USA History

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.