Short History of the. United States. Robert V. Remini and—after a brief stop at the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa— headed toward the setting
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Contents 1 Discovery and Settlement of the New World 1 7 Manifest Destiny, Progressivism, War, Photographic Insert2 Inde pen dence and Nation Building 31 3 An Emerging Identity 63 4 The Jacksonian Era 95 5 The Dispute over Slavery, Secession, and the Civil War 127 6 Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 155and the Roaring Twenties 187 8 The Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II 215 9 The Cold War and Civil Rights 245 10 Violence, Scandal, and the End of the Cold War 277 11 The Conservative Revolution 305Reading List 337 Index 343 About the Author Other Books by Robert V. ReminiCredits Cover Copyright About the Publisher
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1Discovery and Settlement of t he New World There are many intriguing mysteries surrounding the peo -pling and discovery of the western hemisphere. Who were th e people to fi rst inhabit the northern and southern continents? Why did they come? How did they get here? How long was their migration? A possible narrative suggests that the movement of ancient people to the New World began when they crossed a land bridge that once existed between what we today call Siberia and Alaska, a bridge that later dis -appeared because of glacial melting and is now covered by water and kn own as the Bering Strait. It is also possible that these early people were motivated by wanderlust or the need for a new source of food. Perhaps they were searching for a better climate, and maybe they came for religious reasons, to escape persecution or fi nd a more congenial area to practice their par tic u lar beliefs. Who knows? Of course some scholars have argued that these ancient people came by sea, a nd several modern adventurers have sought to demonstrate how it was accomplished. But if a land route did provide the gateway to this New World, when did it happen? How long ago? The best guess— and it is a guess—is that it took place 50,000 years ago, if not more. But was it a single long migration stretching over a number of years? Or did it come in fi ts and starts during an extended period of time? Scholars have suggested that the migration continued until 2,000 years ago and that extended families came in groups. Over time, these people
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4 a short history of the united states journey and probably reached pres ent- day Newfoundland, or possibly some place along the coast of modern- day New En gland. They made camp and explored a wide area, no doubt visiting sections that later became part of the United States. Further explorations by other Vi -kings may have taken them down the St. Lawrence River. In any event the Vikings never established permanent settlements in th e New World, and nothing came of their discoveries. It took several more centuries for western Eu rope to begin to initiate important changes in its society that would result in the migration of many of its people to the New World. The Crusades undoubtedly tr iggered a good deal of these changes. In 1095 , Pope Urban II called Christians to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims who controlled it. Thousands of Europeans re -sponded and traveled to the East, where they were ex posed to a differ -ent and more exotic culture, a way of life that excited their imagination. La ter they returned home from their adventure with new tastes, new ideas, new interests, and new demands for foods and goods that they had experienced in the East, such as spices, cotton, and silk cloth. Their desire for the products of the East was further enhanced by Marco Polo’s account of his extensive travels and life in China, pub -lished in the thirteenth century. The gold and silver as well as the spi ces and silk clothing that Polo described captured the imagination of Eu ropeans. Trade routes were developed to bring these products to an eager market. Soon the manorial, agricultural, closed eco nomy of the medieval world gave way to a capitalistic economy based on trade, money, and credit. Existing cities fl ourished and new ones were founded. This urban development attracted artisans of every stripe who perfected their crafts and initiated a technological revolution. The printing press made possible the wide distribution of books and stimulated learning. It also contributed to the formation of universi -ties in a number of cities. The compass and astrolabe were introduced by which navigation of the seas became safer and encouraged seamen to seek new routes and new worlds beyond those already known. As a result of these and many other less notable changes the Middle Ag es, with their authoritarian and rigid system of beliefs and practices, slowly disintegrated. The power of the pope and bishops who controlled
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5 Discovery and Settlement of the New World the Catholic church was supplanted by that of ruling monarchs and titled noblemen in emerging nation- states. And after Martin Luther posted his list of ninety- five theses on a cathedral door, the Christian religion no longer consisted of a single set of beliefs. Capitalism, Protestantism, and the na tion- states ruled by ambitious sovereigns combined to bring about modern Europe. Once the astrolabe al lowed navigators to determine the longi -tude of their ships at sea by mea sur ing the angle between the sun and the horizon, daring explorers ventured farther down the coast of Af -rica. Prince Henry of Portugal, known as Henry the Navigator, subsi -dized expeditions that ultimately crossed the equator and sailed down th e length of Africa. In 1498 , Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean, and reached India, where he announced to the natives that he had come to trade. Reaching the East by the shortest possible route and returning home wi th gold, silver, spices, and other exotic products became an ambitious quest for many seamen. An Italian navigator, Christopher Columbus, believed he could reach the Orient faster by sailing due west, not around the continent of Africa. Despite the objections of her advisers, who felt that the long voyage by small caravels into the unknown posed dangerous risks, Isabella the Catholic, queen of Castile, who married Ferdinand, king of Aragon, to form the nation- state of Spain, agreed to fi nance the trip. On August 3, 1492 , three ships, the Nina , Pinta , and Santa Maria , manned by about ninety sailors, left Palos, Spain, and—after a brief stop at the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa— headed toward the setting sun. It took enormous courage and superb seamanship to undertake this voyage, but on October 12 at around two AM, Columbus and his crew made landfall on what he called San Sal -vador (it was later named Watlings Island), in the Bahamas. He next sighted a much larger island, Hispaniola, and called the natives who greeted him Indians, in the mistaken belief that he had arrived in India and that China was just a short distance farther west. He returned home to a hero’s welcome and made three further trips to this New World, but he never found the trea sures and spices he desired, and he died still convinced that he had reached Asia. The subsequent exploration of a New World by Portuguese and
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6 a short history of the united states Spanish adventurers prompted their respective monarchs, in 149 4, to reach an agreement known as the Treaty of Tordesillas, by which they drew a line, north and south, 1,100 miles west of the Canary Islands, wherein the land west of the line belonged to Spain, and the land east of it belonged to Portugal. The search for a route to Asia, and the treasure that adventurers be lieved they would fi nd, continued into the next century. Another Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, made several trips along the south -ern coast of the western hemi sph ere and wrote vivid, if largely untrue, descriptions of what he called this “New World,” which caught the attention of mapmakers and geographers. In 1507 a German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemuller, who published Vespucci’s accounts, suggested that this New World be called America in his honor. Now the conti -nents of the western hemi sph ere had a new name. Soon other Spanish explorers headed west in search of fortune and glo ry. These conquistadores were tough, ruthless soldiers who spared no life, Indian or Spanish, to fi nd the riches and honor they sought. They roamed the New World in their search, and in the process of their explorations they established an empire for Spain. They were also convinced that they were performing the will of God by bringing Christianity to heathens. Hernán Cortés, a particularly brutal but capable leader, made his wa y to the New World in 1504 . He participated in the conquest of Cuba and later commanded an expedition to the Yucatán, where he heard stories of great wealth farther west among the Aztecs, who called themselves Mexics. He set out with 500 men to fi nd it. Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, believed that Cortés was the god Quetzalcoatl re – turning to his country as foretold in Aztec mythology. To greet this retu rning god, Montezuma sent him as an offering both food and a huge disk the size of a wagon wheel in the shape of a sun and made of solid gold. The Spanish realized that they had come upon unbelievable wealth, and they meant to have it all. Sharp- witted and resourceful, Cortés played the part of Quetzalcoatl and in 1519 captured Monte -zuma, who paid a handsome ransom for his release. With the help of sur rounding tribes who hated the Mexics, Cortés not only conquered the Aztec Nation but also slaughtered the natives with his guns and cannons. His conquest was also aided by the diseases his troops carried
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