Histoire des civilisations L1 LLCER

Histoire de la civilisation Américaine 

1. The Birth of the United States of America
2. The Causes of the Revolution 
3. A widening cultural and ideological gap 

A better educated population is more receptive to the Enlightenment. 

By 1776, British people living in the colonies had become different from Europeans, they had a different culture now and their societies were different as well. 

The majority of the American at the time came from the United Kingdom but people were very different. They were more educated in the colonies than Europeans because, from the very beginning, they wanted to be different from the Natives Americans they met: they didn’t want to be “savages”. When a new village was created, it had to have a school, it was planned from the beginning. 

As a result, many people could read and write, much more than in Europe. Although, education was reserved for white men. Women didn’t go to school, so did Native Americans and African Americans were slaves. It was a society controlled by white people and there were a lot of social difference between people.

Thanks to that education, at that time, if you wanted to communicate your opinion you could use pamphlets (cheap news, basic print, easily available) thanks to those, it was easy to influence people. For example, they used pamphlets to influence people to be in favour of independence. Not only American politicians but also European philosophers used pamphlets to be read in colonies at the time of Enlightenment (les Lumières). The values they exposed were: individual liberty, universal right. 

The societies in the colonies were also different because there was more equality between individuals (still white men only).

American universities spread American thoughts. The first university created was Harvard in 1636, a few years after puritans arrived. A little later, universities were established in New England (ex: Yale in 1701).

An increasingly different social fabric 

Social hierarchy was very important in Europe (if you were born rich, your children would be rich too = there were inequalities). 

Whereas that wasn’t that much true in the colonies, because most people owned land and they didn’t work for others (white men). They could grow their own food, feed a family without relying on somebody else, they were more economically self-sufficient and therefore, more independent. Only 6% of white men worked for other people.

So, the social fabric (composition de la société) was very different in the colonies than in Europe. 

Diverging conceptions of representative governments 

The conception of representative government (of representation itself) was different for British people in the colonies and British people in Britain. People living in the colonies were not physical represented in Parliament, no one had been elected by Americans. So, they felt like they weren’t represented in Parliament, But English replied that they were part of the Nation as everyone else and so they were virtually represented. 

Americans said that they should not be taxed because they were not represented. “No taxation without representation”. They fought any attack of the king to tax them. Only local could tax them. 

Opposite view of America’s place within the British Empire 

To the king, the British Empire had to be centralized (all the colonies should by controlled by London) On the contrary, British people in the colony were in favour of a decentralization, so, it had to be local representations, they wanted to be able to decide everything related to domestic policy and therefore, they wanted to manage their own economy and create their own Parliament. 

2. A Series of “Intolerable Acts”
    

Grenville’s search for revenue after the French and Indian War (1756-1763), also called Seven Years War. 

In April 1764, the Sugar Act imposed new duties on colonial imports of sugar, indigo, coffee, wine and textiles, to help defraying (rembourser) the expenses for the protection of the new American territories. The Currency Act prohibited all the colonies from issuing paper money (a trick used by colonies to alleviate [soulager, réduire] their unfavourable balance of trade and shortage of species). 

In February 1765, there was the Stamp Act (tax on printed items such as legal documents, newspapers, playing cards, etc…). The Act provided that the tax had to be paid in sterling, and allowed admiralty courts (devoid of juries) to try violators. 

In May 1765, the Quartering Act states that any colony in which troops were stationed had to provide living quarters and other necessities of life. 

Colonial Reactions: 

Americans (who were still British citizens) thought that Grenville’s measures deprived them of their English rights by taxing them without representation, by allowing trials without juries (admiralty courts), by sending standing armies. They denied the British Parliament the right to tax them. According to them, only their local Assembly could. 

• November 1, 1765: Patrick Henry, a lawyer from Virginia, presented a resolution not to enforce (faire appliquer) the Stamp Act, and other colonies followed Virginia. 
• June 1765: Massachusetts proposed a general intercolonial meeting to discuss a concerted opposition to Parliamentary taxes. 
• Summer 1765: Most stamp distributors are threatened and resign. 
• October 1765: The so-called Stamp Act Congress meet in New York. 
• March 1766: The Stamp Act is repealed (révoqué) 

The colonies followed Lock’s writings about the natural right of a people to alter their government if it exceeded its authority. They united for the first time and discovered they did not share the same idea of representation with England (virtual vs actual representation). Furthermore, American leaders such as James Otis, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, etc, became popular. 

Townshend Acts 

Charles Townshend, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer (minister des finances) , took up the search for revenues. In 1765, another act imposed duties on colonial imports of lead, paint, paper, glass and tea, and reorganized customs service in America, sending special commissioners from England and providing special protection for them. 

In September 1768, two regiments of troops were sent to Boston and in March 1770, angered by the British troops in Boston, the people in Boston provoked what was later called the Boston Massacre, British troops fired upon a threatening mob and killed 8 colonists. 
In April 1770, there was the repeal of the Townshend duties. 

Colonial Reactions : 

Previous arguments were repeated again. A young Philadelphia lawyer, John Dickinson, wrote articles entitled “Letters from a Farmer” (1767) in which were printed in all colonial newspapers. More generally, newspapers gave wide publicity to those who denounced “Parliamentary tyranny”. 

In 1772, Samuel Adams created a “Committee of Correspondence” to formulate statements of American rights and grievances. These intercolonial rights and grievances would be formulated the following year.

The Intolerable Acts

• May 1773: The Tea Act authorized the English East India Company to directly distribute tea in America, thus suppressing the role of American merchants. 
  
• March 1774: The Massachusetts Government Act, stated that the governor’s council be appointed by the king rather than by the local legislature. It also restricted town meetings to once a year.
   
• April 1774: The Administration of Justice Act provided that any government or customs officer indicted (accuse de, poursuivi pour) for murder could be tried in England rather than by local juries. And a new Quartering Act authorized the quartering of troops within a town. The Quebec Act gave the province a permanent government devoid of any representative assembly and annexed to it the whole region west of the Appalachians and north of the Ohio.  

Colonial Reactions : 

• 1773: “Boston Tea Party”, to protest again the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty threw aboard a cargo of tea that was coming from England. 
  
• Summer 1774: Two important pamphlets were written: James Wilson’s “Considerations of the Authority of the British Parliament” and Jefferson’s “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” 
  
• September 1774: The Committees of Correspondence arranged for an intercolonial Congress to meet: the 55 delegates to the First Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia, and adopted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which denied Parliament any authority in the colonies but agreed to submit its acts for regulation of trade. 
  
• April 1775: General Gage (general of the Northern America British army) sent 7,000 men to Concord to seize a supply of arms: “battle of Lexington and Concord” (73 British killed) followed by the “Boston siege” 
  
• June 1775: British troops tried to break the siege, they succeeded but 226 British soldiers were killed. 
  
• May 1775: Second Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia, assumed responsibility for the provincial militia besieging Boston, and ordered its transformation into a “Continental Army” under the leadership of General George Washington (who took command on July). The Congress also issued paper money to support the troops and appointed a committee to negotiate with foreign countries. Yet, the delegates were reluctant (réticent) to establish an independent nation.  
  
• January 1776: As the English King, George III, did not answer the petition asking him to promote the repeal of the measures, Tom Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” urged Americans to stand against monarchy and establish independent republics. Within 6 months, sentiment in favour of independence grew. 
  
• March 1776: South Carolina is the first among the former colonies to draft a Republican Constitution. 
  
• July 4, 1776: As rumours spread that England was offering France and Spain to partition North America to forestall foreign assistance to the colonies, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin (building on a resolution previously introduced by Richard Lee, on June 7).  

2. Independence and its Ordeals
3. The Confederation Era
4. From colonies to republics

    In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was written. Although the colonies took several years to become independent, to become Republics, mainly because of the war against the British Empire. Even if war raged, the Republics started creating their republics in 1776 and they all became republics in 1780.

In September 1783, England signed a peace treaty with her former colonies in Paris. 

• France played a crucial role in the war for independence. The War for Independence took place on the sea as much as on earth. The British Empire had a powerful navy and so did the French and they hold the British navy from 1781 to 1783.

    They were classical republics (following antic models) influenced by the Whigs, the former colonies thought Republicanism was about having a powerful legislative power (represented as their assemblies) and they excluded the executive power. Therefore, there was no independent executive power.

2. From republics to confederation:

But, in order to win the war, the Republics needed union and so they created the Confederation of the United Stated.

As soon as the Independence was declared, representatives from the 13^th Republics sieged at the Continental Congress to discuss what to do next. (The Continental Congress met first at Philadelphia in September 1777 and the same assembly adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776).

In 1777 the Confederation Congress wrote the articles of the Confederation that were then presented to the 13^th Republics for approval. 

By 1781, all Republics entered the Confederation by approving its articles.
Even with a union that large, they still thought that legislative power was the most important power to run a political system (The Continental Congress).
The Congress could declare war, make peace treaty and could also create money. The Congress settled the problems between the Republics too.
Congressional committees were replacing executive power.

3. From confederation to humiliation

But, without executive power, it wasn’t easy to implement those decisions and because of the lack of executive power, the Confederation got weaker and it eventually led the Confederation to humiliation:

• The British Empire refused to redraw their troops from the United States. Also refused to sign commercial treaties and so Americans couldn’t anchor in English ports like into the West Indies.
  
• Spain refused to let American people use the Mississippi river.
  
• Pirates in the Mediterranean Sea attacked American’s boats, even eventually captured and sailed Americans as slaves. It was the ultimate humiliation.

Britain and Spain didn’t respect the American’s sovereignty.

2. The creation of a federation

American people were fed up of being mocked and therefore wanted to strengthen their union.
Public opinion in the United States wasn’t ready before 1787 to accept a Federation, they had to accept to create an executive power but a lot of people still thought it was a danger for every individual.

In 1787, “The Shays’ rebellion” in Massachusetts (a group of farmers led by Daniel Shays couldn’t pay their debt but didn’t want their properties to be taken away and thus rebelled)
This rebellion meant a severe danger for the “Law and Order” application. And it was seen as an important problem.

• Now the lack of executive power was a problem abroad and into America too (a lot of farmers refused to pay taxes).

In 1787, a few representatives gathered to revise the Confederation and try to strengthen the institution: The Convention of Philadelphia.
Two major plans were presented from two persons: 

Paterson’s plan:

He wanted to keep a confederation, thought it was important to strengthen it but didn’t want to create an executive power.

Madison’s plan:

Much more ambitious, Madison wanted to weaken the power of every Republic and strengthen the power of the Federation.
He wanted the National Government to rest on the people rather than the states. In state of having classic representatives for each state, Madison thought that the number of representatives should have a link with the number of habitants of a state. The more people a state have, the more representatives he’d have sieging in Congress.

At first, small (in numbers) states were against it, but finally accepted. But Madison’s plan didn’t stop there. He wanted to create independents executive and judiciary powers.

Madison’s plan prevailed over Paterson’s, Madison convinced the representatives that his plan would solve a lot of problems.

The Convention of Philadelphia finally resulted to the creation of the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution had to be ratified by the different states for approval, by 1789 every Republic ratified it. Then, the first government was created in 1789 and the first President of United States was elected in 1789- George Washington- and he was a Republican. 

    The President was the symbol of national unity, a war hero supposed to embody all American’s values, he was someone who could reassure the people who feared executive power. Therefore, people were convinced that even if he had power, he couldn’t be bad.

At that time there were no parties, George Washington thought it’d be a dividing factor and he didn’t want parties to be created. But the President wasn’t surrounded by many secretaries at that time and they didn’t all have the same ideas. Two of those individuals were really important and powerful in politic but were opposed in their ideas in politics and economic: Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton respectfully (secretary of state = affaires étrangères / secretary of treasury).

Jefferson was in favor of the French revolution and Hamilton was against it. (At that time, France and the United Stated were still allies).
Jefferson said that they had to stay away from the war but Hamilton wanted the United States to join England into the war.

    Those two persons became the icons of two groups of people thinking differently and it created the two first parties of United States, the federalist party, which wanted to promote Hamilton to be the next president and the republican party which wanted to promote Jefferson.

3. Going West: from the Northwest to California
4. Introduction:

Territorial expansion was an important issue because most the 19th century was spent for territorial expansion; territorial expansion was an issue which divided political parties a lot. (political issue)

Territorial expansion is related to the civil war as well 

The United States territory used to be only the 13 republics’ territory which was situated on the East Coast of America. And the Pacific Ocean was really far at that time, it’s quite extraordinary to see that a few decades later they expanded to the Pacific.
The frontier of the 13 original republics to the West was the Appalachian Mountains.

But America wasn’t empty at that time, there used to be native Americans and their land was stolen by the United States.

The American expansion was amazing, never before in history had a republican system being implemented on such a large land.

As there was Republicanism, people would move to the land, and institutions had to be created.
This expansion of Republicanism became possible thanks to the Federation system.

Louisiana in the South and North-West territories (the Louisiana purchase) that doubled the US territory. Then, Texas and New Mexico were acquired thanks to a treaty signed after war with the Mexican government. The last area North of New Mexico was acquired thanks to negotiations with Britain.

2. Expansion up the Revolution

Several colonies didn’t have any western boarders “sea to sea” colonies they could legally stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
🡺 the “sea to sea charter”.
The colonies seemed to be destined to spread, expansion is a part of their history. But even if there were no legal limits, obstacles got in the way:

• The first obstacle of that expansion was the presence of natives Americans and their reaction. They’d check whatever resistance the native Americans could do.
  
• The British King himself wanted to limit the expansion of the colonies. He was afraid that one day the colonies might be more powerful than British itself. He wanted to limit the colonies to have a better control onto them.

The willingness of the king to prevent American expansion was one of the problems between the United States of America and the Britain that led to the revolution. 

3. Expansion up to 1800:

Americans living in the colony were delighted of independence and thought that the English crown couldn’t prevent their expansion. And to be able to check the colonies the king said he only could make treaties with the natives Americans.

After the revolution the “treaty-making power” was up to the Americans. Then, it was up to the Congress to negotiate treaties with native Americans.
At that time the Northwest of the United states (frontier limit) was above the Ohio river and under the Great Legs.

1. Northwest expansion

There was an important document that had to do with the Northwest at that time: The Northwest Ordinance. Thomas Jefferson played a major role in that expansion because he wrote most of the Northwest Ordinance. It determined the requirements these territories had to do in order to become a state and then to join the Federation. 

The Northwest Ordinance takes back to 1787. By then, all sea-to-sea colonies had ceded their western territory to the Confederation and it became a public land, after negotiations with native Americans of course.
🡺States were created in the North, such as Ohio.

2. Southwest expansion

    After independence, settlers installed themselves in the Southwest very quickly, it was the place were the first states beyond the Appalachian Mountains were created.
By 1792 the United States expansion had already reached the Mississippi river. The United States was already a very large country by the standards of that time and that’s the reason why the first parties had a different point of view about expansion. Whereas the federalists wanted to develop and centralize power in the already large territory, the republicans wanted to continue expanding.
🡺Kentucky was created in the South in 1792, a very good land for agriculture

4. The Federalists, the Republicans and Expansion

Two points of view about expansion, two different parties.

The Federalist party was against furthermore expansion:

• Federalists thought it’d be impossible for the United States to remain united if its territory was too large. Disunion is what they feared.
  
• The Federalist party was against expansion and also against a Federation because they wanted the population to be concentrated and not scattered. They believed that if the people was scattered they wouldn’t be loyal to the United States, they’d have contact with others states (ex: Spanish colonies, Mexico).
  
• The Federalist party wanted a concentration of the people also because they were in favor of industrialization. In order to have enough people to work in the industries, the people needed to be concentrated.

The Republican party had an opposite view of expansion because they had an opposite view of what the United States of America should be:

Republicans / Jeffersonians believed that expansion was essential to Republicanism, they believed in “agrarian virtues” (qualities people have when they are farmers, you are more likely to be a Republican when you are a farmer than when you work in industries)

When you work in an industry, you’ve a boss and you can’t be really free. Whereas when you’re a farmer, you’re more likely to have a simple way of life that’s closer to Republicanism.
Also, when you’re a farmer, you marry earlier in life and are more likely to have more children, which would support Republicanism: the more people live in the United States, the more powerful would be the Republicanism.

5. The Louisiana’s purchase

Jefferson’s election took place in November of the year 1800. He was the candidate of the Republican party; Jefferson election was important for what the United States would become as he was for the expansion because if Hamilton was elected, the United states would have had a really different future.
Much depended on which would win the election of 1800.

For a long time, Republicans were able to control American politics. G.W didn’t have a party but the 2^nd president John Adams was a federalist, so when Jefferson got elected it was a move-away from Federalism towards a long period of Republicanism.

By the end of the 18^th century, there were already a lot of farmer living near the Mississippi river. They needed to be able to use the Mississippi river to trade their products because they couldn’t cross the Appalachians.

At that time, New Orleans officially belonged to the Spanish and was controlled by the French and the Spanish didn’t want Americans to use the Mississippi river. They said that the only way for an American to use the Mississippi river is to ask for Spanish citizenship.
So, the farmers asked for Jefferson’s help to negotiate a treaty which would permit them to use the Mississippi river. And if that was possible, to buy New Orleans. Why? Because buying New Orleans would give them control of the Mississippi river. So, in order to control the Mississippi river, it was crucial to buy New Orleans.

    France was very powerful in this area because they owned Louisiana and because there were a lot of French. (called from the French king “Louis”). 

Remember that France lost all its territories in Northern America, well, by 1800, there were a lot of French that moved from the Canada (formally French territories) to Louisiana and so France was a major power in Louisiana. The French that moved that way were named “Cajuns”. 

When Jefferson tried to negotiate a treaty, in 1803, he negotiated directly with Napoleon instead of negotiating with Spain. At that time, Napoleon was fighting a war and wanted to concentrate in European war, he needed money. So, he thought that it was fine to sell a foreign territory that he couldn’t fight for (Britain with more power would take it at a time anyway).

Instead of only buying New Orleans, Napoleon proposed to sell the whole Louisiana territory (from the South to Canada). Jefferson was very happy and told the American representatives in France that they had to approve the proposition as soon as possible so it’d not pass in front of the Congress before approval.
The Congress had to ratify it anyway. And they ratified it after a debate between federalists and republicans; Federalist party was against the treaty, they thought that the large territory wasn’t useful for the United States but they finally made a compromise.

    The Louisiana’s purchase was very expansive for the United States at that time because there was no revenue for the federal government (no federal taxes). When Jefferson bought Louisiana, the first national debt was created. Since it would belong to the United States, the government could sell land to get money.
The price of that time for the purchase of Louisiana was 15 million dollars. Considering the largeness of the territory, at that time, it was cheap.
Jefferson knew the territory was so large that several generations of people would spread in territory: The Republicanism was safe.

6. Expansion up to 1840

From 1800 to 1840, there were a lot of settlers that moved West. An increasing part of the American’s population lived west of the Appalachians. By 1840, about a third of the total population lived West of the Appalachians.
As the Federalists feared, most of them came from the settled states of the East of the country. 

Why did they decide to move West? 

• American habit of moving, a national trait. Ready to move anytime to improve their situations. If they think there are more opportunities, they move.
  The Americans are supposed to be rootless and restless (ambitious)
  
• The land was very attractive for farmers. Comparing to new England (where the puritans came) which was really rocky. 

• Native Americans weren’t viewed as a danger anymore because some of them were moved away, others were defeated. So, they weren’t a danger to expansion

• The improvement in transportation, particularly after 1815: a lot of roads and canals were built. They could easily use rivers thanks to the development of steamboats, then Mississippi river and the Ohio river and a lot more of rivers were easily practicable.
  By the end of the 1820’s railroads had been developed. In the 30’s it was increasingly easy to travel to the West using railroads.
  Thanks to all those improvements, it was cheaper and easier to move and settle to the West: that’s why a lot of settlers decided to move West.  

Never the less, by 1840, most settlers didn’t go beyond a line that was Missouri-Arkansas except for Texas. Drawing a new frontier between settled area and wilderness.
The land beyond was considered as a mediocre land and this is the reason why some natives Americans were removed to that area.
In 1830, a lot of natives Americans were removed to that area, the reason why, there was a new President (president Andrew Jackson). The Removal Act-

Texas was the exception, even though it was beyond the Arkansas and Missouri limitation, settlers had moved there and it was due to the independence of Mexico in 1821.
Texas could be attractive for settlers, at least a part of it was “good land”. Settlers from the United States moved there, including land owners that came with slaves.
At first, they were welcomed by the Mexican government but a few years later no longer welcomed.

The relation between the Mexican’s government and the United States’ government got worse: Texans wanted to have their own state, to self-govern it and to be a part of the United States. In 1826, a war began between Texans and Mexicans: they rebelled against the Mexican government and they won. 

After 1836, Texans considered themselves dependent from Mexico. The Texans created their own State, a Republic that they had called “the long star Republic” but Mexicans didn’t consider them as independent. 

As soon as Texans thought they were independent, they asked for annexation. But in 1836, it wasn’t a very good period to annex Texas because the United States at that time had a lot of political debates and conflicts about slavery and Texas was a slave state. It was too hard for the United States to accept them.
By 1836, there were already a difference between Northern states and Southern states. It was politically sensitive.

7. The Mexican acquisition

The United States took territory from Mexico. In the 40’s, there was a renewal in the desire to expand.

There was a strong sense of mission: a lot of Americans thought it was the mission of the United States to spread. It was called the Providence and it meant that the United States were destined to spread. When the puritans landed, they thought they had the mission to change the wilderness into a civilized and religious land and already that this same spirit.
The puritans thought that the society they wanted to create was a model for the world. Of course, in the 40’s the idea of mission was a bit different (Manifest Destiny was a new version of the sense of mission).

Merchants wanted to reach the Pacific to trade with Asia. The United States wanted to establish colonies is Asia. Several countries were interested in establishing colonies in Asia; Asia became interesting and popular: one more reason to spread to the Pacific.

There were already a few settlers in California and Oregon. They tried to convince the government that there should be more settlers in that area and so they were in favor of expansion. By 1840’s there were two trails (very basic road). California Trail which came from San Francisco and in the North, the Oregon Trail.

Among those reasons, ideology was the most important. The reason why they called it “manifest” is that because they thought that there were proves that god wanted the United States so spread:

• They could buy Louisiana and they were in a good position in the Northwest to spread: God wanted the United States to spread (history made it obvious).
• They also pointed that their demography was very dynamic in North America, God wanted more people there. That’s the reason why James Polk, elected in November 1845 (an expansionist that believed in manifest destiny) was also in favor or annexing Texas. 

When James Polk was elected, the period was in favor of the annexation of Texas (if he was elected, he’d annex Texas).
The new president usually takes office in January but James Polk took office in March.

By 1845, it was clear that expansionism had become a political force, if you were in favor, you had more chance to be elected but if you were against, you were very unlikely to be elected.
That’s the reason why, when Polk was elected, Mexico broke off political relations with the United States and they went to war a few months later in May 1846.

A quick war and a quick victory for the US, Polk used the war to get what he wanted: the annexation of Texas, occupying California and a territory called New Mexico. The Mexicans thought it was easy to attack there because it was far from the United-States capital, but they were Mistaken.
Polk decided in January 1847 to march on Mexico City to force the government to sell California and New Mexico to the United States. 

Eventually there was a treaty negotiated, later in 1848 and the treaty mentioned that New Mexico and California would be sold to the US for 15 million dollars.

    The US then had a continuous territory. Much happened between 1845 and 1848 to expand the US territory and now, it left only a small territory in the North West on the US that wasn’t American and California. 

8. Oregon 

The place was known as the Oregon country. Britain and the US had claimed that territory because each country sent scouts and settlers of the two countries lived there since 1830’s as also missionaries. (Missionaries tried to convert native Americans) They used trails to send missionaries and settlers. 

Oregon was acquired through a treaty with Britain in June 1846. The two countries decided to split the territory at the 49^th parallel. (current boarder between Canada and the United States).

So, with the treaty signed, the United States had reached the Pacific in June 1846. An additional reason for the US to possess lands South of Oregon and so to annex California to finally have a rounded territory.

It was amazing that the US could spread that fast, and it was due to opportunities like Napoleon’s offer.
They used negotiation (Louisiana, Oregon) war (Mexican session) and the expansion of settlers (Texans’ settlers acquired the territory by themselves, without intervention of the government, also war but slightly different). 

Also, the US was lucky enough to have a Western territory that belonged to Mexico when Mexico was weak and it was easy for them to expand there. 

Expansion was not over, the US would keep expanding later on in the 20^th century, they acquired Alaska and Hawaii. 

Expansion was continental, compatible with the political principles of the US. Overseas expansion was based on principals that were completely different.
Continental expansion wasn’t imperial expansion not traditional and it explains why the United States could spread so well on their continent.

4. Native Americans
5. Introduction

Natives Americans used to refer to the people born in the United States. But Nowadays it is only used to talk about “former” Indians. 

2. Origins

We’re only studying Native Americans in general and not about all different tribes. But, even when we speak about the native Americans in the territory of the United States, the diversity of Native Americans is related to the different areas and climate in the US territory (plains, mountains …etc).

The Natives Americans were the first people that lived in the US but hey were always considered as a minority by the other people: that is a paradox.

For example, Native Americans in the West lived in a very expanded territory and didn’t encounter many of the Natives in the East. 

• There is no such thing as Native Americans in the US in general, they’re all very different and that is their principal characteristic. 
• There are different cultures areas that are proximately the same as geographic areas. Inside each culture area, you have different tribes.
• There is a big difference between Central, South Natives and the North Natives. In the South, the Incas and the Mayas were very numerous and were great civilizations. Therefore, there are a lot of testimonies of the Incas and Mayas. 

There is a lot we don’t know about Native Americans everywhere but we know more about Natives Americans in the South that Natives Americans in the North. But, what we know for sure about Northern Natives, they have never been numerous and always scattered, divided into many tribes. Some of them had very little in common: they had different languages and different habits. 

Usually, we speak about pre-Colombian Natives Americans and post-Colombian Natives Americans. We know more about post-Colombians than pre-Colombian. The word “Indian” comes from the Bible which refers « the other people » as Indians (neither black or white). It mainly spoke about people from India. Also, since the American continent wasn’t known, Christopher Columbus thought he discovered India and so called them Indian. 

Columbus wanted a direct access to Asia because of the spices which were really important at that time (use of spice to keep food).
It is supposed that the Native Americans came from Asia between 15 and 40 thousand years ago. There are remains that have been from 30 000 years ago in Asia and that’s why we think that. They would have come from the Detroit of Bering.  (separates Alaska from Asia) 

Remains in the North of America make us think that the continent was empty before the arrival of Indians that came to the North first and then spread to the South. It took several thousand years for the people to reach South America. 

Red Line on the map joining the different remains that have been found. These lines are probably the rout they took from the North to the South. It is rather an eastern route than a western route, we think more people traveled in the eastern route. The assumption is that the more isolated people were, the more … 

Later on, the Bering Detroit was no longer frozen and therefore there was no possibility to walk through it, the Asian population became trapped in North America and had to remain there. 

The greatest consequence is that they became isolated from the rest of humanity and that’s the reason why they were less advanced. It was showed when C.C discovered America, the Natives there were a lot less advanced than Europeans. There was a lack of advanced technology (the ability to produce objects).

Example:  the wheel was invented by the Sumerians about 3500 years ago and it spread to the whole world expect Northern America and so the Natives didn’t know it. It is quite surprising because it was known from centuries in other parts of the world.

Another consequence of their isolation is the weakness towards contagious diseases. (Smallpox that ravaged Europe for ex) Because they had lived in isolation for centuries, they didn’t develop any immune system and for that reason the smallpox was very dangerous and it killed many Natives Americans. (the Europeans brought the smallpox, it was dangerous for them too but only a few Europeans would die from it).

Christopher Columbus landed in current Haiti in 1492 which he called “Hispanola”. He didn’t land on the continent itself.

3. Encounter with Europeans

When the first colonies were established in North America; at the beginning of the 17^th century (a century later than in central America) Natives Americans appeared to be in demographic decline and we still don’t know why. 

The arrival of the Europeans accelerated their decline and we believe that when the first colonies were established there were 10 million Natives Americans in Northern America, not much considering the territory (including Canada). By the 18^th century, there were only 2 to 3 million Native Americans left. 

Two major reasons why their encounter with Europeans accelerated their decline:

• Contagious diseases (smallpox,)
  the Iroquois and the Hurons were decimated by the smallpox, it is presumed that about half of their population got wiped out as a result from the smallpox. They had contact with the puritans that transmitted them the disease and then they spread it to other Natives Americans. 

• Wars between Native Americans and also between Natives Americans and Europeans. The sad part of their war against the Europeans is that they never united against the Europeans

• Alcohol was brought by the white and it wasn’t known by Native Americans. They used alcohol to get what they wanted from Natives Americans, easier to negotiate treaties and trades with Native Americans which had a really negative impact on them.
  Unfortunately, they used alcohol without moderation because they thought it could allow them to see spirits. People died, really- 

Europeans exported horses, pigs, sheep, cows to Northern America. Horses permitted Native Americans to hunt more efficiently. 

Europeans discovered a lot of plants in Northern America that could then be produced in European (maize/corn (maïs), potato). The introduction of potato in Europe allowed the population to grow, the growth of the European population would lead to immigration to America. What is ironical is that Native Americans gave them something that would eventually bring more Europeans onto their lands. 

4. Different Natives Americans policies

The first settlers were in Virginia and in New England (puritans), they tried to isolate themselves from Native Americans as much as possible. They were considered as a danger, an obstacle and also as savages. 

Their approach was different than what happened in central America before where they had many contacts as sexual intercourse whereas in Northern America, it was severely punished. 

Different kind of settlers, they are all protestants but they had different attitudes towards the Natives Americans: 

• The Quakers were religious communities slightly different, they wanted to have good relations with Native Americans. They were rather the exception of the rule was “no relation at all”. 

The relations between Native Americans and settlers were conflictual: wars, conflicts. English settlers wanted their lands and therefore conflict was unavoidable. To get the land they wanted, they killed them to removed them from their lands. They tried to defeat them in battle and then negotiate treaties which would lead to removing them to other areas. 

This way of thinking was the first policy towards Native Americans: Removal. It began very early (in the 1630’s). In the 19^th century, it led to the reservation system which is also a removal policy. 

The main issue for Native Americans is that they weren’t united. They could be an ally of one of the Europeans country but if one tribe of Native Americans joined a fight, another tribe would join the opponent European country.
There was a really important war in Northern America (1754 to 1763) between England and France called “the French and Indian war”. Because many tribes supported the French.
They supported the French because they didn’t want land but trades. Unfortunately, the French were defeated and after the war, the English negotiated treaties to remove the Natives Americans. 

In 1763, the British government sent a western limit to the colonies. The territory that was beyond the Appalachians was officially proclaimed Indian country, it was called “the proclamation of 1763”. Eventually, white settlers ignored the proclamation. When they declared independence, it was one of the main disagreements expressed, they wanted to negotiate treaties themselves.

5. Indians policies from independence to the civil War. 

After the revolution, Americans didn’t need to rely on the King to deal with Native Americans. With independence, the United States were also granted all the western lands west of the Mississippi River, it was now the new boarder. Although this was an important change, no treaty was made with the Native Americans.

Afterwards, treaties were signed with Native Americans, they ceded their land to the US in between the Appalachians and the Mississippi, which led to numerous white settlers in this area; most of the time, these treaties were made after battle. 

Settlers met Natives and they tried to resist but after a little time they abandoned and gave up their lands. 

After the revolution, the Native Americans sided up with the Crown. Natives had bad luck, they chose the wrong side in every war and always had to give up their lands. In the second decade of the 19^th century Native Americans in between this new territory had to go further West meaning West of the Mississippi River. This is an example of what is called “removal”. 

After the independence of the United States, removal became really common and later it became eventually a federal policy in the 1830’s under Andrew Jackson. Then, there was a difference: Native Americans usually made treaties but with Jackson, they just had to new move to a permanent territory they were told (Oklahoma at that time) and they had no choice.
Obviously, it took some years to move all the Native Americans, by 1840, about 100 thousand of Native Americans were removed there. 

One of the Native Americans nation, the Cherokees suffered particularly from that and about a quarter of its population died in the process, mainly due to the poor government policy employed, having not enough food and shelter, a lot of them died. (The government engaged contractors to make them move) 

Native Americans suffered a lot also because it was very hard for them to adapt to their new environment. Some came from Florida to Oklahoma for example. The Cherokees came from today Georgia and a part of Alabama and Tennessee, really warm environment.
Natives Americans came from really different environments, different places and they all had to adapt to their new one. 

6. Indian policy after the civil war: concentration and forced assimilation

The Civil War began in 1861. As settlers and therefore the United States territory expanded, the new idea was to concentrate Native Americans in reservations; as there were more and more white people moving West, Jackson policy of giving Indians places to live on became obsolete and it eventually led to a new policy: concentration. 

In the civil war, Natives sided up with the Southern States and lost again. 

There were buffalos at the beginning when Native Americans were removed in reservations but as the time passed, there were less and less buffalos and after the civil war there were a lot less than at the beginning of Jackson’s policy; that was mostly because white people killed too much buffalos. (poaching)

The new territories that the US took at that west too appealing for white people and they could not keep natives Americans in those new territories, and the gold rush was another opportunity for settlers to move further West.
By the civil war, what was considered a land not interesting could be an Indian country. Reservation was the new policy, to keep as much lands as possible for the white people. 

Because of that, many Native American tribes resisted the new policy and they put up quite a lot of resistance, they were many years of war; In the West that the Native Americans put up a lot of resistance
The Most famous battles were:

• “Little big horn” 1876– Montana (greatest military victory of the Sioux) at that time, there used to be a period when Native Americans could win over the federal army. It was very temporary, when they defeated the whites. 

The Sioux were defeated one year later in 1877

• “The Wounded knee” 1890 – South Dakota more a massacre than a battle by the federal army. They tried to be as ruthless as impossible, many women and children were killed. 

Between 1876 and 1890, the whites prevailed and the N.A had to do what the whites told them and that’s to say: the concentration policy. 

About 50 years later after Jackson’s federal policy, people thought it’d be a possible option to assimilate Native Americans as American citizens; Americanize N.A instead of bringing them to reservations but in order to be assimilated, they had to give up their habits. 

Some white people disagreed totally and some of Native Americans disagreed too, the both sides were divided on the issue. 

The American government became responsible for what happened in the reservations. The tribes were no more sovereign in their reservations and the US government could rule it.
The Office of Indian affairs (later called bureau) with many agents tried to impose many things to Native Americans in reservations.

The government could then allow private companies to use Native American reserved land to exploit raw materials (oil …etc) 

But those who were in favor of Americanizing though they had to force them a little at the beginning of the process. It resulted to some horrible means and there were consequences.

• In 1890’s, Americans separated children from their parents and sent them to boarding schools (internats) and they were very far away from their family. A way to Americanize them, not only they were separated from their families, they couldn’t speak their language, couldn’t practice their religion, the idea was to cult these children from their cultural environment.
  
• Another idea was to introduce private property to N.A, give them piece of lands. Americans thought that they needed more self-reliance as hunting became difficult.
  And so they forced them to become famers in order to survive.

Granting citizenship to Native Americans had consequences, loss of their culture and it weakened tribal authority, before the N.A abode by the tribe rules and with the American citizenship, instead of obeying tribal law they had to obey state / federal laws.

Jefferson, at his time, thought it could be possible to Americanize Native Americans and he thought they could be farmers like other people. 

Were Native Americans then Americanized or not? 

We can’t generalize but a majority of Native Americans are not economically self-reliant and they are not integrated in American society. Some of them have come back to their reservations and have earned back some of their sovereignty.
Those who do live in reservation are not in a good environment, the problem of alcohol continues, there is much unemployment and diseases. 

The condition of N.A changes a lot from a reservation to another. There are very rich reservations, some of them because they have established casinos, some have mineral deposits (minerals, oil, copper …etc).
Other live on tourism. They organize festivals, sell pieces of pottery … etc 

Most of the Native Americans live in the cities and it is really difficult to recognize them now.
In 2010, the latest census showed that 5 million Americans now identify themselves as partly or wholly Natives Americans. (1.6 % of the total population).
It’s up to them to choose if they want to be identified as Native Americans or not. It means that actually, Natives Americans are no longer ashamed of identifying themselves whereas at a time, they didn’t want to identify themselves as N.A.
There has been a revival of the N.A culture we may say. 

7. Different worlds 

What’s the difference between Native Americans’ culture and white culture at the time?
They had an entirely different vision of the world. To those who chose to live in reservations, they didn’t want to be part of the mainstream part of the society because they had different values. 

One of the important differences is that white people viewed human-beings as the highest creation of god (superior to the rest of nature) whereas to N.A, nature is a whole, human beings are not superior of the rest of the natural world, they’re just part of it. Both nature and human beings are evenly sacred. 

N.A are spiritual people, they have a religion. To that extent, they are really different from white religious people. N.A are rather pantheist, they identify god with the universe, meaning that god is everywhere. (Some white people also, a lot of people at the time of the creation of the US, they thought the universe was so complex that probably there was a god somewhere organizing it) But during the 19^th century, white people were not pantheist as N.A.

They had a very different attitude towards nature but also towards society and individuals. N.A believed that nature was sacred as much as human beings and thought that nature had to be left as it was and not transformed. As far as people were concerned, as far as individual were concerned, they saw individuals as a whole in the society (private property unknown). It made no sense to divide a land and give it to individuals.  

This is what there were so many fights between N.A and Americans about land. They didn’t understand why they wanted to possess lands. 

Native language

In North America, there was no writing (only Mayas and Aztecs had developed a written language). Communication was oral but they used icons, relied on very complex iconography, they also used paintings.
Paintings could be performed on hide, there were also used sculptures and totems. 

In their culture, there were a lot of symbols. Instead of writing they relied on the use of symbols. There were a lot of different tribes and oral language was very different in every tribe. In order to be able to travel they used symbols (put signs along the path) and sometimes they used drawings to show some basic math. 

Broken arrows meant peace. (arrows were used a lot) Crossed arrows was a symbol of friendship whereas a single arrow was a symbol of direction or movement. 

The symbols and culture spoke about above were in all tribes but the oral language was very different in every tribes that’s the reason why they relied a lot on symbols in order to communicate . 

5. The Emergence of the party system
6. From the “era of good feelings” to the Second Two-party System
7. The federalist demise and the Era of Good Feelings

The Republican party and Federalist party were opposed on the expansion, the industrialism and the French revolution.
The demise (chute) of the federalist party took place in 1816, during the election. The war between 1812 and 1815, the federalist party threatened to secede (faire secession) because they didn’t agree with the war, because of that, it was discredited particularly because there was much more nationalism after the war.
Everything the federalist had said proved wrong (the expansion would be dangerous, and not good for the US economy…). As we have seen, new means of communication were invented and so it served economy. The Republican party took something from the federalist party. The difference on some issues was blurred. The new generation of Republicans could be called neo-federalists because for example they were nationalist instead of having a vision of a decentralised country it was much more of a country centralized 

The American system consists in 3 different programs:

• A national banking system, this used to be a federalist idea before the republicans took it
  
• An economic principal that was called tariff (droit de douane) that was made to protect manufacturers
• Internal improvement (aménagement du territoire) the construction of roads or canals or railroads; the main idea was to bind together the different parts of the country.
  The republicans party was not initially in favour of it and the internal improvement was at first paid by the federalist government, it changed in the 1820’s and Republicans were then in favour of internal improvement.  

It was more or less when the third Republican president James Monroe was elected (he was sworn into office on March 4, 1817). Monroe’s presidency ushered in (a commencé en) what was known as the “Era of Good Feelings.” The U.S. had a new sense of confidence from its various victories during the War of 1812 and was growing quickly and offering new opportunities to its citizens. Additionally, fighting between the Democratic-Republicans and Federalists was finally beginning to ebb (diminuer).
It represented a political consensus between everybody. Nevertheless, this era would soon disappear because of sectional conflict (conflict between North and South).

2. The republican disintegration and the Transformation of traditional politics

The end of consensus

Monroe was re-elected but in 1824 he declared he would not run for a third one. There were 4 different republican candidates, because each section of the country had his own candidate (South, West, New-England, the mid-Atlantic states) this situation suggested that they were no longer a national Republican party but regional ones; this ended the consensus.
There were new political values at the time, and political conflict was considered as something noble and good for the country. The last president who still stick to the traditional politics was John Quincy Adams elected in 1824. Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828 and he was really a new type of president, a new political culture that was less elitist and enlarged the right to vote to more people, we could say that he was a populist.

Political reforms aimed at widening the suffrage

Jackson embodied the new trend (tendance) which led to political reforms that aimed to widen democracy so people would have more role in politics. The most important of these reforms was the so-called “manhood suffrage”. Afterwards, all white men would have the right to vote whereas previously only those who owned a property could vote.
The selection of the presidential election’s candidates was reformed too, before, they were chosen by the most important people of the party, a caucus (secret meeting) was made.
The party’s rank and file could now select the presidential candidate.
A third political and really important reform was to have presidential electors directly elected by the people.
This period is often called the Jacksonian era, less elitist and more popular; all these reforms led to more popular participation.

… lire la suite ⬇