We rise to together

“O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave”

 

The 4th July 1776, the 12 British colonies in North America declared their state of independence from Her Majesty Queen of England’s Kingdom. But the United Kingdom didn’t accept this declaration, and that resulted in a 6 years war between the rebellions and the Kingdom, a war which cost both side, but in particular the rebellions, who lost nearly everything they had.

 

Although the British were a military power in their own class, they were defeated by a heroically army of rebellions.

 

As said before the Americans lost nearly everything to get their independence, but after the war, they soon began to heal their wounds, and come back stronger than ever.

 

In 1803 United States of America acquired the possessions of the land west for Mississippi, by buying the land from France. Some years later USA also acquired the state of Florida from The Kingdom of Spain.

 

In the 1840’s USA went to war against the state of Mexico, a war which resulted in the control of states like Texas and California.

 

During the whole period from the independence of the US to the late 1840’s, Native Americans (Indians) were removed by force from their home, to make place for new white settlers. The removal resulted in devastating consequences for the Indian population in North America. Many of them died, and other tried to become like the Europeans, something which ended in big alcoholic problems, for many of them.

 

From 1861-1865 The USA went threw the most tragic period in its history. It all had its roots in huge political and economic differences, between the south and the north.

 

One of big the differences were on the question of slavery. The Northern states wanted a total prohibition of the slavery, but the southern states were against a ban, because their plantation economy was totally dependent on slaves.

 

So when Abraham Lincoln from the north won the presidential election, seven southern states pulled out from the American union and formed a confederacy with a constitution based on slavery.

 

The 12th April 1861 the southern states began their besieger of Fort Stumter outside Charlston in South Carolina were the union powers in the south was located. And after a while they came to the decision to attack the Fort and 34 hours later the Fort was captured.

 

When this news reached Lincoln, he didn’t have much choice, but to ask the congress for 75.000 volunteers. The confederate states regarded this as a declaration of war, and then war was a matter of fact. 23 states from the north against 11 states from the south, 22 million people against 11 million people.

 

The first two years of the war was good for the southern states and they had plan about capturing Washington D.C. and end the war. This led to the most famous battle of the war, The Battle of Gettysburg. Here the southern states suffered a devastating loss. And suddenly there was a turning point in the whole war. The unionist now began to win battle after battle and in 1865 the confederate states surrendered.

 

Five days after the war, President Lincoln and his wife were assassinated by supporter of the confederates.

 

 

From 1850 into the early 1900’s USA had a boom of immigration from Europe. Poor people from east and south Europe came to America, to realize the American dream.

 

This huge immigration soon transformed the US from an agricultural and rural country society to an industrialized country with large urban areas.

 

In 1929 a big crash hit the New York Stock Exchange. This crash resulted in high inflation, something that led to an unemployment rate between 25-30 %.

 

America was being devastated by these economic crises, but suddenly in December 1941 the American Naval base for the Pacific Ocean was attacked by the Japanese. This attack put an end to American neutrality and forced United States of America into the WWII.

 

This decision gave a boost to the American economy and also reduced the high inflation. During the war America gave all necessary assistance to its allies in Europe, who were nearly broke by they war.

 

The War ended in August 1945 when America had completed its project “Manhattan”, and dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered unconditional and the WWII was over.

 

The new world powers and the cold war: After the WWII America as a nation hadn’t suffered as much as Europe and the USSR. At the same time American economy was flourishing by the highly boosted war industry. After the war the spending power of the average American had nearly doubled and this soon transformed America to a consumer society.

 

But in the shadow of all, a new war was starting up, the so called Cold War. The former allies USA and the USSR, began to fear each other and both began to build up a massive military arsenal to defend their interests mainly in Europe, but afterward this cold war spread to other parts of the world where there was civil unrest. Often each backed the opposite sides in these areas. The Cold War was very near to end in a big disaster in the 1960’s when American satellites showed that the USSR had placed nuclear missiles on Cuban soil, missiles which could easily reach American soil. These led to the situation where the American Secretary of State, publicized picture which indicated Soviet ships fully loaded with nuclear arms on their way to Cuba. This forced the USSR to call back its ships.

 

In 1991 the cold war ended after the collapse of the USSR.

 

In 1950’s and the 60’s a big civil right movement where going on in the USA. The Blacks where fighting for their rights. They wanted to be treated as equal human beings. Some of the big names in these movements were Martin Luther King jr. and Malcolm X. Both fought heroically for the black people’s rights in America. In 1963 Martin Luther King jr. held a phenomenal speech outside the Lincoln Memorial where he said “I have dream”, these speech led to some movements on Capitol Hill and made them to pass laws, which had the black people’s interests in mind.

 

Vietnam: Americas Nightmare

In 1963 an increasing fear of communist takeover in Southeast Asia forced the American President John F. Kennedy to send American troops to South Vietnam. This soon became the biggest nightmare ever for the coming government. Over 58 000 American soldiers died and over 300 000 where badly wounded and the world’s strongest military power USA lost for an organization of communist rebellions. (Vietcong) But the biggest dark figures were on the other side; Over 3 million Vietnamese lost their lives in a war where America used Biologic and chemical warfare.(like Napalm) The War ended in 1975 when peace agreement was negotiated between Vietnam and USA.

 

Welcome to the 21st Century: We’ll remember

11th September 2001 United States of America woke up to the deadliest attacks on its soil ever, when foreign terrorists hijacked 4 commercial jetliners and flew them into the WTC and the Pentagon. These attacks led to over 3000 deaths and many thousand badly injured.

 

Soon after the attack a group called Al-Qaida took the blame for the attacks and declared war against the US and its allies.

 

This declaration forced the US to go to war against Afghanistan where the central power of the terrorist group had its HQ. Soon a global declaration came, which said that terrorism couldn’t be defended in any forms, this was an evil that had to be put an end to.

 

Terrorism is the biggest threat to the global peace and stability today, therefore we have to stay together and fight it together.

 

“Why do men go to war? Because women are watching”

-        T.S. Eliot