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Early American History
The Beginnings
The United States was
originally colonised by
many European
countries in the 17th
Century, but by the
middle of the 18th, the
three dominant
countries were Great
Britain, France and
Spain.
The English colonies along the eastern seaboard
were typically established for one of two reasons:
economics or religion. America had vast areas of
open land with many natural resources that made
her attractive to the industrialised English. It also
provided a place where religious dissidents could
live their religion without the interference of the
king.
After about a hundred years,
England began taxing the
colonies to help pay for their
expensive war with France.
Having gotten used to being
left pretty much alone, the
colonists felt as though the
British were treating them
unfairly and revolutionary
rumblings began.
Finally on July 4th 1776, the colonies declared
their independence from Great Britain and what
became known as the Revolutionary War
officially began.
Under the brilliant leadership of General George
Washington and with miraculous luck, the rebel
colonists defeated the heavily favoured British who
finally surrendered in 1781.
The difficulty then facing
the new country was how
to combine their very
different colonies into one
unified country that met
everyone’s needs.
Representatives of each
colony were sent to a
convention in Philadelphia
to participate in the
creation of the new
government.
What they came up with, The Articles of
Confederation, failed and so in 1789, they met again
and drafted the Constitution of the United States of
America, which established the government that has
existed in the US ever since.
The United States continued to grow by acquiring land
west of the original colonies. This provided further
opportunity for economic development, but also
created problems for the new government in relation
to the questions of Native Americans and slavery.
In 1812, the US had its freedom challenged once
again by the British and in the resulting War of 1812,
proved their viability as a nation by defeating the
British again. This was the last challenge to
American freedom from a foreign invading force.
That brings us to 1815 and the beginnings of our
course. We will be looking at the next hundred
years of United States history and the changing
levels of unity caused by social, economic, and
political factors.