I am a Romanian immigrant and I want to know about U.S. history in a nutshell?

Question

I just want general information about U.S. history. From the Bering Strait (sp?) to the Progressive Era to WWII. Thank you!

Answer 1

1) Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, reporting back to the Spanish court, thus starting a vast exodus of European explorers, settlers, religious zealots (both Protestant and Roman Catholic), and opportunists to the New World. Yes, I know there were other candidates for this honor (the Vikings, the Chinese, the Welsh), but Columbus reported back. Historians now believe that much of aboriginal America was as advanced culturally--or even more so--than Renaissance Europe. The Native Americans incidentally were killed primarily by epidemics. Also, the Europeans had horses.

2) The Spanish, the Portuguese, the French, the Dutch, and the English established colonies in the New World. During what amounted to a global war among the European Powers, England came to dominate the Eastern seaboard of North America. Wealthy Southern land owners imported slaves from Africa to cultivate tobacco and cotton crops.

3) England, in order to recoop her financial loses during the French and Indian Wars, imposed heavy tariffs on her colonies in the New World. The Colonists, believing they were being taxed without the appropriate representation in Parliament, rebelled--a process that eventually brought about an independent federal republic. The American Revolutionary War, which was actually a civil war, of sorts, for the British was a little bit like Vietnam or Iraq. Incidentally, only 1/3 of the colonists supported the Revolution, while 1/3 supported the British, whereupon many moved to what is now Canada, and 1/3 couldn't care!

4) After the War for Independence, settlers started making the trek into the interior of the Continent. The Louisiana Purchase in 1802 opened the area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains for settlement. President Thomas Jefferson sent the Louis and Clark Expedition westward to check out the lay-of-the-land. Texas' independence and the Mexican-American War secured land all the way to the Pacific. The US also acquired Alaska and Hawaii as territories during the 19th century. Americans felt it was their "Manifest Destiny" (as stated in the Monroe Doctrine) to rule the North American continent.

5) The North industrialized, turning raw goods, such as cotton, from the South into finished products, while the South remained an agricultural area. Although most Southerners were small family farmers who didn't own slaves, wealthy Southern plantation owners dominated Southern politics. Northern activists preached against the depravity of slavery; many Southerns agreed, but rationalized the "Pecular Institution" as economically expedient. Of course, many Southern historians claim the War was about states' rights.

6) The North won the American Civil War, simultaneously freeing a large population of illiterate African American slaves and treating the conquered South less than magnamously for a least a generation.

7) After the Civil War, farmers and ranchers completely settled the Great Plains and the Rockies. A Gold Rush in California in 1849 had already brought Americans to the West Coast. In many places, the railroads and small towns and farms arrived at the same point in time. The Native Americans were pushed out of the way onto Indian Reservations. They wouldn't be granted the right to vote or become citizens until 1924.

8) Meanwhile, a large influx of immigrants from Europe flooded into America, furnishing the labor to implement the Industrial Revolution in the United States while many African Americans began to leave the rural South for the urban North. Entrepreneurs, like Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie, and inventors, like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, helped create "the American way of life": a fast-paced urbanized life, dominated by industry and made possible by electricity, rapid communications, and reliable, relatively inexpensive private transportation.

9) World War I establishes the United States as a major power in international politics after both sides in Europe almost destroy each other. America comes to the aid of the Allies late in the War.

10) After a period of rapid economic expansion, the Great Depression collapses the economy of both the United States and Europe. European dictators, Hitler and Mussolini, impose totalitarian governements; Hitler makes the Jews and other dispossesed groups his scapegoats as he looks for "Lebensraum" (or living room). When Hitler invades Poland, England is drawn into a war with Hitler. American begins to secretly supply England with consumer goods and weapons. The Japanese, in the meanwhile, feel that the Americans have thwarted their efforts to obtain petroleum in Asia. Their attack on Pearl Harbor brings the US openly into World War II. The War, however, brings about the end of the world-wide economic depression.

11) The Allies defeat the Axis powers in Europe, but US leaders believe that they cannot defeat the Japanese without taking the war to Japan itself, resulting in a large loss of American lives. Looking for another solution, American scientists and European emigrees construct an atom bomb. Americans drop two of them on Japan, ending the War. In the meanwhile, the Soviet Union has taken over all the territories in Eastern Europe that Hitler invaded.

11) In the years following World War II, the US leads the world in industrial production as well as scientific research. Much of the economy is fueled by the Cold War showdown between the two super powers, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America. When the French and British retreat from former colonies, the US feels compelled to step in to keep the peace and to back American-friendly regimes. A still-ongoing "police action" in Korea and a stalmate war in Vietnam result.

12) Americans begin to rethink their place in the world during the Vietnam era. A young, charismatic President, John F. Kennedy, is assassinated; the Civil Rights Movement brings all the rights of citizenship and better economic opportunities to African Americans.

Helped in large part by Nazi scientists in both the USSR and the US, the two super powers hope to gain national and ideological presitge during the "space race." American astronauts land on the moon in 1969, but manned space flights do not progress any further into Space.

13) The Reagan era brings about the end of the Cold War as countries, such as Romanian, gain their independence. The European Union along with Japan are now economic rivals of the US. President Bill Clinton is President during an era of economic expansion after the first Gulf War. Personal computers make the pace of business much faster. Immigrants, such as yourself, from around the world continue to come to the US. The American Southwest has problems assimilating newcomers from Mexico.

14) A contested election ultimately determined by the Supreme Court brings an inexperienced politician to Washington as President. Although George W. Bush had served as Texas' Governnor, the Governor of Texas maintains less executive power than the governor of any other state (because the Texas legislature took away that power from him after the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War; see # 6). Muslim extremists, angered by America's presence in Saudi Arabia, bomb the World Trade Center, bringing about the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Americans find themselves bogged down in a "no win" war while all the terrorists have to do is to wait out the Americans.

The rest of the world probably knows more about the US than Americans do about life outside the US; American popular culture dominates the entertainment industry, and muti-international corporations based in the US spread out across the world (Microsoft, IBM, Coca-Cola, McDonald's). Minorities and the poor are not as well educated or as healthy as European and Asian Americans, but the dispossessed and the adventurous continue to come to America.

Answer 2

(1) Europeans settled the east coast of North America

(2) The settlers began to think of themselves as Americans

(3) The Americans won independance from Britain

(4) Expansion westward began, kicking out all the Native Americans along the way

(5) Louisiana Purchase brought huge part of the far West into the United States

(6) Further expansion westward, more land stolen from Native Americans

(7) American Southwest taken away from Mexico. More expansion, more land stolen from Native Americans.

(8) Transcontinental railroad completed, linking East and West coast of United States.

(9) More lands stolen from Native Americans.

(10) United States becomes heavily industrialized, especially on the East Coast.

....and I'm pooped out. The rest is available in lots of good books summarizing United States history.

Answer 3

I don't think for one minute British people are afraid of Romanian immigrants, as such, or any other immigrants from other countries. What the British people are afraid of,is losing there jobs and homes, to immigrants who come to this country and get every thing for nothing. and what future will there be in this country for their children and grandchildren. We are told by the government that jobs will go to the British first. It's LIES. we are told houses will go to the British first. It's LIES. Indians and black people who have lived in Britain for years (from the fifties )can also see the danger's of mass immigration. There will be thousands of immigrants pouring into this country in January 2014. Will they be left on the streets without being able to claim benefits for three months.? Of course not, the government will bend over backwards for them. It's there Human Right...The trouble is the British don't seem to have any human rights.

Answer 4

Here is the link to the Library of Congress website. There is way too much information to try to present it in a "nutshell". Americans study American history starting in gradeschool. This will be a good place to start. Click on the link below.

http://www.loc.gov/index.html?gclid=CIeu24v8vYwCFQk4Sgod3TaxVg

Answer 5

You gonna just delete this one too? I had a whole long answer in the other one, only to find out that the question was deleted.

Go to Wikipedia and look up these things. They have good descriptions of American events and it's free.

Answer 6

The United States doesn't work that way. All about our history in a nutshell? I don't think so. Go visit the library and do some reading.

Answer 7

The Brits came here bringing some laborers, they decided they wanted everything and were entitled to it so they displaced or killed all the American Indians and that's why many of us have scots, irish, and english blood. Plus Indian.

Answer 8

Nutshell: They came. They saw. They conquered. (And got into numerous wars)

Answer 9

O.K., you win for either the most naive or funniest question ever asked in this category. :-)

Answer 10

We came, we saw, we conquered. Until about now, anyway.