The USA - Formation of a nation

1. Federalism ▶️ System in which power is diveded between national and state government

2. Limited Government ▶️ Federal government only has the power given to it by the US constitution

3. Individual Rights ▶️ Basic liberties and rights of all citizens (given in the Bill of Rights)

4. Popular Sovereignty ▶️ Government of the people, for the people by the people

5. Republicanism ▶️ form of government in which people ellects representatives

6. Checks & Balances ▶️ System that allows each brand of government to control the power of other governments

7. Seperation of powers ▶️ Legislative= makes laws; Executive= enforces the law; Judicial = judges law

• U.S. Capitol ▶️ Congress

• Makes the laws

• White House ▶️ President/ Vice President

• Enforces the law

• The Supreme Court ▶️ Federal/ State Courts

1492

Mayflower Compact ➡️ Set of Rules for self-government established by the English settlers (traveled to NY on the Mayflower)

Formation of the First Continental Congress ➡️ First American national government

First Continental Congress

1775-1783

Declaration of Independence (issued by the Continental Congress)

independence of American colonies from GB

Treaty of Paris ➡️ GB officially recognizes its former colonies as an independent nation (USA)

Constitution of The US worked out (during migration from North to South)

• federal system —> shared power to rule and election of representatives

• sytsem of checks and balances is established

The Bill of Rights —> Amendments ensuring civil rights

• The desire to lead a free, self-determined life in the USA

Exploration of ghe West

• Manifest Destiny ➡️ idea of stretching the USA from the east to west coast

• Displacement and extermination of the Indians

Manifest Destiny has come true ➡️ Westward expansion is completet

Civil War between the northern and the southern states

• Fewer eligible voters due to jobs in the South

• Just white men have the voting right ➡️ Ends with liberation of the slaves

• Migration especially in the Northern States

Emigration Proclamation ➡️ Official abolishment of slavery but still discrimination

Ku Klux Klan was founded

• In the same year it is declared as an illegal organisation

Peak years of immigration to the USA (ca. 16 mio.)

• potatoe famine in Europe

• World War I

USA declares war against Germany “to make the world save for democracy”

The Roaring Twenties ➡️ Immigration Acts are passed to reduce immigration

The Great Depression and Roosevelt’s New Deal policy

Korea War

Civil Rights Movement ➡️ MLK being its most famous leader

Civil Rights Act ➡️ Outlawing of radical discrimination and segregation

Vietnam War

Beginning of Iraq War

• Signed into law on July 2nd, 1964 by President Johnson

• One of the most disputed laws in American history

• Prohibition of discrimination in public places

• Banned discrimination in education, hiring, practises and elections

• Signed by President Johnson to overcome legal barriers that prevented black people from exercising their right to vote, improved voter turnout among blacks

• prevented housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion

• Strenghtened anti-lynching laws

• Made it a crime to harm civil rights workers

1. Elemimazes segregation

2. Knocked down barriers of voting and political participation for African Americans

3. Increase in the number of African American

4. Poverty rates fell

1. All citizens are equal before law ▶️ Situation of Blacks has improved a lot

2. But still: racial inequality & disadvantages for black people

3. A lot of poor AA-familys live in vhetto-like neighborhood

4. Police violence, discrimination, prejeduce, racism

1. The belief that anyone in the US has the chance to be successful and happy if they work hard enough

2. American Dream was shaped through the Frontier ▶️ Line between the settlement are and the unexplored territory

3. Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion

• Trumps presidency

• The 2020 presidential election

• Exacerbation of the pandemic (lied about dangers posed by the Coronavirus and undermined efforts to contain it + belittled social-distancing requirements)

• Rolled back environmental and public-health regulations

• The belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, and in general anyone in the US has the chance to be successful and happy if they work hard enough

• AD was shaped through Frontier (Frontier = between the settlement area and the unexplored territory in the west