/p>
USA - CHAPTERS FROM HISTORY
The Viking tribes were propably the first Europeans who reached American continent in the 10th century but we basicly know nothing about their discoveries. The written record describes Columbus's discovers of America. He thought he reached India and therefore he named the native Americans as Indians. They were living mostly from agriculture, hunting gathering and fishing.
The first English colony Virginia was founded in 1607. The people called it Virginia according to Queen Elizabeth I. She was called Queen Virgin. In 1620, the English ship Mayflower brought English Puritans who didn't want to be punished by a King James I. They settled in Massachusetts. They are known as Pilgrim Fathers and they were modest, poor and hard- working. But half of them died of starvation or epidemics during the first winter. The pilgrims who survived, celebrated their first harvest. This feast is now known as Thanksgiving.
In the 18th century, the 13 colonies under British rule started to fight for their independence. With "Boston Tea Party", the War of Independence started. In 1776, the United States of America were established. In 1778 , the American constitution was adopted and in the following year George Washington was elected as the first president of the US.
In the 19th century many new settlers came to America. They settled in the North where the industry was developing. The original settlers had their fields of cotton and other agricultural plants in the South. During the 17th and 18th centuries they had brought many slaves from Africa to work on their fields. The people from the industrila North proclaimed the abolition of slavery in the South but the southern people avoided it because their money came from the work of slavers. So the Civil War began. it lasted 4 years abd finished in a victory for the North. In 1864 President Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery. But 2 years later he was shot by a man from thr South.
The USA took part also in two biggest wars of the 20th century - the 1st and 2nd World War.
But also in the 2nd half of the 20th century the other wars have continued. One of them was Vietnam War in 60's and 70's. It was a time of revolt - many young people didn't want to behave as their parents did. They didn't want to fight for the American Dream in Vietnam. The strongest movement seems to be the hippie movement. Their motto was: Make Love, Not War. Also many movies and songs have been inspired by hippies. The great example is Miloš Forman's movie Hair. The idea of the film is perfectly seen in the end: the scene shows many boys getting on the airplanes to fly to Vietnam. After the cut we can see the huge cemetary with thousands of tombs. In the 60's the TV was quite spread and people can watch their sons, grandsons and friends dying. The Americans have a complex of guilty now and they don't want to talk about it so much.