The United States after Independence

• After war broke out, and the United States declared its independence from Britain in 1776, the French decided to support the United States.

• They provided assistance to the US forces such as supplies, ammunition and weapons.

• After the US had proved that it could be successful in the war against the British, the French became more enthusiastic.

• They decided to join the US in fighting against their traditional enemies, the British.

• In 1778, France officially recognised the United States, and so Britain declared war on France as well.

• Eventually, Britain also ended up being at war with the Dutch Republic and Spain, over their support of the United States.

• At the start of the war, the British Navy could control the coastal areas, but not the countryside, where most of the people lived.

• When the French navy got involved, the British no longer had this advantage.

• The US and French forces were eventually victorious over the British, and in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed, and Britain recognised the US

• The new country which was the United States of America was a lot smaller then than it is now.

• France still controlled a lot of the territory in central north America, and Spain controlled territory in the West and in Florida.

• The US was just the original 13 British colonies, which were now states in the new country.

• Text pg 53-54.

• At first after the war was finished, the states organised a government according to the Articles of Confederation, which said that each state should manage itself, except for certain things the states couldn’t do themselves.

• The central government didn’t have much power.

• The Articles of Confederation were set up in that particular way because of the way Britain had run its Empire.

• The Americans did not want to create another evil government with too much power.

• The Congress of Confederation, which was the group of state representatives, did not have the power to force the states to do things.

• It could not raise taxes from citizens, or force the states to help pay off the countries debts.

• The power of the Congress was also limited by the rules about making laws.

• To change the Articles of Confederation, the Congress needed all of the states to agree, so important changes could be stopped by just one state

• Also, new laws had to have at least nine states agree to them, so when some of the states missed a vote, the laws could be stopped by only one or two who didn’t agree.

• The congress organised the Philadelphia convention to try to form a new style of government.

• Text pg 54-55 ++• The first article of the constitution is

concerned with the Congress, which in the United States is made up of two groups.

• One part of the Congress is the Senate, and it is meant to represent the states.

• The other part is the House of representatives, and this is meant to represent the people.

• The method and rules of election of these groups is described. text pg55-56

• The second article of the US constitution is about the president, his powers and responsibilities.(pg 56-57)

• The third article describes the court system.(pg 57-58)• The 3 sections of government are meant to stop each

other from getting too much power (pg 58)• The fourth article sets out the powers of the states and

the limits of those powers.

• The Fifth article described how changes could be made to the constitution, called amendments.

• The sixth article is about federal power, and the constitution itself, and how it applies to the government of the country.

• The seventh article describes how the constitution was to be approved by the states and officially accepted.

• The first ten amendments made to the constitution of the US were all done at one time, and are called the Bill of Rights.(pg 58-59)

• First Amendment: addresses the rights of freedom of religion (prohibiting Congress from establishing a religion and protecting the right to free exercise of religion), freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition.

• Second Amendment: guarantees the right of individuals to possess firearms. The most recent decision interpreting the Second Amendment is District of Columbia v. Heller.

• Third Amendment: prohibits the government from using private homes as quarters for soldiers during peacetime without the consent of the owners. The only existing case law regarding this amendment is a lower court decision in the case of Engblom v. Carey.[17]

• Fourth Amendment: guards against searches, arrests, and seizures of property without a specific warrant or a "probable cause" to believe a crime has been committed. Some rights to privacy have been inferred from this amendment and others by the Supreme Court.

• Fifth Amendment: forbids trial for a major crime except after indictment by a grand jury; prohibits double jeopardy (repeated trials), except in certain very limited circumstances; forbids punishment without due process of law; and provides that an accused person may not be compelled to testify against himself (this is also known as "Taking the Fifth" or "Pleading the Fifth"). This is regarded as the "rights of the accused" amendment, otherwise known as the Miranda rights after the Supreme Court case. It also prohibits government from taking private property for public use without "just compensation," the basis of eminent domain in the United States.

• Sixth Amendment: guarantees a speedy public trial for criminal offenses. It requires trial by a jury, guarantees the right to legal counsel for the accused, and guarantees that the accused may require witnesses to attend the trial and testify in the presence of the accused. It also guarantees the accused a right to know the charges against him. The Sixth Amendment has several court cases associated with it, including Powell v. Alabama, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, Gideon v. Wainwright, and Crawford v. Washington. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled that the fifth amendment prohibition on forced self-incrimination and the sixth amendment clause on right to counsel were to be made known to all persons placed under arrest, and these clauses have become known as the Miranda rights.

• Seventh Amendment: assures trial by jury in civil cases.

• Eighth Amendment: forbids excessive bail or fines, and cruel and unusual punishment.

• Ninth Amendment: declares that the listing of individual rights in the Constitution and Bill of Rights is not meant to be comprehensive; and that the other rights not specifically mentioned are retained by the people.

• Tenth Amendment: reserves to the states respectively, or to the people, any powers the Constitution did not delegate to the United States, nor prohibit the states from exercising.

• The Bill of Rights was passed in 1791, and since then there have been another 17 amendments on various issues.

• When the constitution was approved, General George Washington became the first president of the United States.

• He was followed by his Vice President, John Adams, then Thomas Jefferson took over as president.

• During Jefferson’s time as president, the United States bought the French territory in Central North America from France in the Louisiana Purchase.

• In 1808, importing slaves from Africa became illegal, even though keeping them was still allowed.

• In 1812 the United States fought another war with Britain, although the outcome this time was a draw.

• The United States in 1823 began to develop the Monroe doctrine, named after the US president of the time.

• The Monroe doctrine said that European countries should not interfere with countries in North or South America, and that the US would try to stop them if they did.

• At the time the US did not have a very big army or navy, and so the European countries did not pay much attention, but as the US became more powerful, the Monroe doctrine began to have more serious effects, lasting for more than 100 years.

• In 1830 the US government passed the Indian Removal Act, which was designed to move the American Indians who lived in the East of America across to the West, so that white Americans could get more land.

• The removal of the Indians was meant to be their own choice, but in reality those that did not want to go were forced.

• There were many problems with American Indians in Florida, because that part of America was still controlled by the Spanish.

• The Indians there were attacking US towns, and eventually the US took over Florida from the Spanish.

• The US soon gained new territory in other parts of the continent as well.

• American settlers took over Texas, part of Mexico, and became an independent country.

• The governments of Texas and the US agreed to join together, and Texas became a state in the US.

• Mexico was not too happy about this, and when US soldiers claimed some land that Mexico wanted, the Mexican-American War began.

• The US won the the war in 1848, and gained some more territory, California and New Mexico.

• Gold was discovered in California at around the same time, and the resulting gold rush increased the growth of the Western United States.

• From the time of the first British settlements on the East coast of America, settlers had been using black people as slaves to work on their farms and in their houses.

• As time went on, first the trade of slaves was made illegal, then some states started to stop slavery altogether.

• Many people of the time, including Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves, thought of slavery as evil, but they did not think it was safe to free the slaves.

• Gradually, more and more of the Northern states stopped slavery, but the economic differences between the North and the South were significant.

• The Northern states were more industrial and technologically advanced, and their economy did not depend on slaves.

• The Southern states, however, relied heavily on slaves to work on their highly profitable cotton farms, and so most Southerners wanted to keep their slaves.

• When the new states of California, Texas and New Mexico were formed after the Mexican-American war, it had to be decided whether slavery would be allowed in those places or not.

• Southerners thought the new states should allow slavery, Northerners thought not.

• A compromise was reached, with Texas having slaves and California not, but a law was passed making it illegal to help a slave to freedom anywhere in the US.

• This angered the Northerners, and so the disagreement got worse.

• Eventually, a presidential election was held, but the slavery issue had caused huge problems for one of the two main political parties.

• The Democrats are the oldest political party in the US

• Started by Thomas Jefferson when the United States had only recently been formed, the Democratic party was in favour of the states having more power, and the central government being weak.

• The party was split in half, however, on the issue of slavery.

• Many Democrats in the Northern states supported abolition of slavery, but Democrats in the Southern states wanted to keep slavery.

• The new party, the republican party, was made up totally of Northern states who did not like slavery, their leader, Abraham Lincoln, won the 1860 presidential election.

• The Southern states new that having a president who didn’t like slavery would be trouble for them, so they banded together and seceded (separated) from the United States.

• They formed their own government, the Confederate States of America, in 1861.

Union: Blue(free) and Yellow(slave)Confederate: Brown

• The American Civil War began when the Confederate army attacked a US military camp.

• President Lincoln asked the Union(US) states to send volunteer soldiers to fight in the war, and soon the fighting was spread across the country.

• Overall, the Union states had the advantage, because they had a much more industrial society, and a larger population.

• This meant that they could send more men (they had twice as many soldiers) and produce weapons and tools in their factories

• The confederate states were rich, because of the free labour and cotton farms, but they had very little manufacturing to produce weapons and less men.

• In the west, the Union armies were very successful, but in the east, the Confederates had some very good leaders, and managed to gain some important victories.

• Eventually, however, they could not go on, and the Confederates surrendered.

• The reformed government soon passed new amendments to the constitution which abolished slavery, gave all people born in the US citizenship, and gave everyone the vote, no matter what race.

• Industry in the US increased enormously, and incomes for workers improved.

• Large amounts of overseas immigrants arrived in the US, especially from European countries like Ireland, where the potato famine drove people overseas.

• These immigrants provided a source of labour for the industrial progress.

• During the years before the First World War, the government continued to push American Indians onto small pieces of land called Reservations.

• Cuba was fighting against Spain for independence, and the US sent a warship to try stop any violence.

• The warship was blown up, and the Spanish-American war was started.

• The US won, and ended up with control over places such as the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico.

• The United States also gained a never ending lease over a place in Cuba called Guantanamo Bay.

• In 1914 WWI started in Europe, and at first the US did not join in, but eventually they were convinced and in 1917 joined the war on the side of Britain.

• After the war, the US economy grew wildly, until in 1929 the stock market crashed, and the worldwide Great Depression started.

• Manufacturing dropped, and unemployment rose to 25%.

• In 1920, the US government passed an amendment to the constitution to try to ban the production and sale of alcohol , called Prohibition.

• The laws just encouraged illegal breweries and dealers to make huge amounts of money by smuggling and selling alcohol illegally.

• The illegal smuggling also encouraged gangs like the mafia to grow and to expand their operations, and caused social problems because strong liquor was cheaper to smuggle, and people got drunk more easily.

• In the middle of the depression, a new president was elected from the Democratic party, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• He was very popular when he became the president, as he had promised to fix the problems of the Great Depression.

• He used his popularity to make many new laws which had a great effect on the US economy.

• He also started programs of social welfare designed to look after the sick and poor.

• It was during Roosevelt’s presidency that World War II started.

• At first, like in WWI, the US tried to stay out of the war directly, but they cut off trade with Japan, and increased military and financial aid to China.

• The Japanese responded by bombing the American naval base in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

• The US immediately declared war on Japan, and was soon at war with Germany as well.

• The US strategy was to concentrate on Hitler in Germany first.

• The war in the Pacific was going Japan’s way at first, with a series of successes, but eventually the US gained back the territory, until finally they were near the Japanese homeland.

• President Roosevelt died in 1945, and Harry S. Truman took over as president.

• He authorised the use of nuclear weapons against Japan, to avoid the huge loss of (American) life that would have resulted in an invasion.

• The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and the second o Nagasaki.

• Soon after, the Japanese surrendered.