DISCOVERY

There were 2-18 million Native Americans living in the current U.S
.areas at the beginning of European colonization (devastating effect of
European diseases / smallpox)
diverse customs (farming, hunting, gathering + cultivation of maize +
other food supplies: close ties to the land)

1st Europeans to arrive in North America = Norse (Greenland, Erik the

Red)
around the year 1000, Leif Ericson + Icelandic Vikings reached the
Eastern coast of North America - no permanent settlements
-

15th century Europe: need for increased trade (spices, textiles, dyes
from the Far East) Christopher Columbus (Italian mariner) landed in
the Caribbean looking for a Western route to Asia 1492

Further explorations
British king)
-

John Cabot (1497; Venetian in service of the

Juan Ponce de Leon (1513; Spanish) - Florida coast

(1522 conquest of Mexico)
Amerigo Vespucci (Italian account of his voyages to
The New World 1529: first maps) America
Hernando de Soto - Florida + South-Eastern U.S.,
Mississippi (1539)
Giovanni da Verrazano (Florentine) North Carolina
(1524) + North, along Atlantic coast (past todays New
York harbor)
Jacques Cartier (beginning of French claims to North
America)
1578: Humphrey Gilbert patent from Queen
Elizabeth I to colonize heathen and barbarous lands in
the New World brother Walter Raleigh
1585: first British colony Roanoke Island (North
Carolina) abandoned

Reasons -

search of wealth (stories of gold European sovereigns claim

as much territory as possible)
- zeal of Spanish priests to convert indigenous inhabitants to
Christianity
- European religious + political dissenters need for refuge from
persecution in their homelands;
- thirst for adventure

First (European) colonies/ Settlement

1607: 1st success - Jamestown, Virginia (King James I

Virginia Company hope to make a profit from the settlement)

early hardships (2/3 of colonists died during first winter hunger

+ disease)
Jamestown endured and became Americas first permanent
English colony (tobacco trade and shipping begins in 1614)

16th century: the Puritans wanted to reform the Established Church of

England (it had too many practices from Roman Catholic church, while
they needed simpler Protestant forms of faith and worship)

1607 the Dutch granted them asylum (BUT lower paid jobs,
discrimination)

1620: a group of Puritans (The Pilgrims) crossed the Atlantic on

board The Mayflower settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts
- The first American settlement based upon social contract (laws + own
civil government) = The Mayflower Compact
-

1630 John Winthrop (with a grant from King Charles I) larger

Puritan colony (Massachusetts Bay):

BOSTON - a city upon a hill = the ideal community (in strict

accordance with Puritan beliefs a model of intolerant moralism) the
center of American Puritanism
Boston Latin = the nations oldest public school
(1635)
Harvard = the nations oldest college (Cambridge
1636)
first public library (1653);
first newspaper in the colonies: Newsletter (1704)

The largest, wealthiest + most influential American city until 1760s

Roger Williams (clergyman) disagreed with the communitys decisions

(he thought that the state should not interfere with religion and had
objections to the colonys seizure of Indian lands)
1635 Rhode Island colony (religious freedom, separation of church
and state)

Other colonies
-

Religious tolerance: Maryland (1634 refuge for Roman Catholics),

Pennsylvania (1681 Germans, Quakers; William Penn), Delaware
(refuge for Swedes)

Dutch settlers began settlement on the Island of Manhattan in the

early 1620s (in 1624, the island is reportedly purchased from the local

Indians for $24) renamed New Amsterdam (1664= captured by

English and its name changes to New YORK )
-

1619 1st African slaves arrived in Virginia the system of slavery

begins to develop (North and South Carolina: large tobacco and rice
plantations)

1634 Massachusetts Bay + Plymouth + Connecticut + New Haven

form the New England Confederation (the first attempt at regional
unity for defense purposes)

A mixture of different cultures was already taking shape

by 1770: growing urban centers Philadelphia (The City of Brotherly

Love 28,000 inhabitants), New York, Boston, Charleston
no feudal aristocracy, every free man had the opportunity to achieve
economic independence/prosperity

By 1733, English settlers had established 13 colonies along Atlantic

coast
(Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia.)
The SEVEN YEARS WAR
-

the French controlled Canada + Louisiana (= the entire Mississippi

watershed) ceaseless Wars between France and Britain (1689-1815)
1754/6-1763: The Seven Years War (The French and Indian War):
William Pitt (the British Prime-Minister) invested France lost its
territories in America (Canada, the Great Lakes and the upper
Mississippi Valley)
1763: Peace of Paris - Britain became entitled to Canada + all North
America east of Mississippi
CONFLICTS

conflicts between Britain and its colonies (they wanted more freedom + selfgovernment)
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 reserved all Western territory
(Allenghenies, Florida, Mississippi River, Quebec) to use by Native Americans
(to prevent the colonies westward expansion and to avoid Indian wars)
it was perceived as sheer disregard of the colonists rights
The new financial policy of the British Government (needed money to
support the Empire)

1. The Sugar Act (1764) - increased duties on imported sugar + textiles,

coffee, wines and indigo. It doubled the duties on foreign goods reshipped
from England to the colonies + forbade the import of foreign rum and French
wines;
2. The Currency Act (1764) - prohibiting colonists from issuing any legal
tender paper money threatened to destabilize entire colonial economy of both
the industrial North and the agricultural South, thus uniting the colonists
against it;
3. The Quartering Act (1765) - required colonies to provide the royal troops
with provisions and barracks
4. The Stamp Act (1765) (all printed materials were going to be taxed,
including: newspapers, pamphlets, bills, legal documents, licenses, almanacs,
dice and playing cards) - eventually nullified.

- (groundless) fears that the new taxes would make trading difficult (the
colonists wanted to have their own control)
- The British troops might crush civil liberties (while the colonists went
there to escape political repression)

1765 The Stamp Act Congress (gathered representatives from 9 colonies)

in New York decided to send a resolution to King George II + English
Parliament [slogan: no taxation without representation]

The Act was repealed BUT it was soon replaced by the Townshend Acts
1767:
tax on tea + other goods
Customs officers + British soldiers were sent to Boston to collect
March 5, 1770: 5 Bostonians were killed (The Boston Massacre) the
taxes were removed
-

1773: the East India Company was granted monopoly on exported tea
The Boston Tea Party (disguised as Indians, patriots boarded a
British merchant ship + threw all the tea overboard)
-

Patriots (wanted to break free from the British Empire) Loyalists

(were loyal to the Crown)

British Parliament condemned the acts (as vandalism)

passed The Intolerable/ Restraining/ Coercive Acts
(in order to restrain the independence of the Massachusetts colonial
government, more British soldiers were sent to Boston port which was
closed to shipping)

September 1774: The First Continental Congress (Philadelphia)

focused on the colonists rights (to life, liberty, property)

intention to boycott British trade (all English imports) + place an

embargo on exports to Britain
decision to discontinue slave trade
plan to organize militias, collect and store weapons and ammunition

The AMERICAN REVOLUTION

April 19, 1775 the battles of Lexington and Concord (British soldiers
American militiamen)

The AMERICAN WAR of INDEPENDENCE

(the British easily captured Lexington and Concord but were harassed by
volunteers:
In June 10,000 American soldiers besieged Boston
(the British were forced to evacuate the city in March 1776)
-

in May 1775: The Second Continental Congress Philadelphia

assumes the functions of a national government
establishes the Continental Army and Navy: colonel George
Washington of Virginia (planter) = commander-in-chief (high
number of casualties and retreat in their first attempts)
o prints paper money, opens diplomatic relations with foreign powers

Thomas Paine Common Sense (pamphlet that played an important part in

persuading the colonists to take the path of revolution)
Main ideas/ claims:
- governments, even good ones, are at best necessary evils: they are less
desirable the farther the government is from the governed
- ignoring the loyalty many Americans still felt for the King, he argued
ardently for independence; saw monarchy as an absurd form of
government; George III = a Royal Brute
- it made no sense for a small country like Britain (island) to rule a
continent like America
- independence would foster peace and prosperity: independent America
would avoid senseless European wars and grow rich by trading with all
countries (not just the mother-country)

May 10, 1776 the resolution calling for separation is adopted (Richard
Henry Lee of Virginia: the United Colonies are and ought to be free and
independent states!)
a committee of 5, headed by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia is appointed to
prepare the official declaration

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - July 4th, 1976

(marked the birth of a new nation
based on the philosophy of human freedom the French and English
Enlightenment political philosophy
John Lockes heritage: the natural rights of humankind, a government
based on public consent, the natural right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness)
-

5 parts (introduction, preamble, body 2 parts, conclusion).

It resulted in WAR

bad for Americans at first (the British captured NY September 1776,

Philadelphia 1777)
- turning point: battle of Saratoga (1777) Franco-American alliance
the British surrendered (Yorktown, 1781)

The Treaty of Paris (1783) Benjamin Franklin: played an important part

The 13 colonies become the United States of America independent;
- are granted all the territory North of Florida, South of Canada, East of the
Mississippi River

need for new state constitutions: critical period (1780s) Articles of

Confederation
May 1787, Federal Convention (Philadelphia) representatives headed
by George Washington (+ Benjamin Franklin, + James Madison) drafted
Constitution
-

3 braches of government to ensure the balance of power: the separate

and distinct powers of each are balanced by the other two ( = the
checks and balances system: no dictatorial authority)

The Congress (legislative) Senate + House of Representatives,

The President (executive) and
The Federal Judiciary (Supreme Court, federal courts)

The Constitution = above all laws and regulations

All persons = equal before the law, and equally entitled to protection
All states = equal (each must recognize and respect the laws of the
others:
state governments must be democratic in form, the final authority = the
People
The People: have the the right to change form of national government by
legal means defined in Constitution

September 17, 1787 the Constitution is signed by 39 of 42 delegates

ratified in 1788 (after a bitter debate)
March 4, 1789 the new government came into existence
-

1791 The Bill of Rights (10 amendments are added) (less than 20 more
up to now!)
the freedom of speech, press, religion;
the right to bear arms
protection against illegal house searches, seizures of property and
arrest
the right to a fair trial by jury
protection against cruel and unusual punishments
the right to assembly peacefully, protest and demand changes
etc.
1st president of the United States = George Washington (Federalist)
First two political parties:
-

Federalists government
Democratic Republicans -

favored strong president and central

defended rights of individual states