Transcript The United States after Independence

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 MexicanAmerican 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 SpanishAmerican 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.