 美国人口, 在1776 年只有300万人, 而现在则超过2亿. 在人口迅速增加的过程中, 新的生存空间, 也跟着不断开拓, 而方向则由东向西, 拓疆的先驱们不但从事农耕畜牧, 也寻找矿产及其它资源. 到了20世纪,美国不但已成为世界强国, 并且也是科学、技术、医药及军事力量的先进国家.
殖民时期以前(1607以前)
在两万多年前, 有一批来自亚洲的流浪者, 经由北美到中南美洲, 这些人就是印第安人的祖先. 当哥伦布发现新大陆时, 居住在美洲的印第安人, 约有2,000万, 其中有大约100万人住在现在的加拿大和美国中北部, 其余绝大部分住在现在的墨西哥和美国南部. 大约1万年前, 又有另一批亚洲人, 移居到北美北部, 这是后来的爱斯基摩人. 而最早到美洲的白种人大概是维京人, 他们是一群喜好冒险的捕渔人, 有人认为他们在1,000年前,曾到过北美东海岸. 殖民时期(1607~1753) 1607年, 一个约一百人的殖民团体, 在乞沙比克海滩建立了詹姆士镇, 这是英国在北美所建的第一个永久性殖民地. 在以后150年中, 陆续涌来了许多的殖民者, 定居于沿岸地区, 其中大部分来自英国, 也有一部分来自法国、德国、荷兰、爱尔兰和其他国家. 18世纪中叶, 13个英国殖民地逐渐形成, 他们在英国的最高主权下有各自的政府和议会. 这13个殖民区因气候和地理环境的差异, 造成了各地经济形态、政治制度与观念上的差别.
独立运动(1754~1783)
18世纪中叶, 英国在美洲的殖民地与英国之间, 已有了裂痕. 殖民地的扩张, 使他们产生某种自觉, 自觉到英国的迫害, 而萌生独立的念头. 1774年, 来自12州的代表, 聚集在费城, 召开所谓第一次大陆会议, 希望能寻出一条合理的途径, 与英国和平解决问题, 然而英王却坚持殖民地必须无条件臣服于英王, 并接受处分. 1775年, 在麻州点燃战火, 5月, 召开第二次大陆会议, 坚定了战争与独立的决心, 并发表有名的独立宣言, 提出充分的理由来打这场仗, 这也是最后致胜的要素. 1781年, 美军赢得了决定性的胜利, 1783年, 美英签定巴黎条约, 结束了独立战争.
组成新政府(1784~1819)
革命的成功, 使美国人民有了以立法形式表达他们政治观念的机会. 1787年, 在费城举行联邦会议, 会中华盛顿被推为主席, 他们采取一项原则, 即中央的权力是一般性的, 但必须有审慎的规定和说明, 同时, 他们也接受一项事实, 那就是全国性政府必须有税收、铸造货币、调整商业、宣战及缔结条约的权力. 此外, 为了防止中央权力过大, 而采取孟德斯鸠的均权政治学说, 即政府中设置三个平等合作与制衡的部门, 即立法、行 政、司法三种权力相互调和, 制衡而不使任何一权占控制地位.
向西扩张(1820~1849)
19世纪初期, 数以千计的人, 越过阿帕拉契山, 向西移动, 有些开拓者, 移居到美国的边界, 甚至深入属于墨西哥的领地、以及介于阿拉斯加与加利福尼亚的俄勒冈. 开拓者勇敢、勤奋地向西寻求更好的生活.
南北冲突(1850~1869)
引起内战的原因, 不单是经济上、政治上、军事上的问题, 还包括了思想上的冲突. 内战暴露了美国的弱点. 对这个国家的存在, 作了一番考验. 经过了这次考验, 美国才步向一个中央集权化之现代国家的坦途. 南北之间, 为奴隶问题而起争执, 南方在全国政治上的主要方针, 就在保护和扩大"棉花与奴隶"制度所代表的利益;而北部各州, 主要是制造业、商业和 金融的中心, 这些生产无需依赖奴隶, 这种经济上和政治上的冲突都是由来已久的. 1860年代初期, 11个南方的州脱离联邦, 另组政府, 北方则表示, 为了统一将不惜付出任何代价. 1861年, 内战爆发了, 这场美国人面对面的流血战, 打了四年, 南方遭到严重的破坏, 而且留下深深的伤痕. 1865年, 北方战胜了, 这项胜利不但显示美国回复统一, 而且, 从此全国各地不再施行奴隶制度.
工业化与改革(1870~1916)
19世纪初期, 美国开始工业化, 而内战之后, 则步入成熟阶段. 在从内战至第一次世界大战的不到50年时间内, 她从一个农村化的共和国变成了城市化的国家. 机器代替了手工,产品大量增加. 全国性的铁道网, 增进了货品流通. 应大众的需要, 许多新发明应市了. 银行业提供贷款, 促成工商业经营的扩大. 故从1890到1917年的近30年间被称为所谓"进步时期", 1914 年, 世界大战爆发, 1917年,美国终于被卷入大战漩涡中, 并且在世界上尝试扮演新的角色.
世界的新地位(1917~1929)
在战后的10年间, 美国的社会与文化可说是个无生气、无感情, 属于商人阶级的10年. 据1929年统计, 居城 与居乡的比率是56%∶44%, 这时举凡现代生活的特色, 诸如汽车、电话、收音机、洗衣机, 已成为生活的必需品. 战后经济呈现极度的繁荣, 原因有二, 一为政府不再干涉私营企业且有立法保护之, 二为新技术的带 动. 虽然经济成长很快, 但是基础不稳.
不景气时代和第二次世界大战(1930~1959)
经济大恐慌, 影响的不只是美国, 世界各国都受到它的打击, 经济大恐慌, 使上百万的工人失业, 大批的农人被迫放弃耕地, 工厂商店关门, 银行倒闭…… 一片萧条. 1932年, 罗斯福当选总统, 他主张政府应拿出行动来结束经济大恐慌, 新政府虽然解决了许多的困难, 但美国的经济还是要到二次大战, 才苏醒起来. 第二次世界大战之后, 美苏两国, 关系日趋恶化, 分别在军事、政治、经济、宣传各方面, 加紧准备, 一如战时, 这种状态, 被称为"冷战".
1960年以来
美国历史自1960以来, 许多方面仍是战后发展的延续. 经济方面, 除了周期性的不景气, 则仍不断膨胀;从 城市移居到郊区的人口, 继续增加, 1970年, 居郊人口超过了居城人口. 1960年初期, 黑人问题成为美国内部最主要的问题.
1960年代中期, 许多美国人开始不满政府的对外政策. 此外, 由于工业的发展, 人口的集中, 60年代后期, 生态环境的污染广受注意. 70年代初期, 由于能源危机而导致的经济萧条, 是大恐慌以来, 最严重的一次.
70年代中期, 经济一度复苏, 但到70年代未期, 又出现通货膨胀. 1976年, 美国建国200周年, 全国举行各项庆祝活动. 1981年4月12日, 美国成功地发射"哥伦比亚号"航天飞机, 将人类又带入另一个太空新纪元. 1985年, 里根连任总统, 在日新月异的人类发展史中,美国将展开新的一页.
The early seventh century, immigration trend began to flow from Europe to North America. More than three centuries, only the initial number of massive migration of hundreds of England, millions of people gradually become dry as the tide of large migration potential. Their motivation in a variety of powerful, driven, and finally in this once barren continent, the establishment of a new civilization. America's second president, John, the American Revolution began in 1620. British and American public split is the beginning of 1763, 1812 war, it can be said that the second war of independence in two wars - the Civil War and World War I, the United States has reached a mature age. In less than fifty years, it's from a rural-based Republic became urbanized country. The outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 shocked the American public. April 25, the war in Europe coming to an end, representatives from fifty countries met in San Francisco, the drafting of the UN organizational structure. Translated it in English do not use online translator to translate their own
History of the United States
This article is part of
the U.S. History
series.
Native Americans in the United States
Colonial America
1776–1789
1789–1849
1849–1865
1865–1918
1918–1945
1945–1964
1964–1980
1980–1987
1988–present
Timeline · The United States is a country occupying part of the North American continent ranging from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and including outlying areas as well. The first inhabitants of the area now claimed by the United States arrived at least 12,000 years ago, probably by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska. Relatively little is known of these early settlers compared to the Europeans who colonized the area after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Columbus' men were also the first known Old Worlders to land in the territory of the United States when they arrived in Puerto Rico the next year on their second voyage; the first European known to set foot in the continental U.S. was Juan Ponce de León, who arrived in Florida in 1513, though he may have been preceded by John Cabot in 1497.
Contents [hide]
1 Pre-Colonial America
2 Early European settlements
3 Colonial America (1493-1776)
4 Formation of the United States (1776-1789)
5 Westward Expansion (1789–1849)
6 Civil War Era (1849–1865)
7 Reconstruction and the Rise of Industrialization (1865–1918)
8 Post World War I and the Great Depression (1918–1940)
9 Homefront: World War II (1940-1945)
10 Cold War Beginnings and the Civil Rights Movement (1945–1964)
11 Cold War (1964–1980)
12 End of the Cold War (1980–1988)
13 Modern Era (1988–present)
14 See also
15 Literature
16 External links
[edit]
Pre-Colonial America
Main articles: Native Americans in the United States and Pre-Columbian
Monk's Mound in Cahokia, Illinois, at 100 feet high is the largest man-made earthen mound in North America, was part of a city which had thousands of people around 1050 ADArcheologists believe that the present-day United States was first populated by people migrating from Asia via the Bering land bridge sometime between 50,000 and 11,000 years ago.[1] These people became the indigenous people who inhabited the Americas prior to the arrival of European explorers in the 1400s and who are now called Native Americans.
Many cultures thrived in the Americas before Europeans came, including the Puebloans (Anasazi) in the southwest and the Adena Culture in the east. Several such societies and communities, over time, intensified this practice of established settlements, and grew to support sizeable and concentrated populations. Agriculture was independently developed in what is now the eastern United States as early as 2500 BC, based on the domestication of indigenous sunflower, squash and goosefoot.[2] Eventually, the Mexican crops of maize and legumes were adapted to the shorter summers of eastern North America and replaced the indigenous crops.
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Early European settlements
One recorded European exploration of the Americas was by Christopher Columbus in 1492, sailing on behalf of the King and Queen of Spain. He did not reach mainland America until his fourth voyage, almost 20 years after his first voyage. He first landed on Haiti, where the Arawaks, whom he mistook for people of the Indies (thus, "Indians") greeted him and his fleet by swimming out to their ships with gifts and food. Columbus, after island-hopping for several months, heard nothing of gold, his main drive for the voyage. However, he realized that a great market of slavery could be made with these populations. By 1550, there were only 500 Arawaks left; about 250,000 Indians on Haiti had died from murder or suicide.
After a period of exploration by various European countries, Dutch, Spanish, English, French, Swedish, and Portuguese settlements were established. Columbus was the first European to set foot in U.S. territory when he came to Puerto Rico in 1493; the oldest remaining European settlements in the U.S. are San Juan, Puerto Rico, founded 1521, and on the mainland, St. Augustine in what is now the state of Florida, founded in 1565.
In the 15th century, Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. The introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America. The horse offered revolutionary speed and efficiency, both while hunting and in battle. The horse also became a sort of currency for native tribes and nations. Horses became a pivotal part in solidifying social hierarchy, expanding trade areas with neighboring tribes, and creating a stereotype both to their advantage and against it.
[edit]
Colonial America (1493-1776)
The Mayflower, which transported Pilgrims to the New World, arrived in 1620.
Territorial expansion of the United States, omitting Oregon and other claims.Main article: Colonial America
In 1607, the Virginia Company of London established the Jamestown Settlement on the James River, both named after King James IColonial America was defined by ongoing battles between mainly English-speaking colonists and Natives, by a severe labor shortage that gave birth to forms of unfree labor such as slavery and indentured servitude, and by a British policy of benign neglect (salutary neglect) that permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders.
The first truly successful English colony was established in 1607, on the James River near the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia Company of London financed the purchase of three ships to transport settlers to the Virginia colony. The names of the three ships were The Susan Constant, Godspeed and the Discovery. The leader of the group was Captain Christopher Newport. Also on board was John Smith, an explorer, soldier, and writer. King James decided to give the Virginia Company a charter for the settlement. The settlers sought a location which had fresh water, deep water to dock their ships, and was easy to defend. The settlement was named Jamestown after the king. England also wanted to find gold, silver and other riches in North America.
As increasing numbers of settlers arrived in Virginia, many conflicts arose between the Native Americans and the colonists. The colonists increasingly appropriated land to farm and grow tobacco. This was the beginning of a general trend towards displacing Native Americans westward to make room for settlers. [1]
One example of conflict between Native Americans and English settlers was the 1622 Powhatan uprising in Virginia, in which Indians had killed hundreds of English settlers. The largest conflict between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century was King Philip's War in New England. [2]
Differences of language, religion and culture also contributed to the friction between the two groups. At the base of the friction was an assumption by the English colonists of racial, cultural and moral superiority. [3]
[Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500-1676. By Joyce E. Chaplin . (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001] [John Wood Sweet. Bodies Politic - Negotiating Race in the American North, 1730-1830. Johns Hopkins University Press]
New England was founded by two separate groups of religious dissenters. A second group of colonists called the Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, were characterized by a large degree of diversity. The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina, with Georgia Colony the last of the Thirteen Colonies established in 1733.
Spain claimed or controlled a large part of what is now the central and western United States as part of New Spain which included Spanish Florida, California and Texas. In 1682, French explorer Sieur de La Salle explored the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and claimed the entire territory as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, which became New France. The Louisiana Territory, under Spanish control since the end of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), remained off-limits to settlement from the 13 American colonies. The colonies of East Florida, West Florida, Grenada, and Quebec, added to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris (1763), were part of British North America open to travel, and during the revolutionay war many Loyalists fled to them.
These are historic regions of the United States, meaning regions that were legal entities in the past, or which the average modern American would no longer immediately recognize as a regional description.
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Formation of the United States (1776-1789)
Washington's crossing of the Delaware, one of America's first successes in the Revolutionary war
The presentation of the Declaration of IndependenceMain article: History of the United States (1776-1789)
During this period the United States won its independence from Great Britain with help from France in the American War of Independence, or the American Revolutionary War as it is called in Great-Britain, and the thirteen former colonies established themselves as the United States of America under the Articles of Confederation.
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, still meeting in Philadelphia declared the independence of the United States in a remarkable document, the Declaration of Independence, primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson. Although it is said that Morocco was the first country in the World to officialy recognize the newly sovereign United States in 1777 it was the Dutch Governor Johannes de Graaff which fired a 11 gun salute when a US war ship called Andrew Doria flying the flag of the new United States sailed into Gallows Bay of St. Eustatius, part of the Netherlands Antilles, on November 16 1776, and the Netherlands became the first foreign country (de facto) to recognize the United States. The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship stands as the U.S.'s oldest non-broken friendship treaty. Signed by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, it has been in continuous effect since 1783.
The Boston Tea Party in 1773, often seen as the event which started the American RevolutionThe United States celebrates its founding date as July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence that rejected British authority in favor of self-determination. The structure of the government was profoundly changed on March 4, 1789, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The new government reflected a radical break from the normative governmental structures of the time, favoring representative, elective government with a weak executive, rather than the existing monarchial structures common within the western traditions of the time. The system borrowed heavily from enlightenment age ideas and classical western philosophy, in that a primacy was placed upon individual liberty and upon constraining the power of government through division of powers and a system of checks and balances.
The colonists' victory at Saratoga led the French into an open alliance with the United States. In 1781, a combined American and French Army, acting with the support of a French fleet, captured a large British army, led by General Cornwallis, at Yorktown, Virginia (see Siege of Yorktown). The surrender of General Cornwallis ended serious British efforts to find a military solution to their American problem.
A series of attempts to organize a movement to outline and press reforms culminated in the Congress calling the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Westward Expansion (1789–1849)
Main article: History of the United States (1789–1849)
During this period, the United States government was established by its first president, George Washington, and the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and various Indian Wars expanded and consolidated the land expanse of the United States--while largely displacing the indigenous population.
Economic growth in America per capita incomeGeorge Washington, a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, commander and chief of the Continental Army, and president of the Constitutional Convention, became the first President of the United States under the new U.S. Constitution. The Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, when settlers in the Monongahela Valley of western Pennsylvania protested against a federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks, was the first serious test of the federal government.
The Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, gave Western farmers use of the important Mississippi River waterway, removed the French presence from the western border of the United States, and provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion. In response to continued British impressment of American sailors into the British Navy Madison had the Twelfth United States Congress— led by Southern and Western Jeffersonians — declare war on Britain in 1812. The United States and Britain came to a draw in the War of 1812, after bitter fighting that lasted until January 8, 1815. The Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, essentially resulted in the maintenance of the 'status quo ante bellum'; but, crucially for the U.S., saw the end of the British alliance with the Native Americans.
The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas; this was a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States.
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the president to negotiate treaties that exchanged Indian tribal lands in the eastern states for lands west of the Mississippi River. This established Andrew Jackson, a military hero and president, as a cunning tyrant in regards to native populations. This Act resulted in the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes dying en route to the West, the Creek's violent opposition and eventual defeat and the Cherokee Nation taking up farming and "civilized behavior." The Cherokees, under Jackson's presidency, were eventually pushed from their land; even after success with agriculture, trade, and the creation of the first North American Indian written language. The Indian Removal Act also directly caused the ceding of Spanish Florida and subsequently led to the many Seminole Wars.
US territorial growth, 1810-1920Mexico refused to accept the annexation of Texas in 1845, and war broke out in 1846. The U.S., using regulars and large numbers of volunteers, defeated Mexico, which was badly led, short on resources, and was plagued by a divided command. Public sentiment in the States was also divided, as Whigs and anti-slavery forces opposed the war. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded California, New Mexico and adjacent areas to the United States. In 1850, the issue of slavery in the new territories was settled by the Compromise of 1850 brokered by Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas.
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Civil War Era (1849–1865)
The Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle and turning point of the American Civil WarMain article: History of the United States (1849–1865)
This period of United States history saw the breakdown of the ability of white Americans of the North and South to reconcile fundamental differences in their approach to government, economics, society and African American slavery. Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the South seceded to form the Confederate States of America, the Civil War followed, with the ultimate defeat of the South.
In 1854, the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act abrogated the Missouri Compromise by providing that each new state of the Union would decide its stance on slavery. After the election of Abraham Lincoln, eleven Southern states seceded from the union between late 1860 and 1861, establishing a rebel government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861.
Blue the Union; Red the ConfederacyThe Civil War began when Confederate General Pierre Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter. They fired because Fort Sumter was in a confederate state. Along with the northwestern portion of Virginia, four of the five northernmost "slave states" did not secede, and became known as the Border States. Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North when General Robert E. Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland. The Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history. At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln made General Ulysses S. Grant commander of all Union armies. Sherman marched from Chattanooga to Atlanta, defeating Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. Sherman's army laid waste to about 20% of the farms in Georgia in his celebrated "March to the Sea", and reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah in December 1864. Lee finally surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.
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Reconstruction and the Rise of Industrialization (1865–1918)
General Custer's last stand in the Battle of the Little BighornMain article: History of the United States (1865–1918)
After its civil war, America experienced an accelerated rate of industrialization, mainly in the northern states. However, Reconstruction and its failure left the Southern whites in a position of firm control over its black population, denying them their Civil Rights and keeping them in a state of economic, social and political servitude. Since the late 1800s, the United States has been formally grouped amongst the Great Powers, and has also become a dominant economic force.
U.S. Federal government policy, since the James Monroe administration, had been to move the indigenous population beyond the reach of the white frontier into a series of Indian Reservations. In 1876, the last serious Sioux war erupted, when the Dakota gold rush penetrated the Black Hills.
Ellis island in 1902, the main immigration port for immigrants entering the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.An unprecedented wave of immigration to the United States served both to provide the labor for American industry and to create diverse communities in previously undeveloped areas. Native American tribes were generally forced onto small reservations as white farmers and ranchers took over their lands. Abusive industrial practices led to the often violent rise of the labor movement in the United States.
The United States began its rise to international power in this period with substantial population and industrial growth domestically, and a number of military ventures abroad, including the Spanish-American War, which began when the United States blamed the sinking of the USS Maine (ACR-1) on Spain without any real evidence.
This period was capped by the 1917 entry of the United States into World War I.
The United States of America is a country of the western hemisphere, comprising fifty states and several territories. Forty-eight contiguous states lie in central North America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bound on land by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south; Alaska is in the northwest of the continent with Canada to its east, and Hawaii is in the mid-Pacific. The United States is a federal constitutional republic; Washington, its capital, is coextensive with the District of Columbia (D.C.), the federal capital district.
At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km�0�5) and with over 300 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area and third largest by population. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of over $13 trillion, the U.S. has the largest national economy in the world. GDP per capita ranks first among the larger economies of the world, and third or eighth overall, depending on the measurement. The product of large-scale historical immigration and home to a complex social structure as well as a wide array of household arrangements,[7] the U.S. is one of the world's most ethnically and socially diverse nations.
The nation was founded by thirteen colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776 as the new nation, the "United States of America." It adopted the current constitution (which has been amended several times subsequently) on September 17, 1787. The country greatly expanded in territory throughout the 19th century, acquiring further territory from Great Britain, as well as lands from France, Mexico, Spain, and Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it became the world's sole remaining superpower, and is a declared nuclear weapons state. The United States continues to exert dominant economic, political, cultural and military influence around the globe.
美利坚合众国(英语:United States of America),通称美国,旧称花旗国,是位于北美洲的联邦共和制国家,也是世界上最为悠久的共和立宪制国家。
美国本土东濒大西洋,西临太平洋,北靠加拿大,南接墨西哥及墨西哥湾。首都为华盛顿哥伦比亚特区。
美国源自于1776年脱离英国统治的北美殖民地,13州的殖民地代表一同发表了《美国独立宣言》,在经历艰苦的独立战争后,于1783年与英国签订了巴黎协约,从此受到世界各国的承认。
经过两百多年的发展,美国国土不断拓展,37个州陆续加入联邦旗下。目前有50个州,1个联邦直辖特区,以及若干海外领地。国土面积超过962万平方公里,是世界上第三国土面积的国家。美国有3亿居民,人口数量位居世界第三。美国国旗上的50颗白色星星代表50个州;每当新州加入联邦,次年的7月4日国旗将增加一颗星。国旗上红色及白色横条各7及6条,共13条,纪念最初的13个州。
建国200多年以来,美国曾经历过内战(1861—65年)和经济大恐慌(1930年代)两次严酷考验,仍坚守自由民主制政治制度,成为宪法民主和公民自由的代表性国家。美国庞大的经济、文化、科技、和军事影响力贯穿了整个20世纪。在第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战中,美国和同盟国一同获得胜利,并经历数十年的冷战后终于拖垮苏联,成为世界上唯一的超级大国[5]。当今美国在全世界的经济、政治、军事等众多领域的庞大影响力都是无他国能比的。
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