In addition to the above States, Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico are Territories and the United States holds the Phil. ippines as a colonial possession. A Short History of the United States In 1775, there were in the Eastern portion of the United States thirteen Colonies, occupied by English people, covering land now embraced by the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and adjoining territory afterwards relinquished by them to new states formed since that time. For many years prior to 1775 there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the tyrannical government of King George of England, who held sovereignty over the American Colonies. The war of the American Revolution began with the Battle of Lexington, near Boston, on April 19, 1775. This war continued for eight years, when Great Britain acknowledged the independence of these thirteen Colonies, who in the meantime, on the 4th day of July, 1776, had adopted the Declaration of Independence. This Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, composed of delegates from these Colonies who met in Philadelphia. The Fourth of July is the Nation's birthday and the national holiday of the United States. After the Revolution was over, a Constitutional Congress, composed of delegates from the thirteen Colonies, was called in 1786, and adopted the present Constitution of the United States, except the seventeen amendments which have been adopted from time to time since then. Under this Constitution, George Washington was elected the first President of the United States and was inaugurated April 30th, 1789. He had been, during the Revolutionary War, the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces. At this time the United States had about four million inhabitants. Within the next ten years the State of Vermont was created out of the western part of New Hampshire, Kentucky out of the western portion of Virginia, Tennessee out of the western part of North Carolina, and Ohio was made a state in 1802. Louisiana was purchased in the year 1803 from France and admitted to the Union in 1812. In 1812 there was another war with Great Britain, which lasted two years. This was caused by England impressing American sea-men. It resulted in a victory for the United OF THE UNITED STATES:⠀⠀⠀⠀ 79 States. Between 1812 and 1846 the States of Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida and Texas were admitted to the Union. Florida was purchased from Spain in 1819, and Texas was annexed in 1845, after she had declared her independence from Mexico. The admission of Texas into the United States caused a war with Mexico in 1846 and 1847. The United States was victorious and received, from Mexico, partly as indemnity and partly by purchase, the land which now comprises the States of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and portions of Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. In 1861 there was a Civil War in the United States between the Northern and Southern States. This was fought over the question of human slavery. The Northern States had no slaves and were called "free states," and the Southern States had slaves and were called "slave states." Both sides wished their principles adopted in the admission of new states that were being created from land which belonged to the United States, lying west of the Mississippi River and known as the 'Great West.' This war lasted for about four years, and the Northern States were victorious and slavery was forever abolished in the United States by Constitutional Amendment. During this war the great Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States and the greatest General on the Northern side was Ulysses S. Grant, while the greatest General on the Southern side was Robert E. Lee. During the War of the Rebellion the States of West Virginia and Nevada were created and admitted to the Union. From the close of the Civil War to 1896 the States of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah were admitted to the Union. In 1867 Alaska was purchased from Russia and was made into a Territory. The United States remained at peace from 1865 until 1898, when the war with Spain took place, while William McKinley was President. As a result of this war, Cuba, over which the war was fought, gained its independence from Spain and the United States acquired what is now the territory of Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands, its only Colonial possessions. In 1898 Hawaii, where a republic had been established by its inhabitants, was, at its own request, annexed to the United States and made into a Territory. In 1903 one of the nine departments of the Republic of Columbia revolted and declared its independence from Columbia under the name of "The Republic of Panama." In 1904, during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States made a treaty with Panama, by which Panama, for ten million dollars, and the protection of the United States, gave to the United States sovereignty, forever, over a strip of land 10 miles wide, across Panama from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The United States then paid forty millions of dollars to a French company for the unfinished ship canal then on this strip of land and has about finished the canal at an additional cost of over three hundred million dollars. The territories of New Mexico and Arizona were admitted as States in 1912. A great era of prosperity began in 1876 in the United States, and its wealth, power and population has increased rapidly to the present time. The United States now has a population, in its forty-eight States, of about one hundred million persons. In all parts of the United States education is free, and in some places it is compulsory for the children. There is no established church. Every one has the right to belong to any religion he chooses, or to none, if that best suits him. The United States is a pure democracy, every citizen being the equal, politically and before the law, of every other citizen. There are no titles of nobility in the United States. Women have the same right to vote as men in the States of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, Oregon and Illinois. The National political parties, as they now exist in the United States, are the Republican, Democratic, Progressive, Socialist and Prohibition parties. The United States has been great in the domains of Art and Science, and especially so in inventions. Among the many inventions made by Americans can be mentioned the following: The cotton gin, by Eli Whitney in 1793; the steamboat by Robert Fulton in 1807; the sewing machine by Elias Howe in 1846; the telegraph by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1837; the electric lamp by Thomas A. Edison; the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell; the reaper by Cyrus McCormick, and the perfected typewriter by several Americans together. |