Rental Cars USA - History of USA
Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America in 1492, the continent was inhabited by nomadic Mongolian tribes who had travelled across the Barents Sea. The first wave of European settlers, mainly English, French and Dutch, crossed the Atlantic in the 17th century and colonised the Eastern Seaboard.
British attempts to assert authority in its 13 North American colonies led to the French and Indian War (1757-63). The British were victorious but were left with huge war debts, which they tried to recoup by imposing new taxes.
The restrictions on political rights and the punitive taxation which the British government imposed on the American colonists led to the American War of Independence (1775–1783), with the Declaration of Independence being signed in 1776. British general Cornwallis surrendered to American commander George Washington five years later at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781
In 1803, Napoleon relinquished the entire great plains, and Spain chipped in with Florida in 1819. The Battle of the Alamo during the 1835 Texan Revolution allowed Texan independence from Mexico, and the war with Mexico (1846-48) secured most of the southwest, including California. The Native Americans at this time were forced into reservations due to encroachment of white settlers into their lands. By 1853, the boundaries of the United States were, with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii, as they are today.
Nineteenth-century immigration drastically altered the cultural landscape as settlers of predominantly British stock were joined by Central Europeans and Chinese, many attracted by the 1849 gold rush in California. Economic activity in the southern States centred on plantation agriculture dependent on slavery. Attempts by liberally inclined Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, to end slavery were fiercely opposed. The election of Lincoln to the presidency in 1861 precipitated a political crisis, resulting in the American Civil War – the bloodiest war in America’s history. The North prevailed in 1865, freed the slaves and introduced universal adult male suffrage.
The mid- and late-19th century also saw the formulation of an American foreign policy with two principal elements: formal diplomatic and trading links were established with the old colonial powers; while on the American continent, the USA sought to establish itself as the regional power. In Europe, US intervention in 1917 proved decisive for the Allies, and signalled the emergence of the USA as a global power.
The 1929 stock-market crash signaled the start of the Great Depression and eventually brought about Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which sought to lift the country back to prosperity. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US played a major role in defeating the Germans and their allies in WWII. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 ended the war with Japan. WWII also saw the birth of nuclear weapons and the superpower conflict which has, until recently, dominated modern international relations.
The essence of post-war US foreign policy has been the struggle against the spread of communist influence. This marked the start of the Cold War - a period of great domestic prosperity and a surface uniformity belied by paranoia and betrayal. Politicians like Senator Joe McCarthy took advantage of the climate to fan anti-communist flames, while the USSR and USA stockpiled nuclear weapons and fought wars by proxy in Korea, Africa and Southeast Asia. Tensions between the two countries reached their peak in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The 1960s was a decade of profound social change marked by the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam war protests and the discovery of ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll’. The Civil Rights movement aimed at breaking down segregation and regaining the vote for disfranchised Southern African Americans. The movement peaked in 1963 with Martin Luther King Jr's 'I have a dream speech' in Washington, DC, and the passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. Then came the assassinations of prominent political leaders - John and Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr – diminishing national pride. In 1974 Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign from office, due to his involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate burglaries, bringing American patriotism to a new low.
The Reagan administration came to office in 1980, reinvigorated the ideological struggle. In 1988, Reagan’s vice-president George Bush was elected to the White House. As far as the USA was concerned, the collapse of the Soviet bloc meant the Cold War was won and the foreign policy effort needed to be realigned. Thus we have the ‘New World Order’, a loosely defined notion coined by Bush before the war against Iraq in early 1991. The Gulf War in 1992 gave George Bush the opportunity to lead a coalition supposedly representing a 'new world order' into battle against Iraq. A by-product of the intervention in the Gulf was the new impetus that the crisis gave to a solution of the Palestinian question in which the USA, as Israel’s essential ally, has long been involved.
Bush’s engagements on the international stage was exploited by his opponent, the Democratic Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. Bush failed to repeat his achievement in 1988 of overhauling a large Democratic poll lead, and Clinton won the election by a comfortable majority. With a shaky start, characterised by some major political misjudgments and some unfortunate personnel selections, the Clinton administration took a while to take off. Domestic matters, such as health reform, gun ownership, drugs, racial tension, gay rights, balancing the budget, tended to overshadow international concerns during the Clinton administration.
The USA signed NAFTA, a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, in 1993, invaded Haiti in its role of upholder of democracy in 1994, committed thousands of troops to peacekeeping operations in Bosnia in 1995 and hosted the Olympics in 1996.
George W. Bush arrived in Washington as an unknown quantity, but defused criticism by assembling a Cabinet of seasoned Washington hands such as Dick Cheney (Vice-President) and Colin Powell (Secretary of State); a number of others had served under his father.
The 2000 presidential election was a highly contested and deeply controversial race, after Democratic candidate, Al Gore, secured the majority of the popular vote but lost the election after Bush secure the key state of Florida despite a 5 week legal wrangle over poll irregularities.
Bush junior has received a baptism of fire, firstly from his high unpopular refusal to ratify the Kyoto agreement (environmental issues), followed by the events of 11 September 2001. He’s subsequently declared an all-out war on terrorism, defeating the Taleban regime in Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement. Following in the footsteps of his father he has set his eyes on removing Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, by forming an international alliance and pressuring the UN to produce a definitive resolution on de-arming rogue nations, including Korea.
At home, the country is facing up to a recession, and unprecedented corporate financial scandals, but continues to remain the most prosperous nation in the world.
