7. Check yourself. What do you know about:

the geographical position of the USA;

Stars and Stripes;

the political system of the USA;

the relief of the USA;

the country’s main rivers and lakes;

the climate of the USA;

North East region;

Great Plains;

Central Basin;

Mountains and deserts region;

South East region;

Coast Valleys;

Alaska;

Hawaii;

history of Washington D.C.;

the Capitol;

the White House;

the Washington Monument;

Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials;

the Smithsonian Institution;

the National Arlington Cemetery;

history of New York;

Manhattan.

8. Read the following outline of us early history. Single out the main events.

In December 1606 a London Company sent a group of settlers on board three ships to colonize the North American territory named Virginia. People left England for different reasons, some – to find prosperity across the ocean, others – for religious or political reasons. Those three ships reached the New World in May 1607 and founded Jamestown, the first permanent English colony on the American Continent. It is quite likely that the settlement would not have survived, if the local Indians had not helped the colonists during the first hard winter. They gave them food, taught them the ways of the forest and introduced them to such valuable crop as maize.

By 1624 Virginia began to prosper because of its profitable exports to Europe. Meanwhile, far to the north, in Massachusetts, another English colony, Plymouth, was established by the Pilgrims who arrived on the “Mayflower” in 1620. The Pilgrims also received friendly help from Indians. After their first rich harvest they celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day in November of 1621.

Soon other colonies were organized in New England. New settlers began coming to the new continent. Besides Britain, settlers came from other countries - Germany, Holland, France, etc.

Two basic patterns of life sprang up in British America. Agriculture was the basis of southern life. The southerners’ main crop was tobacco which was exported to Europe. Growing tobacco required a lot of labour and thus the planters turned to Negro slaves. Throughout the entire 18^th century a constant stream of slaves arrived from Africa, accelerating the trend toward large-scale plantations. In this way the economy of the South was tied to slavery from the very beginning.

A completely different society developed in the north. The northern colonies raised cereal crops that did not have a ready market in Europe. Thus, while the northern colonies could feed themselves without difficulty, they could not turn their surpluses into the European-manufactured goods they wanted. Families had to make all kinds of objects themselves. Inevitably under such conditions families began to specialize, producing goods that they could sell and exchange. Yet local manufacturing could not supply all the things they needed. The solution was to build a merchant fleet and look for markets in far corners of the world. So trade became the key to prosperity in northern colonies.

Foreign trade stimulated the growth of cities. By 1750 Boston had 16,000 inhabitants, Philadelphia – 13,000, New York – 11,000.

Each colony had a governor appointed by the English king in the case of royal colonies, or by proprietors in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Britain’s policy was aimed at consolidating and intensifying exploitation of her colonies. This naturally provoked resistance which was followed by punishment and repression. The increased intensity of these repressions eventually led to the revolution. Merchants, manufacturers, planters, farmers, urban workers, fur traders – all found British administrative acts a burden.

In 1767 the Townshend Acts imposed taxes on most consumer goods which came from England. When these acts were passed by the British, in Boston street crowds attacked the tax collectors. In March 1770 British troops which had been sent to Boston to put a stop to rioting opened fire and killed five Bostonians. Those events got the name of the Boston Massacre.

The most active opposition group in the colonies at that time were the “Sons of Liberty”. Among the members of the group were Sam Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry.

In April 1773 the notorious Tea Act was passed by the British Parliament. It permitted the East Indian Company to sell tea in the colonies practically without any duty and at a very low price. This was against the interests of all American tea merchants who were now unable to compete with the Company. The struggle against the Tea Act became the struggle against British monopolization of all American trade. When the American colonies realized this, opposition was unanimous. In Boston public indignation was particularly great. The Bostonians with Sam Adams at the head were determined to prevent the East Indian Company’s tea ships from landing their cargo. On a December night in 1773 a group of colonists dressed as Indians boarded the ships and dumped the hated tea into the harbour. A huge crowd gathered to cheer them on, and when the news of the Boston “Tea Party”, as it was called, reached London, the British burned with indignation. Thus the colonists actually refused to obey the British laws.

In September1774 the First Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia. The congress called on Americans to take up arms to defend their rights. In 1775 Patrick Henry said his famous words at the Virginia Assembly in Richmond: “I know not what course others may take but as for me, give me liberty or give me death”. In April 1775 armed Americans met the British troops at Concord, twenty miles west of Boston. The American Revolution had begun.

The Second Continental Congress which met in 1775 appointed a young planter from Virginia George Washington commander-in-chief of the whole colonial army. On July 4, 1776 the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson. The declaration maintained that all men were created equal and proclaimed their rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The final draft of the Declaration, however, did not include a single word criticizing the shameful institution of slavery.

The War of Independence (1775-1783) proved long and hard to win. Britain had the world’s greatest navy and a numerous professional army. The Americans had only an ill-trained militia and no navy. Yet they had one great advantage – they were fighting at home and for freedom. As the war progressed, discipline and experience appeared and though the colonists lost many battles, they learnt that they could be beaten but they could not be subdued. At last the overwhelming triumph of the Americans at Saratoga in October 1777 tipped the scales in their favour and probably decided the Revolution. Yet the war was still far from won. It was not until after the decisive victory of the colonial army at Yorktown in 1781 that the British finally laid down their arms. In 1783 the ultimate peace treaty was signed in Paris. Britain recognized American independence and agreed to withdraw its troops from America.

In 1787 a new Constitution was adopted at Philadelphia Convention. During January and February 1789 elections took place in the states and by April the newly elected congressmen had gathered in New York, the temporary capital. On April 6, 1789, George Washington was unanimously elected the first president of the United States of America.

George Washington (1732 – 1799)

George Washington, born February 22, 1732 in Virginia, was a natural leader – instrumental in creating a united nation out of a conglomeration of struggling colonies and territories. The first president of the USA is affectionally honoured as “the father of his country”.

George Washington was born in the family of a Virginia planter. His father died when he was only 11 and he was brought up by his elder half-brother. The boy got very little regular schooling and at 16 started working as a land surveyor.

In 1752 George Washington was appointed major of Virginia militia and in 1755, not yet 23, made colonel and commander of all Virginia forces. Later, in the war against the French and Indians, Washington commanded large troops of soldiers and showed courage that inspired all his soldiers.

When the question of independence from Britain became the major problem in the colonies Washington was chosen one of Virginia’s delegates to the First and then to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he was appointed commander-in-chief of all colonial forces.

Washington clearly realized the difficulty of fighting a powerful enemy with a badly equipped and poorly trained army. His efforts to keep strict discipline met bitter hostility. Part of Washington’s greatness lay in the fact that commanding this new kind of army, a people’s army, he appreciated its qualities and realized its needs.He insisted that it was necessary to impress upon the mind of every soldier the importance of the cause they were fighting for. Washington’s fidelity to the Revolution inspired others and helped them survive a series of defeats during the first half of the war. Being a talented military leader Washington managed to organize an able army which entrapped the British at Yorktown and forced their complete surrender.

After the war Washington agreed to serve his country as the first president. He moved from Mount Vernon, his family home in Virginia, to New York City, then the capital of the United States. The trip took a week by horse and carriage. All along the way, people waited eagerly to glimpse the Revolutionary War general and their first President.

Washington was a firm, dignified but cautious and unaggressive chief executive, strongly opposed to party lines in home affairs and advocating America’s neutrality as its predominant foreign policy. He turned down a third term as president and in 1797 retired, leaving the country far more powerful than when he had first taken office. A national currency was issued and a postal service established; manufacture and trade were promoted by special tariffs and inventions protected by patent and copyright laws; national security was improved by reorganization of the army and the navy and construction of fortifications on the eastern seaboard.

George Washington died in 1799 in his Mount Vernon home.

Out of the 13 states which in 1776 federated to form a union, 7 were free but in 6 others slavery was legal. By the Constitution the issue about slavery was left in the hands of the State legislature and the Federal Government had no right to abolish it. There was a growing opinion that slavery would die of itself. However, after Eli Whitney in 1793 invented the machine cleaning cotton of its seeds, the productivity of slave-labour in cotton-growing increased by 50 times and slavery came to be regarded as the mainstay of southern economics. In 1820 by the Missouri Compromise slavery was prohibited north of 36˚30′. But in 1854 a special Bill virtually repealed the Missouri Compromise.

The new Republican Party which sprang up in 1854, with Abraham Lincoln as one of its chief founders, demanded that slavery should be kept within old boundaries set out in 1820. Tremendously important in awakening the nation’s consciousness as to the evil of slavery was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852), 300,000 copies of which were sold within the first year. The abolitionist movement was gaining ground. By 1860 the nation was on the brink of disunion.

A few days after Lincoln was elected President of the USA, the South Carolina convention voted for secession. By February 1861 several other southern states also seceded and soon a provincial government of the Confederate States of America was established at Montgomery, Alabama. In April, 1861 civil war between the North and the South actually began. Although abolition of slavery was to be one of its major results, the war was fought to preserve the union, not to destroy slavery.

When the Civil War broke out, the North could expect an easy victory. It had more than double the population of the South and better material resources. On the other hand, the Southerners were more experienced in military actions and better trained and their army was headed by two men of great military talent – generals Jackson and Lee.

The first major battle of the war (at Bull Run on July 21, 1861) was won by the Confederacy. After this no really heavy fighting took place until 1863 when, as a result of a series of bloody battles, Lee had to retreat to Richmond and start rebuilding his army. Because of the shortage of manufacturing facilities and naval blockade by the North forces, the Confederate army suffered severe privations.

After the Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves in rebellious areas free beginning with January 1, 1863, the Northern army was joined by a great number of slaves from the South.

On April 3, 1865, General Grant, the commander-in-chief of the Union armies, took Richmond and Lee had to recognize the futility of further resistance. The confederate soldiers laid down their arms and were allowed to return to their homes in peace.

The war lasted four years and cost the nation 600,000 lives but the concept of an unbreakable union had won universal acceptance. Negro slavery was dead. A more technically advanced and productive economic system resulted from the war.