US History

USA: General facts & History

Learning objectives​

​Know some facts about the USA.

​Know a little bit about the history of the USA

​General facts

• ​50 states

• ​Stars and Stripes

• ​Republic - 46th President

• Washington, D.C.​

• ​4th July 1776

• ​ 4th area - 3rd population

• ​4 time zones

• ​extreme weather - diverse geography

• ​the "melting pot"

​History of the USA - Colonization

• ​Earliest inhabitants: Native Americans

• ​Dozen of different groups with different ways of life

• ​Europeans started to come in 1500s

• ​They wanted to claim the natural resources

​Colonial America

• ​ In the 1600s, Britain sent colonists to America and claimed lands.

• ​First settlement: Jamestown, Virginia 1607

• ​Eventually, there were 13 colonies alongside the east coast

​Jamestown, then and now

​Thirteen colonies

Thirteen colonies - short video​

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh79MXVZsds

​

​

Multiple Choice

What was the name of the first permanent American colony?

• Virginia

• Jamestown

• New York

• Washington

Multiple Choice

The Pilgrims arrived in Massachussets in 1620. What was the name of their famous ship?

• Rhode Island

• Plymouth

• Mayflower

• Maygarden

Multiple Choice

Which previous colony, now a state, was established as a penal colony (jail)?

• Georgia

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• Florida

​American Revolution

​* In the late 1700s, the British colonists began to resent the taxes.

​In 1776, they declared their independence from Britain --> The revolutionary War.

​Lasted until 1783 --> colonies recognized as independent.

​* New Nation: the United States of America

"Washington Crossing the Delaware" - Leutze - The Met

​"Resurgence of the People"- Monkman- The Met

Multiple Choice

Which event resulted in the independence of the 13 Colonies from Britain?

• Civil War

• Cold War

• American Revolution

• French Revolution

​Declaration of Independence

​"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness [...] That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it"

​

​​(largely written by Thomas Jefferson, inspired by John Locke)

"Declaration of Independence" - Trumbull -​ US Capitol

​Westward Expansion

• ​In 1803, president Jefferson DOUBLED the size of the USA with the Louisiana Purchase from France --> 15 million dollars

• France only controlled a small part --> Native Americans inhabited the rest.

• ​In 1819, the USA gained Florida from Spain and part of Oregon

• ​In 1845, they annexed Texas --> Mexican-American war

Multiple Choice

Which term describes how Texas was added to the United States?

• conquest

• colonization

• exploration

• annex

Multiple Choice

From whom did the USA buy the territory of Louisiana?

• Spain

• Native Americans

• France

• Mexico

​Manifest Destiny

​The idea that it was the right of the United States to expand to the Pacific Ocean.

​

​https://youtu.be/C5SWDeIgNpE

"American Progress" - ​Gast - Autry Museum of American West

Multiple Choice

The ide of American expanding from sea to shining sea (Atlantic to Pacific Ocean) is called 

• American Dream

• The Right of the People

• American Exceptionalism

• Manifest Destiny

​Civil war

• ​North and South disagree on slavery

• ​Abraham Lincoln elected president in 1860, 11 Southern states seceded from the Union

• ​Confederate States of America was formed

• ​Civil War began in 1861: 4 years, 600.000 died

• ​The North won, the country was reunited--> Slavery abolished!

• ​Millions of African Americans were freed

Multiple Choice

Who was the president that abolished slavery?

• Washington

• Trump

• Obama

• Lincoln

​Gettysburg Address- Lincoln (1863)

​"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

​[...]

​that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

​https://youtu.be/xsmgkZ8l2TQ

​https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6240

​Industrialization

• ​People moved from rural farms to cities

• ​Machines doing what was done by hand before

• ​The Great Migration: African Americans from the South in search of better paying jobs in the North after the Civil War.

Multiple Choice

Machines replaced work done by hand, farmers were left without work

• Industrialization

• Civil War

• Migration

• American Dream

​World War I & World War II

• ​WWI began in Europe in 1914.

• ​The USA tried to remain neutral but joined the Allied Powers when Germany sank an American ship

• ​WWII broke out in Europe in 1939

• ​USA entered when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in December 7, 1941

• ​USA and the Allied Forces defeated Germany in May, 1945

• ​In August 1945, the USA dropped atomic bombs on Japan

​Cold War

• ​After WWII, the USA and the Soviet Union became the world's major powers

• ​Competed for leadership

• ​Cold War = no actual fighting

• ​lasted until the Soviet Union broke in 1991

Multiple Choice

The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union was called

• American revolution

• WWII

• Civil War

• Cold War

​Civil Rights Movement

• ​Following the Civil War, African Americans were freed from slavery, but did not have equal rights

• ​In 1960, a Civil Rights movement= all citizens should have the same basic rights

• ​Mid 1960s, acts were passed, outlawing racial segregation in schools

• ​African Americans got the right to vote

Multiple Choice

Resulted in African Americans having the right to vote

• Civil Rights Movement

• Segregation

• Civil War

• Lincoln

​9/11

• ​Terrorism: violence against civilians for political purposes

• ​After the attacks in the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the plane that crash landed in Pennsylvania --> the USA declared war against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countris in Southwest Asia