Lecture One
Beginnings
The United States of America
1. History and the
principles of the
political system
2. American economy
3. American culture
and society
The Beginnings of America
Before the formation of the United States
How America influenced what we eat?
“The Discovery”
• 12 October 1492 –
Christopher Columbus
reaches the island he names
San Salvador (Holy Savior)
– he thinks he is in India.
• Inhabitants of the land
became “Indians” (today
they are usually called
Native Americans).
Columbus takes new land
Why America is called America?
• Italian explorer from
Florence, Amerigo
Vespucci described
his journeys he made
in the 1490s
• He suggested the
existence of the new
land to the east of
Europe
The Beginnings of English Expansion
• Sir Walter Raleigh
|ˈrɑːli|asked Queen
Elizabeth to start a colony
in the new world
• He reached Roanoke
Island in 1584
• He named the entire region
Virginia (from Virgin
Queen = Elizabeth I).
Roanoke Island 1st settlement
• Complete failure!
• Most of the people
died of hunger and
attacks from Indians
The Second time
• In 1587, Raleigh sent
colonists a second time with
wives and children
• John White was the colony’s
governor
• John White’s granddaughter,
Virginia Dare was born 1
month after they arrived in
the USA on August 18 the
first English baby born in
the USA.
The Lost Colony
• John White returns to England for supplies.
• He returns in August 1590 to find no colonists on Roanoke
Island.
• On one of the trees they find a caption “CROATOAN” (it was
the name of an island nearby as well as the name of the
Native Americans living in the area.
The Virginia Company
• In 1606, King James I gives permission
to the Virginia Company of London to try
a colony.
• On May 14, 1607, the settlers began
building the first English permanent
settlement on the James River in
Virginia.
• Jamestown was named after the King
James I (and Virginia was named after
the Virgin Queen of England).
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown and Roanoke Island
John Smith
• In 1608, John Smith takes
over leadership of the
Jamestown colony.
• Problems: hunger, disease,
Indians.
• January 1608, only 38 of the
colonists remained alive.
• Colony survives because:
1. “No work, no eat”
2. Bargaining for food with the
Powhatan Indians.
Pocahontas
• Johns Smith fights with Powhatan Indians.
• He is taken prisoner
• He was saved by Pocahontas, a
Powhatan Native American.
Tobacco
• Englishman John Rolfe in
1614 found a way to harvest
tobacco.
• He also married Pocahontas
in 1614 and thus created
peace with the Powhatan
Native Americans for 8 years.
Princess Pocahontas
• Pocahontas, character
of popular culture.
• Brought to England, is
baptized and dies
young of smallpox a
disease she did not
know.
JOHNJohn
ROLFE
RolfeAND
POCAHONTAS
early 1850s, J. W. Glass
Pocohantas
Government and slavery
• In 1619, the House of Burgesses begins
a tradition of self government in America.
• In 1619, a Dutch ship brings the first
Africans to Jamestown – beginning of
slavery.
• In 1619, The Virginia Company of London
sends 90 women to Jamestowne as wives
for the settlers (120 pounds of tobacco for
a wife)
• 22 March 1622 Powhatan uprising – one
fourth of the colonists killed.
• In 1624, King James I revokes the Virginia
Company’s charter and Jamestowne
becomes a Royal colony (a colony run by
a king and his appointed governor).
English Colonisation of
America
Religion, Business and Politics
After Jamestown
• Jamestown colonists went to live in
America because they wanted to get rich.
They were sent there by businessmen
(Virginia Company).
• The second important group of colonists
came to live in America because they
wanted religious freedom.
Religious conflicts
• Protestant dissenters: the Puritans
– influenced by the teachings of John
Calvin.
• Puritans – because they wanted to
keep the English Church (and
English people) “pure”.
• They did not recognize bishops, did
not want colourful churches and
sumptuous masses.
• James I – conflict with the Puritans
• Puritans decide to emigrate – first to
Holland then to America.
1620: The Pilgrim Fathers
• 16 September 1620,
Pilgrims leave England
(Plymouth).
• They are called Pilgrims
– because they went
there for religious
purposes.
The Mayflower Compact
• On a ship (called
Mayflower) to
America – signed the
agreement, now
called the Mayflower
Compact.
• Agreement: to work
together for the
common good.
The Mayflower
Mayflower Compact
• They set up the government “the civil body
politic”.
• Agreed to make “just and equal laws”.
• One of the first documents in the history of
American democracy.
Mayflower Compact
9 November 1620
• They land in Massachusetts (land named
after Native American people living there).
• The first settlement is called Plymouth.
• The land is called New England.
The Pilgrim Fathers land in
America
Difficult life of the early colonists
• Problems similar to the problems of the
previous settlers: hunger and diseases.
• Half of the colonists (50 out of more than
100) die during the first winter.
• The rest saved by native Americans who
helped them and showed new food: corn,
pumpkin, turkey.
Thanksgiving
• Every third Thursday in November.
• Thanks to God for good harvest after one
year in America, in November 1621.
The Great Migration
• Ten years later, in 1630, a
second much larger group
came to America, around
1000 people.
• They established Boston.
• Between 1630-1640,
around 20 000 colonists
came to America.
• In 1661 – Plymouth Colony
+ Boston Colony =
Massachusetts.
Puritan Values
• Puritans had a lasting influence on American
culture.
• Very idealistic: (“city on the hill”, “the New
Jerusalem”).
• But not very tolerant: duty of the government
to make people obey God’s law, e.g.
– going to the church compulsory
– drinking, adultery and long hair in men punished
American Utopia
• America: model for other
nations (doctrine of
American
exceptionalism).
• Hard work and self
moderation.
• Education for all children.
• Self-government.
Separation of the Church and State
• Some of the colonists disagreed with the
harsh laws that Puritan leaders imposed.
• Under the leadership of Roger Williams
(preacher from Salem) they started the
colony of Rhode Island (religious freedom,
separation of the church and state).
• The other group of dissenters founded New
Hampshire (separate colony since 1679).
Pennsylvania
• A religious group called The Society
of Friends (Quakers) were against all
wars (pacifists) and believed men
and women are equal (so for
example they can be priests).
• 1681 – William Penn, a Quaker
received the permission from Charles
II to create his own colony –
Pennsylvania.
• He invited colonists (also from other
countries) promising religious
freedom and tolerance.
Formation of Other Colonies
• 1626 – Colonists form Holland
build New Amsterdam. In 1664
captured by the English and renamed New York.
• 1634 – Maryland, a colony
where Catholics could settle.
• In 1681 William Penn – received
a permission to start a colony in
America: Pennsylvania.
• 1691 – supporters of Charles II
created North Carolina.
• The last English colony was
Georgia – settled in 1733.
13 English Colonies
Growth of the Colonies
• Three major cities
Philadelphia, New York
and Boston.
• In 1770 – Philadelphia,
the biggest American city
with the population of 28
000.
Philadelphia
English Colonies: 3 groups
• New England colonies – mainly Puritans.
• Middle Colonies (Pennsylvania) – greater
religious tolerance and diversity; people
not only from England but also Germany,
Sweden and Holland.
• Southern Colonies (Virginia, Carolinas,
Georgia) – large plantations with slaves
brought from Africa.
Westward expansion
• After 1733 – colonists start to
expand to the west of the
American continent looking for
new land and new opportunities
• The area where European
settlement came to an end and the
forest lands of the Amerindians
began, was called the frontier (or
later the Wild West).
• “Frontier way of life”:
independence, self-reliance,
toughness.
French and Indian War
• French colonies in Northern America:
1. North: Quebec and Montreal.
2. South: Louisiana (after Luis XIV) and New
Orleans.
• 1756 - the war with France starts.
• 1763 – France gives up its claims to
American territories.
Conflicts with England
• Costly war - new taxes on imports of
sugar, coffee, textiles, and other goods.
• Need to feed the English soldiers.
• Limits on the expansion to the West.
• New taxes and regulations.
• Colonists' fear: government too powerful:
“No taxation without representation”
The American Revolution: 1775
• Fighting between British soldiers and the
American Patriots began April 19,1775, at
Lexington and Concorde, Massachusetts.
• The war’s last major battle was at
Yorktown, Virginia in September and
October 1781.
• Britain formally recognized America
independence with the signing of the
treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783.
Events leading up to the revolution
1. The Proclamation of 1763 – England’s King
George forbid colonist to settle west of the
Appalachian Mountains.
2. The Sugar Act of 1764 – tax on sugar from
outside the British Empire.
3. The Stamp Act of 1765 – required colonist to
pay for tax stamps on newspapers, and
various legal documents. Parliament
abolished the Act in 1766.
4. The Townshend Acts of 1767 placed a duty
on imported goods including glass, lead, paint,
and paper. Americans responded by not
buying British goods.
Boston Tea Party
• On December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams
led patriots, disguised as Indians, on a raid
of British ships docked in Boston’s harbor.
They dumped the cargoes of tea
overboard. This was later called the
Boston Tea Party.
The Intolerable Acts of 1774
• – were Britain’s response to the Boston
Tea Party. One act closed Boston’s harbor
until the colonists paid for the destroyed
tea. Another took away nearly all power
from Massachusetts’ legislature. Control
of the colony was given to the newly
appointed British governor, General
Thomas Gage.
The First Continental Congress
• September 5 – October 26, 1774
• Attended by representatives from all the
colonies except Georgia.
• They met in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia
to protest the Intolerable Acts.
• Decided to stop trade with Britain unless the
Acts were abolished.
• They also advised colonists to prepare for
war. They agree to meet again in May 1775.
The Forces
• Britain had large numbers of
well trained militia. Soldiers’
uniforms included bright red
jackets: “redcoats”.
• The colonies did not have a
central government, army, or
navy.
• Each colony did have a small
citizen army called the militia:
ordinary people.
Battles of the Revolutionary War
• Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts
1775