USA+-+History

The United States has an interesting and comprehensive history. The first humans arrived at North America roughly 10 000 – 50 000 years ago. The history of this people is shattered because the European invasion in 1500-1900 destroyed most of the evidence of their history. Therefore the Native American history is very stagnant until the mentioned European invasion.

Leiv Ericsson was the first European to discover North America around year [|1000], but his discovery didn’t become so notorious because he and his followers didn’t understand the magnitude of the discovery. But, in [|1492], Christopher Columbus decided to take a world trip to prove that the earth was round, not flat. He and his followers ended up at a big continent they thought was India, but after a while they understood that it couldn’t be correct. They had discovered America! The notorious of this discovery completely changed people’s comprehension of the world. Columbus was met by a friendly and open people. It wasn’t long before Columbus returned the big news back to Europe. Some of the first to explore Middle America was Spain. Countries who followed were the Netherlands, France, Portugal and last, but not least, United Kingdom. This was the beginning of the European invasion of America. Spain and Portugal concentrated on conquering South America, while France, the Netherlands and United Kingdom were conquering North America. The first English colony was created in Jamestown, Virginia, in [|1607]. During the first century, it was enough land for everyone, but as they moved into the second century, conflicts about the most important land and military points began to rise between France, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Especially between France and the United Kingdom the situation was tense.

Even though the possibility of war in America was pretty high, the amount of immigrants who settled in the new country was increasing. In [|1750], England was the most powerful of the occupying countries in America. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the Americans are so affected by the British culture.

But, in [|1775], something shocking happened: The colonized citizens upraised against the English control. This led to the war of independence, which lasted for six years. In [|1776] the heads of the colonists wrote and signed the declaration of independence. This meant that America became a democracy instead of monarchy. America decided to have a controlled politic, later called republic. After the war of independence, all the British colonies became the USA’s property. The upraiser’s leader was George Washington, and he led America to victory over the British. He also became the USA’s first president in [|1789]. Even though the Americans had won the war of independence, they continued using the English language, and a lot of English culture and traditions. In the beginning of[| 1800], the USA continued to expand. They bought areas from France, and settlers begun to move more and more west in the country. Between 1800 and [|1850] the USA was very affected by the triangular trade. This meant that the European, American and African merchants traded goods and slaves with each other. This resulted in many African slaves coming to America. That’s why the American population has a lot afro-American.

In 1850, the north and south part of the USA started to contradict each other about the use of slavery. The northern part was against slavery, because they gained no economic benefit from it. The southern part, on the other hand, had a big benefit of slaves who worked in cotton- and sugar farms, and supported use of slavery. This led to the civil war between south- and north the USA in [|1861]. The north states won the war in [|1865], and slavery was forbidden. But, it took another 100 years before black people got the same rights at white people. In the meantime, the Indians were almost wiped out of the face of earth.

After the civil war, the USA kept developing. On the most, over 3000 people from Europe settled in the states every day. The huge development kept throughout the [|19th century], but ended after [|World War 1] in [|1918]. The 1920’s and 30’s was called the big depression, because of the financial breakdown and many unemployed citizens. But, when Roosevelt became president, the depression slowly disappeared, because he took initiative to stabilize the country by prioritizing big development and get workplaces for all the USA’s citizens.

But the good fortune came to an end in[| 1939], when Hitler’s armies invaded Poland and started [|World War 2]. In the beginning, the USA didn’t want to have any direct engagement in the war, even though Germany had occupied almost all Europe and had declared war on USA. But in the end of[| 1941], the USA was threw into the war due to the Japanese Empire’s surprising attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of this attack, Roosevelt gained the American people’s cooperativeness for a war both against the Japanese empire and the Nazi-controlled Germany. Because of Roosevelt’s genius industry-, economy- and infrastructure plans, the USA’s economy continued to grow, even though they fought two wars in two fronts against two powerful enemies, and in both fronts USA was winning. But when the war ended in [|1945], both Asia and Europe were laying in ruins. The USA was offering money to stabilize and rebuild the European countries. This was called the Marshall Plan, and strengthened the relationship between Europe and the USA. The plan had for its object that European countries received money for supporting and being on the USA’s side, trade with America and induct the USA’s culture and language. It’s because of this the English language and American culture became even more international.

After the World War 2, both Soviet Union and the USA became super powers, and a political conflict between the two countries, later called the Cold War, occurred. The two countries had two different political systems, and did both want to spread their system. Because of this, many say the Cold War was a conflict between the communists and the capitalists. The war was called “The Cold War” because the two countries never directly battled with each other. The two countries started an arms race, for example by developing powerful and destructive nuclear bombs. The cold war ended in [|1991], after a lot of indirect wars between the USA and the Soviet Union. The end of the Cold War was mostly due to the fall of the Soviet Union and a more understanding cooperation.

The USA’s history made the country the only super power in the world. The leading industry-, technology- and culture-spreading nation of the world. As we said, the USA’s history is both interesting and comprehensive.