- •1. The land of the us: geography, the face of the land, mountain and rivers, weather and climate.
- •2. The people of the usa: population, the society. Ellis Island - Gateway to America. Contribution of the immigrants to the national identity.
- •"Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,....
- •A new era, a new mission
- •3. The regions of the us: the Northeast, the Central Basin, the Southeast, the Great Plains.
- •The Regions of the United States The Northeast
- •4. Discovery of America. American Indians - the accomplishments of the Iroquois, the Sioux, the Pueblo; great civilizations of the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas.
- •5. The History of the usa: Columbus or Vikings? Exploring and settling the New World: Spanish, Dutch and French territories in North America. Russian discovery of America.
- •French colonization of the Americas
- •6. The voyage of the Mayflower, Pylgrims and Puritans. Virginia Company with the right to colonise the South and the Plymouth Company with the right to colonise the North.
- •Pilgrims' voyage
- •Second Mayflower
- •Virginia Company
- •The Plymouth Company
- •7. Britain and the colonies. Jamestown colony, the dramatic history of Virginia.
- •8. The move to independence: the colonies in their fight to protect their liberties, the Tea Act and Boston Tea Party.
- •First Continental Congress
- •Second Continental Congress
- •10. The Founding Fathers of the nation (g. Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin).
- •Collective biography of the Framers of the Constitution
- •11. Constitution of the us, structure and main principles. Bill of rights.
- •The First Constitution
- •Louisiana Purchase
- •Florida Purchase
- •Republic of Texas
- •Alaska Purchase
- •13. The Civil War - the reasons, the process, the generals, the battles the consequences. The Emancipation Proclamation. The role of a. Lincoln. The Gettysburg address.
- •The reasons of the Civil War.
- •How many Generals were there?
- •List of u.S. Army generals and chief staff officers in early 1861 Line officers
- •Staff Officers
- •Lincoln's role
- •14. Afterwar peiod (Reconstruction), the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the constitution. Carpetbaggers, Ku-Klux-Klan. What did Reconstruction fail?
- •15. America at the turn of the century: Foreign policy - the fight for new colonies: Venezuelan conflict, Cuban crisis, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the Panama Isthmus.
- •16. The Manifest Destiny, Monroe's Doctrine, Olney (or Roosevelt) Collorary.
- •17. Economic development: "captains of industry", industrialization. "The Square Deal" of Theodore Roosevelt and "The New Freedom" of w. Wilson. The us - a world leader.
- •List of businessmen who were called robber barons
- •U.S. Industrialization
- •History
- •18. America in the World War I. The League of Nations.
- •19. The roaring twenties. The rush for wealth. The movies. The bootleggers. Prohibition.
- •20. The Great Depression and the New Deal. The difference of the Roosevelt Administration from all previous administrations.
- •21. America before and at the time of the World War II. Hirishima 1945: right or wrong?
- •22. After the wwii: prodperity and problems - presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. "McCarthyism". Cold War with the Soviet Union.
- •23. Korean War, the birth of Nato, the War in Vietnam, crisis over Cuba.
- •24. The American century - the Americanization of the world. Mail Concepts of American Business.
- •27. The symbols of the us: the Statue of Liberty, the White house, the Library of Congress, the American Flag, the national Anthem.
- •28. Churches in the usa. America as a shelter for many people oppressed in their native countries for their religious beliefs. The role of religion in the us.
- •28. The main concepts of American Education.
- •30. The American Character: its origin and development. Values in the american character.
- •30. Cities of the us: Washington - planned city, New York (Big Apple) and its boroughs.
- •Economy
- •State finances
Second Mayflower
A second ship called the Mayflower 2 made a voyage from London to Plymouth Colony in 1629 carrying 35 passengers, many from the Pilgrim congregation in Leiden that organized the first voyage. This was not the same ship that made the original voyage with the first settlers. This voyage began in May and reached Plymouth in August. This ship also made the crossing from England to America in 1630, 1633, 1634, and 1639. It attempted the trip again in 1641, departing London in October of that year under master John Cole, with 140 passengers bound for Virginia. It never arrived. On October 18, 1642 a deposition was made in England regarding the loss.
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April 1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America. The two companies, called the "Virginia Company of London" (or the London Company) and the "Virginia Company of Plymouth" (or Plymouth Company) operated with identical charters but with differing territories. An area of overlapping territory was created. Within the area of overlap, the two companies were not permitted to establish colonies within one hundred miles of each other. The Plymouth Company never fulfilled its charter, and its territory that later became New England was then also claimed by France.
The charters of the companies called for a local council for each, but with ultimate authority residing with the King through the Council of Virginia in England.
PUR ITAN N EW E N G LA N D
"Pilgrims" aTC people who make a journey fo r
rd i~iolls reasons. Bur for Arnericaus the word has a
spec ial meaning. To th em it means a small RWUP of
English men and women who sailed ;l(TOS,> the
Atlant ic Ocean in rhc p:ar 1620. The group's
members came (0 be called the Pilgrims because they
went [0 America to find r elig IOUS freedom.
So nwtimcs Americans call them the Pilgrim Fath ers.
T his is b..-causc thcv sec them as th e most important
ofthe founders ofthe futu re United Su rC'S o f
America.
T he Europe that the Pilgrims lett behin d them was
tom by religious qua rrels. For more than a thou sand
years Roman Ca tholic Ch ristianity had been the
religion o f mosr ofits peo ple. By the sixt eenth
centu ry, however. some Europeans h;1(1begu ll to
doub t the teachings of rhc Catho lic Churc h. T h... y
were also growing angr y at [he wealth and worldly
pride ofits leaders.
E:lTly in the ccnr urv a German monk named Martin
Luther qua rreled with these leaders. l ie claimed that
ind ivid ual human beings did nor need the Pope or the
priests ofthe Catholic Church to enable them to
speak to God. A few years later a French lawyer
»amcd john Calvin put forward similar ideas. Cal vin
claimed th at each indi vidual W J.S dir ectl y and
pers onally responsible to God . Bccausc rhcv
protested against the rcach ings and custo ms o f rhe
Catholic Church. relig ious refo rmers like Lut her and
Calvin wer e called " Prot estJ llts.·· T heir ideas spread
qu ickly th rough nor thern Europe.
Pew people believed III religious toleration at this
rime. In most count ries peo ple were expected to ha vc
the same religion JS their ruler. T his was the case in
England. In the I530s the English king. Hcnrv VIII,
formed a national church wi th himself as its head. In
the later years ofthe sixteenth cen tury many English
people believed th at this Church of Eng land was still
too much like the Catholic C hurch. They di sliked the
powl"r;o f its bishops. They dislik ed its elaborate
n'remon ies and th e rich decorarions ofits churc hes .
l"11l'Y also qucsri oucd many o f irs teachings. Such
people wanted the Ch urc h of England to become more plain and simple, or "pure. " Because of rhis
th ey wer e called Purit ans. The ideas of j ohn Calvin
app ealed particularly strongly to them.
Whellj ames I became King of Ellgland in 1603 he
wa rned the Puritans th at he: would dri ve them from
the land if they did not accept his ideas on religion.
I lis bisho ps bega n fining the Puritans and pu tting
them III prison . T o escape this per secution. a sma ll
group ofthem lett England and wcnr to Hol land .
Holland wa s th e only coun try in Europe whose
governme nt allowed religious freedom at rhis time.
The people o fl lo lland welcomed the little group of
ex ile... But the Puritans never felt at ho me the re.
After much tho ught and much prayer they decided to
move again. Some of the:m- the Pilgrims - decided to
go to America.
First they returned bridiy [0 England. Here they
persuaded the Virginia Company to allow rhcm to
settle in [he northern pan ofits American lands. On
September 16. 1620. the Pilgrim s lcf rhc English port ofPlymouth and headed fo r America. They
were accompanied by a number ofother emigrants
they called "Strangers."
The Pilgrims' ship was an old trading vessel. the
.\laY.11oll'cr. f or years th e .\ I<1y.fl(lU'f'T had car ried wine
across th e nar row seas betv..-een Fran ce and England.
Now it la ced a mu ch more dangerous voyage. For
sixty-five days the AI<1 y.f1(1l1'rTbattled th rough the
rolling waves ofthe no rth Arlami c O cean. At last, 0 11
No vem ber 9. 1620 . it reached Cape Cod. a sandy
hook ofland in what is now th e sta te o f
Massachusett s.
Cape C od is far to th e no rth ofthe land granted to the
Pilg rims by till' Virgmia Company. But th e Pilgrims
did not ha ve enoug h food and wa ter , and many were
sick. They decid ed to land at th e best place they cou ld
find. a ll December 21. 1620. th ey rowed ashore and
set up camp at a place th ey named Plymouth.
"The season it was wint er ," wrote one ofth eir
leaders. "and those who know the winters ofthat
country know them to be sha rp and violent with
crud and fierc e storms;" T he Pilgr ims' chances of
surviving were no t high. The frozen ground and the
deep snow made it diffi cuh fo r th em to build hou ses.
TIley had very linle food. Befo re sp ring came. half of
the litt le group of a hundred set tlers we re dead.
But rhc Pilg rims were determined to succeed. The
fifty su rvivors built better houses. They learned how
to fish and hunt. Friendly Amerin dians gave them
seed com and showed th em how to plant it. It was
not the end oftheir hardships. but when a ship
arrived in Plymouth in 1622 and offered to take
passenge rs back to England . not one o f'rhc Pilgrims
accepted .
O ther English Puritans followed the Pilgrims to
America. T en years later a much larger group o f
alm ost a thousand colo nists settled nearby in what
becam e rhc Boston area . These people left England [0
escape th e rul e ofa new king . Charles I. C harles was
even less tolerant than his fathe r j ames had been of
people who disagreed with his poli cies in religion and
govc nuucnr.
The Boston settlement prospered from the starr. Its
population grew quickly as more and more Puritans
left England to escape persecutio n. Many years later .
in 169 1. it combined v....irh th e Plymouth colony
under th e name of Massachusett s.
The ideas ofth e Massachusetts Puri tans had a lastin g
influence on American so ciety. One o f their fir st
leaders. Jolm Winthro p, said that they should build
an ideal community for th e rest ofmankind to learn
from. " We shall be like a city on a hill. " said Winthrop. 'The eYl'S ofall people are upo n us." To
this day man y Ameri cans cont inue to sec th eir
count ry in this way. as a mod el for other nat ion"
to co py,
The Puritans of'Massach uscn s believed that
governments had a dut y to nub: people obey God's
wi ll. They passed laws to for ce people [0 at tend
church and lavv·s [0 punish dru nks and adu ltere rs.
Even men who let their hair grow lon g could be in
trouble.
Hoger Williams. a Puritan minister in a settlement
called Salem. believed th at it was wrong to run the
affairs o f Massach usetts III thi s way. I Ic objected
part icularl y to the fact rhar the same men con t rolled
both th e chur ch and the government . William s
believed th at church and Slate should be se parate and
rhnr neit her should interfere with the othe r.
Williams ' repeated cri ticisms made the Massachusetts
leade rs angry. In 1535 they Sl'!H men to arrest him.
But Williams escaped and Wl'!H so ut h. where he
was joined by othe r discourcutcd people fr om
Massachusetts. O n the sho res ofNarraganse tt Uay
William s and his followers set up a novv co lon y called
Rho de Island , Rho de Island promised its citizens
comple te religio us freedom and separatio n of church
and state. To this day these ideas arc still vny
Impo rtant to Ameri cans.
T Ill' leade rs ofMassachusens coul d no r forgive the
people ofRhode Island for thinking so differ ently
from th em selves. They called rhc brea kaway colony
"the land of the opposite-minded."
By the end of thc seventeen th Cl'ntury a strl ng of
Englis h colo nies stretched along the eas t roast of
North Amer ica. More or less in the middle was
Penn sylvan ia. This was fou nded III 16HI by Wilham
Penn. Under a charter from the English king.
C harles II, Pen n was the proprieto r. o r owner, of
I'enllsylvallia.
Penn belo nged to a religiou s group, the SO('il't y of
l-ricnds, common ly called Quakers. Quak ers refused
to swear oat hs o r to lake pan ill wars. These customs
had helped to make th em 'Try unpopular wi th
English governments . When Penn promised his
fellow Quakers that in l'cnuvvlvau ia they would
he free 10 follow their own ways. many ofthem
emigrated there,
Penn's promise o f religious freedom. together with
his rcputariou for dealing fairly with people. brought
settlers from ot her European co untries to
l'cnns ylvan ia. Prom Ireland came sett lers who ma de
new f.1tIl1 S in the western for ests ofthe colony, Man y
Germans carne also. M OSI we re members ofsllIall
religious groups who had left Germany to escape
persecution. T hey were known as the Pennsylv ani a
I jurch. T his was beca use English people at rhis time
called most no rth European, " Dutch,"
New York had previously been called New
Amsterdam, h had first been set tled ill 162(,. In J()64
the English captured it from the IJurch and re-named
it New York. A few years t iler. in 1670, rhc English
foun ded the new colonies of North and South
Ca rolin a. Th e last English colony to be foun ded in
North America was Georgia. scnlcd III 173.1.
The Mayflower Com pact
When [he Pilgrims arrived otT the coast of
America they faced many danger s and difficulties.
They did not want to put themselves III further
danger by qu arreling with one another. Before
landing at Plymouth, therefore. they wrote our all
agreement . In this document [hey agr eed to work
together for the good o f all. The ag reement was
signed by all forty-one men on boa rd the May.
f1111l't'r. It became known as the Mayflower Compact
. In the Compact the Plymout h settlers agreed
to SCt up a government- J "civil bod y pohtic't-oo
make "just and cqua l Ia...vs" for thei r new settlement.
All of [hem . Pilgrims and St ran ger s alike .
promised that they would obey th ese laws . In the
difficult years which fo llowed . the Mayflower
Compact served the colonists wel l. It is rcmcmbored
today as on e of the: first uuportanr docurncuts
in the history of democratic government 111
America.