History of the United States of 1776 to 1865

The the United States are the first country decolonized of the world. The period of the end of the 18th century in the middle of the 19th century is fundamental to include/understand the country: the War of independence of the United States, the oldest constitution of the world, industrialization and the American Civil War marked and prepared the rise of the American power.

Independence

War of independence or American revolution?

The United States of America are founded in 1776 starting from the British colony S on the Atlantique coast of the North America. As of 1775, the frustration caused by various practices of the British Crown as regards taxes, conduit with the revolt of the colonists of the Massachusetts.

The following year, in June, the Virginia is the first territory which declares independence, under the impulse of Thomas Jefferson. This one takes part in July in the continental Congrès which meets in Philadelphia, and prepares the Déclaration of independence of the United States of America, document founder of the the United States.

In 1777, the representatives of the colonies write the Articles of the Confederation which count among the texts founders of the country. The American victory of Saratoga encourages France of Louis XVI to enter in war to the sides of the insurgents.

With the assistance of their European allies and after the Battle of Yorktown carried out by George Washington (1781), the Americans leave finally victorious the war of independence against Great Britain. The peace and the recognition of the new country are sealed by the treated of Paris in 1783. Discussions begin then to establish the nature and the political organization of the new nation. The difficulty of the extension of the United States towards the west, beyond the the Appalachian Mountains, starts to arise with acuity.

The assessment of the war of Independence

One cannot determine the number of victims of the war of independence with certainty. In the context of the end of the 18th century, it is however certain that the epidemics (Variole…) more devastations than military operations themselves made. The historian John Whiteclay Chambers gave the figures of 6.824 died American soldiers and 8.445 wounded following the battles ( The Oxford Companion to American Military History , Oxford University Press, 1999). The end of the war had of another human consequences: the colonists loyal supporters, remained faithful to king de Grande-Bretagne, had to exile themselves with the Canada, where the province of the New Brunswick was founded to accommodate them. Lastly, on the économqiue plan, the very new government had to face inflation like with the refunding of the debts caused by the war.

New institutions

Until 1789, the United States is controlled by the Articles of the Confederation. This mode is not federal since each State is regarded as sovereign, in particular as regards foreign and commercial politics. The thirteen American States are different and certain their borders dispute. The encountered difficulties are exceeded by the adoption of the constitution. This one was adopted by the various States federated between 1787 and 1790. It is oldest of the History. It applies the ideas of the philosophers of the Lumières:

it founds the bases of the Démocratie (nevertheless, the vote is not yet universal)
it ensures the respect of the Individual freedoms American citizens
it applies the principle of Séparation of the capacities in order to avoid the Tyrannie,
it founds the equality States in policy: each State, whatever its surface or its demographic weight, indicate two senators in Washington.

George Washington, which ordered the troops of insurgent during the war of independence, is the first elected president (1789 - 1797). The Congress, initially joined together with the Federal Hall New York, adopts the first Loi S defining the form of government. In 1791, the ten first Amendement S are registered in the Constitution. In spite of the desire of Washington to remain isolationist, which shows through in its speech of good-bye, the United States has a rich diplomatic history.

Although the constitution does not recognize the existence of political parties, the dissensions on the text make emerge two “factions”:

the federalists
the anti-federalists (James Madison…) the rights of the States and the idea of a weak central government defended. They form a political core which is at the origin of the left democrat-republican. They took the control of the federal government with the election of the president Thomas Jefferson (1801 - 1809).

The American constitution gives rise to a federation of the thirteen United States: each one of its States keeps particular prerogatives education Justice. Each State has its assemblies, its courts of justice and its government directed by a Gouverneur. The central government or federal exerts its sovereignty on the army, the common currency and the foreign relations. This federal organization is always places from there today.

Political and event-driven history (1800-1861)

The Republicans occupied the presidency of 1801 to 1825. In 1808, the treats slaves is officially abolished on the American ground. The country engages in the conquest of the west by colonization, the purchase or the war. In 1803, Napoleon sells immense territories called French Louisiana in the United States: this purchase allows the doubling of the surface of the United States. The following year, president Thomas Jefferson sends the Expédition Lewis and Clark to recognize these new spaces by going up the Missouri.

The War of 1812

The Monroe doctrines

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)

It is under its presidency that the system of the American political parties such as there still exists is born really. Its mandates are marked by the clientelism and the populism.

Relations with Mexico

Presidents of the period

The Indian Wars

See also: Indian Wars, Political Indian of the US government

1814-1818: forwardings against the Creek S and the Seminole S (Florida)
1830-1834: wars against the Cherokee S
1832: war of Northwest Black Hawk
1835-1842: second war Séminole
1856-1858: third war Séminole

Go back to entry of the new states in the union (1803-1865)

Industrial revolution, Immigration and Urbanization (1776-1865)

Factors of the development

The capital necessary to the industrial takeoff of the United States comes primarily from the commercial dynamism of the country. The natural resources out of coal (Pennsylvania), in Iron and Copper (around the Higher Lake), out of wood, the hydraulic potential, also allow the industrial development of the North-East (the Manufacturing Belt ). Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania acquires quickly the nickname of Ville of steel . The workshops then the factories develop as from the years 1810. It is the textile industry which involves a good part of the other manufacturing sectors. The population growth is an engine of the economic growth: the American population is multiplied by four between the beginning of the 19th century and 1860. American industry does not miss labor: between 1840 and 1860, the country attracts hundreds of thousands of immigrants. The Irish flee the great famine and of many Germans engage in the army of the Union, during the American Civil War. The optimism of the American people constitutes an important component to explain the fulgurating rise of the country. The spirit Pionnier is carried by the right to the happiness, expressed in the declaration of independence of 1776.

The revolution of transport and the communications

The construction of the first railways stimulates the demand for Acier and prepares the Conquête of the West. Thus, the railroad of Baltimore and the Ohio are in service as of 1830. In 1855, the country counts 25.000 kilometers of line

The Canal Érié (1817 - 1824) makes it possible to connect the Hudson to the Lac Érié, establishing a waterway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Big lakes. The channel makes the prosperity of New York and Buffalo. The Big lakes offer a water way which connects the interior of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean by the river the St. Lawrence: the town of Detroit (Michigan) develops quickly. The opening of the channel Illinois - Michigan in 1848 allowed the boats circulating on the Big lakes to join the the Mississippi while passing by Chicago: the city consequently knew a demographic strong growth (between 1840 and 1860, its population is multiplied by 20) and economic and became the outlet of the Grandes cereal Plains. The waterway of the Mississippi sees passing from the steamers and the town of Saint-Louis benefits from its position of junction. The New-Orleans (Louisiana) car favors its situation with the outlet of large the river: about 1840, it reaches 100.000 inhabitants, which makes the fourth city of the United States of it. However, generally, the country mainly remains rural (15% of townsmen in 1850).

As of 1864, the first transatlantic steamers connect North America to Western Europe. The American Samuel Morse invents a Télégraphe practical and effective, which allows, in years 1860 to send messages on other side of the Atlantic. He is also at the origin of the code Morse.

Social consequences

This time is marked by intense social changes. Strikes and riots burst in the cities, as in Baltimore (Maryland) in 1835 or in New York in 1849. Urban police forces are created to bring back the order. The working dispute is particularly intense at the time of the crisis of 1837. In 1842, the martial law is proclaimed with Providence. In 1860, a general strike extends to all the New England. Irish and German immigration, particularly important in the years 1840-1850, causes an surge of catholics. The Protestants feel threatened and express their hostility in the press and the street. They make pressure to prohibit the alcohol sale. If the period handle-bellum is marked by a short wave nativist, that of the Know-Nothings which culminates in 1854 and declines quickly, another movement will have a more durable influence: it is about the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1864 in Tennessee.
In the years 1820, first feminist organizations and other movements known as of the " Suffragettes " were born with the the United States: The Female Anti-slavery Society denounced the Esclavage; the American Female Moral Reform Society wanted to fight against the Prostitution and the Alcoolisme. About fifty years later, the American feminists asserted the civic equal rights in the country. In 1869, the State of the Wyoming authorizes the vote féminin.
In the religious field, the Christian movements hétérodoxes multiply in the United States: Unitarisme, Transcendantalisme, Spiritualisme, Mormon S (which settles in Utah as from 1847),… the levelling and utopian communities also develop: Colonies Amana in Iowa, Shakers with Pleasant Hill.

An increasingly American culture

The American culture is distinguished more and more from the European culture; the writers are better and better known in Europe and cover truly American subjects: Washington Irving (1783 - 1859) written a biography of George Washington. Hermann Melville (1819 - 1891) publishes Moby Dick in 1851. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1850) was success thanks to its novels on the Amerindians ( the last of Mohicans , the Meadow and the deer Killer). In painting, the American originality appears in the representations of landscapes (Thomas Cole). The architecture remains very influenced by Europe, with some adaptations to the American environment. It is necessary to await the birth of the Gratte-ciel, at the end it XIXe century to see a truly American architecture.

The conquest of the West

New roads

The revolution of transport prepared the conquest of the west. The American colonists borrow the tracks of Oregon ( Oregon Trail ) or of California, in covered charriots, immortalized by the literature and later by the cinema (Western S). The penetration of the Americans follows the Piste of Santa Fe, which at the beginning of the XIXe century is traversed by regular connections on 1000 km. In the years 1830, the development of the trade leads the Americans to change road: they prefer to borrow the short cut of the Cimarron rather than to risk in the mountainous passage of Raton Not. With Santa Fe, the Americans sell weapons and shoddy goods; they gain with them skins of Bison S bought with the commancheros and blocks of money of the Arizona. In 1858, the lines of Diligence S ensure of the regular connections between San Francisco and Saint-Louis. The tracks are gradually deserted with the development from the rail links, especially after the completion of the first transcontinental Railroad on May 10th 1869. The cow-boys carry out the thousands of oxen towards the stations from where they will be forwarded to the slaughter-houses of Chicago. In 1875, Kansas is connected to Santa Fe by the train; in 1885, the latter is connected with California. With the revolution of the car at the XXe century, the West attracts the tourists more and more. The control of the American territory also passes by the installation of the Pony Express, the first postal service which went from Missouri to the west coast (1860-1861). The mail was then conveyed with back of horse. But in 1861, the transcontinental telegraph allows an instantaneous connection between the two ends of the country.

New American territories

During the 19th century, the country largely extends its territory through two major acquisitions. In 1803, the size of the country doubles with the Vente of Louisiana by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Forwarding Lewis and Clark quickly explores the territories in the North-West, of the Mississippi in the Pacific. In 1812, the United States enters the hostilities, and restored the conditions of pre-war period. The territory of the continuous nation to extend by the annexation from the Texas which leads to the américano-Mexican Guerre, in which the United States obtains Mexico territories in south-west (treated of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848). The territory of the Oregon is bought with the the United Kingdom, the Alaska with the Russia, and the kingdom of Hawaii is annexed at the end of the century, defining the current territory of the United States (50 federate states). The expansion towards the west by instruments of the government of the United States is accompanied by the movement towards the west (and north, in the case of New England) by the colonists beyond the Border. In 1842 - 1846, the opening of the Piste of Oregon then the treaty with the United Kingdom (Treated of Oregon) caused the massive surge of new colonists. This treaty regulates the dispute which opposed the two countries on the layout of the border of the territories of the North-West. The limit is fixed at the 49e parallel north. The Territoire of Oregon is officially organized in 1848. Oregon is set up in state the February 14th 1859.

The conquest of the west is also made possible by the spoliation of the Indian grounds: the Indian Removal Act off-sets the Indians of the East of the the Mississippi in the West of the Mississippi. The massacres and the conflicts between colonists and natives are frequent.

Lastly, the American extension is fed by the ideology of the Destinée proclamation as from 1845: according to this ideology, the American nation had the divine role to spread the democracy towards the West and to form a continental territory for its nation. The West was also used as refuge to the Mormons who settled in Utah starting from 1847.

Trade of the furs

Discovered noble metals

Ground hunger

The ground hunger of the small farmers also pushes the border towards the west.

demographic and economic Pressure:

Pressure with the emigration in the East
Strong birthrate in the East to provide for farm work.
Strong migratory pressure because of the fall of the cost and the risk of the transatlantic voyage

Economic depressions in the East of 1818,1837,1839 and 1841

impossibility of establishing agricultural colonies in North (Vermont)

the Homestead Act is a law by which, for an arbitrary price, a colonist received the right of tenant farming on a ground.

Great personalities of the conquest of the West

Davy Crockett
Zebulon Pike
Skene Ogden
William Anhley
Daniel Boone
Buffalo Bill
Calamity Jane
Billy Kid

The Civil war or American Civil War (1861 - 1865)

Context: the slavery of the Blacks

The states of the North-East of the United States quickly remove slavery at the end of XVIIIe and the beginning of the 19th century. The draft négrière is officially abandoned in 1808. During l importation d´esclaves, the africiians of the same ethnos group are separated, have their gives names Anglo-Saxon, they are converted of force to Protestantism, thus the draft négriére and also a ethnocide and marqueun most of l´histoire of the Blacks, the deculturation and l exploitation by the white.

In 1860, nearly 3 million blacks live in the south, mainly reduced with the state of slaves. The churches Baptist and methodist are detached gradually from the control of the White and are organized in communities of mutual aid. The freed slaves who earn their living well, then try to buy the freedom of the members of their families. The slaves start to work at the 12 years age, carrying out days from 17 to 8 p.m. per day. Many dies at the end of 5 years, of malnutrition or disease (in particular of dysentery). Some flee successfully and gain north, others are mutilated when they are caught up with. Finally some revolt (Revolt of Nat Turner). Mongrel children are also born from the sexual unions authorized or not between the Masters and the slaves. These mongrel children are sometimes educated (a placing) with European and become themselves, sometimes, owner of slaves at the adulthood. Others less lucky remain slaves (the harvest of child).

From 1808 (abolition of the draft négrière), the number of slaves falls and their price increases on the market with the slaves.

In spite of the invention of a machine to separate seeds from the Cotton by Eli Whitney, they are the slaves of the Plantation S which are used for the harvest of this culture more especially as the request strong, is stimulated by Western Europe and the Great Britain in particular.

Despite everything, only a small minority of White lays out slaves: on 6 million White in the states of the South in 1850, 347.000 have slaves.

The ideas of the American revolution, risings of slaves and the Haitian Révolution make fear in certain growers a general insurrection of the black population. In 1831, the slave Nat Turner, leads a revolt in the county of Southampton in Virginia (51 white are killed in one day). It is finally crushed and its chief is carried out.

The compromise of Missouri (1820) devotes the rule of the parity in the admission of the new states in the Union: in the north of the parallel 36e, these new states must prohibit slavery and there must be the same number of free trade States as slave. When slave Missouri east creates one creates a new free trade state in north: Maine (detached of Massasuchsetts).

One of the origin of the American Civil War is the Affaire of Kansas Nebraska in 1854, the American constitution prohibited slavery in the north of the parallel 36e. During the creation of Kansas, its inhabitants wanted them same to choose by referendum if one were to practice slavery or not. There were confrontations between slave and free trade but of many lawyers including one certain Lincoln, anicen politicking, were interested then in this business and carries felt sorry for. It founds the Republican party later and proposes to abolish slavery.

The American Civil War enracine in the differences of development and economy between north and the south: north industrializes and urbanizes, accommodates the European immigrants and imposes taxation of the British products. The states of south benefit contrary to the British imports from cotton and the slave system. In reaction to the election of the republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the majority of the States of the South make secession of the Union and form the States Confédérés of America. Lincoln promises to give them in the union, even by the force if it is needed. The union takes precedence over slavery. The American Civil war follows, it is thus a war against the secession and not for the release of the slaves. The command the South, followed by economic policies of exploitation in the territories conquered after the war caused a tough bitterness among the Southerners towards the government of the United States. This failure of the federal government to join together the country contributed to its failure for several decades to make apply the Civic right of old the slaves Afro-Americans in the South.

The war began the April 12th 1861, when confederated bombard and take the Fort Sumter in South Carolina. the American army is tiny (16000 men), confined in the west in wars counter the Indians. The union as confederated are obliged to launch a call to the volunteers. Officers of the American army being just satisfied to form and frame those. The year 1862 is remembered by the defeats of the Union in the east but also by successes of the general Grant on the river the Mississippi (rendering of New-Orleans). In July 1863, the northerner victory of Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) carries an important crushing argument to advanced Southerners. The number of soldiers mobilized Southerners is such as crushing the majority of the slaves left without monitoring are flee, Lincoln benefits from it then to launch the proclamation of Emancipation i.e. to prohibit slavery officially. The war changes data, that becomes also a war against slavery. This increases the number of northerner volunteers, ready to fight for a beautiful ideal and the slaves flee are also engaged like soldiers. September 1st, 1864, Atlanta is taken by the general William Tecumseh Sherman. After the rendering of Robert Lee in April 1865, the armies of the south ceased the combat quickly. The draft of the blacks towards the United States will have accounted for about 30% of the Atlantic draft, thus the United States will be the second importer d´esclaves after Brazil and with thus largemnt contibué with the destruction of l Afric.

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