US Hist 1.pdf

Prof. dr hab. Marek Oziewicz History of the United States

Lecture 1

Lecture One

Course Introduction

Scope: This lecture will provide an overview of the course and the manner in which it’s structured. It

will present the sources, grading system and requirements necessary for completing the coursework.

To set the ground for the future discussion of English colonial ventures in North America, it will

introduce the concept of the New World and address three general questions that frame the history of

the US: why the New World was colonized by the European nations; how America became an

English-speaking region; and why it rose to world hegemony. The demographic, political and

technological potentials of Europe and the Americas before the conquest will be compared, and an

overview of Spanish, French and Dutch ventures in North America will be offered. The “Folkways

Thesis” and the “Cousins’ Wars” thesis will then be introduced to account for the local and then

global expansion of the English-speaking people on both sides of the Atlantic between 15 th and 20 th

centuries. In conclusion it will be suggested why it’s useful to study history of the US, and why one

should pay attention to this subject.

Outline

I. This course of fifteen lectures will make you familiar with selected elements of the American

experience throughout history, from the establishment of the first English colonies in North

America in the 16 th century to the first decade of the 21 st century.

A. The course will try to answer questions about what makes American history unique and what

distinguishes the US from the European countries.

B. It will examine the interplay between the claims of individualism and the claims of

community—a feature many historians take to be constitutive of the American distinctness.

C. It will study the expansion of the US on the North American continent and overseas,

suggesting that American dominance—although built on military and economic power—has

also derived its cultural momentum from what seems to be a uniquely American contribution

to the world: hope for the better, belief in inalienable human rights, and a pragmatic

commitment to change.

II. The material has been organized chronologically in such a way that the closer we move to the

present moment, the more detailed the lectures will be. The general educational level of this

material is intermediate. The remaining fourteen lectures will explore the following topics:

A. Lecture Two: Sources of America (1492-1688)

B. Lecture Three: The 18 th century and the Wars for Empire (1689-1775)

C. Lecture Four: Revolution and the Creation of the Republic (1775-1788)

D. Lecture Five: Expansion Beyond Mississippi & the Growth of Sectional Tension (1789-1850)

E. Lecture Six: The Retreat from Union and the Civil War (1850-1865)

F. Lecture Seven: (Re)construction of Modern America (1865-1895)

G. Lecture Eight: Industrialism, Progressivism and the Great War (1896-1918)

H. Lecture Nine: The Roaring Twenties, Depression, and a New Deal (1919-1940)

I. Lecture Ten: World War II (1941-1945)

J. Lecture Eleven: The Cold War, Truman Era and the Consumer Society (1945-1960)

K. Lecture Twelve: JFK, Civil Rights and the Vietnam War (1960-1968)

L. Lecture Thirteen: Nixon-Carter Years (1968-1980)

M. Lecture Fourteen: Reagan-Bush Years (1980-1992)

N. Lecture Fifteen: From Clinton’s New America to Obama’s New Hope (1992-2008)

Prof. dr hab. Marek Oziewicz History of the United States

Lecture 1

III. This course will make use of primary and secondary sources. These are not obligatory readings.

The course comes with the course guide, which includes a detailed outline of each lecture,

bibliography, filmography and review questions. To get the most out of this course you may find it

useful to follow along with the outlines and review them before or after each lecture.

A. The primary printed sources include:

1. Jeanne Boydston, Making a Nation: The United States and Its People (Pearson 2002)

2. Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (HarperPerennial 2003)

3. Joy Hakim, Freedom: A History of the US (Oxford 2002)

B. The secondary sources include, but will not be limited to:

1. William E. Shapiro, ed., The Student Encyclopedia of The United States (Kingfisher 2005)

2. Clifford Daniel, ed., The Chronicle of America (Chronicle Publications 1989)

3. James M. McPherson, The Atlas of the Civil War (Macmillan1994)

4. David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seeds: Four British Folkways in America (Oxford 1989)

5. David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (Oxford 2004)

6. David Hackett Fischer, Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America’s Founding

Ideas (Oxford 2005)

7. Kevin Phillips, The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America

(Basic Books 1999)

C. Sources in the Polish language, although they will not be used in this course, include:

1. Michał J. Rozbicki, Narodziny narodu: Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych do 1861 r.

(Oficyna Wydawnicza Interim 1991)

2. Marek Gołębiowski, Dzieje kultury Stanów Zjednoczonych (PWN 2007)

IV. Both “America” and “the New World” are European terms invented in the early 16 th century. The

double concept of America as “the New World” and Europe as “the Old World” has dominated

European perceptions of America and American perceptions of Europe since the 15 th century.

A. The New World is a Eurocentric concept used to refer to all the lands outside of Europe, Asia

and Africa.

1. The New World can denote either generally the Western Hemisphere—the Americas, the

Caribbean, and later the Pacific islands including Australia and New Zealand—or more

specifically America.

2. The term “the New World,” or orbis novus , was coined in 1492 by the Italian scholar Peter

Martyr d’Anghiera. In 1516, when Martyr published a work whose title began with De

orbe novo , or On the New World , the New World became the leading image of America.

B. The name America was first used for the new continent on a world map in 1507. The continent

was named after the first name of Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine explorer for Portugal, who

was the first to claim, in 1502, that the newly discovered landmass must be a previously

unknown fourth continent.

V. The European expansion to the New World began in late 15 th century and continued throughout

the 19 th century. By 1492 Western European civilization seems to have been the only civilization

ready and interested in territorial expansion overseas.

A. The Arabs, who were expanding in Africa and Southern Europe, controlled much of the trade

between Asia and Europe; they were not interested in overseas conquests.

Prof. dr hab. Marek Oziewicz History of the United States

Lecture 1

B. The African and most Asian nations were not ready for expansion yet. The Chinese, the only

Asian civilization that had the resources and may have been ready for exploration, were not

interested.

1. According to one heavily speculative study, Gavin Menzies’ 1421: The Year China

Discovered the World (2008), the Chinese discovered America in 1420s and

circumnavigated the globe, but the Chinese emperor ordered the burning of the records of

these expeditions and forbade his fleet to ever go exploring again.

C. European capacity for and interest in overseas expansion was the combined result of three

factors.

1. By 1492 Europe saw the emergence of the first consolidated nation-states: Portugal and

Spain. These were also the first to begin to explore and conquer foreign lands. Holland,

France, and England, unified in the latter part of 16 th century, and then followed the

Spanish and Portuguese lead.

2. By 1492 Europe’s population, economy and religion were ready to expand.

(1) European population had recovered from the plague that had ravaged Europe in the 14 th

century.

(2) European economy began to grow and look for new markets, especially for re-

establishment of a trade with Asia that had been disrupted by the Black Death.

(3) European religion, the Roman Catholic faith that united all of Western Europe, became

more aggressive in its search for converts.

3. Just as important was the emergence of new technologies that gave Europeans advantage

over other cultures.

(1) Some innovations were adaptations from other regions of the world: gunpowder from

China and the navigational compass from the Arabs.

(2) Other improvements were developed in Europe, including better maps, stronger metal,

and the caravel, a light, swift ship well suited for navigating the open seas.

VI. The European conquest of the Americas was possible because Native Americans were politically

and culturally fragmented, outnumbered, and technologically inferior to the Europeans.

A. The Americas were far more fragmented than Europe.

1. They comprised several large and powerful states, as well as a number of peoples,

especially in North America, who lived in smaller and less complex social organizations.

2. They were inhabited by hundreds of separate Indian cultures that spoke at least 375

different and mostly unrelated languages, and had hundreds of religions with at least 7

completely different creation stories.

3. The native population of America north of the Rio Grande may have been up to 18 million.

1. It had about 30 main nations and about 40 languages, most of them Indo-European and

related to each other.

2. It had two closely related religions, Christianity and Judaism, and one creation story.

3. The total population of Europe may have been in the range of 100-120 million.

B. At the time of Columbus’ voyage Europe was relatively unified.

Prof. dr hab. Marek Oziewicz History of the United States

Lecture 1

C. The European conquest was possible also due to the domino effect. The forces that propelled

the Spanish across the Atlantic soon sent other European nations to the Americas in search of

wealth and national prestige.

D. Spanish conquests were focused on Central America where the Spanish erected its empire of

New Spain, stretching from the Caribbean and Mexico to the western part of South America.

1. The military model the Spanish used for their colonial ventures was the conquest of the

Moorish province of Granada, completed in 1492. The colonization of the Americas and

the subjugation of their native peoples were seen by the Spaniards as a campaign to

vanquish infidels.

2. In North America Spanish territorial control extended to present day California in the

West, and to upper Florida in the East.

(1) Florida served the Spanish as a buffer zone to shield their convoys from English and

French pirates. By 1560s the Spanish established a series of forts along the western and

eastern shores of Florida, but by 1576 had to abandon all of them but one.

(2) The only remaining Spanish fort on the Atlantic coast was St. Augustine, settled in

1565. Today, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited city of European origin

on the mainland of the US.

E. French conquests involved a colony of New France planted in the St. Lawrence River region of

Canada.

1. In the 1560s the French explored the coast south of Canada, establishing their

southernmost colony of Fort Caroline near present-day Georgia. Fort Caroline was soon

massacred by the Spanish and the French focused their interest on the region along the St.

Lawrence.

2. The basis for the French empire in Canada was fur trade with the Abenakis, Hurons, and

other local tribes.

(1) Maintaining the trade required friendly relations with the Indians and also a great deal

of diplomacy, especially that the French intruded upon a region where Indian tribes

were constantly fighting blood feuds called “mourning wars.”

(2) In the reality of permanent war among Indians, and without significant support from

their mother country, the French parties were dependent upon their Indian hosts: they

had to adapt Indian custom, assist their Indian benefactors in wars against their enemy,

adjust to their food, and join their families.

(3) Because they were attentive to Indian customs and willing to accommodate them, the

French had best relations with their Indian allies.

F. The Dutch venture into North America resembled that of France. It began as a trading

enterprise but was ended a government that was unwilling to make a significant investment in

a North American colony.

1. In 1609 an English explorer Henry Hudson persuaded a group of Dutch merchants to

finance a venture in North America, where he “discovered” the New York harbor and the

river that still bears his name.

2. By 1624 a group of merchants calling themselves the New Netherland Company had

established settlements at Fort Orange (present-day Albany) and New Amsterdam (present-

day New York) and purchased the entire island of Manhattan from local Algonquian

Indians.

3. By 1664 it was clear that the colony was not generating profits and the Dutch allowed the

English to take over it.

Prof. dr hab. Marek Oziewicz History of the United States

Lecture 1

VII. The future United States became English- rather than Spanish, French or Dutch-speaking

because of two factors: territorial divisions between spheres of influence each European nation

was able to carve out for itself, and due to the character of early immigration to North America.

A. Throughout the 16 th and 17 th centuries the French claimed Canada, the English—the eastern

coast of North America, and the Spanish—Florida, California and the lands south of these.

1. The distinctive experience of each nation shaped its relations with the Indians it

encountered.

(1) The Spanish came prepared for a new Reconquista and poured huge and well-armed

forces into the New World.

(2) The French sent traders and small numbers of military officers who quickly found

Indian allies and became entangled in the Indians’ own conflicts.

(3) The Dutch sent traders only and established a state-monopoly on business with the

Indians.

(4) The English used another military model, that of the pacification of Ireland.

2. Of the four European nations that colonized North America the English proved the least

interested in accommodating Indian cultures and the most interested in transplanting their

own.

B. Another reason behind the Englishness of the United States is the history of its early

colonization as described in the “Folkways Thesis” by the American cultural historian David

Hackett Fischer.

1. According to Fischer the American society is the product of the interaction of the four

British cultures that settled the present area of the US during the very long formative period

from 1629 to 1775.

(1) The first large wave of English-speaking immigrants was an exodus of Puritans from

the east of England to Massachusetts during a period of eleven years from 1629 to

1640.

(2) The second was the migration of a small Royalist elite and large numbers of indentured

servants from the south of England to Virginia (ca. 1642-75).

(3) The third was a movement from the North Midlands of England and Wales to the

Delaware Valley (ca. 1675-1725).

(4) The fourth was a flow of English-speaking people from the borders of North Britain

and northern Ireland to the Appalachian backcountry mostly during the half-century

from 1718 to 1775.

2. All of these four groups spoke the English language, nearly all were British Protestants,

and took pride in possessing British liberties. They carried across the Atlantic four

different sets of British folkways which became the basis of regional cultures in the New

World.

A. According to Phillips the rise of Anglo-America from a small Tudor kingdom to a global

community and world hegemony was possible through a curious combination of religious

fervor and militarism.

VIII. The global expansion of the English-speaking people on both sides of the Atlantic between

15 th and 20 th centuries can be examined in the light of the “Cousins’ Wars Thesis” proposed by the

American historian Kevin Phillips.

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