US History/Print version
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Brief overview of European history (before 1492)
- Pre-Columbian America (before 1492)
- Vikings (1000-1013)
- Exploration (1266-1522)
- Early Colonial Period (1492 - 1607)
- The English Colonies (1607 - 1754)
- Road to Revolution (1754 - 1774)
- The American Revolution (1774 - 1783)
- A New Nation is Formed (1783 - 1787)
- The Early Years of the Constitutional Republic (1787 - 1800)
- Jeffersonian Republicanism (1800 - 1824)
- Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny (1824 - 1849)
- Friction Between the States (1849 - 1860)
- Intro to Secession
- Farewell to the Star-Spangled Banner (1860 - 1861)
- The Civil War (1860 - 1865)
- Reconstruction (1865 - 1877)
- The Age of Invention and the Gilded Age (1877 - 1900)
- The Progressive Era (1900 - 1914)
- World War I and the Treaty of Versailles (1914 - 1920)
- The Roaring Twenties and Prohibition (1920 - 1929)
- The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929 - 1939)
- Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
- World War II and the Rise of the Atomic Age (1939 - 1945)
- Truman and the Cold War (1945 - 1953)
- Eisenhower, Civil Rights, and the Fifties (1953 - 1961)
- Kennedy and Johnson (1961 - 1969)
- Nixon presidency and Indochina (1969 - 1974)
- Ford, Carter and Reagan presidencies (1974 - 1989)
- Bush and Clinton presidencies,1st Gulf War (1989 - 2001)
- George W. Bush, September 11, 2nd Gulf War, and Terrorism (2001-2006)
- Growing Crisis with Iran (2006-)
- 2008 and Beyond
- Appendix Alpha: Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States
- Appendix Beta: Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court
- Appendes Gamma: Supreme Court Decisions
- Appendex Delta: Famous Third Parties
Keywords (People, Events, etc)
Licensing and Contributors
Preface
This textbook is based initially on the College Entrance Examination Board test in Advanced Placement United States History. This seems to be the best reference on which to build a textbook, since it is a standard on the subject and covers what most U.S. history students study in high school and college. Overall, however, the content and structure may in time vary from all other books. Besides the regular wikibook rules governing unbiased writing, the only other guideline should be that everything should be kept more or less in chronological order and divided into logical chapters. Everything else is left pretty much to the individual authors that elect to join the project.
Enjoy!
AP Course Description http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_ushist.html
Colonial America
Introduction
Content and Contributions
This is, to the best of our knowledge, the world's first open content US History Textbook. The users are invited to tweak and refine this book until there is nothing better available. The authors are confident that this will happen because of the success of the Wikipedia site.
Licensing
All content contained herein shall be available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Brief overview of European history (before 1492)
Overview of European History
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WHY THE HECK DOES A US HISTORY BOOK HAVE ALL THIS WORLD HISTORY NOISE? JUST BECAUSE IT CAN?
The peoples of Europe have had a tremendous impact on the development the United States throughout the course of U.S. history. Europeans "discovered" and colonized the North American continent and, even after they lost political control over its territory, their influence has predominated due to a common language, social ideals, and culture. Therefore, when endeavoring to understand the history of the United States, it is helpful to briefly describe their European origin.
Greece and Rome
The first significant civilizations of Europe formed in the second millennium BC. By 800 BC, the Greek city-states began to gain dominance over European civilization. By about 500 BC, the state of Athens had created a democracy, but one that differs from today's democracies in certain respects. The city-states of Greece became a province of the Roman Empire in 27 BC.
Meanwhile, the city of Rome was founded (traditionally in the year 753 BC). Slowly, Rome grew and built its empire, which at various points included most of present-day Britain (a large part of Scotland never belonged to the empire), France (then known as Gaul), Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iraq, Palestine (including the territory claimed today by the modern state of Israel), Northern Arabia, Egypt, the Balkans, and the entire north coast of Africa.
By 180 AD, the Roman Empire began to disintegrate. The Emperors were overthrown and anarchy resulted. But Diocletian (243 - 316), reinstated the Empire by 284. The Empire was restored and continued to regain territory until 395, when the Empire was so large that it had to be divided into two parts, each with a separate ruler. The Eastern Empire survived until 1453, but the Western Empire fell quickly. In 476, Germanic tribes rebelled against Rome and deposed the Western Roman Emperor, resulting in a long period of decline known as the "Dark Ages."
Read more at Ancient History
The Roman Empire to the Holy Roman Empire
After Rome's fall c.476, the remnants of the Western Roman Empire fell into the hands of several of Germanic tribes, such as the Visigoths, Anglo-Saxons, Vandals, and Franks. Among these, the Franks quickly rose to prominence.
Charlamagne (742 - 814), the King of the Franks, took power over great portions of Europe. He eventually took control of Rome, reestablishing the Western Roman Empire, which became known as the Holy Roman Empire due to its close association with the Roman Catholic Church. But "Holy Roman Empire" was a misnomer, famously neither Holy, Roman, or an Empire, because the Empire was actually a confederation of what was formerly known as Gaul with the early German states. Also, it was not exactly an Empire. Though the Emperor held great power, he could not control the Church, even in his own domain. This allowed the popes of the Church to exert great influence both in religious and political matters.
At the end of the eleventh century, prompted by Pope Urban II and calls for aid from the crumbling Eastern Roman Empire, some European kings and great nobles launched a century and a half of Crusades of hordes of Christians, first to reconquer, and then to hold, part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the Saracens (Arabs). The Crusaders ultimately failed in the face of powerful, resurgent, Muslim forces, but were recurrent disturbers of the Arab Empire. The Arabs were repeatedly torn by internal dynastic struggles such as Abbasides versus Fatimids, Shi'a versus Sunni, and numerous wars with the Turks (who succeeded them), Persians, and Mongols. The wars between Christian and Muslim empires lasted intermittently from the seventh century until World War I, and, to a degree, continue to the present in the Balkans, East Africa, Caucasus, East Indies, Middle East, and New York City.
Viking Exploration of North America
In the eighth century, pushed from their homes in Scandinavia by war and population expansion, Norsemen, or Vikings, began settling parts of the Faeroe, Shetland, and Orkney Islands in the North Atlantic. Then they began exploration of the west, moving first to Iceland in approximately 874 and, later, led by Erik the Red, to Greenland. Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, and other members of the family began exploration of the North American coast in 986. There was at least one camp founded by Vikings in the latter region, now named Newfoundland, and in the 1960's archaeologists discovered Viking remains at L'Anse aux Meadows dating back to about 1000 AD. For whatever reason, the Viking settlement of Newfoundland failed, perhaps because of violent encounters with native peoples and, by the thirteenth century, Iceland and Greenland had also entered a period of decline, resulting from the "Little Ice Age" and bringing the Viking exploration of the west to a standstill. Expansion of Scandinavian traders and warriors into Russia, France, Italy, the British Isles, and Sicily had a profound effect on politics and the ruling classes of Europe.
The Renaissance
Despite the Christian losses of the Crusades, the soldiers who participated had realized one major fact: Eastern civilization was far more advanced than its Western counterpart. Its technology and culture outstripped feudal life west of the Byzantine Empire. With this in mind, Europeans began to import these concepts into their own native lands. Thus, it was not long before the continent began to enter a period of revival.
Roman and Greek art and culture were rediscovered during a period called the Renaissance. The Renaissance started in the Italian city-states and spread throughout most of Europe. The Italian city of Florence was the birthplace of this intellectual movement.
Although Western Christians failed to conquer the Holy Land, they were able to use their new-found experience and knowledge of the Mediterranean, a region whose technology was at a time superior to that of western Europe. Chinese technology such as gunpowder, silk, and printing filtered in from traders, adventurers, and scholars. In the Mediterranean, Europeans encountered writings of the ancient world that had been lost in Europe, and acquired a taste for new foods and flavors.
In the fifteenth century, the Mediterranean was a vigorous trading area. Europe used this water highway to import goods of many sorts. Grains and salts for preserving fish, Chinese silks, Indian cotton, precious stones, and above all, spices. Yes, Europe obsessed over these new spices. New spices meant new drugs, new cosmetics, dyes, perfumes, even glue and sugar. Peppers, cinnamon, cloves and other condiments used for flavoring and preserving food, proved a welcome addition to the bland diets of Europe.
The Rise of Portugal
Italy dominated trade. Genoa and Venice in particular ballooned into massive trading cities, and Italy used its monopoly to raise the price of goods, which would have been expensive in any case, because they were often brought overland from Asia to ports on the eastern Mediterranean. The mad prices, in turn, increased the desire of purchasers to find other suppliers, and of potential suppliers to find new, cheaper, routes to Asia.
Portugal was just one of many potential suppliers, and its location was well positioned to extend its influence into the Atlantic and down, south and east, to Africa. Prince Henry, son of King John I (r. 1385 – 1433), led the way of exploring new routes to the east and, in 1415, supported Portugal's capture of Ceuta in Muslim North Africa. He also sponsored voyages that pushed even farther down the West African coast, all the way south to Sierra Leone by the time of his death in 1460.
Under Portugal's King John II, who ruled from 1481 to 1495, Bartolomeu Dias finally sailed around the southernmost point of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope (1487-88). Then, in 1497-99, Vasco da Gama of Portugal, sailed up the east coast of Africa to India.
Africa supplied Portugal with many profitable by-products. The Portuguese colonized and settled many islands in the Atlantic, such as the Madeira, Cape Verde, The Azores, and Sao Tome. These islands supplied them with sugar, and gave them territorial control of the Atlantic. West Africa was even more promising, not only unearthing a valuable trade route to India, but also providing the Portuguese with ivory, fur, oils, black pepper, gold dust, and a supply of “black gold” -- i.e., dark skinned slaves who were used as domestic servants, artisans, and market or transportation workers in Lisbon. Later, they were used as laborers on sugar plantations in the Atlantic.
The New World
In Europe, the doctrines of the powerful Roman Catholic Church were timidly questioned by scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) and Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642), who suggested by way of careful observation that the earth revolved around the sun. At the time, the church supported the Ptolemaic planetary system, which placed Earth at the center of the universe.
Many Europeans dreamed of exploration. One, the Italian Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506), born Christofo Colombo, decided to sail around the globe to reach India by way of the Atlantic, rather than to travel overland through Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
Contrary to popular myth, it was largely accepted in Europe during Columbus' time that the world was round, which was also central to either the prevailing Copernican or Ptolemaic models of the solar system. In fact, sailors feared sailing west due to the unknown distance and uncharted winds of the West Atlantic, not because they feared sailing off the "edge of the world." Columbus' inspiration for exploring westward was his 30 percent underestimation of the circumference of the earth.
First, Columbus needed to fund his voyage. He approached King John II of Portugal (1455 - 1495) for aid, but the King's Council of Scientific Advisers rejected Columbus' proposals mostly on financial grounds, but also because of his lack of academic knowledge. After all, Columbus didn't know where he was going when he set out, didn't know where he was when he got there, and didn't know where he had been when he got back. Columbus then looked to Portugal's rival on the seas, Spain. King Ferdinand V of Aragon (1452 - 1516), and his wife Queen Isabella of Castile (1451 - 1504), rejected Columbus's plan in 1491. The Spanish rulers felt that Columbus demanded too many benefits and powers in the lands he was proposing to explore, including a percentage of the riches found in these lands, as well as certain titles such as Viceroy and Admiral. But after much negotiation, Columbus received the support of the Queen and funding to sail in April 1492. In that same year, the last Muslims were forced out of Granada by the Christian army. With the reunification of Spain complete, attention and funding became available for exploration to form the basis for the Age of Exploration and the Spanish Empire of the Americas.
Religious Tensions
Despite the failure of the Crusades, militant Western Christianity persisted in Spain in an effort known as the Reconquista (the "reconquest"), which purged the land of Muslims who had arrived there in 711. By the fifteenth century, the Muslims were confined to the kingdom of Granada, which bordered the Mediterranean Sea in the southern side of the Iberian Peninsula. Granada finally fell in 1492 to the Spanish Christians, ending the reconquista.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Pope's powers continued to grow, and in protest to the Roman Catholic Church, several Protestant churches were founded in Germany and France under reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin. In England, King Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church. This division of Western Christianity caused much religious strife, and religious minorities were persecuted throughout Europe. This persecution created large amounts of people looking for a better life. Many of these people set out to create new homes in the Americas. One of the most notable of these groups were the Pilgrims.
Read more at European History
Pre-Columbian America (before 1492)
Pre-Columbian America (before 1492)
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The First Americans
Aboriginal inhabitants arrived earlier than was originally supposed
It was once believed that the first inhabitants of the Americas were people from Asia who crossed the Bering Strait (at that time spanned by an isthmus of land) into what is now known as Alaska, and then migrated down to the environs of Clovis, New Mexico, from whence they migrated south (a hypothesis known as the Clovis Theory). This hypothesis is now disputed because of archaeological evidence found in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Canada, and the United States, as well as studies performed of mitochondrial DNA samples taken from the present inhabitants.
According to studies conducted by French archaeologists from the Sorbonne in 2007, the earliest known migration of peoples to the Americas may have occurred some forty to fifty thousand years ago, originating in Australia and settling in what is now Brazil. The Brazilian settlement may have been later followed by a settlement in southern Chile, evidence of which was discovered in 1997 by Tom Dillehay of the University of Kentucky, at the Monte Verde archaeological site. The findings to date indicate that the Chilean people of Monte Verde were there as early as 12,500 years ago. According to DNA studies, these people were later followed by people apparently from Africa who landed in Mexico and created the Olmec civilization. In addition to the DNA evidence, we can observe definite Negroid anthropological features in the sculptures that they left.
Furthermore, archaeological digs conducted by the University of Alaska have found evidence in Ketchikan that early man was able to cross oceans by the use of boats, and this is also backed up by evidence discovered from anthropological studies of the Australian and Polynesian peoples, including the work of the late Thor Heyerdal. In addition, recent discoveries have revealed signs of settlement in North America at least 20,000 years ago, as determined from evidence found in archaeological digs in South Carolina conducted by the University of South Carolina Archeology Department. The dates for these events and migrations are not precisely known, although carbon dating and other archaeological dating methods have led to the approximate dates stated herein. In this regard, it has been hypothesized that persons may have inhabited the Americas as early as 50,000 years ago (whereas, under the older Clovis Theory, it was originally suggested that the first Americans lived on the continents no earlier than 11,500 years ago).
Aboriginal inhabitants emigrated from many different continents
Archaeological evidence supports the hypothesis that early man migrated to the Americas in gradual waves. These arrivals came primarily from Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and Malaysia, as well as Northern Europe and Polynesia.
The mitochondrial DNA lineages present in the Americas include a small percentage of DNA from two distinct old European sources (a lineage common throughout the Pacific but not found on mainland Asia), as well as two distinct lineages with associations to East Asia and Siberia. Further north in the Alaskan area, people began to arrive in North America some thirty thousand years ago, and apparently they were of north Asian origin, as determined by mitochondrial DNA studies of North American aborigines. From those studies, it has been determined that all migrants who came down from the Alaskan area are descended from only five men and two women.
The Asiatic Lineages
In addition to the genetic evidence is archaeological evidence of a type of stone spearhead known in Siberia and found in later cultures of the American west: the Folsom-derived points that archaeological evidence shows were diffused back into Siberia as early as 2000 BCE. According to all of this evidence, it has been determined that there are two recognizable Asiatic strains in the Americas: (1) the Dene or Athabascan groups, and (2) the Inuit. Furthermore, it has been determined that the Asiatic groups represent two later migrations at two post-glacial points in time: the Dene group being recognizable in Aleut graves as of the time of Christ's birth, and the Inuits appearing in several later waves. In addition to the archaeological and DNA evidence, historical records in China support the hypothesis that Chinese migrants were sent to the North American continent by a Chinese emperor who built a huge fleet of ships for that purpose. However, to date, no archaeological evidence has been found to prove the large-scale migration of Chinese peoples to the North American continent prior to the time of the California Gold Rush, beginning with the discovery of gold in Coloma, on the American River, in 1848.
The European Lineages
In addition to the immigrations of Asiatic peoples, there is also archaeological and genetic evidence to suggest that peoples emigrated from Northern Europe much earlier than previously thought. Archaeological evidence for this is found in the old European Solutrean Culture, who used spearheads like the Clovis points, and different from the Folsom-type points of probable Asiatic origin, thereby calling into question the idea of tool diffusion from Siberia as the sole source of migration to the Americas. Archaeological finds near the present town of Clovis, New Mexico, reveal that 12,000 years ago a culture existed with the ability to shape flint into arrowheads and spear tips nearly identical to those created by the Solutrean Culture of France at about this same time. Also, according to genetic evidence, a European migration originated from France involving the same peoples as the Neanderthals of Lascaux whose points were the same as Clovis points, a technology no other peoples seem to have had or as yet discovered. Genetic evidence indicates that the Salutreans, after arriving in the Americas, intermarried with the American aborigines already living there. Given this evidence, it has been suggested that the Salutreans probably arrived via Greenland and the frozen north on the eastern coast of North America, probably much like present day Inuit who travel in skin boats from Alaska to Greenland and Northern Europe.
Conclusion
Regardless of how they arrived on the continent or what route they took, it is clear that the Northwestern American groups traveled south towards Mexico and South America. It is also clear that, by the time of Christopher Columbus' first arrival in the "New World" in the fifteenth century, several advanced civilizations existed, or had previously existed, across the Americas, the most notable of which were the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Pueblo peoples (including the Chaco Canyon group), the Apache (who appear to have been the progenitors of the Aztec Nation), the Nazcas of Peru, the Olmecs, the Inca, and the Polynesians who built great religious centers throughout the Pacific as far south and west as Tahiti and Easter Island. There are even similarities in the archeological evidence (such as the pyramid-type megalithic architecture of the Aztec and Mayan ziggurats) that suggest that Pharonic Egyptians or persons of Mesopotamian origin, and perhaps the Greeks (if we accept Heroditus' accounts), may have also visited the Americas. However, the possibility that the Americas were visited by ancient Egyptians or Greeks is highly speculative and, except where a definite anthropological relationship between peoples is proved by virtue of DNA or anatomical studies, the possibility of an accidental, parallel development of cultural styles and technology cannot be ruled out.
Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
The Mayans
In about 2000 BC, Aboriginal Americans settled in the Yucatán Peninsula of present-day Mexico. The agricultural Maya society began to develop a complex culture. Tribal chiefs and elders instituted a system of government. Several other political and religious institutions also developed.
300 AD, the date of the so-called Classic Period, is often considered a turning point in the Mayan civilization. Government and society became more complex, with each city having its own king and nobility. A polytheistic (many-god) religion also developed, as did the custom of human sacrifices. These sacrifices were conducted by decapitation, by shooting with arrows, or by the cutting open of the body and removal of the heart.
In addition to politics and religion, the subject of science was also developed. For example, a 365-day calendar was created. Until the creation of the Julian calendar (which contained 365.25 days, rather than the older Roman calendar that contained 360 days), it was far more accurate than the older Western calenders. Furthermore, the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the earth at the Winter Soltice on 21 December 2012, which is similar to Sir Issac Newton's prediction of the end of time in 2060 AD. This prediction was probally arrived at by Mayan Astronomers who observed the near misses of asteroids in their time. Furthermore, the Mayans developed a system of writing known as hieroglyphics (distinct from Egyptian writing of the same name). Their writings have only recently been deciphered and most have disappeared.
The Maya civilization remained prosperous until the ninth century AD. The civilization slowly began to disintegrate and finally collapsed at about that time. The exact cause is still unknown, but internal strife, rebellion, foreign warfare, and natural disasters could have all aided the downfall. The latest information indicates that the Mayans exhausted what little fertility the forests supplied for their agricultural plantings, in addition to the fact that slash and burn agricultural development most likely damaged their water supplies. Their religious practices may have also contributed to the loss of their civilization but the Mayan peoples still exist in the Yucatan area of Mexico today.
After the Classic Period, which is considered to have ended in 900 AD, the Mayans continued to live in some parts of the Yucatán Peninsula. However, the civilization was never again to be as dominant in Mexico as it once was in its glory era.
The Aztecs
The Aztec calendar was based on the Mayan system and, until the Julian reform of the European calendar, the Aztec Calendar was more accurate. Like the Mayans, the Aztec calendar also predicted the end of the Earth in 2010, probably based on Mayan astronomical observations of the asteroids. The citizens of the Aztec Empire called themselves the "Mexica" and are the people after whom Mexico is named. In 1325, the Mexica created a city called Tenochtitlán near Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico (the site of present-day Mexico City). Tenochtitlán grew in influence over the next century and, in 1428, Tenochtitlán led an alliance that conquered much of Mexico.
Just as with the Maya, religion was extremely important in the Aztec Empire. A polytheistic religion was important in several aspects of life, and human sacrifices were very common. Priests were required to cut their penises daily to keep the sun and earth in balance. It is reputed that in 1487, over 80,000 imprisoned enemy warriors were sacrificed. This occured when Cortez arrived amidst ceremonies in progress. While the Aztecs were highly intelligent and literate people, they seemed to have little understanding of the workings of the Human circulatory system. To them a headless body spouting blood from a dying heart had religious significance. Sacrifical victims were given anything they wanted prior to death and enjoyed the delights that nobles usually enjoyed. They were then painted black and went to their deaths to the sounds of flutes. Requiring the victim to climb the high steps of the pyramids assured that their hearts would beat rapidly and would thus create a great fountain of blood when the victim was beheaded. After many scarifices, the pyramid area must have stunk with the odor of death. So it is possible that Cortez smelled the center of Mexico City before he even arrived. To express their religion, Aztec artists created idols and temples, which often included large amounts of gold and silver.
The Aztec Empire was destroyed by the Spanish invaders. However, thousands of descendants of the Mexica live in present-day Mexico, carrying on some of the traditions of the Aztec culture.
The Incas
While the Aztec Empire dominated Central Mexico, the Inca Empire dominated South America. Originally, during the thirteenth century AD, the Inca inhabited land near Lake Titicaca in present-day Peru. At its peak, situated along the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Coast of South America, it included parts of Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador, with the capital at Cuzco, in Peru. It is important that one understand the difference between the Inca and the Aztec. The Aztec Empire was a collection of different cities under the control of one powerful city. The Inca Empire, however, was actually one whole nation.
Religion was significant in Inca life. The royal family were believed to be descendants of the Inca Sun God. Thus, the emperor had absolute authority, checked only by tradition. Under the emperors, a complex political structure was apparent. The Inca Emperor, regional and village leaders, and others were part of an enormous bureaucracy. For every ten people, there was on average one official. The organization of the Empire also included a complex transportation infrastructure. To communicate across the entire empire, runners ran from village to village, relaying royal messages.
In 1438, Pachacuti, ambitious and likely the greatest of the Incan emperors, came to the throne. Pachacuti rebuilt much of the capital city, Cuzco, and the Temple of the Sun. Along with his son, Topa Inca, Pachacuti extended the Incan empire from northern Ecuador to Chile, a vast kingdom spanning in excess of three hundred and fifty thousand square miles.
The Spanish under Pizzaro conquered the Inca just as they had conquered the Aztec with a tiny army of less than 100 men. The Aztec Emperor knew that Pizzaro was marching towards him but gave orders that he was not to be molested because of the Inca religious beliefs. However, millions of descendants of the Inca live in Peru and other parts of the former Inca Empire. There is a lesson in this which is called Rowland's Social Theory of Religion which states that religion can be a strong factor in helping to create a great civilization but its abuse can easily lead to the quick demise of it since it weakens those who otherwise would act defensively against outside and inside attacks. This kind of event has been seen throughout human history. Russia fell to the communists because of religion and Pharonic Egypt rose to its great power because of religion.
The U.S. Polynesians
The Polynesians who today are part of Hawaii and American Samoa along By 1000 they were navigating and migrating throughout the Pacific colonizing Islands from New Zealand and Tahiti to Hawaii. Each of their history needs to be considered separately which will be done as this article is developed. Dr. Peter Buck liks to claim that they came from an area around Malaysia. However, Tongans claim that they came from Samoa since in their Polynesian dialect---"samoa" means South. Their civilization is and was a great one and still is in that they have navigation skills that made them able to get to tiny points in a huge ocean way before Europeans began to use the compass and even today they can out do GPS navigation in accuracy usng nothing more than the wave patterns and stars. These people had no writing system as we know it but communicated by petroglyps and oral histories. The Polynesians founded the Kingdoms of Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Easter Island, and Tonga of which Tonga is the only group never conquered by Europeans along with the Maoris of New Zealand who agreed to become a protectorate of Queen Victoria.
The U.S. Micronesians
These people include the US teritories of Guam, The Federated States of Micronesia(a self governing Republic protectorate of the United States and former territory), The Marshall Islands (a self governing Republic protectorate of the United States and former territory),and the Northern Mariana Islands.
These people called Chamoro originated probally in the Phillipine Islands and arrived in Micronesia sometime around 1000 AD. No genetic studies have been done so that it can be said this positively is positively true but it is based on similarities between Phillipinos and Chomoros.
Europeans first came in contact with the people in Guam sometime around Magellans World Voyage. Magellan sailed into Umatac Bay in Guam and was greeted in a most friendly manner. He was well treated as a guest of honor. All went well until a class of cultures occured of the same kind that US Continental aboriginees encountered---Chamoros did not feel that they owned anything. If there was a boat and someone needed ---it was taken which in their minds was not theft. However, when Magellan's boat was stolen (in his view); the thief was shot dead. This started a war which nearly brought about Magellan's on death and would in the Phillipines.
While the Mayan, Aztec, and Inca cultures can be classified as great civilizations, the cultures that lived in the present day United States and Canada also were also civilized people in their own right as they cultivated the land, had an oral history, and also engaged in petroglyphic or writing systems many of which have never been deciphered. However, the meainings of some petroglyps are so straight fowared that we understand them today such as the recording of the Crab Nebula explosion on 1 May 1054 in Chaco Canyon and elsewhere among North American aboriginees.
Pre-Columbian America North of the Rio Grande
The earliest Native Americans that developed cultures in North America were the Mound Builders of the east. Evidence of their existence has been found as far north as the Great Lakes and as far south as Florida. The mound building first began around 1000 BC. These people were not one tribe, but they were many different cultures that had the custom of building pyramid shaped, grass covered hills. The Adena are among the earliest Mound Builders, being hunters and gatherers that prospered in the Ohio River Valley at around 800 BC. They were followed by the Hopewell, who thrived from 200 BC to 500 AD. The Hopewell were traders and farmers, and they also built the famed Great Serpent Mound, which resembles a giant snake. The Mississippians built the largest Mound Builder settlement, Cahokia. Cahokia was home to around 30,000 residents and had many dwellings and pyramids, so it strongly resembled many Mayan cities. The actual origin of the Mound Builders is unknown, but according to Natchez (descendants of the Mound Builders) legend, their people once lived from the mouth of the Mississippi and west, along the shore of what is thought to be the Gulf of Mexico.
Other early Native Americans settled in the desert southwest. The Hohokam came from Mexico at around 300 BC and prospered from about 300 AD to about 1200 AD in present-day Arizona. The Hohokam were excellent water regulators, and built hundreds of miles of irrigation channels. They also left behind carved stone, pottery, and shells. Not much else is known about the Hohokam. The Anasazi also settled the Southwest at about the same time as the Hohokam. These people built pueblos, villages made out of baked earth and clay. In addition, they built cliff dwellings and complex road systems.
Later Native American Cultures
The Mound Builders, Hohokam, and Anasazi eventually fell and gave way to new cultures. These cultures still lived in North America at the time that European explorers were first beginning to arrive on the continent.
The cultures of North America can be placed into six distinct cultural regions: the Southeast, the Northeast Woodlands, the Plains, the Northwest Coast, the Southwest, and the Arctic North.
In the Southeast, the Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee, (and later) the Miccosukee, and the Seminoles were the major cultures. These Native Americans were primarily farmers, harvesting corn, and tobacco, among other things. They lived in loose communities.
In the Northeast, there were the Iroquois, Algonquians, and others. Interestingly, the Iroquois were five Indian groups which joined together in a loose confederation with leaders elected by the women. The peoples of the Northeast usually lived in long, wooden houses, simply called longhouses, and were mostly hunters and gatherers. They did, however, raise corn (maize), squash, and beans (the three 'sisters of Indian agriculture') which were an important part of their diet.
The Plains were home to many tribes, including the Sioux, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, and Crow tribes. The Plains tribes had a very different way of life from those in the east, due to the abundance of animals such as buffalo and deer. The tribes lived in collapsible tepees, which they slept in while following the herds of buffalo, which they hunted for food, clothing, and many other needs.
The Northwest Coastal Indians were fishers. They hunted whale for food and blubber (which they used as oil), and fished in the rivers for the abundant salmon. The Tinglit, Nootka, Kwakiutl, Flat Head, Nez Perce, Chinook, Yakama, Klamath, Maidu, Miwok, Pomo, and Costanoan peoples, among others, lived there. The Northwest Coastal Indians were generally nomadic in custom and culture.
The desert Southwest was home to the Pueblo, Navajo and Apache tribes. The Pueblo and Navajo tribes built apartment-type dwellings called pueblos in canyons. The pueblos were made of sun-dried earth called adobe. They farmed corn and other crops suitable to the area. The Apache were very different from the Pueblo, Zuni, or Navajo tribes; they never settled down, living a nomadic raiding life. They hunted and stole from neighboring tribes. For this reason, they became known as the "Apache Raiders."
In the northern Arctic, there were a handful of scattered nomadic tribes, including the Inuit (eskimo) and Inupiat groups. These tribes followed many of the same customs as the tribes of the Northwest Coast, but with adjustments for the cold temperatures. For example, these tribes built igloos and followed wolves to find caribou to eat.
Most of these tribes lost very large parts of their populations following the "discovery" of the New World by the Old. Nearly all of this loss was caused by the incidental importation of Old World diseases to the New and their spread throughout the Americas. Tribal culture was so damaged by these losses that territory was rather easily taken from the survivors by the Europeans. As the remaining populations interacted with Europeans, customs and items were exchanged in what came to be known as the Columbian Exchange. There were clashes between European settlers and the various tribes when these encounters went badly. Many of these clashes were in the form of "uprisings" or outright war. There was an uprising of the Peublo Indians in centered in New Mexico in the early 1600s, and an organized attack on New england settlements in the mid 1700's. Both were finally defeated.
Vikings (1000-1013)
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Who were the Vikings?
The Norsemen (Norwegians) who lived around the beginning of the second millennium are today more commonly known as Vikings. The Vikings were farmers who "traded" during the slow months. Now, "trading" doesn't mean "I'll give you five sheep for that cow." It means "I'll give you five sheep for that cow. If you don't want to trade, I'll kill you." These people loved to travel in boats from one place to another, and this led to the second discovery of North America (Native Americans first, Vikings second, and Columbus third).
Proported Ancestry and Descendents
The Norse are believed by some to have descended from the Huns, a people of uncertain ancestry. The Norse are believed by some to be the ancestors of the Goths and of modern Germans. There is no proof for these claims.
Eric "the Red" and his Children
Eric "the Red" fled Norway to Iceland for a murder charge, and later was banished from Iceland for yet another murder. His children would have great impact on the discovery and explorations of North America.
Bjarni Ericson
Bjarni travelled around trading in his little knarr. A knarr is a small Norwegian boat that only fits about three to five people. Bjarni sighted Vinland (that is, modern New Foundland).
Thorvald Ericson
Explored from 1004 to 1005 AD.
Thorfinn Ericson
Traveled from 1008-1009 AD. He bravely took cattle with him on his knarr, hoping to settle in Greenland. "Greenland" is a misnomer, since it's covered in ice; his cattle died.
Freydis Erikidottir
Freydis was Eric's daughter, his fourth child. Since Freydis was a woman, there were many restrictions put upon her, but she wanted to make a name for herself. In 1013 AD, she explored with 2 Icelandic men, and killed them and their men upon arriving in Vinland (North America).
Leif Ericson
Leif Ericson did further exploration of Vinland and settled there.
Exploration (1266-1522)
Exploration of the New World
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By the late 1400s, western European kingdoms - Spain, France, England, Portugal, and the Italian city states - were competing intensely for influence. In order to do so, they required economic expansion. Because Europe itself was demographically and economically saturated, these countries began to look overseas, toward Asia and Africa. Portugese fleets began to venture down the coast of Africa and around into the Indian Ocean, while English and Basque sailors followed their quarry, the cod fish, into the waters off Iceland, Greenland and North America. The stage was set for a great opening of contact between Europe and a vast "New World" which Europe had never truly imagined.
Exposure to Asia
The period known as the "High Middle Ages" (ca. 900 - 1350) saw Europe in relative isolation from the rest of the world, with Europeans having little knowledge about what lay beyond the continent's borders. However, the rise of both Islam in the East and Christianity in the West led to the Crusades (1096 - 1272), a century of warfare between the two faiths over possession of the "Holy Land" (in what is today referred to as the "Middle East"). Pope Urban II convinced the knights of Europe to travel to the Holy Land and relinquish it from Muslim control, in exchange for their freedom from punishment due for their current (and next-life) sins. Similarly, Muslim leaders urged their followers to defend the land in exchange for eternal passage to heaven.
Although the Crusades accomplished little in terms of victory, the conflict gave the lower rung of European society a chance to rise in social status through warfare as opposed to lineage and background. More importantly, however, it exposed these people to the other half of the world - the "East Indies", rich with spices, silk, and gold, all largely unknown in the West. Tales of these valuables were brought back to Europe, and as a result Western civilization changed direction and turned east for commerce and profit.
Marco Polo
In the late 13th century, the Venetian merchant Marco Polo traveled to China via the Silk Road, an overland trading route that linked Rome to the present-day city of Xi'an, China. He returned to Europe in 1298 and wrote an account of his travels. Published under the title Il Milione (later translated as The Travels of Marco Polo, Polo's journal further sparked interest in the wonders of Asia. However, the publicity surrounding his account and the extravagance of the account himself led to suspicions about the actual wealth in the land ruled by the Mongol Empire. Polo was captured and imprisoned during a brief war between Venice and Genoa (during which he retold his account to a fellow prisoner) but was eventually released in 1299. Nevertheless, his stories about Asia would be a primary motive for Europeans to visit the East for several centuries.
Christopher Columbus' Voyages
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in present-day Italy in 1451. The son of a wealthy weaver, Columbus became a merchant and traded a variety of goods with other nations. He eventually settled in Lisbon, Portugal, in his early adulthood. At that time, Portugal, the dominant sea power of Europe, had sent various navigators to search for a sea route to India and China, two empires of the Orient that had exotic spices and gold (according to the account of Marco Polo, who took a land route to China in the mid-13th century). Columbus used this opportunity to appeal to the Portuguese monarchy in order to fund his voyage to the Orient, but his proposal was declined after Bartholomeu Dias found a successful route in 1488 via rounding the Cape of Good Hope (on the tip of South Africa).
Several years later, Columbus traveled to Spain to appeal to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to support his journey. As opposed to the Portuguese sea route east, he proposed to sail west in order to reach Asia. The monarchy agreed to fund the voyage, and they provided him with three vessels - the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from the coast of Spain and began his journey westward.
Two months later, on October 12, 1492, Columbus sighted land in the form of an island (present-day San Salvador). He searched the island and established a temporary settlement (Hispaniola) in search of gold, but found very little riches. In early 1493 he returned to Spain.
Columbus made three more voyages to Hispaniola over the next ten years. His sailors took residence on the island, many of whom were under the impression that the land was bountiful with gold. This theory clashed with the reality of island (there was very little gold), and eventually the sailors attacked the native Arawaks. Many of the natives were enslaved and were forced to do labor for the settlers. The chaos led Columbus to take the position of acting governor of the colony in the late 1490s. Despite his authority, the settlers grew violent, and he eventually lost his authority in 1500. When he returned to Spain in 1502, he was jailed because of his poor leadership of the island.
In 1506, Columbus died without ever knowing that he had not reached Asia. Nevertheless, his discovery of the islands fueled a greater European desire to colonize new lands in the "New World".
The Sea Empires
From the late 1400s through the mid-1500s, Spain and Portugal were the two dominant overseas empires. Both powers had already made significant discoveries of foreign lands and established their own colonies in these new territories.
Portugal
Throughout the mid-1400s, Prince Henry "The Navigator" of Portugal led the voyages of exploration. He spent a great deal of his life studying cartography and analyzing navigation. Prince Henry then led a series of expeditions to Africa that helped him chart the land. In addition, he colonized most of the west African shore (often referred to as the "Gold Coast"), establishing the slave trade and the gold trade. Prince Henry died in 1460, but his techniques were later adapted by future explorers, specifically those in the 1480s.
In 1487-1488, Bartholomeu Dias successfully rounded the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa and established a sea route to Asia. Ten years later, in 1498, Vasco da Gama followed Dias' route and landed on Asian territory. He returned to Portugal with spices, gold, and silks, bringing Asia to the attention to the rest of Europe. For the first half of the 16th century, Lisbon had become one of the primary trading crossroads of Europe.
In 1500, Pedro Cabral sailed west but avoided the African coast in an attempt to reach Asia. However, a storm redirected his fleet southwest, where Cabral discovered land. He sailed along the (present-day) South American coast and, under the Treaty of Tordesillas (see below), claimed the land - later named Brazil - for Portugal.
Spain
Unlike Portugal, Spain centered most of its interests in finding a route west to Asia. Columbus' proposal managed to convince Isabella that a western route would be shorter than an eastern route, but his voyage resulted in the discovery of the "New World" instead. With Columbus' miscalculation evident and Portugal's dominance rising, Spain struggled to its own riches.
To a compromise the territorial demands of Spain and Portugal, Pope Alexander IV issued the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The declaration drew a "Line of Demarcation" west of Europe (approximately 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands). All territory east of the line was given to Portugal; Spain received all territory west. This meant that Portugal would lay claim to Brazil (discovered by Pedro Cabral in 1500), whereas Spain would receive the western half of South America. Although many believed that the treaty favored Portugal, Spain discovered its worth west of the line, when Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first European explorer to see and make contact with the Pacific Ocean. Balboa's discovery sparked a Spanish resurgence in finding a western route to Asia, and Spain's goal was finally achieved by Ferdinand Magellan.
In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal appealed to Spain to seek another western route to reach Asia. Once his voyage was approved, he set sail with five ships and crossed the Atlantic Ocean. After re-stocking in Brazil four months later, Magellan sailed along the South American coast and found the straits named after him, the Straits of Magellan. He used these straits to cross into the Pacific, where he began the long journey northwest to Asia. Magellan reached the Philippines in April 1521, but when he decided to intervene in the local conflict between the natives, the decision cost him his life; he died in combat on April 27, 1521. The remaining crew continued the journey and returned to Spain in 1522.
Although Magellan's voyage did give Spain the riches it was searching for, it also proved the vastness of the Pacific Ocean and the impracticality of sailing west to reach the Indies. By the mid-1500s, Spain's interest had diverted from trading spices to creating new colonies.
Early Colonial Period (1492 - 1607)
Early Colonial Period
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The Arrival of Columbus
Christopher Columbus and three ships - the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria - set sail on August 3, 1492. On October 12, a lookout cried out that he had sighted land. The crew set foot on an island that day, naming it San Salvador. It is unknown which exact island was discovered by Columbus. (Note that the island presently called San Salvador is so-called in honor of Columbus' discovery; it is not necessarily the same one that Columbus set foot on.)
The Native Americans inhabiting the islands were described as "Indians" by Columbus, who had believed that he had discovered Asia. In reality, he had found an island in the Caribbean. He continued to explore the area, returning to Spain. Columbus' misconception that he found Asia was corrected years later by the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America may be named.
The Protestant Reformation
In Europe, the power of the Pope and the influence of Catholicism was undoubtable. The Catholic religion affected every aspect of politics on the continent. However, in the sixteenth century, the conditions were ripe for reform. Gutenberg's printing press made the spread of ideas much easier. The influence of nationalism grew, and rulers began to resent the power possessed by the Pope.
The Protestant movement may have commenced earlier, but the publication of Ninety-Five Theses by Martin Luther in 1517 spurred on the revolution within the Church. Luther attacked the Church's theology, which, he believed, misrepresented The Bible and placed too much authority in the hands of the clergy, and wished to reform the Church. After being excommunicated, Luther published many books on Reform. Luther's works were most influential in Germany and Scandinavia.
Persons other than Luther championed the cause of Reform. In Switzerland, Huldreich Zwingli advanced Protestant ideas, which mostly affected his home country. Similarly, Frenchman John Calvin helped the spread of Protestantism in France and the Netherlands.
Elizabethan England
Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry's second wife out of six, Anne Boleyn (whom he had executed). Her ascendency to the throne only resulted when there was no issue from either of her half siblings, Edward and Mary. The Elizabethan Age brought stability to English government after the reigns of Henry, Edward, and Mary. When Elizabeth returned England to Protestantism, several religious laws were established that were essentially the opposite of Mary's laws: the Catholics were now persecuted while the Anglican Protestants enjoyed more rights.
Queen Elizabeth was a very popular monarch. Her people followed her in war and peace. She remained unmarried until her death, probably through a reluctance to share any power and preferring a series of suitors. This gave her the name, the Virgin Queen, and in honor of her, a colony was named Virginia a few years after her death.
In the aftermath of the Armada's overwhemling defeat and building on the development of a strong fleet started by Henry VIII, England began to gain recognition as a great naval power. Nationalism in England increased tremendously. Thoughts of becoming a colonial power were inspired. These thoughts were aided by the fact that the defeated Spanish lost both money and morale, and would be easy to oppose in the New World.
Roanoke Island and the Lost Colony
The English had already begun the exploration of the New World prior to the Armada's defeat. In 1584, Queen Elizabeth granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter authorizing him to explore the island of Roanoke, which is part of what is now North Carolina.
Between 1584 and 1586, Raleigh financed expeditions to explore the island of Roanoke and determine if the conditions were proper for settlement. In 1586, about a hundred men were left on the island. They struggled to survive, being reduced to eating dogs. They were, however, rescued- except for fifteen men whose fate remained a mystery.
After another expedition in 1587, another group of men, women, and children- a total of more than one-hundred people- remained on the island. Governor John White of the Roanoke colony discovered from a local Native American tribe that the fifteen men who were not rescued were killed by a rival tribe. While attempting to gain revenge, White's men killed members of a friendly tribe and not the members of the tribe that allegedly killed the fifteen men.
Having thus strained relations with the Natives, the settlers could not survive easily. John White decided to return to England in 1587 and return with more supplies. When he returned, England faced war against Spain. Thus delayed, White could not return to Roanoke until 1590. When he did return, White discovered that Roanoke was abandoned. All that gave clue to the fate of the colony was the word Croatan, the name of a nearby Native American tribe, carved out on to a tree. No attempt was made to discover the actual cause of the disappearance until several years later.
There are only theories as to the cause of the loss of Roanoke. There are two major possibilities. Firstly, the settlers may have been killed by the Natives. Second, the settlers may have assimilated themselves into the Native tribes. But there is no evidence that settles the matter beyond doubt.
Review Questions
Use the content in this chapter and/or from external sources to answer the following questions. Remember to properly cite any sources used.
1. Identify or explain the significance of the following people:
(a)Christopher Columbus (b)Martin Luther (c)King Henry VIII (d)Anne Boleyn (e)Elizabeth I (f)Sir Walter Raleigh
2. What primary factor(s) led to the shift from Catholicism to Protestant belief in England?
3. Why did King Henry VIII establish the Church of England? How did this influence the English Reformation?
4. Differentiate between Elizabeth I's policies and Henry VIII's. What attitudes did the English have toward Elizabeth and her rule?
5. What did the defeat of the Spanish Armada symbolize to all of Europe?
6. What difficulties did the colonists of Raleigh face between 1584 and 1587? What was the fate of the colony?
The English Colonies (1607 - 1754)
The English Colonies (1607 - 1754)
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Types of Colonies
In America, there were three different types of colonies. First, corporate colonies were established by corporations known as "joint stock companies". A joint stock company was a project in which people would invest shares of stock into building a new colony. Depending on the success of the colony, each investor would receive profit based on the shares he bought. This method of investing proved to be less risky than starting a colony from scratch, and in the process each investor could have some influence on how the colony was run. For example, these investors often elected their own public officials.
Meanwhile, proprietary colonies were owned by a person or family, who could make laws and appoint officials as he or they pleased. Finally, royal colonies were under the direct control of the King, who usually appointed a Royal Governor.
Virginia and Jamestown
Founded in 1607 with a charter from the Virginia Company of London, Jamestown was the first permanent English colony in the Americas. However, the swampy terrain was a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which carried a variety of diseases - dysentery, malaria, smallpox - that the English were unaccustomed to. Many of the settlers fell prey to these infections and died shortly after.
In addition, Virginia's initial government had no backbone, and its individual members frequently quarreled over policies. The colonists themselves frantically searched for any precious metals (i.e. gold) they could find, ignoring their deteriorating health in the process. Furthermore, "Indian raids" also weakened any hopes of defense and unification, and gradually the population of the colony declined. By the winter of 1609-1610, also known as the Starving Time, only 60 settlers remained from the original 500 passengers.
Despite these shortcomings, it was the work of two men that helped the colony to survive: John Smith and John Rolfe. John Smith, who arrived in Virginia in 1608, introduced an ultimatum - those who did not work would not receive food or pay. His struggle to improve the colony's conditions succeeded - the colonists learned how to raise crops and trade with the nearby Indians, with whom Smith had made peace.
In 1612, John Rolfe, an English businessman, discovered that Virginia had ideal conditions for growing tobacco. This singular discovery led to an explosion of success as the plant became the colony's major cash crop. With English demand for tobacco rising, Virginia had now found a way to economically support itself.
In 1619, Virginia set up the House of Burgesses, the first elected legislative assembly in America. It marked the beginnings of self-government, as opposed to the martial law that was previously imposed on the colonists.
Simultaneously, however, the king declared Virginia a royal colony, or a colony run by the English monarchy. While the House of Burgesses was still allowed to run the government, the king nevertheless appointed a royal governor to settle disputes and enforce certain British policies.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Meanwhile, the English had their own problems with religious tension. The Puritans, a radical group of Protestants, faced persecution because they disagreed with the official Church of England. In 1620, forty-one Puritans sailed for the new world. Based on numerous contemporary accounts, it is quite clear that the Pilgrims originally intended to settle the Hudson River region near present day Long Island, New York. Once Cape Cod was sighted, they turned south to head for the Hudson River, but encountered treacherous seas and nearly shipwrecked. They then decided to return to Cape Cod rather than risk another attempt to head south. After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts on Dec. 26, 1620.
They agreed to govern themselves in the manner set forth in the Mayflower Compact, which was named for the Puritans' ship, The Mayflower. After two years they abandoned the communal form of partnership begun under the Mayflower Compact and in 1623 assigned individual plots of land to each family to work. William Bradford, who was selected as governor after John Carver died has left us with a journal that helps to understand the challenges, encounters with native americans and successes of the colony. (1) (2)
Ten years later, the Massachusetts Bay Company, a joint stock company, acquired a charter from King Charles of England. The colony of Plymouth was eventually absorbed by Massachusetts Bay, but it did remain separate until 1691.
A large group of Puritans migrated to the new colony of Massachusetts Bay. The colony, ironically, did not provide religious freedom. It only permitted male Puritans to vote and established Puritan ideas as part of the official religion of the colony (The Act of Toleration).
Revolution in England
Ever since the "Magna Carta" England had an unusual form of government where the power of Parliament was balanced against that of the king. In the mid seventeenth century this division of powers resulted in the English Civil War.
In 1637, King Charles attempted to expand the influence of the Church of England to Scotland. The Scots did not take this action kindly, and attacked the north of England. The King, in order to raise funds, summoned Parliament. Parliament, on the basis of many unresolved grievances regarding personal rights while also favoring a non-military solution, opposed the King and tried to increase its own power. Charles's unsuccessful attempt to bypass parliament, by using an Irish Catholic army on Scottish Protestants, further incensed the Parliamentarians.
Eventually, by 1642, hostilities between some members of Parliament and the King were so great that armed conflict became unavoidable. The Parliament, supported by the Scots, won the Civil War in 1646, when King Charles surrendered. Parliament gained assurances of royal restraint, but the Army remained unsatisfied. War broke out again in 1648, the Army being led by the Puritan Oliver Cromwell.
Charles settled his disputes with Scotland and allied himself with them. But Cromwell defeated the Scottish Army, and had Charles beheaded in 1649. Under a new written constitution called the "Instrument of Government" Cromwell was appointed as head of state for life or "Lord Protector" in 1653. England was governed by a mixture of parliaments and military councils until Cromwell's death in 1658. He was succeeded as head of state by his son, Richard who was removed by the army after seven months. Immediately afterwards there was an attempted military coup but General Monck's English army in Scotland marched to London to save Parliament. Parliament re-established the monarchy under Charles II in 1660 but after the civil war Parliament had become the true power in England.
Friction continued between the monarchy and Parliament throughout the seventeenth century and the overthrow of James II in England in the "Glorious Revolution" cemented Parliament's power and was accompanied by the "English Bill of Rights" in 1689 which is in some respects a forerunner of the US Constitution.
Large numbers of the more extreme elements found their way to the Colonies both before and after the Civil War. Most importantly freeborn Englishmen had ceased to be subject to the absolute power of a monarch but the colonies did not always share this privilege. Though the American Revolution was still more than a century away, these and other consequences of the Civil War caused the build-up in revolutionary sentiments.
Mercantilism
Mercantilism was an economic idea that a nation's power depended on the value of its exports. Under the idea of mercantilism, a nation could establish colonies to help produce more goods which were then exported, increasing the strength of the nation. Essentially, mercantilists believed that colonies should have been established not for the benefit of settlers, but for the benefit of the home country.
The Parliament of England passed the Navigation Acts to increase the benefit the English derived from its colonies. Firstly, the Acts required that any colonial imports or exports travel only on ships registered in England. Also, the colonies were forbidden to export tobacco and sugar to any nation other than England. Furthermore, the colonies could not import anything manufactured outside England unless the goods were first taken to England, where taxes were paid, and then to the colonies.
Of course, many colonists resented the Navigation Acts because it regulated them more and reduced opportunities for profit. The English, they felt, profited, while the hard-working colonists lost potential wealth.
The Remaining Colonies
In an attempt to gain supremacy over trade, and in following mercantilist ideas, the English waged war against the Dutch in 1664. The English took control over the Dutch harbor of New Amsterdam on the Atlantic coast of America. James, the brother of King Charles II, received the charter for New Amsterdam and the surrounding Dutch territory. James granted a portion of the territory, present-day New Jersey, to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Cartaret. James retained present-day New York for himself as a proprietary colony.
In 1634, Lord Baltimore appointed George Calvert of England to settle Maryland, a narrow strip of land north of Virginia and south of Pennsylvania, as a Catholic colony via a royal charter. Fifteen years later, in 1649, he signed the Act of Toleration, which proclaimed religious freedom for its colonists, among whom Protestants would become the majority despite the original charter. After Lord Baltimore's death several years later, Margaret Brent, the wife of an esteemed landowner in Maryland, executed his will as governor of the colony. She defied gender roles in the colonies by being the first woman of non-royal heritage to govern an English colony.
At the other end of the Eastern Seaboard, the territory of Carolina was granted as a proprietory colony to eight different nobles. The proprietors divided Carolina into two separate colonies- North and South Carolina.
Charles II also granted William Penn the territory now known as Pennsylvania. Penn granted refuge to Quakers, a group of Protestants who opposed the Church of England, in his new colony. But the people of Delaware, who were mostly non-Quakers, separated from Pennsylvania in 1704.
The charter for Georgia, the last of the thirteen original colonies, was granted to James Oglethorpe and others in 1732. Georgia was first established as a "buffer" colony to protect the other colonies from attacks from the Spanish in Florida, as well as the French in Louisiana. Because of this, Georgia was the only colony to receive funds from England at the outset. Oglethorpe's goal was to provide Georgia as a place where debtors from England could regain financial standing.
The Lords of Trade
In an attempt to enforce mercantilist policies, King Charles II created the Lords of Trade as a new committee on the Privy Council. The Lords of Trade attempted to affect the government of the colonies in a manner beneficial to the English, rather than to the colonists.
The Lords of Trade, in an attempt to gain more power, attempted to convert all American colonies to royal ones. Under King James II, the successor to Charles II, New York, New Jersey, and the Puritan colonies were combined into the Dominion of New England in 1687.
However, the Dominion would not last for much time. In England, the Catholic James II was seen as a danger by Protestants. James was overthrown (he was technically held abdicated by Parliament) in the bloodless Glorious Revolution of 1688. In 1689, James' daughter Mary II and her husband William III took the throne as joint rulers. William and Mary dismantled the Dominion of New England, dissolved the Lords of Trade (Which William replaced with a Board of Trade, which was an advisory body), and reestablished the various separate colonies.
The Economy, Slavery, and Colonial Expansion
From the middle of the seventeenth century to the start of the Civil War, commercial agriculture was intimately associated with different types of servitude. During the colonial period, slaves grew much of the tobacco in Virginia and the Carolinas, rice in the low country of South Carolina and Georgia, and sugar on the Caribbean islands. During the same period, tens of thousands of British men and women were imported to the American colonies, especially to Virigina and the Carolinas, as indentured servants, or as punishment for lawbreaking. Even after release from indenture, many of these white people remained in the economic lower classes, though not subject to the slave codes, which became more harsh as time passed, denying almost all liberty to slaves in the southern colonies. Neither southerners, who used slaves as field laborers and servants, nor northerners, who supplied slaves and food to the southern and Caribbean plantations and consumed the products of slave labor, questioned the economic value of slavery.
Among the whites sent to the colonies by English authorities were many Scots-Irish people from Ulster. Known for hardiness, combativeness and harsh Calvinist religious beliefs, Scots-Irish settled in the frontier region of the Appalachian Mountains and eventually beyond in the Ohio and Mississippi country. Though the Scots-Irish had been at odds with England back home, in America their desire for land and freedom pushed the colonial boundary westward at little cost to the government, and provided an armed buffer between the eastern settlements and Native American tribes which had been driven away from the seaboard. Colonial frontiersmen endured a very harsh life, building their towns and farms by hand in a dense wilderness amid economic deprivation and native attack.
British Interference
The colonists sincerely believed that they had the right to govern themselves, being separated from Britain by an ocean and having founded an entirely new society. Such ideas were encouraged by the Glorious Revolution and 1689 Bill of Rights, which established that Parliament and not the King had the ultimate authority in government. Slowly, as interference from the Crown increased, the colonists felt more and more resentful about British control over the colonies.
In the 1730's, the Parliament began to pass laws regulating the Americas. The Molasses Act established a tax of six pence per gallon of molasses imported into the colonies. By 1750, Parliament had begun to ban, restrict, or tax several more products. This provoked much anger among the colonists, despite the fact that their tax burdens were quite low, when compared to most subjects of European monarchies of the same period.
Road to Revolution (1754 - 1774)
Road to Revolution (1754 - 1776)
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The French and Indian War
Throughout the 1700s, the European empires competed for colonies across the globe. In North America, the British attempted to expand while at the same time reducing French influence. In 1754, the Seven Years' War broke out which is usually divided into three theatres: the North American theatre (the French and Indian War), the Asian theatre (the Third Carnatic War), and the European theatre (the Seven Years' War). By the time the French and Indian War concluded in 1763, the British had gained control of the Spanish territory of Florida and the French territories of Canada and Eastern Louisiana. Spain gained Cuba and the Philippines from Britain and Western Louisiana from France.
The wars in three continents proved expensive. Although the British acquired the territories of New France, the national debt had nearly doubled in the course of the wars. New revenues would need to be found. Although William Pitt had enticed colonists to fight against the French by insisting that Britain would pay for the war, Parliament felt that the British people were already taxed very heavily, so they looked to the colonists for a source of revenue. After all, the British felt, were the wars not fought for the mutual benefit of the Empire and the Colonies?
Proclamation of 1763
(The following text is taken from the Wikipedia article)
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763 by George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the Seven Years' War. The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Britain's vast new North American acquisitions for its empire, and to stabilize relations with North American Indians through regulation of fur trade, trade, settlement, and land purchases on the western frontier. The Proclamation in essence forbade Americans from settling or buying land west of the Appalachians. Colonists were angry because many already had land in that area. Additionally, the Proclamation gave the Crown a monopoly in land bought from Native Americans.
Native land
One of the biggest problems confronting the British Empire in 1763 was maintaining peace with North American Indians who lived on the land acquired from France in the Treaty of Paris. Many of these people—primarily in the Great Lakes region—had a long and close relationship with France, and were dismayed to find that they were now under British sovereignty. Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1766) was an unsuccessful effort by Native Americans to prevent Great Britain from occupying the land previously claimed by France. The Proclamation of 1763 had been in the works before Pontiac's Rebellion, but the outbreak of the conflict hastened the process. British officials hoped the proclamation would reconcile American Indians to British rule and thus help to prevent future hostilities.
The proclamation created a boundary line (often called the proclamation line) between the British colonies on the Atlantic coast and American Indian lands (called the Indian Reserve) west of the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation line was not intended to be a permanent boundary between white and American Indian lands (as is sometimes believed), but rather a temporary boundary which could be extended further west in an orderly, lawful manner. The proclamation outlawed private purchase of Native American land, which had often created problems in the past; instead, all future land purchases were to be made by Crown officials "at some public Meeting or Assembly of the said Indians". Furthermore, British colonists were forbidden to move beyond the line and settle on native lands, and colonial officials were forbidden to grant lands without royal approval. The proclamation gave the Crown a monopoly on all future land purchases from American Indians.
According to historian Colin Calloway, "scholars disagree on whether the proclamation recognized or undermined tribal sovereignty" (p. 93). The language of the proclamation made it clear that the British still believed that all native lands ultimately belonged to the Crown. However, the proclamation established the important precedent that the indigenous population had certain rights to the lands they occupied—in the past, by contrast, the Crown had granted lands without regard to native claims.
Almost immediately, many British colonists and land speculators objected to the proclamation boundary, since there were already many settlements beyond the line (some of which had been temporarily evacuated during Pontiac's War), as well as many existing land claims yet to be settled. Indeed, the proclamation itself called for lands to be granted to British soldiers who had served in the Seven Years' War. Prominent American colonists joined with land speculators in Britain to lobby the government to move the line further west. As a result, the boundary line was adjusted in a series of treaties with Native Americans. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix and the Treaty of Hard Labor (both 1768) and the Treaty of Lochaber (1770) opened much of what is now West Virginia and Kentucky to British settlement.
Organization of new colonies
Besides regulating colonial expansion, the proclamation dealt with the management of newly ceded French colonies. It established government for four areas: Quebec, West Florida, East Florida, and Grenada. All of these were granted the ability to elect general assemblies under a royally appointed governor or a high council, which could then create laws and ordinances specific to the area in agreement with British and colonial laws. In the meantime, the new colonies enjoyed the same rights as native-born Englishmen, something that British colonists had been fighting over for years. An even bigger affront to the British colonies was the establishment of both civil and criminal courts complete with the right to appeal--but those charged with violating the Stamp or Sugar Act were to be tried in admiralty court, where the defendant was considered guilty until he or she could prove his or her innocence.
Legacy
The influence of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 on the coming of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) has been variously interpreted. Many historians argue that the proclamation ceased to be a major source of tension after 1768, since the aforementioned treaties opened up extensive lands for settlement. Others have argued that colonial resentment of the proclamation contributed to the growing divide between the colonies and the Mother Country.
In the United States, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 ended with the American Revolutionary War, because Great Britain ceded the land in question to the United States in the Treaty of Paris (1783). Afterwards, the U.S. government also faced difficulties in preventing frontier violence, and eventually adopted policies similar to those of the Royal Proclamation. The first in a series of Indian Intercourse Acts was passed in 1790, prohibiting unregulated trade and travel in Native American lands. Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court case Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823) established that only the U.S. government, and not private individuals, could purchase land from Native Americans.
The Royal Proclamation continued to govern the cession of aboriginal land in British North America, especially Upper Canada and Rupert's Land. The proclamation forms the basis of land claims of aboriginal peoples in Canada – First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is thus mentioned in Section Twenty-five of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Stamp Act and other Laws
In 1764, George Grenville became the British Chancellor of the Exchequer (minister of finance). He allowed customs officers to obtain general writs of assistance, which allowed officers to search random houses for smuggled goods. Grenville thought that if profits from smuggled goods could be directed towards Britain, the money could help pay off debts. Colonists were horrified that they could be searched without warrant at any given moment. Also in 1764, with persuasion from Grenville, Parliament began to impose several taxes on the colonists. The Sugar Act of 1764 reduced the taxes imposed by the Molasses Act, but at the same time strengthened the collection of the taxes. It also provided that British judges, and not juries, would try cases involving that Act.
The next year, Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide room and board for British soldiers stationed in North America; the soldiers would serve various purposes, chiefly to enforce the previously passed acts of Parliament.
Following the Quartering Act, Parliament passed one of the most infamous pieces of legislation: the Stamp Act. Previously, Parliament imposed only external taxes on imports. But the Stamp Act provided the first internal tax on the colonists, requiring that a tax stamp be applied to books, newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, playing cards, and dice. The legislature of Massachusetts requested a conference on the Stamp Act; the Stamp Act Congress met in October that year, petitioning the King and Parliament to repeal the act before it went into effect at the end of the month, crying "taxation without representation."
The act faced vehement opposition throughout the colonies. Merchants threatened to boycott British products. Thousands of New Yorkers rioted near the location where the stamps were stored. In Boston, the Sons of Liberty, a violent group led by radical statesman Samuel Adams, destroyed the home of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Parliament did indeed repeal the Stamp Act, but additionally passed the Declaratory Act, which stated that Great Britain retained the power to tax the colonists, even without substantive representation.
Believing that the colonists only objected to internal taxes, Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend proposed bills that would later become the Townshend Acts. The Acts, passed in 1767, taxed imports of tea, glass, paint, lead, and even paper. The colonial merchants again threatened to boycott the taxed products, reducing the profits of British merchants, who in turn petitioned Parliament to repeal the Townshend Acts. Parliament eventually agreed to repeal much of the Townshend legislation. But Parliament refused to remove the tax on tea, implying that the British retained the authority to tax the colonies despite a lack of representation.
In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which exempted the British East India Company from the Townshend taxes. Thus, the East India Company gained a great advantage over other companies when selling tea in the colonies. The colonists who resented the advantages given to British companies dumped British tea overboard in the Boston Tea Party in December of 1773.
The Boston Tea Party
In retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which were in the colonies known as the Intolerable Acts.Parliament reduced the power of the Massachusetts legislature and closed the port of Boston. Also, the Quartering Act was extended to require private individuals to lodge soldiers. Furthermore, Parliament allowed royal officials accused of crimes to be tried by a British, rather than a colonial, jury.
First Continental Congress
In order to debate a response to the Intolerable Acts, all American colonies except for Georgia sent delegates to the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The Congress, which met in September 1774, issued the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. When the Congress adjourned, it stipulated another Congress would meet if King George III did not acquiesce to the demands set forth in the Declaration. When the Second Congress did meet, the military hostilities of the Revolutionary War had already begun, and the issue of Independence, rather than a redress of grievances, dominated the debates.
The Republic until 1877
The American Revolution (1774 - 1783)
The American Revolution (1775 - 1783)
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The Beginning of the War (1775 - 1778)
Lexington and Concord
The British government commanded General Thomas Gage to enforce the Intolerable Acts and shut down the Massachusetts legislature. Gage also decided to confiscate a stockpile of colonial arms located in Concord. On April 19, 1775, Gage's troops marched to Concord and on the way, at the town of Lexington, Americans, who were warned in advance by Paul Revere and others of the British movements, made a token attempt to stop the troops. No one knows exactly which side fired the first shot, known as The Shot Heard 'Round the World, but it sparked a battle on Lexington Green between the British and the Minutemen. Faced against an overwhelmingly superior number British regular troops in an open field, the Minutemen were quickly routed. Nonetheless, alarms were sounded throughout the countryside and the colonial militias poured in and were able to launch sporadic guerrilla attacks on the British while they marched on to Concord. The colonials managed to amass a sizeable number of troops at Concord and they engaged the British in force there and they were able to repulse them. The British were forced to depart without destroying the armory. They were compelled to retreat to Boston while all the way under a constant and withering fire from all sides. Only a reinforcing column with artillery support, on the outskirts of Boston, prevented the British withdrawal from becoming a total rout.
Ethan Allen and Fort Ticonderoga
The American hero Ethan Allen commanded a group called the Green Mountain boys. These so called “Green Mountain boys” lived and hunted in present day Vermont. They were a small group that fought side by side to keep New Yorkers off their land. When Ethan was charged to take the fort for the cannons, Benedict Arnold, another American general, was charged to help. Benedict Arnold later sided with the British, and his name became synonimous with traitor.
May 10, 1775 American forces led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold capture Fort Ticonderoga in New York. The fort contained a much needed supply of military equipment, including cannons which were then hauled to Boston by ox teams. The Second Continental Congress sent a petition for peace - the Olive Branch Petition. But Parliament reacted by passing the Prohibitory Act, which banned trade with the colonies.
The Battle of Bunker Hill
In Massachusetts, Boston and little else was controlled by British troops. The colonists besieged the city; General Gage countered on June 17 by attacking the colonists on Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill. Although the British suffered tremendous casualties compared with colonial losses, the British were eventually able to dislodge the American forces from their entrenched positions. The colonists were forced to retreat because many colonial soldiers ran out of ammunition. Soon after the area surrounding Boston fell to the British. Despite the early defeat, however, the battle proved that the colonists had the potential to counter British forces, which were considered to be the best in the world.
Battle For Boston
The siege on Boston started on the night after the Battle of Lexington and Concord as American forces followed the British back to Boston, and occupied the neck of land extending to the peninsula the city stood on.
At first, General Artemas Ward, as the head of the Massachusetts militia, had the oversight of the siege. He set up his headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge and positioned his forces at Charlestown Neck, Roxbury, and the Dorchester Heights. Initially, the 6,000 to 8,000 rebels faced some 4,000 British regulars under General Thomas Gage and had them bottled up in the city.
In traditional terms, the British were not besieged since the Royal Navy controlled the harbor, and supplies did come in by ship. Nevertheless, the town and the army were on short rations. Salt pork was the order of the day, and prices escalated rapidly. Another factor was that the American forces generally had information about what was happening in the city, while General Gage had no effective intelligence of rebel activities.
On May 25, 1775, Gage received about 4,500 reinforcements and three new Generals, Major General William Howe, and Brigadiers John Burgoyne and Henry Clinton. Gage began plans to break out of the city.
On June 15, 1775, the Committee of Safety learned of his plans to attack at Dorchester Heights and the Base of the Charlestown, Massachusetts. They sent word to General Ward to fortify Bunker Hill and the heights; he assigned Colonel William Prescott the Bunker Hill task. Two days later, British forces under General Howe seized the Charlestown peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill. They did take their objective, but didn't break out because the Americans held the ground at the base of the peninsula. British losses were so heavy that there were no more direct attacks on American forces. From this point, the siege essentially became a stalemate.
On July 3, 1775, George Washington arrived to take charge of the new Continental Army. Forces and supplies came in from as far away as Maryland]. Trenches were built at the Dorchester Neck, and extended toward Boston. Washington reoccupied Bunker Hill and Breeds Hill without opposition. However, these activities had little effect on the British occupation.
Then, in the winter of 1775– 1776, Henry Knox and his engineers used sledges to retrieve 60 tons of heavy artillery that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga. Bringing them across the frozen Connecticut River, they arrived back at Cambridge on January 24, 1776. Weeks later, in an amazing feat of deception and mobility, Washington moved artillery and several thousand men overnight to take Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston. Now the British fleet ceased to be an asset, being anchored in a shallow harbor with limited maneuverability, and under the American guns on Dorchester Heights— which General John Thomas had fortified.
The siege was over when the British set sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia on March 17, 1776. The militia went home, and in April Washington took most of the Continental Army forces to fortify New York City.
Canada
By September, the colonists had taken control of the city of Montreal. But by the spring of next year, the British had recaptured Montreal, causing heavy casualties among the Americans. Chiefly among them was the wounding and capture of General Arnold.
The Declaration of Independence and Common Sense
In 1776, the Englishman Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet Common Sense, which encouraged American independence based on an anti-Monarchy argument. Thomas Paine argued from both a biblical perspective and republican virtues that monarchies were never good for people of any free state. As military hostilities built up, the Second Continental Congress appointed George Washington as General of the Continental Army. Washington gave up his salary for the position all through the war (being among the richest men in the colonies, this was a choice he could afford). In June, 1776, thoughts in the Second Continental Congress turned to independence and the Committee of Five was appointed to draft a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson, one of the five, became the principal author of the document. Finally, on July 4, Congress declared the independence of the colonies. The Declaration of Indepence listed the "crimes" of the King and set forth other justifications for independence.
The Turning Point of the War
Despite the numerous defeats they faced in the early years of the war, the colonists were able to turn the tide around with several major victories.
New York and New Jersey
In July, 1776, General William Howe and thirty-thousand British troops arrived at Staten Island in New York. The large army attacked and defeated General George Washington's American forces in the Battle of Long Island. Washington was forced to retreat to New Jersey and eventually set up camp in Pennsylvania.
Howe could have ended the war by pursuing Washington's forces. But Howe was very cautious and took almost no risks. He feared losing too many men so far from home. Britain hired German mercenaries (Hessians) to guard the British fort at Trenton. Howe took advantage of these replacements and decided to wait until spring to attack the Continental Army again.
Washington also took advantage of the situation, though from a different perspective. He figured that the Hessians would be weakest on Christmas night, after heavy feasting and drinking. On the night of December 25, 1776, Washington led his troops 9 miles, and across the Delaware River to ambush the Hessians. As he predicted, the mercenaries were completely caught off guard and had little time to respond. By the end of the day (December 26), the Continental Army had won the Battle of Trenton.
The victory also increased the troops' morale and eventually led to re-enlistments. Moreover, it helped the Continental Army score several more victories, particularly at the Battle of Princeton in 1777.
The Battle of Saratoga
In the summer of 1777, British General John Burgoyne and General Howe decided to attack the colonial Army from two sides and thus defeat it. As Howe marched north, winning the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown, eventually capturing Philadelphia. But Burgoyne's Army was not as fortunate. Delayed by natural traps set up by the Continental Army, Burgoyne's troops slowly marched from Canada to Albany. By September of the year, the troops reached Saratoga. A relatively enormous American Army attacked the troops, and in October, General Burgoyne surrendered his entire Army to the Americans. General Howe, despite his victories in Pennsylvania, resigned his post.
The Battle of Saratoga proved to be the major turning point in the war. Its greatest significance was the introduction of French aid to the colonists, as France was now convinced that America had a chance to overthrow Britain. In addition, the battle was the last time that the British would continue to advance north. By the summer of 1778, following the Battle of Monmouth (New Jersey), all fighting would take place in the South.
Conclusion of the War (1778 - 1781)
After the loss at Saratoga, France, a traditional rival of the British, offered their aid in the Revolution. The United States allied itself with France in 1778. Spain and Holland also joined the American side.
War broke out on the seas as well. Americans granted commissions to "privateers" to attack and destroy all British ships, whether they were military or not. One of the most famous privateers, John Paul Jones, scored several victories at sea for the Americans.
Meanwhile, on land, British forces under Lord Cornwallis attempted to take control of the South. In 1781, Corwallis' troops at Yorktown were outnumbered two to one by an American and French force, which had completely surrounded his army. By the end of October of that year, Cornwallis had surrendered his Army to the United States.
At the conclusion of the war in 1783 large numbers of loyalists and their families relocated to the home country of England and in large part to Canada as well as to other British Colonies. They submitted claims for lost property and lands in America. Many of the claims were not accepted by the English government for lack of evidence of the losses or significantly reduced. The property and lands were acquired by the American communities and then resold to the highest bidders.
Due to the climatic effects of a 1782 eruption of an Icelandic volcano, the loyalists also experienced one of the coldest Canadian winters on record which contributed to poor crops in 1783-1784. Starvation, disease and hardship were rampant and many resolved to return to the United States despite the threats of retribution rather than subsist on their meager produce.
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The British lost almost all hope of crushing the rebellion after Yorktown. They decided to negotiate peace with The United States, France, and also Spain. The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3rd, 1783, and it provided for several things:
- The United States was recognized as an independent nation;
- Its boundaries stretched from the Canadian border (to the north) to the Mississippi River (to the west) and to the northern border of Florida (to the South);
- Britain was forced to return Florida to Spain, but still could hold Canada;
- Congress would advise the states to restore property lost or stolen from the Loyalists. (Nevertheless, many Loyalists fled during the Revolution itself.)
A New Nation is Formed (1783 - 1787)
A New Nation is Formed (1783 - 1787)
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The Articles of Confederation
In March, 1781, the Articles of Confederation were ratified by the states. The Articles set the frame of government for the United States. It provided for a Congress in which each state had exactly one vote. The states were sovereign over their own affairs, and the Congress depended on the states for money. Thus, a state could grant or withhold money and coerce Congress into acceding to its demands.
The Northwest Ordinance
The Congress established the Northwest Territory around the Great Lakes between 1784 and 1787. In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance banning slavery in the new Territory. Congressional legislation divided the Territory into townships of six square miles each and provided for the sale of land to settlers. The Northwest Territory would eventually become the states of Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.
Problems with the Confederation
The Confederation faced several difficulties in its early years. Firstly, Congress became extremely dependent on the states for income. Also, states refused to require its citizens to pay debts to British merchants, straining relations with Great Britain. France prohibited Americans from using the important port of New Orleans, crippling American trade down the Mississippi river.
Shays' Rebellion
Due to the post-revolution economic woes, agitated by inflation, many worried of social instability. This was especially true for those in Massachusetts. The legislature's response to the shaky economy was to put emphasis on maintaining a sound currency by paying off the state debt through levying massive taxes. The tax burden hit those with moderate incomes dramatically. The average farmer paid a third of their annual income to these taxes from 1780 to 1786. Those who couldn't pay had their property foreclosed and were thrown into crowded prisons filled with other debtors.
But in the summer of 1786, a revolutionary war veteran named Daniel Shays began to organize western communities in Massachusetts to stop foreclosures, with force, by prohibiting the courts from holding their proceedings. Later that fall, Shays marched the newly formed "rebellion" into Springfield to stop the state supreme court from gathering. The state responded with troops sent to suppress the rebellion. After a failed attempt by the rebels to attack the Springfield arsenal, and other small skirmishes, the rebels retreated and then uprising collapsed. Shays retreated to Vermont by 1787.
While Daniel Shays was in hiding, the government condemned him to death on the charge of treason. Shays pleaded for his life in a petition which was finally granted by John Hancock on June 17, 1788. With the threat of treason behind him, Shays moved to New York and died September 25, 1825
US Presidents before George Washington
Who was the first president of the United States? Ask any school child and they will readily tell you "George Washington." And of course, they would be correct—at least technically. Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, and yet, the United States continually had functioning governments from as early as September 5, 1774 and operated as a confederated nation from as early as July 4, 1776. During that nearly fifteen year interval, Congress—first the Continental Congress and then later the Confederation Congress—was always moderated by a duly elected president. This officer was known as the "President of the Continental Congress", and later as the "President of the United States, in Congress Assembled".
However, the office of President of the Continental Congress had very little relationship to the office of President of the United States beyond the name. The President of the United States is the head of the executive branch of government, while the President of the Continental Congress was merely the chair of a body that most resembled a legislature, although it possessed legislative, executive, and judicial powers. The following brief biographies profile these "forgotten presidents."
Peyton Randolph of Virginia (1723-1775) When delegates gathered in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress, they promptly elected the former King's Attorney of Virginia as the moderator and president of their convocation. He was a propitious choice. He was a legal prodigy—having studied at the Inner Temple in London, served as his native colony's Attorney General, and tutored many of the most able men of the South at William and Mary College—including the young Patrick Henry. His home in Williamsburg was the gathering place for Virginia's legal and political gentry—and it remains a popular attraction in the restored colonial capital. He had served as a delegate in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and had been a commander under William Byrd in the colonial militia. He was a scholar of some renown—having begun a self-guided reading of the classics when he was thirteen. Despite suffering poor health served the Continental Congress as president twice, in 1774 from September 5 to October 21, and then again for a few days in 1775 from May 10 to May 23. He never lived to see independence, yet was numbered among the nation's most revered founders.
Henry Middleton (1717-1784) America's second elected president was one of the wealthiest planters in the South, the patriarch of the most powerful families anywhere in the nation. His public spirit was evident from an early age. He was a member of his state's Common House from 1744-1747. During the last two years he served as the Speaker. During 1755 he was the King's Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He was a member of the South Carolina Council from 1755-1770. His valor in the War with the Cherokees during 1760-1761 earned him wide recognition throughout the colonies—and demonstrated his leadership abilities while under pressure. He was elected as a delegate to the first session of the Continental Congress and when Peyton Randolph was forced to resign the presidency, his peers immediately turned to Middleton to complete the term. He served as the fledgling coalition's president from October 22, 1774 until Randolph was able to resume his duties briefly beginning on May 10, 1775. Afterward, he was a member of the Congressional Council of Safety and helped to establish the young nation's policy toward the encouragement and support of education. In February 1776 he resigned his political involvements in order to prepare his family and lands for what he believed was inevitable war—but he was replaced by his son Arthur who eventually became a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, served time as an English prisoner of war, and was twice elected Governor of his state.
John Hancock (1737-1793) The third president was a patriot, rebel leader, merchant who signed his name into immortality in giant strokes on the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The boldness of his signature has made it live in American minds as a perfect expression of the strength and freedom—and defiance—of the individual in the face of British tyranny. As President of the Continental Congress during two widely spaced terms—the first from May 24 1775 to October 30 1777 and the second from November 23 1785 to June 5, 1786—Hancock was the presiding officer when the members approved the Declaration of Independence. Because of his position, it was his official duty to sign the document first—but not necessarily as dramatically as he did. Hancock figured prominently in another historic event—the battle at Lexington: British troops who fought there April 10, 1775, had known Hancock and Samuel Adams were in Lexington and had come there to capture these rebel leaders. And the two would have been captured, if they had not been warned by Paul Revere. As early as 1768, Hancock defied the British by refusing to pay customs charges on the cargo of one of his ships. One of Boston's wealthiest merchants, he was recognized by the citizens, as well as by the British, as a rebel leader—and was elected President of the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress. After he was chosen President of the Continental Congress in 1775, Hancock became known beyond the borders of Massachusetts, and, having served as colonel of the Massachusetts Governor's Guards he hoped to be named commander of the American forces—until John Adams nominated George Washington. In 1778 Hancock was commissioned Major General and took part in an unsuccessful campaign in Rhode Island. But it was as a political leader that his real distinction was earned—as the first Governor of Massachusetts, as President of Congress, and as President of the Massachusetts constitutional ratification convention. He helped win ratification in Massachusetts, gaining enough popular recognition to make him a contender for the newly created Presidency of the United States, but again he saw Washington gain the prize. Like his rival, George Washington, Hancock was a wealthy man who risked much for the cause of independence. He was the wealthiest New Englander supporting the patriotic cause, and, although he lacked the brilliance of John Adams or the capacity to inspire of Samuel Adams, he became one of the foremost leaders of the new nation—perhaps, in part, because he was willing to commit so much at such risk to the cause of freedom.
Henry Laurens (1724-1792) The only American president ever to be held as a prisoner of war by a foreign power, Laurens was heralded after he was released as "the father of our country," by no less a personage than George Washington. He was of Huguenot extraction, his ancestors having come to America from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made the Reformed faith illegal. Raised and educated for a life of mercantilism at his home in Charleston, he also had the opportunity to spend more than a year in continental travel. It was while in Europe that he began to write revolutionary pamphlets—gaining him renown as a patriot. He served as vice-president of South Carolina in1776. He was then elected to the Continental Congress. He succeeded John Hancock as President of the newly independent but war beleaguered United States on November 1, 1777. He served until December 9, 1778 at which time he was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands. Unfortunately for the cause of the young nation, he was captured by an English warship during his cross-Atlantic voyage and was confined to the Tower of London until the end of the war. After the Battle of Yorktown, the American government regained his freedom in a dramatic prisoner exchange—President Laurens for Lord Cornwallis. Ever the patriot, Laurens continued to serve his nation as one of the three representatives selected to negotiate terms at the Paris Peace Conference in 1782.
John Jay (1745-1829) America's first Secretary of State, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, one of its first ambassadors, and author of some of the celebrated Federalist Papers, Jay was a Founding Father who, by a quirk of fate, missed signing the Declaration of Independence—at the time of the vote for independence and the signing, he had temporarily left the Continental Congress to serve in New York's revolutionary legislature. Nevertheless, he was chosen by his peers to succeed Henry Laurens as President of the United States—serving a term from December 10, 1778 to September 27, 1779. A conservative New York lawyer who was at first against the idea of independence for the colonies, the aristocratic Jay in 1776 turned into a patriot who was willing to give the next twenty-five years of his life to help establish the new nation. During those years, he won the regard of his peers as a dedicated and accomplished statesman and a man of unwavering principle. In the Continental Congress Jay prepared addresses to the people of Canada and Great Britain. In New York he drafted the State constitution and served as Chief Justice during the war. He was President of the Continental Congress before he undertook the difficult assignment, as ambassador, of trying to gain support and funds from Spain. After helping Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Laurens complete peace negotiations in Paris in 1783, Jay returned to become the first Secretary of State, called "Secretary of Foreign Affairs" under the Articles of Confederation. He negotiated valuable commercial treaties with Russia and Morocco, and dealt with the continuing controversy with Britain and Spain over the southern and western boundaries of the United States. He proposed that America and Britain establish a joint commission to arbitrate disputes that remained after the war—a proposal which, though not adopted, influenced the government's use of arbitration and diplomacy in settling later international problems. In this post Jay felt keenly the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and was one of the first to advocate a new governmental compact. He wrote five Federalist Papers supporting the Constitution, and he was a leader in the New York ratification convention. As first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jay made the historic decision that a State could be sued by a citizen from another State, which led to the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution. On a special mission to London he concluded the "Jay Treaty," which helped avert a renewal of hostilities with Britain but won little popular favor at home—and it is probably for this treaty that this Founding Father is best remembered.
Samuel Huntington (1732-1796) An industrious youth who mastered his studies of the law without the advantage of a school, a tutor, or a master—borrowing books and snatching opportunities to read and research between odd jobs—he was one of the greatest self-made men among the Founders. He was also one of the greatest legal minds of the age—all the more remarkable for his lack of advantage as a youth. In 1764, in recognition of his obvious abilities and initiative, he was elected to the General Assembly of Connecticut. The next year he was chosen to serve on the Executive Council. In 1774 he was appointed Associate Judge of the Superior Court and, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, was acknowledged to be a legal scholar of some respect. He served in Congress for five consecutive terms, during the last of which he was elected President. He served in that office from September 28, 1779 until ill health forced him to resign on July 9, 1781. He returned to his home in Connecticut—and as he recuperated, he accepted more Councilor and Bench duties. He again took his seat in Congress in 1783, but left it to become Chief Justice of his state's Superior Court. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1785 and Governor in 1786. According to John Jay, he was "the most precisely trained Christian jurists ever to serve his country."
Thomas McKean (1734-1817) During his astonishingly varied fifty-year career in public life he held almost every possible position—from deputy county attorney to President of the United States under the Confederation. Besides signing the Declaration of Independence, he contributed significantly to the development and establishment of constitutional government in both his home state of Delaware and the nation. At the Stamp Act Congress he proposed the voting procedure that Congress adopted: that each colony, regardless of size or population, has one vote—the practice adopted by the Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation, and the principle of state equality manifest in the composition of the Senate. And as county judge in 1765, he defied the British by ordering his court to work only with documents that did not bear the hated stamps. In June 1776, at the Continental Congress, McKean joined with Caesar Rodney to register Delaware's approval of the Declaration of Independence, over the negative vote of the third Delaware delegate, George Read—permitting it to be "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States." And at a special Delaware convention, he drafted the constitution for that State. McKean also helped draft—and signed—the Articles of Confederation. It was during his tenure of service as President—from July 10, 1781 to November 4, 1782—when news arrived from General Washington in October 1781 that the British had surrendered following the Battle of Yorktown. As Chief Justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, he contributed to the establishment of the legal system in that State, and, in 1787, he strongly supported the Constitution at the Pennsylvania Ratification Convention, declaring it "the best the world has yet seen." At sixty-five, after over forty years of public service, McKean resigned from his post as Chief Justice. A candidate on the Democratic-Republican ticket in 1799, McKean was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. As Governor, he followed such a strict policy of appointing only fellow Republicans to office that he became the father of the spoils system in America. He served three tempestuous terms as Governor, completing one of the longest continuous careers of public service of any of the Founding Fathers.
John Hanson (1715-1783) He was the heir of one of the greatest family traditions in the colonies and became the patriarch of a long line of American patriots—his great grandfather died at Lutzen beside the great King Gustavus Aldophus of Sweden; his grandfather was one of the founders of New Sweden along the Delaware River in Maryland; one of his nephews was the military secretary to George Washington; another was a signer of the Declaration; still another was a signer of the Constitution; yet another was Governor of Maryland during the Revolution; and still another was a member of the first Congress; two sons were killed in action with the Continental Army; a grandson served as a member of Congress under the new Constitution; and another grandson was a Maryland Senator. Thus, even if Hanson had not served as President himself, he would have greatly contributed to the life of the nation through his ancestry and progeny. As a youngster he began a self-guided reading of classics and rather quickly became an acknowledged expert in the juridicalism of Anselm and the practical philosophy of Seneca—both of which were influential in the development of the political philosophy of the great leaders of the Reformation. It was based upon these legal and theological studies that the young planter—his farm, Mulberry Grove was just across the Potomac from Mount Vernon—began to espouse the cause of the patriots. In 1775 he was elected to the Provincial Legislature of Maryland. Then in 1777, he became a member of Congress where he distinguished himself as a brilliant administrator. Thus, he was elected President in 1781. He served in that office from November 5, 1781 until November 3, 1782. He was the first President to serve a full term after the full ratification of the Articles of Confederation—and like so many of the Southern and New England Founders, he was strongly opposed to the Constitution when it was first discussed. He remained a confirmed anti-federalist until his untimely death.
Elias Boudinot (1741-1802) He did not sign the Declaration, the Articles, or the Constitution. He did not serve in the Continental Army with distinction. He was not renowned for his legal mind or his political skills. He was instead a man who spent his entire career in foreign diplomacy. He earned the respect of his fellow patriots during the dangerous days following the traitorous action of Benedict Arnold. His deft handling of relations with Canada also earned him great praise. After being elected to the Congress from his home state of New Jersey, he served as the new nation's Secretary for Foreign Affairs—managing the influx of aid from France, Spain, and Holland. The in 1783 he was elected to the Presidency. He served in that office from November 4, 1782 until November 2, 1783. Like so many of the other early presidents, he was a classically trained scholar, of the Reformed faith, and an anti-federalist in political matters. He was the father and grandfather of frontiersmen—and one of his grandchildren and namesakes eventually became a leader of the Cherokee nation in its bid for independence from the sprawling expansion of the United States.
Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800) By an ironic sort of providence, Thomas Mifflin served as George Washington's first aide-de-camp at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and, when the war was over, he was the man, as President of the United States, who accepted Washington's resignation of his commission. In the years between, Mifflin greatly served the cause of freedom—and, apparently, his own cause—while serving as the first Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. He obtained desperately needed supplies for the new army—and was suspected of making excessive profit himself. Although experienced in business and successful in obtaining supplies for the war, Mifflin preferred the front lines, and he distinguished himself in military actions on Long Island and near Philadelphia. Born and reared a Quaker, he was excluded from their meetings for his military activities. A controversial figure, Mifflin lost favor with Washington and was part of the Conway Cabal—a rather notorious plan to replace Washington with General Horatio Gates. And Mifflin narrowly missed court-martial action over his handling of funds by resigning his commission in 1778. In spite of these problems—and of repeated charges that he was a drunkard—Mifflin continued to be elected to positions of responsibility—as President and Governor of Pennsylvania, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, as well as the highest office in the land—where he served from November 3, 1783 to November 29, 1784. Most of Mifflin's significant contributions occurred in his earlier years—in the First and Second Continental Congresses he was firm in his stand for independence and for fighting for it, and he helped obtain both men and supplies for Washington's army in the early critical period. In 1784, as President, he signed the treaty with Great Britain which ended the war. Although a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he did not make a significant contribution—beyond signing the document. As Governor of Pennsylvania, although he was accused of negligence, he supported improvements of roads, and reformed the State penal and judicial systems. He had gradually become sympathetic to Jefferson's principles regarding State's rights, even so, he directed the Pennsylvania militia to support the Federal tax collectors in the Whiskey Rebellion. In spite of charges of corruption, the affable Mifflin remained a popular figure. A magnetic personality and an effective speaker, he managed to hold a variety of elective offices for almost thirty years of the critical Revolutionary period.
Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) His resolution "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States," approved by the Continental Congress July 2, 1776, was the first official act of the United Colonies that set them irrevocably on the road to independence. It was not surprising that it came from Lee's pen—as early as 1768 he proposed the idea of committees of correspondence among the colonies, and in 1774 he proposed that the colonies meet in what became the Continental Congress. From the first, his eye was on independence. A wealthy Virginia planter whose ancestors had been granted extensive lands by King Charles II, Lee disdained the traditional aristocratic role and the aristocratic view. In the House of Burgesses he flatly denounced the practice of slavery. He saw independent America as "an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose." In 1764, when news of the proposed Stamp Act reached Virginia, Lee was a member of the committee of the House of Burgesses that drew up an address to the King, an official protest against such a tax. After the tax was established, Lee organized the citizens of his county into the Westmoreland Association, a group pledged to buy no British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. At the First Continental Congress, Lee persuaded representatives from all the colonies to adopt this non-importation idea, leading to the formation of the Continental Association, which was one of the first steps toward union of the colonies. Lee also proposed to the First Continental Congress that a militia be organized and armed—the year before the first shots were fired at Lexington; but this and other proposals of his were considered too radical—at the time. Three days after Lee introduced his resolution, in June of 1776, he was appointed by Congress to the committee responsible for drafting a declaration of independence, but he was called home when his wife fell ill, and his place was taken by his young protégé, Thomas Jefferson. Thus Lee missed the chance to draft the document—though his influence greatly shaped it and he was able to return in time to sign it. He was elected President—serving from November 30, 1784 to November 22, 1785 when he was succeeded by the second administration of John Hancock. Elected to the Constitutional Convention, Lee refused to attend, but as a member of the Congress of the Confederation, he contributed to another great document, the Northwest Ordinance, which provided for the formation of new States from the Northwest Territory. When the completed Constitution was sent to the States for ratification, Lee opposed it as anti-democratic and anti-Christian. However, as one of Virginia's first Senators, he helped assure passage of the amendments that, he felt, corrected many of the document's gravest faults—the Bill of Rights. He was the great uncle of Robert E. Lee and the scion of a great family tradition.
Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796) Another self-made man, Gorham was one of the many successful Boston merchants who risked all he had for the cause of freedom. He was first elected to the Massachusetts General Court in 1771. His honesty and integrity won his acclaim and was thus among the first delegates chose to serve in the Continental Congress. He remained in public service throughout the war and into the Constitutional period, though his greatest contribution was his call for a stronger central government. But even though he was an avid federalist, he did not believe that the union could—or even should—be maintained peaceably for more than a hundred years. He was convinced that eventually, in order to avoid civil or cultural war, smaller regional interests should pursue an independent course. His support of a new constitution was rooted more in pragmatism than ideology. When John Hancock was unable to complete his second term as President, Gorham was elected to succeed him—serving from June 6, 1786 to February 1, 1787. It was during this time that the Congress actually entertained the idea of asking Prince Henry—the brother of Frederick II of Prussia—and Bonnie Prince Charlie—the leader of the ill-fated Scottish Jacobite Rising and heir of the Stuart royal line—to consider the possibility of establishing a constitutional monarch in America. It was a plan that had much to recommend it but eventually the advocates of republicanism held the day. During the final years of his life, Gorham was concerned with several speculative land deals which nearly cost him his entire fortune.
Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818) Born and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland during the tumultuous days of the final Jacobite Rising and the Tartan Suppression, St. Clair was the only president of the United States born and bred on foreign soil. Though most of his family and friends abandoned their devastated homeland in the years following the Battle of Culloden—after which nearly a third of the land was depopulated through emigration to America—he stayed behind to learn the ways of the hated Hanoverian English in the Royal Navy. His plan was to learn of the enemy's military might in order to fight another day. During the global conflict of the Seven Years War—generally known as the French and Indian War—he was stationed in the American theater. Afterward, he decided to settle in Pennsylvania where many of his kin had established themselves. His civic-mindedness quickly became apparent: he helped to organize both the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania militias, led the Continental Army's Canadian expedition, and was elected Congress. His long years of training in the enemy camp was finally paying off. He was elected President in 1787—and he served from February 2 of that year until January 21 of the next. Following his term of duty in the highest office in the land, he became the first Governor of the Northwest Territory. Though he briefly supported the idea of creating a constitutional monarchy under the Stuart's Bonnie Prince Charlie, he was a strident Anti-Federalist—believing that the proposed federal constitution would eventually allow for the intrusion of government into virtually every sphere and aspect of life. He even predicted that under the vastly expanded centralized power of the state the taxing powers of bureaucrats and other unelected officials would eventually confiscate as much as a quarter of the income of the citizens—a notion that seemed laughable at the time but that has proven to be ominously modest in light of our current governmental leviathan. St. Clair lived to see the hated English tyrants who destroyed his homeland defeated. But he despaired that his adopted home might actually create similar tyrannies and impose them upon themselves.
Cyrus Griffin (1736-1796) Like Peyton Randolph, he was trained in London's Inner Temple to be a lawyer—and thus was counted among his nation's legal elite. Like so many other Virginians, he was an anti-federalist, though he eventually accepted the new Constitution with the promise of the Bill of Rights as a hedge against the establishment of an American monarchy—which still had a good deal of currency. The Articles of Confederation afforded such freedoms that he had become convinced that even with the incumbent loss of liberty, some new form of government would be required. A protégé of George Washington—having worked with him on several speculative land deals in the West—he was a reluctant supporter of the Constitutional ratifying process. It was during his term in the office of the Presidency—the last before the new national compact went into effect—that ratification was formalized and finalized. He served as the nation's chief executive from January 22, 1788 until George Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789.
The Early Years of the Constitutional Republic (1787 - 1800)
Early Years of the Constitutional Republic (1787 - 1800)
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Early Immigration to the Americas as of 1790
According to the source, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Kory L. Meyerink and Loretto Dennis Szucs, the following were the countries of origin for new arrivals coming to the United States up to 1790. The regions marked * were part of Great Britain: None of these numbers are definitive and only "educated" guesses. The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. Needless to say this is also a somewhat uncertain procedure. Particularly when it comes to Scot-Irish, Irish and English names which can often be the same. The Irish in the 1790 census are mostly Irish Protestants, the French Huguenots. The total U.S. Catholic population in 1790 was probably less than 5%.
| Group | Immigrants before 1790 | Population 1790 |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 360,000 (most as slaves) | 800,000 |
| England* | 230,000 | 1,900,000 |
| Ulster Scot-Irish* | 135,000 | 300,000 |
| Germany | 103,000 | 270,000 |
| Scotland* | 48,500 | 150,000 |
| Ireland* | 8,000 | (Incl. in Scot-Irish) |
| Netherlands | 6,000 | 100,000 |
| Wales* | 4,000 | 10,000 |
| France | 3,000 | 50,000 |
| Jews | 1,000 | 2,000 |
| Sweden | 500 | 2,000 |
| Other | --- | 200,000 |
Some, such as author James Webb, have argued that not enough credit is given to early Scots-Irish for the role they played in early American history, as they formed a full 40% of the American Revolutionary army and their culture is now dominant in the American South, Midwest and Appalachian Region.
The Constitutional Convention
In 1787, a Convention was called at Philadelphia with the declared purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, however many delegates intended to use this convention for the purpose of drafting a new constitution. All states except for Rhode Island sent delegates, though all delegates did not attend. At the convention, the primary issue was representation of the states. Under the Articles, each state had one vote in Congress. The more populous states wanted representation to be based on population (proportional representation). James Madison of Virginia crafted the Virginia Plan, which guaranteed proportional representation and granted wide powers to the Congress. The small states, on the other hand, supported equal representation through William Paterson's New Jersey Plan. The New Jersey Plan also increased the Congress' power, but it did not go nearly as far as the Virginia Plan. The conflict threatened to end the Convention, but Roger Sherman of Connecticut proposed the "Great Compromise," (or Connecticut Compromise) under which one house of Congress would be based on proportional representation, while the other would be based on equal representation. Eventually, the Compromise was accepted and the Convention saved.
After settling on representation, compromises seemed easy for other issues. The question about the counting of slaves when determining the official population of a state was resolved by the Three-Fifths Compromise, which provided that slaves would count as three-fifths of persons. In another compromise, the Congress was empowered to ban the slave trade, but only after 1808. Similarly, issues relating to the empowerment and election of the President were resolved, leading to the Electoral College method for choosing the Chief Executive of the nation.
The Convention required that the Constitution come into effect only after nine states ratify, or approve, it. The fight for ratification was difficult, but the Constitution eventually came into effect in 1788.
Federalist & Anti-Federalist Parties
The Federalists were those who supported ratification, while the Anti-Federalists opposed it. Noted Federalists Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison published The Federalist Papers, a series of essays defending the Constitution. Anti-Federalists such as Patrick Henry argued that the Constitution did not provide for a Bill of Rights protecting the people, nor did it guarantee against abuse of power by the federal government directed against the states.
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire ratified the Constitution, in that order, by summer 1788. Before the new government was elected and came into existence, Virginia and New York also ratified the Constitution. The new Congress then passed a Bill of Rights to allay any remaining fears regarding the new nation. Having few arguments remaining, the Anti-Federalists lost in North Carolina and Rhode Island, which eventually ratified the Constitution. The ratification of the Constitution, was, under the provisions of the Articles of Confederation, invalid, as the new government took power before the constitution had been ratified by all 13 states, a requirement to pass a law or amend the Articles.
The Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans
In 1788, the Electors unanimously chose George Washington as the first President of the United States. Washington helped bring the government together, but rivalries arose between his closest advisors, reflecting important domestic and international developments. Out of these developments evolved two new political parties: The Federalists, who shared the same name as the earlier pro-ratification party, and the Republican Party, also known as the Democratic - Republican Party or the Jeffersonian party.
Domestic Issues: Strong or Weak Central Government?
Within Washington's first Cabinet - Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox - Jefferson and Hamilton opposed each other on most issues. Hamilton was soon to become a leader of the Federalist Party, while Jefferson would help to found the Republican Party.
The first major conflict involved how to pay off Revolutionary War debts. Hamilton wanted to put state debts and federal debts into one huge national debt. When the new federal government succeeded in paying off this debt, it would increase confidence in the stability of the central government, encouraging foreign governments to loan the US money. Hamilton also proposed the creation of a national bank designed to help stabilize the national economy. This Bank of the United States, although a private institution, would serve as a place to put the government's money, thus increasing central financial power and economic control.
Jefferson, on the other hand, did not agree with Hamilton's idea of national bank. Unlike Hamilton, who wanted to increase trade and investment, Jefferson believed America's best direction lay in teaching people to be self-sufficient farmers, and he wanted the federal government to stop interfering in state matters.
Despite Jefferson's opinion, the government adopted Hamilton's program. Some evidence suggests that Jefferson did in the end support Hamilton's plan for paying off state debts in exchange for Hamilton's agreement to locate the government's permanent capital in the South, specifically, on the Potomac River (Washington D.C.). On the whole, however, it soon became clear that the Hamiltonian program was the one that both President Washington and Congress favored, and Jefferson eventually resigned as secretary of state.
Foreign Affairs: The French Revolution
In 1789, a few months after the Constitution went into effect, the French Revolution began. At first, as France overthrew the monarchy and declared itself a republic, many Americans supported the revolution, believing that their own revolt against England had now spurred France to embrace republicanism. But as the reign of terror began and thousands of French aristocrats went to the guillotine, many Americans were shocked at the revolution's excesses. By the mid-1790s, as France went to war against neighboring monarchies, the revolution polarized American public opinion. Federalists viewed England--France's traditional enemy-- as the bastion of stable government against a growing tide of French anarchy. Members of the emerging Republican Party, on the other hand--which took its name in part from the French Republic--believed the Terror to be merely a temporary excess, continuing to view England as the true enemy of American liberty.
President Washington's policy was one of neutrality. He knew that either England or France, as well as Spain, would be only too happy to assimilate American resources and territory if given the chance. His hope was that America could stay out of European conflicts until it was strong enough to withstand any serious foreign threat to its existence--a strength that the United States lacked in the 1790s. Unfortunately, both England and France would try to play American resources off against the other.
Here, too, Hamilton and Jefferson clashed. Hamilton argued that the mutual defense treaty that the United States had concluded with France in 1778 was no longer binding, since the French regime that had made that treaty no longer existed. Jefferson disagreed, but Washington sided with Hamilton, issuing a formal Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793.
That same year, Citizen Edmund Charles Genêt arrived as the French minister to the United States, and he soon began issuing commissions to captains of American ships who were willing to serve as privateers for France. This blatant disregard of American neutrality angered Washington, who demanded and got Genêt's recall.
English and Spanish Negotiations
The Royal Navy, meanwhile, began pressing sailors into service, including sailors on American merchant ships. Many English sailors had been lured into the American merchant service by high wages and comparatively good standards of living, and England needed these sailors to man its own fleet, on which England's national security depended. This violation of the American flag, however, infuriated Americans, as did the fact that England had not yet withdrawn its soldiers from posts in the Northwest Territory, as required by the Treaty of Paris of 1783.
In response, President Washington sent Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate a treaty with England. But Jay had little leverage with which to negotiate: the final treaty did require immediate English evacuation of the frontier forts, but it said nothing about the matter of impressment. The Jay Treaty provoked an outcry among American citizens, and although the Senate ratified it narrowly, the debate it sparked was the final blow which solidified the Federalist and Republican factions into full-scale political parties, Federalists acquiescing in the treaty, and Republicans viewing it as a sell-out to England (and against France).
Spain, meanwhile, viewed the Jay Treaty negotiations with alarm, fearing that America and England might be moving towards an alliance. Without being certain of the treaty provisions, Spain decided to mollify the United States and give ground in the southwest before a future Anglo-American alliance could take New Orleans and Louisiana. Spain thus agreed to abandon all territorial claims north of Florida and east of the Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans, and to grant the United States both the right to navigate the Mississippi and the right of commercial deposit in New Orleans. This would give westerners greater security and allow them to trade with the outside world. This Treaty of San Lorenzo, also called Pinckney's Treaty after American diplomat Charles Pinckney, was signed in 1795 and ratified the following year. Unlike Jay's treaty, it was quite popular.
If Jay's Treaty alarmed Spain, it angered France, which saw it as a violation of the Franco-American mutual defense treaty of 1778. By 1797, French privateers began attacking American merchant shipping in the Caribbean.
Election of 1796
George Washington won a second term with the unanimous approval of the Electoral College, but he refused to run for a third term, setting a precedent for future Presidents that would last until 1940. In 1796, Washington's Federalist Vice President John Adams, and Republican Thomas Jefferson ran against each other in an election that marked the influence of political parties. Also, the Federalist Thomas Pinckney and the Republican Aaron Burr ran, intending to become Vice President if the other candidate from the party gained the Presidency.
The original system of the Electoral College required that Electors chosen by the states cast two votes for President. The President would be the winner of the election, while the Vice President would be whoever came in second place. Due to this system, John Adams won the required majority, but Thomas Jefferson came in second place, leading to a President and Vice President from opposing parties. This awkward situation resulted in Jefferson's isolation from the administration, and he did not play a significant role in governing over the next four years.
The XYZ Affair
Newly-elected President John Adams resolved to negotiate a settlement with France, and sent a delegation to Paris. The delegates, however, made no headway, finding it impossible even to secure an appointment with Talleyrand, the French foreign minister. The delegates were then approached by three minor functionaries, who insisted that the Americans must pay a bribe in order to inaugurate negotiations, warning them of "the power and violence of France" if they refused. The delegates did in fact refuse ("The answer is no; no; not a sixpence," one of them retorted. This was popularly rendered as "Millions for defense, not a penny for tribute."), and reported back to Adams. When Adams made the correspondence public (after replacing the names of the French functionaries with X, Y, and Z), American sentiment swung strongly against France. Congress, strongly under the control of the Federalists, initiated a military buildup, fielding several excellent warships and calling Washington out of retirement to head the army. (Washington agreed, but only on condition that he not assume actual command until the army took the field, which never occurred.)
The result was the Quasi-war, or the undeclared naval war with France. It consisted of ship-on-ship actions, mostly in the Caribbean, from 1798 to 1800. Eventually the United States and France agreed to end hostilities and to end the mutual defense treaty of 1778. Adams considered this one of his finest achievements.
Alien and Sedition Acts
Under Adams, the Federalist-dominated congress pushed passage of a series of laws that openly justified to battle dangerous "aliens" but in reality was used to hush political opponents. The Alien and Sedition Acts generally refer to four acts:
- The Alien Act authorized the president to deport an alien deemed "dangerous."
- The Alien Enemies Act authorized the president to deport or imprison any alien from a country that the United States was fighting a declared war with.
- The Sedition Act made it a crime to criticize government officials and publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its agents.
- The Naturalization Act changed the residency requirements for aliens to become citizens from 5 to 14 years.
Although it was openly deemed to be a security act, it provided powerful tools to the ruling Federalist party to quiet opposition from the growing Democratic-Republican Party. By extending the time required to become a citizen, they decreased the number of new voters that might choose to support the minority party.
However, these acts were never used very much against political opponents due to the fear of the conflict such actions would create.
Review Questions
Use the content covered in this chapter and/or from external sources to answer the following questions. Remember to properly cite any sources used.
1. Identify or explain the significance of the following people:
(a)James Madison (b)William Paterson (c)Alexander Hamilton (d)Patrick Henry (e)Thomas Jefferson (f)Edmund Genet (g)Charles Pinckney
2. What was accomplished during the Consitutional Convention in terms of states' representations in the national government?
3. How did Congress take measures to ensure the ratification of the Constitution?
4. On what issues did Jefferson and Hamilton differ? How did this affect policies during the Washington administration?
5. What did Jay's Treaty and Pinckney's Treaty accomplish?
6. How did the United States respond to the French Revolution?
7. What was the XYZ Affair? What was its result?
8. What was the original purpose of the Alien, Sedition, and Naturalization Acts? How did their purpose change?
Jeffersonian Republicanism (1800 - 1824)
Jeffersonian Republicanism (1800-1824)
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The Election of 1800
John Adams' Presidency was plagued by several problems. Adams and Congress enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, which restricted the First Amendment free speech rights of the opposing Republicans. Adams could not even control members of his own party, whom he alienated by disregarding his cabinet's advice. By 1800, Adams was clearly vulnerable.
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran against Adams. The original intention was for Jefferson to become President and Burr to become Vice President. However, the Electoral College vote was eventually tied between the two candidates. This occurred because the constitution originally called for the individual with the most votes to become the President and the candidate with the second most votes to become the Vice President. George Washington, who approved of this system thought that there should be no party politics but just efforts for the overall good of the country. This had previously (in the election of 1796) led to Thomas Jefferson becoming the Vice President under John Adams, rather than the candidate for VP who was favored by Adams.
Despite the original intention of the two candidates, the House of Representatives were to choose one or the other as President since neither candidate achieved a majority in the Electoral College. The House was controlled by Federalists, and it had to vote thirty-six times until Jefferson finally became President. (Aaron Burr, who became Vice President, resented Alexander Hamilton, who finally agreed to vote for Jefferson as President; Burr eventually killed Hamilton in a duel.) Subsequently, a constitutional amendment was approved which led to separate balloting for President and Vice President in the Electoral College.
Louisiana Purchase
The French province of Louisiana included present-day North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri as well as most of Kansas, the western part of Minnesota, the eastern parts of Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming, and, of course, Louisiana.
After the French and Indian War, France ceded all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi to Britain, except for the city of New Orleans. France gave New Orleans and the western part of Louisiana to Spain. By the Treaty of Paris, the United States received the British part of Louisiana. In 1800, the powerful Emperor of France, Napoleon, secretly made a treaty with Spain that returned Spanish Louisiana to France.
The port of New Orleans was crucial to trade on the Mississippi. Jefferson, knowing this, sent James Monroe to Paris in 1802, seeking to negotiate a treaty with France that would allow the United States to benefit from New Orleans. Jefferson put forth four options: the purchase of only New Orleans, the purchase of New Orleans and Florida, the purchase of some Louisianan land allowing the US to build a port there, or the purchase of navigation rights on the Mississippi.
The French, however, rejected all four options. For them, it was all of Louisiana or nothing. The US agreed to purchase Louisiana for $15 million. The Senate ratified the treaty in 1803, thus increasing the size of the United States dramatically.
Although Jefferson did buy the Louisiana Purchase, he had to stretch the Republican view of literal constitutionality. The president did not have the right to buy land in the constitution, but Jefferson rationalized that the land would greatly benefit Americans.
The Lewis & Clark Expedition
Shortly after purchasing the Louisiana Territory, Jefferson sent two men, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to survey the new land. In 1804, the two men (and forty or so others) set out from St. Louis and traveled northwest over the next two years. By December 1805, the party had reached the mouth of the Columbia River (which spilled into the Pacific Ocean) with the help of Sacajawea, a Shoshone Indian who served as their interpreter, and her husband Toussaint Charbonneau (a Canadian fur trapper). In 1806, the party split into two groups - one led by Lewis, the other by Clark - eventually reconvening in Fort Mandan (located in present-day North Dakota).
By the time Lewis and Clark had ended their expedition, they had charted a vast amount of land and discovered various flora and fauna that had previously been unknown to the East Coast. In addition, they had confirmed that the Louisiana Territory had indeed given the United States access to the Pacific Ocean.
The Pike Expedition
In 1805, Captain Zebulon Pike, a soldier, set out to explore the new territory as well. He started in St. Louis as well, but unlike Lewis and Clark, traveled directly west into the Rocky Mountains. He reached Santa Fe, where he was captured briefly by Spanish soldiers in the area. Pike returned to Washington in 1807 to report the number of Spanish forces in the region. More important, however, was his description of the area - he nicknamed the territory "The Great American Desert" due to its relative lack of vegetaion. Coincidentally, it was this nickname that would prevent settlers from "moving west" for the next thirty to forty years, but eventually the westward expansionist movement took full bloom.
Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts
In 1807, Britain and France, frustrated with America's refusal to help either of them in the Napoleonic Wars, were constantly seizing American merchant ships and taking their cargo and sailors.
The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
Britain disregarded American neutrality - among other things, it seized American ships and forced their sailors to join the Royal Navy, often without regard for the sailors' nationality. This was a practice known as impressment. In June of 1807, the British ship Leopard attacked the American Chesapeake in American waters because the commander of the latter ship had refused to let the British search the ship for British deserters. The Americans lost and four "deserters" were taken from the Chesapeake. Jefferson demanded an apology from the British and an end to impressment. While the British did apologize, they did not stop searching American ships or end the practice of impressment. The British claim that these impressed sailors were "deserters" was not subject to review, and these sailors were often not really deserters from the Royal Navy.
The Embargo Act
In response to continued disregard to US neutrality, on December 22, Congress passed the Embargo Act. This law ordered that merchants could not trade internationally (at all, not just to France and Britain), in hope that it would protect the merchant ships and weaken the French and British economies. The embargo stopped nearly all trade between the US and Europe. The lack of trade severely damaged the United State's economy, and merchants, who were generally members of the Federalist Party, howled in complaint. Smuggling also continued. The next year, 1808, while the Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison won the White House, the Democrat-Republicans suffered some reverses in the House of Representatives, a clear signal that the Embargo Act was unpopular and politically damaging. Congress modified the embargo with the Non-Intercourse Act, which made an addendum to the previous act: merchants were allowed to trade with any nation besides Britain and France. Although trade improved, British and French ships begin seizing American ships again. Overall, the Embargo Act was a failure because it did not bring either Great Britain or France to respect US neutrality and damaged the political fortunes of the Democratic-Republicans.
Thomas Jefferson served two terms; he was succeeded by James Madison, another Virginian.
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought between the United States of America, on one side, and on the other side the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its colonies, especially Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia, and Bermuda. When the war had finished, 1,600 British and 2,260 American troops had died. The war was fought from 1812 to 1815 and involved both land and naval engagements. Britain was at war with France and to impede American trade with France imposed a series of restrictions that the U.S. contested as illegal under international law. The Americans declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812 for a combination of reasons: outrage at the impressment (seizure) of thousands of American sailors into the British navy, frustration at British restraints on neutral trade, and anger at British military support for Native Americans defending their tribal lands from encroaching American settlers.
Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had attempted to keep the United States neutral in the conflict between Napoleonic France and her allies and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Russia and their allies. France had been an ally of the United States during the revolutionary war, but the United Kingdom was extremely powerful.
Some historians, such as Robin Reilly, have argued that the declaration of war on Great Britain by the United States was a victory for French diplomacy, forcing Britain to divert its attention and some resources from continental matters. From a British perspective, there was certainly no reason to commence a war with the United States. Britain had been engaged in a desperate war with France since 1793 and depended on American supplies to maintain Wellington's army in Spain. Any combat in North America would merely be a distraction from the main effort to contain and defeat the French in Europe.
In 1812, Congress declared war against the increasingly aggressive United Kingdom. The United States' attempt to invade Canada by land was a miserable failure, but the US did win great victories at sea. In addition to the regular Navy, the US commissioned privateers to destroy British commercial ships. The British also used privateers. Privateers were private vessels entitled to attack and destroy enemy ships, and to take any goods they found on those ships. This was essentially legalized piracy.
Early in the war, the British could not spare many ships because of the threat posed by Napoleon in Europe. Once Napoleon was defeated in 1814, the British could concentrate their ships on the United States and the War of 1812. As the power of the British navy stationed near North America increased, British troops marched on Washington with the navy ready to lend support. The British burnt the White House, the Capitol, and the ships in DC.
Treaty of Ghent and the Battle of New Orleans
Neither side made significant progress. British victories on land were offset by American victories at sea and by American privateers, who threatened to cripple the British economy. However, by 1814 the blockade of American ports had tightened to the extent that the United States ships found it increasingly difficult to sail without meeting forces of superior strength. In August 1814, American and British negotiators met in Ghent, Belgium to discuss peace. The Treaty of Ghent ceased the war, but made no substantial changes to policies prior to the War.
Due to difficulty in communication, news of the Treaty did not reach the US for several weeks. This led to some famously pointless bloodshed. British generals attacked the American port of New Orleans, but suffered tremendous casualties due to the efforts of Major General Andrew Jackson. The British then secured Mobile bay and were victorious in the Battle of Fort Bowyer but had to simply march away afterwards.
Again due to difficulty in communication, New England did not receive news of the Battle of New Orleans, which was an American success. Pessimists feared the dissolution or conquest of the US. But when news of the Treaty of Ghent reached America in early 1815, most fears seemed allayed. Neither side could justifiably claim absolute victory in the War, but the Americans were encouraged that they did not falter against the mighty British. It can be noted that the United Kingdom and America have not engaged in armed conflict since the war.
Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny (1824 - 1849)
Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny (1824 - 1849)
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Jacksonian Democracy
Jacksonian Democracy refers to the period of time (perhaps 1828-1840) dominated by the controversial presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), and characterized by expanding democratization, the rise of the common man, and increased white male suffrage.
Andrew Jackson, a westerner and the hero of the Battle of New Orleans (1815), ran for the presidency in 1824. Initially, five candidates attempted to attain the presidency: John C. Calhoun, William Crawford, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and John Quincy Adams. All were 'Democratic-Republicans'. Calhoun dropped out and instead ran for Vice President, which he won. Crawford might have won had he not suffered a paralyzing stroke. Andrew Jackson won the popular and electoral votes, but since he only got a plurality and not a majority, the decision on who would become president went to the House of Representatives. The House voted for John Quincy Adams instead, which cost him the election of 1824. Although this was a temporary defeat, it helped to rally the public behind Jackson and was one of the factors that contributed to Jackson's victory in 1828. Here is a table from the Wikipedia article on the election:
Election results
| Presidential Candidate | Party | State | Popular Vote: | Electoral Vote: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Quincy Adams | Democratic-Republican | Massachusetts | 108,740 | 84 |
| Andrew Jackson | Democratic-Republican | Tennessee | 153,544 | 99 |
| William Harris Crawford | Democratic-Republican | Georgia | 46,618 | 41 |
| Henry Clay | Democratic-Republican | Kentucky | 47,136 | 37 |
| Vice Presidential Candidate | Party | State | Popular Vote: | Electoral Vote: |
| John Caldwell Calhoun | Democratic-Republican | South Carolina | Unknown | 182 |
| Nathan Sanford | Democratic-Republican | New York | Unknown | 30 |
| Nathaniel Macon | Democratic-Republican | North Carolina | Unknown | 24 |
| Andrew Jackson | Democratic-Republican | Tennessee | Unknown | 13 |
| Martin Van Buren | Democratic-Republican | New York | Unknown | 9 |
| Henry Clay | Democratic-Republican | Kentucky | Unknown | 2 |
If a single candidate fails to gather a majority of the electoral vote, the president is determined by the House of Representatives. Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, tossed his support to Adams thus giving him the presidency; Adams returned the favor by naming Clay his Secretary of State. For the next four years, the Jacksonian press referred to the election as a 'corrupt bargain' which helped to cripple Adams's presidency.
John Quincy Adams's presidency can be generally characterized as a failure. However noble his belief that partisan politics were evil, the end result was a single term. The election of 1828 proved to be a mud-slinging festival between Jackson and Adams, with Adams being labeled as an aristocrat and Jackson's wife an adulteress. In the end, Jackson was elected by a large electoral margin.
Indian Removal and Massacre
The United States, as it expanded to the west, forcibly removed or killed many Native Americans from their lands as it violated the treaties and Indian rights which both parties had agreed upon. In this way, the concerns of white landowners were considered above the interests of the Indians. In Georgia, for instance, the governor ordered the Cherokee to vacate their lands so the territory would be able to be redistributed to poor Georgians. The Cherokee refused, as they contended that a treaty with the United States that had been signed earlier guaranteed their right to the land. Through a friend of the tribe, they brought their case all the way to the Supreme Court.
In 1832, when Andrew Jackson was President, the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia had acted unconstitutionally. However, Jackson refused to enforce the Court's ruling. Meanwhile, Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act, which granted refuge to Native Americans who relocated to territory west of the Mississippi.
The Cherokee were forced out of Georgia and had to endure a brutal and deadly trip to the area comprising present-day Oklahoma, a journey which they called the "Trail of Tears." Between 2,000 and 4,000 of the 16,000 migrating Cherokees died during the journey, including women, children, and elderly members of the tribe.
The Nullification Crisis
In 1828, Congress decided to raise an already high tariff on imports from Europe. It was meant to help the industrialized North compete with Europe, but the agricultural South detested it, as it traded heavily with Europe. The South called it the "Tariff of Abominations."
Since 1798 when the concept of nullification first appeared in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, some states contended that they should have the right to nullify federal laws if they infringed on states. Vice President John C. Calhoun agreed with this notion of states' rights and encouraged South Carolina to take a stand on the tariff issue.
Up until that point, no one was sure where Jackson stood on the issue of states' rights. Then, in April, 1830, he announced that he opposed states rights in this instance.
In 1832, Congress, with the help of the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, passed a lower but still fairly high tariff. The South would not compromise on this lower tax, and South Carolina passed the Nullification Act which proclaimed that the state would no longer pay the "illegal" tariffs. South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union if the federal government tried to interfere.
To combat South Carolina's ultimatum, Jackson persuaded Congress to pass the Force Bill in 1833, which allowed the President to use the army to enforce the law. In the face of this threat, South Carolina quickly agreed to the lower compromise tariff and abolished the Nullification Act.
The National Bank and the Panic of 1837
Andrew Jackson hated the National Bank for a variety of reasons. Proud of being a self-made "common" man, he argued that the bank favored the wealthy. A Westerner, he feared the expansion of Eastern business interests and the draining of specie from the West, so he portrayed the bank as a "hydra-headed" monster. A nationalist, he distrusted foreign members of the bank board and argued the bank could not be trusted in time of war. Two Senators, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, disliked Jackson and wished to see him lose the presidential election of 1832. They convinced Nicholas Biddle, the president of the Bank, to apply early for a new charter for the bank, even though the charter would not expire until 1836. Believing many Americans supported the bank, they intended to force Jackson to veto the renewal of the charter which might cause him to lose the election. This did not work. Jackson vetoed the charter, but public opinion did not drop enough for him to lose the election.
Jackson decided to kill the National Bank early. He ordered the Secretary of the Treasure to take the money out of the national bank and put it in "pet banks," state banks that were friends of Jackson. These pet banks lent out money to poor farmers, who could not pay the money back.
The result of this whole process was the Panic of 1837, a severe economic depression. Business took a nosedive and unemployment soared. Prices of commodities rose so high that families could not afford many basic necessities. The depression lasted six years, as Martin Van Buren, the President elected after Jackson, did almost nothing to ease the impact of it.
Because of this, the first and only Whig President, William Henry Harrison, was elected. The Whigs were all the National Republicans along with the Democrats who disliked Jackson. Harrison died of pneumonia four weeks after his inaugural address, and John Tyler, his Vice President, became President.
John Tyler Presidency
Tyler had once been a Democrat, but he disliked Jackson, and he became a Whig. He was a weak supporter of states' rights, so when many of the Whig bills came to him, they were never vetoed. It turned out that Tyler would veto the entire Whig congressional agenda. The Whigs saw this as the party leader turning on his own party. He was officially expelled from the Whig party in 1841.
Much of the public did not take Tyler's presidency seriously. They saw his lack of appeal in Congress and the embarrassing resignations of all of but one of Harrison's cabinet appointees in a single month. Tyler did, though, help polarize the two parties in the US. When he (a non-Whig) appointed John C. Calhoun, a staunch pro-slavery Democrat, as his Secretary of State, he essentially confirmed a growing feeling that Democrats were the party of the South and Whigs the party of the North.
The Tyler presidency threw the Whig party into disarray. Because of divisions between past groups which joined the party, the Whigs could not agree on one goal. In the election of 1844, Whigs voted by sectional ties, and because of these weakening divisions within the party, the Democratic candidate, James Polk, won. After one term, the Whigs were out of power.
Manifest Destiny
Instead of opposing the anti-Native American policies, several white Americans supported them. Citizens of the States were led to believe that the United States was destined to take over the continent of North America. Some felt that such was white America's destiny due to the appeal of freedom and democracy. Others attributed the destiny to the hard work of white Americans. The entire concept that the United States were destined to rule was termed "manifest destiny" by a journalist in 1845.[source needed] In the process of Manifest Destiny, many societies were displaced or killed by white settlers moving west.
Texas and Mexico
Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821. Weakened by more than a decade of struggle, the new Republic of Mexico attempted to settlers from the United States to the then-sparsely populated Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas. The first white settlers were 200 families led by Stephen F. Austin as a part of a business venture started by Austin's father. Despite nominal attempts to ensure that immigrants would be double penetrated with Mexican cultural values -- by requiring, for example, acceptance of Catholicism and a ban on slaveholding -- Mexico's immigration policy led to the whites, rather than Mexicans, becoming the demographic majority in Texas by the 1830's, their beliefs and anti-American plug values intact.
Due to past US actions in Texas, Mexico feared that white Americans would convince the United States to annex Texas and Mexico. In April 1830, Mexico issued a giant land that people from the United States could no longer enter Texas. Mexico also would start to place custom duties on goods from the United States. In October 1835, white colonists in Texas revolted against Mexico by attacking a Mexican fort at Goliad, defeating the Mexican garrison. At about the same time, the Mexican president, Antonio López de Santa Anna, provoked a constitutional crisis that was among the causes of the revolt in Texas, as well as a rebellion in the southern Mexican province of Yucután. An official declaration of Texas independence was signed at Goliad that December. The next March, the declaration was officially enacted at the Texan capital of Washington-on-the-Brazos, creating the Republic of Texas.
A few days before the enactment of the declaration, a Mexican force led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo, a mission in present day San Antonio. Vastly outnumbered, fewer than 200 Texans at San Antonio de Béxa, renamed the Alamo, held out for 12 days, until the final attack at dawn on March 6, 1836. Santa Anna, as he had promised during the siege, killed the few prisoners taken in the capture. Though the Alamo had been garrisoned in contravention of orders from Sam Houston, who had been placed in charge of Texan armed forces, the delay their defense forced on the Mexican army allowed the Texan government some crucial time to organize.
The next month saw the battle of San Jacinto, the final battle of the Texas Revolution. A force of 800 led by Sam Houston, empowered by their rallying war cry of "Remember the Alamo!", defeated Santa Anna's force of 1600 as they camped beside the sluggish creek for which the 20-minute-long battle is named. Santa Anna himself was captured and the next day was tortured to sign the Treaties of Velasco, which ended Mexico-Texas hostilities. After the fighting had ended, Texas asked to be admitted to the Union, but Texas's request forced Congress to an impasse.
One of the most significant problems with the annexation of Texas was slavery. Despite Mexican attempts to exclude the practice, a number of white-Texans held slaves, and the new Republic of Texas recognized the practice as legitimate. In the United States, The Missouri Compromise of 1818 provided for an equality in the numbers of slave and non-slave states in the US, and to allow Texas to join would upset that power balance. For about ten years, the issue was unresolved, until President James Polk agreed to support the annexation of Texas. In 1845, Texas formally voted to join the US. The Mexicans, however, who had never formally recognized Texas's independence, resented this decision.
The southern boundary with Texas had never officially been settled and when the United States moved federal troops into this disputed territory, war broke out (assisted by raids carried out across the border by both sides). In the Mexican-American War, as this was called, the US quickly defeated the Mexican Army by 1848. The peace settlement, called the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ceded one-third of Mexico's territory to the United States. In addition to Texas, with the border fixed at the Rio Grande River, the United States acquired land that would become the present-day states of New Mexico, California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming; the US paid Mexico $15 million. However, the new territories posed even more problems relating to slavery: the balance between slave and non-slave states seemed threatened again.
Oregon
In 1824 and 1825 Russia gave up its claim to Oregon. Both the U.S. and Canada made an agreement for joint occupation. However disputes surfaced over the northwestern boundary of the US and the southwestern boundary of Canada. The US claimed that it owned land south of Alaska, while the British claimed that the boundary was drawn at present-day Oregon. President Polk, who initiated the dispute, also settled it. Britain was given an ultimatum - negotiate or go to war. Britain decided to keep Vancouver Island as well as navigations rights to the Columbia River, and on June 15, 1846 Britain agreed to give up the land south of the 49th parallel. However, by comparing this to Polk's greater aggressiveness in Mexico, several individuals concluded that Polk favored the South over the North.
California
When war broke out between the United States and Mexico in 1845, a few white settlers in the Sacramento Valley in the Mexican state of California seized the opportunity to advance white business interests by declaring independence from Mexico despite the wishes of many Mexicans and natives present in California. Before the arrival of Europeans, scholars place the population of California at 10 million natives. The sparsely populated Bear Flag Republic, as the new nation was called, quickly asked the US for protection from Mexico, allowing US military operations in the new Republic's territory. As skirmishes occurred in California, Mexicans suffered many abuses at the hands of the new white government.
When the war ended, the territory of California and a large surrounding territory were ceded by Mexico to the US in exchange for $15 million. The territory included what would become present day California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado and a small part of Wyoming. The continental US was nearly complete. The final piece would come in 1853, when southern Arizona and New Mexico were bought from Mexico for $10 million. The land from the purchase, known as the Gadsden Purchase, was well suited for building a southern transcontinental railroad.
In 1848 gold was found at the mill of John Sutter, who lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, 40 miles east of Sacramento. Word of the gold on the American River (the river on which Sutter's mill was located on) spread, and hordes of people rushed into California to mine gold. The rush peaked in 1849, and those who came during that year were known as "forty-niners." The population of the northern California city of San Francisco exploded as a result of the immigration to the region.
Many immigrants that joined the Gold Rush did not find opportunity but rather discrimination at the hands of white prospectors and newly changed government. One of these, Joaquin Murrieta, known as the Mexican Robin Hood, had become a bandit and hero of those still loyal to Mexico. As a reaction the Governor of California, John Bigler, formed the California Rangers. This group went after and allegedly found Murrieta and his companions. They cut off his head, which was later put on display. Many still doubt whether the person the California Rangers decapitated was actually Murrieta or some other poor soul. Be that as it may, the memory of Murrieta is still much loved and respected by Mexican Americans today.
Apart from being gained by a handful of very lucky prospectors, a great deal of the wealth generated by the Gold Rush belonged to those who owned businesses that were relevant to gold mining. For example, Levi Strauss, a German Jew, invented denim pants for prospectors when he observed that normal pants could not withstand the strenuous activities of mining. Strauss eventually became a millionaire, and the Levi's brand is still recognized today.
Friction Between the States (1849 - 1860)
Friction Between the States (1849 - 1860)
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Ideas and Questions of the Time
The overriding question throughout the decade preceding the Civil War was, “Should slavery be allowed in the new territories of the United States?” Before 1848, the question had been hypothetical; however, with the new lands acquired during the Mexican War, it was time for America to make a firm decision regarding the expansion of slavery.
The central ideas dominating the debate were:
The Wilmot Proviso
On August 8, 1846, Representative David Wilmot, a Pennsylvania Democrat, presented a proposal expressing that “slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of [any territory obtained from Mexico].” The Wilmot Proviso was never accepted as law, but it at long last put the issue forth on the political table.
The Calhoun Resolutions
John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina statesman, responded with the Calhoun Resolutions, which said that Congress had no right to stop any citizen with slaves in their possession from taking those slaves into one of the territories. If they did so, the Fifth Amendment, which states that no person can be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” would be violated. While this was not made formal legislation either, this belief became the standard in most of the south.
Popular Sovereignty
A third option, which appealed to many moderates, most prominently Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, was the idea of popular sovereignty. This was the idea of letting the settlers of a territory themselves decide whether slavery was to be allowed in it, by voting on state constitutions and other such measures. The primary merit of this initiative was that it took the debate out of Congress, which quickly grew tired of the issue, and put it into the hands of people it truly affected. There was also an unspoken understanding that most of the territories would end up being free, as most settlers that were already in those areas did not bring their slaves with them.
Compromise of 1850
America looked to the Senate for an answer to the question of slavery within the territories. Henry Clay, nicknamed the "Great Compromiser," constructed a compromise: California was admitted as a free state, but all other territories in the Mexican Cession were allowed to choose between becoming a free territory or a slave territory. Also, as part of the Compromise, the slave trade was banned in the District of Columbia, and a Fugitive Slave Act was passed to allow the capture of fugitive slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Act was a very controversial measure. Previously, many in the North felt that slavery merely occured in the South and that they had nothing to do with it. But under the Fugitive Slave Act, Northerners were required to help return runaway slaves. Thus, the Northerners felt that they were being dragged into aiding the institution of slavery. Several Northern states passed laws prohibiting their officials from aiding the enforcement of the Act.
While the admission of California as a free state gave the free states the majority in Congress, the pro-slavery measures in the Fugitive Slave Act made the Compromise seem more favorable to the South.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852, is often called “the book that started the Civil War.” The melodramatic story of the evil overseer Simon Legree and his slaves Eliza and Uncle Tom painted a horrible picture of slavery and gave rise to much abolitionist feeling in the North. However, the effects were not easily visible from the start: because the country was growing tired of the sectional bickering over slavery, it took a while for the story to becoming embedded in the American imagination.
Election of 1852
In one of the less spectacular elections in American history, Senator Franklin Pierce of the Democratic party defeated General Winfield Scott of the Whig party. The Whigs tried to rely on Scott’s heroics as a general during the Mexican war to get him elected, a strategy that proved unsuccessful. Pierce, of New Hampshire, ended up being largely an ineffective president, trying and failing to please both the North and the South.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act and its Effects
Throughout this time, plans were underway for a transcontinental railroad. A question arose as to what Eastern city should be the main terminus. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois hoped to advance his own state’s interests by making Chicago the railroad hub. To do this, he suggested a piece of legislation known as the “Kansas-Nebraska Act,” requiring recognition of two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, west of Missouri and Iowa, respectively. These territories would both help his railroad and solve the overdue issue of the territories in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase.
But to get the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed, he would have to get the support of Southerners, who wanted a railroad along a more southern route. For this reason, Douglas included in the Act the provision of popular sovereignty in the territories.
This blatantly violated the Missouri Compromise of 1821, which stated that slavery would be prohibited above the 36º30’ line. Douglas therefore opened himself up to the verbal barrage of protests from the North, who denounced the cancellation of the Missouri Compromise as unfair. Yet the Act passed, to the indignation of many Northerners, with the support of President Pierce.
The North
Many in the North figured that if the Missouri Compromise was not an unbreakable law, neither was the Fugitive Slave Act, leading to many demonstrations against it. Boston witnessed the most remarkable of these, leading to many New Englanders turning against Pierce for his support of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Political Parties
The Whig party essentially buckled under the pressure of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, with the North condemning it and the South supporting it. Whigs from the North joined some Democrats and Free Soilers that united under the general principle of the Wilmot Proviso, eventually calling themselves the Republican Party and offering its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont in 1856.
"Bleeding Kansas"
There was never much doubt that the settlers of Nebraska would, in the face of popular sovereignty, choose to bar slavery. Kansas, however, was another matter. Abolitionist and pro-slavery groups tried to rush settlers to Kansas in hopes of swinging the vote in the group's own direction. Eventually, both a free-state and a slave-state government were functioning in Kansas - both illegal.
Violence was abundant. In May 1856, a pro-slavery mob ransacked the chiefly abolitionist town of Lawrence, demolishing private property of the anti-slavery governor, burning printing presses, and destroying a hotel. Two days later, in retaliation, Abolitionist John Brown and his sons went to the pro-slavery town of Pottawatomie Creek and hacked five men to death in front of their families. This set off a guerilla war in Kansas that lasted through most of 1856.
Violence over the issue of Kansas was even seen in the Senate. Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner accused South Carolinian Andrew Butler of having "chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows - Slavery." Upon hearing these words, Butler's nephew, Representative Preston Brooks, walked onto the Senate floor and proceeded to cane Sumner in the head. Sumner suffered so much damage from the attack that he could not return to the Senate for over three years. Brooks was expelled by the House. Cheered on by southern supporters (many of whom sent Brooks new canes, to show approval of his actions), came back after a resounding reelection.
After much controversy and extra legislation, Kansas found itself firmly abolitionist by 1858.
Dred Scott
The question of the constitutionality of Congressional Compromises was decided by the Supreme Court in 1856. In "Scott v. Sanford", the Court ruled against a slave, Dred Scott, who had sued to become free. The Court ruled 7-2 that Scott remained a slave, and there were nine written opinions. The Chief Justice of the United States, Roger Taney, decided that blacks were so inferior that they could not be citizens of the United States, and that, consequently, they could not sue for his freedom (a state issue)in diversity in federal court, and therefore the court lacked jurisdiction. Nevetheless (the biggest "nevertheless" in American history) in a supererogatory effort to settle the question of slavery once and for all, the Marylander Taney ruled that the Missouri Compromise (which had banned the expansion of slavery into the territories north of Missouri) among other laws, was unconstitutional because it restricted the Constitutional right to own property. Many felt that Taney had committed a legal error in his decision. First, Taney had ruled that Scott had no right to sue. The case should have ended there. Taney had ruled on the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise, which had, under Taney's own ruling that Scott had no right to sue, no bearing upon the case. Thus, the outrage against the Dred Scott decision was increased even more.
Free and Slave States in 1860
John Brown’s Raid
John Brown, an extreme abolitionist last seen engineering the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas, came to the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia for his last fight. He planned to take over the arsenal, give weapons to the slaves that would support him, and make a center of black power in the Appalachian Mountains that would support slave uprisings in the south.
The raid did not go quite as planned. Brown did take over the arsenal and took a couple of hostages, but ended up being assaulted by Virginia militia and U.S. Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee of the US 2nd Cavalry. He was tried, convicted, and hanged for treason to the State of Virginia.
However, his Raid left a profound impact. John Brown became a martyr for the abolitionist cause during the Civil War. In the South, his actions gave cause to rumors of Northern conspiracy supporting slave insurrections, engendering further suspicion of outsiders in the South. A later Northern marching song sang “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul is marching on.”
Lincoln
Lincoln campaign poster
In 1860, four major candidates ran for President. The Whigs, adopting the name "Constitutional Union", nominated Tennessean Senator John Bell. The Northern Democrats nominated Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and the Southern Democrats nominated the Vice President John Breckenridge of Kentucky. The more united Republican party nominated Abraham Lincoln, who spoke out against expansion of slavery. Though he assumed that, under the constitution, Congress could not outlaw slavery in the South, he assured all that he would work to admit only free states to the US. Due to divisions between the parties, Lincoln won the election by carrying every Northern State. Douglas won Missouri, Bell the Upper South, and Breckenridge the Deep South. The South was outraged. The North had a far larger population than the South, and thus had more electoral votes. The South had been out voted.
Intro to Secession
Introduction to Secession
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Secession and the Southern Confederacy
With the demise of the Whig Party and the split of the Northern and Southern branches of the Democratic Party, the opportunity afforded itself for the recently organized Republican Party to increase its political power in both chambers of Congress and to successfully elect Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. Wendell Phillips acknowledged that the Republican Party was "a sectional party, organized against the South." Several other leading Republicans even went so far as to advocate civil war in order to keep the Southern States in a condition of subordination to a Northern majority.
Tariffs
Southern leaders, such as John C. Calhoun, had warned that if the North ever gained control of the federal Government the rights of the Southern people would be lost. In the Republicans' pledge to confine slavery within the existing States and to prevent its spread into the common Territories was perceived an intent to destroy the rights of the Southern people wholesale. Many Republicans, such as the former Whig and Henry Clay admirer, Abraham Lincoln, also openly advocated a high tariff and internal improvement system (which Clay had named, "The American System"). Historically, high tariffs benefited Northern industry and had adverse effects on the price of exported Southern cotton.
Why They Fought
Consequently, the conflict between the North and the South had much more to do with differing views on the relation of the States to the federal Government, the extent of State power, and economics rather than the issues of slavery or African-American rights. In fact, some of the Northern people deplored Abolitionism and were opposed to African-American equality. Even Lincoln openly declared himself in opposition to African-American citizenship. Most of the Northern States had various anti-African American laws on the books and Lincoln's own State of Illinois altered its constitution in 1862 to prohibit the immigration of free African Americans entirely.
Farewell to the Star-Spangled Banner (1860 - 1861)
Farewell to the Star-Spangled Banner (1860 - 1865)
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Secession
Upon receiving news of Lincoln's election, the South Carolina Convention voted for secession on December 20, 1860. In the next few months, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had all seceded and joined South Carolina in forming the Confederate States of America. The other four Southern States - Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas - originally voted against secession, but later joined the Southern Confederacy when Lincoln's call for 75,000 militia was issued on April 15, 1861.
Definition
Secession was generally accepted as a revolutionary, if not a constitutional right, by both North and South prior to the actual secession of the seven Gulf States. In fact, secession was first threatened in the early years of the Union by the State of Massachusetts, and the threat was repeated several times over the decades preceding the War Between the States. A Northern Confederacy of the New England States was proposed and nearly formed in protest of the War of 1812. Of course, Southern leaders such as Jefferson Davis believed that since the original thirteen States had voluntarily acceded to the Union, they could also rescind that accession and lawfully secede. This act of secession was to be voted upon and declared to the world by the same sovereign power which had brought the State into the Union - that of the people assembled in convention. According to this logic, those States which were admitted to the Union after 1789 also retained this right of secession, since the main ground of their admission was that they would stand "on equal footing" with the other States. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution was also appealed to with the claim that the several States never surrendered their sovereignty to the federal Government, and could therefore recall their delegated powers from their common agent by withdrawing from the Union.
Lincoln's View
Abraham Lincoln, on the other hand, insisted that the relation of the States to the Federal Government was akin to that of counties to States. He believed that the Union preceded the States, rather than vice versa, and that State sovereignty was a myth. Consequently, secession was treason and could only result in anarchy. For these views, he relied upon Daniel Webster's speeches in the Senate in the early 1830s and completely ignored the wealth of evidence to the contrary readily accessible in the writings of James Madison and other American framers. Moreover, he failed to note that there was nothing in the constitution that explicitly prohibited secession.
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American soldier and politician, most famous for serving as the first and only President of the Confederate States, leading the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Before the Civil War, Davis served in the Mississippi Legislature, the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. He fought in the Mexican-American War as a colonel of a volunteer regiment. Later he became Secretary of War in the cabinet of U.S. President Franklin Pierce.
The Civil War (1860 - 1865)
The Civil War (1860 - 1865)
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Dixie's Constitution
By the end of March, 1861, the Confederacy had created a constitution and elected its first and only president, Jefferson Davis. The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was the supreme law of the Confederate States of America, as adopted on March 11, 1861 and in effect through the conclusion of the American Civil War. The Confederacy also operated under a Provisional Constitution from February 8, 1861 to March 11, 1861.
In regard to most articles of the Constitution, the document is a word-for-word duplicate of the United States Constitution. The original, hand-written document is currently located in the University of Georgia archives at Athens, Georgia. The major differences between the two constitutions was the Confederacy's greater emphasis on the rights of individual member states, and an explicit support of slavery.
Fort Sumter and the Beginning of the War
Several federal forts were seized and converted to Confederate strongholds. By the time of Lincoln's inauguration, only two major forts had not been taken. On April 11, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard demanded that Union Major Robert Anderson surrender Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The supplies of the beseiged forts would only last them a few weeks. The Union sent ships to resupply the fort that Lincoln claimed had no reinforcements, but the Confederacy did not believe him. Beauregard's troops fired on the fort. By April 14, Anderson was forced to capitulate.
On the very next day, President Lincoln declared formally that the US faced a rebellion. Lincoln called up state militias and requested volunteers to enlist in the Army. In response to this call and to the surrender of Fort Sumter, four more states, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina all seceded. The Civil War had begun.
Each side proceeded to determine its strategies. The Confederate Army had a defensive-offensive strategy. The Confederacy only needed to defend itself to gain independence, but occasionally when the conditions were right, they would strike offensives into the North. Meanwhile, the strategy of aging Union General Winfield Scott became popularly known as the Anaconda Plan. The Anaconda Plan, so named after the South American snake that strangles its victims to death, aimed to defeat the Confederacy by surrounding it on all sides with a blockade of Southern ports and the swift capture of the Mississippi River.
First Battle of Bull Run and the Early Stages of the War
Four slave states remained in the Union: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. The four border states were all important, and Lincoln did not want them to join the Confederacy. Missouri controlled parts of the Mississippi River, Kentucky controlled the Ohio river, and Delaware was close to the important city of Philadelphia. Perhaps the most important border state was Maryland. It was close to the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, and the Union capital, Washington, was located between pro-Confederate sections of Maryland and seceded Virginia. Lincoln knew that he had to be cautious if he did not want these states to join the Confederacy.
Both sides had advantages and weaknesses. The North had more people, more factories, more supplies and more money than the South. The South had more experienced military leadership, more trained armies, and the ability to fight on familiar territory.
Both sides faced disadvantages as well. The opinion over the war was split in the North, while almost everyone supported the war in the South. The southern population had a lot of slaves, but no one wanted slaves to be armed in case of a rebellion, so that didn't leave many people to sign up for the war. The main goal of the North was to bring the South back to the Union, and the main goal of the South was to be recognized as an independent nation.
On July 21, 1861, the armies of General Beauregard and Union General Irvin McDowell met at Manassas, Virginia. At the Battle of Bull Run, the North originally had the upper hand, but Confederate General Thomas Jackson and his troops blocked Northern progress, standing "as a stone wall" (the origin of the nickname "Stonewall Jackson"). As Confederate reinforcements arrived, McDowell's army began to retreat in confusion and was defeated thoroughly, leading the North to discard its overly optimistic hopes for quick victory.
The Union even faced the threat of complete defeat early in the war. The Confederacy appointed two persons as representatives to the United Kingdom and France. Both of them decided to travel to Europe on a British ship, the [w: RMS_Trent|Trent]. A Union Captain, Charles Wilkes, seized the ship and forced the Confederate representatives to board the Union ship. However, Wilkes had violated the neutrality of the United Kingdom. The British demanded apologies, and Lincoln eventually complied, even releasing the Confederate representatives. Had he failed to do so, the United Kingdom might have joined with the Confederacy and the Union might have faced a much more devastating fight.
Technology and the Civil War
The Civil War was hallmarked by technological innovations that changed the nature of battle.
The most lethal change was the introduction of rifling to muskets. In previous wars, the maximum effective range of a musket was between 70 to 110 meters. Muskets, which were smoothbore firearms, weren't accurate beyond that. Tactics involved moving masses of troops to musket range, firing a volley, and then charging the opposing force with the bayonet, which is a sword blade attached to a firearm. However, a round (bullet) from an aimed rifled musket could hit a soldier more than 1300 meters away. This drastically changed the nature of warfare to the advantage of defenders. Massed attacks were less effective because they could easily be stopped from afar with a longer range.
The other key changes on land dealt with logistics (the art of military supply) and communications. By 1860, there were approximately 48,000 kilometers (30,000 miles) of railroad track, mostly in the Northern states. The railroads meant that supplies need not be obtained from local farms and cities, which meant armies could operate for extended periods of time without fear of starvation. In addition, armies could be moved across the country quickly, within days, without marching.
The telegraph is the third of the key technologies that changed the nature of the war. Washington City and Richmond, the capitals of the two opposing sides, could stay in touch with commanders in the field, passing on updated intelligence and orders. President Lincoln used the telegraph frequently, as did his chief general, Halleck, and field commanders such as Grant.
At sea, the greatest innovation was the introduction of ironclad warships. In 1862, the Confederate Navy built the CSS Virginia on the half-burned hull of the USS Merrimack. This ship, with iron armor, was impervious to cannon fire that would drive off or sink a wooden ship. The Virginia sank the U.S. frigate Cumberland and could have broken the blockade of the Federal fleet had it not been for the arrival of the ironclad USS Monitor, built by Swedish-American John Ericsson. The two met in May 1862 off Hampton Roads, Virginia. The battle was a draw, but this sufficed for the Union to continue its blockade of the Confederacy: the Virginia had retreated into a bay where it could not be of much use, and the Confederacy later burned it to prevent Union capture.
Things the Civil War had first
This is a list of things that the U.S. Civil War had first.
- Railroad artillery
- A successful submarine
- A "snorkel" breathing device
- The periscope, for trench warfare
- Land-mine fields
- Field trenches on a greater scale
- Flame throwers
- Wire entanglements
- Military telegraph
- Naval torpedoes
- Aerial reconnaissance
- Antiaircraft fire
- Repeating rifles
- Telescopic sights for rifles (Snipers)
- Long-range rifles for general use
- Fixed ammunition
- Ironclad navies
- A steel ship
- Revolving gun turrets
- Military railroads
- Organized medical and nursing corps
- Hospital ships
- Army ambulance corps
- A workable machine gun
- Legal voting for servicemen
- U.S. Secret Service
- The income tax
- Withholding tax
- Tobacco tax
- Cigarette tax
- American conscription
- American bread lines
- The Medal of Honor
- A wide-range corps of press correspondents in war zones aka battlefield correspondents
- Photography of battles and soldiers wounded and not wounded
- The bugle call, "Taps"
- African-American U.S. Army Officer (Major M.R. Delany)
- American President assassinated
- Department of Justice (Confederate)
- Commissioned American Army Chaplains
- U.S. Navy admiral
- Electronic exploding bombs and torpedoes
- The wigwag signal code in battle
- Wide-scale use of anesthetics for wounded
- Blackouts and camouflage under aerial observation
Shiloh and Ulysses Grant
While Union military efforts in the East were frustrated and even disastrous, West of the Appalacians, the war developed differently resulting in the first significant battlefield successes for the North.
Kentucky, on the border between the Union and Confederacy, was divided in its sentiments toward the two sides and politically attempted to pursue a neutral course. By autumn 1861, the state government decided to support the Union despite being a slave state. Kentucky's indecision and the divided loyalties of that state's population greatly influenced the course of military operations in the West as neither side wished to alienate Kentucky.
Below the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers where the Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri borders come together, Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, under command of Major General Henry W. Halleck, conducted a series of operations that would bring him national recognition. It was just across the Mississippi from Kentucky in Columbus, Missouri that Grant, later President of the United States, fought his first major battle.
The western campaigns continued into 1862 under Halleck's overall direction with Grant continuing into Western Tennessee along the Mississippi. In February, Grant attacked and captured the Tennessean Fort Donelson, providing a significant (though not necessarily major) victory for the North.
About two months after the victory at Fort Donelson, Grant fought an even more important battle at Shiloh.
Grant's troops killed Confederate General Albert Johnston and defeated the Confederate troops, but at a steep price. Approximately thirteen thousand Union soldiers and eleven thousand Confederate soldiers died, and Grant lost a chance of capturing the West quickly.
Further Reading on the Battle of Shiloh
Peninsular Campaign
General Stonewall Jackson threatened to invade Washington. To prevent Jackson from doing so, Union General George McClellan left over fifty-thousand men in Washington. Little did he know that the deceptive Jackson did not even have 5000 men in his army. McClellan's unnecessary fear caused him to wait over half a year before continuing the war in Virginia, earning him the nickname "Tardy George" and allowing enough time for the Confederates to strengthen their position. Jackson's deceptions succeeded when General McClellan led Union troops in the Peninsular Campaign, the attempt to take the Confederate capital Richmond, without the aid of the force remaining in Washington.
In early April 1862, McClellan began the Peninsular Campaign. His troops traveled over sea to the peninsula formed by the mouths of the York and James Rivers, which included Yorktown and Williamsburg and led straight to Richmond. (The Union strategy for a quick end to the war was capturing Richmond, which appeared easy since it was close to Washington.) In late May, McClellan was a few miles from Richmond, when Robert E. Lee took control of one of the Confederate Armies. After several battles, it appeared that McClellan could march to Richmond. But McClellan refused to attack, citing a lack of reinforcements. The forces that he wanted were instead defending Washington. During the last week of June, Confederate General Robert E. Lee initiated the Seven Days' Battles that forced McClellan to retreat. By July, McClellan had lost over fifteen thousand men for no apparent reason; there was little consolation in the fact that Lee had lost even more.
During the Peninsular Campaign, other military skirmishes occurred. Flag Officer David Farragut of the Union Navy easily took control of the Mississippi River when he captured the key port of New Orleans in April, providing a key advantage to the Union and practically depriving the Confederacy of the river.
Total War
If Richmond had indeed been captured quickly and the war had ended, slavery and the Southern lifestyle would probably not have changed significantly. After the unsuccessful Union attacks in Virginia, Lincoln began to think about the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Union changed its strategy, from a quick capture of Richmond, to the destruction of the South through total war. Total war is a war strategy in which both military and non-military resources that are important to a state's ability to make war are destroyed by the opposing power. It may involve attacks on civilians or the destruction of civilian property.
The Union strategy finally emerged with six parts:
- blockade the Confederate coastlines, preventing trade;
- free the slaves, destroying the domestic economy;
- disconnect the Trans-Mississippi by controlling the Mississippi River;
- further split the Confederacy by attacking the Southeast coast (Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina), denying access to foreign supply
- capture the capital of Richmond, which would severely incapacitate the Confederacy; and
- engage the enemy everywhere, weakening the armies through attrition.
Second Bull Run and Antietam
Meanwhile, a new Union Army under General John Pope was organized. Pope attempted to combine his army with McClellan's to create a powerful force. Stonewall Jackson attempted to prevent this danger by surrounding Pope's Army in Manassas. Both sides fought on August 29, and the Confederates won against a much larger Union force.
Pope's battered Army did eventually combine with McClellan's. But the Second Battle of Bull Run had encouraged General Lee to invade Maryland. In Sharpsburg, Maryland, McClellan and Lee led their armies against each other. On September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam (named for a nearby creek) led to the deaths of over ten thousand soldiers from each side; no other one-day battle led to more deaths in one day. McClellan's scouts had found Lee's battle plans with a discarded packet of cigars, but he did not act on the intelligence immediately. The Union technically won the Pyrrhic victory; McClellan lost about one-sixth of his Army, but Lee lost around one-third of his. This was the victory needed for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, so that it did not appear as an act of desperation.
The Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln liked men who did not campaign on the abolition of slavery. He only intended to prevent slavery in all new states and territories. On the 22n'd of August, 1862 Lincoln was coming to the decision that abolishing slavery might help the Union, in a letter from that time he wrote "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.". Doing so would especially disrupt the Confederate economy. In September, 1862, after the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln and his Cabinet agreed to emancipate, or free, Southern slaves. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states "forever free."
The constitutional authority for the Emancipation Proclamation cannot be challenged. The Proclamation did not abolish slavery everywhere; it was restricted to states "still in rebellion" against the Union on the day it took effect. The Proclamation, technically, was part of a military strategy against states that had rebelled; this was to prevent internal conflict with the border states. Still, all the border states except Kentucky and Delaware had abolished slavery on their own. Naturally, the proclamation had no way of being enforced: the Executive in the form of military action was still trying to force the Confederacy to rejoin. Nonetheless, many slaves who had heard of the Proclamation escaped when Union forces approached.
The Proclamation also had another profound effect on the war: it changed the objective from forcing the Confederacy to rejoin the Union to eliminating slavery throughout the United States. The South had been trying too woo Great Britain (which relied on its agricultural exports, especially cotton, for manufacturing) into an alliance; now all hopes for one were eliminated. Great Britain was firmly against the institution of slavery, and it had been illegalised throughout the British Empire since 1833. In fact, many slaves freed via the Underground Railroad were taken to Britain, since it was safe from bounty hunters (Canada was too close to the U.S. for some).
Although the Union initially did not accept black freedmen for combat, it hired them for other jobs. When troops became scarce, the Union began enlisting blacks. At the end of the war, the 180,000 enlisted blacks made up about 10% of the Union forces. Until 1864, the South refused to recognize captured black soldiers as prisoners of war, and executed several of them at Fort Pillow as escaped slaves. Lincoln believed in the necessity of black soldiers: in August 1864, he said if the black soldiers of the Union army all joined the Confederacy, "we would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks." See Black Americans and the Civil War below for more on this subject.
Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville
Meanwhile, General McClellan seemed too defensive to Lincoln, who replaced McClellan with General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside decided to go on the offensive against Lee. In December 1862, at Fredricksburg, Virginia, Burnside's Army of the Potomac assaulted built-up Confederate positions and suffered terrible casualties to Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The Federal superiority in numbers was matched by Lee's use of terrain and modernized firepower. "Burnside's Slaughter Pen" resulted in over ten thousand Union casualties, largely due to the ill-considered use of Napoleonic tactics against machine guns. Burnside then tried another attempt to move to capture Richmond, but the movement was foiled by winter weather. The "Mud March" forced the Army of the Potomac to return to winter quarters.
In 1863, Lincoln again changed leadership, replacing Burnside with General Joseph Hooker. Hooker had a reputation for aggressiveness; his nickname was "Fighting Joe". From May 1 to May 4, 1863, near Chancellorsville, Virginia, General Lee, again outnumbered, used audacious tactics — he divided his smaller force in two in the face of superior numbers, sending Stonewall Jackson to the Union's flank, and defeated Hooker. Again, the Confederacy won, but at a great cost. Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by Confederate soldiers who didn't recognize him in the poor evening light and died shortly after the battle of Chancellorville.
Vicksburg
The North already held New Orleans. If they could take control over the entire Mississippi River, the Union could divide the Confederacy in two, making transportation of weapons and troops by the Confederates more difficult. General Winfield Scott's strategic "Anaconda Plan" was based on control of the Mississippi; however, planning control was easier than gaining the control.
The city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, was located on high bluffs on the eastern bank of the river. At the time, the Missisippi River went through a 180-degree U shaped bend by the city. Guns placed there could prevent Federal steamboats from crossing. It was also on one of the major railroads running east-west through the Confederacy. Vicksburg was therefore the key point under Confederate control.
Major General Ulysses Grant marched on land from Memphis, Tennessee, while Union General William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops traveled by water. Both intended to converge on Vicksburg, Mississippi. Both failed, at least for the time being in December, 1862, when Grant's supply line was disrupted and Sherman had to attack alone.
The Union forces made several attempts to bypass Vicksburg by building canals to divert the Missisippi River, but these failed.
Grant decided to attack Vicksburg again in April. Instead of approaching from the north, as had been done before, his army approached Vicksburg from the south. Grant's Army of the Tennessee crossed from the western bank to the Eastern at Big Bluff on April 18, 1863 and then in a series of battles, including Raymond and Champion's Hill, defeated Confederate forces coming to the relief of Confederate general Pemberton. Sherman and Grant together beseiged Vicksburg. Two major assaults were repelled by the defenders of Vicksburg, including one in which a giant land mine was set off under the Confederate fortifications.
From May to July, Vicksburg remained in Confederate hands, but on July 3, 1863, one day before Independence Day, General Pemberton finally capitulated. Thirty thousand Confederates were taken prisoner, but released after taking an oath to not participate in fighting the United States unless properly exchanged (a practice called parole}.
This victory cut the Confederate States in two, accomplishing one of the Union total war goals. Confederate forces would not be able to draw on the food and horses previously supplied by Texas.
This victory was very important in many ways.
- The Union now controlled all of the Mississippi river.
- Controlling the Mississippi meant that the Union had now spilt the Confederacy into two, depriving Confederate forces of the food and supplies of Texas.
The people of Vicksburg would not celebrate Independence Day on July 4th for another 81 years.
Gettysburg
During the Vicksburg Campaign, General Lee marched his troops to Pennsylvania for several reasons:
- He intended to win a major victory, increasing Southern morale, encouraging Northern peace activists, and increasing the likelihood of recognition by England and France.
- He intended to feed his army on Northern supplies, reducing the burden on the Confederate economy.
- He intended to pressure Washington, DC, forcing the recall of Federal troops from the West.
Lee used the Shenandoah Mountains to screen his movements and marched into central Pennsylvania. The Union forces moved north on roads to the east. However, Lee did not know of the Federal movement, because his cavalry commander and chief scout, Jeb Stuart, had launched a raid eastward intending to "ride around" the Union army. On June 30, 1863, a Confederate division (Heth's) ran into a Federal cavalry unit (Buford's) west of the city of Gettysburg. Buford's brigade held their ground for several hours, until the arrival of the Union 1st Corps, then withdrew through the city. The Confederates occupied the town, but by then the Union forces had formed a strong defensive line on the hills to the east of the city.
On July 1, the Confederate Army met the Union Army, then under the command of General George G. Meade, a Pennsylvanian who replaced Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac. (Hooker was given a corps command in the Army of the Cumberland, then in eastern Tennessee, where he performed satisfactorily for the remainder of the war.)
South of Gettysburg city are high hills shaped like an inverted letter "J". At the end of the first day, the Union held the very important high ground, partially because the Confederate left wing had dawdled moving into position. (Stonewall Jackson's loss was keenly felt then.) When the second day, July 2, began, the Round Tops, two hills which were on the extreme south, had become very important. If the Confederates could seize Little Round Top, they could place artillery on it and force Meade's forces to retreat.
The Confederate forces, including Law's Alabama Brigade, attempted to force a gap in the Federal line between the two Round Tops. Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine Regiment, anchored the northern side of the gap. He and the rest of his brigade, commanded by Colonel Vincent, held the hill despite several hard-pressed attacks, including launching a bayonet charge when the regiment was low on ammunition.
Meanwhile, north of the Round Tops, a small ridge to the west of the Federal line drew the attention of General Dan Sickles, a former New York congressman, who commanded the Third Corps. He ordered the Corps to advance to the ridge, which led to hard fighting around the "Devil's Den." Sickles lost a leg in the fight.
On the third day of Gettysburg, Lee decided to try a direct attack on the Union and "virtually destroy their army." Putting Major General George Pickett in charge, he wanted Pickett's men to march across a mile and a half up a gradual slope to the center of the Union line. Lee promised artillery support, but any trained soldier who looked across those fields knew that they would be an open target for the Union soldiers--much the reverse of the situation six months before in Fredericksburg. However, the choice was either to attack or withdraw, and Lee was a naturally aggressive soldier.
By the end of the attack, half of Pickett's men were dead, and the Union army generally unharmed. George Pickett never forgave Lee for "slaughtering" his men. Pickett's charge, called the "high tide of the Confederacy," reached farther north than any other important Confederate unit, and was practically the last hope of the Southern cause.
Lee withdrew across the Potomac. Meade did not pursue quickly, and Lee was able to reestablish himself in Virginia. He offered to Confederate President Jefferson Davis to resign as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, saying, "Everything, therefore, points to the advantages to be derived from a new commander, and I the more anxiously urge the matter upon Your Excellency from my belief that a younger and abler man than myself can readily be attained." Davis did not relieve Lee; neither did Lincoln relieve Meade, though he wrote a letter of censure, saying "Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely."
The battle of Gettysburg lasted three days. Both sides lost nearly twenty-five thousand men each. After Gettysburg, the South remained on the defensive.
Black Americans and the Civil War
The view of the Union towards blacks changed during the previous two years. At the beginning of hostilities, the war was seen as an effort to save the Union, not free slaves. Several black slaves who reached Federal lines were returned to their owners. This stopped when Major General Benjamin F. Butler, a New Jersey lawyer and prominent member of the Democratic party, announced that slaves, being the property of persons in rebellion against the United States, would be seized as "contraband of war" and the Fugitive Slave Act could not apply. "Contrabands" were, if not always welcome by white soldiers, not turned away.
However, as the struggle grew more intense, abolition became a more popular option. Frederick Douglas, a former slave, urged that the war aim of the Union include the emanciplation of slaves and the enlistment of black soldiers in the Union Army. This was done on a nationwide basis in 1863, though the state of Massachusetts had raised two regiments (the 54th and 55th Massachusetts) before this.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis reacted to the raising of black regiments by passing General Order No. 111, which stated that captured black Federal soldiers would be returned into slavery (whether born free or not) and that white officers who led black soldiers would be tried for abetting servile rebellion. The Confederate Congress codified this into law on May 1, 1863. President Lincoln's order of July 30, 1863 responded:
It is therefore ordered that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war.
Eventually the Federal forces had several divisions' worth of black soldiers. Their treatment was not equal to white soldiers: at first, for example, black privates were paid $10 a month, the same as laborers, while white privates earned $13 a month. In addition, blacks could not be commissioned officers. The pay difference was settled retroactively in 1864.
The issue of black prisoners of war was a continual contention between the two sides. In the early stages of the war, prisoners of war would be exchanged rank for rank. However, the Confederates refused to exchange any black prisoner. The Union response was to stop exchanging any prisoner of war. The Confederate position changed to allowing blacks who were born free to be exchanged, and finally to exchange all soldiers, regardless of race. By then, the Federal leadership understood that the scarcity of white Confederates capable of serving as soldiers was an advantage, and there were no mass exchanges of prisoners, black or white, until the Confederate collapse.
Chickamauga and Chattanooga
In September 1863, Union Major General William Rosecrans decided to attempt the takeover of Chattanooga, a Confederate rail center in the eastern part of Tennessee. Controlling Chattanooga would provide a base to attack Georgia. The Confederates originally gave up Chattanooga, thinking that they could launch a devastating attack as the Union Army attempted to take control of it. Rosecrans did not, in the end, fall into such a trap. However, on November 23, 1863, the Union and Confederate Armies met at Chickamauga Creek, south of Chattanooga, upon which a rail line passed into Georgia.
The battle of Chickamauga was a Confederate victory. The Army of the Cumberland was forced to withdraw to Chattanooga, but Union General George Thomas, "the Rock of Chickamauga," and his troops prevented total defeat by standing their ground.
After Rosecrans withdrew to Chattanooga, the Confederates under General Braxton Bragg decided to beseige the city. Rosecrans was relieved of command; Lincoln's comment was that he appeared "stunned and confused, like a duck hit on the head." Meanwhile, by great effort, the Federal forces kept a "cracker line" open to supply Chattanooga with food and forage. Ulysses Grant replaced him.
Grant's forces began to attack on November 23, 1863. On November 24 came the Battle of Lookout Mountain, an improbable victory in which Union soldiers, without the initiative of higher command, advanced up this mountain, which overlooks Chattanooga, and captured it. One of the authors of this text had an ancestor in the Confederate forces there; his comment was when the battle started, he was on top of the hill throwing rocks at the Yankees, and when it was over, the Yankees were throwing rocks at him.
By the end of November, Grant and his troops had pushed the Confederates out of East Tennessee and begun operations in Georgia.
Ulysses Grant As General-in-Chief
Lincoln recognized the great victories won by Ulysses Grant. In March, 1864, the President made Grant the general-in-chief of Union Forces, with the rank of Lieutenant General (a rank only previously held by George Washington). Grant decided on a campaign of continual pressure on all fronts, which would prevent Confederate forces from reinforcing each other.
He went east and made his headquarters with General Meade's Army of the Potomac (although Grant never took direct command of this army). The Army of the Potomac's chief mission would be to whittle down the manpower of the Army of Northern Virginia, Lee's army. In May 1864, the two sides met in Virginia near site of the previous year's Battle of Chancellorsville. The terrain was heavily wooded and movement to attack or reinforce was particularly difficult.
During the Battle of the Wilderness, the Union lost eighteen thousand soldiers, while the Confederates lost eleven thousand. Nevertheless, the Union pushed on. The two Armies fought each other again at Spotsylvania Court House and at Cold Harbor. In each case, the Union again lost large numbers of soldiers. Grant then hatched a plan to go around rather than through the Confederate Army in order to capture Richmond. At the last second, due to a hesitation by Major General "Baldy" Smith, the Army of Northern Virginia blocked the Union troops at Petersburg. Grant then decided to siege the city (and Lee's forces) and force it to surrender; if Lee could not move, he could not help other Confederate armies.
The siege took almost one year.
Battle of Galveston
One of the minor battles of the Civil War was fought in the Rebel city of Galveston, Texas, against a force from Colorado. It is said that the Galvestonians, under the command of Dick Dowling, were drunk at the time of their fight, however it is not known either way. (This is why some say that it is better to fight drunk than sober.) The Rebels won the battle, and the city did not formally surrender, even after the war, leading some "support" to the claim that the South won the War despite the fact that the Confderate Army was dissolved, the Confederate Government in flight or arrested, and the rest of the country under Federal occupation.
Appomattox
Sherman did not stop in Georgia. As he marched North, he burnt several towns in South Carolina, including Columbia, the capital. (Sherman's troops felt more anger towards South Carolina, the first state to secede and in their eyes responsible for the war.) In March 1865, Lincoln, Sherman, and Grant all met outside Petersburg. Lincoln called for a quick end to the Civil War. Union General Sheridan said to Lincoln, "If the thing be pressed I think Lee will surrender." Lincoln responded, "Let the thing be pressed."
On April 2, 1865, the Confederate lines of Petersburg, Richmond's defense, which had been extended steadily to the west for 9 months, broke. General Lee informed President Davis he could no longer hold the lines; the Confederate government then evacuated Richmond. Lee pulled his forces out of the lines and moved west; Federal forces chased Lee's forces, annihilated a Confederate rear guard defense, and finally trapped the Army of Northern Virginia. General Lee requested terms. The two senior Confederate officers met each other near Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Grant offered extremely generous terms, requiring only that Lee's troops surrender and swear not to bear arms till the end of the War.
General Sherman met with Confederate General Albert Johnston to discuss the surrender of Confederate troops in the South. Sherman initially allowed even more generous terms than Grant. However, the Secretary of War refused to accept the terms because of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the Confederate John Wilkes Booth. By killing Lincoln at a theater, Booth made things worse for the Confederacy. Sherman was forced to offer harsher terms of surrender than he originally proposed, and General Johnston surrendered on April 26 under the Appomattox terms. All Confederate armies had surrendered by the end of May, ending the Civil War.
Side note: A Virginian named Wilmer McLean had no luck escaping the Civil War. The first battle of the war, Bull Run, was fought right in front of his house, and the generals slept there, too. Hoping to get away from the war, he then moved to Appomattox. It was in his parlor that Lee surrendered to Grant.
Besides the Fighting
Not all the important events of the Civil War took place on the battlefield.
On May 20, 1862, the United States Congress passed the Homestead Act, which had been delayed by Southern legislators before secession. According to the provisions of the Act, any adult American citizen, or a person intending to become an American citizen, who was the head of a household, could qualify for a grant of 160 acres (67 hectares) of land by paying a small fee and living on the land continuously for 5 years. If a person was willing to pay $1.25 an acre, the time of occupation dwindled to six months.
Other vital legislature were the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864, which enabled the United States Government to make a direct grant of land to railway companies for a transcontinental railroad, as well as a payment of $48,000 for every mile of track completed and lower-than-prime rate loans for any railway company who would build such a railway. Two railways, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific, began to construct lines. The two railways finally met 4 years after the war, in Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869.
The federal government started a draft lottery in July, 1863. Men could avoid the draft by paying $300, or hiring another man to take their place. On Monday, July 13, 1863, between 6 and 7 A.M., the Civil War Draft Riots began in New York City. Rioters lynched black men, burned down the Colored Orphan Asylum on 5th Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets, and forced hundreds of blacks out of the city. Members of the 7th New York Infantry and 71st New York Infantry subdued the riot.
Reconstruction (1865 - 1877)
Reconstruction (1865 - 1877)
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Reconstruction was the period following the American Civil War, in which the nation decided how to handle the return of the seceded states and the status of the Freedmen (the newly freed slaves). Most scholars have accepted 1865-1877 as the boundaries for Reconstruction. The era, itself, was controversial and pitted various segments of American society against one another. Differing conceptions on how to restore the former Confederate States into the Union collided with diverse opinions concerning the status of African-Americans. The meaning of freedom itself was at stake in this crucial time period. The nascent Republican Party was divided between the mainstream which wanted a modicum of protection for blacks, and the Radicals, who wanted a thorough reorganization of Southern society. Conservative elements of this time period (in particular the Democrats) believed that the old order that governed relations between the states and between blacks and whites should remain intact. The bulk of African-Americans desired equal civil and political rights, protection of their person, and in many cases a redistribution of land and the break-up of the plantation system. These diverse perspectives enabled the period from 1865 to 1877 to be, in many ways, a grand experiment in interracial democracy, but the period was also dominated by tense political relations and a preponderous of violence across the South
Definition
Reconstruction, in United States history, refers both to the period after the Civil War when the states of the breakaway Confederate States of America were reintegrated into the United States of America, and to the process by which this was accomplished.
For victory in the American Civil War to be achieved, Northern moderate Republicans and Radical Republicans concurred that the Confederacy and its system of slavery had to be destroyed, and the possibility of either being revived had to be eliminated. Controversy focused on how to achieve those goals, and who would decide when they were achieved. The Radical Republicans held that reaching those goals was essential to the destruction of the Slave Power, and necessary to guaranteeing perpetual unity of the states, as well as a solution to the many problems of Freedmen.
United States Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, a Radical Republican, held that Congress should abolish slavery along with the Confederacy, extend civil and political rights to blacks, and educate black and white students together.
The "moderates" claimed early success in achieving the goals by assurances that the former Confederates had renounced secession and abolished slavery. Most moderates, like Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, wanted suffrage for black army veterans but not other African Americans. Southern political leaders renounced secession and gave up slavery, but were angered in 1867 when their state governments were ousted by federal military forces, and replaced by Radical Republican governments made up of Freedmen, Carpetbaggers and Scalawags.
The Problem of Reconstruction
Reconstruction was the effort of rebuilding the South based on free labor instead of slave labor. The issue to Northern politicans was how it would be done. At the end of the Civil War, Congress proposed the Thirteenth Amendment, which sought to prohibit slavery. A state was not to gain readmittance into the Union until it ratified the Amendment, but some states such as Mississippi were admitted despite failing to ratify. The Amendment became a part of the Constitution in December, 1865.
During this time many Northerners moved to the South to start new lives. Sometimes carrying their belongings in briefcases made of carpet, they were known by Confederate Southerners as "carpetbaggers." Confederate Southerners also had a derogatory name for southern whites who sided with the Republicans. They called them scalawags. The period just after the war also saw the rise of black codes, which restricted the basic human rights of freed slaves.
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the name of several past and present organizations in the United States that have advocated white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, racism, homophobia, anti-Communism and nativism. These organizations have often used terrorism, violence, and acts of intimidation, such as cross burning and lynching, to oppress African Americans and other social or ethnic groups.
The Klan's first incarnation was in 1866. Founded by veterans of the Confederate Army, its main purpose was to resist Reconstruction. It focused as much on intimidating "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" as on putting down the freed slaves. The KKK quickly adopted violent methods. A rapid reaction set in. The Klan's leadership disowned violence as Southern elites saw the Klan as an excuse for federal troops to continue their activities in the South. The organization declined from 1868 to 1870 and was destroyed in the early 1870s by President Ulysses S. Grant's vigorous action under the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).
Lincoln and Reconstruction
Lincoln firmly believed that the southern states had never actually seceded, because, constitutionally, they cannot. He hoped that the 11 states that seceded could be "readmitted" by meeting some tests of political loyalty. Lincoln began thinking about readmittance early on. In his Proclamation of 1863, Lincoln established a simple process, hoping that Unionists would rise to political power rather than secessionalists. This plan would have granted presidential pardons to all southerners (save the political leaders at the time) who took an oath of future allegiance to the Union. Under Lincoln's plan, a state could be established as legitimate as soon as 10 percent of the voters took this oath and a government was set up accepting the emancipation of the slaves.
Rejecting Lincoln's Presidential reconstruction plan, radical Republicans in congress arguing that it was too lenient, passed the Wade-Davis bill in 1864, which proposed far more demanding terms. It required 50 percent of the voters to take the loyalty oath and allowed only those who could swear that they had never supported the confederacy to run for office or hold federal employment. Lincoln rejected this plan and pocket-vetoed the bill. In March 1865, Congress created a new agency, the Freedman's Bureau. This agency provided food, shelter, medical aid, help to find employment, education, and other needs for blacks and poor whites.
In 1864, his Vice Presidential running mate was the only Southern Senator to remain loyal to the Union - Andrew Johnson from Tennessee. After Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, and Johnson became President, the latter proved to be an obstacle to the Radical Republicans in Congress, who attempted to completely overhaul the Southern government and economy, which would have caused further tensions.
In May, 1865, Johnson made his own proclamation, one that was very similar to Lincoln's. Offering amnesty to almost all Confederates who took an oath of allegiance to the Union, Johnson also reversed General Sherman's decision to set aside land for the express use of freed slaves. Not long after Johnson took office, all of the ex-Confederate states were able to be readmitted under President Johnson's plan. In 1866, Johnson vetoed two important bills, one that bolstered the protection that the Freedmen's Bureau gave to blacks and a civil rights bill that gave full citizenship to blacks.
After realizing that if all of the Republicans, moderate and radical alike, united, they could overcome Johnson's vetos, they soon passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment declared citizenship for all persons born in the United States and required the states to respect the rights of all US citizens. The Civil Rights Act outlawed the black codes that had been prevalent throughout the South.
Over Johnson's vetos, Congress passed three Reconstruction acts in 1867. They divided the southern states into five military districts under the control of the Union army. The military commander in charge of each district was to ensure that the state fulfilled the requirements of Reconstruction by ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment and by providing voting rights without a race qualification. Tennessee was not included in the districts because it had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment in 1866 and was quickly readmitted to the Union.
In 1868, the House of Representatives impeached Andrew Johnson. Earlier, Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act (over Johnson's veto), which required the President to dismiss officers only with the advice and consent of the Senate if he appointed them with the same advice and consent. Johnson believed that the Act was unconstitutional (and the Supreme Court, years after his Presidency, agreed in 1926), and intentionally violated it, to "test the waters." Radical Republicans used this violation as an excuse to impeach Johnson, who was acquitted by one vote in the Senate.
In the election of 1868, Ulysses Grant was nominated for the Republican ticket and won on an incredibly small margin. Republicans noticed that if they did not act swiftly to protect the voting rights of blacks, they might soon lose a majority. Thus, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869, which enforced that the suffrage of male citizens shall not be denied on acount of race. This was a major blow to the women's movement, as it was the first time gender was deliberately placed into the Constitution. Republicans claimed that if the amendment had included both race and gender discrimination clauses, it would have never had a chance to pass in Congress.
Republicans fall from power
Grant's presidency would bring about the decline of the Republican Party. He appointed a great number of corrupt officials to federal positions and to his cabinet. Many split with the party over that issue. Others grew tired of Reconstruction and proposed reconcilliation with the South in a peaceful manner. These people called themselves Liberal Republicans, and nominated Horace Greeley to run against Grant in 1872. The Democrats also endorsed Greeley. Despite wide support, Grant won the election of 1872 decisively.
During the election season, Liberal Republicans were busy pushing the Amnesty Act through Congress, and in May 1872, it passed. The Amnesty Act pardoned most former Confederate citizens, and allowed them to run for office. The act restored the rights to the Democratic majorities in the South. Soon, Democrats had control of the Virginia and North Carolina governments. In states with black Republican majorities, the Ku Klux Klan (formed after the civil war as a white supremacist group) terrorized Republicans and forced them to vote Democratic or not at all. By 1876, Republicans controlled only three states in the South: Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina-- all of which were still occupied by Union troops.
Republicans continued to decline during Grant's second term, after many high level political scandals came to light. Most shocking to the public was that a scandal involved the Vice President, and another involved the Secretary of War. The Northern population's confidence in the party was shaken even more when the nation slipped into a Depression that same year.
In the congressional elections of 1874, Republicans would suffer huge losses in both houses, and for the first time since before the start of the Civil War, Democrats were able to gain control of a part of Congress (the House). Congress no longer was able to be committed strongly to Reconstruction.
In the election of 1876, Democrats nominated New York governor S.J. Tilden to run, and the Republicans nominated Ohio governor Rutherford B. Hayes. On election day, it seemed that Tilden would win by more than 250,000 votes. But the seven, four, and eight electoral votes from South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, respectively, were disputed (Northern troops still occupied these states). Also, one of Oregon's three electoral votes was disputed. If Hayes won all 20 votes, he would win the election. Congress created a special comission of seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and one independent to review the election and decide a winner. But the independent resigned, and a Republican was appointed to take his place. The commission voted along party lines to award Hayes the election, but Democrats warned that they would fight the decision.
Republican and Democratic leaders secretly met up to draw up a compromise, and the result of the meeting was the Compromise of 1877. Proclaiming that Hayes would win the election, troops left the South and more aid was given to the South; it marked the end of Reconstruction. Ultimately, Reconstruction and the Compromise itself would be failures, as Democrats refused to hold up their end of the compromise, which was to protect the rights of African Americans in the South.
The period after Reconstruction saw the rise of the Democratic "Redeemers" in the South. The Redeemers vowed to take back the South from Republican rule, which had been ousted after the 1876 election. They passed Jim Crow laws, which segregated blacks and whites, and put voting restrictions on blacks that wouldn't be outlawed until the next century. Jim Crow laws were challenged in Plessy v. Ferguson, when the Supreme Court voted to uphold the laws if and only if segregrated facilities remained "separate but equal."
Sinmiyangyo
The United States expedition to Korea in 1871 also known as Sinmiyangyo (Western Disturbance of the Year Sinmi year) was the first American military action in Korea. It took place predominantly on and around the Korean island of Ganghwa. The reason for the presence of the American military expeditionary force in Korea was to support an American diplomatic delegation sent to establish trade and diplomatic relations with Korea, to ascertain the fate of the General Sherman merchant ship, and to establish a treaty assuring aid for shipwrecked sailors. The isolationist nature of the Joseon Dynasty government and the assertiveness of the Americans led to a misunderstanding between the two parties that changed a diplomatic expedition into an armed conflict. The United States won a minor military victory, but as the Koreans refused to open up the country to them (and as the U.S. forces in Korea did not have the authority or strength to press the issue) the United States failed to secure their diplomatic objectives.
The Republic 1877 to 2000
The Age of Invention and the Gilded Age (1877 - 1900)
The Age of Invention and the Gilded Age (1877 - 1900)
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Politics of the Gilded Age
The Political Machines
During the Gilded Age, politics were characterized by the political machines of the cities and states. The "spoils system" was still in use. When a political machine won an election, it could remove all appointed office holders, leading to change in make up of the body as well as the heads of government departments. At that time many political offices were also elected. Many elected officials were elected to represent their ward, and not by the entire city. This system led to the election of people personally known to their communities, as opposed to people voters had heard of but didn't know.
The machines in the cities tended to be controlled by the Democratic party which allied with new immigrants by providing jobs, housing, and other benefits in exchange for votes. This was a challenge to the power of the old elites, whose families had lived in the US for generations.
The political machines gave lucrative government contracts and official positions to supporters. Opponents of the political machines called this corruption, and wished to give a corrupt government contracts and official positions to people they preferred. One of the most well known machines was that of Tammany Hall in New York. Long led by William Tweed, he was better known as Boss Tweed. In addition to rewarding supporters, they saw themselves as defending New York City from the residents of upstate New York and the New York state government who saw New York city as a ready source of funds to benefit upstate New York.
Republican political machines also existed, one of the most important was the Republican machine in Ohio run by Mark Hanna. Ohio had a comparatively large population and was very important in national politics. Mark Hanna was a successful businessman and political operator and long time friend of Rockefeller. He later helped mastermind McKinley's run for president.
Industrialization
In the 1870's, the United States became a leading Industrial power. Advances in technology drove American Industrialization, as did access to the immense and untapped resources of the North American continent. Industrialization brought the growth of new American cities such as Chicago, and the arrival of a flood of immigrants from all over Europe to man the factories. Though industrialization caused many long-term positives, it did cause problems in the short-term. Rich farmers who could afford new machinery grew even richer, while poorer farmers were forced to move into urban areas as they could not compete in the agricultural sector.
In the cities, laborers and employers often clashed over wages, sanitary conditions, working hours, benefits, and several other issues. Laborers organized themselves into unions to negotiate with companies. The companies, however, attempted to shut down labor unions. Some imposed yellow dog contracts, under which an employer could dismiss a worker who participated in union activity.
In 1886, the American Federation of Labor was formed to fight for laborers in general. The AFL and other union groups employed as many tactics as possible to force employers to accede to their demands. One tactic was the strike. Some strikes escalated into riots, as with the Knights of Labor's strike in 1886 becoming the Haymarket Riots.
The companies sometimes retaliated against strikes by suing the unions. Congress had passed the Sherman Antitrust Act to prevent trusts, or corporations that held stock in several different companies, from obstructing the activities of competitors. Though the Sherman Act was intended to target trusts, the companies sued the union under it, claiming that unions obstructed interstate commerce.
Agriculture
While industry generally increased in importance, farmers struggled due to debt and falling prices. The crop failures of the 1880's greatly exacerbated the situation.
amount of gold. But in 1873, Congress abolished the silver part of the bimetallic standard, leaving only the gold standard. The farmers called for the reintroduction of the silver standard, which would cause inflation, which would in turn help farmers clear debts. However, the farmers failed in their efforts, and the gold standard was firmly established.
Imperialism
Industrialization caused businessmen to seek new international markets for their goods. This led to the idea that the United States had to secure foreign markets before the powerful nations of Europe did so for themselves. This concept, and other causes, led to Imperialism, the practice of a stronger nation seeking to influence a weaker one.
Imperialism was supported by other ideas. For instance, the concept of social darwinism suggested that the US had the inherent right to rule over others because "savages" were naturally inferior. Also, some American Imperialists claimed that they had the divine right to conquer and spread Christianity.
Anti-imperialists, on the other hand, felt that the US, which was founded on the principles of liberty, ought not to infringe on the liberty of other nations. Imperialists responded that the US would not act like European powers and tyrannize foreign lands. They claimed that the US would merely help other nations govern lands that they could not.
China
In China, several foreign nations exercised power, taking advantage of a weak Chinese ruling class. The region in which a particular nation exercised most power was known as its sphere of influence. Russia, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany all exercised influence. Secretary of State John Hay endorsed the Open Door Policy, under which all foreign powers would exercise equal economic power. Russia was the only country with influence to not agree. The US thus protected its interests in China, and it also maintained a balance of power there.
China though also resented being used by other countries and it was a handful of Chinese peasants that resented all of the outside influence. Therefore to resist the influence of other countries the peasants revolted The "Boxer Rebellion". It was named after the style of fighting that the Anglo-Europeans witnessed by the Chinese. Unable to put down the rebellion by themselves, the European nations relied on the U.S. to step in and put down the rebellion. The U.S. would go onto to support a Chinese dynasty that would be pro-U.S.
Cuba
In 1895, Cuba rebelled against Spain. The Yellow Press, a group of pro-conflict American journalists, reported exaggerations of Spanish atrocities in an attempt to encourage the US to interfere in Cuba. In 1898, the American battleship USS Maine was destroyed by an explosion in the Cuban Harbor of Havana. Although later investigations proved that an internal problem was to blame, the yellow journalists blamed Spain.
Pushed by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, President William McKinley asked Congress to declare war on April 11, 1898. The weak-willed McKinley did so despite the fact that Spain was ready for peace. On April 25, Congress complied and declared war.
The Spanish-American War lasted only four months. The United States Navy won two one-sided naval battles, destroying the Spanish Pacific Fleet at Manila in the Philippines and the Atlantic fleet at Santiago, Cuba. The U.S. then landed forces in Cuba, which fought the tropical climate and associated diseases as well as the Spanish forces. In the Battle of San Juan Hill (actually Kettle Hill), Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt earned a reputation as a military hero by leading the attack entrenched Spanish positions. The regiment to which Roosevelt belonged, the First U.S. Volunteers, was recruited throughout the United States and known as the Rough Riders because of the number of cowboys. The 10th Cavalry, a regiment of black soldiers, supported the Rough Riders in the attack.
The Spanish-American War was also seen domestically as a sign of increasing national unity. Joseph Wheeler, a Confederate general of the Civil War, commanded U.S. forces in Cuba. Two of Robert E. Lee's nephews were also U.S. generals.
In December, both sides signed a peace treaty. The US gained control of the Phillipines, Guam, Cuba (1898-1901), and Puerto Rico for the nominal payment of $20 million.
Hawaii
An event that took place before the Spanish-American War happened in Hawaii, Americans deposed Queen Liluokalani in 1891. Reacting to a recent tariff that ruined profit margins on Hawaiian exports, like sugar, American planters decided that the easiest way to solve the difficulty would be for Hawaii to be incorporated into the US. The planters incited a revolt against Liluokalani, and American troops intervened to assist it. The Americans in Hawaii asked the US to annex the islands. President Benjamin Harrison's annexation treaty was stalled in the Senate by Democrats until a Democratic President, Stephen Grover Cleveland, took office. After an investigation, Cleveland found that the majority of Hawaiians were opposed to annexation. Although unable to restore Liluokalani to her former position, Cleveland withdrew the treaty and Hawaii remained separate from the US. While McKinley was in office, however, the Congress passed a resolution annexing Hawaii, and the task of taking over the islands was accomplished.
The Progressive Era (1900 - 1914)
The Progressive Era (1900 - 1914)
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Progressivism
Industrialization led to the rise of big businesses at the expense of the worker. Factory laborers faced long hours, low wages, and unsanitary conditions. The large corporations protected themselves by allying with political parties. The parties, in turn, were controlled by party leaders, rather than by the members.
Local Reform
At the urban level, Progressivism mainly affected municipal government. The system whereby the city is governed by a powerful mayor and a council was replaced by the council-manager or the commission system. Under the council-manager system, the council would pass laws, while the manager would do no more than ensure their execution. The manager was essentially a weak mayor. Under the commisssion system, the executive would be composed of people who each controlled one area of government. The commisssion was essentially a multi-member, rather than single-member, executive.
At the state level, several electoral reforms were made. Firstly, the secret ballot was introduced. Prior to the secret ballot, the ballots were colored papers printed by the political parties. Due to the lack of secrecy, bribing or blackmailing voters became common. It was to prevent businessmen or politicians from thus coercing voters that the secret ballot was introduced.
In addition, Progressives sought to combat the power of party leaders over which candidates would be nominated. The direct primary was instituted, under which the voters cast ballots to nominate candidates. Before the primary was introduced, the party leaders or party faithful were the only ones allowed to nominate candidates.
Labor Reforms
Progressive movement also attempted to give more power over legislation to the general populace. Three practices - the referendum, the initiative, and the recall - were created. The referendum allowed the voters to vote on a bill at an election before it took force as law. The initiative permitted the voters to petition and force the legislature to vote on a certain bill. Finally, the recall permitted voters to remove elected officials from office in the middle of the term.
Reforms relating to labor were also made. Several states abolished the practice of child labor. States also regulated woman labor by setting maximum work hours, especially when an accident at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory resulted in the deaths of more than 100 girls. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of regulated work hours for women in Muller v. Oregon. Finally, some minimum wage provisions were introduced (for men and women.)
President Theodore Roosevelt
At the national level, Progressivism centered on defeating the power of large businesses. President Theodore Roosevelt, who succeeded to the Presidency when President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, helped the Progressive movement greatly.
In early 1902, anthracite (coal) miners struck, demanding that the mine owners correct abuses of the miners. The miners complained that they had not recieved a pay raise in over two decades. Furthermore, miners' payments came in the form of scrip. Scrips were essentially coupons for goods from company stores. These stores usually charged unfair prices.
The leader of the mine owners, George F. Baer, suggested that miners had committed an error by failing to trust the mine owners. He declared that the mine owners were good, Christian men who could be trusted more than union leaders.
The owners and the miners refused to negotiate with each other. As autumn approached, many feared that the coal strike would cripple the economy. President Roosevelt intervened by asking the owners and miners to submit to arbitration. The miners accepted, but the owners refused Roosevelt's suggestion. Roosevelt then threatened to use the Army to take over the mines. The owners finally acquiesced; the strike was settled in 1903.
Roosevelt continued his Progressive actions when he revived the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Act sought to prevent companies from combining into trusts and gaining monopolies. A trust is formed when many companies loosely join together under a common board of directors to gain total control of an entire market so that prices can be raised without the threat of competitors. This total control of a market and subsequent price raising is a monopoly. However, until Roosevelt's administration, the Act was rarely enforced. Roosevelt also enforced the Hepburn Act, which allowed the Interstate Commmerce Commission to regulate railroads. The railroads had allied themselves with large businesses, charging higher rates to those business' competitors. Thus, the large businesses would gain even more power. The Hepburn Act prevented railroads from granting reduced rates to businesses. Roosevelt also championed the cause of conservation. He set aside large amounts of land as part of the national park system.
Conflicts with other imperalist nations
Imperialism was yet a common theme in the relations between nations in this era. It should be noted that although the US annexed Hawaii, Japan also had interests in the island and an aggressive foreign policy; Japan had already seized Taiwan from China in 1885 and would annex Korea in 1905. Imperial Germany was another aggressive power. The U.S. and Germany had conflicts over who would control Samoa, in the Pacific, as well as nearly faced a naval war with Germany in 1902 over German plans to seize the customs revenues of Venezuela.
However, under the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States became more open in asserting international power. In 1905, Russia and Japan went to war over control of Korea and China. The Japanese won naval victories over two Russian fleets, in the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima. President Roosevelt offered to negotiate peace between the two nations, and in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a peace treaty was signed.
To demonstrate the ability of the United States to project power around the world (unlike Russia), Roosevelt ordered a fleet of U.S. men-o'war to sail around the world. The fleet left the east coast of the U.S. in 1908 and returned in 1909, visting ports in Europe, Australia, and Japan.
President William Howard Taft
Roosevelt, following the tradition upheld by every reelected president before him, decided not to run for reelection for a third term in 1908. Republicans nominated William Howard Taft as their candidate for the 1908 election, and he easily defeated the Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan, supporting the continuation of Roosevelt's progressive programs. Taft was somewhat more cautious and quiet than Roosevelt, and therefore, had less public attention.
Although Taft was less of an attention grabber than Roosevelt, he went far beyond what Roosevelt ever did. Taft used the Sherman Antitrust Act, a law passed in 1890 that made trusts and monopolies illegal, and they had to sue many large and economically damaging corporations. For comparison, Taft won more antitrust lawsuits in four years than Roosevelt won in seven.
Taft also pushed for the passing of the Sixteenth Amendment, which gave the federal government the right to tax citizens' incomes. The purpose of the amendment was to supply the government with cash to replace the revenue generated from tariffs, which progressives hoped that Taft would lower. Taft failed in getting a lower tariff, and in addition, he failed to fight for conservation and environmentalism, and actually weakened some conservation policies to favor business. When Roosevelt came back from an expedition to Africa in 1910, he was disappointed in Taft, and vigorously campaigned for progressive republicans in the congressional elections of 1910.
Because of Roosevelt's enormous popularity, he ran for reelection to a third term in 1912, but he failed to win the nomination for the Republican Party because Taft had connections to influential people in the party. Roosevelt and his supporters broke off from the Republicans and formed the Progressive Party, which later came to be known as the Bull Moose party after Roosevelt declared that he felt "as strong as a bull moose!" The split in the party came to hurt the two candidates, and Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson gathered a 42 percent plurality of the popular votes and 435 out of 531 electoral votes.
President Woodrow Wilson
Although Woodrow Wilson was a Democrat, he still pushed for progressive reforms. One of the first successes of his administration was the lowering of tariffs, which he accomplished in 1913. Wilson believed that increased foreign competition would spur U.S. based manufacturers to lower prices and improve their goods. That same year, Wilson passed the Federal Reserve Act, which created twelve regional banks that would be run by a central board in the capitol. This system gave the government more control over banking activities. A few years later he wrote: "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. -Woodrow Wilson"
Wilson also pushed for governmental control over business. In 1914, a Democratic-controlled Congress established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate companies that participated in suspected unfair and illegal trade practices. Wilson also supported the Clayton Antitrust Act, which joined the Sherman Antitrust Act as one the government's tools to fight trusts the same year.
By the end of Wilson's First term, progressives had won many victories. The entire movement lost steam, though, as Americans became much more interested in international affairs, especially the war that had broken out in Europe in 1914.
First Flight: Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio made history when on December 17th, 1903 they were the first to fly in a man-made vehicle. The event took place in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, chosen for its steady winds. After many failed attempts, Orville finally flew the brothers' airplane 359 meters over a time period of 12 seconds. The airplane would revolutionize trade and travel in the United States and the world over the next few decades.
The Supreme Court and Labor
Upset workers had succeeded in lobbying Congress to pass legislation that improved work conditions. However, the Supreme Court of the United States somewhat limited the range of these acts. In Holden v. Hardy (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that miners' hours must be short because long hours made the job too dangerous. However, in Lochner v. New York laws ruled that bakery workers did not have a job dangerous enough to put restrictions on the free sale of labor. Putting aside this decision, in 1908, the decision in Muller v. Oregon said that women's health must be protected "to preserve the strength and vigor of the race." This did, clearly, protect women's health, but it also locked them into menial jobs.
World War I and the Treaty of Versailles (1914 - 1920)
World War I and the Treaty of Versailles (1914 - 1920)
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Europe
In 1815, the powers of Europe united to defeat French Emperor Napoleon. For a century since that time, there had been no major war in Europe, but countries organized themselves in a complex system of alliances.
After Napoleon's defeat, the European powers - the United Kingdom, France, Prussia, Russia, and Austria - met in Vienna. The nations decided that if power in Europe was balanced, then no nation would become so powerful as to pose a threat to the others. The most important of these was the German Confederation. In 1871, after defeating France and Prussia, several small German nations merged into [w:German Empire | the German Empire]] upsetting the traditional balance of power.
German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck began to construct a complex web of alliances to protect German dominance. Germany and the United Kingdom were on good terms since Germany did not rival British sea power by building up a navy. In 1873, Russia, the w:Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Germany entered the Three Emperors' League. Nine years later, Austria-Hungary, w:Italy, and Germany formed the [w:Triple Alliance (1882) | Triple Alliance]]. In 1887, the Reinsurance Treaty ensured that Russia would not interfere in a war between France and Germany.
In 1890, Bismarck was fired by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who then began to undo almost all of Bismarck's policies. He decided to build up a German navy, leading to animosity with the United Kingdom. He did not renew German agreements with Russia. This, in 1894, led Russia to form a new alliance with Germany's rival France.
In 1904, France and the United Kingdom decided to bury the hatchet. They ended centuries of bitter enmity and signed the Entente Cordiale. Three years later, those two nations and Russia entered the Triple Entente. The Triple Entente began to build up its army, as did Germany and Austria-Hungary.
War Breaks Out
War was triggered by the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
Austria-Hungary was a patchwork of several nations ruled by the Habsburg family. Several ethnic groups resented rule by the Habsburgs. In June, 1914, the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, traveled to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A Serb nationalist named Gavrilo Princip, who had a profound distaste for rule by the Habsburgs, assassinated the Archduke and his wife.
The Austro-Hungarian government decided to use the opportunity to crush Serbian nationalism. They threatened the Serbian government with war. But Russia came to the aid of the Serbs, leading Austria-Hungary to call on Germany for aid. The same was agreed to by Emperor Wilhelm II; Germany handed Austria-Hungary a "blank check," that is, it agreed to give Austria-Hungary whatever it needed to win the war.
In July, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany began to mobilize their troops. The conflict in Austria-Hungary quickly began to spread over Europe. In August, Germany declared war on France. The Germans demanded that Belgium allow German troops to pass through the neutral nation. When King Albert of Belgium refused, Germany violated Belgian neutrality and invaded. Belgium appealed to the United Kingdom for aid; the British House of Commons threatened that the UK would wage war against Germany unless it withdrew from Belgium. The Germans refused, and the UK joined the battle. The Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary, were pitted against the Allies, the United Kingdom, Russia, and France.
The Early Stages
German troops entered Belgium on August 4. By August 16, they had begun to enter France. The French Army met the Germans near the French border with Belgium. France lost tens of thousands of men in less than a week, causing the French Army to retreat to Paris. The Germans penetrated deep into France, attempting to win a quick victory.
The Allies won a key battle at Marne, repelling the German offensive. The Germans lost especially due to a disorganized supply line and a weak communications network. The French Army, however, had not completely defeated the Germans. Both sides continually fought each other, to no avail. On the Western Front, Germany and France would continue to fight for more than three years without any decisive victories for either side.
Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, Germany faced Russia. In the third week of August, Russian troops entered the eastern part of Germany. Germany was at a severe disadvantage because it had to fight on two different fronts, splitting its troops. However, despite Germany's disadvantage, no decisive action occurred for three years.
The United Kingdom used its powerful Royal Navy in the war against Germany. British ships set up naval blockades. The Germans, however, countered with submarines called U-boats. U-boats sank several ships, but could not, during the early stages of the war, seriously challenge the mighty Royal Navy.
The war spread to Asia when Japan declared war on Germany in August, 1914. The Japanese sought control of German colonies in the Pacific. Germany already faced a two-front war, and could not afford to defend its Pacific possessions.
In October, 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered, allying itself with the Central Powers. The entry of the Ottoman Empire was disastrous to the Allies. The Ottoman Empire controlled the Dardanelles strait, which provided a route between Russia and the Mediterranean. The Ottoman sultan declared holy war- jihad- against the Allies. Muslims in the British Empire and French Empire were thus encouraged to rebel against their Christian rulers. However, the Allies' concerns were premature. Few Muslims accepted the sultan's proclamation. In fact, some Muslims in the Ottoman Empire supported the Allies so that the Ottoman Empire could be broken up, and the nations they ruled could gain independence.
The Middle Stages
Between 1914 and 1917, the war was characterized by millions of deaths leading nowhere. Neither side could gain a decisive advantage on either front.
In 1915, the Germans began to realize the full potential of Submarines. German Submarines engaged in official unrestricted warfare, engaging and sinking any ship found within the war zone regardless of the flag flown. Germany's justification for this use of force was that there was no certain method to ascertain the ultimate destination of the passengers and cargo carried by the ships in the war zone, and thus they were all taken as attempts at maintaining the anti-German blockade.
The final straw in this unrestricted warfare for the United States of America was the sinking of the Cunard Line passenger ship RMS Lusitania, which operated under the flag of Great Britain. The ship carried over one hundred Americans, and the incident strained relations between the US and Germany.
In May, 1915, Italy broke the Triple Alliance by becoming an Allied Power. In October, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers. Each side had induced their new partners to join by offering territorial concessions. Italy prevented Austria-Hungary from concentrating its efforts on Russia, while Bulgaria prevented Russia from having connections with other Allied Powers.
In May, 1916, one of the most significant naval battles in World War I occurred. The Royal Navy faced a German fleet during the Battle of Jutland. The Battle proved that the Allied naval force was still superior to that possessed by the Central Powers. The Germans grew even more dependent on U-boats in naval battle.
In August, 1916, Romania joined the Allies. Romania invaded Transylvania, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But when the Central Powers struck back, they took control of important Romanian wheat fields.
The United States Declares War
Until 1917, the United States had stayed neutral. They adopted the policy of isolationism because they felt that the events in Europe had no impact on North America. American opinions began to change after the sinking of the Lusitania, An Irish ship carrying primarily civilians. However, the US was calmed by the Germans, who agreed to limit submarine warfare. In 1917, the Germans reinstated unrestricted submarine warfare in order to cripple the British economy by destroying merchant ships, and break the sea blockade of Britain. President Woodrow Wilson responded to the German threat by asking Congress to declare war. Congress complied on April 6, 1917.
The US had to mobilize its military before it could aid the Allies by sending troops. However, the US did help the Allies with monetary assistance. Increased taxes and the sale of bonds allowed the US to raise enormous sums of money.
Revolution in Russia
The two factions of the Party, and there was much bloodshed. Eventually Lenin won, and he was made head of the country, which came to be called the Union of the Soviets or the Soviet Union. Lenin was Head of Party and Leon Trotsky was named Commissar of War. Lenin's representatives signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers in the spring of 1918. Russia ended its participation in the war. It also lost Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic States to Germany. The Germans were then free to concentrate their troops on the Western Front.
Lenin tried later to make other rebellions but was unsuccessful. He said that he fought to "pull the Bearded Man (God) out of the Sky." Lenin's slogans were "Brotherhood and Freedom" and "Rebellion to Authority." The later is popularly called NIN and in the United States is a common gang sign.
Trotsky is known for his policy of permanent revolution and for being assassinated in Mexico in 1940 by Stalinists as part of the Great Purge.
The End of the War
Despite the fact that the Germans could concentrate their efforts in one area, the Central Powers faced grim prospects in 1918. Encouraged by the United States joining the war, several nations joined the Allied Powers. The four Central Powers of Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria faced the combined might of the Allied Powers of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, France, Belgium, Japan, Serbia, Montenegro, San Marino, Italy, Portugal, Romania, the United States, Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Costa Rica, Brazil, Liberia, Siam (Thailand) and China (some of the above nations did not support the war with troops, but did contribute monetarily.) The Germans launched a final, desperate attack on France, but it failed miserably. Due to Allied counterattacks, the Central Powers slowly began to capitulate.
Bulgaria was the first to collapse. A combined force of Italians, Serbs, Greeks, Britons, and Frenchmen attacked Bulgaria through Albania in September, 1918. By the end of September, Bulgaria surrendered, withdrawing its troops from Serbia and Greece, and even allowing the Allies to use Bulgaria in military operations.
British forces, led by T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), together with nationalist Arabs, were successful in the Ottoman Empire. About a month after Bulgaria's surrender, the Ottoman Empire surrendered, permitting Allies to use the Ottoman territory, including the Dardanelles Strait, in military operations.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire also decided to surrender in October. The royal family, the Habsburgs, and the Austro-Hungarian government desperately sought to keep the Empire of diverse nationalities united. Though Austria-Hungary surrendered, it failed to unite its peoples. The once-powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire was destroyed by the end of October, splitting into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
Germany, remaining all alone, also decided to surrender. President Wilson required that Germany accede to the terms of the Fourteen Points, which, among other things, required Germany to return territory acquired by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to Russia and the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to France. Germany found the terms too harsh, while the Allies found them too lenient. But when German Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated the throne, the new German government quickly agreed to Wilson's demands. On November 11, 1918, World War I had come to an end.
Treaty of Versailles
In 1919, the chief Allied Powers of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, and Japan met with the Central Powers in France to discuss a peace settlement. Each of the Allied Powers had distinct interests during the talks. The UK wanted to keep the Royal Navy supreme by dismantling the German Navy, and also wished to end Germany's colonial empire, which might have proved to be a threat to the vast British Empire. Italy wanted the Allies to fulfill the promise of territory given to them at the beginning of the war. France wanted Germany to compensate them for the damage caused to France during the War. Japan had already accomplished its interests by taking over German Pacific colonies. President Wilson's main goal for the conference was the creation of the League of Nations; he felt such an organization would be the only way to prevent future wars. Many historians believe that his concentration on the league, forcing him to sacrifice possible kindnesses to Germany, would lead to WWII.
The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to cede Alsace and Lorraine to France, dismantle its Army and Navy, give up its colonial Empire, pay massive reparations to the Allies, and take full responsibility for causing the war. The conference also led to the creation of the League of Nations. The US Senate, however, did not consent to the Treaty, and the European powers were left to enforce its provisions themselves. This eventually led to violations of the treaty by Germany, which then led to the Second World War. The treaty crippled Weimar Germany and led to great bitterness in Germany. This bitterness eventually led to the rise of fascism and Adolf Hitler.
The Roaring Twenties and Prohibition (1920 - 1929)
The Roaring Twenties and Prohibition (1920 - 1929)
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Automobile
In the 1920s, the United States automobile industry began an extraordinary period of growth. Henry Ford increased the use of the assembly line in manufacturing, thus reducing the time taken to manufacture each product. Also, assembly lines reduced the costs of manufacturing. Average citizens were able to purchase cars, unlike earlier.
Due to this increase in the production of cars, industries that produced products utilized in cars also grew; petroleum, steel, and glass companies earned more profits. Also, the states began to build roads and highways in rural areas. Gasoline stations were put up, further increasing the growth of the petroleum industry. In addition, automobile dealers introduced the installment plan, that idea spread to other parts of business. Thus, the automobile industry's growth had repercussions throughout the nation.
Radio
Radio broadcasting became feasible with the increasing electrification of the United States and the development of better circuitry. The first broadcasting station in the world was KDKA, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1920; other stations started in every state, and in 1924, the first U.S. radio network, the National Broadcasting Company, began operations between New York and Boston. In 1927, the Columbia Broadcasting System began to broadcast.
Movies
The U.S. movie industry began to locate in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the 1920s, and movies also grew into a popular recreation. Movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin became iconic images around the world.
The development of the automobile, radio, and the movies changed the popular culture of the United States. Programs such as Amos 'n' Andy affected the nation's habits; people stopped what they were doing twice a week to listen to the program. In the case of movies such as The Birth of a Nation, a fictionalized account of the founding of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan membership grew as a result.
Prohibition
In 1851, the state of Maine passed a law banning the production and sale of intoxicating liquors. Twelve more states followed by 1855. During the Civil War, however, the movement to prohibit alcohol was stalled. Saloons, which focused on the sale of alcohol, sprang up across the country. However, many viewed saloons as immoral; by 1916, almost half the states had banned saloons. The election of that year focused on Prohibition (the banning of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors.)
The Congress that assembled in 1917 overwhelmingly passed the Eighteenth Amendment, which enacted Prohibition. By 1919, the requisite number of states had ratified the Amendment. The Amendment actually came into effect, under its own terms, one year after ratification. On January 16, 1920, the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, came into effect which banned drinks with alcohol content above 3.2%.
Although total alcohol consumption halved, many people blatantly disregarded Prohibition. Bootleggers illegally manufactured and sold liquors at unlawful saloons called speakeasies. Gangs prospered due to profits from illegal alcohol. Some felt that Prohibition was too harsh and that it made a criminal out of the average American. Nonetheless, Prohibition remained law until 1933, when the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.
Women and Equal Rights
Before the Nineteenth Amendment, most states only granted men the right to vote. Suffragettes - those who campaigned for a woman's right to vote - were successful in 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. Encouraged women campaigned for women's rights. Several women's organizations requested an Amendment that guaranteed Equal Rights. (Congress actually proposed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, but it expired under its own terms in 1982 since three-fourths of the states had not ratified it.) However, after gaining suffrage, women lost most battles for equality.
Women's Suffrage in the United States in 1919, before the Nineteenth Amendment
African-Americans and the Ku Klux Klan
Southern states segregated public facilities (like buses). In half the South fewer than 10% of the blacks were allowed to vote.
The Ku Klux Klan flourished 1921-26 with a membership of millions of Protestants. Klansmen argued for a purified nation and denounced African-Americans, Catholics, and Jews, as well as bootleggers and adulterers.
The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929 - 1939)
The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929 - 1939)
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The Stock Market Crash
The US stock market crashed occured in October of 1929. The value of commen stock and shares were cut by 40%, resulting in a global depression.
Payment plans for merchandise were usually only short term payment plans. This was put in place so that consumer debt services could absorb a greater part of the consumers income. This resulted in debt being diminished more quickly and effectively. The only negative effect of this was that it did not allow for excess puchasing capacity, which could have absorbed the surplus production more effectively.
Furthermore, the general credit structure served to weaken the economy. Farm prices were plummeting, but farmers were already in deep debt, and crop prices were too low to allow them to pay off what they already owed. Banks suffered failure as the farmers defaulted on loans. Some of the nation's largest banks were failing to maintain adequate reserves and making unwise business decisions. Essentially, the banking system was completely unprepared to combat an economic crash.
Credit also related to the stock market. Investors bought shares "on margin" while at the same time taking out a loan to pay for those shares. The investors hoped that by the time the shares were sold, they would make enough money to pay back the loan and interest, and also have some profit remaining for themselves. The practice of buying on margin led to an extremely unstable stock market. Investors' uncontrolled purchases on margin eventually led to a collapse of the stock market on October 24, 1929, also known as Black Thursday.
International influences also caused the Great Depression. Nations adopted the practice of Protectionism, under which foreign goods were subject to tariffs, or import duties, so that foreign products would cost more and local products would cost less. The reduced cost of local goods would then boost the local economy at the expense of foreign competitors. The United States enacted extremely high tariffs. However, other nations retaliated against the United States by establishing their own tariffs. Thus, American businesses lost several foreign markets.
International credit structure was another cause of the Depression. At the end of World War I, European nations owed enormous sums of money to American banks. However, these debts were rarely repaid. The smaller American banks were crippled because farmers could not pay debts, while larger banks suffered because other nations could not pay debts.
The problems of overproduction, underconsumption, inability to collect debt, and the stock market crash together had a devastating affect on the economy. The Great Depression, the largest collapse of the economy in modern history, had drastic impacts on Americans.
Depression
The Great Depression was a severe economic downfall for the United States. By 1932, unemployment had surged to twenty-five percent, while stock prices plummeted by over eighty percent. Over eighty-five thousand businesses had declared bankruptcy. Banks could not collect debt from bankrupt businesses and began to close, causing the loss of the savings of millions of Americans. This led President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to create the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which provides a hedge againts this sort of loss.What is more important is that the farmers living in the Southcentral cities of the United States suffered almost all the kind of hardships since the first day the depression came into life. They traveled to the West, especially to California, and hope to find better opportunities in life.
In 1930, a confluence of bad weather and poor agricultural practices known as the Dust Bowl compounded the Depression's effects on farmers. Sustained drought and continued planting and harvesting over poor seasons led to the destruction of ground cover that held soil in place, hence Dust Bowl. This, along with other economic factors, reduced farm revenue by 50 percent. Many farmers were forced to move to the cities in order to survive.
The New Deal
The most important thing that Roosevelt did was to take action. The stock market crash and subsequent economic collapse had, by 1932, left America in a state of deep fear. Jobs were gone, businesses had failed and many banks were proving unsound. Familes were not only losing their source of income but their life savings as well. Americans were feeling helpless in the face of this turmoil. People were desperate for a leader that would demonstrate some idea of what to do to begin to turn things around.
With this as a backdrop, strong social changes were beginning to take place in this country. While mostly confined to rhetoric, these ranged from grassroots actions by farmers facing foreclosure to sophisticated agitation by Nazi, Socialist and Communist activists. As Roosevelt remarked to John Nance Garner, his Vice President, as they rode to the inauguration in January 1933 "I had better be a good president or I will be the last one".
After he took office,in a program called "the Hundred Days" ,Roosevelt immediately began to take steps against the Great Depression. He had campaigned with a platform offering a Media:New Deal to Americans. The nation did not have to wait long to see what FDR had in mind. On March 6, two days after taking office as President, he issued an order closing all American banks for four days. Throughout his Presidency he would show himself a master of the use of language. Instead of calling it an "emergency bank closure," Roosevelt used the euphemism of "bank holiday." He then summoned Congress for a special session.
When Congress met, Roosevelt suggested the Emergency Banking Bill, which was designed to protect large banks from being dragged down by the failing small banks. On the day after the passage of the Emergency Banking Act, Roosevelt sent to Congress the Economy Bill. The act proposed to balance the federal budget by cutting the salaries of government employees and reducing pensions to veterans by as much as 15 percent.
Roosevelt warned that the nation would face a $1 billion deficit if the bill would fail. Like the Emergency Banking Act, it passed through Congress almost instantaneously.
To protect American farmers, Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)in May, 1933. Farm incomes, relative to the rest of the economy, had been falling for years. Most importantly, the AAA attempted to increase farm prices. Under the act, producers of seven agricultural products - corn, cotton, dairy products, hogs, rice, tobacco, and wheat - would set production limits on themselves. The AAA required the government to then tell individual farmers how much they should plant. The government rewarded farmers who complied by paying them for leaving some of their land unused. The Act was extremely controversial, however. People argued that it was inappropriate for the government to pay farmers to produce less while many people were forced to starve due to the Depression.
Congress and the President created several new government agencies to combat the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration provided employment for many Americans; they hired people to work on roads, buildings, and dams. The Tennessee Valley Authority accomplished similar goals; it sought to build an infrastructure in the Southeast to provide electricity to rural areas. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation provided insurance for bank deposits. The Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, provided for the regulation of the stock market in an attempt to prevent another crash like that in October, 1929.
In June, 1933, Congress addressed the problems of the industrial sector with the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). The NIRA established the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which attempted to stabilize prices and wages though cooperative "code authorities" involving government, business, and labor unions.
The NRA adopted a blanket code under which the businesses would agree to a minimum wage of twenty to forty cents per hour, a workweek of thirty-five to forty hours, and the abolition of child labor. Companies that voluntarily complied with the code were allowed to display the NRA "Blue Eagle". Blue Eagle flags, posters, and stickers, with the slogan "We Do Our Part," became common across the country. In addition to blanket codes, codes specific to certain industries were also adopted.
NRA Blue Eagle
In 1935, the Congress passed the Social Security Act. The Act provided for the creation of the Social Security System, under which the unemployed and the unemployable (such as senior citizens) recieved welfare payments from the government. The Act also granted money to the states for use in their own welfare programs.
The efforts of the Democratic President and Congress were opposed by a conservative Supreme Court. In 1933, the Court had ruled in favor of some state New Deal programs. However, by 1935, the Court had begun to rule against the New Deal. For example, the Court ruled in a case nicknamed the Sick Chicken Case that the National Industrial Recovery Act Code relating to the sale of "unfit" poultry, as well as all other codes under the act, were unconstitutional. In 1936, the Court ruled that the Agricultural Adjustment Act was also unconstitutional.
Criticism of Roosevelt
FDR had many critics. Some considered him to be too Socialist and an enemy of Capitalism and the American way of life, while others considered him to be too conservative.
Roosevelt's Reelection
In 1936, Roosevelt won reelection in a landslide, losing only the states of Maine and Vermont. Roosevelt and Congress proceeded by passing more New Deal legislation. This time, the Supreme Court did not oppose Roosevelt. The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act, for example, replaced the first Act. The Fair Labor Standards Act set minimum wages for workers in interstate industries. The Wagner Housing Act provided for the construction of homes for the poor.
Despite such programs, the New Deal did not end the Great Depression by itself. That task was accomplished by the Second World War, which led to the growth of jobs in industries related to war, which then led to the growth of the overall economy. However, the New Deal did provide much-needed relief to suffering Americans.
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
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Overview
The Spanish Civil War (July 18, 1936–April 1, 1939) was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and political left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist insurrection led by General Francisco Franco, who eventually succeeded in ousting the Republican government and establishing a personal dictatorship. It was the result of the complex political, economic and even cultural divisions between what Spanish writer Antonio Machado characterized as the two Spains. The Republicans ranged from centrists who supported capitalist liberal democracy to communists or anarchist revolutionaries; their power base was primarily secular and urban (though it also included landless peasants) and was particularly strong in industrial regions like Asturias and Catalonia. The conservative Basque Country also sided with the Republic, largely because it, along with nearby Cataluña sought autonomy from the central government which would later be suppressed by the centralizing nationalists. The ultimately successful Nationalists had a primarily rural, wealthier, and more conservative base of support, were mostly Roman Catholic, and favoured the centralization of power. Some of the military tactics of the war -- including the use of terror tactics against civilians -- foreshadowed World War II, although both the nationalists and the republicans relied overwhelmingly on infantry rather than modern use of blitzkrieg tactics with tanks and airplanes.
Abraham Lincoln Brigade
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was an organization of United States volunteers supporting or fighting for the anti-fascist Spanish Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War as part of the International Brigade.
The name "brigade" is something of a misnomer, as there were several American battalions organized under the Fifteenth International Brigade of the Spanish Republican army. This brigade was loosely organized by the Comintern and was made up of volunteers from nations around the globe. The George Washington Battalion, Abraham Lincoln Battalion, John Brown Anti-Aircraft Battery were part of the American contingent. Other U.S. volunteers served with the MacKenzie-Papineau battalion (Canadian), the Regiment de Tren (transport) and in various medical groups. The name Abraham Lincoln Brigade was used to include all the U.S. volunteers, regardless of which unit they served with.
Most of the people making up the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were official members of the Communist Party USA or affiliated with other socialist organizations. The IWW, or "Wobblies", were lightly represented. However, the brigade was made up of volunteers from all walks of American life, and from all socio-economic classes. It was the first unit of soldiers made up of Americans to have an African-American officer, Oliver Law, lead white soldiers.
American volunteers began organizing and arriving in Spain in 1936. Centered in the town of Figueras, near the French border, the brigade was organized in 1937 and trained by Robert Merriman. By early 1937, its numbers had swelled from an initial 96 volunteers to around 450 members. In February 1937 the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee banned foreign national volunteers.
The International Brigade was used by the Loyalist army for several battles in Spain. They unsuccessfully defended the supply road between Valencia and Madrid in the Jarama Valley from February 1937 until June 1937. They were also present at the battles of Brunete, Zaragoza, Belchite, and Teruel.
The Brigade was a cause celebre in the United States, however. Liberal and socialist groups organized fund-raising activities and supply drives to keep the Brigade afloat. News of the Brigade's high casualty rate and bravery in battle made them romantic figures to an America concerned about the rise of Fascism around the world.
The war dragged on and the Fascist forces gained victory after victory over the Spanish Republic. The International Brigade was withdrawn from battle by the Spanish prime minister in spring of 1938. Most of the surviving Lincolns were repatriated promptly afterwards, and were welcomed home as heroes.
In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, members of the Brigade were castigated as supporters of the Soviet Union. Following World War II, at the height of the "Red Scare", former members of the Brigade were considered security risks, and branded "premature anti-fascists".
The US volunteers of the International Brigades adopted the song "Jarama Valley" as their anthem, which was the older song "Red River Valley" with new lyrics. The song was also translated into Catalan.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway wrote a novel after the Spanish American War, a historic fiction, titled For Whom the Bell Tolls. He borrowed the title from a line of a John Donne poem. The novel tells the story of Robert Jordan, a guerrilla warrior from the United States, during the Spanish Civil War. As an expert in the use of explosives, Jordan is given an assignment to blow up a bridge to accompany a simultaneous attack on the city of Segovia. Though successful in that sense, like most Hemingway novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls is tragic.
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (Malaga-October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor. One of the most recognized figures in 20th century art, he is best known as the co-founder, along with Georges Braque, of cubism.
Picasso's work is often categorized into "periods". While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are:
- Blue Period (1901–1904), consisting of somber, blue-tinted paintings influenced by a trip through Spain and the recent death of a friend, often featuring depictions of acrobats, harlequins, prostitutes, beggars and artists.
- Rose Period (1905–1907), characterized by a more cheery style with orange and pink colors, and again featuring many harlequins. He met Fernande Olivier, a model for sculptors and artists, in Paris at this time, and many of these paintings are influenced by his warm relationship with her, in addition to his exposure to French painting.
- African-influenced Period (1908–1909), influenced by the two figures on the right in his painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which were themselves inspired by African artifacts.
- Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), a style of painting he developed along with Braque using monochrome brownish colours, where they took apart objects and "analyzed" them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque's paintings at this time are very similar to each other.
- Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), involving the use of collage and cut paper, the first time collage had been used in fine art.
World War II and the Rise of the Atomic Age (1939 - 1945)
World War II and the Rise of the Atomic Age (1939 - 1945)
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Protocols of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russian: "Протоколы сионских мудрецов", or "Сионские протоколы", see also other titles) is an antisemitic and anti-Zionist plagiarism and literary forgery first published in 1903 in Russian, in Znamya; it alleges a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination.
"The Protocols" (the most brief title by which the text is known) is an early example of contemporary conspiracy theory literature,[1] and takes the form of a speech describing how to dominate the world, the need to control the media, finance, replace traditional social order, etc. It is one of the best known and discussed examples of literary forgery, and a hoax.
The text was popularized by those opposed to Russian revolutionary movement, and was disseminated further after the revolution of 1905, becoming known worldwide after the 1917 October Revolution. It was widely circulated in the West in 1920 and thereafter. The Great Depression and the rise of Nazism were important developments in the history of the Protocols, and the hoax continued to be published and circulated despite its debunking.
Hitler mentioned in his book Mein Kamph that the book was up to date, indicating that he saw it as justification for his deeds against the Jews.
German Aggression
In 1933, former German chancellor Paul von Hindenberg handed over power to Adolf Hitler who disbanded the Weimar Republic and then began the rise of the "Third Reich", which was also known as "Großdeutsches Reich". Hitler's plan was to exterminate people of the Jewish religion because he believed that they were responsible for the harsh defeat of Germany during World War I.
Following World War I, Germany suffered many difficult problems resulting from their defeat in World War I. They were damaged economically and morally. The only "reasonable" explanation in Hitler's mind was that the Jews were to blame for all of the problems.
Hitler contended that Germans belonged to a race superior to other races, thus, in the minds of many German people, justifying the extermination of Jews ( the "Holocaust" or "Shoah"), and the elimination of homosexuals, the mentally ill, and other "undesirable" elements of German society. Hitler also used this opinion regarding German superiority, as well as the viewpoint that Germans were unfairly treated after World War I, to justify the attempt to terminate the Treaty of Versailles.
Hitler began a buildup of the German military. In 1936, he tested German might by supporting a rebellion in Spain. Then, Hitler and Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Dictator of Italy, as well as Japan, began to create a coalition between their three countries. The coalition later came to be known as the Axis.
In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria. Other nations were reluctant to interfere because of Hitler's claim that the relation between Germany and Austria was an internal German concern that had little or nothing to do with the rest of Europe. Then, Hitler took control of a part of Czechoslovakia. This time, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did interfere, signing an agreement with Hitler that ensured that Germany would keep any territory already conquered, but would not attempt to take any further Czechoslovakian territory. The policy which sought to prevent another World War at almost any cost, including the cost of allowing the tyrant Hitler to gain more power, was known as appeasement.
Hitler had no intention of keeping his agreement. In 1939, he took over the remainder of Czechoslovakia and turned his sights to Poland, demanding the Polish Corridor. France and the United Kingdom agreed to come to Poland's aid, but Germany signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact, which ensured the neutrality of the Soviet Union (formerly Russia).
The Beginning of the War
On the first day of September in 1939, Germany declared war on Poland; the British and French responded by declaring war on Germany two days later.
The Germans used the tactic of blitzkrieg (lightning war) in Poland, defeating the Polish Army at lightning speed. By the end of the first week of October, the Germans had gained control of half of Poland. The British and French had done little to aid Poland, fearing a repeat of the First World War.
In the spring of 1940, Hitler continued his attempt to create a German Empire by attacking the nations of Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrendered, but British and French troops did, originally at least, come to Norway's aid.
Meanwhile, Hitler planned to take control of France and other nations. Germany entered Belgium and the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. The Netherlands surrendered on May 14; Belgium did so on May 27. The next day, France recalled its troops from Norway, leaving that nation to Germany.
On June 5, the Germans began their attack on France. The French government, meanwhile was taken over by a new Premier, who signed an armistice with Germany on June 17. Germany gained control of the northern part of France, and the Vichy French Government (so called because of the new French capital at Vichy) retained the south.
Hitler's Germany was the supreme power on Continental Europe. Only the United Kingdom offered resistance. The Germans intended to invade the United Kingdom, but they first had to contend with the British Royal Air Force. The German Luftwaffe (Air Force) commenced the Battle of Britain in 1940. However, the British used the new technology of radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) to combat the Germans. In September, 1940, the Germans ended the Battle of Britain by indefinitely delaying all plans for invasion. Nonetheless, German airplanes continued to bomb several British cities until the middle of the next year.
Hitler expanded the Axis in the winter of 1940-1941 with the additions of Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. In April, 1941, Germany then attacked Yugoslavia, which surrendered within one week of invasion. Then, Hitler turned to Greece, which the Germans took by the end of April. By the end of 1942, most of Europe was under control of the Nazis or their allies. Meanwhile, the Japanese gained control of Indochina (Southeast Asia), which had formerly belonged to Vichy France. The United States retaliated by attempting to prevent Japanese purchases of oil and steel. Tensions between Japan and the United States began to grow.
In early 1941, the United States abandoned its neutrality and began to aid the British. The Lend-Lease Act, for example, allowed the President to lend or lease weapons worth over seven billion dollars to other nations. The first two years of the war overseas saw the American public broadly divided on the issue of potential involvement. Though the danger posed by Germany and Japan was generally recognized, millions of Americans felt that a strong, armed neutrality and oceanic defense without entering the war was the safest course. President Roosevelt, on the other hand, made it quite clear to those around him that he felt the United States would have to intervene on the Allied side, and planned and acted accordingly, initiating a war industrial buildup and proposing that the US become the "arsenal of democracy."
America Declares War / War in Russia
During the summer of 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. The German strategy was to attempt to take Moscow. The Russians responded by sacrificing hundreds of thousands of soldiers to defend that important city. Originally, Germany predicted a quick victory. The Americans were very reluctant to start any conflict with Germany. Even in the fall of 1941, when shooting took place in the Atlantic between German U-boats and US ships, Roosevelt avoided escalation. Soon however, momentous events in the Pacific changed the course of the war.
The Empire of Japan was active in the Pacific. In order to secure resources and sea lanes for the Japanese islands, they intended to neutralize the American Pacific Fleet, which had been stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Air Force bombed the large American naval base, destroying or severely damaging over twenty battleships and cruisers. Fortunately for the US Navy, its aircraft carriers were at sea and survived the attack. The next day, the United States Congress declared war on Japan, prompting Germany and Italy to in turn declare war on the United States.
Japan continued with its Pacific operations by taking the American territories of the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island, the British territories of Burma, Singapore, Malaya, Borneo, and the Dutch territory of the East Indies. An emboldened Japanese navy then committed a blunder by attacking Midway Island. American carrier-based planes defeated the Japanese ships at Midway Island so badly that Japan's navy never recovered from the battle.
In February 1942, the War Relocation Authority began to establish centers where Japanese-Americans, including those born in the United States, were interned. Though this was clearly racial discrimination that violated constitutional due process requirements, the Supreme Court ruled that such internment was lawful in 1944, when it decided Korematsu v. United States.
In 1943, the President of the United States for an unprecedented third term, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill held a Conference at Casablanca. The two nations then set up a plan of action for the next stages of the war. Meanwhile, the Russians continued to hold back the Germans, inflicting a crucial and massive defeat on Hitler's armies at the battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43. After a further major Russian victory at Kursk the following summer, the Germans were forced into retreat back toward Europe. British and American troops invaded Sicily the same month, thus giving the Russians additional relief.
In Italy, the Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in July, 1943. By September, the Italian government signed an armistice with the Allies, ending their participation in the war. The fall of Italy signaled the beginning of the end of World War II. However, Mussolini was rescued by the Germans and had established an Italian Social Republic. He was captured by Italian partisan resistance fighters and was executed in 1945.
Operation Overlord
In November, 1943, Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt held another Conference at Tehran. Joseph Stalin, who held the title of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, but was actually a Dictator of the Soviet Union, joined them there. The three leaders agreed to a plan codenamed Operation Overlord, under which an attack would be launched on the northern coast of France from the English Channel. In preparation for an invasion of France, Hitler cut off all support for the German armies remaining in the Soviet Union. Thus disabled, the German Army was forced to withdraw from Russia in the winter of 1943-1944.
On June 6, 1944 ("D-Day,") American and British soldiers landed at Normandy on the north coast of France. The troops landed near Caen, but Hitler wrongly felt that they would attack at a location to the north of that city. The Allies took advantage of Hitler's miscalculation; by the end of the month, the Allies had over eight hundered thousand soldiers in Normandy.
Meanwhile, Russian troops, which had been on the defensive, began their offensive on German-controlled territories. In the middle of July, the Soviets won their first major victory by taking the territory of Belorussia. At this time, concern began to grow in the West about Soviet domination replacing German in eastern Europe, especially in Poland. Despite these worries, Roosevelt felt that he had little influence in that area over Stalin, whose armies were bearing a huge brunt of the fight.
By the end of July, the Allies expanded their base at Normandy by breaking out into the rest of France. Pushing through the nation, the Allies had gone far enough to liberate the city of Paris on August 25. On September 11, some Allied troops entered Germany, taking Antwerp, Belgium on the way. German resistance then hardened, however, and the British and American armies would make little more progress for the rest of 1944.
Meanwhile, Russian troops pushed toward Germany, defeating Germany's Axis partners on the way. In August, Romania surrendered, followed by Bulgaria and Finland in September.
Yalta and German Surrender
Allied air bombing of German industries and cities had been ongoing and savage since 1943, but did not have the intended effect of crushing the German will to fight. Indeed, Hitler was able to field new advanced weapons in 1943-45, such as the world's first jet fighter aircraft, the V-1 flying bomb, the V-2 ballistic missile, and new types of tanks and submarines. The new weapons, however, proved of little use against Allied numbers and economic superiority, with American industral production for the war effort massive and untouched by Axis attack. Germany forced millions of prisoners into slave labor, under the most brutal conditions, to keep its own war effort going.
The Allied advance into Germany was delayed in January, 1945, but resumed in February. Meanwhile, the Soviets were on the verge of entering Germany from the east en masse, having taken control of Poland. Hitler's troops were exhausted, millions dead or captured, and with the fall of the Romanian oil fields, German armies were running out of gasoline. A final callup began of old men and boys for a last-ditch defense of Germany. German civilians, terrified of the Russian advance, choked the roads, fleeing westward.
To plan for the end of the war, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta in February. The Yalta conference suggested the division of Germany into "zones" after the war for the purpose of reconstruction. Also, the leaders decided to punish Nazis who had participated in war crimes such as the Holocaust. The Allies first attempted to reach the Rhine River in their quest to take over Germany. In March, this goal accomplished, the Americans and British opposed the Soviets in the Race for Berlin. The Race determined who would control Berlin, a city that would prove important in the reconstruction of Germany.
The Americans allowed the Soviets to win the Race for Berlin. Fierce fighting erupted in and around the city as motley German units made their last stand against the powerful army groups of Russian marshals Zhukov and Koniev. His capital surrounded and his loyal minions deserting him, Adolf Hitler killed himself in his Berlin command bunker on April 30, 1945. American President Franklin Roosevelt had died just days earlier. The new leader of Germany, Karl Doenitz, agreed to surrender. On May 8, Germany formally signed an unconditional surrender, dissolving the Axis and leaving only Japan to be defeated.
The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II
Meanwhile, the United States dramatically improved its position in the Pacific. The Japanese continued to fight though it was in a hopeless situation. The suicidal Japanese spirit was exemplified by kamikaze, the practice of Japanese pilots who intentionally drove their own planes into American ships.
Presuming that the likelihood of a Japanese surrender was extremely low, President Harry Truman, the Vice President who rose to the Presidency upon Roosevelt's death, decided to use the atomic bomb. In the 1930's, physicists began to understand the power of the fission, or splitting, of atoms. In 1942, the US secretly created the Manhattan Project to develop a weapon which could utilize the concept of the fission of uranium atoms, which, according to the conclusions of physicists, would create a massive explosion. On July 16, 1945, the atomic bomb was successfuly tested in New Mexico.
The atomic bomb works on the principles of transmutation, accelerated nuclear decay, nuclear chain reaction, and the law of the conservation of mass. Since mass is lost in the accelerated decay of the neuclei, this mass must be accounted for. According to Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, this missing mas is converted into energy, according to the relationship, E=mc2, where E is the rest energy, m is the missing mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum.
On August 6, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan by a B-29 aircraft piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets. On August 9, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Together, the bombs killed over one hundred thousand people (though the Japanese suggested a number twice as high). In between the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, meanwhile, the Soviet Union joined in the war on Japan. On August 14, with the Americans threatening a third atomic bomb on the way for Tokyo (though in reality the United States had no more atomic bombs at the time) Japan agreed to surrender; the formalities were completed on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri.
Links
- http://www.einstein-bern.ch/index.php
- http://www.wise-uranium.org
- http://www.glassencyclopedia.com/uraniumglass.html
- A Dutch Site about Uranium in the Congo
Truman and the Cold War (1945 - 1953)
Truman and the Cold War (1945 - 1952)
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Truman Doctrine
World War II upset the balance of power by reducing the influence of France and the United Kingdom. The United States and the Soviet Union became the World's only remaining superpowers, and their relations were not exactly friendly. The two nations never actually engaged in open military conflict, so the hostilities became known as the Cold War.
The Soviet Union believed that its control of Eastern Europe was vital to its security. As agreed at the Yalta Conference, the World War II Allies divided Germany into four zones, giving one zone each to the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's zone, known as East Germany, was later transformed into a Communist state, after an agreement on a unified Germany could not be reached. The other three zones, West Germany, were joined - at first economically through a currency reform - during the implementation of the Marshall Plan in 1948. The city of Berlin, which was surrounded by East Germany, was divided in two parts between East and West Germany.
In 1947, Greece became the focus of the Cold War. The Greek monarchy had been supported by Great Britain since 1945. Greek Communists threatened to overthrow this regme, which was corrupt and not representative of the people. In order to "shock" the American public into accepting American involvement in order to help other peoples resist the "communist threat" and secure the strategically and economically important Middle East for US influence, President Harry Truman issued the Truman Doctrine. The Doctrine suggested that the US would aid nations threatened by revolutionary forces. Congress agreed and appropriated $400 million for abetting opposition to Communism in Greece and Turkey. By 1949, the Communists in Greece were defeated. In 1952, Greece and Turkey entered the NATO.
Reconstruction of Japan
The atomic bomb allowed the United States to win World War II against Japan before a Soviet invasion. After Japan's surrender in 1945, the United States military was called in to reconstruct Japan. American General Douglas MacArthur headed the Reconstruction effort.
In 1947, a new Constitution for Japan was created. The Constitution entirely changed the role of the Emperor from an active leader to a passive symbol of the nations. The Diet, or legislature, was modeled on the British Parliament. The Constitution granted an enormous number of rights to Japanese citizens. Finally, the Constitution formally denounced all military conflict and prohibited Japan from keeping any armed forces.
The Reconstruction of Japan made other sweeping changes. For example, the Reconstruction introduced labor unions and reduced the influence of monopolistic businesses.
During the Cold War, America was determined to make an ally out of the Empire of Japan. The Reconstruction made an about-face, reversing its policy of reducing the power of large businesses. More regulations regarding the economy were made. In 1951, the US agreed to grant Japan full independence and autonomy. The treaty, however, did permit the US to maintain parts of its military in Japan. The treaty became effective in 1952.
- The Rise of Communism in China *
After Japanese surrender in World War II, two rival parties, the Kuomintang (the Nationalists) and the Communist Party of China (the Communists) fought a Civil War in China. The Nationalists were the party in power; they were opposed by the Communists, who felt that ruling party's focus ought to have been on the people rather than on gaining control of all parts of China.
In 1949, the Communists defeated the Nationalists. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan, while the Chairman of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949. The newly established republic soon allied itself with the Communist Soviet Union. Both nations entered an alliance and the Soviets returned control of parts of northeastern China to the PRC. It was formed by the +44 in london, member mark Hoppus and Travis Barker
The Red Scare and McCarthyism
While Communism was expanding across the World, the United States entered an era of paranoia known as the Red Scare. Suspicion of Communist influence in government was pandemic.
In Congress, the House of Representatives established a Committee on Un-American Activities. The Committee performed actions such as investigating entertainment companies. The entertainment industry, fearful of an investigation, often refused to hire Communist artists or anyone at all ever connected with Communism.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy accused certain government officials of being disloyal Communists. While a communist conspiracy involving State Department employees was eventually uncovered, the word McCarthyism would forever refer to a vindictive persecution of the innocent.
The Red Scare proved costly in American foreign policy. When China fell to Communism, many experts on China and the regions around it were fired. This was a problem when the Korean War (see below) rolled around. It was also a pain in the Vietnam War, as the Vietnam terrain experts had all been accused of being Communist.
Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act in 1950, overriding President Truman's veto. The Act created a public body known as the Subversive Activities Control Board; the Board was charged with monitoring and investigating Communist Activities.
At the local level, some communities banned literature that they feared would encourage Communism. Public servants lost their jobs due to unfounded accusations of disloyalty. Lives were destroyed by the Red Scare. Ironically, the career of Joseph McCarthy was also derailed during the Red Scare; in 1954, the Senate decided to formally censure him for abusing his powers and using unfair tactics in targeting innocent government officials.
The Korean War
After World War II, the US attempted to curb Soviet influence on the Korean Peninsula by occupying southern part of that area. The area occupied by the US became South Korea, while the other part became North Korea. North Korea soon passed into the control of the Communist Party.
In May, 1949, fighting between North and South Korean troops broke out near the border between the two nations. In an attempt to add South Korea to the Communist World, North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union lent their support to North Korea, while the United States did the same to South Korea.
When the United Nations Security Council voted to aid South Korea in stopping North Korean aggression, the United States agreed to send troops to the Korean Peninsula. General Douglas MacArthur was given the command of American troops in Korea.
By the autumn of 1950, North Korean troops were forced out of South Korea. In October, General MacArthur ordered troops to cross into North Korea. In the third week of that month, the US took the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang.
However, just six days after the United Nations forces took Pyongyang, the People's Republic of China sent a quarter million men on a series of counterattacks. In December, Chinese "volunteers" took over Pyongyang and by January 1951 they had taken the South Korean capital, Seoul.
The US intended to do whatever it took to win the Korean War. It even planned on using the atomic bomb. However, President Truman did not trust General MacArthur to follow orders when using the atomic bomb. Therefore, he asked for MacArthur's resignation; MacArthur complied.
In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower became President of the US. Having promised during the election campaign to end the Korean War, he fulfilled this promise by continuing negotiations with the North and South Koreans, Chinese, and the Soviet Union and using "brinkmanship" to reach an agreement acceptable to all coutnries involved except for South Korea, which tried to induce the US to help unite Korea.
"Believe in hope"
The philosophy during this time was to "believe in hope", because it "saved one from doubt, dispair, and the Slave World." This was shown in a radio adaptation of A Miracle on 34th Street, where Kris Kringle emphatically says so. In later times, this attitude came to be associated by some with romanticism. Hope was defined as "A desire of some good, accompanied with an expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable; an expectation of something which is thought to be desirable; confidence; pleasing expectancy."
Eisenhower, Civil Rights, and the Fifties (1953 - 1961)
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Civil Rights Movement under Eisenhower and Desegregation
The first events that would spark off the entire Civil Rights movement happened during the Eisenhower administration. In the south, there were many statewide laws that segregated many public facilities ranging from buses to water fountains. Southern African Americans now felt that their time had come to enjoy American democracy and they fought hard to end southern segregation policies.
Brown v. Board of Education
In 1952, seven year old Linda Brown, of Topeka, Kansas, wasn't permitted to attend a white-only elementary school that was only a few blocks from her house. In order to attend her coloreds-only school, Brown had to cross dangerous railroad tracks and take a bus for many miles. Her family sued the Topeka school board and lost, but appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas came to the Supreme Court in December of 1952. In his arguments, head lawyer for the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, challenged the "Separate But Equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. He argued that schools could be separate, but never equal. On may 17, 1954, the Court gave its opinion. It ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools, and ordered that schools integrate "with all deliberate speed."
Central High Confrontation
Integration would not be easy. Many school districts accepted the order without argument, but some, like the district of Little Rock, Arkansas, did not. On September 4, 1957, nine African-American students, who were known as the Little Rock Nine, tried to enter Central High School to get better educations, but the National Guard blocked them from entering. Eisenhower, determined to enforce federal law, got an injunction for the Arkansas government to remove the national gaurd. He then commanded federal troops to escort the nine students into the school and protect them from the angry white mobs that had been antagonizing the whole situation since day one.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a tired seamstress and secretary of the Montgomery, Alabama, chapter of the NAACP, boarded a city bus with the intention of going home. She sat in the first row of seats in the "colored" section of the segregated bus. At the next stop, whites were among the passengers waiting to board but all seats in the "white" front section of the bus were filled. Drivers had the authority, under local custom and the segregated-seating ordinance, to shift the line dividing the black and white sections to accommodate the racial makeup of the passengers at any given moment. So he ordered the the four blacks sitting in the first row of seats in the "colored" section to stand and move to the rear of the bus so the waiting whites could have those seats. Three of the passengers complied; Mrs. Parks did not. Warned again by the driver, she still refused to move, at which point the driver exited the bus and located a policeman, who came onto the bus, arrested Mrs. Parks, and took her to the city jail. She was booked for violating the segregation ordinance, and was shortly released on bail posted by E. D. Nixon, the leading local civil rights activist. She was scheduled to appear in municipal court on December 5, 1955.
Mistreatment of African Americans on Montgomery's segregated buses was not uncommon, and several other women had been arrested in similar situations in the months preceding Parks's. However, Mrs. Parks was especially well-known and well-respected within the black community, and her arrest particularly angered the African Americans of Montgomery. In protest, community leaders quickly organized a one-day boycott of the buses to coincide with her December 5 court date. An organization, the Montgomery Improvement Association, was also created, and the new minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the 26-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., was selected as the MIA's president. Word of the boycott spread effectively through the city over the weekend of December 3-4, aided by mimeographed flyers prepared the Women's Political Council, by announcements in black churches that Sunday morning, and by an article in the local newspaper about the pending boycott, which had been "leaked" to a reporter by E. D. Nixon.
On the morning of Mrs. Parks's trial, King, Nixon, and other leaders were pleasantly surprised to see that the boycott was almost 100 percent effective among blacks. And since African Americans made up 75% of Montgomery's bus riders, the impact was significant. In city court, Mrs. Parks was convicted and was fined $10. Her attorney, the 24-year-old Fred D. Gray, announced an appeal. That night, more than 5,000 blacks crowded into and around the Holt Street Baptist Church for a "mass meeting" to discuss the situation. For most in the church (and listening outside over loudspeakers), it was their first time to hear the oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr. He asked the crowd if they wanted to continue the boycott indefinitely, and the answer was a resounding yes. For the next 381 days, African Americans boycotted the buses, while the loss of their fares drove the Chicago-owned bus company into deeper and deeper losses. However, segregationist city officials prohibited the bus company from altering its seating policies, and negotiations between black leaders and city officials went nowhere.
With bikes, carpools, and hitchhiking, African Americans were able to minimize the impact of the boycott on their daily lives. Meanwhile, whites in Montgomery responded with continued intransigence and rising anger. Several black churches and the homes of local leaders and ministers, including those of Nixon and King, were bombed, and there were numerous assaults by white thugs on African Americans. Some 88 local black leaders were also arrested for violating an old anti-boycott law.
Faced with the lack of success of negotiations, attorney Gray soon filed a separate lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the segregated seating laws. The case was assigned to and testimony was heard by a three-judge panel, and the young Frank M. Johnson, Jr., newly appointed to the federal bench by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was given the responsibility for writing the opinion in the case. Johnson essentially ruled that in light of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, there was no way to justify legally the segregation policies, and the district court ruling overturned the local segregation ordinance under which Mrs. Parks and others had been arrested. The city appealed, but the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the lower court ruling, and in December 1956, city officials had no choice but to comply. The year-long boycott thus came to an end.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott made Mrs. Parks famous and it launched the civil rights careers of King and his friend and fellow local minister, Ralph Abernathy. The successful boycott is regarded by many historians as the effective beginning of the twentieth century civil rights movement in the U.S.
Sci Fi/Horror Fiction
This period of history was known for a great amount of science fiction and horror classics. These were aired on the radio, shown on television, and printed in comic books. Among these horror classics was the Creep Show, a television science fiction and horror series, with episodes such as "Father's Day," known for such phrases as "Give me my Cake, dirty dish rag! It's mine! Give it to me!" and "It's Father's Day and I have my Cake! Happy Fathers Day!" and "Twilight of Cockroaches," known for such statements as "You don't know these cockroaches!" The Martian Commander form "Father's Day" is believed to be the inspiration for Darth Vader.
The special effects were substandard by today's standards, such as the "Martians"' space suit was made from a diving suit with added tenacles, but they are just as terrifying then as they were then, because the horror lay mostly in the plot. Common horrific endings to these productions was the main character either being burried alive, going crazy, committing suicide, or being eaten by some kind of bug or carnivorous plant.
Vietnam
In the early 50's, Vietnam was rebelling against French rule. America saw Vietnam as a potential source of trouble, as rebels (known as the Vietminh) led by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh were gaining strength. America loaned France billions of dollars to aid in the war against the Vietnamese rebels, but despite the aid, France found itself on the verge of defeat, and appealed to America for troops, but America refused, fearing entanglement in another costly Korean War, or even a war with all of communist Asia.
France surrendered, and the Vietminh and France met in Geneva, Switzerland to negotiate a treaty. Vietnam was devided into two countries: the Vietminh in control of the North and the French-friendly Vietnamese in control of the South. In 1956, the two countries would be reunited with free elections.
Eisenhower worried about South Vietnam. He believed that if it also fell to the Communists, many other Southeast Asian countries would follow, in what he called the domino theory. He aided the Southern government and set up the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in 1954. The nations included in the alliance were America, Great Britain, France, Australia, Pakistan, the Phillipines, New Zealand and Thailand, and they all pledged to fight against Communist aggressors.
The Warsaw Pact and NATO
1955 saw the division of Europe into two rival camps. The westernized countries of the free world had signed NATO 1949 and the eastern european countries signed the Warsaw pact.
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created as a response to the crisis in Berlin. The United States, Britain, Canada, France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and the Netherlands founded NATO in April 1949, and Greece, Turkey and West Germany had joined by 1955. The countries agreed that "an armed attack against one or more of [the member states] in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all," and was created so that if the Soviet Union eventually did invade Europe, the invaded countries would have the most powerful army in the world (the United States' Army) come to their defense.
The Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union responded in to the addition of West Germany to NATO 1955 with its own set of treaties, which were collectively known as the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact allowed East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Albania, Romania, and Bulgaria to function in the same way as the NATO countries did. Unlike NATO, Warsaw forces were used occasionally.
Suez Canal
Back in 1948, Israel was created as a sanctuary of sorts for the displaced Jews of the Holocaust. At the same time, many Arabs living in the area were displaced. Tensions had been high in the Middle East ever since Israel had been attacked just after its founding. The stage was set for superpower involvement in 1956; the United States backed Israel, the Soviet Union backed the Arabs, and the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser had nationalized, or brought under Egypt's control, the Suez Canal, which had previously belonged to Britain.
France and Britain worried that Egypt would decide cut off oil shipments between the oil-rich Middle East and western Europe, so that October they invaded Egypt, hoping to overthrow Nasser and sieze the canal. Israel, upset by earlier attacks by Arab states, agreed to help in the invasion.
U.S. and Soviet reactions to the invasions were almost imediate. The Soviets threatened to launch rocket attacks on British and French cities, and the United States sponsored a United Nations resolution for British and French withdrawal. Facing pressures from the two powers, the three invaders pulled out of Egypt. To ensure stability in the area, United Nations troops were sent to patrol the Egypt-Israel border.
Space Race
On October 4, 1957, the Soviets successfully put the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. Americans were horrified. They feared that the Soviets were using the satellite to spy on Americans, or even worse, that the Soviet Union might attack America with nuclear weapons from space. America responded with the launch of its own satellite, Vanguard. Hundreds of spectators gathered, only to watch the satellite rise only a few feet off the launch pad, and then explode.
The failure spurred the government to create a space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA succeeded in launching the Explorer in 1958, and thus, the Space Race was initiated. With the creation of Project Mercury, a program to put an austronaut in space, America was pulling ahead. Nonetheless, the USSR was the first to put a man in space, when Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit in 1961. For the next 14 years, the U.S and the Soviet Union would continue to compete in space.
Cuban Revolution
In 1958 and 1959, anti-American feeling became a part of the growing Cuban revolution. In January 1959, the dictator of Cuba, Fulgenicio Batista, was overthrown by the rebel leader Fidel Castro, who promptly became the leader of Cuba.
At first, America supported Castro because of his promises of democratic and economic reforms. But relations between the two countries became strained when Cuba began seizing foreign-owned land (which was mostly U.S. owned) as a part of its reforms. Soon, Castro's government was a dictatorship, and was being backed by the Soviet Union. In 1961, Eisenhower cut diplomatic ties with Cuba, and relations with the island nation have been difficult ever since.
Che
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, international political figure, author, social philosopher, medical physician, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas.
As a young man studying medicine, Guevara travelled roughrough throughout South America bringing him into direct contact with the impoverished conditions in which many people (particularly the indigenous peasantry) lived. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to the conclusion that the region's socio-economic inequalities were a result of capitalism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism and thus could only be remedied by socialism through revolution, prompting him to intensify his study of Marxism and travel to Guatemala to learn about the reforms being implemented there by President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.
Kennedy and Johnson (1961 - 1969)
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The Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis
On April 17, 1961, President John F. Kennedy launched an attack on Cuba, using 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles. The exiles were to invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs in southwestern Cuba. The forces made many mistakes, and at the last moment, Kennedy was advised not to send air support, and he did not. The invasion was a complete failure and within days, Cuban forces crushed the U.S. troops. Kennedy never trusted military or intelligence advice again, and the Soviet Union concluded that Kennedy was a weak leader. The invasion also angered many Latin-American nations.
In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union (missiles were located in Turkey). In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island nation from an attack by the U.S. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Castro felt a second attack was inevitable. Consequently, he approved of Khrushchev's plan to place missiles on the island. In the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missile installations in Cuba.
The crisis began on October 15, 1962 when U-2 reconnaissance photographs revealed Soviet missiles under construction in Cuba. The next morning, Kennedy was informed of the missile installations. Immediately the executive committee (EX-COMM) made up of twelve of his most important advisers was formed to handle the crisis. After seven days of guarded and intense debate, EX-COMM concluded that it had to impose a naval quarantine around Cuba, which would prevent the arrival of more Soviet offensive weapons on the island.
On October 22, Kennedy announced the discovery of the missile installations to the public and his decision to quarantine the island. He also proclaimed that any nuclear missile launched from Cuba would be regarded as an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union and demanded that the Soviets remove all of their offensive weapons from Cuba.
On the 25th Kennedy pulled the quarantine line back and raised military readiness to DEFCON 2.
On the 26th EX-COMM heard from Khrushchev in an impassioned letter. He proposed the removing of Soviet missiles and personnel if the U.S. would guarantee not to invade Cuba.
October 27 was the worst day of the crisis. A U-2 was shot down over Cuba and EX-COMM received a second letter from Khrushchev demanding the removal of U.S. missiles in Turkey in exchange for Soviet missiles in Cuba. Attorney General Robert Kennedy suggested ignoring the second letter and contacted Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to tell him of the U.S. agreement with the first.
Tensions finally began to ease on October 28 when Khrushchev announced that he would dismantle the installations and return the missiles to the Soviet Union, expressing his trust that the United States would not invade Cuba. Further negotiations were held to implement the October 28 agreement, including a United States demand that Soviet light bombers be removed from Cuba, and specifying the exact form and conditions of United States assurances not to invade Cuba.
NASA
After the launch of Sputnik and the success of Yuri Gagarin, America was behind in the Space Race. In May 1961, Alan Shepard Jr. became the first American to make a space flight. Kennedy lobbied for increased funding for space research. In an address to congress on May 25, 1961, Kennedy said, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
American Tragedy
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was at a campaign rally in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy and his wife rode through the streets in an open car, turning into Dealy Plaza at Houston and Elm, and suddenly several shots rang out. Kennedy fell against his wife. The car sped to the nearest hospital, Parkland Memoral, but it was too late; the beloved President was dead. The nation was stunned. Shortly after, while on Air Force One, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office as President.
Americans in Vietnam
Like Eisenhower, Kennedy had viewed Vietnam as a crucial battle in the fight against communism. He sent many special forces troops to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese troops. Kennedy also put pressure on South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem to make political and economic reforms that would prevent communism from taking root in South Vietnam. After Diem refused to comply and restricted the rights of Buddhists (the majority religion in South Vietnam), he lost support, and a political coup ensued. Diem was assassinated on November 1, 1963.
At the end of November, the United States had almost 15,000 troops in Vietnam as advisers. The U.S. sent the Secretary of Defense on a fact-finding mission to find if involvement was still needed in Vietnam. He concluded that the South Vietnamese could not hold off the Vietcong, or Vietnamese communists, without more American backing. In 1964, Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese patrol ships attacked American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, and Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the President broad control over troops in Vietnam.
In 1965, Johnson gradually built up the involvement of America in Vietnam. At the end of 1965, about 180,000 troops were in Vietnam. By 1967, there were over 500,000. The U.S. also began a bombing campaign in North Vietnam, and by 1968, more bombs had been dropped than the U.S. had dropped in World War II.
As Americans fought the war, frustration mounted. Soldiers had to fight through dense jungles and muddy land. It also seemed that for every Vietcong or North Vietnamese killed, many more would be replacements. The bombing campaign in the North actually heightened the morale of the North Vietnamese rather than lowering it, and the United States' losses increased. By the end of the decade, many outraged American citizens angrily opposed and protested the war. Opposition to the war was growing in the capital, too. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara no longer believed that the war could be won.
At home, protesters, especially college students, became increasingly bitter about the war. Others who tended to be older and more conservative, defended the war and sought to suppress the "traitors." This division between the young and the old became known as the generation gap. Officials at the University of California tried to limit recruiting efforts of protesters, and students were outraged. They held a protest that stopped the school for days. This type of protest spread across the nation, and many related ideas and activists became known collectively as the New Left.
Many of those who made up the New Left also made up the counterculture, a movement that questioned basic American values and social customs. Parents found themselves increasingly disagreeing with their children. The counterculture was also expressed in pop culture, with many icons expressing the need for peace and reform.
Eventually, some adults came to resent the war. As adults began to disagree about the war more, they were called doves (those who wanted peace) and hawks (those who supported the war). Students also had a major gripe about the war: if the legal age to be drafted to go to war was eighteen, why was the legal voting age as high as twenty-one? Eventually, the twenty sixth amendment was passed in 1971, which met the demands of the students and lowered the legal voting age to 18.
Division in the country about the war became increasingly harsh and bitter. In October 1967, 50,000 war opposers marched to the Pentagon in Washington D.C. to protest. Many students stuck flowers or other symbols of peace in the barrels of the guns held by those who guarded the pentagon. By the beginning of 1969, well over fifty percent of the nation opposed the war.
The "Great Society" and Civil Rights Under Lyndon B. Johnson
In January 1964, the new President Johnson made a series of proposals which he called the "Great Society" and began a "war on poverty." He signed many programs into law that helped Americans in poverty, that is, those who do not make enough money to survive. During this time two of the most important programs signed into law were Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare provided cheap health insurance to senior citizens and Medicaid provided health insurance for the poor. Cities and school also recieved boosts with the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the signing of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
Equal Rights
Protests were growing in the 1960's. Blacks and whites in high schools and colleges in the South and the North staged sit-ins, protests that are accomplished by sitting down and not being productive or letting people pass.
Another kind of protest was growing in the South. In 1961, groups of African Americans began riding buses from Washington D.C. that were bound for New Orleans to make sure that the Rosa Parks Supreme Court descision was being enforced. These bus riders were known as freedom riders. The rides went smoothly until the buses reached Alabama, where the freedom riders would be greeted with violence from angry whites.
In the spring of 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Martin Luther King Jr. targeted Birmingham, Alabama for segregation protests. Birmingham, a city in the deep South, was a hotbed for racism and segregation. City police arrested hundreds of protesters, as well as King himself, but protests continued. National television showed snarling dogs being set on the unarmed protesters and children being washed away on the impact of the water from firehoses. As the nation watched in horror, President Kennedy announced a civil rights bill that would outlaw segregation nationwide.
On August 28, 1963, nationwide support for the civil rights bill boiled over. Over 200,000 people of all races and colors came to Washington D.C. to participate in a massive march organized by the SCLC and Mr. King. There, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King read the words that would become one of history's greatest speeches:
" I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'...I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character...When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing...'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!' "
After Kennedy's death, Johnson, a firm believer in equal rights, promised that the bill would be signed into law. In the first July of Johnson's term, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law illegalised discrimination against African Americans in employment, public accomodations, and voting. The act not only protected African Americans, but it also prohibited discrimination by sex, religion, and ethnicity. It was followed in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act.
A Second Tragedy
On the morning of April 4, 1968, King was preparing to lead a march from the balcony of a hotel when shots rang out. Friends inside rushed outside to find King shot in the jaw. Martin Luther King, Jr. was pronounced dead a few hours later. The nation was in complete shock. Shortly thereafter, rioting plagued America's streets as a profound sadness and anger gripped the nation. This would be one of many assassinations that would befall the country, including those of, Dr. Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X.
Nixon presidency and Indochina (1969 - 1974)
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Violence and the Election of 1968
After the assasination of Dr. King in Memphis, riots broke out in over 100 cities. Troops were called in to control the mobs of people. Stunned and saddened by Dr. King's death, the nation worried about renewed homeland violence.
Robert Kennedy is Assassinated
In the race for the Democratic nomination, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert Francis Kennedy (brother of John F.) were competing in a close match. In most primaries, Kennedy edged out McCarthy, and meanwhile, Humphrey garnered the support of Democratic party leaders, who chose the delegates to the national convention. In June 1968, Kennedy won the primary in California, the state with the most delegates to the convention. At a celebration rally on the night of the victory, Kennedy was shot and killed by Sirhan B. Sirhan, who claimed that he did not remember shooting Bobby Kennedy. The nation was sent reeling into another shock from the new violence.
The Democratic Convention
Because of his support among leaders and delegates from the Democratic Party, it appeared that Humphrey had enough votes to win the nomination at the convention in Chicago. Humphrey, however, was a supporter of Johnson's policy in Vietnam, so he was percieved as a war supporter.
Anti-war Democrats, most of whom had supported Kennedy, felt left out of the convention. Angry, they flocked to Chicago to protest Humphrey's nomination. On the first and second nights of the convention, the protesters were generally subdued and the Chicago police made few arrests. On the third night, however, protesters planned to march to the convention site to protest.
Fearing another outbreak of violence, the mayor of Chicago made the police block the protesters at the hall. When they tried a different route, protesters were blocked again. Outraged, protesters started throwing objects at the police. The police threw tear gas into the crowd and charged the protesters, beating some and taking others into custody.
Humphrey won the nomination, but the violence hurt his campaign. The nation saw all the anger and outrage on television. It seemed that Democrats could not control their own party.
The Election
Nixon, the former Vice President, had quietly been nominated by the Republicans as their candidate. Nixon claimed to represent the "silent majority" in America; that is, those that had begun to take on a more conservative approach to politics and disliked the "hippie" and civil rights movements. Nixon also promised to end the war in Vietnam, although he never said he would win it.
Because of his promises about Vietnam, Nixon was able to gain support from antiwar Democrats and Republicans alike. In a huge political comeback (Nixon was defeated in the election of 1960 and lost the race for the governor of California in 1962), Nixon barely won the popular vote, gaining only 500,000 more votes than Humphrey. He won by a larger margin in the electoral college, gaining 301 votes, while Humphrey only had 191.
Also note that Nixon made the statement on November 3rd 1969, almost a year after his election. He cribbed it from a speech his vice-president, Spiro Agnew, had made on May 9th of that year. Agnew's writers may have been taking it from President Kennedy's 1956 book Profiles in Courage. The original phrase goes back to Edward Young's 1721 poem "The Revenge":
"Life is the desert, life the solitude;
Death joins us to the great majority."
It became an in-joke among Democrats and protestors to hear Agnew and Nixon claim to represent the dead, perhaps as envoys of the Undead. This was only two years after Caesar Romero's Night of the Living Dead came out.
Foreign Policy
Nixon, in an attempt to bring stability to the nation, made many changes in foreign policy. He appointed Henry Kissinger as his national security advisor and later as his Secretary of State. Both believed in the philosophy of realpolitik, which put national interests in front of leaders' political ideologies and reasoned that peace could only come from negotiations, not war. During Nixon's presidency, he and Kissinger would work to try to ease the cold war.
Vietnam
Nixon promised to ease the United States out of the Vietnam war, and for the most part, he kept his promise. He and Kissinger called their plan to hand the war over to the South Vitnamese: Vietnamization. By the end of 1970, the number of troops in Vietnam had fallen from 540,000 in the beginning of 1969 to 335,000. By 1971 there were only 60,000 troops in Vietnam.
In order to compensate for the loss of troops in Vietnam, Nixon hiked up the bombing campaign. The Ho Chi Minh Trail which bordered and sometimes ran into the countries of Laos and Cambodia was bombed. Nixon wanted to keep his public image as a peace President, so the bombing of Cambodia was kept a secret.
Outrage and Tragedy
Nixon tried to end the war through peace talks with North Vietnam, but generally, these stalled because the North Vietnamese had a wait and see attitude towards the war. They believed that opposition to the war within America would eventually grow so strong that Nixon would be forced to remove American troops from the country.
Nixon tried to appeal to his "silent majority" and renew support for the war, but then, Cambodia fell into a civil war between Communist and non-Communist forces. Nixon decided to send troops into Cambodia to destroy Communist strongholds, and Americans were outraged that their leader, who had strived for an end to the war, had attacked a neutral country. Opposition, especially in colleges, grew stronger.
This was especially true in Kent State University in Ohio. When students burned down a military complex on the Kent State campus, the Ohio governor declared martial law, or emergency military rule. The students were furious. On May 4th, they staged a protest on the campus lawn, but the National Guard troops told the students to disband, and that they had no right to assemble. The troops shot tear gas into the crowd, and the students ran. Some troops cornered a group between two buildings and suddenly, for unknown reasons, opened fire. Four students were killed and thirteen others were wounded.
Violence again struck at Jackson State in Mississippi. After a night of campus violence, police were called in to control the students, but eventually police opened fire on the students and two were killed. Witnesses recalled the police recklessly blasting the school's residence hall with their guns. The police claimed to be defending themselves from snipers.
The End of the War
In the fall of 1972, it seemed that peace was at hand. But at the last minute, the negotiations fell through because the South Vietnamese refused to have North Vietnamese forces in their country. Nixon decided to lauch a last aggressive bombing campaign to try to scare the North Vietnamese into stopping the war, but they were persistent and continued to fight. In the beginning of 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a final major offensive. The South Vietnamese army collapsed, and soon, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, was in the Vietcong's grasp. Americans scrambled to evacuate from the country, and on April 29, Americans were evacuating by helicopter off the roof of the American embassy. In the early hours of April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the Vietcong. Soon after, South Vietnam surrendered.
Upon return, the American troops had no welcome. Many Americans, angered at the outcome of the war or just angry that the war ever had to happen, just wanted to forget the ordeal. Vietnam lay in ruins, and almost 1.4 million Vietnamese lives (on either side) were claimed. Also, 58,000 Americans had died, 300,000 were wounded, and the U.S. had wasted $150 billion on the war.
China
In 1969, Nixon wanted to ease the tensions of the Cold War to help the nation heal from the tragedy of Vietnam. He and Kissinger used realpolitik, the practice of basing decisions on the interests of the nation rather than the leaders' beliefs, to shape a new foreign policy. Nixon formed a foreign policy plan of détente, a plan of relaxing international tensions. Nixon's ultimate goal in his new plan was to achieve a so-called "balance of power" between the U.S., Europe, Soviet Union, China, and Japan so that no one nation could grow too strong.
To kick off his new plan, Nixon began to express friendliness to the People's Republic of China. The United States had severed ties with China after communists took control of the government in a political coup d'etat (a sudden change of government by force) in 1949. In 1970, Nixon began hinting at new relations with China, and he stopped referring to the country as "Red China," which was an offensive term for the nation. By increasing relations with China, Nixon hoped that the Soviets would become more cooperative in talks with the U.S. because it would fear a U.S.-China alliance.
Realizing the change in U.S. sentiment, China invited a U.S. table tennis team to visit the country in April 1971, and a week later, the U.S. opened trade between the two countries. After sending Kissinger on a secret visit to China, Nixon announced that he would go to Beijing, the Chinese capital. In February 1972, Nixon finally came to Beijing. Pictures of him at the Great Wall and attending Chinese banquets were in international news. In another seven years, Chinese relations would be fully restored.
The Soviet Union
Nixon was right about the Soviet Union. Fearing a Chinese alliance with America, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev agreed to meet with Nixon in Moscow in May of 1972. Again, pictures of Nixon with communist leaders filled the news. While in Moscow, Nixon signed the SALT I Treaty, or the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. The treaty limited the number of nuclear arms that the Soviet Union and the U.S. could possess.
Feeling that the Soviet Union was in scientific decline, Brezhnev agreed with the U.S. to work with it in trade and information. This way, the Soviet Union could also gain access to desperately needed American grain. As a result of the talk, the Arms Race slowed and international tensions eased.
Roe v. Wade
In March 1970, a Texas woman by the name of Norma McCorvey, unmarried and pregnant, decided to sue the state of Texas by the recommendation of Sarah Weddington, a young attorney. At the time, the vast majority of the other states had similar laws. At the time, Texas had a law in place that banned abortion in women, with the exception of women with life-threatening pregnancies. As part of standard court procedure, McCorvey was renamed Jane Roe, because she did not want her identity to be known by the court.
With rulings favoring both Roe and Dallas Country district attorney Henry Wade in various levels of the courts, the case eventually landed in the Supreme Court. Argued first on December 13, 1971 and again on October 11, 1972 (at the court's request), Weddington contended that the Texas law (and therefore all abortion banning laws) were in violation of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments, which gave a citizen the right to privacy, and that abortion laws violated women's privacy.
The case was decided on January 22, 1973, with Harry Blackmun writing the ruling. With a 7-2 majority, the Court ruled that the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments did indeed collectively give a citizen the right to privacy, and that abortion laws did indeed violate women's privacy.
Having recently appointed Warren Burger (the Chief Justice), Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, and William Rehnquist, Nixon was disappointed in the ruling. All of them Republicans, Nixon had presumed that the judges would rule conservatively. Only Rehnquist would dissent with the majority. The other dissenting vote was Byron White, who had been appointed by John F. Kennedy.
The ruling created the abortion divide that exists today. It gave the general pro-choice sentiment among the more liberal and progressive Democratic Party and the pro-life sentiment among more conservative and religious Republican Party. The case was reopened in 1992, only to reaffirm the ruling. Norma McCorvey would go on later to become a pro-life advocate.
Some compare the ruling to the F&S by Hitler.
Watergate and the Election of 1972
In 1971, Nixon had many doubts about the 1972 election. But this was before Nixon and Kissinger had vastly improved relations with the Soviet Union and China. By the time those tasks had been accomplished, much of the nation approved of Nixon. Even more in his favor was the Democratic disunity and the nomination of the radically liberal George McGovern. Some voters found his views disturbing.
Even so, Nixon's paranoia and the stress of the presidential campaign would conspire to send the nation reeling and his administration into crisis. Much later, it would be found that Nixon's campaign would stretch the truth, the law, and ethics.
To start his campaign Nixon asked a group of only the most loyal aides to create an "enemies list," a list of political opponents to the Nixon administration. Then, Nixon asked the IRS and the FBI to investigate those on the enemies list, and justified his actions by saying that he believed that those investigated were a threat to national security. Nixon was slowly changing his campaign from a campaign for the presidency to a campaign against enemies.
Using some of the money alloted for his campaign, Nixon funded a secret group of "plumbers," who "plugged" information leaks that were damaging to the administration. Money also funded dirty tricks against Nixon's Democratic opponents.
In November of 1972, an unknowing public headed to the polls to cast votes for the President. Nixon won the election by a landslide, with almost 61 percent of the popular vote and 520 out of 537 electoral votes.
Things were quiet for a while after the election. In late 1973, countries in the Middle East imposed an embargo, or refusal to trade, on oil to the U.S. after the U.S. supported Israel in a short war against Egypt (the most powerful country in the region) and Syria. Prices for gas shot up in the U.S. and stations had to ration the gas, putting restrictions like "ten gallons per customer." Many people were laid off. Nixon worked to help relations with the Middle East, and in March 1974, the embargo was lifted. He was also able to get the U.S. out of Vietnam. Because of his work, Americans generally approved of Nixon.
Voters did not know that a little while after midnight on June 17, 1972 a security guard named Frank Wills had been patrolling in the parking garage of the Wartergate complex, the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and found tape on the locks to doors leading into the building. He removed the tape and thought little of it, but an hour later, he would find it replaced. He would call the police, and they would arrest five robbers inside the complex.
The subsequent arrests of "plumbers" Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt would slowly but surely send tremors through the presidency. Initially, the Nixon administration denied that it had anything to do with the two plumbers or the bugs that the five men were trying to plant in the telephones of the Democratic headquarters (bugs are telephone listening devices, commonly used by spies and others in the field of espionage) when investigators gathered info that suggested it did. Ronald Ziegler, Nixon's press secretary, decried the break-in a "third rate burglary."
Hearing of the incident at the Watergate complex, the Washington Post, a prominent Washington D.C. newspaper with a national circulation, started publishing a series of articles linking Nixon to the burglary. Also, after questioning, one of the burglars confessed that the White House lied about its involvement in the break-in. Still, only about half of Americans had even heard of the robbery.
In early 1973, the Senate voted to hold hearings on the Watergate break-in. They asked the Department of Justice to hire a special prosecutor outside of the Nixon-influenced department to investigate Watergate. Slowly, Cox and Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina would reveal the massive scandal going on in the White house. In May, former deputy White House counsel John Dean, a source close to Nixon, would testify that there indeed had been a cover up and that it had been directed by Nixon himself.
The extent of Nixon's desperation would become evident in October 1973 when Cox ordered that Nixon hand over tapes from a secret taping system that recorded conversations in the President's office. He refused on executive privilege grounds, contending that the release of the tapes would compromise national security.
When Cox tried to get an injunction for the release of the tapes, Nixon ordered Elliot Richardson, the attorney general, to fire Cox (after all, it was the Justice Department that had hired Cox), but Richardson refused and resigned. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Rickelshaus to fire Cox, but he, like Richardson, refused and resigned. Finally, Nixon got a minor Justice Department official, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire Cox. The series of resignations and the firing of Cox became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. The public was outraged.
At the height of the Watergate scandal, the Department of Justice uncovered another: Vice President Spiro Agnew had accepted bribes as the governor of Maryland. He resigned on October 10, 1973. Nixon nominated Michigan congressman Gerald Ford as his Vice President, who was quickly confirmed.
The House of Representatives decided to initiate the impeachment process as public outrage mounted over the Saturday Night Massacre. If a majority voted to charge the President of high crimes and misdemeanors, he would be tried by the Senate and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would preside over the trial. If 67 of the 100 senators voted to find Nixon guilty, he would be expelled from office.
In April of 1974, Nixon decided to release heavily edited transcripts of the tapes to try to improve his image. This only led to more public protest, and the Supreme Court eventually ruled that Nixon had to hand over the tapes. After a conversation on one of the tapes revealed that Nixon had ordered a cover up of the robbery, the public was stunned and the House mulled impeachment. Before any more damage could be done, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. He would be the first and (so far) only president to resign and Gerald Ford would become the only president not elected to the office of president or vice president.
The impact of the scandal was wide and far-reaching. Among other things, Congress passed a series of laws sharply limiting a president's power to wage undeclared war, limiting campaign spending and strengthening public access to government information. Also, it proved that the Constitution's system of checks and balances could work to bring an abusive or tyrannical president out of power. But by far the biggest impact of the crisis was the loss of the public's faith and trust in politicians and elected officials; cynicism concerning the ethics, behavior, and motives of elected officials would be deep and lasting. Because of Nixon's party affiliation and the outrage over a pre-emptive pardon that Ford granted Nixon after he became president, people associated corruption with the Republican party. Decades of gerry-mandering by New Dealers and their successors had assured nearly-impregnable overwhelming Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress since the 1930s. Fallout from Watergate assured that this trend would continue in the midterm elections of November 1974. The Republicans would pay the ultimate price for Watergate in 1976, with Ford losing the White House to a relative political newcomer.
Ford, Carter and Reagan presidencies (1974 - 1989)
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Introduction: The "New Right", Conservatism, and Demographic Shifts
Ever since the 1964 election, in which the conservative Barry Goldwater failed to defeat incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson, a grassroots (begining on the local level) movement among other conservatives began growing. Slowly, a group of conservatives began changing their policies and marketing strategies until finally, President Reagan (the culmination of this movement) was elected in 1980. And so, the product of this reformation of the right wing of the political spectrum (the conservative side), became known as the New Right.
This new breed of conservatism emphasized, above all, "smaller" government. This entailed lowering taxes as a catalyst for increased consumer spending, and thus economic growth, at the cost of cutting governmental programs and welfare. Conservative economists pushed "supply side economics" and openly advocated doing away with the tax-funded welfare state created mostly by the New Deal reforms of the 40s in order to keep more money in the hands of consumers instead of the coffers of welfare programs. Additionally, while Goldwater openly opposed the involvement of religion in politics, Reagan ushered in a generation of evangelical christian activists along with the New Right. During the 1980 election, Reagan openly expressed his commitment to his religion, and during his presidency spoke out strongly against abortion and in support of other issues dear to the religious. The New Right conservatives also notably supported a more hawkish, aggressive foreign policy in the face of communism. They mostly did away with Nixon's detente strategy in favor of a more threatening American world presence.
Meanwhile, a band of states in the south and southwest (called the "Sun Belt" because of their sunny climates) had been, since the 50s, experiencing growth that far outpaced the rest of the country. California experienced the greatest growth and surpassed New York as the most populous state; Florida also exhibited very rapid growth. The Sun Belt was (and still generally is, with the notable exception of California) committed to conservatism, and in part contributed to Nixon's and Reagan's electoral successes. The growth of this region was at the expense of the Northern cities. The effects of this period on cities are discussed in the final section of this chapter.
Ford and Rockefeller
The world watched as Gerald Ford turned back towards the White House after seeing off former President Nixon in his helicopter. There, he took the oath of office and became the thirty eighth president of the United States. Washington was relieved to put the Watergate crisis behind it. He appointed Nelson Rockefeller, a popular Republican and the former governor of New York, as his Vice President. Many were excited of what would come of Ford's presidency.
Controversy
One of Ford's first acts in office would shatter the nation's trust. Using executive powers granted to him by the Constitution, Ford granted Nixon a pardon, on September 8, 1974, for any misconduct he may have exhibited as president. Even though Ford fiercely defended his actions, he never regained the popularity that he had in his first days in office. Many believed that Nixon and Ford had worked out a bargain in advance, with Nixon's resignation in exchange for a pardon from Ford.
Later that year, it was leaked to the American public that the CIA had been spying and keeping secret files on legitimate American citizens. Months later, it was leaked that the FBI was doing the same thing. Ford appointed a commission to investigate the inner workings of the two agencies. He, with the help of Congress, passed legislation to keep the agencies in check.
After recovering some trust, the President would again stir up controversy. He offered amnesty, or protection from the law, to those who had avoided the draft or deserted during the Vietnam War. While many approved, others did not, believing that the policy was far too lenient; after all, their loved ones had obeyed the law.
Foreign Affairs
Ford did not have major diplomatic experience, so he relied on Kissinger, who continued Nixon's policies. In 1974, Ford met with Brezhnev to again discuss nuclear weapons. In July 1975, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, a pledge between the western world and the Soviet Union to respect human rights. Ford also continued to work with China. The Chinese communist leader, Mao Zedong, died in 1976, and a more moderate, centrist government came to power. As a result, the U.S. and China continued to move closer.
Recession and Inflation
As the 1970s progressed, it seemed that Europe and Japan might pass the United States in economic power. Japanese cars were popular throughout the nation and European made goods were strong competition to American made goods. Many factories were forced to close, and soon, many Americans were unemployed or underemployed, that is, when one works in a job for which he is overqualified. Another contributing factor to the economic hardships were the actions of the middle-eastern OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). Even though the oil shortage had been for the most part resolved, OPEC kept its prices high, and the high prices led to inflation (the loss of value of a currency).
To help to reduce inflation, Ford launched Whip Inflation Now (WIN), which promoted the saving of money and advised people to grow their own vegetable gardens in an effort to avoid high food prices. The program led to a small but insignificant drop in inflation; the economy was still plunging into recession. Ford also tried to control inflation by cutting government spending. He vetoed many appropriations bills from Congress that allowed for more spending.
To stimulate the economy, Ford pressed Congress to pass a tax cut, believing that with the extra money saved on taxes, Americans might spend more money. Ford was right, but with less tax revenue, the federal deficit widened. Despite the things he tried, he could not make the economy recover.
1976 Election
Ford hoped that, as the imcumbent, he would win the election. Americans had not quite forgotten about the Watergate crisis and Ford's subsequent actions, though. Jimmy Carter, a little known Democrat, slowly gained recognition in primaries, and he eventually won the Democratic nomination. Ford, on the other hand, struggled to win the nomination from his party, almost losing it to former California governor Ronald Reagan. On Election Day, the race was very close, but Carter eked out a victory over Ford, winning 50 percent of the popular vote to Ford's 48.
Carter
Carter, building his campaign on the fact that he was an "outsider," had little experience with politics on the national level (although he was formerly the governor of Georgia). He had been a peanut farmer from a tiny town called Plains. From the start of his presidency, Carter was very down-to-earth and informal; not very much like most politicians.
Deregulation
During his administration, Carter worked to deregulate many key sectors of the nation's economy, particularly the transportation and travel industry. The first major deregulation act passed during his presidency was the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, which removed much of the Civil Aeronautics Board's control over commercial avaition. Before the passage of the act, airlines had to recieve government approval of routes, sometimes waiting ten years before getting a decision. Many requests were rejected because, for example, the case had become "stagnant." The Staggers Rail Act, passed in 1980, had a similar effect on the railroad industry.
Another key piece of legislation passed during the Carter presidency was the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, passed in 1980. It lessened government control on the interest rates for money deposited and saved in banks, so that with higher interest rates, people would be encouraged to save their money.
Energy & Inflation
High prices on oil imports caused inflation to skyrocket during the Carter administration by as much as 12 percent per year. A widening trade deficit (a higher value on imports than on exports) also contributed to the inflation. To stress the need to conserve energy, Carter symbolically turned down the thermostat in the White House. Five laws passed in 1978, collectively known as the National Energy Plan, created a Department of Energy, allotted money from the U.S. budget to go to alternative energy research and created tax incentives to encourage domestic oil production and energy conservation.
In March 1979, nuclear power would also become part of the nation's energy crisis. Nuclear power, which involves splitting atoms and releasing energy while creating hazardous radioactive material, made up more than ten percent of the nation's electricity. A partial meltown at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, released radiation into the environment, alerting the nation to a potential hazard. Soon a protest movement against nuclear power spread, and while no further nuclear power plants were ordered in the United States, most already in operation continued in operation and most then under construction eventually went into operation.
Camp David Accords
During the 1976 election, peace talks between the middle east, Israel, and the U.S. had stalled. The newly-elected president Carter moved to restart these talks, but when the right-wing Likud Party of Israel took control of the government in an electoral sweep, hopes for continued peace talks seemed all but lost. But Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, frustrated with the stalled process and motivated by prospects that the U.S. might help its anemic economy, decided to visit Israel, thereby recognizing its existence. Israel recieved Sadat's initiative, and the two countries soon went into bilateral (instead of the multilateral talks with the entire Arab world that Carter and Sadat had hoped for) talks, witnessed by the president at Camp David in Maryland.
The secret negotiations were heated and dramatic, and the two countries had threatened to walk on multiple occasions. Carter had personally appealed to Sadat and Israel leader Menachem Begin to stay in the talks. After twelve days, an agreement was reached, and on September 17th, 1978, the Camp David Accords were signed at the White House.
Hostage Crisis in Iran
In the '70s, Iran was a very strong Persian Gulf ally to the U.S. The Iranian Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, had built up a powerful military with U.S. help. Many Iranians complained about government corruption and the negative influence that the West had on Muslim values. In 1979 however, the shah was forced to leave the country after Islamic fundamentalists, (those who believe in very strict obedience to religious rules) led by the new Iranian ruler Ayatollah Khomeini, took control of the government.
Supported by the fundamentalists, Iranian students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the capital of Iran, and took 52 U.S. citizens hostage. The United States was horrified. Negotiations to release the hostages failed and a rescue attempt in the country ended with the death of eight U.S. soldiers.
The hostage crisis in Iran greatly lowered the public opinion of Carter, even though there was little else that Carter could do about it. The ordeal took a toll on his campaign for reelection in 1980; the public saw as a president who bargained with terrorists, and he lost to Ronald Reagan, 489 to 49 in the electoral college. An even greater disappointment for his failed campaign came in the last weeks of his term, in January 1981: with hard work, Carter secured the release of the hostages.
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran-Iraq War, also known as the Imposed War by Iraq, began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq's long suppressed Shia majority influenced by Iran's Islamic revolution. Although Saddam's Iraq hoped to take advantage of revolutionary chaos in Iran and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and within several months were repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years Iran was on the offensive. Despite several calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003.
The war is noted for being very similar to World War I. Tactics used included trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire, human wave attacks and Iraq's extensive use of chemical weapons (such as mustard gas) against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds.
Land Mines
This war is noted for the use of Land Mines, and for the use of them as an offensive weapon. Iran put the mines between the US millitary forces and their ships. Also there was believed to be a push by the Iranians to get human minesweepers, with "Keys to the Kingdom", which is believed to be the inspiration behind suicide bombing in Palistine.
Reagan and "Reaganomics"
In the years before and following Reagan's election, a conservative movement grew which complained that the government spent too much money and collected too many taxes. So, Reagan decided to cut taxes and spending. Reagan's policy of supply-side economics (increasing supply and services to stimulate the economy) soon became known simply as "Reaganomics." Reagan took over the worst economy since the Great Depression, unempolyment of 13% and inflation of 17%. So called "Reaganomics" cut the top tax rate by half and lowered all other tax rates by a significant margine. The deals struck with the Democratic controlled congress caused an INCREASE in spending and the INCREASED revenue from the tax cuts and smaller tax shelters could not cover the increases in spending the Democrats demanded. The result of the nearly tripling of the budget given the president by the congress resulted in record spending. The largest increase in spending was defence in a plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union. By 1983, the economy began a steady growth, doubling tax revenue, signaling that his plan was successful.
Reagan made progress in other areas too. He made up for Carter's general indecision by resolving an air traffic controller's strike quickly and cleanly.
Sandra Day O'Connor Supreme Court nomination
In 1980, Ronald Reagan promised to nominate the first woman to the Supreme Court should he be elected. Then, on July 3, 1981, Associate Justice Potter Stewart, who had been appointed by Dwight Eisenhower in 1958, retired. Reagan fulfilled his promise and nominated Sandra Day O'Connor, a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. The Senate confirmed her unanimously, and on September 25, 1981, she became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She served as Associate Justice until January 31, 2006, when her sucessor, Samuel Alito, was confirmed.
Reagan nominated two other Justices to the Court. In 1986, he sucessfully nominated Antonin Scalia, and in 1988, he nominated Anthony Kennedy.
Defense
As promised in his campaign, Reagan drastically increased military spending to a level of about $1.6 trillion in five years. This triggered a secondary arms race between the United States and the USSR, and relations between the two fell to levels not seen since the 60s. While Reagan favored drastically increasing spending on the military, the US confidence in full-scale ground war had been broken with the loss of Vietnam in the 70s. Because of this, Reagan favored funding trained insurgents to fight enemy governments instead of committing the army full-scale.
The first major military conflict during Reagan's administration was 1983's Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. When the island was taken over by Marxist Bernard Coard, Reagan used the safety of 500 U.S. medical students working in the government as a pretext for the invasion. The new government was quickly and cleanly overthrown, and served as a model for future conflicts.
Reagan also, with the help of South Africa, funded insurgent groups fighting Soviet-backed regimes in the African nations of Mozambique and Angola. In Afghanistan, which had been invaded by the Soviet Union to the north, the U.S. government provided arms and humanitarian aid to mujahideen rebels fighting the Soviet-backed government. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, a Communist party reformer, assumed leadership of Russia. Realizing that his Soviet troops were bogged down in a costly guerrilla war, and wanting to regain face with the international community, he announce in 1987 that the Soviet army would be withdrawing from the country. Withdrawal completed in 1989.
Central America and Iran Contra
Hostage takings in the middle east did not end after the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. In 1983, members of an Iranian militant organization were arrested for truck bombings in Kuwait, and an ally militant organization retaliated for the arrests by taking thirty hostages in Lebanon, six of whom were American. In order to free the hostages, the administration decided that it would secretly sell arms to Iran, one of America's greatest enemies, which was in the middle of a war with Iraq. Few countries were willing to supply Iran with weapons, and the United States sold the arms to Iran in the hopes that Iran would pressure the militants in Lebanon to free the hostages. This sale had the explicit approval of Reagan himself.
At the same time, a coup d'état in Nicaragua brought to power the socialist Sandinista government. The country had formerly been friendly territory for multinational corporations and a wealthy ruling class, and this resulted in a large poor class willing to hand power over to left-wing leaders. American interests in Central America seemed in jeopardy with the Sandinista government in power. When the CIA decided to conduct sabotage missions against the Sandinistas without congressional approval, the Republican senate angrily passed the Boland Amendment, which banned the funding of the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels by certain governmental agencies.
Because of this, a few in the Reagan administration decided to, possibly without the President's knowledge, use the proceeds from the secret weapons sale with Iran to secretly fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
These dealings went on in violation of the Boland amendment, and in conflict with statements made by Reagan that he would not negotiate with terrorists. When a Lebanese magazine revealed the weapons-for-hostages dealings in 1986, scandal ensued. Reagan, with pressure from conggressional Democrats and the media, created the Tower commission, led by former senator John Tower. The commission in the end laid most of the blame for the dealings on Reagan himself for not paying more attention and not having more direct control over many governmental agencies. The scandal itself raised many separation of power and presidential ethics questions, but Reagan emerged from its aftermath relatively unscathed. By the end of his second term, Reagan once again was registering positive approval ratings.
Changing Modern Society
A broad shift in values and attitudes took place in the U.S. between 1970 and 1990 as financial prosperity spread through American society. Across almost all social and economic groups, the trend was away from community and toward individualism. Aspects of the change included resistance to taxation and support for tax cuts; distrust of government and belief in privatization of public functions on the argument that the private sector could carry them out more effectively; decreased support for public assistance to low-income groups and demands that these groups improve their own economic standing; and a general decrease in the type of public citizen involvement that earlier generations had practiced during the middle decades of the 20th century. Politicians of both major parties hastened to follow these trends, with the Republicans in the lead under Reagan and the elder Bush, while the Democrats, seeing their broad base of voters increasingly drawn toward Republican positions, hastening to follow.
Urban Problems
As the Sun Belt as a whole grew, it accompanied a nationwide trend of migration out of cities and into suburbs. This migration was easier to accomplish with more accessible transportation brought by cars. The service sector of the economy grew along with this shift, at the expense of the shrinking manufacturing industry. Cities in the northern and midwestern "Rust Belt" were left with smaller populations and thus smaller tax bases, and large, poverty-stricken minorities; bankruptcy loomed for many northern cities. Additionally, old downtown areas of cities exhibited gentrification, a phenomenon in which affluent, young middle class citizens move into restored urban areas. This displaced the lower class and poor and contributed to one of the biggest problems of the mid-80s-- homelessness.
Conservative Movements
Neoconservatism The neoconservative movement grew in the 1960s & 1970s as a reaction to the growing antiwar counter-culture & liberal social programs like the Great Society. Neoconservatism advocated a very hawkish, interventionist foreign policy, and was less committed to cutting governmental spending than mainstream conservatism was. While the Reagan administration was the first to show hints of neoconservatism, the movement would not be in the political mainstream until the rise of think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Project for the New American Century in the mid and late 90s. The culmination of this movement was the election of George W. Bush in 2000.
The Religious Right Evangelical Christians constitute the main constituency of what is often referred to as the “religious right.” Like neo-conservatism, evangelical Christianity (often referring to themselves as “born-again”) grew in the 1960s & 1970s. Organization such as the Moral Majority, founded in 1979 by televangelist Rev. Jerry Farwell, stressed “family values.”
Conservative Coalition Sharing membership and views on a variety of issues, neoconservatives and the religious right began to join forces in the late 1970s to form a conservative political coalition. The political platform of this coalition included moral opposition to drug use, pornography, and abortion, as well as opposition to the expensive liberal social programs of the 1960s and 1970s. The coalition also favored free-enterprise and foreign policy backed by a strong military.
The new coalition proved to be politically powerful, fueling a conservative victory in the national elections of 1980 when Republicans, supported by neoconservatives and the religious right, earned a majority in the U.S. Senate, while Ronald Reagan won in a landslide over Jimmy Carter in the presidential race. Specifically, California’s “Christian Voice” was influential in the 1980 election, swaying the vote in the South & the Midwest. The Rev. Jerry Farwell’s Moral Majority registered approximately 3 million voters from 1979 to 1980.
African Americans in Politics
By the 80s, African Americans saw a level of political empowerment and representation unseen during the course of the country's history. Mostly running as Democrats, the 80s saw the rise of many major black political players. Shirley Chishlom, a Brooklyn native, was elected to Congress in 1968, representing New York's 12th district. She was one of the founding members of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, which would eventually constitute a large chunk of the Democratic caucus itself. Today, the powerful group boasts 43 members, all Democrats. Eventually Chishlom would be the first African American and first woman to make a serious (though unsuccessful) bid for the presidency.
In 1984, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson decided to make a bid for the Democratic nomination for the presidency and exceeded expectations, winning five southern primaries. Although he lost the nomination to Vice President Walter Mondale, Jackson was seen as a more credible candidate for the 1988 election. This proved to be an accurate prediction, with he and eventual nominee Michael Dukakis running neck and neck for the nomination. Briefly, Jackson was considered the frontrunner. Despite his loss, Jackson would remain politically active and would continue to push for progressive reform and civil rights for many minority groups, notably including homosexuals.
Other black politicians were appointed to positions of power as well. In 1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the supreme court. Marshall became the first African American to serve on the bench, and he did not retire until 1991. Clarence Thomas became the second black justice when he replaced Marshall that same year. As a general in the army, Colin Powell was appointed to the position of National Security Advisor, and was eventually elevated to the powerful position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As a civilian, Colin Powell was appointed to the position of Secretary of State by George W. Bush in 2001. This was the first time a black person had been appointed Secretary of State and was the highest ranking position that any African American had held before.
Bush and Clinton presidencies,1st Gulf War (1989 - 2001)
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1988 Election √
Having been badly defeated in the 1984 presidential election, the Democrats were eager to find a new approach to win the presidency. They felt more optimistic this time due to the large gains in the 1986 mid-term election which resulted in the Democrats taking back control of the Senate after 6 years of Republican rule. Among the field of candidates were the following:
- Bruce E. Babbitt, former governor from Arizona
- Joseph R. Biden Jr., U.S. senator from Delaware
- Michael S. Dukakis, governor of Massachusetts
- Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt, U.S. representative from Missouri
- Albert A. Gore Jr., U.S. senator from Tennessee
- Gary W. Hart, former U.S. senator from Colorado
- the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, civil rights activist
- Paul M. Simon, U.S. senator from Illinois
- Patricia Schroeder, Senator from Colorado
Reagan's Vice President, George Herbert Walker Bush, easily defeated Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for the Republican nomination for President. Bush selected Senator J. Danforth (Dan) Quayle of Indiana to be his running mate. The Democrats, after exhausting primaries, selected Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts as their nominee. The 1988 election set the precedent for the use of television as the primary method of voter mobilization.
Bush assailed his opponent for being soft on crime and implied that he lacked patriotism. He blamed Dukakis for the pollution in Boston harbor. Dukakis lacked experience in national politics and failed to effectively counter Bush's assaults.
Bush had a number of advantages, and won the election with 48.9 million votes (53.4 percent of the votes cast) and Dukakis polled 41.8 million votes. Bush carried 40 states and took the Electoral College 426 to 112.
The campaign's harsh tone repelled voters, and the turnout was the lowest since 1924.
Social Changes of the 1990s
The population continued to grow to over 250 million by 1990. The total had nearly quadrupled in a century and was more than double the population during the first election of Franklin Roosevelt. Medical advances brought the life expectancy to a record high. The Hispanic population grew five times as fast as the rest of the population and began to emerge as a political force.
Left-over changes from the countercultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s were apparent. "Laid-back" attitudes toward dress, language, and sexual freedom were among these left-over changes. A new tolerance was especially prevalent in what had been historically the most sensitive of all problems for Americans - sex. Ninety-five percent of males and over 80 percent of females between 18 and 24 acknowledged premarital intercourse.
Drugs remained popular as well. While LSD fell out of fashion, marijuana remained popular. "Crack," a cheap and powerful derivative of cocaine, displaced heroin.
The rise of the Moral Majority continued - dismay over crimes, drugs, and drinking was widespread. States raised the drinking age and cracked down on drunk driving. The people revolted against cigarette smoking, and many states and communities began to ban smoking in public places.
The campaign against sexual promiscuity received unexpected support due to the discovery of AIDS.
The World Changes
The universal oppression in Communist nations and the failure of Communist economies led to growing disenchantment with Communism. Communist regimes began collapsing across the world. Under Mikhail Gorbachev, head of the Communist Party and later President of the USSR, the Soviet Union began to crumble. He was unable to prevent the secession of the Baltic states, and communist hard-liners led an unsuccessful coup that nonetheless demonstrated the loss of most of Gorbachev's stature. Boris Yeltsin, a leader in the resistance against the coup, later became president of the Russian Federation The Soviet parliament soon adjourned forever, and Gorbachev resigned. The world was at last free of the Cold War.
With the Soviet Union out of Central America and the neutralization of Castro due to the Union's demise, Bush was slowly able to advance American objectives in that region.
The decline of the Soviet Union also left the United States with increased influence in the Middle East. Bush was eager to serve peace by persuading Israel to return the Arab lands it seized in 1967. The Administration was also committed to sustaining the flow of inexpensive oil from the Persian Gulf.
Desert Shield
Under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi forces invaded and quickly gained control of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Bush immediately denounced the invasion as "naked aggression" and banned trade with Iraq, froze all Iraqi assets within the United States, and dispatched an aircraft-carrier group to the Persian Gulf. The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the invasion and demanded the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait. On August 15, with the first American soldiers on their way to the Persian Gulf, Bush told Americans that Operation Desert Shield was under way to protect "access to energy resources" and thus "our jobs, our way of life." Most Americans supported the war. American troops began to build up in Saudi Arabia. On November 29 the Security Council authorized the use of "all necessary means" to expel Iraqi troops if they had not left kuwait by January 15, 1991. Bush was assailed by the media and Democrats for sending 400,000 troops to the Persian Gulf without consulting Congress, for making war seem unavoidable, and for creating crisis in order to draw attention from the faltering economy.
On January 12, 1991, in a largely partisan vote, both chambers - the House 250 to 183, the Senate 53 to 46 - authorized Bush "to use United States armed forces" pursuant to the UN Security Council resolution.
Operation Desert Storm
The U.S. and its coalition overwhelmed its enemy. From the start, the coalition had total command of the air. Within days, Iraqi communciation systems, air bases, and antiaircraft defenses were obliterated by aircraft. Americans were quickly attacking strategic targets - power plants, bridges, and chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons facilities. From day eight, coalitions planes devastated the Iraqi army. On the second day, Hussein fired Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia, but none caused major damage. In late January the Iraqi release of thousands of gallons of Kuwaiti oil into the Persian Gulf polluted the waters of that area.
Bush warned Hussein that the coalition would force him out if he had not begun withdrawal by February 24. Coalition forces placed Iraqi forces in a squeeze they could not escape. After 100 hours of ground warfare, Kuwait had been liberated, and the Baghdad area was besieged. The coalition had destroyed some 4,000 Iraqi tanks, more than 1,000 armored vehicles, and about 3,000 artillery pieces. In comparison, the coalition had lost only 4 tanks, 9 other vehicles, and 1 cannon. About 100,000 Iraqi troops were killed, and the coalition had suffered less than 200 deaths.
However, Saddam was still in control. Soon after the cease-fire, the Iraqi army put down a Shiite rebellion and forced Kurds in Iraq to flee to Iran and Turkey. United Nations inspections began. The media did little to inform Americans about the destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure, the foundation of a modernizing society, or about the millions of people left without electricity, running water, or sewage.
Back to Usual Politics
Bush was closely aligned to Ronald Reagan in regard to social issues after his two terms as vice-president. As a Republican congressman from Texas, he was pro-choice, but when he ran for president, he opposed abortion, and he endorsed Supreme Court decisions weakening affirmative action in hiring and promotion. He consistently tried to make appointments to federal courts of judges that shared his own views about the First Amendment, abortion, and affirmative action. Bush named David Souter to replace Justice William Brennan on the Supreme Court, and he named Clarence Thomas to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Bush called himself "the education president" and "the environment president." Bush called for a controversial program that would allow public money to follow children to public schools but it was not acted upon. Bush appointed performed and committed conservationists to the Environmental Protection Agency. At times he would take the side of business, and at other times he would take the side of ecologists. In 1989 he signed a law to ease the effects of acid rain, mandating a gradual 50 percent reduction in sulfur emissions from power plants burning coal, and it also required the automobile industry to increase gradually the production of cars using fuels other than gasoline or diesel oil. In 1991, Bush put forward an energy plan to open for exploration the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, some other Alaskan areas, and the continental shelf off the coasts of California and the Gulf of Mexico.
During 1989, economic growth in the United States slowed, and by the second half of 1990, most economists considered the economy in recession. Bush again proposed, as he had in 1989, lowering the capital gains tax, but Congressional Democrats balked. During talks, the White House backed down on capital gains and the two sides agreed on a budget package that included a steep increase in excise taxes, a small increase in Medicare charges, and a cut in Medicare spending. However, members of both parties in Congress rejected the solution. Finally, on October 29, 1991, the Congress at last approved an acceptable compromise. It lifted the top surtax rate from 28 to 31 percent, gradually phased out income-tax exemptions for upper-income taxpayers, and raised the tax on gasoline, cigarettes, and beer. It also imposed a luxury tax on expensive automobiles, boats, furs, and jewelry, and raised Medicare premiums. The Democrats committed Congress for five years to reduce expenditures both for the military and domestically. After the quick victory in the Persian Gulf, the administration anticipated a quick return of national growth, but the GNP did not pick up. Unemployment reached a four year high.
The Election of 1992
Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas became the apparent leader among the Democratic candidates for the 1992 election. By late April, Clinton had a commanding lead and delegates and was running evenly with Bush in public opinion polls. Rioting in central Los Angeles arose following the verdict of a suburban jury that found Los Angeles policemen not guilty of using undue force in beating a black motorist they had arrested.
The polls showed extreme disenchantment with both candidates, and H. Ross Perot, a Texas billionaire, organized a run as a Reform Party nominee. Perot appealed to conservatives by speaking out against taxes, deficits, and adultery, but he was pro-choice and had a tolerant attitude toward homosexuality. He also appealed to traditionally Democratic voters by being an outspoken opponent of NAFTA (a free-trade agreement). He remained evasive about his economic and social agenda, and becoming uncomfortable with the probings of the media, he withdrew from the election, only to return in October. Perot's entrance into the race reflected the impatience of the electorate with politics and their dissatisfaction with the major parties. Perot was also able to gain such a level of support because he was allowed to participate in all three Presidential debates. Incumbents at every level were worried, and an unprecedented number of members of Congress chose not to seek reelection. Bush and Quayle stressed "family values." Bush called for across-the-board tax cuts, and public opinion polls revealed the closeness of the race.
The Clinton camp began to use the famous slogan "It's the economy, stupid!" and he was successful in presenting his theme of change. Clinton won an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College (370 to 168) but received only 43 percent of the popular vote.
William Jefferson Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton became the 42nd President of the United States in 1992, signalling a generational change. He was the first Democrat in over 50 years to win a second term and presided over the longest peace time economic expansion in history. He was an activist, progressive president (of a breed of politicians which he called the "New Democrats") who stayed constantly surrounded by controversy.
Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe in Hope, Arkansas and was raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1950, Clinton's mother remarried to Roger Clinton, Clinton's natural father having been killed in an automobile accident, three months before his son's birth. Roger Clinton was an alcoholic gambler who would beat his wife and Clinton's half-brother also named Roger.
Clinton's Domestic Agenda
Clinton had a very progressive agenda, which included ending the recession of the early 90s, health care reforms, and domestic reforms. Clinton, working with the Republican Congress, helped narrow the deficit by cutting spending and increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans. On the issue of health care, Clinton wanted to stop the rising costs of health care and provide the estimated 39 million uninsured Americans with health insurance. He created a task force, headed by his wife, Hillary Clinton, to deal with the problem, but critics attacked the plan. They worried that the plan was too expensive and too complicated. Congress would never vote on Clinton's plan, and his health care effort would die.
Clinton was able to succeed in other efforts, though. Despite opposition, Clinton was able to pass the Brady Bill (named after James Brady, who was crippled after being shot in the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt), which created a mandatory waiting period in which gun vendors could check a buyer's criminal background before a buyer could recieve his gun. A 1994 crime bill complemented the bill by banning 19 kinds of assault weapons and creating 100,000 new police jobs.
Clinton was also able to push Congress to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), despite strong opposition from labor unions (which, ironically, are the strongest source of Democrat support). The agreement would provide lower costs for consumers in many markets, due to increased trading with Mexico and Canada.
Keeping Peace
During the Clinton administration, keeping peace in other parts of the world was a priority. When the President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown by violent dictators, Clinton sent troops to Haiti to pressure the new dictators to step down and to help slow the tidal wave of Hatian refugees fleeing to Florida. They did step down, and Aristide's power was restored.
Another challenge to peace was a bloody civil war that had erupted in Yugoslavia, part of the Balkan peninsula in Europe. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Croatia all declared independence from Yugoslavia, but many Serbs (from Serbia, a part of Yugoslavia) still lived in those areas, and Yugoslavia fought to hold onto parts of Bosnia and Croatia. As America became aware of the atrocities of the war, Clinton arranged peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, and the Serbs, the Croats, and the Bosnians signed a peace agreement in Decmber 1995. Eventually, another conflict would arise in the region during Clinton's second term.
1994 Midterm Elections
During the 1994 midterm Congressional elections, Republicans presented a plan called the "Contract with America." The contract detailed the actions Republicans would take upon becoming the majority party in Congress. This charge was led by Newt Gingrich. The GOP plan was a success, winning the Republicans a majority in the House for the first time in 40 years, and a Republican majority in the Senate. The massive success became known as the Republican Revolution.
In retrospect, the Republicans' dramatically large gains can be attributed to many things. A larger than average number of incumbents retired, and thus there was a larger number of open seat races, which are far easier to switch parties. Additionally, the previously Democratic-controlled House had been plagued by a scandal since before the 1992 election. The scandal implicated far more Democrats than Republicans and can in part be blamed for the large number of open seats. Historians and political scientists also point to President Clinton's resounding failure to pass his universal healthcare plan in a Democratic-controlled congress. The plan had been a large part of his 1992 campaign and was to be the cornerstone of his first-term agenda. The defeat likely demoralized Democratic voters, who ended up turning out in low numbers.
1996 Election
Clinton easily won Democratic renomination in 1996. His opponent was Kansas senator Bob Dole, who had served in Congress since 1961. Dole claimed that he could lower taxes by 15 percent and that Clinton was an unethical president. Clinton said that Dole would ruin the evironment and reverse the progress that Clinton had made with medicare. Ross Perot ran again, and relying on infomercials, also claimed that Clinton was unethical.
Despite it all, Clinton won the election in a landslide, while Perot received a much smaller amount of votes than he did in the 1992 election. Even though the Democratic campaign for the presidency was successful, they didn't fare well in the congressional elections. Republicans gained 2 seats in the Senate, giving them a 55-45 majority. Even though Democrats gained 11 seats in the House, Republicans still held a 226-207 majority. Independents held two seats. Republicans had total control of Congress.
Conflict in Kosovo
After 1995, it seemed that things would stay relatively quiet in the Balkans. But a series of events would lead to rampant political instability within Yugoslavia and eventually a civil war. Kosovo, a province of Serbia (which was a part of Yugoslavia) was home to a large number of Albanians (from the neighbooring Albania), who were actually the ethnic majority in the area. In the late eighties and early nineties, the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic passed laws that eliminated Kosovo's constitutional rights and opressed Albanians. In 1991, Kosovo voted to break away from Yugoslavia. Although Yugoslavia claimed that the vote was illegal, things in the area stayed relatively quiet until April 1996, when a mysterious organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began attacking Serbian civilians.
Eventually, the attacks on civialians caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee Kosovo. Serbians viewed the KLA as a group of terrorists, and retaliated. As the violence became bloodier and bloodier, more and more refugees began to flee into Macedonia, and tensions between the refugee Albanians and the native Mecedonian Slavs grew, and a possible civil war loomed. A civil war in Macedonia would have been catastrophic to the already damaged stability and security of the area, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization concluded that intervention was needed.
A coalition of NATO members, headed by the United States, began a bombing campaign on March 24, 1999. The goal of the campaign was to force the Serbs to leave Kosovo so that the Albanian refugees could return to their homes. Initially, the bombing caused a mass Albanian exodus from Kosovo, with the U.N. reporting that over 850,000 Albanians had fled from Kosovo to Albania or Macedonia. Milosevic would not step down until June, when Finnish and Russian negotiators convinced him that NATO was serious in its goal and that Russia (a long time protector of Slavic people) would not step in to protect Yugoslavia. On June 10, the bombings ended, and an occupation of the area by U.N. and NATO peacekeeping troops began. Kosovo lay in ruins and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.
Oklahoma City Bombing
The Oklahoma City Bombing took place on April 19, 1995. The incident took place when a truck bomb exploded near the federal building. 169 people would die. Timothy McVeigh, the suspected culprit, would be put on trial and sentence to death a few years after the incident. This was the worst terrorist attack on US soil until September 11.
Columbine High School Massacre
On April 20, 1999, two students, members of the so-called Trenchcoat Militia, rampaged Columbine High School. On this day, fifteen died including the shooters and approximately twenty-three were injured. This massacre would spark copycat incidents across the United States and cause concern over gun control.
The Monica Lewinsky Scandal
The Monica Lewinsky Scandal was a scandal involving President Bill Clinton and a young White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Bill Clinton had a relationship that was sexual in nature with the intern and lied about it in court. The catalyst of the scandal were the tape recordings of Linda Tripp and Lewinsky discussing Lewinsky's relationship with Clinton, conversations recorded by Tripp.
Initially, the Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was investigating President and Mrs. Clinton's role in the Whitewater scandal, which led to the investigation of the Lewinsky affair after Attorney-General Janet Reno granted Starr authority to probe the affair. The incident that led to the advancement of the scandal was the procurement of the tapes of Linda Tripp and Lewinsky discussing her relationship with Clinton, by Starr from Tripp. There doesn't appear to be any evidence that Starr sought the tapes out or knew of their existence, rather it was perhaps Linda Tripp who handed them over freely to Starr.
On February 12, 1999, the US Senate voted on the Articles of Impeachment requiring a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, to convict. On Article 1, which charged that the President willfully provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony to the grand jury" in relation to the Paula Jones lawsuit, 45 Senators voted for guilty and removal from Office, and 55 for not-guilty and no removal from Office. On Article II, which charged that the President "prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice", 50 Senators voted for guilty and 50 for not-guilty.
Clinton Body Count
There is a conspiracy theory that states that the Clintons were behind the mysterious deaths of several key witnesses in trials against them. Nothing can be proven about this matter.
Land for Peace
In the Israel-Palistine Conflict, some have seen that it would be adventageous if Israel gave up its land. Not all supported such ideas.
Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (Hebrew: יִצְחָק רַבִּין, 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel with two periods in office, from 1974 until 1977 and from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. In 1994 during his second term Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, for their efforts towards peace which culminated in the Oslo Accords. He was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing Israeli radical who had strenuously opposed Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords. He was the first native-born Prime Minister of Israel, the only Prime Minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol.
On November 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing Orthodox Jew who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords and believed he was saving the country from a dire fate. The shooting took place in the evening as Rabin was leaving a mass rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo process. Rabin was rushed to the nearby Ichilov Hospital, where he died on the operating table of blood loss and a punctured lung.
The assassination of Rabin came as a great shock to the Israeli public. Hundreds of thousands of grieving Israelis thronged the square where Rabin was assassinated to mourn his death. Young people, in particular, turned out in large numbers, lighting memorial candles and singing peace songs. Rabin's funeral was attended by many world leaders, among them U.S. president Bill Clinton, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and King Hussein of Jordan. Bill Clinton delivered an eulogy whose memorable final words were in Hebrew - "Shalom, Haver" meaning "Goodbye, Friend."
Y2K, the Millenium Bug
The year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem, the millennium bug and the Y2K Bug) was the result of a practice in computer program design that caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after January 1, 2000. It turned into a major fear that critical industries (such as electricity or financial) and government functions would stop working at 12:00 AM, January 1, 2000, and at other critical dates which were billed as "event horizons." This fear was fueled by the press coverage and other media speculation, as well as corporate and government reports. All over the world companies and organizations checked and upgraded their computer systems. The preparation for Y2K had a significant effect on the computer industry.
2000 to the Present
George W. Bush, September 11, 2nd Gulf War, and Terrorism (2001-2006)
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George W. Bush, September 11, 2nd Gulf War, and Terrorism (2001-2006)
2000 Election
As Clinton's presidency came to a close, Democrats faced a challenge. The Monica Lewinsky scandal had damaged the trust of many in the Democratic party. They chose Al Gore, Clinton's vice president, as their nominee, and the Republicans chose George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and son of George H.W. Bush. Gore beat former Senator Bill Bradley (NJ), and Bush beat Sen. John McCain (AZ), former ambassador and perennial candidate Alan Keyes, former Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole, and several others. Even with the scandal still fresh in the minds of Americans, the race was very close, and one state would decide the entire election.
Throughout the last decade of the millennium, Florida had traditionally been a Democratic-leaning state, although not solidly Democratic (like, for example, California or New York). However, explosive population growth in the late nineties had brought many social and economic conservative Cubans to the South Florida area, the Democratic stronghold. The growth had left Florida very evenly split among the parties.
On election night, the news media outlets first predicted Florida to go to Gore just before 8 pm EST, then to Bush around 2 am EST, and then decided that the race was too close to call in the early morning hours. Florida law provided for an automatic recount when votes differ by such a small margin, and when Florida decided that Bush had won, Democrats cried foul, and Gore sued Bush accordingly, forcing further recounts in several Florida counties. Bush counter-sued, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In a 5-4 decision, the court decided that the state of Florida must recount all the ballots in all the Florida counties and not just those in disproportionately Democratic counties, in accordance with the equal protection clause afforded by the U.S. Constitution. As Florida was required to certify its election (by the Florida Constitution) within days of the court's decision, there was not enough time to recount the entire state, and thus the final state count stood. In the end, Bush won Florida by 537 votes. In the aftermath of the election, charges of voter fraud, intimidation, and manipulation were raised, although never legally proven. Even though Bush won Florida, and as a result received 271 electoral votes to Gore's 267, and the presidency, he lost the popular vote. After more than five weeks and much scrutiny on the state of Florida, the 2000 election had finally been decided.
George Walker Bush
Following the election in November 2000, George Walker Bush, the son of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, was inaugurated President of the United States. His first term would be filled with a great deal of controversy.
9/11 and its Aftermath
Less than a year later, on September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airline jets. Two of the aircraft were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York, which resulted in their collapse and the deaths of thousands of occupants and rescuers. Another was flown into the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters in Washington, D.C. The fourth airliner crashed in Pennsylvania as a result of resistance by the passengers. Its intended target is believed to have been the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Approximately 3000 people died in the attacks. This event eventually became known as "9/11".
Responsibility for the attacks was soon attached to Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Quaeda, an Islamic terrorist group with training camps in Afghanistan. Bin Laden's exact grievances have been debated, but include US military presence in major Islamic nations and US support of Israel. There had been many smaller terrorist attacks aimed towards Americans by al-Quaeda before 2001, including the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Following the September 11th attacks, there was a major scare when anthrax, a deadly bacteria if inhaled or ingested, was snuck into the mail system. It was manufactured in powdered spores, making it easy to use as a biological weapon. Five people died as a result of the attacks. At the height of the scare, the House of Representatives adjourned because of the threat of anthrax in the Capitol building itself. The attacks ended by the end of the year, and no one was charged of orchestrating them.
The attacks, while devastating and deadly, abruptly ended the period of sharp division after the 2000 election. Over the next year, America experienced a period of unprecedented political unity among the public and elected officials alike. Americans more readily expressed pride in their country and rallied to counter the terror instilled by the attacks. George Bush received praise from across the political spectrum for his leadership following the attacks and his swift invasion of Afghanistan.
The attacks also shook the worldwide economy. Stocks tumbled when the New York Stock Exchange reopened the week following the attacks. The travel industry also declined because fewer Americans wanted to fly (due to the nature of the 9/11 attacks). Many airlines went bankrupt. A recession, following the economic boom during Bill Clinton's second term, was exacerbated by the attacks.
The War on Terror
Directly following the September 11th attacks, Congress drafted and overwhelmingly passed the USA PATRIOT Act and the president signed it into law on October 26, 2001. The law, while forcing citizens to forfeit some rights, strengthened the government's ability to gather information and convict suspected terrorists. Hundreds of accused terrorists have been charged and approximately half have been convicted. However, there have also been reports of abuse of the law, and it went under reexamination by Congress in 2005.
Also following the attacks, the United States declared a symbolic war on terrorism. The first target in the war was Afghanistan, where the Taliban government was supposedly hiding Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. After the U.S. government demanded that the Taliban turn Bin Laden over and their refusal to comply, U.S. and British forces began bombing strategic Taliban centers, on October 7. The invasion was swift, and major fighting had ended by the middle of 2002. The Taliban government had been eliminated, and the Afghanis soon participated in their first democratic processes in many years.
In his January 2002 State of the Union address, with the worldwide spotlight on national security and war, George Bush named the countries of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as a part of the "Axis of Evil," a phrase he partially coined from the World War II Axis Powers. President Bush specifically named these three countries because they were all described as rogue states, either fostering terrorists or trying to obtain arms. Iraq was named because its dictator, Saddam Hussein, was widely believed to be pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Iran was believed to be preparing to create nuclear weapons and sponsoring terrorists. North Korea, under its dictator Kim Jong-il, had been pursuing nuclear weapons since the mid-90s.
The successful invasion of Afghanistan was the first time that the newly adopted Bush Doctrine had been carried out. At first, the Bush Doctrine stated that there was no difference between a terrorist and one who fosters a terrorist. Bush added to his new doctrine in a June 1, 2002 speech to the West Point graduating class, where he stated that the U.S. would practice pre-emptive strikes (that is, the practice of attacking enemy states before they attack the U.S.) He also stated that America would act alone (without the help of allies) if it needed to, and that the U.S. would continue to remain far above the rest of the world in terms of military power. Finally, he said that it was the United States' duty to spread freedom and democracy to the rest of the world.
War in Iraq
In the middle of 2002, the United Nations began focusing its attention on Iraq, the number one member of Bush's axis of evil. American and international intelligence agencies had considerable intelligence indicating that Iraq possessed a great number of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) as well as the ongoing capacity to produce them. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1441, requiring Iraq to open up to weapons inspectors or else face "serious consequences." Two of the veto-wielding members (France and Russia) of the Security Council did not wish to use military force against Iraq, and promised to veto any resolution ordering such force. It was argued by some that those nations had ulterior motives for this, such as oil contracts with Iraq.
As a result to a perceived security threat verified by intelligence that has now been found to have been unreliable, President Bush and a number of allies, deemed by the President as the "coalition of the willing," began the invasion without UN sanction. On the night of March 17, 2003, President Bush gave Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, an ultimatum to leave Iraq in 48 hours or force America to invade. They refused. After the expiration of the deadline given by the President, explosions were heard in Baghdad, the capitol of Iraq. The invasion of Iraq had begun. The invasion lasted only a short time, and the Iraqi government and military collapsed within three weeks.
During the invasion, Hussein was unable to be located. After months of searching, Hussein was finally captured on December 13. Weapons of Mass Destruction were never located in Iraq, and the intelligence indicating that such weapons would be found has been proven faulty. Continued suicide bombings and the ongoing American casualties led to a steady decline in American popular support for the war.
The invasion of Iraq is considered by many to mark the end of the political unity following the September 11th attacks. Although both the public and Congress favored going to war by sometimes overwhelming majorities, a substantial minority expressed reservations about invading. Many feared that the administration lacked a plan for rebuilding once the war was over. Still others worried that an invasion would alienate (mostly European) U.S. allies. The Vatican eventually came out against the war. On February 15, just one month before the invasion commenced, millions protested worldwide, including thousands in 150 U.S. cities.
Gay Marriage
Another key issue at the end of Bush's first term was the issue of same-sex marriage. On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the banning of gay marriage is unconstitutional, thereby allowing gay marriage in that state. Following the Massachusetts ruling, California, Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and most recently Connecticut allow for same-sex civil unions, reciprocal benefits, or domestic partnerships (all of which are similar to marriage, besides the fact that they go by a different name). Conservatives were dismayed by the same-sex movement, and in February of 2004, President Bush called for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The Senate looked into the issue, but only a minority supported the provision, while a two thirds majority is needed to pass an amendment in Congress.
The civil rights, same-sex movement took a major hit on Election day, when seven states (Georgia, Arkansas, Michigan, North Dakota, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Utah) made it unconstitutional for marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships between same-sex couples. Three more (Oregon, Mississippi, and Montana) made it illegal only for homosexuals to marry, and one more (Ohio) passed an amendment illegalizing any benefits whatsoever for homosexual couples. This was all in addition to a few previous bans by constitution and many by state law in all of the states except those that allow marriage or union and Rhode Island, New York, and New Mexico.
2004 Election
Being enormously popular with his own party, Bush won renomination by the Republicans in the 2004 election unopposed. Much to the contrary, ten Democrats sought their party's nomination. Retiring Senator Bob Graham of Florida never built up a following in the polls and dropped out in August, 2003. Former Senator Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois (the first African-American woman to serve in the Senate) dropped out the night before the Iowa Caucus. The primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination started on the 19th of January, 2004 with the Iowa caucus. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont for more than a decade led in most media polls and garnered a decisive win in the symbolic Washington D.C. primary. A flurry of negative campaigning between the two top candidates for the nomination just before Iowa caused embarrassing losses for Dean and Richard Gephardt, the former House Minority Leader. Massachusetts senator John F. Kerry, whose campaign was declared dead by some commentators only a few weeks earlier, won the caucus. Senator Joe Lieberman and General Wesley Clark decided to skip Iowa. Arguably, Dean never recovered from the media obsession with some of his controversial statements. As a result, in the end, Dean won only the primary in his home state, Vermont. Dick Gephardt, of Missouri, dropped out after a disappointing fourth place. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, whose campaign had cash but never any traction, picked up a surprise strong second.
The momentum from Iowa propelled Kerry to immediately overtake Dean's lead in New Hampshire and to win a big victory there one week later. Kerry further cemented his position as front-runner by taking home most of the prizes in the "Mini Tuesday" slew of primaries one week later. Joe Lieberman quit after failing to win a single state. After decisively winning Super Tuesday on March 2, Kerry's last surviving rival, John Edwards, stepped aside; however, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) continued to win a few delegates and Dean remained on certain ballots. At the Democratic Convention in July all the other candidates, save Dennis Kucinich, arguably the most liberal of the candidates, released their delegates to Kerry. As a result, Kerry became the Democratic nominee for President.
Kerry chose North Carolina Senator John Edwards, ostensibly the Democratic candidate who received second place in terms of delegates, as his running mate. Kerry was recognized as a liberal Senator - he openly supported gay rights and same sex civil unions, was pro-choice and supported embryonic stem cell research, and opposed drilling in Alaska for oil. The Bush campaign targeted Kerry as a "flip-flopper," a term coined by the campaign to indicate that the Senator from Massachusetts changed his position constantly. The flip-flopping label was directed particularly toward Kerry's positions on the war in Iraq. In regard to a bill that passed the United States Senate providing $87 billion in funding to the war, Senator Kerry made the remark that "I actually voted for the eighty-seven billion - before I voted against it." The Bush campaign took advantage of this remark and used it as the epicenter of their flip-flopping campaign against the Senator.
Polling had indicated the election would be very close. This proved relatively true on Election Day. Bush was able to widen his margin of victory in Florida this time around. The results from this election were far more decisive than in 2000. In the popular vote Bush won 51%, Kerry won 48%, and Nader (this time running as an independent supported by the Reform party) saw his support collapse. The final electoral vote total was 286 for Bush and 252 for Kerry.
Additionally, Republicans strengthened their hold in both houses of Congress, particularly increasing their majority in the Senate to 55-44. The strengthening of the control of the Senate would be important to the Republicans in the following year.
The Start of a New Term
Social Security
Created in 1935, Social Security OASDI is a government program that has so far provided most seniors with a steady income based on the real value of their prior earnings. It is funded by a 6.2 percent tax on each workers' pay and and on each employers' payrolls. Surpluses are held in Treasury securities in special Trust Funds which are credited with interest.
The cumulative surplus is projected by government actuaries to peak around 2018 or 2019 and then to decline until the Trust Funds are exhausted in sometime between 2042 and 2052. There is a huge component of farce in this system in that the government has already spent the money represented by the bonds, but counts the current year's surplus of more than $100 billion as a partial offset to the government's cash deficit. Paying the Trust Funds for their bonds will require cash from government taxes which never seems to be available.
In the latter part of his first term and in his 2004 campaign, Bush focused on the issue of Social Security, and how to prevent its bankruptcy. He proposed a plan (which went nowhere and will not be considered in the 110th congress.) to have young workers set up stock funds (like 401k's) which might turn out to produce better retirement benefits thsn OASDI but would have done nothing to solve the system deficits. Many experts expect that the only long-term solution is a tax increase of about 2 percent of payroll, or a government subsidy of the same size. No one expects congress to tackle the problem until matters become threatening in about a decade.
Cabinet Replacements
At the start of his second term, Bush's cabinet saw significant changes. Colin Powell departed as Secretary of State, replaced by National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, the first African American female to hold the position. Stephen Hadley now occupied Rice's former position. Alberto Gonzales replaced John Ashcroft as attorney general the first Mexican American to hold this post. Tom Ridge former Governor and Vietnam War Hero also resigned from the post of Secretary of Homeland Security. Michael Chertoff, a Justice Department official, took his place.
The Double Vacancy on the Supreme Court
In October, 2004, William H. Rehnquist was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. As he battled thyroid cancer for the next few months, many people began to anticipate that he would soon retire from the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. However, by the end of that session, he had not announced his retirement, and in July, 2005, he informed the press that he would remain on the Court as long as his health permitted.
Despite all expectations, Sandra Day O'Connor ended up being the first member of the Court to retire. Special-interest groups that had been preparing for a fight over who should replace Rehnquist, liberal and conservative alike, found themselves having to engage in a much more crucial battle. Prior to O'Connor's retirement, the Court had consisted of two staunch conservatives (Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas), one moderate conservative (Rehnquist), one moderate liberal (Anthony Kennedy), four staunch liberals (John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer), and O'Connor, who was the Court's only true centrist. In many cases relating to restrictions on abortion, affirmative action, and detention of unlawful combatants, O'Connor had been the deciding vote. Liberals feared that the replacement of O'Connor with a conservative would cause the Supreme Court to begin disregarding human rights. Conservatives realized that the replacement of O'Connor with a conservative would leave conservatives only one vote away from a majority on the Court.
John Roberts
On July 19, President Bush nominated John Roberts, a judge serving on the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to fill the vacancy created by O'Connor. Liberals were for the most part against the Roberts nomination, claiming that he would be far to the right of O'Connor. Conservatives had mixed reactions. Some conservatives thought that Roberts was just what they wanted. Others, however, did not approve of the nomination. Their disapproval was primarily based on a quote he had made to the Senate Judiciary Committee two years before, in which he said, "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land… There is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent, as well as Casey." Supporters argued that this quote was made when he was nominated as a Circuit Court judge, and that therefore, he had no authority to overturn Roe, but that he would attempt to overturn it if he were appointed to the Supreme Court.
On September 3, 2005, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died of complications from thyroid cancer. This created a double vacancy. On September 6, President Bush withdrew the nomination of Roberts to the office of Associate Justice and instead nominated him to be Chief Justice. The Senate Judiciary Committee began holding hearings for John Roberts on September 12. On September 22, the Committee voted 13-5 to approve the Roberts nomination.
On September 29, 2005, the Senate confirmed the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court by a vote of 78-22. Hours later, Associate Justice John Paul Stevens swore him in as the seventeenth Chief Justice of the United States.
Harriet Miers
Having successfully nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court, Bush now turned his attention back to filling O'Connor's vacancy. He spent the weekend considering who to nominate. On October 3, 2005, he chose the White House Counsel, Harriet Miers.
The Miers nomination was very controversial from the first. Both the Republicans and Democrats criticized the nomination. Many liberals accused Bush of cronyism. Bush's conservative base was divided over Miers. Some conservatives supported Miers, believing that since Bush knew Miers in person, he knew what kind of judge she would be better than they did. Others, however, were afraid that Miers would turn out to be a moderate or liberal and felt betrayed by Bush. All opponents of Miers argued that she had no judicial experience.
Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination on October 27, 2005, after weeks of criticism. President Bush spent the following weekend trying to decide who he should nominate next. On the moring of October 31, 2005, President Bush announced the nomination of a circuit court judge named Samuel Alito.
Samuel Alito
Conservatives were quick to applaud President Bush for nominating Alito to the Court, and liberals were quick to oppose the new nomination. Conservatives saw in him a competent judge who would develop a truly conservative reputation on the Court and oppose Roe v. Wade. Unlike with the Miers nomination, Bush's conservative base was mostly in support of the Alito nomination.
President Bush was hoping Alito would be confirmed by the Senate before Christmas. However, Senator Arlen Specter, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, scheduled the confirmation hearings for January 9-13, 2006. The hearings began and ended on schedule. Several major issues that were raised during the hearings were his past membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, his failure to recuse himself from cases involving a low-cost mutual fund corporation called the Vanguard Group, and his views on Executive power. Arlen Specter intended for the Committee to vote on the nomination on January 16, but on that day, he announced that he was postponing the vote, which was now to occur on January 24. On January 24, 2006, the nomination of Samuel Alito was approved by the Committee, and the Senate debates began the next day.
On January 31, 2006, Samuel Alito was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 58-42. Thereafter, Sandra Day O'Connor officially retired. Samuel Alito was sworn in as the 110th Associate Justice hours later. The next day, he was ceremonially sworn in.
Souring Public Mood
A confluence of events, beginning at the end of 2005, began to turn public opinion against the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled congress, and, as many argue, toward the opposition Democrats in the 2006 election year.
Hurricane Katrina
The summer of 2005 saw a very active hurricane season, with a total of five hurricanes striking the Gulf Coast. Of these, on August 29, Hurricane Katrina, struck New Orleans as a strong, 'category three' hurricane, breached the levees on Lake Pontchartrain, flooding the city, devastated the surrounding coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and to a lesser extent, the already struck Florida panhandle (it also struck South Florida, but the effects were far less than those seen in the Gulf). The catastrophic flooding and subsequent responses from all levels of the government highlighted many far reaching deficiencies in the government's ability to protect the country in times of disaster.
Mistakes at the state and local levels were made primarily before the storm. The most glaring mistake made by the state of Louisiana was its issuance of evacuation orders, but no provision of transportation for the estimated 120,000 poor, elderly, and sick unable to leave the inner city. After the storm struck, governor Kathleen Blanco's (of Louisiana) alleged refusal to give control of the state's National guard troops to the President caused the rampant looting crisis in the city to be firmly her responsibility. She did not commit herself to fighting the looting in the city until September 2, nearly five days after landfall.
But by far, most criticism was directed towards the federal response and the Bush Administration. The American people, aided by angry criticism from the news media, perceived the response as proof that America was woefully unprepared for another disaster, even after the governmental reforms following 9/11. President Bush did not survey the disaster area until August 31, and was criticized by the media for treating the disaster too casually. President Bush is famously quoted as saying "Brownie, you're doing one heck of a job." This was the same day that Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the man he was referring to, told reporters that he and the federal government were unaware of the horrific conditions in the Louisiana Superdome (the primary shelter for those unable to evacuate), even though the news media had been reporting on them for days.
The result of the storm was a realization by the American people that disaster relief agencies were unprepared for what they were created to do. President Bush's approval dropped to its lowest point during his entire presidency, and he was accused of cronyism for hiring unqualified officials to the Department of Homeland Security. Congressional hearings to investigate the matter were to commence in the coming months.
Growing Scandal
In addition to complaints of cronyism, a multitude of scandals were brewing in Washington. The CIA Leak scandal ("Plamegate") involved pre-Iraq War intelligence. Joseph C. Wilson, a former diplomat to African countries in previous decades, was recommended by his wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame, to investigate claims that Iraq was buying uranium from Niger. He alleges that he found no connection between the two countries, but President Bush said in his January 2003 State of the Union Address that "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." That summer, Wilson wrote a column in the New York Times that was highly critical of this remark, and told reporters in several anonymous interviews that the Bush administration was misrepresenting intelligence. A few days after Wilson's column was published, the Washington Post published a column in its paper revealing the identity of the undercover Valerie Plame, thus ruining her career as an agent. Wilson claimed that high officials, namely Karl Rove, the President's chief of staff and a top Republican strategist, leaked her identity to the paper for "retribution" for Wilson's dissent.
Eventually, an investigation into the matter was opened up. It is illegal for high officials, elected or not, to leak classified information without going through a declassification process. A special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald of Illinois, was appointed to head the investigation. In 2005, he indicted Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, for perjury and obstruction of justice in the investigation. Later, Libby testified that he was authorized by White House "superiors" to leak classified info regarding prewar intelligence. The investigation remained ongoing, and many speculated that Fitzgerald was aiming to indict a higher official for the actual investigated offense, leaking Plame's identity, rather than lying to investigators.
Meanwhile, investigations regarding lobbying and political corruption in Congress were ongoing. Jack Abramoff, a top Republican lobbyist, pleaded guilty in early 2006 to three felony charges related to his defrauding of his Native American tribe lobbying clients and tax evasion. He consented to enter a plea bargain in which he agreed to testify in related Congressional corruption investigations in return for a lesser sentence.
Late in 2005, the House Republican leader, Tom Delay, was indicted for conspiracy to violate election law, money laundering, and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. Because of the indictments, Republican house rules forced Delay to temporarily step down as majority leader. A judge threw out the election law violations, but upheld the other charges, causing the rest of Delay's caucus to successfully pressure him to permanently step down as majority leader. Eventually, Delay's heavy association with a litany of scandals forced him to resign from the House in order for his party to retain his congressional seat.
Dubai Ports Controversy
In February 2006, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), a private British firm specializing in running seaports, agreed to sell itself to Dubai Ports World (DPW, a similar company state-owned by Dubai. P&O ran seaport terminals in in New York, Miami, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Baltimore and other major ports. When Democrat Chuck Schumer announced the deal, the news media quickly picked up the story and controversy erupted. Critics of the deal pointed to the fact that, although P&O was also foreign-owned, DPW was a state-owned company run by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Congressional Democrats vehemently opposed handing the control of ports to a government suspected of funding the terrorists that attacked on 9/11, and many congressional Republican leaders also openly questioned the deal and called on President Bush to intervene.
At first, President Bush strongly opposed intervening, and congress's plans to pass regulations on the deal prompted a veto threat. Bush's perceived stubbornness concerning the deal, in addition to a gas price spike and violence coupled with a high profile bombing in Iraq, sunk his approval rating to another all-time low.
Eventually, congress did pass some blocks to the deal. This prompted DPW to announce that it would be selling off its U.S. port operations to an American company or companies as part of the deal to buy P&O. By the conclusion of the controversy, Americans had lost confidence in the President to deal with issues of national security. Democrats seemed poised to take advantage of the President's new weakness in the upcoming congressional elections.
Many more scandals took place during this period, big and small, including the Dick Cheney hunting incident, the scandal surrounding Mark Foley, increasing tension with North Korea and Iran.
2006 Midterm Elections
The Democrats won back the House and the Senate. This mid-term election is notable for the fact that no incumbent Democrat vying for a national congressional position was voted from office. A summary of the 2006 election results copied from the Wikipedia United States House of Representatives and the US Senate entries is reproduced here:
| Party | Seats | Popular Vote | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 2006 | +/− | % | Vote | % | +/− | ||
| Democratic Party | 202 | 233 | +31 | 53.6% | 39,673,226 | 52.0% | +5.4% | |
| Republican Party | 232 | 202 | −30 | 46.4% | 34,748,277 | 45.6% | –3.6% | |
| Independents | 1 | 0 | −1 | 0 | 501,632 | 0.7% | +0.1% | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,305,803 | 1.7% | –1.9% | |
| Total | 435 | 435 | 0 | 100.0% | 76,228,938 | 100.0% | 0 | |
| view, talk, edit | ||||||||
Special case: FL-13 (FL certified the Republican the winner, but this election is being disputed in court and congress.)
| Party | Breakdown | Total Seats | Popular Vote | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up | Elected | Not Up | 2004 | 2006 | +/− | Vote | % | ||
| Democratic Party | 17 | 22 | 27 | 44 | 49 | +5 | 33,134,651 | 53.8% | |
| Republican Party | 15 | 9 | 40 | 55 | 49 | −6 | 26,127,486 | 42.4% | |
| Independents | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 878,486 | 1.4% | |
| Libertarian Party | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 600,991 | 1.0% | |
| Green Party | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 402,800 | 0.7% | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 408,335 | 0.7% | |
| Total | 33 | 33 | 67 | 100 | 100 | 0 | 61,552,749 | 100.0% | |
| Sources: The Associated Press, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Elections (unofficial) | view, talk, edit | ||||||||
The Democratic Party is considered to hold a majority with 51 seats because the two independents, Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut), have indicated that they will caucus with the Democrats.
The rise of India/China/globalization. Include secret detention centers/Iraqi detainee prison scandals. Donald Rumsfeld resigned and was replaced by Bob Casey. Israeli-Lebanese war. Brief overview of worsening Middle-East situation. The developing Somali-Ethiopian conflict?
Falling Dollar
The U.S. economy and its currency as an instrument of world trade has suffered a series of major setbacks in recent months. Some analysts say that the Federal Reserve's September 18th dramatic rate cut to 4.75% from 5.25% may be a case of "too little, too late", or that it was excessive and dooms the dollar.
On September 20, 2007, Saudi officials declined to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time in decades. According to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor for The Daily Telegraph, "it's a signal that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East."
Hans Redeker, the Currency Chief at BNP Paribas, also stated today that Saudi Arabia's move to not adjust their own interest rates in sync with the Fed's cuts is a very dangerous situation for the US dollar. Redeker points out that "Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States
Kosovo
The Kosovar Assembly approved a declaration of independence on 17 February 2008. Over the following days, several countries (United States, Turkey, Albania, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Australia and others) announced their recognition, despite protests by Serbia in the UN Security Council.
The UN Security Council remains divided on the question (as of 25 February 2008). Of the five members with veto power, three (USA, UK, France) recognize the declaration of independence, and two (Russia and China) consider it illegal.
The European Union has no official position towards Kosovo's status, but has decided to deploy the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo to ensure a continuation of international civil presence in Kosovo.
Of Kosovo's immediate neighbour states (other than Serbia), Albania recognizes the declaration of independence, Macedonia announced they will likely recognize it within "a few weeks" and Montenegro stated they will wait for a decision of the European Union.
Russian Resistance
Russian President Vladimir Putin describes the recognition of Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence by several major world powers as "a terrible precedent," ... that "breaks up the entire system of international relations," ... which has taken "centuries to evolve." "And undoubtedly, it may entail a whole chain of unpredictable consequences to other regions in the world" and that will come back to hit the West "in the face."
Embassy Bombing
About 1,000 protesters set fire to the embassy on Thursday in anger at Kosovo's declaration of independence, which the US and others recognised.
The UK, German, Croatian, Belgian and Turkish embassies were also attacked.
Both the Serbian president and PM have condemned the violence, which left one dead and more than 100 injured.
US embassy spokeswoman Rian Harris told AFP news agency: "Dependents are being temporarily ordered to depart Belgrade. We do not have confidence that Serbian authorities can provide security for our staff members."
Links
http://www.whitehouse.gov/results/leadership/bio_268.html
http://www.dassk.com/contents.php?id=459
Growing Crisis with Iran (2006-)
Growing Crisis with Iran (2002-)
Contents | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Operation Merlin
Operation Merlin is an alleged United States covert operation under the Clinton Administration to provide Iran with a flawed design for building a nuclear weapon in order to delay the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
In his book State of War, author and New York Times intelligence correspondent James Risen claims that the CIA chose a defected Russian nuclear scientist to provide deliberately flawed nuclear warhead blueprints to Iranian officials in February 2000. Operation Merlin backfired when the Russian scientist noticed the flaws and pointed them out to the Iranians. Instead, the book alleges, it may have accelerated Iran's nuclear program by providing useful information, once the flaws were identified. Critics' contention Risen's citation of Seymour Hersh as well as anonymous sources make the book's claims somewhat suspicious.
Modern Crisis
On August 14th 2002, Alireza Jafarzadeh revealed the existence of two nuclear sites (Natanz, Arak) previously unknown to the International Atomic Energy Agency. This had many people worried that Iran might, now or later, get the capability to make a nuclear bomb. Since the revelation, the so-called EU-3 (Germany, France and Britain) have tried to pressure Iran to abandoning uranium enrichment. However, Iran has shown no sign of backing down, and after a few "voluntary suspensions", it began enriching uranium yet again.
Ultimately, the IAEA referred Iran to the UN Security Council, the body that can impose sanctions on Iran, or even authorize military action against the country, if Iran does not comply with its demands. Thus far, the Security Council has only agreed on a presidential statement, the weakest action that the body can take, demanding that Iran halt uranium enrichment. After the 30-days deadline passed without compliance by Iran, talks between Europe, Russia, China and the United States have begun yet again about how to handle the Iranian issue. The chance of getting China and Russia, supporters of Iran, to agree with sanctions was slim, but the Bush administration decided to take a gamble. Breaking with nearly 30 years of policy (not recognizing the Iranian regime), the administration offered bilateral talks with Iran on the nuclear issue, if Iran would halt uranium enrichment. It also offered some Euro-American economic and technological incentives for Iran, and the implicit threat of sanctions, if Iran does not accept the deal. Currently, the Iranians are deciding whether or not to accept the offer. President George W. Bush has said that Iran has weeks, not months to accept or reject the deal.
Involvement in 9/11
In July of 2004, the 9/11 Commission unearthed evidence that Iran might have offered safe passage to Al-Qaeda members, who were later involved in the September 11th attacks. However, the CIA had found "no direct connection between Iran and the attacks of Sept. 11." Ultimately, the 9/11 Commission found that Iran did allow safe passage for Al-Qaeda members, but that it had no part in, and was probably not aware of the plot to strike New York and Washington.
Anouncement of Enriched Uranium
Then on April 12, 2006, came the news that Iran had completed the enrichment of uranium and sought to increase the enrichment to create industrial grade uranium. What was next? Weapons grade uranium?
War in Iran?
Many people in the West feared that the United States was planning military action against Iran, in part because of the resemblance between Bush's diplomatic campaign against Iraq and Iran. Also, the American president's harsh rhetoric against Iran has contributed to that perception. Bush, in a State of the Union message, said that Iraq, Iran and North Korea were part of an "Axis of Evil." In the 2006 State of the Union speech, he had mentioned that he wanted Iran to become democratic and free, because the current theocratic dictatorship does not reflect the wishes of the people of Iran, according to Bush. However whether or not there was to be a war was yet to be seen. Bush has not ruled out an attack against Iran, but he is apparantly trying to downplay it.
Enriched Uranium Matter
The Matter about possible uranium enrichment in Iran was mentioned after the War in Iraq. Enrichment refers to the percentage of 238Uranuim to 235Uranium.
International View on Crisis
Russia and China so far are against any use of sanctions to make Iran abandon its enrichment program. iran has always condemned U.S hegemony over it.pakistan is affraid of U.S threats otherwise it is also a very close to Iran.
Arrest of Ramin Jahanbegloo
In May 2006, after he came back from India to Iran, he was arrested by the Iranian government, speculated to have a relation to his recent interview with a Spanish newspaper about Ahmadinejad's comments concerning the Holocaust.
On May 3, Iran judiciary branch officials confirmed that he has been arrested and now he is imprisoned in the Evin Prison. Additionally, an unconfirmed source told the Fars News Agency that he was charged with spying.
On May 4, a friend of his told CBC News that he has been transfered to a hospital.
On May 5, Human Rights Watch expressed concern about Ramin Jahanbegloo being detained without charge and stated that he must immediately be released.
On May 6, The Ottawa Citizen published an article containing concerns voiced by friends of Mr. Jahanbegloo that he was being tortured. These concerns become more urgent Friday, when it became known that Jahanbegloo had been examined twice in the medical clinic at Tehran's notorious Evin prison for political prisoners. Boston University Professor Houchang Chehabi, an Iranian friend of Mr. Jahanbegloo, indicated this was a "bad sign" because it "may mean he's been tortured..."
Kavoshgar-1
Kavoshgar-1 (Explorer-1) is the name of the first Iranian rocket type that is able to reach space. The first launch was conducted on February 4, 2008, as announced by state-run television (or maybe on February 25, 2007, as it is unknown if the two rockets launched are of the same type). Kavoshgar-1 is not, or not yet, able to carry a satellite, but only instruments to measure the higher atmosphere. The rocket launched on February 4, 2008, was a liquid propellant driven rocket, probably a derivate of the Shahab 3, that reached an orbit in space at an altitude of 200-250 km and successful returned science data according to the Iranian News Agency.
On February 19, 2008, Iran offered new information about the rocket and announced that Kavoshgar-1 is a two staged rocket. The first stage separated after 100 seconds and returned to earth with the help of a parachute. The second stage continued its ascend to the altitude of 200 kilometres. However it was not intended to reach orbital velocity.
UN Resolution
The U.N. Security Council imposed another round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, but Iran defiantly vowed Monday to continue its nuclear program despite the nearly unanimous censuring vote.
The resolution authorized a third set of sanctions targeting individuals, companies and equipment that could be used in Iran's nuclear program. It was adopted on a vote of 14-0, with Indonesia abstaining.
Two previous sanctions resolution were adopted unanimously, but diplomats said this vote still sent a strong message to the Tehran government that there is global concern that Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. Iran insists the program is aimed only at generating power.
The council imposed limited sanctions in December 2006 and has been ratcheting them up in hopes of pressuring Iran to suspend enrichment and start negotiations on its nuclear program. Iran has repeatedly defied the demand and has stepped up enrichment activities.
Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Khazee said just before Monday's vote that his government would not comply with what he called "unlawful action" against Iran's "peaceful nuclear program." He said the Security Council was being "downgraded to a mere tool of the national foreign policy of just a few countries."
"Iran cannot and will not accept a requirement which is legally defective and politically coercive," Khazee said. "History tells us that no amount of pressure, intimidation and threat will be able to coerce our nation to give up its basic and legal rights."
The Coming Election
Contents | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
2008 Election
"The people can have anything they want. The trouble is, they do not want anything. At least they vote that way on election day."—Eugene V. Debs
Open Seat
As a result of the 22nd Amendment to the constitution, George W. Bush is ineligible to run for a third term as president. Vice-President Dick Cheney has announced that he has no intention of seeking the presidency in 2008. Thus, for the first time in decades, there is no one who is incumbent from either major party running in the election. The public campaign began quite early, with a wide field of candidates jockeying for position for the primaries during 2007, while the Democratic and Republican parties pressured various states to move up the dates of their primary elections, due to the fact of the very early Iowa primary on January 3, 2008.
John McCain, The Republican Candidate
John McCain, as of the 4th of March, 2008, is the Republican nominee for the run to the White House, after securing more than enough delegates, following the Mini Tuesday primaries.
Who is John McCain?
John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona, and a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election.
Both McCain's grandfather and his father were Admirals in the United States Navy. McCain attended the United States Naval Academy and graduated in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying attack aircraft from carriers. During the Vietnam War in 1967, he narrowly escaped death in the Forrestal fire. On his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down and badly injured. He then endured five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture, before he was released following the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.
Retiring from the Navy in 1981 and moving to Arizona, McCain entered politics. In 1982 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st congressional district. After serving two terms there, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Arizona in 1986. He was re-elected Senator in 1992, 1998, and 2004. While generally adhering to American conservatism, McCain established a reputation as a political maverick for his willingness to defy Republican orthodoxy on several issues. Surviving the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, which eventually led to the passing of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002.
Romantic Controversy
John McCain emphatically denied a romantic relationship with a female telecommunications lobbyist on Thursday and said a report by The New York Times suggesting favoritism for her clients is "not true."
"I'm very disappointed in the article. It's not true," the likely Republican presidential nominee said as his wife, Cindy, stood beside him during a news conference called to address the matter.
"I've served this nation honorably for more than half a century," said McCain, a four-term Arizona senator and former Navy pilot. "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."
"I intend to move on," he added.
McCain described the woman in question, lobbyist Vicki Iseman, as a friend.
The newspaper quoted anonymous aides as saying they had urged McCain and Iseman to stay away from each other prior to his failed presidential campaign in 2000. In its own follow-up story, The Washington Post quoted longtime aide John Weaver, who split with McCain last year, as saying he met with lobbyist Iseman and urged her to steer clear of McCain.
Weaver told the Times he arranged the meeting before the 2000 campaign after "a discussion among the campaign leadership" about Iseman.
But McCain said he was unaware of any such conversation, and denied that his aides ever tried to talk to him about his interactions with Iseman.
"I never discussed it with John Weaver. As far as I know, there was no necessity for it," McCain said. "I don't know anything about it," he added. "John Weaver is a friend of mine. He remains a friend of mine. But I certainly didn't know anything of that nature."
His wife also said she was disappointed with the newspaper.
Mike Huckabee
Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician, a member of the Republican Party. He was the governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007 and was a candidate for the 2008 United States presidential election; he announced his candidacy on January 28, 2007, and ended it after the Texas and Vermont primaries in early March.
Huckabee is the author of several books, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, a public speaker, and a musician, playing bass guitar in his rock band, Capitol Offense. He is well known for having lost 110 pounds (50 kg) in a very short time and then advocating a healthy lifestyle. He and his wife, Janet, have three grown children: John Mark, David, and Sarah.
Former Candidates
Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts dropped out of the race after failing to receive enough delegates following Super Tuesday. Some speculate that large numbers of voters did not turn out for him, because he is Mormon. Also Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race after Mini Tuesday. Ron Paul also dropped out.
The first GOP candidate to announce his bid to run for office was John H. Cox. He ran under the platform of being a Conservative Catholic.
Unfinished Democratic Nomination - Remaining Candidates
- Senator Hillary Clinton of New York
- Senator Barack Obama of Illinois
Either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will become the Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. If either becomes President, this will be a major history making event, as all of the other Presidents of the United States have been white males. Some have called this an election where we force the issue, meaning that we finally get the chance to receive a female or an African American President, but do we want one? Will the country benefit from such a president? Obama won the Democrats Abroad primary. While some say that Mike Gravel is still in the race, how can this be, seeing that he clearly dropped out?
Obama Girl
"I Got a Crush... on Obama" is a popular internet viral video, first posted on YouTube in June 2007 featuring a young woman seductively singing of her love for Illinois Senator and 2008 U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama. Actress and model Amber Lee Ettinger lip-synched the song for the video, and Leah Kauffman (of "My Box in a Box" fame) provided the vocals.
The concept was the brainchild of 32-year-old advertising executive Ben Relles. "I Got A Crush On Obama" was co-written and produced by Rick Friedrich. The creators sold two shirts and the red shorts used in the video in an eBay auction. One of the shirts garnered $1000. Proceeds from the auction were donated to the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness. Barack Obama: I want to thank all of you for your time, your suggestions, your encouragement, and your prayers. And I look forward to continuing our conversation in the weeks and months to come.
Predicted Dropout
Some are predicting that Hillary Clinton will drop out of the race, due to the fact that Obama is ahead in delegates. If she gets Michigan and Florida delegates, then she will have the lead in delegates. However, they are about equal right now.
Appendices
Appendix Alpha: Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States
Presidents of the United States
Although Washington was a member of the Whig Party before the Revolution, after the war he was not a member of any party, though he tended to lean toward Federalist postitions. Since the Formation of the Democratic-Republican party and the Federalist Party, there has always been at least one viable political party. Today the American nation has a two party System. Many have tried to make the nation into a three party system, such as Ralph Nader, and Theodore Roosevelt, but the attempts have all failed.
| President | Years in Office | Political Party | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Washington | 1789 - 1797 | Unaffiliated | British officer in the French and Indian War, led American forces in Revolution against the British. He was a distant relative of Robert E. Lee. The only President to have been elected without a political party. He did not intend to become president. He did not want to be called king. |
| 2 | John Adams | 1797 - 1801 | Federalist | |
| 3 | Thomas Jefferson | 1801 - 1809 | Democratic-Republican | |
| 4 | James Madison | 1809 - 1817 | Democratic-Republican | |
| 5 | James Monroe | 1817 - 1825 | Democratic-Republican | |
| 6 | John Quincy Adams | 1825 - 1829 | Democratic-Republican | Son of former President John Adams |
| 7 | Andrew Jackson | 1829 - 1837 | Democrat | |
| 8 | Martin Van Buren | 1837 - 1841 | Democrat | |
| 9 | William Henry Harrison | 1841 | Whig | Died in Office |
| 10 | John Tyler | 1841 - 1845 | Democrat | Succeeded President Harrison |
| 11 | James Knox Polk | 1845 - 1849 | Democrat | |
| 12 | Zachary Taylor | 1849 - 1850 | Whig | Died in Office |
| 13 | Millard Fillmore | 1850 - 1853 | Whig | Succeeded President Taylor |
| 14 | Franklin Pierce | 1853 - 1857 | Democrat | |
| 15 | James Buchanan | 1857 - 1861 | Democrat | |
| 16 | Abraham Lincoln | 1861 - 1865 | Republican | Assassinated |
| 17 | Andrew Johnson | 1865 - 1869 | Democrat | Succeeded President Lincoln, Impeached by House, Acquitted by one vote in the Senate |
| 18 | Hyram Ulysses Grant | 1869 - 1877 | Republican | |
| 19 | Rutherford Birchard Hayes | 1877 - 1881 | Republican | |
| 20 | James Abram Garfield | 1881 | Republican | Assassinated |
| 21 | Chester Alan Arthur | 1881 - 1885 | Republican | Succeeded President Garfield |
| 22 | (Stephen) Grover Cleveland | 1885 - 1889 | Democrat | Also served as the 24th President |
| 23 | Benjamin Harrison | 1889 - 1893 | Republican | Grand-son of former President William Henry Harrison |
| 24 | (Stephen) Grover Cleveland | 1893 - 1897 | Democrat | Also served as the 22nd President |
| 25 | William McKinley | 1897 - 1901 | Republican | Assassinated |
| 26 | Theodore Roosevelt | 1901 - 1909 | Republican | Succeeded President McKinley |
| 27 | William Howard Taft | 1909 - 1913 | Republican | |
| 28 | (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson | 1913 - 1921 | Democrat | |
| 29 | Warren Gamaliel Harding | 1921 - 1923 | Republican | Died in Office |
| 30 | (John) Calvin Coolidge, Jr. | 1923 - 1929 | Republican | Succeeded President Harding |
| 31 | Herbert Clark Hoover | 1929 - 1933 | Republican | |
| 32 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt | 1933 - 1945 | Democrat | Died in Office |
| 33 | Harry S Truman | 1945 - 1953 | Democrat | Succeded President Roosevelt |
| 34 | Dwight David Eisenhower | 1953 - 1961 | Republican | |
| 35 | John Fitzgerald Kennedy | 1961 - 1963 | Democrat | Assassinated |
| 36 | Lyndon Baines Johnson | 1963 - 1969 | Democrat | Succeeded President Kennedy |
| 37 | Richard Milhous Nixon | 1969 - 1974 | Republican | Resigned |
| 38 | Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. | 1974 - 1977 | Republican | Succeeded President Nixon |
| 39 | James Earl Carter, Jr. | 1977 - 1981 | Democrat | |
| 40 | Ronald Wilson Reagan | 1981 - 1989 | Republican | |
| 41 | George Herbert Walker Bush | 1989 - 1993 | Republican | |
| 42 | William Jefferson Clinton | 1993 - 2001 | Democrat | Impeached by House, Acquitted by Senate |
| 43 | George Walker Bush | 2001 - | Republican | Son of former President George Herbert Walker Bush |
Vice Presidents of the United States
| Vice President | Years in Office | Political Party | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Adams | 1789 - 1797 | Federalist | Second President |
| 2 | Thomas Jefferson | 1797 - 1801 | Democratic-Republican | Founder of the Democratic-Republican Party |
| 3 | Aaron Burr | 1801 - 1805 | Democratic-Republican | Shot Alexander Hamiltion in the famous duel. Bribed electors to vote for him, and ended up tieing with Jefferson. Result 12th Amendment. |
| 4 | George Clinton | 1805 - 1812 | Democratic-Republican | Died in Office. |
| 5 | Elbridge Gerry | 1813 - 1814 | Democratic-Republican | Died in Office. |
| 6 | Daniel D. Tompkins | 1817 - 1825 | Democratic-Republican | |
| 7 | John Caldwell Calhoun | 1825 - 1832 | Democratic-Republican | Resigned |
| 8 | Martin Van Buren | 1833 - 1837 | Democrat | |
| 9 | Richard Mentor Johnson | 1837 - 1841 | Democrat | |
| 10 | John Tyler | 1841 | Whig | Succeded President Harrison |
| 11 | George Mifflin Dallas | 1845 - 1849 | Democrat | |
| 12 | Millard Fillmore | 1849 - 1850 | Whig | Succeeded President Taylor |
| 13 | William Rufus DeVane King | 1853 | Democrat | Died in Office. |
| 14 | John Cabell Breckinridge | 1857 - 1861 | Democrat | |
| 15 | Hannibal Hamlin | 1861 - 1865 | Republican | |
| 16 | Andrew Johnson | 1865 | Democrat | Succeded President Lincoln |
| 17 | Schuyler Colfax | 1869 - 1873 | Republican | |
| 18 | Henry Wilson | 1873 - 1875 | Republican | Died in Office |
| 19 | William Almon Wheeler | 1877 - 1881 | Republican | |
| 20 | Chester Alan Arthur | 1881 | Republican | Succeded President Garfield |
| 21 | Thomas Andrews Hendricks | 1885 | Democrat | Died in Office |
| 22 | Levi Parsons Morton | 1889 - 1893 | Republican | |
| 23 | Adlai Ewing Stevenson | 1893 - 1897 | Democrat | |
| 24 | Garret Augustus Hobart | 1897 - 1899 | Republican | Died in Office |
| 25 | Theodore Roosevelt | 1901 | Republican | Succeded President McKinley |
| 26 | Charles Warren Fairbanks | 1905 - 1909 | Republican | |
| 27 | James Schoolcraft Sherman | 1909 - 1912 | Republican | Died in Office |
| 28 | Thomas Riley Marshall | 1913 - 1921 | Democrat | |
| 29 | John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. | 1921 - 1923 | Republican | Succeded President Harding |
| 30 | Charles Gates Dawes | 1925 - 1929 | Republican | |
| 31 | Charles Curtis | 1929 - 1933 | Republican | |
| 32 | John Nance Garner | 1933 - 1941 | Democrat | |
| 33 | Henry Agard Wallace | 1941 - 1945 | Democrat | |
| 34 | Harry S Truman | 1945 | Democrat | Succeded President Roosevelt |
| 35 | Alben William Barkley | 1949 - 1953 | Democrat | |
| 36 | Richard Milhous Nixon | 1953 - 1961 | Republican | |
| 37 | Lyndon Baines Johnson | 1961 - 1963 | Democrat | Succeded President Kennedy |
| 38 | Hubert Horatio Humphrey | 1965 - 1969 | Democrat | |
| 39 | Spiro Theodore Agnew | 1969 - 1973 | Republican | Resigned |
| 40 | Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. | 1973 - 1974 | Republican | Succeded President Nixon |
| 41 | Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller | 1974 - 1977 | Republican | |
| 42 | Walter Frederick Mondale | 1977 - 1981 | Democrat | |
| 43 | George Herbert Walker Bush | 1981 - 1989 | Republican | |
| 44 | James Danforth Quayle III | 1989 - 1993 | Republican | |
| 45 | Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. | 1993 - 2001 | Democrat | |
| 46 | Richard Bruce Cheney | 2001 - | Republican |
Appendix Beta: Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court
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Appointed by: George Washington
Appointed by: George Washington
Appointed by: George Washington
_________________________________
Appointed by: John Adams (F)
Appointed by: Andrew Jackson (D)
Appointed by: Abraham Lincoln (R)
_________________________________
Appointed by: Ulysses S. Grant (R)
Appointed by: Grover Cleveland (R)
Appointed by: William Howard Taft (R)
_________________________________
Appointed by: Warren G. Harding (R)
Appointed by: Herbert Hoover (R)
Appointed by: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)
_________________________________
Appointed by: Harry S. Truman (D)
Appointed by: Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
Appointed by: Richard Nixon (R)
_________________________________
Appointed by: Ronald Reagan (R)
Appointed by: George W. Bush (R)
Appendes Gamma: Supreme Court Decisions
Major Landmark Decisions
Marbury v. Madison 5 U.S. 137 (1803)
The day before his last in office, President John Adams appointed 42 judges to fill seats in many newly-created courts. On of these was William Marbury. The Senate confirmed the judges, and Secretary of State John Marshall signed their commissions, the paper each requires to assume his appointment. But the day Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated, he ordered his appointed Secretary of State, James Madison, not to deliver the commissions to many of the confirmed judges, Marbury included. Marbury sued to force Madison to give up the commissions. The suit was filed directly in the Supreme Court, since Marbury argued that the Judiciary Act 1789 gave the Supreme Court jurisdiction over writs of mandamus, court orders that force public officials to do things.
John Marshall, who incidentally was appointed to the position of Chief Justice on Adams' last day, wrote in the court's unanimous decision that the Court could not rule in Marbury's case because it did not have the jurisdiction to do so. Marbury had argued that Article III of the Constitution only set basic rules concerning the Supreme Court's powers, and that they could be expanded by Congress any time it wanted. Marshall disagreed, pointing to the simple logic: what was the point of having a Constitution if Congress could write laws that changed courts' jurisdictions, thus ignoring the rules explicitly stated in Article III? If laws could be written that circumvented Article III in the way that Marbury argued that the Judiciary Act should, could laws be written that allowed the courts to ignore the Constitution altogether?
In determining that the Judiciary Act was in violation of the Constitution by adding on to Article III, Marshall affirmed the all-important prinicpal of judicial review. Judicial review is the judicial branch's, and specifically the Supreme Court's, power to declare laws in conflict with the Constitution and overturn them.
Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S 304 (1816)
During the Revolutionary War, Virginia passed legislation allowing it to take Loyalists' property. The United States signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783 with Britian; it included a clause that stated that the federal government would tell the states to give back the Loyalists' property. A Loyalist named Denny Martin sued in Virginia's state court system on the grounds that Loyalists were to get their properties back in accordance with the treaty.
The case eventually reached the Virginia Supreme Court, which upheld the confiscation on the grounds that the court's interpretation of the treaty was that it did not cover the case. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided that the treaty did apply to the case and remanded it back to the Virginia Supreme Court. The court decided that the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction over cases originating in state courts, and the decision was appealed back to the Supreme Court. Once again, the Supreme Court overturned the Virginia Supreme Court's ruling, arguing that the case involved federal law. The Court's decision was very important because it affirmed that it had supreme power over all courts in regards to federal law and the Constitution.
McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819)
This case was a very important test of States' Rights against the power of the federal government. Many states continued to oppose the Bank of the United States after it was reinstated in 1816, mostly because it called for its loans to be owed by the states. In retaliation to this policy, Maryland passed a tax on the bank, which the bank refused to pay. Maryland soon filed suit against James McCulloch, the head of the Baltimore branch of the bank.
The Court's unanimous opinion established two extremely important principles. The first was that, yes, Congress could create the Bank under the doctrine of implied powers. The Constitution specifically lists that Congress has the power to borrow money and regulating commerce (among others), and it can be implied that Congress had the power to create the Bank. The second point that the Court made was that Maryland's tax was unconstitutional because it was in conflict with the Supremacy Clause, which says that states can never willingly impede the federal government. The court reasoned that taxing, if other states decided to adopt Maryland's policy, had the potential to destroy the bank, and thus impede the federal government's efforts to regulate the economy.
Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824)
Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857)
Dred Scott was perhaps the most controversial Supreme Court decision in all of U.S. history, quite possibly was a major cause of the U.S. Civil War, and is generally regarded by most U.S. historians, scholars, and lawyers as a moment of supreme infamy, when the U.S. unquestionably knew sin.
Dred Scott was an African-American slave who originally lived in Missouri, and was taken to Illinois, a free state, by his master. Scott sued for freedom, as he was in a free state. The case worked its way through the courts, until it reached the Supreme Court. Although the case could have been dismissed for technical reasons, Chief Justice Roger Taney decided to attempt to resolve the slavery issue in the United States once and for all, by imposing his personal opinion (his personal opinion as a slaver) upon his fellow citizens. Taney declared, simply, that African-Americans were not citizens within the meaning of the Constitution, and had no rights except for what "those who held the power...might choose to grant them", and thus, not being citizens, had no standing to sue. He dismissed the case.
The most infamous passage of Scott is as follows:
"The words 'people of the United States' and 'citizens' are synonymous terms, and mean the same thing. They both describe the political body who, according to our republican institutions, form the sovereignty, and who hold the power and conduct the Government through their representatives. They are what we familiarly call the 'sovereign people,' and every citizen is one of this people, and a constituent member of this sovereignty. The question before us is, whether the class of persons described in the plea in abatement compose a portion of this people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty? We think they are not, and that they are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant them."
It took a civil war and 700,000 dead U.S. citizens, both black and white, to obliterate the stain of Scott from the Constitution with the blood of patriots and tyrants, to end slavery once and for all, but it was done.
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961)
The Exclusionary Rule protects defendants in criminal cases from having unlawfully obtained evidence used against them in court, such as stolen items found during a search of a residence by police without a warrant. For many years, the Exclusionary Rule only was applied at the federal level. Federal criminal prosecutions are an extremely tiny minority of all criminal prosecutions in the United States; most prosecutions occur at the state level, including nearly all of those for extraordinarily serious crimes, such as murder and rape. (Federal crimes include offenses against federal property and agents; certain crimes taking place in multiple states, such as a spree of bank robberies; interstate conspiracies, such as a drug-smuggling ring; crimes taking place under color of law, such as police brutality or judicial corruption; and also include acts of terrorism, military crimes, espionage, and treason. The states are responsible for the prosecution of all other criminal acts, from drunken disorderliness all the way to premeditated murder.)
In Mapp, the Supreme Court found that the Exclusionary Rule applied to the states, and that evidence unlawfully obtained could not be used for state prosecutions, in addition to federal ones. The grounds for this were found in the Fourteenth Amendment, which required that states not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; liberty was held to include those rights protected by the Bill of Rights, which had previously only applied to acts of the Federal Government.
Mapp forced wholesale changes in police procedure throughout the United States, as police were now required to obtain warrants to gather evidence that could be used in court. (Previously, police were supposed to obtain warrants to search homes, but as the evidence gained by warrantless (i.e. unlawful) searches was admitted regardless of whether it was obtained by warrant or not, this rule was widely ignored.) In addition, Mapp signaled an increased level of scrutiny by the Supreme Court over police practices, which has continued to the present day.
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963)
Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 (1964)
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)
This Supreme Court case was brought by a married couple who claimed that their fundamental liberties were infringed by a Connecticut statute that outlawed the sale of birth control devices and medicines within the state. The Supreme Court agreed, finding that their Constitutional right to privacy was infringed by the Connecticut birth control ban, and invalidated it for married couples.
Justice Douglass famously wrote that the right to privacy, a right not explicitly written into the text of the Constitution, was instead implied by "penumbras formed by emanations" by the other enumerated rights reserved to the people and listed in the Constitution, such as the right to be free from unreasonable searches without a warrant. Especially after Roe v. Wade, some conservatives have used the "penumbra" passage to decry what they believe to be the alleged judicial "creation" of rights not found in the Constitution.
Though this case was relatively uncontroversial when it was decided, as it only impacted married couples, it laid the foundation for the Court's decision 8 years later in Roe v. Wade, where the Court overturned all laws banning abortion in the US as violations of the right to privacy, which is perhaps one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions ever.
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966)
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, is a famous and extraordinarily controversial Supreme Court case that found the Constitution of the United States prohibits outlawing of abortion, or the imposition of undue restrictions upon it, at least during the initial stages of a pregnancy. Roe is likely the most controversial Supreme Court case in 20th century U.S. history, and ranks among Bush v. Gore (2000), Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (1886), and Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), as one of the most controversial Supreme Court cases of all time.
Roe, a woman from the state of Texas, had an unwanted pregnancy. Texas law, at that time, forbade the termination of pregnancy except under certain medical circumstances, such as the endangerment of the pregnant woman's life. Roe sued the state of Texas, alleging that her 14th Amendment right to privacy was being violated by the law forbidding termination of pregnancy. The case worked its way up through the several Federal courts, and reached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed with Roe, and found the Texas law to be an unconstitutional invasion of Roe's right to privacy between doctor and patient. The decision in Roe was unique, though, as the Court did not just strike down the Texas law; it issued guidelines as to what regulation of abortion it would consider permissible. (It is normally very unusual for the Court to say what is allowed to government, versus determining what is forbidden for government to do.) The Court decided that during the first 3 months of a pregnancy, abortion was acceptable for any reason; during the second 3 months, regulation to protect health could be imposed, such as requiring that abortions take place in hospitals; and during the last 3 months, abortion could be generally forbidden, due to the late stage and development of the pregnancy.
This decision caused immediate and immense controversy throughout the United States. Persons of numerous faiths objected to it (especially Catholics and conservative Protestants); feminist & civil rights groups applauded it; liberal groups (the left of the American political spectrum) were generally viewed as supportive of Roe, while conservative groups (the right of the American political spectrum) were generally viewed as being opposed to the decision.
Support & Opposition to Roe
Political and religious stereotypes scarcely capture the immense political and legal debate about the implications of Roe. This section reviews a few of these arguments.
Supporters of Roe view Roe as an important decision that affirmed what they consider the basic rights of women, especially the right for women to control their own body and reproductive systems. Other supporters view Roe as an important triumph in the area of reproductive public policy, establishing the right to control over active pregnancy into the law of the land. Still others focus on sociological arguments, sometimes claiming that Roe led to decreases in crime in the years since the decision, as unwanted pregnancies, and therefore the number of unsupportable children was reduced by the availability of abortion. (Others claim that the decrease in unwanted children is due to effective contraception widely available upon request, and the rise of comprehensive sex education.) Still others claim that it is hypocrisy for people to object to Roe, especially men, who will never have the "opportunity" to walk a mile in the shoes of a teenage woman with an unwanted pregnancy, which will severely impact her future choices as well as cause her and her family shame. This view can be expressed by the slogan: "Don't like abortion? Get a vasectomy!"
Objections to Roe are numerous. Legal objections can be broken down into several arguments. One is that the Supreme Court, rather than interpreting the Constitution, legislated from the bench, in either upholding or greatly expanding the scope of the unwritten privacy right into an area which is generally not considered a subject of privacy, namely the permissibility of medical procedures performed by state-licensed health-care professionals. Individuals subscribing to this argument may take the view that irregardless of whether abortion is good public policy or not, it is not a legal matter implicating fundamental liberties, due to the uncertain origin and tortured nature of the privacy argument, but a political matter, for the people's representatives to consider and decide upon. Another is that the Supreme Court failed to consider the possibility that fetuses (or, as some term them, babies), may have rights as well as the pregnant woman, and those potential rights have to be analyzed as part of any decisions surrounding abortion. Others focus on the implications of decisions of this nature, viewing them as overreaching, and setting dangerous precedents that allow the Court to deeply intrude into political questions that go further than fundamental liberties (like freedom of speech, or the right to a fair trial), such as the Court was viewed by many as doing in Bush v. Gore.
Other objections include those of morality and religion. These objections are often raised by conservative Protestants, as well as Catholics, in general. However, a number of liberal Protestant and Catholics, as well as non-religious people also object to abortion, as what they view as a violation of human rights.
Impact and Implications of Roe
It can be scarcely disputed that Roe has caused immeasurable political conflict between supporters and opponents of abortion that goes on to this day; some even believe that Roe and the conflicts surrounding it have caused the basic consensus underlying the foundations of United States democracy to be injured. Objectors to Roe no longer saw the general political community of the United States as sharing their values, and opted out of that community, seeking and creating new political communities within and based upon their faith. These faith-based political communities would later do battle with the ideology-based political communities created during and in the wake of the Vietnam War, and forged in place by the great unrest of 1968.
This clash came to be known as the Culture War, and it has raged in the United States ever since the 1980s, although there are certain signs of it abating, as the Baby Boom generation ages and turns over national leadership to a generation that seeks a truce in the Culture War, having been victims of their parents' endless war for so long. Barack Obama may be considered one of the first examples of the post-Roe, post-1968, post-Watergate, post-Vietnam generation now vying for power, and possibly unity, once again, in the United States.
United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974)
This case originated out of a dispute over a subpoena for evidence pertinent to special prosecutor Archibald Cox's Watergate investigation. Because of Cox's insistence that President Nixon hand over his infamous audiotaped conversations, he was fired as a part of Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre. Cox's successor, Leon Jaworski, continued to pursue the subpoena. Nixon continued to refuse to hand the tapes over, and cited his executive privilege in asserting their confidentiality. Jaworski filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court in hopes of obtaining a court order forcing Nixon to obey the subpoena.
Although in private deliberations, the justices did not come to a unanimous opinion, they decided to rule unanimously with the majority's opinion in order to make the ruling more definitive to Nixon and pressure him not to ignore it. The opinion held that, not only as established in Marbury v. Madison that the Court was the final say concerning whether or not laws were constitutional, the Court could also decide how the President's powers are limited by the Constitution. The court also held that executive privilege did not apply to evidence pertinent to criminal cases. Most importantly, the Court ruled that, using the power it had affirmed, that nobody including President was above the law.
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978)
Supreme Court case that ruled that quotas as a form of affirmative action (i.e. a guaranteed minimum percentage reservation of seats in a public institution for minority groups who were subject to past discrimination) were violative of the Constitution, and were thus illegal.
Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986)
Supreme Court case that found that laws forbidding and criminalizing private, consensual, non-commercial sexual conduct between unrelated adults that a legislative body found to be immoral were compatible with the Constitutional guarantees of liberty and privacy. Overruled and reversed as being wrongly decided in the first instance by Lawrence v. Texas (2003).
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989)
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992)
Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997)
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)
Lawrence, a gay man, was in his apartment, having consensual intimate transactions with his unrelated sexual partner, when local police, responding to a weapons complaint of shots fired, suddenly entered his apartment to search for weapons. No weapons were found, but Lawrence and his partner were discovered by the police in flagrante delicto. They were cited by the police for "unnatural sexual intercourse", a crime under the law of the State of Texas.
Lawrence and his partner, Gardner, decided to fight the charges, on the grounds that:
- The law only applied to "unnatural sexual intercourse" between persons of the same sex, but not against persons of the opposite sex engaging in the same sort of "unnatural sexual intercourse". This, claimed Lawrence, deprived him of the equal protection of the law.
- The law was an unconstitutional invasion of Lawrence's and Gardner's privacy and liberty, as the "crime" Lawrence and Gardner were accused of were transactions of the most intimate character, were consensual, were non-commercial and took place in private, behind closed doors, in a private space where the authority of the state had no power to enter, nor to regulate such transactions, absent some compelling showing of harm.
The State of Texas argued that the charges should be upheld on the grounds that the state has the right to determine and regulate morality, including morality in private spaces, and that laws forbidding homosexuality were found to be constitutional in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick, creating a precedent that had to be upheld by the Court.
The Court agreed with Lawrence and Gardner. Justice Kennedy, writing for the Court, concluded:
“These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State.
Persons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for these purposes, just as heterosexual persons do. The decision in Bowers would deny them this right. Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today. It ought not to remain binding precedent. Bowers v. Hardwick should be and now is overruled.
The present case does not involve minors. It does not involve persons who might be injured or coerced or who are situated in relationships where consent might not easily be refused. It does not involve public conduct or prostitution. It does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter. The case does involve two adults who, with full and mutual consent from each other, engaged in sexual practices common to a homosexual lifestyle. The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government. “It is a promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of personal liberty which the government may not enter.” Casey, supra, at 847. The Texas statute furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual.
Had those who drew and ratified the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment known the components of liberty in its manifold possibilities, they might have been more specific. They did not presume to have this insight. They knew times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom."
Domino's Pizza, Inc. v. McDonald
Domino's Pizza, Inc. v. McDonald, 546 U.S. 470 (2006), is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving claims for racial discrimination against the right to make and enforce contracts under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, a key civil rights provision in U.S. law that was originally enacted as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Court ruled unanimously, in an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, that because agents of parties to contracts do not personally have rights under those contracts, they cannot state a claim under section 1981.
Other Landmarks
Appendex Delta: Famous Third Parties
Third Parties of the United States
Though the United States government is overwhelmingly based on a two-party system, there have been times in history when minor third parties have rose to prominence and affected the government.
Ironically a former Mason
| Party | Presidential Candidates, if any | Percent Vote for party | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anti-Masonic | William Wirt | ||
| 2 | Prohibition Party |
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| 3 | Green Party |
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| 4 | Libertarian Party |
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| 5 | Workers World Party |
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Licensing and Contributors
Authors
- Original Author: Etothex
- Principal Author: Lord Emsworth
- Chief Contributor of Images: Karl Wick
- Organizer, Edit Crawler: Hyperlink
GNU Free Documentation License
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4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
- A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
- B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
- C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
- D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
- E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
- F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
- G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.
- H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
- I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
- J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
- K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
- L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
- M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.
- N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
- O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements."
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.
8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual title.
9. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
