American and England History

American and England History

History of United States

The history of the United States of America is a story of a relatively young country, having declared its independence on July 4, 1776, in England. The territory that is now the U.S. was originally inhabited by dozens of Native American tribes before the arrival of the first European explorers in the region. The British colonized the region of the Atlantic coast, where eventually a total of 13 colonies were founded, in turn very different among themselves and apart politically and culturally. These colonies were united and declared their independence on July 4, 1776. The U.S. consists of 50 states and 1 federal district. The territory also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. The U.S. is the 3rd or 4th largest country by total area and the 3rd largest in land area and population. The capital of this country is Washington, DC, but the most populous city is New York.

Major Movements and Institutions

The region was inhabited by Indians until the end of the fifteenth century, when Christopher Columbus arrived in the continent. Different regions of the territory were occupied by Spaniards, Dutch and British, from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Thirteen colonies were established by the British and had some autonomy. However the British wanted to reduce this freedom, it declared war on the colonies in 1775. The next year is declared the independence of the United States, but England came only recognize it in 1783. The Americans expanded their territory to the Pacific in the nineteenth century, buying land, killing Indians and winning wars. The northern United States was industrialized, developed and wanted to end slavery. Already the South was agrarian and dependent on the labor, slave labor. When the advocate of abolition, Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the South decided to separate. This marked the beginning of civil war (1861-1865), which resulted in the deaths of 600,000 people (Higgs, 1998).

The black movement inspired many of the social movements that occurred in the United States from the 60s. Living in a society that had its foundations based on a formal and informal segregation system, a routine of lynching and police brutality and suffering discrimination in employment, education and public services, blacks began a movement for political rights, social and economic. Formed largely by youth, this movement attacked the foundations of American society through numerous protests and acts of rebellion (Godfield, 2009). Based on individual and collective leadership, the motion served on the North and South, in the city and the countryside, involved men and women had different phases and aspects. If initially the groups fought against discrimination on specific aspects, such as CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) with their "freedom rides" in 1961, to end discrimination in transportation and SNCC (Southern Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) with the "Freedom Summer" in 1964, to help Southern blacks to take out a voter, over the years and the success of some of these measures, the movement began to exert an overall ...