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Monday, January 9, 2017

United States, Cool Facts #161

<= 160. Great Britain                                                                                                162. Suriname => 




1. USA borders

The original 13 colonies that formed the United States of America were established between 1607 and 1732. The first one was Virginia Colony at Jamestown in 1607. The last one of them was Georgia Colony established in 1732. 


The original 13 colonies

Louisiana Purchase 1803-1804
In 1803 USA bought the Louisiana territory from France. The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until 1762, when it was ceded to Spain. In 1800 Napoleon regained ownership of Louisiana back to France. The territory included land from fifteen present U.S states and two Canadian provinces.



Florida and Texas
1819 Spain ceded Florida to USA
1845 USA annexed the Republic of Texas




1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain, led to U.S. control of the present-day American Southwest

Oregon Treaty 1846
Alaska Purchase
1867 Alaska was bought from Russia

Alaska purchase 1867
Hawaii annexation
1898 Hawaii was annexed by USA
1959 Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state


Hawaiian annexation ceremony, 1898


2. American Revolution

1765 the American Revolution started when the American colonial society rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them and to create laws affecting them without any colonial representatives in the government.
1773 Boston Tea Party, the colonists (aka Patriots) destroyed a shipment of taxed tea from the Parliament-controlled East India Company.
1774 The Patriots set up their own alternative government to better coordinate their resistance against Great Britain, while other colonists known as Loyalists preferred to remain aligned to the British Crown.

American Revolutionary War 1775-1783

1775 Fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord developed into a global war. Patriots in all of the thirteen colonies formed Provincial Congresses that assumed power from the old colonial government and suppressed Loyalism. They built also the Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington.
1776 Lee Resolution  on July 2, which was the actual vote for independence.
1776 Declaration of Independence on July 4, declared that the Thirteen Colonies were independent states and had no allegiance to the British Crown.
1777 The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among all thirteen colonies of USA that served as its first constitution.
1777 A British army was captured at the Battle of Saratoga.
1781 A combined American-French force captured a second British army at Yorktown, effectively ending the war in the United States.
1783 Treaty of Paris formally ended the conflict confirming the complete separation from the British Empire.

Territorial changes after the conflict

- Great Britain ceded areas east of Mississippi River, south of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River
- Great Britain ceded East Florida and West Florida  to Spain

Allies of USA 
- Since 1776 France had provided supplies to USA and entered the war in 1778
- Spain joined the war as an ally of France, intending to capture Gibraltar and the British colonies in the Caribbean
- The Dutch entered the war as well but lost to the British on all counts and had to cede some territory to the British


Declaration of Independence paper
Declaration of Independence meeting


3. American Civil War 1861-1865 

Beginning in 1861
The civil war started when seven Southern slave states declared their secession from the U.S. and formed the Confederate States of America. The North (Union) started fighting against these southern states then.

Reasons of the secession
- Northern anti-slavery policies
- Southern white nationalism
- North's desire to preserve the Union
- Abraham's Lincoln's victory in the 1860 presidential election without being the the ballot in ten of the Southern states
- South's dependancy on slave labour in their cotton plantations

USA states in 1861 
- There were 34 states in USA
- 19 were free states, which formed the North or "Union"
- 15 were slave states

The Confederacy  
- 7/15 slave states were part of the Confederacy
- After the Battle of Fort Sumter 11/15 slave states were part of the Confederacy
- 4 slave states never declared a secession: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri

End of war
In 1865 the Confederate armies surrendered, the Confederate government was dissolved and slavery was abolished in USA.

Result
Between 620,000-750,000 soldiers died in the civil war, which is more than American military deaths in the two world wars combined. As much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, the Reconstruction Era (1863-1877) overlapped and followed the civil war restoring national unity, strengthening the national government, and granting civil rights to the freed slaves.





Map of USA during civil war
American civil war


4. American Indian Wars

The American Indian Wars were the multiple armed conflicts between European colonists, later American settlers and then the American government and the native peoples of North America. The conflicts were fought between 1540-1924. The European colonists also fought against each others allying with the natives for the control of North American territories. The indigenous people were slowly pushed northward and westward as the Europeans colonized the countries, they had inhabited for the previous centuries.

The first war was fought between the Spanish conquistadors and the Puebloan people in Tiguex War in 1540. The last war was fought in 1924 between the native people and the American government.
After the last war USA extended to its present borders and the Indian reservation system was established by various treaties with individual tribes.

States that were involved in the Indian Wars between 1540 and 1924: 

Spanish Empire
French Empire
English Empire
Dutch Empire
British Empire
USA
Republic of Texas
Canada
Confederate States of America


Battle of Little Bighorn between the Americans and Sioux people


5. Dirty Thirties 

The Dust Bowl also known as the Dirty Thirties was a period of severe sand storms, that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies in the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by severe drought and the failure to apply dryland farming to prevent wind erosion. 

Three waves of drought
1934
1936
1939-1940

During the 1920s the farmers had started converting arid grassland to cultivated cropland. The native deep-rooted grasses had been displaced that normally trapped soil and moisture even during periods of drought and high winds. This unanchored soil was then turned to dust in the 1930s and the winds blew them away in huge clouds that blackened the sky. The dust clouds traveled from the Great Plains across the country as far as the East Coast, striking cities like New York and Washington D.C.

Th dust storms affected an area of about 400,000 square kilometers and caused tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms.


Dust storm in Texas, 1935
After a dust storm 
Ecoregions of the Great Plains


Timeline

15,000 Years ago the first inhabitants arrived to North America from Siberia
1492 Columbus started his first voyage after which the Spanish set small settlements in New Mexico and Florida. France had several small settlements along the Mississippi River
1607 The English established the Virginia Colony at Jamestown
1620 The English established the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony
1732 Georgia was colonized by the British and so the 13 colonies were established that would become the United States of America
1730s and 1740s The Great Awakening was a Christian revivalist movement that swept British America
1754-1763 British forces seized Canada from the French during the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years' War)
1776 Lee Resolution  on July 2, which was the actual vote for independence
1776 Declaration of Independence on July 4, declared that the Thirteen Colonies were independent states and had no allegiance to the British Crown
1777 The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among all thirteen colonies of USA that served as its first constitution
1778 James Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands
1783 Britain recognized the independence of USA
1787 Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention in writing the United States Constitution, which was ratified in state conventions in 1788
1789 George Washington was the first president elected under the new constitution
1791 The Bill of Rights was adopted
1800-1840s The Second Great Awakening converted millions to evangelical Protestantism
1803-1804 Louisiana Purchase from France, the territory included land from fifteen present U.S states and two Canadian provinces
1812-1815 War of 1812 fought by USA against UK, British North American colonies and its native American allies
1819 Spain ceded Florida to USA
1845 USA annexed the Republic of Texas
1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain, led to U.S. control of the present-day American Southwest
1848-1849 California Gold Rush
1861-1865 American Civil War
1867 Alaska was bought from Russia
1898 Hawaii was annexed by USA
1898 After the Spanish-American War Spain ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to USA
1914-1917 During World War I USA was neutral until 1917 when it joined the Allies
1920 Women's suffrage was granted
1929 The Crash of Wall Street started the Great Depression
1930 Dust Bowl aka the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe sand storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the U.S.
1941 Japan launched the attack to Pearl Harbour after which USA joined the Allies during Second World War
1950-1953 USA fought against communist Chinese and North Korean forces in the Korean War
1955-1975 During the Vietnam War, USA fought alongside South Vietnam against North Vietnam and its allies
1959 Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state
1968 Civil Rights Act sought to end racial discrimination
1969 USA sent a man on the moon
1991 The Cold War ended after the collapse of the Soviet Union
1994 North American Free Trade Agreement was made
2001 Terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington
2001-2014 War in Afghanistan started after the September 11 attacks
2003-2011 War of Iraq
2007 The Great Recession began in december and ended in June 2009

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_independence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Indian_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_(American_Civil_War)
"Maailman maat - liput ja historia" by Kimmo Kiljunen

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