A short presentation of the history of America from the earliest ages until around 1900. Main headings: - Prehistory - Colonial America; 1508 – 1763 - The American Constitution and Revolution; 1763 – 1793 - Expansion and Reform; 1793 – 1860 - The American Civil War; 1861 - 1865 - The Progressive Era / The Gilded Age; around 1870 – 1900.

1. AMERICAN HISTORY
Prehistoric till 1900

2. PREHISTORY:
• American History goes back at
least 10.000 years, to when
the first settlers wandered to
the continent and became
what is today known as Native
Americans.
• Columbus came in 1492.
• As much as 90% of the North
American Indians died as
trade transformed, and
culture and diseases took its
toll.
• Europeans fought both Native
Americans and amongst
themselves for control of the
land.

3. COLONIAL AMERICA; 1508 – 1763:
• The first explorations of America took
place in 1513 when a group of men
under a man named Juan de Leòn came
to St. Augustine near the Florida coast.
• The first British colony in America was
established in 1585 on Roanoke Island
off the coast of North Carolina, but after
losing this colony and failing a new
attempt a couple of years later, it took
the British 20 years before they tried
again, and in 1607 they claimed
Jamestown in Virginia.
• The early 1600’s saw the beginning of a
great tide of emigration from Europe to
North America. Spanning more than
three centuries, this movement grew
from a trickle of a few hundred English
colonists to a flood of millions of
newcomers.

4. COLONIAL AMERICA, continued:
• After 1680, England ceased to be the chief
source of immigration. Thousands of refugees
fled continental Europe to escape the path of
war.
• By 1690 the American population had risen to a
quarter of a million. From then on, it doubled
every 25 years until, in 1775, it numbered
more than 2.5 million.
• In 1619, a Dutch ship sold Africans into
servitude, which was the start of an
international slave trade that the British,
Spanish, French and Dutch empires grew rich
on. As the trade developed, and the demand
for workers grew, plantation owners embraced
slavery.
• By the American Revolution in 1776, one of
every five Americans was a slave.

5. THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION AND
REVOLUTION; 1763 – 1793:
• While the colonies grew, Britain struggled
with France and Spain for supremacy. In
the Great War for Empire (between 54-63),
Britain gained Canada, Florida, and all
French possessions east of the Mississippi
River.
• In 1763 Britain leaders began to tighten
their reign of the colonies, and the once
harmonious relations between Britain and
the colonies became increasingly conflict-riven.
• This ultimately led to questions about
revolution and independence, and in 1776
Thomas Jefferson started writing the
Declaration of Independence.

6. THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION AND
REVOLUTION; continuation:
• This War of Independence lasted until
1783, when America – under the
leadership of General George Washington –
became the first European colony to
separate from its mother country.
• In 1789, when the Constitution was
approved, the new government met in the
capital of New York City. At this meeting,
George Washington was elected the first
President of America.

7. EXPANSION AND REFORM; 1793 – 1860:
• During his reign, Washington
had to deal with the French
trying to entangle America in its
war with England, with armed
rebellion in western
Pennsylvania, with Indian
conflicts, and the threat of war
with Britain.
• Washington retired gracefully in
1796 after having suppressed
the rebellion, defeated the
Indian confederacy in Ohio, and
negotiated successfully with
Britain.

8. EXPANSION AND REFORM, continuation:
• The technology of the cotton
gin had increased production
from 1.5 million pounds in 1790
to 36.5 million pounds by 1800,
and thus also increased the
demand for slaves.
• The country became split
between the free labor system
in the North and a slave system
in the South.

9. EXPANSION AND REFORM, continuation:
• During Jefferson’s presidency
(1801-1809), the Supreme
Court became a vigorous and
equal third branch of
government, and in 1803
Jefferson bought the Louisiana
Territory from Napoleon –
which doubled the country’s
size.
• Whites coveted western lands,
and as wagon trains rolled out
of eastern cities, the Native
Americans were killed or
confined to reservations.

10. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR; 1861 - 1865:
• 1860: The election of Abraham
Lincoln, who was against slavery, led
to seven states in the lower South to
secede from the Union and to
establish the Confederate States of
America.
• In 1862 – after futile pleas to the
south states to free slaves
voluntarily – Lincoln decided that
liberation was a military and political
necessity.
• The Emancipation Proclamation
transformed the war from a conflict
to save the Union to a war to abolish
slavery.

11. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR; 1861 - 1865:
• During the war, Congress adopted
policies that altered American
society:
• The Homestead Act offered free
public land to western settlers.
• Huge land grants supported
construction of a
transcontinental railroad.
• The government raised the
tariff, imposed new taxes,
enacted the first income tax,
and established a system of
federally-chartered banks.
• In 1865, a 13th Amendment ended
slavery in the United States.

12. THE PROGRESIVE ERA/ THE GILDED AGE;
around 1870 – 1900:
• The era from the 1870s to the turn of the
20th century, is often called the Gilded Ages
because it looked gilded on the surface, but
underneath there existed massive
inequality, including a lot of corruption in
the politics, like kickbacks and voter frauds.
• The Gilded Age overlapped with what is
often called the Progressive Era, when the
American people felt that things should be
improved and progress made, and people
were trying to solve some of the social
problems that came with the benefits of
industrial capitalism.

13. THE PROGRESIVE ERA/ THE GILDED AGE;
continuation:
• To oversimplify;
• there was a competition between the
corporations' desire to keep wages low
and workers' desire to have a decent
life.
• But the constant arrival of new
workers kept the wages low, and as
laborers competed, stereotypes of
different ethnic groups flourished.
• Newly-arrived immigrants sought out
others of their own national origin, and
gathered together in groups.

14. THE PROGRESIVE ERA/ THE GILDED AGE;
continuation:
• By the 1900, the US was the , the US was
the richest country in the world.
• The immigrants that flocked to the US
from all over the world drove the
growth of cities and manned the rapid
industrialization that took place
• It produced more than one third of the
world’s coal, iron and steel, and its
navy ranked third behind Britain and
Germany.

15. Sources:
 «Contemporary America» by Russell Duncan & Joseph
Goddard
 http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=7&smti
d=1
 http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/outlines/history-
2005/westward-expansion-and-regional-differences/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_Stat
es