The United States of America – History
America was discovered in 1492. Christopher Columbus landed in Salvador. The first inhabitants were the aboriginal people, the ancestors of today’s American Indians. Europeans from the native Indians captured Land.
From the all colonizers, the British were the most successful. In 1607 Jamestown became the first permanent British settlement in North America.
In 1620, after a conflict with King James I., a community of English Puritans (Pilgrim fathers) decided to emigrate. They sailed on Mayflower from Holland to America. They wanted land in Virginia, but were blown north to the tip Cape Cod. Then they established Plymouth.. Many of them died during the first winter from starvation.. The settlers who survived celebrated the feast Thanksgiving Day.
By the model of the eighteenth century, the American colonies felt a need for their own identity. The Boston Tea Party started war for Independence of the thirteen colonies. George Washington led the Americans patriots. The Second Continental Congress acting for 13 colonies, declared independence on 4 July 1776. Victory over the British was in 1783. New constitution was created in 1787 and ratified in 1788.
The election of Abraham Lincoln the president in 1860, led South Carolina to secede, joined by 10 other Southern states. Abraham Lincoln denied their right to secede and the Civil War (1861-1865) broke out. North won the war and the result was the abolition of slavery.
The number of European immigrants reached 13 000 000 between 1900 and 1914. The United States entry into the war in 1917 and helped to Allied victory and started American involvement in the European balance of power.
The prosperity of the decade that followed World War I was finished in 1929 (,,Black Friday“).
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour brought the United States into World War II on the side of Britain and the Soviet Union. The Allied victory in 1945 left the United States the leader of the western world. In 1949 the United States formed NATO. The 40 yearlong rivalries with the Soviet Union become known as the Cold War.
Soviet inspired attack on South Korea involved the United States in the Korean War (1950-1953). The 1960s witnessed a successful protest movement by American blacks to outlaw racial segregation and discrimination. The Vietnam War was ended in 1972, because was very expensive and ineffective.
The Cold War ended with the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The United States became the undisputed superpower in the world. The USA dedicates attention now on terrorists group in all the world.