Pre-Colonial Era

WAR

During the war, the Continental Congress formulated the Articles of Confederation, and from 1781 to 1787, 13 states formed the Confederate Congress and proclaimed the establishment of the American Republic.

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia, and representatives of large and small states agreed to elect two senators from each state after debate; on the issue of s*****y, the North made a major compromise with the South, tacitly acquiescing to the existence of s*****y , In terms of taxation and distribution of seats in the House of Representatives, the southern black slaves are calculated by 3/5 of the population.

The meeting finally formulated a draft constitution. This is the world's first written constitution. It was ratified by nine states in June 1788. According to the Constitution, the United States has established a federal state with the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers and mutual checks and balances.

Later, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution (later known as the "Bill of Rights") were added. The Act went into effect in December 1791 and was ratified by 11 states.

The federal government was established in 1789. In April, Washington became the first president of the United States (re-elected in 1792). In the process of divergent policies at home and abroad, the Federalist Party was organized by the Finance Minister Hamilton's faction, which advocated centralization, pro-British diplomacy, and controlled the power of the federal government.

The Secretary of State Jeffersonians advocated the maintenance of the democratic rights of the domestic people, sympathized with the French Revolution, and organized the Democratic Republican Party. [9] In 1793, Washington adopted a policy of neutrality when the European powers joined together to interfere in the French Revolution.

In November of the following year, the federal government and Great Britain signed the Jay Treaty. Pro-British and pro-French became the foreign policy divide between the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party. On the domestic front, the federal government sets tariff regulations, establishes banks, and stabilizes the economy.

In 1801, the Democratic-Republican Jefferson became president. The Jefferson administration repealed the above four statutes, cut spending, reduced taxes, abolished alcohol taxes, and encouraged agricultural exports. In 1803, Louisiana was purchased from France with an area of ​​more than 2 million square kilometers. Britain has been unwilling to lose its North American colonies. British ships continued to intercept American ships on the high seas, forcibly recruiting American sailors.

In order to maintain the freedom of navigation, the United States fought the second war against Britain in 1812-1814. Except for naval battles, the advantage was on the British side. In August 1814, the British army captured the capital of Washington and burned the presidential palace and Congress.

But then the United States triumphed. [10] In December 1814, Britain and the United States signed a peace treaty in what is now Ghent, Belgium. The war enabled the United States to break free from British political control and economic infiltration and become a fully independent national sovereign state.

In the first half of the 19th century, the US territory gradually expanded from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. Thousands of people crossed the Appalachian Mountains and moved westward, some pioneers, to the borders of the United States, and even deeper into territories belonging to Mexico and Oregon between Alaska and California.

The United States has gradually changed from resisting colonial aggression to new colonizers nibbling away the surrounding areas, bringing deep suffering and irreparable wounds to neighboring countries. During this period, there were many wars between the Americans and the Native American Indians, but the Indians retreated steadily, and finally they could only retreat to the far west.

Significant economic changes took place at the same time as the territorial expansion, with the northern and southern economies developing in different directions. The north developed maritime trade and expanded the shipping industry. Carry out a large amount of primitive accumulation of capital.

The first cotton mill was established in Rhode Island as early as 1790. Since then, other factories have appeared one after another. Since the beginning of the 19th century, a large amount of capital has been invested in industry and commerce, and industrial production has been developed.

While vigorously introducing Western European science and technology, encourage creativity and invention. In the 1850s, industrialization advanced rapidly. In 1860, American industrial production ranked fourth in the world. Two-thirds of manufactured goods are produced in the Northeast.

The influx of immigrants from Western Europe and their migration westward provided freelance labor for the development of the economy. But in the South, the slave labor-based cotton plantation economy expanded from the Atlantic states into Texas.

In the newly opened areas in the west, whether to promote free labor or s*****y, the spokesmen of the south and the north were at odds and became the subject of a national political struggle. In 1820, the North made concessions to the South and reached the "Missouri Compromise", and the dispute between the two sides was temporarily suspended.

More

In the 1960s, due to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, the domestic society was in turmoil. In 1961, black and white citizens jointly launched the "Freedom Passengers" movement.

In April 1963, Martin Luther King launched a large-scale march, petition, sit-in and demonstration in Birmingham. Protests against racism, march to Washington demonstrations, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.

Driven by the black civil rights movement, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in June 1964.