History of the United States of America

Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna

TWP w Warszawie

History of the United States of America

Course Syllabus

Instructor: dr Jakub Basista

E-mail:

Web page:

Time: winter semester 2008/2009

Venue:As indicated in timetable

Prerequisites:None

Office hours:Every Saturday when lecture takes place after classes.

Course Description:

This is a mandatory course for students of English Philology. The aim of the course is to give an outline of the history of the United States from the establishment of first English colonies to the present day. An attempt will be undertaken to present the political history of the United States against the social, cultural and economic background.

Course Format:

The course will be primarily a lecture course. Students’ discussion and questions are strongly encouraged. The course will consist of 10 two-hour meetings (i.e. 20 teaching hours in total). Students will be required to participate in class and take a final written exam.

Requirements:

Each student will be required to participate in classes and take the final exam.

Final Exam

Final exam will be written. Students will be required to answer in writing a number of questions in the form of an essay. Four essays selected out of 15 topics will make 25% of the final grade each (total 100%). Duration of the exam – 1 ½ hour.

Reading:

Any single or multiple-volume history of the Unites States of America is acceptable and advised for this course. Each US college publisher usually has American history textbook for its students and it may be used.

The following textbooks are worth taking into consideration and are in the WSP TWP library for your use:

Boydston Jeanne, et al., Making a Nation, Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2004 (includes CD).
Brinkley Alan, American History. A Survey, McGraw-Hill, two volumes, many editions (includes CD to use with Internet).
Norton Mary Beth, et al., A People and a Nation, Houghton Miffin, many editions.

The following books, published in Polish, are also worth consulting as reference books:

Jones Maldwyn A., The Limits of Liberty. American History 1607-1992, 1995 (Polish edition Historia USA, Marabut 2002).
Tindall George B., Shi David E., America. A Narrative History, WW. Norton & Company 1996 (Polish edition Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych, Zysk i S-ka Poznań 2002).
Bartnicki Andrzej, Critchlow DonaldT., Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki, 5 volumes, PWN, Warsaw 1995.

Course Outline:

Topic 1

Organization of the course. Requirements. Pre-colonial America. Earliest discoveries and first settlements.

Topic 2

British Colonial America – society, economy, politics. First colonial wars. Territorial and economic expansion of the English colonies.

Topic 3

American Revolution. Breaking away from Great Britain. Declaration of Independence and American Constitution.

Topic 4

Further territorial expansion (towards Texas and Mexico). The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Social and economic problems of American federation. America’s social policy. Ethnic conflicts. Universal white male suffrage; rights of Indians, Blacks and women.

Topic 5

The War of Secession.

Topic 6

Reconstruction after the war. Rights of black people after the war.

Topic 7

USA’s domestic and international policy at the turn of 19th and 20th centuries.

World War I. Peace settlement in Paris and America.

Topic 8

The inter-war years in America. The Great Depression.

Topic 9

United States in World War II. Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam, the Truman Doctrine and the Cold War.

Topic 10

America’s Cold War engagement in the world and war in Vietnam. American domestic problems. American Politics in Contemporary World.

History of the USA

Topic 1

Organization of the course. Requirements. Pre-colonial America. Earliest discoveries and first settlements.

Atlantic Ocean in the Early Modern Period
Did the Chinese reach America in 1421?
Columbus discovers America - 1492
Treaty of Tordesillas 1494
Spanish and Portuguese Empires in America
English sea policy in the 16th century

1497 – John Cabot (from Genoa) travels to America on Henry VIII’s orders

Forming of the first English companies: Moscow (1555), Levant (1581) and Barberian (1585).

1585 – Sir Walter Raleigh establishes a colony at Roanoke Island (100 colonists) which perishes

1587 – second colony established, which perishes without explanation (attempt to relieve it came in 1590)

Non-English colonies in North America

1565 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds colony in Florida

1598 – Juan de Oñate founds colony in New Mexico

1608 – New France founded

1614 – New Netherlands founded by the Dutch West India Company

1638 – founding of Swedish colony on the Delaware river – taken over by the Dutch in 1655

SOUTH COLONIES

1606 – founding of Virginia and Plymouth Companies

1607 – first English colony established in Virginia(called after queen Elizabeth – includes ChesapeakeIsland and Jamestown)

1633 – founding of Maryland(after Henriette Marie) by Cecilius, lord Baltimore (in 1635 local population gets legislative rights; 1649 – Act of Toleration)

1663 – charter founding Carolina issued by Charles II to 8 Englishmen

1664 – first settlements in North Carolina

1670 – founding of Charles Town (Charleston) in South Carolina

1732 – founding ofGeorgia(in honor of king George I)

MIDDLE COLONIES

1673/1682 – founding of New Jersey between HoudsonRiver and Delaware

1682 – founding of Pennsylvania by William Penn

1682 – William Penn establishes a colony in Delaware

NEW ENGLAND (NORTH COLONIES)

1620 – founding of Plymouth by the „Pilgrim Fathers” who came on board of „Mayflower” – whole families, English Separatists from Holland – 1691 – incorporated into Massachusetts).

1629 – founding of Massachusetts by Puritans (John Winthrop)

1636 – founding of Rhode Island by Roger Williams – the only colony with full religious toleration

1633 –founding of Connecticut by settlers from Plymouth

Merging of New England colonies

1638 – founding of New Haven by Massachusetts migrants

1638 – founding of New Hampshire by Massachusetts migrants

Topic 2

British Colonial America – society, economy, politics. First colonial wars. Territorial and economic expansion of the English colonies.

1636HarvardCollege founded in Massachusetts

1651First Navigation Act passed in England to regulate colonial trade

1663Carolina chartered

Second Navigation Act

1664New Netherlands conquered; New York founded

1665 proclamation of Duke’s Laws for New York (James, duke of York)

1670s Marquette, Jolliet, La Salle explore the Great Lakes and Mississippi

1675-76King Philip’s war devastates New England

1676 Bacon’s rebellion in Virginia

1681Pennsylvania chartered

1683 James agrees to elected Legislature in New York

1686-89 Dominion of New England established superseding all charters of colonies from Maine to New Jersey

1689-97 king William’s war fought on northern border of New England

1692 witchcraft trials in Salem

1693College of William and Mary founded in Virginia

1696 Another Navigation Act and Board of Trade and Plantations established

1701 Iroquis Indians adopt peaceful neutral policy towards French and English colonists

1701YaleCollege founded in New Haven

1702-3 Queen Anne’s war between France and England

1711-13 Tuscarora war in North Carolina

1715 Yamasee war destroys South Carolina

1718 New Orleans founded

1729 Carolina splits into two colonies

1720-40 beginning of „natural” growth of black population in Virginia – hope for big plantations

1732 Georgia founded

1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina

1739-48 King George’s war

1741 New York conspiracy

1746College of New Jersey founded at Princeton

1754King’s College founded in New York (later ColumbiaUniversity)

1760-75 peak of 18th century European and African migration to English colonies

1756 Seven Years’ War begins

1759 British army takes Quebec

1764 Sugar Act lays new duties; customs changes; Currency Law outlaws colonies’ paper money

1765 Stamp Act – all printed matters in colonies require a stamp

1766 Stamp Act repealed; Declaration Act (insists that Parliament can tax colonies)

1767 Townshend Acts; duties on trade within the colonial empire

1768-70 resistance to Townshed Act in colonies

1770 all but Tea tax repealed

King William’s War=War of the League of Augsburg= 1689-97

Queen Anne’s War=War of Spanish Succession=1702-13

King George’s War=War of Austrian Succession=1739-48

French and Indian =Seven Years’ War=1756-63

EXPORTS OF BRITISH COLONIES ABOUT 1770

New England:Ocean fisheries 59%

Wood products 23%

Other18%

Middle Colonies:Cereals74%

Wood products 7%

Iron/Ironware 7%

Other2%

Chesapeake:Tobacco69%

Cereals23%

Other8%

South Colonies:Cereals58%

Indigo22%

Wood products 11%

Other 9%

1700 – Population

WhiteBlack

Chesapeake87500 19500

New England93000

Total English colonies25100028000

Topic 3

American Revolution. Breaking away from Great Britain. Declaration of Independence and American Constitution.

1754Albany Congress meets – attempt to forge colonial unity

1760George III becomes king

1763Proclamation of 1763 tries to close land west of Appalachians to English settlers

1764Sugar Act lays new duties on molasses; customs changes – tightened regulations; Currency Law outlaws colonies’ paper money

1765Stamp Act – all printed matters in colonies require a stamp; Sons of Liberty formed

1766Stamp Act repealed; Declaratory Act (insists that Parliament can tax colonies)

1767Townshend Acts; duties on trade within the colonial empire; new officials and judges are send to America

1768-70Resistance to Townshend Act in colonies – boycott, public demonstrations

1770Lord North becomes p.m.; all but Tea tax repealed; Boston Massacre – five people are killed.

1773Tea Act issued to help East India Company; Boston Tea Party

1774Coercive Acts punish Boston and whole Massachusetts.

First Colonial Congress meets in Philadelphia adopting the Declaration of Rights and Grievances.

Continental Association implements economic boycott of Britain.

1774-5Provincial conventions replace colonial governments

1774-6

AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1775 First shots fired; Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Second Continental Congress begins

Dunmore’s proclamation offering freedom to slaves of those who join the British forces

1776Second Continental Congress directs states to draft constitutions

British evacuate Boston

Declaration of Independence

British take New York City

1777 Articles of Confederation sent to states for ratification

British take Philadelphia

Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga.

1778French begin helping United States

British evacuate Philadelphia

1780British take Charleston

1781Articles of Confederation ratified

Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown

1782Beginning of peace negotiations

1783Peace Treaty signed in Paris guaranteeing independence of the United States

1788Constitution ratified

Topic 4

1776The Second Continental Congress directs states to draft constitutions

1777Vermont becomes the first state to abolish slavery

1781 Articles of Confederation ratified

1786Annapolis Convention meets to discuss reform of the government

1786-87Shay’s rebellion in western Massachusetts (will the republic survive?)

1787Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

Organization of territory north of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi river

1788Constitution ratified; The Federalist published by Hamilton, Jay and Adams

1789George Washington inaugurated as the first president

1791First ten amendments to the Constitution ratified (Bill of Rights)

1794Wayne defeats Miami Confederacy at Fallen Timbers

1795Treaty of Greenville opens Ohio to white settlers

Jay Treaty with England

Pickley’s Treaty with Spain

1796First contested presidential election: Adams elected president, Jefferson vice-president

1798XYZ affair

Sedition Act

Virginia and Kentucky resolutions

1800Franco-American Convention

Gabriel’s rebellion

1800/01Spain sells Louisiana to Napoleon’s France

1801Thomas Jefferson becomes the first Democratic-Republican president

1801-1805 United States defeat Barbary pirates in the Tripoli War, but decide to pay ransom (till 1815)

1803United States purchase Louisiana from France for $15 million (doubles the size of the nation)

1803-12British impressments of American sailors (some 6-8 thousand Americans taken by British Navy from American ships)

1804-06Lewis and Clark explore Louisiana (May through November when they reach Pacific Ocean)

1807 Chesapeake affair – clash between American frigate Chesapeake and British frigate Leopard

Jefferson closes American waters to British ships; increase of military spending

Embargo Act – stops exports from America (80% drop); hits New England to the extent that talks about secession begin.

1808Madison promoted by Jefferson (refused third term) wins

1808-13Prophet and Tecumseh – Indians from the Shawnees organize tribal resistance to settlers

Expansion towards Texas and Mexico. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

1803Ohio joins the union (free state)

1812Louisiana joins the union (slave state)

1816Indiana joins the union (free state)

1817Rush-Bagot Treaty concerning naval presence in the Great Lakes

Mississippi joins the union (slave state)

1818Convention delimiting US-Canadian border with the British

Illinois joins the union (free state)

1819Alabama joins the union (slave state)

Transcontinental (Adams-Onis) Treaty with Spain – US give up claims to territories south of 42nd parallel, i.e. southern border of Oregon; delimits Louisiana border; US take over Americans’ claims towards Spain; Florida is merged with the US

1820Missouri Compromise pressed by House Speaker Henry Clay creates formula for admitting slave and free states

Maine becomes a state (free state carved out of Massachusetts)

1821Missouri becomes a state (slave state) – most citizens are from Kentucky and Tennessee

1822United Statesrecognize the independence of Latin American states as one of the first

1823Monroe Doctrine closes Western Hemisphere to European intervention

1830Railroad era begins (by 1850 there are 9000 miles of tracks)

Indian Removal Act passed (finances and means to resettle Indian population west of the Mississippi river)

Over 20,000 Americans have settled in the north-eastern province of Mexico

America locates troops on Mexican border

1832American settlers (Anglos) demand a right to organize a separate republic within Mexico

1834first missionaries arrive in Oregon

1836Arkansas joins the union as 25th state

1836Texas declares itself a sovereign republic

1836Santa Anna starts a war wiping out 187 Texas patriots at Alamo

1836Texas patriots catch up with Mexicans and defeat them; Santa Anna declares Texas’s independence; Texas draws a constitution and asks to be accepted into United States

1837Michigan joins the union

Sarah and Angelina Grimke tour North opposing slavery

1838“Aroostook” war

Anti-Slavery Petition campaign at height

1839-43Hard times strike; 1842 strikes declared lawful

1841“Oregon fever” attracts settlers to the Northwest

1845Texas accepted to the Union

Florida accepted into union

1846War with Mexico begins

Oregon Treaty negotiated with Great Britain (US get all OregonWashington, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana

Iowa becomes a state

1848 Treaty of Guadelupe – Hidalgo gives US new territory in the South West (California, New Mexico, i.e. Nevada, Utah, Arizona and parts of Colorado and Wyoming)

Wisconsin becomes a state

1849Gold discovered in California (California applies for admission as a free state)

1850 Compromise of 1850 passed (California free, Texas boundary set, New Mexico and Utahorganized based on peoples’ decisions)

Fugitive Slave Act

1854Republican Party formed

Kansas-Nebraska Bill

Return of fugitive Burns from Boston to slavery in Virginia

1856Bleeding Kansas

Buchanan elected president

1857Dred Scott case in Supreme Court

Growth of the number of settlers

18201850

Mississippi73,000607,000

Arkansas14,000210,000

18351845

Texas35,000(still Mexican)125,000 (Anglo population)

Topic 5

The War of Secession (American Civil War).

1858Lincoln-Douglas debates

1860 Democratic Party splits into two

Southern Democrats demand “Slave Code for the Territories”

Lincoln elected president (other candidates: Douglas, Breckinridge, Bell)

South Carolina secedes from the Union

1861Six more Deep South states secede (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas)

Confederacy established at Montgomery, Alabama (Jefferson Davies pres.

Attack on FortSumter begins Civil War (War of the Secession)

Four states of Upper South join the Confederacy (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas)

CIVIL WAR

1861Battle of Bull Run

McClellan organizes Union Army

Beginning of blockade by Union

US Congress passes first confiscation act

1862Union army captures FortHenry and FortDonelson

US Navy captures New Orleans

Battle of Shiloh

Confederacy enacts conscription

McClellan fails to take Richmond

Second confiscation act

Confederacy offensive in Maryland and Kentucky

Battle of Antietam

1863Emancipation Proclamation takes effect

Union enacts conscription

African American soldiers join Union Army

Battle of Chancellorsville (Confederate victory; death of Jackson)

Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg

Battle of Chattanooga; Sherman’s advance towards Georgia

1864Battles of Wilderness and Spotsylvania

Battle of Cold Harbor

Sherman captures Atlanta

Confederacy begins to collapse on the home front

Lincoln’s reelection

Sherman marches through Georgia towards the sea

1865Sherman marches through Carolinas

US Congress approves Thirteenth Amendment

Lee abandons Richmond and Peterburg

Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House

Lincoln assassinated

WAR DEATH TOLL – 620,000

Amendment XIII

Section 1 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Topic 6

Reconstruction after the war. Rights of black people after the war.

1863Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

1864Wade-Davis Bill

1865General Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15

Freedmen’s Bureau established

Lincoln’s second inauguration. Lincoln assassinated; Andrew Johnson becomes president

General Howard’s Circular 13

Johnson begins rapid and lenient reconstruction

Johnson orders the Freedmen’s Bureau to return confiscated land to former owners

Confederate leaders regain power; white southern governments pass restrictive black codes

Congress refuses to seat southern representatives

Joint Committee on Reconstruction established by Congress

Thirteenth Amendment ratified

1866Congress renews Freedmen’s Bureau; Johnson vetoes renewal bill

Congress passes Civil Rights Act; vetoed by Johnson Congress presses through overriding presidential veto

Congress approves Fourteenth Amendment (most southern states reject it)

Congress renews Freedmen’s Bureau over presidential veto

In congressional elections, Republicans win more than two-thirds majority

Renunciation of Johnson’s plan of reconstruction

1867Congress passes First and Second Reconstruction Acts

Tenure of Office Act

Secretary of State William Seward arranges purchase of Alaska

1868Johnson fires Secretary of War Stanton

House of Representatives impeaches Johnson; Senate acquits him

Most southern states gain readmission to the Union

Fourteenth Amendment ratified

Ulysses S. Grant elected president

1869Congress approves Fifteenth Amendment (ratified in 1870)

1870Congress passes first Enforcement Act

1871Congress passes Ku Klux Klan Act

1872Amnesty Act frees almost all remaining Confederates from restrictions on holding office. Grant re-elected