13. Colonial era

By 1770 Philadelphia, with 28,000 inhabitants, was the largest city, followed by New York, Boston and Charleston, South Carolina. By 1733, English settlers had occupied 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast. The French controlled Canada and Louisiana, which included the entire Mississippi watershed. By 1756, England and France were fighting the Seven Years' War. William Pitt, the British prime minister, won an empire. British forces captured the Canadian strong points of Louisburg, Quebec and Montreal. The Peace of Paris, signed in 1763, gave Britain title to Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi River. Britain's victory led directly to a conflict with its American colonies. The British government began punishing smugglers and charged new taxes on sugar, coffee, textiles and other imported goods.

Revolution On April 19, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched from Boston to forestall a rebellion of the colonists by capturing a colonial arms depot in the nearby town of Concord. At the village of Lexington the American War of Independence began.At first, the war went badly for the Americans. In 1781, 8,000 British troops under General George Cornwallis were surrounded at Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis surrendered, and soon afterward the British government asked for peace. The Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, recognized the independence of the United States. Devising a constitution The 13 colonies were now "free and independent states"—but not yet one united nation. In May 1787, a convention met in Philadelphia with instructions to revise the Articles of Confederation. The delegates— among whom were George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison—went beyond their mandate and drafted a new and more workable Constitution. It established a stronger federal government empowered to collect taxes, conduct diplomacy, maintain armed forces, and regulate foreign trade and commerce among the states. Most importantly, it established the principle of a "balance of power" to be maintained among the three branches of government—the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The Constitution was accepted in 1788, but only after much bitter debateNew nation As the first president of the United States, George Washington governed in a Federalist style. When Pennsylvania farmers refused to pay a federal liquor tax, Washington mobilized an army of 15,000 men to put down the "Whiskey Rebellion." In 1797, Washington was succeeded by another Federalist, John Adams, who became involved in an undeclared naval war with France. In an atmosphere of war hysteria, the Federalist-controlled Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. The repression which occurred under the Alien and Sedition Acts ended in 1801, when Thomas Jefferson was elected president. Although he wanted to limit the power of the president, political realities forced Jefferson to exercise that power vigorously. In 1803, he bought the huge Louisiana territory from France for $15 million: Now the United States would extend as far west as the Rocky Mountains. In 1812 President James Madison went to war with Britain. During the War of 1812, American warships had some impressive victories, but the vastly superior British Navy blockaded American ports. British forces captured and burned Washington, the nation's new capital city. Britain and the United States agreed on a compromise peace in December 1814; neither side won any concessions from the other. After the war, the United States enjoyed a period of rapid economic expansion. The Industrial Revolution had reached America: there were textile mills in New England; iron foundries in Pennsylvania. By the 1850s, factories were producing rubber goods, sewing machines, shoes, clothing, farm implements, guns and clocks. In 1828, Andrew Jackson became the first man born into a poor family and born in the West to be elected president.

14. Ethnic groups and minorities1) nationality groups - English, Dutch, Germans, Irish. 2) racial groups - White, black, native Americans. 3) religious groups - catholic Christians and protestant Christians (Baptists, Mormons, Methodists, Congregationalists and Unitarian). The US is a country of many ethnic groups. An ethnic group is made up of people who share 1 or more characteristics which make them different from other groups They may share specific racial or physical trails, speak their own language or practice distinctive religion. They are US bound to one another by common traditions values, and by their own folklore and music. Some of their activities may be determined by unique instit-ms members of an ethnic group tend to see themselves as separate from other people.

Major groups in the US today Native Americans, Albanians, Afroamericans, Arabs, Chinese, Eskimos, Greeks, Irish, Italians, Jews, Mexicans, Swiss, etc. Most members of ethnic groups have lost much of the distinctiveness of their culture. In ethnic groups the third generation of Germans may only speak English and may think of themselves as "plain" Americans.

Members of most ethnic groups full participants in the broad tapestry of American life, even if they keep many of their old traditions. Some ethnic groups, however, suffer disadvantages, which continue to keep them from freely participating in some areas of American professional and cultural life. Those ethnic groups which suffer systematic economic or social disadvantages are called minority groups. About 1 of 5 Americans is a member of such a group. In the past many minority groups overcame the barriers that confronted them. There are many signs that today's minorities are following the same path. For several decades it has been an official aim of public policy to encourage such an outcome.