Important events in history
• The discovering of the New World
The American continent was discovered first around the year 1000 by Icelandic Vikings sailing under Lief Ericson. Till 1492 Indians (and Eskimos) were the only inhabitants (they crossed 85 km wide Bering Strait between Alaska and Chukotka).
Five hundreds year later after Vikings Christopher Columbus (an Italian mariner under Spanish monarchs) reached the Caribbean Sea and the Bahama Islands on October 12th, 1492. Some years after him the Spanish moved north from Mexico into south-west of nowadays USA.
• The Colonial Period (1607-1775)
In 1584 the English established the first colony called Virginia (in honour of the ‘virgin-queen’ Elizabeth I). The first settlement 1 in Virginia was established in 1607 under King James I, after who it is called Jamestown.
In 1620 a group of Puritan refugees from England reached the coast of North America. They landed with their ship called Mayflower on the Massachusetts coast and founded a settlement - Plymouth - there, in memory of the English port of the same name from they sail. Puritans were members of a religious sect which wanted to reform the Church of England. They called themselves the Pilgrim Fathers and wanted to build up a colony based on their own religious ideals. The winter 1620 was very cold and about half of them died. In spring 1621 they planted corn and other plants and in October they celebrated good harvest and God and held a feast with much food - they called this day their day of Thanksgiving. Their first colonies on the north were called New England.
During the 17th century many colonists - French, German, Dutch, Irish but mainly British - settled in the country. These settlements became the 13 colonies under British rule.
The main British rival in America were France. During the 18th century there were continual wars between them and after 1763 British kept all territory east of the Mississippi besides New Orleans which was French, and Florida, which was Spanish.
• The American Revolution (the War of Independence 1775-83)
The British Parliament, protecting the interests of the British manufacturers, passed a number of laws designed to paralyse the rising industry in colonies and changed the taxes on sugar, coffee etc. The Boston Tea Party in December 1773 was the first open act of violence against British rule. American begun boycotting of British trade. On July 4th, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted and proclaimed the Declaration of Independence. Its author was mainly Thomas Jefferson American Army under George Washington and with the help of allied France, which brought them men, money and supplies, kept the great victories at Saratoga and Yorktown. The finally peace was signed in 1783 (The Treaty of Paris). Britain recognised the former 13 colonies and the independence of the United States of America. Its first president was George Washington (between 1789-97).
• Expansion, the Civil War (1861-65) and the 2nd part of 19th century
The period between the War of Independence and the Civil War was the period of territorial expansion - the colonisation of the whole American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific was completed. In 1803 Jefferson made a ‘Louisiana Purchase’ 2 which meant that he bought for only 15 million dollars all central part of the present France area.
Till 1808 about half a million Africans were brought into America as slaves.
The cause of the Civil war was that there exist two antagonistic economic and social systems in the USA: the capitalist system on the north and the slave system on the south. In 1854 the Northern capitalists founded a new Republican Party. They won the elections and Abraham Lincoln became president in 1860. Than eleven Southern states left from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. In 1863 Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation declaring all slaves in the USA shall be forever free. The North was far stronger in industrial resources and in population. In 1863 the Union (Northern) General U.Grant defeated Southern General R.Lee in the battle of Gettysburg and two years later, in April 1865, Grant captured the Confederacy capital Richmond and Lee surrendered. It was the end of the Civil War, the worst episode in American history (635 000 died there). Four days after Southern capitulation president A.Lincoln was assassinated 3 in theatre by a Southern fanatic.
Second half of the 19th century was the period of reconstruction and the industrial growth 4 . In 1867 the USA purchased Alaska from Russia for a sum of 7,2 million dollars and in 1893 they annexation Hawaii. By 1890s the United States were becoming the leading world power.
• 20th century
The position of the USA was greatly strengthened by the First World War, where the USA entered in April, 1917 under president Wodroow Wilson. His ’Fourteen Points’ helped the peace treaty in 1918.
In the 1920s the American economy was prospering very good. Since 1919 there was prohibited the production, sale and transport of alcoholic drinks. The Black Thursday - October 24th, 1929 - the stock market crash in New York widespread unemployment. In 1933 US president Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the USA economy with his New Deal economic programme.
The Second World War entered the USA after the Japanese attack on naval base in Pearl Harbour on Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941. Also in this war played the USA a leading role, especially during the invasion in Europe, into France (Normandy) in June 1944 and in Pacific in battles against the Japanese.
On August 1945 they attacked the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki with an atomic bombs.
The most important moments at the end of 1940s was founding of the United Nations (UN), establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Marshall Plan for recovering the Europe. The post-war-period was a ‘Cold War’ between the capitalist powers (USA) and the socialist countries (Soviet Union).
The United States in 1960s were full of social changes and unrest. One of the biggest personality of an American history was US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who created liberal and good prospect West-East policy 5 - but he was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963. Also the assassinations of his brother Robert Kennedy and the black civil rights leader Martin Luther King in 1968 shocked the world. In July 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon.
The 1970s under Robert Nixon continued by the Vietnam War. Nixon was the first and only US president who had to resign from his office because of the bribing 6 Watergate scandal.
Many meetings between US president Ronald Regan and USSR president M.Gorbachev in 1980s set the course of the East-West policy and their relations ‘getting warmer’.
In 1991 the USA under George Bush played main role in another big conflict - the War in Gulf - where they protected Kuwait against Iraq invasion. In 1996 Bill Clinton was elected the US president for the second time.
Political system
The USA system of government is based on the Constitution of the United States adopted in 1787, the Bill of Rights from 1791 and other 26 amendments 7. The federal government controls matters connecting 8 the country as a whole: defence, foreign affairs, finance, commerce etc. But each of 50 states is sovereign, having its own state government and the Governor. There is also one district - District of Columbia (D.C.) - which is not a state.
The federal government has three branches. The President (since 1996 William Jefferson Clinton) is the head of State, the Chief Executive (has the power of veto) and Commander-in-chief of the Army. His official residence is the White House in Washington. He is elected every four years - he cannot be elected more than twice, must be a natural-born US citizen 9 and must be at least 35 years old. The presidential elections is the most important event in the political life of the USA, because the President is elected by people. The Cabinet (has 14 departments) is responsible 10 to the President. The Vice-President (since 1996 Albert Gore) is the chairman of the Senate and in the absence of the President the chairman of the Cabinet meeting. He is automatically succeeds to the presidency if the President dies.
The US Congress is composed of two houses - the Senate and the House of Representatives. The building in Washington, in which the Congress seats, is the Capitol. Each state has two senators in the Senate (100 members), the House of Representatives has about 435 members (Congressmen).
The third branch is the justical department at the top made up of the US Supreme Court 11 which consist of nine judges.
There are only two main political parties: The Republican Party (more conservative - for private enterprise and individual initiative) and The Democratic Party (more liberal - wants social and economics programs for those who need them). There would be a intense situation 12 where the executive and the legislature are not in harmony: there can be a Republican President and a Democratic majority Congress or vice versa 13 .
Each of 50 states apply the same model like the federal government (it means that individual states have the State Senate, the State House of Representatives, the Federal District Courts etc.).
The American flag (called ‘Stars and Strips’ or ‘Old Glory’) consist of two parts - one smaller blue oblong 14 with 50 white stars symbolising 50 American states, and 6 white and 7 red stripes symbolising the original 13 states. Each state has its own flag. The American national anthem is called ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’15.
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