United States: Difference between revisions

The [[Paleo-Indians|first inhabitants of North America]] migrated from [[Siberia]] across the [[Bering land bridge]] at least 12,000 years ago;{{sfn|Erlandson|Rick|Vellanoweth|2008|p=19}}{{sfn|Savage|2011|page=55}} the [[Clovis culture]], which appeared around 11,000 BC, is believed to be the first widespread culture in the Americas.{{sfn|Waters|Stafford|2007|pages=1122–1126}}{{sfn|Flannery|2015|pages=173–185}} Over time, indigenous North American cultures grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as the [[Mississippian culture]], developed [[Eastern Agricultural Complex|agriculture]], [[Southeastern Ceremonial Complex|architecture]], and complex societies.{{sfn|Lockard|2010|page=315}} Indigenous peoples and cultures such as the [[Algonquian peoples]],<ref>Smithsonian Institution—Handbook of North American Indians series: ''Handbook of North American Indians,'' Volume 15—Northeast. Bruce G. Trigger (volume editor). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 1978 References to Indian burning for the Eastern Algonquians, Virginia Algonquians, Northern Iroquois, Huron, Mahican, and Delaware Tribes and peoples.</ref> [[Ancestral Puebloans]],{{sfn|Fagan|2016|page=390}} and the [[Iroquois]] developed across the present-day United States.<ref name="Dean Snow2">{{cite book |last=Snow |first=Dean R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7e82KQoX6IC&q=iroquois+basque&pg=PA1 |title=The Iroquois |publisher=Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. |year=1994 |isbn=978-1-55786-938-8 |access-date=July 16, 2010}}</ref> [[Population history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native population estimates]] of what is now the United States before the arrival of European immigrants range from around 500,000{{sfn|Thornton|1998|page=34}}{{sfn|Perdue|Green|2005|page=40}} to nearly 10 million.{{sfn|Perdue|Green|2005|page=40}}{{sfn|Haines|Haines|Steckel|2000|page=12}}

 

{{Main|Colonial history of the United States}}

{{See also|European colonization of the Americas}}

The original [[Thirteen Colonies]]{{efn|[[Province of New Hampshire|New Hampshire]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts]], [[Connecticut Colony|Connecticut]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], [[Province of New York|New York]], [[Province of New Jersey|New Jersey]], [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], [[Delaware Colony|Delaware]], [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]], [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]], [[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina]], [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]], and [[Province of Georgia|Georgia]]}} that would later found the United States were administered by [[British Empire|Great Britain]],<ref name="BilhartzElliott20072">{{cite book |author1=Bilhartz, Terry D. |url=https://archive.org/details/currentsinameric0000bilh |title=Currents in American History: A Brief History of the United States |author2=Elliott, Alan C. |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7656-1817-7 |url-access=registration}}</ref> and had [[Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies|local governments]] with elections open to most white male property owners.<ref name="Wood19982">{{cite book |author=Wood |first=Gordon S. |url=https://archive.org/details/creationofameric0000wood_r7v4 |title=The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 |publisher=UNC Press Books |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8078-4723-7 |page=263}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Ratcliffe |first=Donald |year=2013 |title=The Right to Vote and the Rise of Democracy, 1787–1828 |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |volume=33 |issue=2 |page=220 |doi=10.1353/jer.2013.0033 |s2cid=145135025}}</ref> The colonial population grew rapidly, eclipsing Native American populations;<ref>[[United States#Walton|Walton, 2009]], pp. 38–39</ref> by the 1770s, the natural increase of the population was such that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.<ref>[[United States#Walton|Walton, 2009]], p. 35</ref> The colonies' distance from Britain allowed for the development of self-governance,<ref>{{cite book |author=Otis |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_52678 |title=The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved |year=1763 |isbn=978-0-665-52678-7}}</ref> and the [[First Great Awakening]], a series of [[Christian revival]]s, fueled colonial interest in [[Freedom of religion|religious liberty]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Foner |first1=Eric |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofamericanf00fone |title=The Story of American Freedom |date=1998 |publisher=W.W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-04665-6 |edition=1st |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyofamericanf00fone/page/4 4]–5 |quote=story of American freedom. |url-access=registration}}</ref>

 

{{Main|American Revolution|American Revolutionary War}}

{{Further|History of the United States (1776–1789)|History of the United States (1789–1815)}}

After the British surrender at the [[siege of Yorktown]] in 1781 American sovereignty was internationally recognized by the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] (1783), through which the U.S. gained territory stretching west to the Mississippi River, north to present-day Canada, and south to [[Spanish Florida]].<ref>{{cite web |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=Hunter |title=British-American Diplomacy: The Paris Peace Treaty of September 30, 1783 |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/paris.asp |publisher=The Avalon Project at Yale Law School}}</ref> The [[Articles of Confederation]] were ratified in 1781 and established a decentralized government that operated until 1789.<ref name="YoungNash20112" /> The [[Northwest Ordinance]] (1787) established the precedent by which the country's territory would expand with the [[Admission to the Union|admission of new states]], rather than the expansion of existing states.<ref>Shōsuke Satō, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PY0VAAAAYAAJ History of the land question in the United States]'', Johns Hopkins University, (1886), p. 352</ref> The [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] was drafted at the 1787 [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] to overcome the limitations of the Articles. It went into effect in 1789, creating a [[federation]] governed by [[Separation of powers|three separate branches]] that together ensured a system of [[checks and balances]].{{sfn|Foner|2020|p=524}} George Washington [[1788–89 United States presidential election|was elected]] the country's first president under the Constitution, and the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] was adopted in 1791 to allay skeptics' concerns about the power of the more centralized government.{{sfn|OpenStax|2014|loc=§ [https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/8-1-competing-visions-federalists-and-democratic-republicans 8.1]}}{{sfn|Foner|2020|pp=538-540}} [[George Washington's resignation as commander-in-chief#Legacy|His resignation as commander-in-chief]] after the Revolution and later refusal to run for a third term, established the precedent of [[Peaceful transition of power|peaceful transfer of power]] and supremacy of civil authority.<ref name="BoyerJr.20072">[[United States#Boyer|Boyer, 2007]], pp. 192–193</ref>{{sfn|OpenStax|2014|loc=§ [https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/8-1-competing-visions-federalists-and-democratic-republicans 8.3]}}

 

{{Further||History of the United States (1815–1849)|Territorial evolution of the United States}}

[[File:US Slave Free 1789-1861.gif|thumb|Animation showing the free/slave status of U.S. states and territories expansion, 1789–1861]]

In the late 18th century, American settlers began to [[Territorial evolution of the United States|expand westward]], some with a sense of [[manifest destiny]].<ref name="MD20072">{{Cite book |last1=Carlisle |first1=Rodney P. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/659807062 |title=Manifest destiny and the expansion of America |last2=Golson |first2=J. Geoffrey |date=2007 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-834-7 |series=Turning Points in History Series |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |page=238 |oclc=659807062}}</ref> The [[Louisiana Purchase]] (1803) from France nearly doubled the territory of the United States.<ref>{{cite web |title=Louisiana Purchase |url=https://www.nps.gov/jeff/historyculture/upload/louisiana_purchase.pdf |access-date=March 1, 2011 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref> [[Origins of the War of 1812|Lingering issues with Britain remained]], leading to the [[War of 1812]], which was fought to a draw.<ref name="Wait19992">{{cite book |last=Wait |first=Eugene M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=puuQ30N0EsIC&pg=PA78 |title=America and the War of 1812 |publisher=Nova Publishers |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-56072-644-9 |page=78}}</ref> [[Adams–Onís Treaty|Spain ceded Florida]] and its Gulf Coast territory in 1819.<ref name="KloseJones19942">{{cite book |author1=Klose, Nelson |url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstateshist00klos_0/page/150 |title=United States History to 1877 |author2=Jones, Robert F. |publisher=Barron's Educational Series |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-8120-1834-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstateshist00klos_0/page/150 150]}}</ref> The [[Missouri Compromise]] attempted to balance desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it, admitting [[Missouri]] as a [[Slave states and free states|slave state]] and [[Maine#Statehood|Maine]] as a free state and declared a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north of the [[parallel 36°30′ north|36°30′ parallel]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hammond|first=John Craig|date=March 2019|title=President, Planter, Politician: James Monroe, the Missouri Crisis, and the Politics of Slavery|journal=Journal of American History|volume=105|issue=4|pages=843–867|doi=10.1093/jahist/jaz002}}</ref> As Americans expanded further into land inhabited by Native Americans, the federal government often applied [[Federal Indian Policy|policies]] of [[Indian removal]] or [[Cultural assimilation of Native Americans|assimilation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frymer |first=Paul |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/981954623 |title=Building an American empire : the era of territorial and political expansion |date=2017 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4008-8535-0 |location=Princeton, New Jersey |oclc=981954623}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Calloway |first=Colin G. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1035393060 |title=First peoples : a documentary survey of American Indian history |date=2019 |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's, Macmillan Learning |isbn=978-1-319-10491-7 |edition=6th |location=Boston |oclc=1035393060}}</ref> Organized displacements prompted a long series of [[American Indian Wars]] west of the Mississippi.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Michno |first=Gregory |title=Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes, 1850–1890 |date=2003 |publisher=Mountain Press Publishing |isbn=978-0-87842-468-9}}</ref><ref name="BillingtonRidge2001j2">{{cite book |author1=Billington, Ray Allen |url=https://archive.org/details/westwardexpansio00bill/page/22 |title=Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier |author2=Ridge, Martin |publisher=UNM Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8263-1981-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/westwardexpansio00bill/page/22 22] |author-link2=Martin Ridge (historian)}}</ref> The [[Republic of Texas]] was [[Texas annexation|annexed]] in 1845,<ref name="Morrison19992">{{cite book |author=Morrison, Michael A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTaxzMlkVEMC&pg=PA13 |title=Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War |date=April 28, 1997 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-4796-1 |pages=13–21}}</ref> and the 1846 [[Oregon Treaty]] led to U.S. control of the present-day [[Northwestern United States|American Northwest]].<ref name="Kemp20102">{{cite book |author=Kemp, Roger L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHawgM-WnlUC&pg=PA180 |title=Documents of American Democracy: A Collection of Essential Works |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7864-4210-2 |page=180 |access-date=October 25, 2015}}</ref> Victory in the [[Mexican–American War]] resulted in the 1848 [[Mexican Cession]] of California and much of the present-day [[Southwestern United States|American Southwest]].<ref name="MD20072" /><ref name="McIlwraithMuller20012">{{cite book |author1=McIlwraith, Thomas F. |url=https://archive.org/details/northamericahist00mcil/page/61 |title=North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent |author2=Muller, Edward K. |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7425-0019-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/northamericahist00mcil/page/61 61] |access-date=October 25, 2015}}</ref>

 

{{Main|History of the United States (1849–1865)|American Civil War}}

[[File:US map 1864 Civil War divisions.svg|thumb|Division of the states during the [[American Civil War]]:

The [[Reconstruction era]] followed the war. After [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|the assassination]] of President [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Reconstruction Amendments]] were passed to [[Civil rights movement (1865–1896)|protect the rights of African Americans]]. National infrastructure, including [[First transcontinental telegraph|transcontinental telegraph]] and [[First transcontinental railroad|railroads]], spurred growth in the [[American frontier]].<ref name="Black2011kj2">{{cite book |last=Black |first=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIst_CSWOqIC&pg=PA275 |title=Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519–1871 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-253-35660-4 |page=275 |author-link=Jeremy Black (historian)}}</ref>

 

{{Main|History of the United States (1865–1917)}}

[[File:Emigrants (i.e. immigrants) landing at Ellis Island -.webm|thumb|An [[Edison Studios]] film showing immigrants arriving at [[Ellis Island]] in [[New York Harbor]], a major point of entry for European [[Immigration to the United States|immigrants]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries<ref name="PriceBenton-Short2008">{{cite book|first1=Marie|last1=Price|first2=Lisa|last2=Benton-Short|title=Migrants to the Metropolis: The Rise of Immigrant Gateway Cities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Tb5HMB63xAC&pg=PA51|year=2008|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-3186-6|page=51}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=March 4, 2020 |title=Overview + History {{!}} Ellis Island |url=https://www.statueofliberty.org/ellis-island/overview-history/ |access-date=September 10, 2021 |website=Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island |language=en}}</ref>]]

[[Second Industrial Revolution|An explosion of technological advancement]] accompanied by the exploitation of cheap immigrant labor<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hirschman |first1=Charles |last2=Mogford |first2=Elizabeth |date=1 December 2009 |title=Immigration and the American Industrial Revolution From 1880 to 1920 |journal=Social Science Research |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=897–920 |doi=10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.04.001 |issn=0049-089X |pmc=2760060 |pmid=20160966}}</ref> led to [[Gilded Age|rapid economic development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries]], allowing the United States to outpace England, France, and Germany combined.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carson |first1=Thomas |last2=Bonk |first2=Mary |title=Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History |date=1999 |publisher=Gale |chapter=Industrial Revolution}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Riggs |first1=Thomas |title=Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History Vol. 3 |date=2015 |publisher=Gale |page=1179 |edition=2}}</ref> This fostered the amassing of power by [[Robber baron (industrialist)|a few prominent industrialists]], largely by their formation of [[Trust (business)|trusts]] and [[Monopoly|monopolies]] to prevent competition.<ref name="Atlantic2">{{Cite journal |last=Dole |first=Charles F. |year=1907 |title=The Ethics of Speculation |journal=[[The Atlantic Monthly]] |volume=C |issue=December 1907 |pages=812–818}}</ref> [[Tycoon]]s led the nation's expansion in the [[History of rail transportation in the United States|railroad]], [[History of the petroleum industry in the United States|petroleum]], and [[History of the steel industry (1850–1970)|steel]] industries. The United States emerged as a pioneer of the [[Automotive industry in the United States|automotive industry]].<ref>{{cite web |author1=The Pit Boss |date=February 26, 2021 |title=The Pit Stop: The American Automotive Industry Is Packed With History |url=https://pitstop.rumbleon.com/american-automotive-history |access-date=December 5, 2021 |website=Rumble On}}</ref> These changes were accompanied by significant increases in [[economic inequality]], [[How the Other Half Lives|slum conditions]], and [[List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States|social unrest]], creating the environment for [[Labor history of the United States|labor unions to begin to flourish]].<ref>Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E. (2012). ''America: A Narrative History (Brief Ninth Edition) (Vol. 2).'' [[W. W. Norton & Company]]. {{ISBN|978-0-393-91267-8}} p. 589</ref><ref>[[United States#Zinn|Zinn, 2005]], pp. 321–357</ref><ref name="Fraser2">{{cite book |last=Fraser |first=Steve |title=The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-316-18543-1 |page=66}}</ref> This period eventually ended with the advent of the [[Progressive Era]], which was characterized by significant reforms.<ref name="Aldrich2">Aldrich, Mark. ''Safety First: Technology, Labor and Business in the Building of Work Safety, 1870-1939.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. {{ISBN|0-8018-5405-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929 {{!}} U.S. History Primary Source Timeline {{!}} Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/progressive-era-to-new-era-1900-1929/overview/ |access-date=11 November 2023 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>

 

{{Main|History of the United States (1917–1945)}}

[[File:TrinityDetonation1945GIF.gif|thumb|The [[Trinity (nuclear test)|Trinity nuclear test]] in 1945, part of the [[Manhattan Project]] and the first detonation of a [[nuclear weapon]]. The World Wars permanently ended the country's policy of [[United States non-interventionism|isolationism]] and left it as a world [[superpower]].]]

[[United States non-interventionism before entering World War II|At first neutral]] during [[World War II]], the U.S. began [[Lend-Lease|supplying war materiel]] to the [[Allies of World War II]] in March 1941 and entered the war in December after the [[Empire of Japan]]'s attack on [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]].<ref>The official WRA record from 1946 states that it was 120,000 people. See {{cite book |author=[[War Relocation Authority]] |url=https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-282-5/ |title=The Evacuated People: A Quantitative Study |year=1946 |page=8}} This number does not include people held in other camps such as those run by the DoJ or U.S. Army. Other sources may give numbers slightly more or less than 120,000.</ref><ref name="Pearl Harbor2">{{cite web |last1=Yamasaki |first1=Mitch |title=Pearl Harbor and America's Entry into World War II: A Documentary History |url=https://www.hawaiiinternment.org/static/ush_yamasaki_documentary_history.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213122046/https://www.hawaiiinternment.org/static/ush_yamasaki_documentary_history.pdf |archive-date=December 13, 2014 |access-date=January 14, 2015 |publisher=World War II Internment in Hawaii}}</ref> The U.S. [[Manhattan Project|developed the first nuclear weapons]] and [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|used them against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] in August 1945, ending the war.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Why did Japan surrender in World War II? |language=en |newspaper=The Japan Times |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/06/commentary/japan-surrender-world-war-ii/ |access-date=February 8, 2017}}</ref><ref>Pacific War Research Society (2006). ''Japan's Longest Day''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-4-7700-2887-7}}.</ref> The United States was one of the "[[Four Policemen]]" who met to plan the post-war world, alongside the [[United Kingdom]], [[Soviet Union]], and [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]].{{sfn|Hoopes|Brinkley|1997|p=100}}{{sfn|Gaddis|1972|p=25}} The U.S. emerged relatively unscathed from the war, with even greater economic [[Power (international relations)|power]] and international political [[International influence|influence]].<ref>Kennedy, Paul (1989). ''The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers''. New York: Vintage. p. 358. {{ISBN|978-0-679-72019-5}}</ref>

 

{{Main|Cold War}}

{{Further|History of the United States (1945–1964)|History of the United States (1964–1980)|History of the United States (1980–1991)}}

[[File:Reagan and Gorbachev signing.jpg|thumb|[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and [[Ronald Reagan]] sign the [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]] at the [[White House]] in 1987.]]

 

{{Main|History of the United States (1991–2008)|History of the United States (2008–present)}}

[[File:Explosion following the plane impact into the South Tower (WTC 2) - B6019~11.jpg|thumb|The [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|Twin Towers]] in New York City during the [[September 11 attacks]] of 2001]]