Timeline

Historical Dictionary

First posted on June 19th 2004

Narratives : History of North America http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narrnamerica.html

The Treaty of Tordesillas placed North America in the Spanish sphere of interest. A few Spanish expeditions visited what is the southern United States (Ponce de Leon, Hernan de Soto). Few Spanish settlements were established - Fort Augustine in 1565, Santa Fe in 1607, San Diego (as a Franciscan mission) 1769. The Spanish, obsessed with gold, did not find the Californian gold. For the French and the Dutch, North America was a traffic obstacle blocking the sea route to China. The French found the fishing grounds off Newfoundland profitable, and fur trade with the Indians; control if the Saint Lawrence River (foundation of Quebec 1608, colony of New France) allowed them access to the Great Plains. The Dutch, for the same purpose, established themselves on the Hudson River (New Netherland). The Russians, equally interested in tapping North America's fur stocks, claimed Alaska in 1741. The English established a settlement colony in Virginia (1607), which became profitable by growing tobacco. The first plantation colony in North America. Then came the emigration colonies, Massachusetts 1620, Maryland 1634, later Pennsylvania 1681 - which simultaneously contributed to the solution of a problem the English authorities had with religious minorities and religious minorities had with the English authorities; in England the Anglican church was state church. Even Sweden briefly possessed a colony in North America, New Sweden 1638-1655. By 1665, England owned all colonies on the eastern coast of North America between the Carolinas and what is Maine today (used to be a part of Massachusetts). Acadia was ceded by France in 1713, Georgia established in 1724, as a penal colony. The southern states - Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Maryland - developed a plantation economy, producing tobacco, rice, cotton. African slaves were imported to work the plantations. The dominant business in Alaska and Canada, for a long time, was the fur trade; in eastern Canada, fishery. New England and former New Netherland developed a more diversified economy. The Pilgrim Fathers had settled Massachusetts not to acquire riches, but to establish a Puritan Utopia. The settlers were neither merchants, conquistadores nor plantation owners, but craftsmen and farmers. Their economy was less an extension of the European economy than the plantation economies of the south and the fur collecting trading posts of the north. And, to a larger extent than these, New England and New York attracted a steady influx of further immigrants. At the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the white population of the 13 colonies outnumbered the white population of New France by far. The colonies in North America were affected by European politics. When Sweden was at war with the Netherlands, she lost New Sweden to the Dutch (1655); the Dutch W.I.C. lost New Netherland to England in 1664, in the context of Anglo-Dutch rivalry that led to the Second Anglo-Dutch War 1665-1667 (after which the victorious Dutch rejected an English offer to return New Netherland to them if the Dutch returned Suriname to the English). After Anglo-French wars, France ceded Acadia to the British in 1713, New France in 1763. The religious policy of King James I. (forcing the Book of Common Prayer on the English) enfuriated both the Catholics and the Puritans, causing some of the latter to emigrate in 1609 - to the Netherlands, from where they moved on to Massachusetts in 1620. In 1634 Maryland was founded as a colony for England's Catholics, Pennsylvania as a colony for Quakers and other dissenters. When Charles II. was recalled in 1660, he had to share with parliament in the government of England. It proved difficult to raise his revenues in England itself; however he could do so by interfering in the constitution of the North American colonies. Virginia and Massachusetts originally had been self-governing; the charter of the Virginia Compaby was revoked in 1624, that of Massachusetts in 1684, both colonies placed under Royal governors. The French and Indian War 1754-1763 was the largest scale war fought by European powers on the American continent so far. To the British, the interests of the colonial settlers were of secondary importance. In order to prevent a repetition of so many Amerindian tribes fighting the British, they forbade further penetration of Indian lands by frontier settlers. Discontent among American settlers resulted in organized resistance (Boston Tea Party 1773). In 1775 the American War of Independence began; in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed. France, the Netherlands and Spain declared war on Britain; the British recognized the independence of the United States in 1783; the U.S. constitution was adopted in 1789. Meanwhile, in Canada the British administration held on despite a large segment of the population, the Franco-Canadians, resenting British rule. The United States was large in terms of area, but small in terms of population, c. 4 million in 1800. Immigration was of primary importance to the government; the countries of origin now were diversified, as Britons prefered to emigrate into countries like Canada, later Australia, New Zealand, the Cape Colony. With the introduction of steam liners on the North Atlantic route, the number of immigrants rose sharply. Railroads opened up the Mississippi valley and facilitated the transportation of grain and meat to the Atlantic coast (then partially shipped to markets in Europe). The U.S. became an exporter on grand scale. In the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Mexican American War (1846-1848), large territories were acquired in the west, to which the Alaska Purchase (1867) added. In 1869 the Atlantic and Pacific coasts were connected by railroad. Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution had unfolded in the northeastern states of the U.S.; the north, after initial defeats, was victorious over the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) because of her larger population and because of her industrial potential. In 1863, slavery was finally abolished. In 1867, Canada was granted home rule, as a federation consisting of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island; other British colonies in North America would soon join (only Newfoundland remained separate, until 1949). Both the U.S. and Canada had a problem with minorities which felt discriminated against - the native Americans in both countries, the Franco-Canadians in Canada, the Afro-Americans in the U.S. The quick expansion of the U.S. agricultural economy came at the expense of the native Americans; in the 1860es and 1870es the U.S. fought a series of Indian Wars, removing them onto reservations in order to clear the plains for settlement. The last Indian War was concluded in 1877. The Homestead Act of 1862 was to attract large numbers of settlers to cultivate the plains. By contrast, the settlement of Canada's west was organized in a much more peaceful manner. In the second half of the 19th century, business tycoons emerged in the U.S. - Andrew Carnegie creating a steel empire, John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil, a company dominating the oil industry. Among the immigrants, which continued to arrive in large numbers, were inventors and businessmen who found opportunities in the U.S.A. denied to them in the old world, among them Thomas Alva Edison (a Scot), Nicola Tesla (a Bosnian Serb, had studied engineering in Austria), Igor Sikorsky (Ukrainian). In 1898 the U.S. became a colonial power, taking over most of the Spanish Colonial Empire in the Spanish-American War. Hawaii was acquired in 1898, American Samoa in 1900. The U.S. frequently intervened in the affairs of Central American and Caribbean states; in 1903 the Panama Canal Zone was leased, construction of the Panama Canal begun (completed in 1914). U.S. troops occupied Nicaragua 1912-1925, Haiti 1915-1934, the Dominican Republic 1916-1924. In 1917 the U.S. purchased the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands; in 1917 she entered WW I. During WW I the U.S. long had remained neutral. In contrast to her European allies, the U.S. had suffered no destruction on her own soil; her losses in men were, comparatively insignificant. While Britain, the leading industrial power before the war, had to take up huge debts to finance the war (partially from U.S. banks), the United states had profitted by granting loans, selling food, weapons etc.; WW I began a shift of the center of the world economy from Europe to North America. After WW I the European economy was sluggish, the American economy more vital - until the Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the beginning of the Great Depression, which, although begun in the U.S., hit Europe harder. The U.S. was the first colonial power to decide to release a colony into independence - a 1934 law foresaw independence for the Philippines in 1944; because of WW II it was postponed to 1946. Drawn into WW II, the U.S. placed her industrial potential in the service of the war effort, and decided both the war against Germany and Japan. The U.S. gave up her traditional isolationist policy and became an active world power, together with her rival, the USSR, the main actor in the Cold War. After WW II, immigration from Europe ebbed down, immigration from other regions (Latin America, Asia) increased. In the 1960es the Civil Rights Movement criticized discrimination against ethnic minorities, against women etc.; laws were passed to provide equal opportunity. The U.S. has become the center of the world economy, and obtained a dominant position in research. The landing of Apollo 13 on the moon in 1969 was a major technical accomplishment, as was the development of computer technology.

EXTERNAL FILES

REFERENCE

Eric R. Wolf, Europe and the People without History, University of California Press 1982 [G]

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