2. Early settlers
• Christopher Columbus was dispatched to
find a route to Asia through the Pacific.
• In 1493 he came to Puerto Rico
• The new continent was named 'America'
after Amerigo Vespucci, another explorer
with a claim to the discovery of North
America
3. The first settlers 1492-1600
• The Spanish
explores after
Columbus were the
first to settle in the
US.
– Mainly along the
Californian coast or
the Santa Fe River
in New Mexico
4. French Colonies
• New France (French colonization 1534
- 1712) extended from The Gulf of
Mexico to Canada
– Divided into five colonies, Canada,
Acadia, Hudson Bay, New
Foundland and Louisiana
5.
6. First English colonies
• The East coast became occupied with
British settlers during the 17th century
• First colony: James Town Virginia 1607
• New England colonies 1620s (today New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware)
• The thirteen colonies (British America)were
established in 1733
7.
8. Formation of the United States of
America
• Boston Tea party 1773 a direct action to
protest against British colonization
• 1775 the 13 colonies began a rebellion
against British rule
• 1783 the acknowledgement of the United
States as an independent nation
9. Independence of America
• 4th of July 1776, Declaration of
Independence
• 1789, first American president, George
Washington
• 1791 Bill of rights ratified to guarantee the
individual rights such as freedom of speech
and religious practice, as well as the first ten
amendments of the constitution.
10. The Civil War
• During the 1840s and 1850s 4.5 million immigrants came
to America.
• The nation underwent several economic and cultural
changes as industrialization and the transportation
revolution changed the economics of the north and west
• 1861-1865 the Civil War, dispute over long and bitter
issues of slavery and states rights
• The North won and in 1865 slavery was abolished in all
states
– the 13th Amendment , "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
11. After the Civil War
• United States remained divided as
reconstruction failed
• Southern whites despite the treaty denied
the black population their civil rights -
keeping them in economic, social, and
political second class status.
12. Industrial growth
• 37 million people immigrated to America between
1840-1920
• Natives were forced onto reservations
• White farmers and ranchers took their lands
• By the late nineteenth century, the United States
had become a leading global industrial power
building on new technologies and transportation
(telephone, telegraph, iron, steel, oil, rail work etc)
13. Post World War I
• In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export
of alcohol was prohibited.
• During most of the 1920s, the United States
enjoyed a period of sustained prosperity.
• The Immigration Act of 1924 restricting the
Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Jews
and Italians
14. The Great Depression
• In 1929, The Wall street crash - the most
devastating stock market crash in the history of the
United States.
• Recovery was slow and the 1930s were poor years
for the Americans
• 1941, Attack on Pearl Harbor - the US entered the
Second World War.
• Italy surrendered 1943, Japan and Germany in
1945.
• USA stood as winners and rescuer of Europe
15. The Civil Rights
• Discrimination remained widespread in the South
through the 1950s
• From 1955 to 1965, "direct action" was the
strategy - primarily bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom
rides, and social movements.
• The modern civil rights movement was designed,
led, organized, and manned by African
Americans, who placed themselves and their
families on the front lines in the struggle for
freedom
16. Martin Luther King
• Malcolm X advocated black power and black separatism
while
• Martin Luther King, Jr, American activist and prominent
leader in the African- American civil rights movement
advocated non-violent methods.
• Delivered his” I have a Dream Speech” in 1963, raising
consciousness of the civil rights movement and established
himself as one of the greatest public speakers in U.S.
history.
• King was killed in 1968
