- •Lecture 1
- •Exploring and settling the new world
- •In the 1400s, Spanishjand Portuguesejxilers began to give money for voyages of exploration. In search of gold, silk and spices, Portuguese explorers sailed around Africa and Asia.
- •The beginnings of new england
- •In England it was the time of Kingjames I. English people did not like the king and they called him "The Foolish King of England". Many of them even left England and went to live in other countries.
- •The seven years war
- •The civil war between the states
- •In the 18" and 19" centuries the United States was divided into the North where labour was free, and the South where slaves worked.
The civil war between the states
In the 18" and 19" centuries the United States was divided into the North where labour was free, and the South where slaves worked.
From early times there had been no Negro slaves in the South of the United States. Negro men. women and children were taken from Africa by force or by some trick and brought to America. Here in the South they worked as slaves on tobacco and cotton plantations.
The life of the slaves was very hard. They worked from morning till night and were beaten and starved. Sometimes their owners sold them, separating husbands and wives, mothers and children. By 1860 there were about 4 million slaves.
There were many revolts of the slaves and sometimes white men and women helped them in their struggle but the revolts came in nothing. it f The Negro slaves were freed by^President Lincoln in 1863.
The war broke out soon after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. It was the war between the industrial North, where slavery was outlawed, and the agricultural South, where slave labour was much used.
Lincoln, a progressive man, was against slavery. He wanted very much to free the Negro slaves. His ideas about freedom for the black slaves were good for the rich people of the industrial North. The planters of the South who exploited those slaves were against them. So the slave owners in the South were displeased that Lincoln was elected and very soon after that the Southern States left the Union and formed their own Confederation. Lincoln was ready to use force to keep the Union together. Then the war broke out between the North and the South.
The population of the North was 22 million, and that of the South was 9 million, but the army of the South was well organized and ready for war. This could not be said of the army of the North. So in the first months of the war the South won several victories. Only when General Grant became commander-in-chief of the Northern Army, the North began to win the war and in April 1865 it ended.
The victory of the Union forces ended slavery in the South and ensured that the United States remained one nation.