CHAPTER ONE

North America Before European Contact

Prior to European colonization, diverse Native American societies controlled the
continent; they would later come into economic and diplomatic contact, and military
conflict, with European colonizers and United States forces and settlers.

Major civilizations that would play an important and ongoing role in North
American history included the IRoquois and ALGONQUIN in the Northeast. Both of
those tribes would also be important allies of the English and French, respectively, in
future conflicts, in that part of the continent.

Later, the young United States would come into conflict with the SHAWNEE, LENAPE,
Kickapoo, Miami, and other tribes in the Midwest during early western expansion. These
tribes formed the Northwest Confederacy to fight the United States.
In the South, major tribes included the Cuickasaw, CHocTaw, and Creek (Muscogee),
who were the descendants of the MississipP! MOUND BuiLDers or Mississippian cultures,
societies that built mounds from around 2,100 to 1,800 years ago as burial tombs or
the bases for temples. It is thought that the CHEROKEE migrated south to present-day
Georgia sometime long before European contact, where they remained until they were
forcibly removed in 1832.

Farther west, tribes of the Great Plains like the Sioux, CHEYENNE, APACHE,
COMANCHE, and ARAPAHO would later come into conflict with American settlers as
westward expansion continued. ‘Traditionally nomadic or semi-nomadic, these tribes
depended on the BUFFALO for survival.

The Navaso controlled territory in the Southwest. The Navajo were descendants of
the ANCESTRAL PUEBLO or ANASAZI, who had settled in the Four Corners area.
 In the Pacific Northwest, fishing was a major source of sustenance, and Native
American peoples like the COAST SALISH and CHINOOK created and used canoes to
engage in the practice.

Ultimately, through both violent conflict and political means, Native American
civilizations lost control of most of their territories and were forced onto reservations
by the United States. Negotiations continue today over rights to land and opportunities
and reparations for past injustices.

Colonial North America

The Americas were quickly colonized by Europeans after Christopher Columbus first
laid claim to them for the Spanish, and the British, French, and Spanish all held
territories in North America throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and
nineteenth centuries.

Spanish CONQUISTADORS explored what is today the Southwestern United States,

claiming land inhabited by local tribes for Spain. Spanish colonization not only included
the control and settlement of land but also the mission to spread Christianity. The
Spanish Crown granted ENCOMIENDAS, land grants to individuals to establish settle-
ments, allowing the holder to ranch or mine the land and demand tribute and forced
labor from local Native peoples.
Forced labor and diseases like SMALLPOX had decimated Native American populations
in Mexico and the Southwest. Consequently, to exploit these resource-rich lands,
Spanish colonizers took part in the European-driven TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE, kid-
napping African people or purchasing them on the West African coast, bringing them
to the Americas, and forcing them into slavery in mines and plantations in the Western
Hemisphere.

DID YOU KNOW? Unlike Spain, which sought not only profit but also to settle
Eventually France would the land and convert Native Americans to Christianity, France
control much of the Great was mainly focused on trade. French explorers reached the
Lakes and the Mississippi
region through Louisiana Northeast and the eastern Great Lakes region as early as the
and New Orleans, seventeenth century in search of fur and beaver pelts.
valuable trade routes.
French explorers included While the Spanish and French arrived generally as single
Jacques Cartier and : a | Idi sh taealun hats;
Samuel de Champlain, men for trade, who would intermarry with local inhabitants, the
who founded New France. English brought their families and settled in North America,
with the goal of establishing agricultural settlements. In the
sixteenth century, Sir Walter Raleigh established the Roanoke
colony in present-day Virginia; while this settlement disappeared by 1590, interest in
colonization reemerged as JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES sought royal charters to privately
develop colonies on the North American Atlantic coast.

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 The first established colony, JAMESTOWN, was also located in Virginia, which became
so profitable that the English Crown took it over as a colony in 1624. Tobacco and rice
grew in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Appropriate for plantation farming, these
crops required unskilled labor, and the southern colonies became socially stratified,
with a society composed mainly of large numbers of enslaved Africans, indentured
servants, and landowners.
In New England, Separatists, members of the Church of England who believed it
had strayed too far from its theological roots, had come to North America seeking more
religious freedom. ‘The first group of Separatists, the Pilgrims, arrived on the Mayflower
in 1620 and had drawn up the MayrLower Compact, guaranteeing government by the
consent of the governed. ‘They were later joined by the Puritans, who had been perse-
cuted in England. These philosophies would later inform the American Revolution.
Despite differences from the South, social stratification existed in New England as
well: according to Puritan belief, wealth and success showed that one was a member of
the ELECT, or privileged by God. Poorer farmers were generally
tenant farmers; they did not own land and rarely made a profit.
The North American colonial economy was part of the
DID YOU KNOW?
The mid-Atlantic colonies
ATLantic WorLb, taking part in the TRIANGULAR TRADE between were also founded on
the Americas, Africa and Europe, where people from Africa who the basis of religious
: ; ; tolerance in the Quaker
were enslaved were exchanged in the Americas for raw materials spirit inspired by the
shipped to Europe to be processed into goods for the benefit of Quaker William Penn.
the colonial powers. Sometimes those goods were also exchanged
for slaves in Africa. In this way, North America was part of the
CoLumBIAN EXCHANGE, the intersection of goods and people throughout the Atlantic
World.
British policy toward the Colonies had been one of SALUTARY NEGLECT, allowing
them great autonomy. However, an emerging culture of independence in the ‘Thirteen
Colonies caught the attention ofthe British Crown; it passed the NaviGaTion Acts in
1651 to prevent colonial trade with any other countries. An early sign of colonial dis-
content, BACON’s REBELLION in 1676 against Governor Berkeley of Virginia embodied
the growing resentment oflandowners, who wanted to increase their own profit rather
than redirect revenue to Britain.

American colonists were also increasingly influenced by Enlightenment thought.

John Locke’s SECOND TREATISE was published in 1689; critical of absolute monarchy,
it became popular in the Colonies. Locke argued for REPUBLICANISM: that the people
must come together to create a government for the protection of themselves and their
property, thereby giving up some of their natural rights. However, should the govern-
ment overstep its bounds, the people have the right to overthrow it and replace it.
In the mid-eighteenth century, a sense of religious fervor called the GREAT AWAKENING
spread throughout the Colonies; people became devoted to God beyond the confines
of traditional Christianity. The Great Awakening helped develop a more singularly

United States History 3

North American religious culture. It also created a divide between traditional European
Christianity and emerging North American faiths.
Meanwhile, North America served also as a battleground for France and England,
already in conflict in Europe and elsewhere. In the mid-seventeenth century, the two
colonial powers fought the proxy Beaver and Chickasaw wars in alliances with Native
American tribes in the Northeast and Southeast.
The Seven Years’ War broke out in Europe in 1756; this conflict between the British
and French in North America was known as the FRENCH AND INDIAN War. Following
defeats by strong colonial military leaders like GEORGE WASHINGTON and despite its
strong alliances and long-term presence on the continent, France eventually sur-
rendered. Britain gained control of French territories in North America—as well as
Spanish Florida—in the 1763 Treaty OF Paris which ended the Seven Years’ War. In
the Proclamation of 1763, Britain also promised Native American tribes that it would
not expand its colonies farther west.

Revolution and the Early United States

As a result of the French and Indian War and subsequent unrest, Britain once again
discarded its colonial policy of salutary neglect. Furthermore, Britain was in desperate
need of cash, as the war had nearly bankrupted the country. The Crown sought ways
to increase its revenue from the Colonies.

King George III enforced heavy taxes and restrictive acts in the colonies to generate
income for the Crown and punish disobedience. These included the Sucar Act in
1764 and the QuarTerRING ACT, requiring colonists to provide shelter to British troops
stationed in the region.
The 1765 Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the colonists, triggered more tensions.
Any document required a costly stamp, the revenue reverting to the British government.
As aresult, colonists began boycotting British goods and engaging in violent protest.
In response, officials enforced the punitive TOWNSHEND Acts which imposed more taxes
and restrictions on the colonies. Samuel Adams continued to stir up rebellion with his
ComMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE, which distributed anti-British propaganda.
Protests against the Quartering Act in Boston led to the Boston Massacre in 1770,
when British troops fired on a crowd ofprotesters. By 1773, colonists protested the latest
taxes on tea levied by the Tea Act in the famous Boston TEA Party by dressing as Native
Americans and tossing tea off a ship in Boston Harbor. In response, the government
passed the INTOLERABLE AcTS, closing Boston Harbor and bringing Massachusetts back
under direct royal control.

In response to the Intolerable Acts, colonial leaders met in Philadelphia at the

First CONTINENTAL CONGRESS in 1774 and issued the DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND

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GRIEVANCES, presenting colonial concerns to the King, who ignored it. However,
violent conflict began in 1775 at LEXINGTON AND Concorb, when American militiamen
(MINUTEMEN) had gathered to resist British efforts to seize weapons and arrest rebels in
Concord. OnJune 17, 1775, the Americans fought the British at the BATTLE OF BUNKER
Hitt; despite American losses, the number of casualties the rebels inflicted caused the
king to declare that the colonies were in rebellion. Troops were deployed to the colonies;
the Siege of Boston began.
In May 1775, the SECOND CONTINENTAL Conaress met at Philadelphia to debate
the way forward. Debate between the wisdom of continued efforts at compromise
and negotiations and declaring independence continued. THoMas PAINE published his
pamphlet COMMON SENsE; taking Locke’s concepts of natural rights and the obligation
of a people to rebel against an oppressive government, it popularized the notion of
rebellion against Britain.
By summer of 1776, the Continental Congress agreed on the need to break from
Britain; on July 4, 1776, it declared the independence of the United States of America
and issued the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, drafted mainly by THOMAS JEFFERSON and
heavily influenced by Locke. Pro-revolution Americans were known as PATRIOTS; those
against were Tories. Ihe American Revolution had begun.
GeorGce WASHINGTON was appointed head of the Continental Army and led a largely
unpaid and unprofessional army; despite early losses and the military and financial
superiority of the British, Washington and the colonists gained ground due to strong
leadership, superior knowledge of the land, and international support. In the 1783
TREATY OF Paris, the United States was recognized as a country. The American Revo-
lution would go on to inspire revolution around the world.

Joy in the victory over Great Britain was short-lived. Fearful DID YOU KNOW?
of tyranny, the Second Continental Congress had provided for The new country was
heavily in debt. Currency
only a weak central government, adopting the ARTICLES OF Con-
was weak, and high taxes
FEDERATION to organize the Thirteen Colonies—now states—as led to instability in the
form of minor rebellions
a loosely united country. However, it soon became clear that the like Shays’ Rebellion,
Articles of Confederation were not strong enough to keep the a revolt of indebted
farmers, and the Whiskey
nation united. Rebellion. Furthermore,
debt and disorganization
ALEXANDER HAMILTON and JAMES MADISON called tor a CONsTI- made the country appear
TUTIONAL CONVENTION to write a Constitution as the foundation weak and vulnerable to
Great Britain and Spain.
ofastronger federal government. Madison and other FEDERALISTS If the United States was
like JoHN Apams believed in SEPARATION OF POWERS, republican- to remain one country, it
needed a stronger federal
ism, and a strong federal government. government.

Despite the separation of powers provided for in the Consti-

tution, ANTI-FEDERALISTS like THOMAS JEFFERSON called for even
more limitations on the power of the federal government. The first ten amendments to
the Constitution, or the BILL oF RIGHTS, a list of guarantees of American freedoms, was a

United States History 5

concession to the anti-Federalists, who would later become the DEMOCRATIC- REPUBLICAN
Party (eventually, the Democratic Party).
In order to convince the states to ratify the Constitution, Hamilton, Madison, and
John Jay wrote the FEDERALIST PaPERrs, articulating the benefits of federalism. Likewise,
the Bill of Rights helped convince the hesitant. In 1791, the Constitution was ratified.
Georce WASHINGTON was elected president, with John Adams serving as vice president;
Washington appointed Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury and Jefferson as Secretary
of State.
Federalists favored taxation and centralized financial management, which Anti-
Federalists—who became known as Democratic-ReEPuBLICANS—vehemently opposed.
The US tried to remain neutral in international affairs but was accosted by Britain and
France at sea and in conflict in the Northwest Indian Wars.
In President Washington’s FaREweLt Aporess, he recommended the United States
follow a policy of neutrality in international affairs, setting a precedent for early
American history. Vice President John Adams, a Federalist, became the second
president.
During the Adams administration, the Federalists passed the harsh ALIEN AND
SEDITION Acts that increased executive power. Divisions between the Federalists and
the Democratic-Republicans were deeper than ever and the presidential elections of
1800 were tense and controversial; nevertheless, Thomas Jefferson was elected to the
presidency in 1801 in a historical non-violent transfer of power.
Jefferson shrank the federal government. ‘The Alien and Sedition Acts were repealed.
Economic policies favored small farmers and landowners, in contrast to Federalist
policies, which supported big business and cities. However, Jefferson also oversaw the
LouisiANA PurRcHASE, which nearly doubled the size of the United States. This troubled

LOUISIANA
PURCHASE

oo Spanish Territory

Louisiana Purchase

United States of America

Figure 1.1. Louisiana Purchase

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some Democratic-Republicans, who saw this as federal overreach, but the Louisiana
Purchase would be a major step forward in westward expansion.
Continuing British provocation at sea and in the northwest led to the WAR OF 1812.
Growing nationalism in the United States pressured Madison into pushing for war after
the BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE in Indiana, when GENERAL WILLIAM Henry Harrison fought
the NorTHWesT CONFEDERACY, a group of tribes led by the Shawnee leader TECUMSEH.
Despite the Confederacy’s alliance with Britain, the United States prevailed. Congress
declared war under Madison with the intent to defend the United States, end chaotic
trade practices and treatment of Americans on the high seas, and penetrate British
Canada.

‘The war resulted in no real gains or losses for either the Americans or the British,
Yet at the war's end, the United States had successfully defended itself as a country and
reafhrmed its independence. Patriotism ran high.
With the Louisiana Purchase, the country had almost doubled in size. In the nine-
teenth century, the idea of MANIFEST DESTINY, or the sense that it was the fate of the
United States to expand westward and settle the continent, prevailed. The MONROE
Doctrine, James Monroe's policy that the Western Hemisphere was “closed” to any
further European colonization or exploration, asserted US hegemony in the region.
Westward expansion triggered questions about the expansion of slavery, a divisive
issue. Slavery was profitable for the southern states which depended on the plantation
economy, but increasingly condemned in the North with the growing ABOLITIONIST
movement. [he Missouri COMPROMISE, also known as the COMPROMISE OF 1820, allowed
Missouri to join the union as a slave state, but provided that any other states north of
the THIRTY-SIXTH PARALLEL (36°30') would be free. However, more tension and compro~
mises over the nature of slavery in the West were to come.

Es Free states/territories

Slave states

Unorganized territory

Figure 1.2. Missouri Compromise

United States History 7

 Demographics were changing throughout the early nineteenth century. Techno-
logical advances such as the COTTON GIN had allowed exponential increases in cotton;
therefore, more persons were enslaved than ever before, bringing more urgency to
the issue of slavery. In addition, IMMIGRATION from Europe to the United States was
increasing—mainly Irish Catholics and Germans. Reactionary NATIVIST movements
like the KNow-NOTHING Party feared the influx of non-Anglo Europeans, particu-
larly Catholics, and discrimination was widespread, especially against the Irish. Other
technological advances like the RAILROADS and STEAMSHIPS were speeding up westward
expansion and improving trade throughout the continent; a large-scale MARKET ECONOMY
was emerging. With early industrialization and changing concepts following the Second
Great Awakening, women were playing a larger role in society, even though they could
not vote.

Most states had extended voting rights to white men who did not own land or sub-
stantial property: UNIVERSAL MANHOOD SUFFRAGE. Elected officials would increasingly
come to better reflect the electorate, and the brash war hero Andrew Jackson was
popular among the “common man.” During this period, the TWO-PARTY SYSTEM also
emerged.
Jackson’s popularity with the “common man,” white, male farmers and workers who
felt he identified with them, and the fact that owning property was no longer a require-
ment to vote, gave him the advantage and a two-term presidency. Jackson rewarded
his supporters, appointing them to important positions as part of the SPOILS SYSTEM.

Jackson’s administration faced economic crises that exacerbated divisions between

northern, industrial interests that supported tariffs, and southern, agrarian interests that
opposed them. Jackson also supported further continental expansion, which brought
conflict with Native Americans. The 1830 INDIAN Removat Act forced thousands of
people to travel mainly on foot, with all of their belongings, to Indian Territory (today,
Oklahoma) on the infamous TRAIL OF TEARS, to make way for white settlers.

EXAMPLE
1. What advantage did the colonists have in the American Revolution?
A) vast financial wealth and resources
B) superior weaponry and equipment
C) strong leadership and knowledge of the terrain
D) a professional military and access to mercenaries

Civil War and Westward Expansion

In 1845, Texas, which had declared independence from Mexico in 1836, joined the
Union; this event, in the context of US westward expansion, triggered the MEXICAN-

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American War. As a result, the United States obtained territory in the Southwest,
including gold-rich California. The population of California would grow rapidly
with the GOLD RUSH as prospectors in search of gold headed west to try their fortunes.
However, Californians of Hispanic descent who had lived in the region under Mexico
lost their land and also suffered from racial and ethnic discrimination.
Meanwhile, social change in the Northeast and growing Midwest continued. As the
market economy and early industry developed, so did an early MIDDLE CLASS. Activists
like Susan B. ANTHONY and ELIZABETH Caby StaNTON worked for women’s rights. Women
were also active in the temperance movement.
Reform movements continued to include abolitionism, which ranged from moderate
to radical. An activist leader and writer, slave FREDERICK DouaLass publicized the
movement along with the American Anti-Slavery Society and publications like Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The radical abolitionist JoHN BROWN led violent
protests against slavery.
Competing factions in Congress had continued to battle over the expansion of
slavery, resulting in the unsuccessful 1846 WitmoT Proviso; the CompRoMISsE OF 1850,
which admitted the populous California as a free state; and the Fuaitive Stave Act,
which allowed slave owners to pursue escaped slaves to free states and recapture them.
Congress passed the KANsAS-Nesraska Act oF 1854 effectively repealing the Missouri
Compromise. Violence broke out in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery factions in
what became known as BLEEDING KANSAS.

In 1856, an escaped slave, Dred Scott, took his case to the Supreme Court to sue
for freedom. The Court upheld the Fugitive Slave Act, nullified the Missouri Com-
promise, and essentially decreed that African Americans were not entitled to rights
under US citizenship.

In 1858, a series of debates between Illinois senate candidates, Republican ABRAHAM

LINCOLN and Democrat STEPHEN DouGLas, showed the deep divides in the nation over
slavery and states’ rights. During the LIncotN-Douc
as Desates, Lincoln spoke out
against slavery, while Douglas supported the right of states to decide its legality on their
own. In 1860, Lincoln was elected to the presidency. Given Lincoln’s outspoken stance
against slavery, South Carolina seceded immediately thereafter, followed by Mississippi,
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas. They formed the Confederate States
of America, or the CONFEDERACY, on February 1, 1861.

Shortly after secession, Confederate forces attacked Union DID YOU KNOW? :
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
troops in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina; the BATTLE OF ForT es RE ar tes
Sumter sparked the Civil War. As a result, Virginia, Tennessee, dies battle in US
; Pe - istory up to that point.
North Carolina, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confed- Cres derelineaih lator
ney
eracy. delivered the Gettysburg
y Address there, in which
The Confederacy had experienced military leadership and vast he framed the Civil War as
; ey. a battle for human rights
territory. The Union had a larger population (strengthened by and equality.

United States History 9