Brief History Of The Usa

USA
The history of the United States as covered in schools and universities typically begins with either 1492 and Columbus, or—especially in recent years—with the prehistory of the Native peoples.Officially the United States of America began as an independent nation with the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. European colonists reached the Gulf and Pacific coasts, but the largestsettlements were by the English on the East Coast, starting in 1607. By the 1770s the Thirteen Colonies contained two and half million people. They were prosperous, and had developed their own political andlegal systems. The British government's threat to American self-government led to war in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. With major military and financial support from France, thepatriots won the American Revolution. In 1789 the Constitution became the basis for the United States federal government, with war hero George Washington as the first president. The young nationcontinued to struggle with the scope of central government and with European influence, creating the first political parties in the 1790s, and fighting a second war for independence in 1812.
U.S. territoryexpanded westward across the continent, brushing aside Native Americans and Mexico, and overcoming modernizers who wanted to deepen the economy rather than expand the geography. Slavery of Africanswas abolished in the North, but heavy world demand for cotton let it flourish in the Southern states. Through shipping, manufacturing and supplies, major northern cities were closely tied to theSouthern cotton economy and slavery as well. For 50 of the 72 years between the election of George Washington and that of Abraham Lincoln, a slaveholder served as president of the United States and, duringthat period, only slaveholding presidents were re-elected to second terms.[1]
The 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, who called for no more expansion of slavery, triggered a crisis as eleven slave...