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American history 1. The Colonial Period Of American History During the Earth’s last ice age, about 50,000 years ago there was a bridge of ice joined Asia to America across what is now the Bering Strait. Hunters from Siberia crossed this bridge into Alaska. From Alaska the hunters moved south and east across America, following herds of caribou and buffalo as the animals went from one feeding ground to the next. For many years Amerindians lived as wandering hunters and gathers of food. The tribes were formed at that time. And later people living in highlands areas of what is now Mexico found a wild grass with tiny seeds that were good to eat. This was the Indian corn These people became America´s first farmers. The Pueblo people of present day Arizona and New Mexico were the best organized of the Amerindians farming peoples. They were building networks of canals to irrigate their fields The Apache never became settled farmers, they were hunting and gathering wild plants. They were

warlike. Dakota. (Sioux) – Between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains They were hunting for buffalo. They lived in tepees The Iroquois were skilled farmers. Permanent villages Northeastern part of North America In 1492 an Italian adventurer, named Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain to find a new way from Europe to Asia. He stepped ashore on the beach of an ireland He named the ireland San Salvador. He believed that he had landed in the Indies When Columbus returned to Spain with his jewerly thousands of treasure-hungrySpanish crossed the Atlantic Ocean to search for more gold. The growing wealth of Spain made other European nations envious By the 17 century plenty of people in Europe were ready to settle in America. Some hoped to become rich, others hoped to find safety from religious or political persecution. 1. The first permanent English settlement in America was a trading post founded in 1607 at Jamestown /in Virginia/. The settlers had been sent to Jamestown by

a group of rich London investors. Virginia Company (But 20 years earlier Sir Walther Raleigh had sent ships to find in the New World where English people might settle. He nemed the land they visited Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth I.) So, it was a business investment 2. Puritans are people who make a journey for religious reasons They wanted freedom They wanted the Church of England to become more simple and pure. First they went to Holland then went to America with a trading vessel, the Mayflower. On November 9, 1620 they reached Cape Code, but they did not have enough food and water and many were sick. But the Pilgrims were determinded to succeed. They learned how to fish and hunt Friendly Amerindians gave them seed corn - Thanksgiving day! Mayflower Compact! Later between 1600-1700s permanent settlements were rapidly established all along the eastern cost. Most of the settlers were British German farmers settled in Pennsylvania (Dutch) Swedes founded the colony of Delaware. The

Dutch settled in New York /called New Amsterdam/ Many immigrants tried to preserve the traditions, religion and culture. Salem – Witch trials (Naval Acts – Wool Acts -) 2. The War of Independence In 1756 Britain and France began fighting the Seven Years War. It is known in America as the French and Indian War. The war was ended by the Peace of Paris which was signed in 1763, France gave up its claim to Canada and to all of North America east of the Mississippi River. Samuel de Champlain; René La Salle; Prime Minister William Pitt The victory led England directly to conflict with its American colonies. Even before the final defeat of the French, colonists began to move into the Ohio valley. To prevent the war with the Amerindian tribes who lived in that area, the English king, George III, issued a proclamation in 1763. It forbade colonists to settle west of the Appalachians The proclamation angered the colonists, and they became angrier when the British government told

them that they must pay new taxes on imports of sugar, coffee, textiles, etc. And the colonists must feed and find shelter for British soldiers. Colonial merchants believed that they could not make bigger profit, and they also feared that if British troops stayed in America, they might be used to force them to obey the British government. In 1765 the British parliament passed another new law, called the Stamp Act. (to pay for the defense of the colonies,) Ever since the early years of the Virginia settlement Americans had claimed the right to elect representatives to decide the taxes they payed. In 1765 representatives from nine colonies met in New York, opposition the Stamp Act. But the British government passed another law, called the Declaratory Act. This stated that the British government had full of power and authority over the colonies. In 1767 the British placed new taxes on tea, paper etc., that the colonies imported from abroad. The colonists refused to pay, riots broke out in

Boston - Boston Massacre - 5 March 1770 The British removed all the dutíes except for the one on tea. In December 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonist disguised themselves as Amerindians and boarded British merchant ships in Boston harbour an threw 342 cases of tea into the sea. – Boston Tea Party The British reply was to pass a set of laws to punish Massachusetts. – Intolerable Acts On 5 September 1774 a group of colonial leaders came together in Philadelphia. They formed the First Continental Congress to oppose the British oppression. They declared their loyalty to the British king. But it called upon all Americans to refuse buying British goods (the liberals – Benjamin Franklin /the American ambassador to France/; democrats – Thomas Jefferson /landowner and lawyer in Virginia/; boycott – George Washington /Virginia landowner, surveyor – French and Indian War/; Proclamation of Human Rights) Fight between the Minutemen and British soldiers at Lexington and Concorde in

April 1775 – the begining of the war. In May, 1775, the second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began to act as an American national government. It set up an army under the command of G. Washingtonand sent representatives to seek aid from friendly European nations, especially from France. On July 2, 1776, cut all the political ties with Britain and declared the independance of the united colonies. Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, by Thomas Jefferson /natural right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness/. The borning of the United States of America. By the following year the fighting had spread beyond Massachusetts. After some early successes, the Americans did badly in the war. Washington had to train his army, but this took time, so the British captured New York in September 1776. In October 1777, Americans trapped a British army of almost 6,000 men at Saratoga in Northern New York. In February 1778, the French king, Louis XVI, signed an alliance with

the Americans, and sent ships, soldiers and money to America. Spain 1779; Holland 1780 From 1778 most of the fighting took place in the southern colonies. On October 17, 1781, Cornwallis surrended his army to Washington at Yorktown. In the Treaty Of Paris, which was signed in September 1783, Britain officially recognized her former colonies as an independent nation. Prime Minister Lord North; the Marquis de Lafayette 3. The Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution In the late 18th century Philadelphia was America’s most important city where the two most significant decisions in American history were made. In May 1775, representatives of the thirteen colonies met in Philadelphia to decide wheter to remain with Britain or fight for independence. Three groups emerged there: the radicals who wanted independence, the moderates who favoured reconciliationwith Britain and those who wanted to find a middle ground between these views. The compromise solution was the

Olive Branch Petition, which was rejected by the British. Many Americans decidedthat independence would be a solution to the outstanding problems with Britain. Fighting had already begun, but many people still hoped for peace with Britain. In 1776 Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense. It contributed to the spread of the demand for independence to a large degree. It called for immediate separation from Britain. On July4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was unanimously approved by the Continental Congress. The Declaration says independence is a basic human right All men are created equal and have unalienable natural rights to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. During the War of Independence the states had agreed to work together in the Congressto which each state sent representatives. The agreement that set up this plan for the states to cooperate with one another was called the Articles of Confederation. It had begun to operate in 1781. Thecentral government

was very weak It was given certain rights, but it had no power to make those rights effective. After the War of Independence individual states began to behave like independent nations. Som eset up tax barriers against others Some states even began fighting one another to decide the ownership of particular pieces of frontier land. In May 1787 delegates from all states met in Philadelphia to discuss the problems and revise the Articles of Confederation. But they decided soon that a new system of government was needed. They set out the plan for this government in a document called the Constitution of the United States. It consists of seven articles with sections and numerous amendments The Constitution gave the United States a federal system of government in which the power to rule is shared. It is shared between the central, or federal authority and the local authorities It is based on voting-system. The Constitution gave the central government the power to collect taxes, to organize

armed forces, to make treaties with foreign countries and to controll trade of all kind. The Constitution shared the power between the three branches of the government: the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch. - The law-making,or lagislative powers of the federal government were given to a Congress. This was made u pof representatives elected by the people Congress was to consist of two parts, the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the Senate each state would be equally represented, with two members, whatever the size of its population. The number of representatives a state in the House of Representatives would depend upon its population. - The national leader became the President to take charge of the federal government. He would hade the ’executive’ side of the government. His job is tor un the country’s everyday affairs and to see that people obeyed the laws. - The Supreme Court is to control the ’judicial’ part of the government and

to make decisions in any disagreements. It has the right to decide that any low is ’repugnant to the Constitution’ or not. The constitution went into effect in March 1789. In 1791 ten amendments were made to it Together these additionsare called the Bill of Rights. (freedom of religion, a free press, free speech, the right to carry arms, a right to a fair trial by jury, and protection against ’cruel’ and unusual punishments.’) 4. The Institution of Slavery: the Road to the Civil War In the year 1810 there were 7,2 million people inthe United States. 1,2 million of these people were black slaves. In the Southern States such as Virginia they were working on plantations of tobacco, rice, cotton etc. The economy was based on their strength In the north of the United States farms were smaller and the climate was cooler. Farmers there didn’t need slaves to work the land for them. By the early 19th century many northern states had passed laws abolishing slavery inside

their own boundaries. In 1808 abolitionists persuaded Congress to make it illegal for ships to bring any new slaves from Africa into the United States. By the 1820s southern and northern politicians were arguing about slavery should be permitted in the new western territories. Missouri Compromise: Slavery would be permitted in the Missouri and Arkansas territories (Lousiana) but banned in lands to the west and north of Missouri. ’States’ rights doctrine’: A southern political leader John C. Calhoun claimed that a state had the right to disobey any federal law if the state believed that the law would harm its interests. (By the early 1830s another angry arguement began over inport duties Northern states favoured because they protected their young industries. South states opposed them, because they relied upon foreign manufactured goods and import duties would raise the prices. Senator Daniel Webster strongly denied this doctrine) In the next twenty years the United States grew

much bigger. (Oregon, Southwest, California, Utah, New Mexico) Fugitive Slave Act: This was a law to make it easier for southerners to to recapture slaves who escaped from their masters and fled for safety to free states. (Congress – 1850; bounty hunters; Underground Railroad /stockholder, conductor, depot/; Dred Scott) In 1854 Congress voted to let Kansas people decide whether to permit slavery there. Proslavery immigrants poured in from the South and anti-slavery immigrants from the North Soon fighting and killing began. (Lawrence town; John Brown abolitionist,’bleeding Kansas’; William Lloyd Garrison Boston writer – The Liberator 1831) Republican Party: opponents of slavery formed it. In 1860 the Republicans chose Abraham Lincoln (16; 1861-65) in presidental election. He won the election, but in February 1861, eleven states seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States Of America, the Confederacy. The Civil War (preserve, protect and defend) On April 12

Confederate guns opened fire on Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina. The beginning of the American Civil War. Jefferson Davies was the newly elected President of the Confederacy. From the first months of the war Union warships blockaded the ports of the South. They did it to prevent the Confederacy from selling its cotton abroad and from abtaining forreign supplies. In both men and material resources the North was much stronger than the South It had a population of twenty-two million people. The South had only nine million people and 3,5 million of them were slaves. The North grew more food crops than the South It had morethan five times the manufacturing capacity, including weapon factories. The only way North could win the war was to invade the South and occupy irs land. But many of the best officers in the pre-war army were southerners. They returned to the Confederacy to organize its armies. Almost all the war’s fighting took plave in the South meant that Confederate soldiers

were defending their own homes. Southerns denied that they were fighting mainly to preserve slavery. The South was fighting for its independence from the North. The war was fought in two main areas – in Virginia and in the Mississippi valley. In Virginia the Union forces suffered defeatsin the first year of the war. They tried to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital, but they were thrown back each time. Confederate leaders: General Robert E. Lee General Thomas J. ’Stonewall’ Jackson But in the Mississippi valley Union forces had more success. In 1862 New Orleans, the largest Confederate city was captured by David Farragut. At the same time other Union forces were fighting their way down the Mississippi from the North. In 1863 Vicksburg surrendered to a Union army led by General Ulysses S. Grant Union forces now controlled the whole lenght of the Mississippi. They had torn the Confederacy in two In June 1863, Lee marched his army north into Pennsylvania. At a small town

named Gettysburg a Union army blocked his way. On the fouth day of the fighting Lee broke off the battle. By 1864 The Confederacy was running out of almost everything. On December 22 General William T. Sherman occupied the city of Savannah and than he turned north He marched through the Carolinas, burning and destroying and he split the Confederacy again, this time from east to west. By March 1865, Grant had almost encircled Richmond. On April 9, 1865 Lee met Grant in a village called Appomattox and surrendered his army. In 1865 slavery was abolished everywhere in the United States by the 13th Amendmentto the Constitution. The number of dead on both sides totaled 635,000 5. Reconstruction and the Gilded Age Lincoln was killed on the night of April 13, 1865. Before his death he intended to punish only some quilty individuals and to let he rest of the South’s people play a full part in the nation’s life again. President Andrew Johnson (17, 1865-69) had similar ideas When a

state voted to accept the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, Johnson intended that it should be accepted back into the Unionas a full and equal member. But the whiteSoutherners were horrified at the idea of giving equal right to their black slaves. All their assemblies passed laws to keep blacks ina n inferior position. Black Codes: refused blacks the vote, said that they could not serveon juries, forbade them to give evidence in court against a white man. In Mississippi blacks were not allowed to buy or rent farm land. A group in the United States Congress, called Radical Republicans believed that the most important reason for fighting the Civil War had been to free the blacks. They demanded harder treatment with the Southerners. In 1866 Congress passed a Civil Right Act and set up an organization called Freemen’s Bureau. Congress then introduced the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave blacks full rights of citizenship, including the right to vote. All the former

Confederate states except Tennessee refused to accept the 14th Amendment. In 1867 Congress replied by passing the Reconstruction Act. This dismissed the white governments of the southern states and placed them under military rule. They were told that that they could again have elected governments when they accepted the 14th Amendment and gave all black men the vote. By 1870 all the southern states had new ’Reconstruction’governments. (blacks, carpetbaggers, scalawags) Most white southerners supported the Democratic political party. Reconstruction aimed to give blacks the same rights that whites had. Southern whites organized terrorist groups to threaten and frighten black people. (secret society of KuKlux Klan, burning wooden cross, was dismissed in 1871, buti t was reorganized in 1915) This use of violence helped white racists to win back control of the state governments in 1877, when Congress withdraw federal troops from the South. Reconstruction was over (poll tax;

’Grandfather clauses’) All the southern states passed laws to enforce strict racial separation, or segregation. (Civil Rights movements in the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King) Gold rush in California – 1849. White people settled on the Great Plains (Prairie) and new states formed there in the 1880s and 1890s. (railroads to the west, Promontory Point-Utah) American investions: typewriter, telephone, hammering-, sewing-, printing-machines. American industries grew quickly, especially the production of coal and iron. These were the most important raw materials in the 19th century. By 1900 ten times more coal was being produced in the U.S than in 1860 By 1913 more than one third of the whole world’s industrial production was pouring from the mines and factories of the U.S (Andrew Carnegie – iron and steel; John D. Rockefeller – oil) The immigrants: 1845-60 Irish immigrants - starving 1860 German immigrants – to be soldier for land 1880 immigrants from eastern Europe

6. The United States in World War I In August 1914, a war started in Europe. It was the beginning of a struggle that lasted for more than 4 years and changed the history of the world. On one side there were Francem Great Britain and Russia. They were the Allies On the other side there were Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. They were the Central Powers. Most Americans wanted to keep out of the war. They found it difficult to stay impartial for long. In the first days of the war the German government sent its armies marching into neutral Belgium (gas-attack at Ypern). This shocked many Americans From the very beginning of the war the strong British navy prevented German ships from trading with the U.S American factories were making vast quantities of weapons and munitions and selling them to Britain and France. A big British passanger ship called Lusitania was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine. 128 of those passangers were Americans. The sinking of the Lusitania made

Americans very angry. In the autumn of 1916 American voters re-elected Wilson as a President (Woodrow Wilson 28, 1913-21), mainly because he had kept them out of the war. Wiklson wanted to make a peace without victory. But by that time American bankers had lent a lot of money to the Aliies. In the next few weeks German submarines sank five American ships Wilson felt that he had no choise. Wilson saw the war as a great crusade to ensure the future peace of the world. (total submarine war) In October the German government asked for peace and on 11th of November, 1918 the war was over. By January 1919, President Wilson was in Europe. He was there to sign the peace treaty They called it the Versailles Treaty. (Trianon – 1920; Prime Minister Lloyd George) League of Nations – an organization where representatives of the world’s nations would meet and solve the problems. In March 1920, the Senate voted against the US joining the League of Nations. 7. The United States as a Word

Power; The ’Roaring Twenties’ Good times, wild times. In the 1920s the United States was vwry rich, because of the First World War, other countries owed it a lot of money. The national income was much higher, than that of Britain, France, Germany and Japan put together. American factories produced more goods every year (motor industry, electrical industry) Assembly lines worked in the big factories. (mass production) They doubled their output between 1919 and 1929. The growth of industry made many Americans well off. (instalment plan – ’Live now, pay tomorrow’) Businessmen became popular heroes (Henry Ford) The governments were controlled by the Republican Party. President Warren G Harding (29, 1921-1923) President Calvin Coolidge (30, 1923-1929) Republicans believed that ifthe governmnet looked after the interests of the businessmen, everybody would become richer. To help businessmen Congress placed high import taxes on goods from abroad. The aim was to make imported goods

more expensive, so that American manufacturers would have less competition from foreign rivals. At the same time Congress reduced taxes on high incomes and company profits. But a survey in 1929 showed that half the American people had hardly enough money to buy sufficent food and clothing. (immigrant workers in the industrial cities of the North; sharecroppers) The landowner farmest couldn’t sell their wheat, because Europe no longer needed so much American food. By 1924, around 600,000 of them were bankrupt. In 1928 the American people elected a new President, Herbert Hoover (31, 192933 – ’a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage’) He was sure that American prosperity would go on growing. In 1919 the American people voted in favor of a new amendment to the Constitution. The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the making and selling of alcoholic drinks in the U.S But many Americans were not willing to give up alcoholic drinks. The illegal drinking places (speakeasies)

obtained their alcoholic drinks from criminals called ’bootleggers’. They worked in gang sor mobs. (’Scarface’ Al Capone; machine gun, armored car, corruption) Prohibition was finally given up in 1933. (Hollywood, movie, stars, Charlie Chaplin – the beginning of Americanization) 8. Depression and the New Deal October 24, 1929 – Black Thursday. This collapse of American share prices was known as the wall Street Crash. It marked the end of the prosperity of the 1920s American factories were already making more goods than they could sell. The crash affected their sales to foreing countries, too. Employers stopped employing workers and reduced production Hoower believed that he can do two things to end the Depression. The first was to ’balance the budget’ and the second was to restore businessmen’s confidence inthe future, so that they would begin to take on workers again. In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Dr Win-the-War) was elected to be the President. He was the

governor of the state of New York (Democratic Party) His main idea was that the federal governmenst should take the lead in the fight against the Depression. (the bonus army) ’NEW DEAL’ ’Hundred Days’ The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) found work for many thousands of young men. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) gave individual states government money to help their unemployed. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) set out to rise crop prices by paying farmers to produce less. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built a network of dams to make electricity and stop floods. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) worked to make sure that bisinesses paid faif wages and charged fair prices. Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935. (Useful community jobs – building roads, schools and hospitals – food, shelter and one dollar a day.) Roosevellt help industrial workers by persuading Congress to pass a law to protect their right to join labor

unions (the Wagner Act – National Labor Board). In 1935 he brought in a law called the Social Security Act (gave government pensions to people) 9. The United States in World War II Isolationist ideas were very strong in Congress during the 1930s. It passed a number of laws called Neutrality Acts. These acts said that American citizens would not be allowed to sell military equipment, or lend money to any nations at war. In 1939 war broke out in Europe. By the summer of 1940, Hitler’s armies had overrun all of western Europe. German had form an alliance with Japan – these countries were the Axis President Franklin D. Roosevelt (32, 1933-45) had persuaded the Congress to suspend the Neutrality Acts and spent military equipments into Britain. In 1941 – when the British ran out of money – the Congress passed the Lend Lease Plan which gave Roosevelt the right tosupply military equipment and goods to Britain without payment. When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941.

Roosevelt used the Lend Lease Plan to send aid to the Russians, too Japan captured Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937. In July 1941, they occupied the French colony of Indochina. The United States reduced its export to Japan and stopped all shipments of oil. Japan industy was based on the oil from the US In October General Hideki Tojo (the Razor) became Japan’s Prime Minister. He decided that Japan must get the oil of Southeast Asia and make it impossible for the Americans to use their Pacific battle fleet to stop them. On December 7, 1941 Japanese warplanes bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, The American navy’s main base in the Pacific Ocean. The US declared war on December 8, 1941 (Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States – Allies) The U.S government organized the whole American economy Controls on prices, high income taxes. (Manhattan Project – the world’s first atomic bomb – Oppenheimer, Szilárd) In November 1942 American and British forces landed in North Africa and

defeted the German general Rommel’s Afrika Korps. In 1943 they invaded Sicily and the mainland of Italy. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day - Deliverance), Allied troops invaded Normandy (Supreme Commander general Eisenhower – Operation Overlord) On May 5, 1945 Germany surrendered. (Battle of the Coral Sea; Midway Islands – 1942) Pacific Offensive against Japan in 1943. In August 6, 1945 an American bomber (Enola Gay) dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima and on August 9 on Nagasaki. (200,000 civilians were killed) On August 14 the Japanese government surrendered. 10. The Years of the Cold War The USA was the strongest country on earth in 1945. Its factories produced half the word’s manufactured goods. It had the world’s biggest air force and navy and it was the only nation armed with atomic bomb. After the USA came the Soviet Union They helped comunists to take over the governments in the occupied countries. In 1946 Britain’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill, spoke o fan

’Iron Curtain’ across Europe, separating the communist-ruled nations from the countries of the west (Fulton; Prime Minister Clement Attlee–Labour Party ). The Americans and the Russians were allies in the Second World War, but they became enemies at the and of the war. Truman suspected that Stalin’s action in eastern Europe were the first steps to convert the world to communism. President Harry Truman (33; 194553)decided to use American power and money to stop the Soviet influence In 1947 he sent money and supplies to help the government of Greece to beat communist forces in a civil war. Containing communism became the main aim of the United States in dealing with the rest of the world. Truman Doctrine Europe’s recovery was very slow. In France and Italy communist parties won lots of support President Truman was worried about it. In 1947 the government worked out a plan to help Europe’s people and break down the popularity of the communists. This was the Marshall Plan,

after General George Marshall, the Secretary of State who announced it. Stalin and the communist-ruled countries refused the help. By the time the Marshall Plan ended in 1952, western Europe was back on its feet and beginning to prosper with the help of American food, raw materials and machinery. In November 1952 American scientists had exploded the first H-bomb. By 1953 the Russians had made an H-bomb, too. (1957 – British H-bomb) The first satelitte (Sputnik) was sent into space by the Russians (1957). The beginning of the Space Race and the Arms Race (InterContinental Ballistic Missile, Polaris) Nikita Khrushchev realised the ’balance of terror’ and he suggested ’peaceful coexistence’. Eisenhower invited Khrushchev ti visit the United States and they planned a meeting in Paris. But in 1960 a Russian missile shot down an American U2 Spy plane over the Soviet Union, so the meeting was over GERMANY – At the end of the war Germany was divided into four zones:

Russian,English, French and American. Allies intended the whole country to be ruled by one government, but each wanted to be sure that this united Germany would be friendly with them. Stalin wanted Germany to be ruled by a communist government. By 1946 it was already clear that Germany would be divided into two parts. Berlin, the old capital was deep inside the Russian zone, so the allies divided it into four sectors. (Potsdam Conference – 1945; Molotov – Foreign Minister) By 1948 the Western Allies wanted to rebuild the German economy. In June 1948 they changed the old marks for new ones. On June 24 the Russians stopped all traffic between west Germany and west Berlin to persuade the Western Allies to change their economic policies. Soon, they blocked all the ways between Berlin and the western zones of Germany. They hoped that the blocade would force the Western troops to leave the city to tha Russians. (airlift 1948-49; Kennedy – ’I am a Berliner.’) The foundation of the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (Washington – April 1949) The foundation of the Federal German Republic (September 1949) and the German Democratic Republik (October 1949). The Berlin Wall had been borned in 1961 (Kennedy) KOREA – Before the Second World War it had been ruled by Japan. After the war it was occupied by the Soviet and the American forces. The boundary was the earth’s 38th parallel of latitude. In June 1950 the soldiers of North Korea attacked the South Truman sent soldiers for the South. (General Douglas MacArthur; United Nations Organization) American aim was to unite all of Korea. In China Chiang Kaishek was driving out by Mao Zedong in 1949 Mao feared that Korea came under American control and could be a base for Chiang Kaishek. So he spent Chinese soldiers to Korea. War between the Americans and China The War ended in July 1953. (the daeth of Stalin; President Eisenhower /34; 1953-61/ hinted that they might use atomic weapons) CUBA – In 1959

Fidel Castro took over the government (Batista dictatorship). Castro needed money to make changes, so he tokk over the American-owned business. On April 17, 1961, a force of refugees landed at the Bay of Pigs with weapons and the support of President Kennedy. But they were defeated by the troops of Castro Castro asked the Soviet Union for help. Khrushchev sent him weapons In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane found Russian missile bases in Cuba. Kennedy ordered nearly a thousand long-range missiles and tipped the ’balance of terror’ in favour of the U.S Then he ordered American ships and aircraft to set up a blockade and told Khrushchev to take away the Soviet Missiles and destroy the bases. Khrushchev ordered the missiles back This was the most dangerous crisis of the Cold War. 11. The Vietnam War Vietnam is in Southeast Asia. It was part of the French colony After the Second World War, the northern part of the country got under the rule of a communist government. The

French army tried to take back the northern part of the country, but they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu by the soldiers of a communist leader Ho Chi Minh in 1954. In the Treaty Of Geneva the country had been divide in two at the 17th parallel of letitude. Communist ruled the North, and an america-friend government the South. The next step was supposed to be the election of one government for the whole country. But the election never took place – mainly because the government of South Vietnam feared that the communists would win. Ho set out to unite Vietnam by war and ordered sabotage and terrorism against South Vietnam. Americans had already helped the French against Ho, so they sent weapons and advisers to the government of South Vietnam. Presence was very important for the Americans in Vietnam, because of an ideathat President Eisenhower (34; 1953-61) called the ’domino theory’: Asia has a lot of unsettled countries. If one of them, for example Vietnam, fell under communist

rule, others would follow. They would be knocked over one by one, like a line of falling dominoes. Americans were afraid that communist China might try to take control in Southeast Asia as the Soviet Union had done it in Eastern Europe. So, in the 1950s and early 1960s Eisenhower and Kennedy, J. F (35; 1961-63) sent money, weapons and soldiers to South Vietnam, not to fight, but to advise and train the local forces. By the early 1960s ho had a guerilla army of 100,000 men fighting in South Vietnam. They were called the Vietcong. By 1965 the Vietcong controlled large areas of South Vietnam and the government was close to collapse. The new president Lyndon B Johnson (36; 1963-69) had to decide and he sent American soldiers to Vietnam and ordered American aircraft to bomb North Vietnam. By 1968 over 500,000 men were fighting in South Vietnam Ho Chi Minh was equipped with soviet and chinese weapons. The Vietcong troops used the guerilla style of war, so the Americans had great casualties.

They had to learn the new tactic, and to use special material, especially chemicals in the war (napalm). But the American soldiers were tired, angry and frustrated Film riports of the suffering in Vietnam were shown all over the world on television and the public opinion had changed in the USA. The war was destroying the country’s good name In 1968 Johnson stopped the bombing of North Vietnam and started to look for ways of making peace. In 1969 Richard Nixon (37; 1969-1974) wanted to end the Vietnam War and worked out a plan, which was the ’Vietnamization’ of the war. He set out to strengthen the South Vietnamese army to make it strong enough to defend itself. This gave him an excuse to start withdrawing the American troops. Nixon then sent Henry Kissinger, his adviser on foreign affairs, to secret talks with North Vietnamese and Russian leaders in Moscow. In 1973 Henry Kissinger signed the Trety Of Paris and the last American soldier had left Vietnam. But the real end of the

Vietnam War came in May 1975 when the communists captured Saigon. Kent State University (1970) – students were fired on by soldiers demonstration against the war – hippy movement – Bob Dylan: Blowin’ in the Wind Films: Apocalypse Now, M.ASH, Hair, Born On the 4th of July, Platoon, Good Morning, Vietnam, Forest Gump