PolledHistory: 11-18 August: History of the U.S
Hello! After a week of polling, the entry "The History of the United States" has prevailed among the other three entries with one more vote than the second place topic.
So let's begin! Today, the United States I'm talking about is the country and not much before it was actually founded.
The backstory begins in 1492. Christopher Columbus had travelled from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean and have founded islands in the Caribbean. The Spanish begin to colonize Mexico, Central America, and South America. The Portuguese jump in to the colonialist action, colonizing Brazil in South America.
The English (not yet the United Kingdom) and the French also found colonies of their own. The English create thirteen major colonies in the East Coast of Northern America, and the French control Central Northern America.
In 1756, the British, French, Spanish, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish nations (and more) are embroiled into a huge conflict named the Seven Years War (for it lasted seven years until 1763). Though Britain won, they imposed heavy taxes on the colonies.
In 1773, some Brits who lived in the colonies began to rebel. They dumped British tea into the waters of Boston in protest. The Boston Tea Party, as it was called, was the seeds of revolution. In 1776, the Congress of the colonies signed and wrote a declaration of independence from the British in the United Kingdom (however, they themselves were of British origin).
This began a seventeen year revolutionary war between the colonies and the Brits. American (America was the name they adopted as the new continents were named after Amerigo Vespucci, an explorer) Patriots managed to win in the south.
The French, who had been defeated in the previous Seven Years War, and seeking to deal a blow to their British enemies, joined America. Soon, Spain did too, but they didn't contribute as much. It eventually ended with the Battle of Yorktown, where British general Cornwallis was defeated and surrendered.
America gained independence, and the thirteen colonies (today is the thirteen east coast states besides Florida, which was yet to be controlled by the United States) was at the time, the entire United States. George Washington, a prominent general in the Revolutionary War, and major politician became the Firsr President of the United States.
By 1812, the United States waged war against the United Kingdom again. It began because of UK attacks on United States' warships. Here, it ended a stalemate and both sides could not win, but the British did burn major government buildings.
By around 1815 (when it ended), the United Statss saw great expansion. It took the states of modern day Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Michigan, and more. The United States also bought the Louisiana Territory from the French by buying it - doubling America's size. They also bought Florida from the Spanish.
The United States had a joint ocuppation of Oregon and Washington with the British, and fought with the Mexicans, who had recently gained independence from the Spanish, gaining Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Things really took a turn in 1860. Abraham Lincoln became president, and the southern states begween Virginia and Texas - seven states in all. This began tough a civil war between the Confederate States of America - those who are less developed than the northern, loyal states and have more slaves.
Abraham Lincoln and his generals fought against the Confederates for a few years until eventually, the Northern States, the loyal ones, defeated them and unity was brought back. Alaska was also bought from Russia for a very cheap price.
By the 1900s, Theodore Roosevelt had carved out the Panama Canal, allowing faster sea routes and trade, and made the Philippines one of their territories. By 1914, World War One began. The United States was late to join the conflict that mostly took place in Europe, but when they did, the Allies quickly defeated the Central Powers of Germany, Austria Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.
The Great Depression struck in the 1920s and 30s, where the world economy entered a bad state. It ended with World War 2's start. World War 2 was an extremely bloody world conflict. The United States joined the war when the Japanese blew up Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The United States then undid all of Japan's progress in the Pacific, nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and helped commence D-Day on Europe against Fascist Germany. After extreme fighting, eventually the Axis powers were defeated.
In the period following World War 2 was a time called the Cold War, an arms race against the Soviet Union including many smaller, proxy wars between other nations. The Soviets were communist, while the Americans were capitalist.
After the Cold War ended with the Fall of the Soviet Union, the United States entered the stage of history we are today. In 2001, the terrorist organization Al Qaeda commenced plane attacks against The Twin Towers in Manhattan and against the Pentagon in Washington. Lots of lives were lost that day and it was greatly remembered.
About twenty years later and here we are now! That is a summarized history of the United States.
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