Download 4 usa: 19th century american history

USA TOPIC #4: 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN HISTORY
NATIVE AMERICANS AND NEW AMERICANS
As the settlers began moving west, Native American tribes were moved off their land. Some were
forced to go to areas very different from the ones they were used to. The Trail of Tears was one
terrible example: in the winter of 1838-9, 17 000 Cherokees had to move from their land in the
southeast and 4 000 died. The government promised tribes that, if they agreed to stay in one part
of the country, they could keep that land forever - but the promises were seldom kept. Many
settlers also believed they should make Native Americans live as they did and teach them
Christianity. All this contributed to the destruction of the Native Americans' traditional way of life.
White Americans and Native Americans led by chiefs such as Sitting Bull and Geronimo often
fought when they came into contact.
The Gold Rush
Abraham Lincoln
Steam engines
THE GOLD RUSH
The story of the discovery of gold in California starts with John Sutter. Sutter decided to build a
sawmill, a place where wood is cut up, in a certain location. He hired a mechanic to start the work.
The mechanic never finished the work because while he was digging a big hole he found a
sparkling stone. It turned out to be gold. The cry "Gold! The hills are filled with gold!" spread
across the US like a fire out of control. In the next year, 1849, thousands of people rushed to
California looking for gold. These "forty-niners", as they were called, did not only come from the
USA - some came from Europe, China, Australia and other places. Only a few found the riches they
dreamt of; most of them settled on farms or in towns in California and nearby states. Not even
John Sutter, the man on whose property gold was found, became rich. His fields and his sawmill
were destroyed by the rush of new settlers in search of gold.
THE CIVIL WAR 1861-1865
One of the main causes of the Civil War was the issue of slavery. The northern states of the US
were mainly industrial, but the southern states were largely agricultural. They depended on slaves
to work on the cotton and tobacco plantations. In the north, abolitionists wanted to make
slavery illegal, while southern states believed that government should not interfere in the laws of
individual states; many southerners began to believe that southern states should become
independent from the US.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. At that time, there were 34 states in the US.
11 states in the southern USA left the US to become the Confederacy. They did this because
they believed that Abraham Lincoln would make slavery illegal. The northern states were known as
the Union. In April 1862 The Confederate army attacked Fort Sumter which was occupied by
Unionist soldiers. Lincoln did not want war but was determined to keep the Union and so called
for 75 000 soldiers to put down the rebellion. So began the Civil War, and many lives were lost.
For a long time, the Confederate army managed to stop the larger Union army from taking the
South. However, a turning point came in 1863 at the battle of Gettysburg. After the battle,
President Lincoln gave one of the most famous speeches in American history: the Gettysburg
Address. He also made slavery formally illegal in the Confederacy.
After Gettysburg, the Union began to take control, and eventually, in April 1865, the South
surrendered to the Union. 620 000 people had been killed and many more wounded. Five days
after the end of the war, Lincoln was assassinated by a supporter of the South. The long and
difficult period that followed was called Reconstruction. Although the industrial North had been
made rich by the Civil War, the South and the southern way of life had been destroyed. Most of
the large plantations were broken up, and the economy remained poor until helped by the New
Deal in the 1930s.
Between 1865 and 1870, Amendments were passed which in theory gave equal rights to African
Americans. Many southerners, who were now poor as a result of the war, felt angry toward the
north and about the freeing of the slaves, and the white-power organization Ku Klux Klan was
formed. Many southern states passed laws to limit the freedom of African Americans through
policies such as segregation. It was not until the civil rights movement of the 1960s that
African Americans saw an end to these racist policies.
RAILROADS
Most Americans have never been on a train. The railroads, however, used to be a very important
part of the country's infrastructure. The first US rail company opened in 1828, but its cars were
pulled by horses. Steam power was used by the 1830s, and after that, rapid development took
place. The nation was connected from east to west in 1869 when the Union Pacific Railroad and
Central Pacific joined their tracks in Utah. The 20th century brought powerful locomotives and
huge stations, like Grand Central in New York. The greatest period of US railroads began in the
middle of the 19th century and lasted about 100 years. Trains and railroad workers were also the
subjects of many films and novels.
A GREAT FUTURE AHEAD...
The USA was on its way to become the superpower that it is today. The US Senate bought Alaska
from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million at about two cents per acre
($4.74/km²). The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized
territory in 1912. It became the 49th, and largest, state of the U.S. in 1959. Nobody knew back in
1867 that first gold would be found there, and later oil, which brought in a lot of money for the US
economy. Buying Alaska was a very good deal for the Americans; not so good for the Russians!
Sources: "English Speaking World"+JG