History of The United States Documentary

the United States of America is a relatively new nation haven't been founded only a few hundred years ago however despite its youth that has quickly risen to become a world power and has had and currently has a major impact on economics politics technology and science the arts culture and other aspects of society across the entire globe what began as English settlements on the coast of a world unknown to the settlers would come to conquer that world and rise to claim the title of world superpower in the meantime the nation would change considerably as it expanded and forged identity and in this video we're going to discuss that identity and the history so let's get to it the land we call the United States today had been inhabited by various Native American peoples long before its existence these people were descended from a group of Eurasians across the bering land bridge about sixteen thousand years ago many of them developed some considerably complex societies with could cross paths with the Europeans and their expansion into the region however the United States is politically economically socially and culturally much more descended from European the Native American elements Americans and Native Americans consider their histories separate up until the intertwining of the two and the histories of the various indigenous peoples before the USA will be covered in depth in future videos Americans typically begin the country's story with the voyages of Christopher Columbus we now know that at least one other old world civilization the Vikings reached America before Columbus and possibly others possibly even other Europeans but even though Columbus was not first it was his journey that began the processes that would lead to the linking of the old and new worlds and thereby the United States so he remains a relevant figure Columbus sailed to the new world essentially to find a new trade route to India as the traditional route to the east have been cut off by the hostile Muslim Ottoman Turks when they captured Constantinople he landed in the modern-day Caribbean and claimed the land for Spain those Spain and Portugal with later disputed land claims and settle it with a Treaty of tourist ideas Columbus would never realized the land in which he had landed was not Asia and the fact that he was unaware that he had landed an entirely new continent is why the Native Americans are at times still referred to as in it was only realized shortly after his death by Amerigo Vespucci after whom the continent is actually named his Latin name being America's Columbus will be made governor of the area but his brutal rule over the native peoples would have poured the Spanish monarchs and caused him to remove him from power Columbus died in 1504 but his effect on history the linking of the two worlds for better and for worse would long outlive him the Europeans were now very greatly interested in the land resources and all the opportunities that this new world had to offer Spain and Portugal would continue to lead the charge into the Americas for at least the next century and extend the grip across much of North Central and South America immediately after Spain's discovered the other late 15th century major powers of Europe Portugal France and England realized they needed to jump into the theatre right away a wave of explorers be sent to the new world in coming decades the King of England Henry the seventh was introduced the concept of finding a northern route to China by an Italian by the name of Giovanni kabuto just a few years after Columbus is landing Giovanni now living in England would change his name to John Cabot Henry would then decide to sponsor his voyage and in 1497 Cabot departed westward eventually he would land on what he assumed was likely China but was in fact probably either Newfoundland or Nova Scotia Cabot did not stay long on his voyage and though he found evidence of human activity in the area did not make contact with any of the Native Americans after his voyages records of cabins existence become less clear though it's likely that he died shortly after an unfitting end for someone who had now set the stage for English involvement in North America over the next century multiple nations were attempt colonies in the modern-day United States most of which would fail the Americas were a land of great opportunity to the Europeans but the cost of that opportunity was contending with disease starvation harsh weather isolation from the home world and hostile Native Americans who had inhabited the lands for millennia as France began its colonization and exploration of America which would later lead to the places now known as Quebec Acadia and Louisiana England would make its first effort at a colony in modern-day North Carolina on an island known as Roanoke Island named after the local native peoples on March 25th 1580 for Queen Elizabeth the first gave Sir Walter really the right to organize a colony in North America which would serve to establish England's presence on the continent generate commerce and to construct a military base against their main enemies the Spanish one would be established on Roanoke the colonists here would be the first Englishman to cultivate and bring back to England things like corn potatoes and tobacco the first English child born in America Virginia Dare was born in his colony on August 18th the granddaughter of the colony's leader John White 118 people lived in his colony John white left returned to England but when he came back to the colony after having been delayed for a few years there was no trace of them the colonists and most of the colony had vanished white found no evidence of a struggle or a battle and much the settlement had been dismantled in what looks like a calmly and organized manner all that I could find was the word Croatoan carved on tree White was unable to search nearby islands because of weather and to this day no one knows exactly what happened the first English colonization of the new world was not only a failure it was a mystery the English had failed and their first attempts and other attempts but would naturally try again seventeen years later on May 14 1607 the colony of Jamestown was founded in a land to come to call Virginia after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth the settlers a mix of laborers and gentleman from England expect the primary function of this colony to be the extraction of gold and silver however as was often a case for Europeans coming to the new world with this death his time with his intention they quickly discovered that there was little here within weeks of landing the men started being attacked by the native Powhatan tribe the English however were prepared to respond to this threat they came well-armed and constructed professional fortifications within 20 days perhaps they had secured themselves militarily but the settlers soon began to realize that they would not be without other hardships the settlers unfortunately Arai of the Jamestown during one of the greatest Straus within a thousand year record furthermore not only had they arrived too late in a season to effectively grow food but many of the colonists were not skilled farmers or foragers many were expecting if trade for food with local natives but the drought was affecting them as well the settlers found themselves too busy trying to survive to harvest nearby resources at look for gold and silver on top of this disease was rampant and perhaps we killed more in Jamestown than starvation or the continuous native-american attacks the majority of colonists who lived here would die of these hardships within the first five or so years the population would go from five hundred to sixty John Smith the colony's leader was the man holding this colony together it was he who insisted that a new shipment of supplies be sent from England and he then installed a very simple and straightforward rule that the colonists according the Bible he said he who will not work will not eat directed mostly towards a settlements upper class and it was John Smith primarily who held the most successful negotiations with the Native Americans he also named the region of New England a name which lasts this day John Smith's contribution to Jamestown was invaluable but he was returned to England after being injured in an accidental gunpowder explosion in 1609 the colonists entered into what is known as the starving time and were forced to eat rats horses dogs snakes and eventually whatever they could find in some instances they would turn to cannibalism the natives kept attacking disease was unchecked and paranoia was rampant suspicions of Catholic or Spanish plots ran high and indeed there is no scientific evidence of arsenic poisoning taking place here the colony was nearly abandoned until the arrival of Thomas West 3rd Baron de loire better known as Lord Delaware Delaware was the most effective leader since John Smith and helped her in the colony around furthermore along with Lord Delaware a man by the name of John Rolfe carried with him something which would also help shape the future fortunes of Jamestown a new strain of tobacco he intended to start growing the tobacco was very popular in England and it would not only make Rolfe a wealthy man but save Jamestown Roth having become an important figure in the colony but Mary the Chiefs daughter Pocahontas which would secure peace between the Powhatan and the English for a few years long enough to get Jamestown on his feet the colony would now begin to grow into the thousands many who came over for the next few decades were what are known as indentured servants these labourers signed contracts promising to work in the area in exchange for residents and voyage there after a specific amount of time when they had paid off their debts they were free to go off on their own Jamestown also eventually saw the first African slaves in America in 1619 20 slaves intended for the Spanish colonies were brought to Jamestown though some were eventually granted a degree of freedom many other important historical events would take place at Jamestown as well the first body of elected representatives known as the House of Burgesses would assemble it was intended to represent the voices of the inhabitants of Jamestown to make it more agreeable though only English men were allowed a vote the polish Slovakian and german settlers were not outraged they formed the first protest and refused to work until they were granted a right to vote as well within a month it had worked conflict with the Native Americans would eventually resume and would last for decades within time however the English would weaken and eventually destroy the powhatan confederacy meanwhile to the north England was expanding its presence in the new world further in 1620 a group of Puritan religious separatists from the Anglican Church known as the pilgrims would travel to America originally relocating to the Netherlands after having been unwelcome in England feeling that the Anglican Church resembled a Catholic Church far too much they decided instead to found the settlement in a new world the settlements they let her felt could grow to become a city on a hill serving as an example of morality and piety to Europe the pilgrims led by William Bradford boarded a ship known as the Mayflower along with a number of other English merchants and craftsmen and set sail for the new world eventually finding a settlement in the Cape Cod area in modern-day Massachusetts before landing the colonists drew up what they would call the Mayflower Compact this established a set of laws the colony would follow and sell disagreements between the Puritan and non Puritan settlers in the first winter about half of the original settlers would die toward the end of the winter formal relations with the local Native Americans began there was some disagreement among the two sides at first however the relationship between the English and the Native Americans here would turn out to go very well at first the Wampanoag people would even help the English survive teaching them new farming techniques in familiarizing them with Al and after a year of hard work and general success the natives and pilgrims celebrated the autumnal harvest together while not necessarily celebrating the success of everything going on in general this feast would later become the Thanksgiving holiday in the 1630s more of the foundations for what would become England's 13 colonies began to take root this growth would not be unimpeded however along with the Native Americans who were beginning to react to increased pressure on them and their lands England was also competing in the theater with Spain the Dutch Sweden for a little while and France in July of 1636 the first major war in the region would break out the Pequot War it arose as a mixture of English expansion into the region and the attempts of the Pequod's tribe to dominate trade in the region the war would primarily consist of the two sides conducting raids against each other and having skirmishes with the wars climax being what is referred to as the mystic Massacre wherein the English and their native allies assaulted a Pequot village burned it and killed likely over 500 people by the 1640s tens of thousands of English settlers were living in the colonies in the 1650s a series of conflicts would begin with a Dutch sparked by conflict in Europe during the anglo-dutch Wars the English would conquer Dutch territory in North America including most notably the city of New Amsterdam which the English would rename to New York in 1670 Charleston was founded paving the way for the Carolina colony's Carolina being Latin for Charles named after Charles a second though the colonies were as I said in this time numbering in the tens of thousands of people there was still a great demand for labour increasing the number of indentured servants and African slaves into the colonies in 1675 a major conflict between the English and the Native American tribes known as King Philip's War would break out from the strains of English expansion King Philip refers somewhat humorously it's the leader of the Wampanoag tribe Metacomet thousands died in this war and significant parts of New England were pillaged and burned by the natives of the English would of course eventually win this war in 1678 with the death of Metacomet following this war England had secured his position on the coastal regions also in 1670 another major incident occurred in colonial history Bacon's Rebellion as land became scarce sir the English in Virginia felt need to push westward into native American territory Virginia Governor William Berkley however was trying to avoid conflict with the Native Americans for multiple reasons war was very strenuous and trade was often very profitable Westland becoming scarce or indentured servants received less than ideal land surrounded by hostile natives and felt powerless to respond in response a group of both white and black men led by Nathaniel bacon began raiding Native American villages which occupied land that they wanted to expand into on September 16th much of Jamestown would be burned by the rebels had Nathaniel bacon not died of dysentery months later the rebellion may have continued further Bacon's Rebellion failed and the colonial government was forced respond indentured servitude having become more costly and unstable to the wealthy elite that funded it was gradually stopped as a result the labor shortage in the sprawling agricultural society to the south would lead to a greater demand for African slaves in 1680 the French claim the territory surrounding the Mississippi they called a great stretch of land at Louisiana after Louie the fourteenth as England's colonies continued to expand Frances did as well the European borders of the new world began to touch both England and France it claimed land in Canada and had specific interest in controlling the waterways of North America such as the Great Lakes and the Ohio River on March 4th 1681 William Penn was granted a Royal Charter to found land known as Pennsylvania Latin for Penn's forest this territory would increase anglo-french tensions in the region this tension would lead to conflict between the two nations in fact four major Wars often involving Native Americans and coinciding with conflict in Europe and 1688 King William's war the first war it was fought though the borders would remain essentially similar five years later Queen Anne's war would break out between England or as it was now Britain against France and Spain the war would last for 11 years until 1713 with Britain as a clear Victor gaining more territory in 1740 King George's War broke out this war saw a slight French military victory though little territorial changes were really made the colonies particularly New England however would suffer greatly houses the lack of resolutions toward any of the major problems here would lead to the final fourth major showdown between the colonies of Britain and France in North America in 1754 referred to in the United States as the French and Indian War the war would settle the dispute between Britain and France and lay the foundations for the future of the continent Britain and France were arguably evenly matched but for different reasons the population of the British colonies had grown to about two million but from Louisiana to Canada there were only about 60,000 French Canadians the French however still had a very strong emphasis on military in the region furthermore the French had done better at maintaining peaceful relations with the Native Americans in the British and accordingly most native tribes involved would site with the French with the exception of tribes such as the Iroquois the war would break out over territorial disputes around basically the Great Lakes and the Ohio River with particular emphasis on the Ohio country here when a 21 year old British officer from Virginia named George Washington engaged a company of French forces in a small skirmish called the Battle of Jumonville Glen war broke out during this war the colonies would meet as one for the first time at something known as the Albin II Congress wherein a 48 year old polymath named the Benjamin Franklin would suggest a common defense of the colonies for the first four years of the war the French were consistently winning against the British in 1758 however the tide of war changed when General John Forbes of the Forbes expedition with the intended goal of winning three specific victories established by the British Secretary of State William Pitt after whom the city of Pittsburgh is named he would succeed at to driving the French from Fort Duquesne in the Ohio Valley and Louie Berg in Nova Scotia the third invasion would fail with a battle kario in which around 3,000 French troops defeated 18,000 British throughout the rest of the war however the British would begin to consistently win over the French in 1760 when General James Wolfe would die during his victorious assault on the French at the Battle of the plains of Abraham the British would occupy Quebec City which essentially allowed them to capitulate the rest of Canada though the war would continue for three more years into 1763 the main portion of it had end with the Battle of the plains of Abraham the war ended with the Treaty of Paris officially that year and in that treaty the French chose to retain their more profitable Caribbean colonies over disputing their holdings in North America Britain would claim the rest of Canada and the Ohio region and Frances Louisiana territory would be given to Spain as compensation for the loss of Florida Britain was now essentially the unchallenged power in North America though this position came at a cost the British had nearly doubled their national debt and had to increase taxes across the Empire including in the North American colonies which would later lead the complications in relations with the colonies following the French and Indian War Pontiacs rebellion would take place a reaction to pressure now felt by the natives from British expansion thousands of British soldiers and colonists would be killed or displaced but the natives would eventually be defeated though policy regarding their subjugation was lightened following the rebellion soon thereafter the royal proclamation of 1763 forbade colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains the fact that colonists were not only forbidden from settling west of the Appalachians but were in fact sometimes removed by the British military forcibly would agitate the colonists further the Royal proclamation of 1763 would be among the first of several incidents over the coming decade that would lead to strain between the British and her thirteen colonies colonies which hitherto had enjoyed a higher degree of independence tensions would grow throughout the 1760s as the British did things such as imposed a number of taxes on the colonists to satisfy these war debts like the Sugar Act the Currency Act and the Stamp Act they also kept the army there following the war which the colonists felt was unnecessary as not only did they massively outnumber the frontier Native Americans but indeed most male colonists owned guns and were expected to be in militias the quartering Act was passed which required American colonists to provide housing for these soldiers British soldiers could also enter colonial homes to ensure that they were following through with these regulations the colonists protested these things to a degree at which officials from nine colonies met and sent the British government the Declaration of Rights and grievances and that do mean to emphasize the British government here it's not just King George the third making the rules it's Parliament as well the colonists were not angered about the taxes themselves especially considering how much lower they were in the colonies than there were in England they were more angered by the fact that they had no say in these taxes they had no representatives in Parliament or as it's often called they were mad about taxation without representation Parliament actually does end up repealing the Stamp Act but it's a little relief to the colonies because they passed the declaratory act and a Townsend Act soon thereafter stating that the British Parliament had the same right to rule over the colonies as it did england and placing indirect taxes on things like paper tea and glass in the 1770s protests became more intense things such as the Boston Massacre occurred which wasn't really a massacre it was an exaggeration of an incident in which British soldiers shot into a violent crowd that was deemed self-defense three years later in 1773 the Boston Tea Party occurred an incident in which the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Native Americans and toss entire shipment of tea overboard in defiance of the British after this the British began to crack down even harder and the colonies began to respond with even more defiance and in 1774 it leases something called the First Continental Congress attending this first Congress were men such as Patrick Henry Samuel Adams and John Adams now this Congress did not assemble to start talking about independence very few people in fact even talked about independence in South 1776 it assembled to decide what to do about an emerging conflict their initial goal was to try to reason with a British government but that essentially failed this would lead to the Second Continental Congress in which other figures like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington entered the stage the plan was still not initially to separate from British Empire but the try to demand further that the conditions be met by the British government possibly even to organize the colonies into revolt in a spring of 1775 however when British soldiers attempted to seize weaponry from American patriots the men resisted leading to the battles of Lexington and Concord the first shot was fired at these battles often remembered as the shot heard around the world the British would win the battles but it would mark the beginning of an entire war British forces began clashing with American militias On June 15th the Continental Congress officially adopted the Continental Army and put George Washington and charters on July 5th the colonists addressed the Olive Branch petition the King George the 3rd in an effort to avoid further escalation of war but in August when the proclamation for suppressing rebellion and sedition was issued following the Battle of Bunker Hill stating that the colonies were in rebellion and would be subdued by force hopes of achieving peace were greatly diminished war would continue and the Congress and in fact the whole nation gradually just began splitting from the British Empire more and more until on July 4th 1776 the Continental Congress declared that the United States was an independent nation it was now all or nothing the British began sending large amounts of their own soldiers as well as hiring mercenaries from hecha British forces would capture New York from rebel forces and would cause Washington to retreat with the British closing in they felt they could win the war within a year and the American morale began to drop however on Christmas Day 1776 forces under General Washington's surprise attack that British and Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton and one which encouraged the rebels to keep going the following year the British would attempt to close in from the north and was referred to as the Saratoga campaign though they were repelled it was costly an American spirit dropped as Washington made camp for the winter and Valley Forge the winter here was very hard on American troops but an exiled Prussian officer the Baron von Steuben would be instrumental in training American troops in Prussian military tactics up to this point much of the success the American army was in guerrilla warfare but on the open field Washington was forced to contend with the fact that he was essentially sending militias up against it better trained and better equipped professional army interestingly for unknown reasons the British chose not to attack the American army at Valley Forge had they done so it's very possible that the war could have ended following this winter the rebel side received some aid France now having confidence in the rebels abilities openly allies itself with the United States Spain and the Netherlands would also join the war distracting Britain on other fronts now allied nations being a part of the American Revolution are often only glanced over or sometimes even I hate to say intentionally left out but the reality is that without foreign help especially from the French the American Revolution probably would have failed the American side needed the funding the supplies and the troops especially on the seas as the British at this time had the most powerful Navy on earth and as we shall see in some instances like the Battle of Yorktown which we'll get to in a second there are even more French soldiers than there are Americans the war continued in 1780 the British found success at Charleston but were defeated in the north following the Battle of Springfield on September 28 1781 the siege of Yorktown began the seed was lost for a month but on October 19th that combined American and French armies had defeated the British though the war would continue officially for two more years until 1783 this was the last major battle with the Peace of Paris the British would recognize American sovereignty and ceded to the territory east of the Mississippi the United States was now a fully independent nation with the British sailing home the American Victor's now found themselves freed of the old government but now faced with a new challenge building a new one it's incorrect to think that the concept of the United States we have today was already in everyone's mind the government had to walk on eggshells essentially to avoid further separation and rebellion there was a very real threat of something like Virginia or Massachusetts operating as a separate nation and splitting from the Union the period of 1783 to 1789 is often called a Confederation period name so because the United States was still operating off the Articles of Confederation the Articles of Confederation left the central government which only consisted of a Congress week and without much power to levy taxes organize trade enforce laws raise an army etc most of the governing was left to the individual states essentially we had the states but they weren't fully the United States many of the founding fathers felt that the only way that the United States could be held together as a large nation was if they adopted a new constitution with a stronger central government with Shay's rebellion against the corrupt Massachusetts government and ineffective American government the desire grew stronger delegates would reconvene in Philadelphia in 1787 with the intent of reshaping the article as a confederation but would find themselves instead writing a new constitution the Constitution of the United States after long debate will be passed a document basically lays the foundation for the united states of today it organizes the government into three branches the executive legislative and judicial branches each branch was designed to check each other to ensure democracy and as this constitution remains one of the shortest in the world attempted to ensure limited governmental power the voting population will elect figures to represent them in the government and that would not really always directly vote on issues themselves the first President of the United States was George Washington who was unanimously elected along with his vice president John Adams in 1781 the first ten amendments were added to the Constitution to limit the power of the government further an established number of rights and freedoms for the populace and ease concerns about a central government that was too powerful the first protecting the rights of Americans to speech religion and organization and protest the second their right to bear arms to guard against governmental corruption the third preventing the quartering of soldiers in American homes etc this Constitution was not about the government granting people rights it's about the people granting the government to write the will with a large number of restrictions on what I can do the United States was not the first democracy in the world it was not even the only democracy at a time the British even who are sometimes portrayed as tyrannical absolute monarchist were relative to the rest of Europe a fairly democratic nation much of the American Revolution was about not having the same rights not that these rights were entirely inexistent there are a number of reasons that the British didn't just grant the American colonists equal representation in Parliament but they mainly boiled down to the fact that not even most of Britain was equally represented in Parliament giving Americans equal representation would have caused a bigger situation than sounds like keep in mind furthermore at the start of the country only about 6% of the population could vote this was the population of white land on e mails it was not unheard of prior to this for the wives of land owning males and for free black men to vote in some situations but these rights were eventually revoked as time went on which will be important to understand as centuries progress in the 1790s we see the United States begin to take a more familiar shape the population was about 4 million people just over 1/100 of what it is today yet to this population was on the move a major concern was the acquired land to the west the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 did more than just established the first territory of the United States it laid the foundation for how westward expansion and the eventual admission of new states would take place these new territories would eventually be divided into the new states of Ohio Michigan Illinois Indiana and Wisconsin we also see the rise of political parties in the United States during this time the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans were the first a prominent figurehead of the Federalist was Alexander Hamilton the secretary of the Treasury who was instrumental in creating the National Bank and structuring American trade Thomas Jefferson typically aligned with the Democratic Republicans who favored a comparatively more domestically focused and democratic United States when the French Revolution broke out and became more intense the two political parties found themselves taking unofficial sides the Federalists who found Britain to be their most valuable trading partner supported British efforts against France the Democratic Republicans were sympathetic towards similar goals the French revolutionaries against their king and for democracy supported their revolutionary aims President Washington was very much bothered by all of this he was very much against the concepts of both political parties at home and alliance as abroad the French called upon the Americans to honor their alliance but Washington maintained neutrality when the Jay Treaty was signed in 1795 which established Britain as America's closest trading partner the US had mildly chosen his side though this treaty was very unpopular and the u.s. as we shall see does not remain on his side mainly because the British continue to do things like arming hostile Native Americans and capturing American sailors in fortune in the serve in the British Navy it was commonly felt by the government that the Jay Treaty could be forged and the one sign in the past what the French was void because it was signed with the King of France not the French Republic therefore the United States was not obligated to assist of French militarily in 1797 George Washington retired from his office setting the precedent for the presidents to serve only two terms this would later become law John Adams would succeed him in the following election with Thomas Jefferson serving as vice president Adams a federalist took stronger Federalist positions in George Washington but still wanted the United to remain for the most part neutral this soon kind of falls apart as failed negotiations lead to the quasi-war with France an unofficial naval conflict between the two atoms would also pass the Alien and Sedition Acts which made it more difficult for immigrants to come into the country and allow the government to imprison and the port anyone who is deemed dangerous though this included even people who criticize Adams presidency the acts were quickly repealed but it just goes to show that some concepts like free speech weren't firmly indisputably entrenched in American politics the concept of America yet the quasi war would end when Napoleon who was more reasonable than the French Revolutionary Government came the power and negotiated peace with the American diplomats there was popular support for war but both the US and the poem's French Empire had many other things to worry about in 1801 Thomas Jefferson was elected president and he begins to start changing a few things around Jefferson did not like the federal government did not like banks he was a farmer from Virginia and he was much more sympathetic to the aims of the majority of the American population who were farmers and the Federalists were during his presidency the Northwest's of the nation begins to take shape when Ohio becomes a 17th state in 1803 much more significantly Napoleon had recently required Louisiana from Spain however when the French lost Haiti Napoleon essentially felt that the rest of America was useless territory and he sold at a Jefferson for a very cheap price essentially purchasing what will become several future States from France for what would today be 300 million dollars or about 23 million dollars of state again by today's standards president Jefferson later sent out an expedition led by men named Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the American West and establish relations with major Native American tribes they would succeed in doing much of this with the help of a Shoshone woman Sacagawea though they did not of course find the Northwest Passage which they were also asked to look for this and Jefferson's speculation that mastodons could still live in the American West just goes to show how little Americans knew of what was in the West when James Madison became president in 1809 many of the problems and restraints with Britain still existed the British was still captured American sailors harassing American ships and arming Native Americans in Northwest Territory namely a confederation led with a Shawnee chief Tecumseh in 1812 and retaliation to these offenses the United States will declare war on Britain the British were far too occupied by the Napoleonic Wars to at first launch response though they were able to along with her native allies hold off American expansion into Canada the British would also attempt to blockade American trade and free and recruits many American slaves into their armies the American army at this time was not an efficient fighting force the concept of a large standing army was considered dangerous too many Americans at the time including Congress instead much of the American military relied on militias that would be called up whenever war was a threat when the poem was defeated in April of 1814 the British were able to focus more on the war with America American forces were overwhelmed they were defeated at the Battle of Bladensburg and the British thing captured Washington DC burning down the White House and attempting to burn down much of the city though a heavy storm put out these fires a month later during the Battle of Baltimore Francis Scott Key would write his famous poem the star-spangled banner which would later become America's national anthem in December of 1814 it was beginning to look as though the war would end in a draw the two sides met in Ghent Belgium to form a peace treaty accordingly fighting would continue even after the peace treaty was signed as word of it had not yet reached America such as the infamous Battle of New Orleans where Andrew Jackson defeated a force of British over three times as large as his own the war was indeed a truce though the United States arguably suffered more than the British following the war of 1812 a sense of national pride swept through the United States Road and canal building to facilitate trade throughout the nation and expansion and to other parts of it picked up with particular emphasis on things like the ability of the newly invented steamboat soon in the later 1820s the introduction of the railroad will begin to reshape transportation across the very large areas of the United States factories would spring up across the country primarily in the North or the South still focusing more so on agriculture though this advancement in technology and production did absolutely make the South richer and more productive as well these factories were worked by and the hundreds of thousands of immigrants pouring into the nation redefining the American work day and work force all of these innovations as well as others are part of what is called the market revolution which was a result of the Industrial Revolution and would pave the way for America to grow into a much larger power as time went on hundreds of thousands of settlers were pouring into the western lands over the decades which would eventually lead to the concept of manifest destiny that God had given the America the right to spread out across a continent in 1823 we see something called the Monroe Doctrine named after President John Monroe essentially stating that the United States would not only prohibit future European colonization and lands that they acclaimed but in fact the whole hemisphere would be safeguarded by the United States the u.s. was not actually militarily powerful enough to defend the entire Americas from multiple European powers however the British joined with them on this doctrine this would mark the beginning of America coming out of isolation and perhaps saw the seeds for the later beginning of American imperialism powered by as we discussed the Industrial Revolution which was having great effects this new open country in 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected president having had in a century lifelong military history and having come from a poorer family he was seen as a relatable to the common man accordingly much of what he did was on behalf of the common person such as opposing the national banks which he felt benefited the upper classes primarily and extending voting rights to Maine landless whites Jackson who had been a southerner very active in conflict with the Native Americans also signed the Indian Removal Act which intended to move the Cherokee Choctaw Muscogee Chickasaw and Seminole peoples in the southern states to new territory many Americans protested the Indian Removal Act as inhumane as it had been an intention for many dating back as early as the founding fathers in fact to attempt to integrate enough Americans in twice society but the government went forward with it leading to what is remembered as the Trail of Tears the path these natives followed on the forests relocation to modern-day Oklahoma on which a quarter of them or about 10,000 innocent people would perish the Seminole Tribe in Florida specifically however would resist and would lead to the seconds and eventually the third the 1830's were a very busy time in America for other reasons as well along with political and industrial movements social movements like the Second Great Awakening a Protestant lizz movement swept through the nation as well as a large number of movements calling for the abolition of slavery and the roots of the feminist movement public schools would pop up in the north however in the south people were skeptical of government education words for the Native Americans continued in 1835 Texas rose up from Mexico directed by American settlers in declared itself an independent nation only a decade later the United States would admit Texas into the Union the United States didn't lay their eyes on California but the Mexican Empire still claimed both Texas and California and the American invasion is the region would lead to the mexican-american war the war ended within two years when American forces captured Mexico City and incorporated territory which now makes up much of the Southwest soon thereafter the California Gold Rush would commence by securing this territory American territory now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific in between the borders agreed to with Mexico and British Canada the goals of manifest destiny it seemed were coming to fruition however an issue concerning these territories was whether or not slavery would be legal in them and this was a matter of fierce debate originally a line placed here divided territories that were to be established as slave holding of free states typically as one state on one side of the line was admitted to the Union people on the other side would scramble to make a territory of state to keep it balanced within Congress at a time when new states were frequently being admitted into the Union it was suggested that these new states decide for themselves whether or not they would be slaveholding this leads to conflict even actual fighting within these new states Kansas specifically in the 1850s this conflict came at a time when as I said tension over slavery was growing books like Uncle Tom's Cabin began bringing the life of slavery to light and John Brown's slave rebellion which failed sparked fears over further slave uprisings in 1804 the Haitians had rebelled against their slave masters and tortured killed and expelled all whites from the island even friendly ones solidifying southern opinion of abolition and the dangers they felt opposed yet in the north it was commonly felt that a nation which held slaves could not be considered a truly free nation one such northerner was a man named Abraham Lincoln his election to the presidency in 1860 was only 40 percent of the popular vote leads to final fight over slavery the Civil War now before we begin here there is a lot of debate as to whether or not the Civil War was fought over slavery or states rights and people to this day are still quite attached to the issue we can see definitely several examples of strain between the north and south over states rights throughout history which were not over slavery the South was and is indeed different from the North in a number of ways and indeed the common person on both sides was not really concerned about slavery but while the civil war was quite complicated the bottom line is without slavery the Civil War may very well not have ever happened out of the interest of preserving the Union Lincoln stated he would not touch slavery in two places in which had already existed though his intention to halt its expansion into the new territories of the nation where the final straw for the south or presenting a threat to slavery as a whole before Lincoln even took office South Carolina Florida Mississippi Georgia Alabama Louisiana and Texas seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America Georgia and South Carolina had hinted over the possibility of seceding from the Union since the Revolution now the Union was falling apart conflict did not begin immediately but when the South under President Jefferson Davis began demanding federal property in their territory though offering to pay for it the North refused accordingly the South attacked the North held Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12 1861 for jigna Arkansas North Carolina and Tennessee would subsequently join the south as well the Civil War had begun both sides expected a very short war Lillie each expected to win the war very quickly the North was much more industrial much more populated had twice the railroads and was better prepared for war than the South was the South however merely had to fight defensive war in route northern efforts to reclaim the territory they furthermore felt that their agricultural wealth would cause foreign nations like Britain France to support them of course this that not come the first major battle of the war was the First Battle of Bull Run also known as the Battle of Manassas the Confederate victory here will begin the foreshadow that the war would be longer than anticipated the union's strategy began with a failed attempt to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond Virginia and later evolved to cut off the south from outside trade which meant to block hitting major trade ports at controlling the Mississippi the war would soon be divided into Western and Eastern fronts in 1862 former US general robert e lee would affect the Confederate side with a number of Confederate successes especially in the East the prospect of a Confederate victory was becoming more and more realistic for the first few years of the war in 1863 however things began to change though having enjoyed a decent amount of victory leaves aggressive strategies would backfire at the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863 a Union victory which is often regarded as a turning point of the war the following day on July 4th ulysses s grant captured Vicksburg subsequently allowing the Union to control the Mississippi and splitting the Confederacy into grant was soon made General of all the Union forces Confederate goals to win the war by invading North were lost and now how to fight defensively earlier that year lincoln had issued the emancipation proclamation an executive order which intended the free African slaves still enslaved in rebel territories though not those in union territory with the Confederates on the defense of the Union strategy now was Twigg Azaz confederate supplies and pin them to hasten the end of the war a prime example of this was William Tecumseh Sherman's march this seat which destroyed one-fifth of all farms in Georgia the Confederates held out for as long as possible but on April 9th 1865 General Robert E Lee surrendered to General Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia the rest of the Confederacy would soon follow the Civil War with railroads Telegraph's ironclad warships and other technologies is considered one of the first industrial Wars foreshadowing the destructiveness to come in future Wars following the war the south was left impoverished by prolonged conflict it was not fully able to sustain the Civil War remains the deadliest war ever fought by Americans in American history with around 700,000 deaths a heavy price to pay but following the war many things changed the 13th 14th and 15th amendments were passed which abolished slavery settled the issues of african-american citizenship and extended the right to vote to blacks but this was very much contested especially in the south as we will see this further more secured the power of the federal government over the states and led to a stronger sense of unity in the country prior to this people are more associated with their individual state in the nation as a whole people even refer to the United States as a plural eg the United States are moving their army not moving its army that changed following the Civil War President Lincoln would not live to see these changes however or the official end of the war as he was assassinated in Ford's Theatre on April 14 1865 he was of course in favor of these things and though while he is sometimes seen as the great Emancipator he and many in the North felt that slavery was wrong but did not exactly see blacks as equals many Americans were not opposed to returning the former slaves the nation of origin rather than deal with what they felt would be trouble from integrating blacks into white society specifically to the country of Liberia America's only colony in Africa established in the 1820s as a home for freed African slaves before now at this time independent nation however the most would of course remain in the United States in the next video we will discuss how this all unfolds what happens from here and how the United States is able to reassemble itself following its split to support the production of videos like these a link to the channel's patreon can be found in the description below for more videos like this and videos on many other subjects be sure to check out fire of learning and subscribe thank you for watching

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 1,021,959

Rating: 4.7583113 out of 5

Keywords: U.S., History, United States of America, History of the USA, America, 13 colonies, Civil War

Id: kxaVxz-cmhA

Length: 46min 10sec (2770 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 02 2018