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Marcus L, Anne Sofie, Klaudia

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Alberte, Albert, Anton

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Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited. His first stop was the Canary Islands where the lack of wind left his expedition becalmed until September 6.

Once underway, Columbus benefited from calm seas and steady winds that pushed him steadily westward (Columbus had discovered the southern "Trades" that in the future would fuel the sailing ships carrying goods to the New World). However, the trip was long, longer than anticipated by either Columbus or his crew. In order to mollify his crew's apprehensions, Columbus kept two sets of logs: one showing the true distance traveled each day and one showing a lesser distance. The first log was kept secret. The latter log quieted the crew's anxiety by under-reporting the true distance they had traveled from their homeland.

This deception had only a temporary effect; by October 10 the crew's apprehension had increased to the point of near mutiny. Columbus headed off disaster by promising his crew that if land was not sighted in two days, they would return home. The next day land was discovered.

Columbus's journal of his first voyage to America has been lost. However, we do have an accurate abstract of the journal written by Bartolome de las Casas in the 1530s. Las Casas was an historian and Columbus's biographer who had access to the original journal of the voyage. We join Columbus's account as his expedition approaches the islands of the Bahamas. Throughout the account, Columbus refers to himself in the third person as the "Admiral":

"Thursday October 11

The course was W.S.W., and there was more sea than there had been during the whole of the voyage. They saw sand-pipers, and a green reed near the ship. Those of the caravel Pinta saw a cane and a pole, and they took up another small pole which appeared to have been worked with iron; also another bit of cane, a land-plant, and a small board. The crew of the caravel Nia also saw signs of land, and a small branch covered with berries. Everyone breathed afresh and rejoiced at these signs. The run until sunset was 27 leagues.

After sunset the Admiral returned to his original west course, and they went along at the rate of 12 miles an hour. Up to two hours after midnight they had gone 90 miles, equal to 22 1/2 leagues. As the caravel Pinta was a better sailer, and went ahead of the Admiral, she found the land, and made the signals ordered by the Admiral. The land was first seen by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana. But the Admiral, at ten o'clock, being on the castle of the poop, saw a light, though it was so uncertain that he could not affirm it was land. He called Pero Gutierrez, a gentleman of the King's bedchamber, and said that there seemed to be a light, and that he should look at it. He did so, and saw it. The Admiral said the same to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the fleet as inspector, but he could see nothing, because he was not in a place whence anything could be seen.

After the Admiral had spoken he saw the light once or twice, and it was like a wax candle rising and failing. It seemed to few to be an indication of land; but the Admiral made certain that land was close. When they said the Salve, (Salve Regina) which all the sailors were accustomed to sing in their way, the Admiral asked and admonished the men to keep a good look-out on the forecastle, and to watch well for land; and to him who should first cry out that he saw land, he would give a silk doublet, besides the other rewards promised by the Sovereigns, which were 10,000 maravedis to him who should first saw it. At two hours after midnight the land was sighted at a distance of two leagues."

Columbus ordered the three ships to halt and wait for daylight before venturing further. His journal continues:

"Friday October 12

The vessels were hove to, waiting for daylight; and on Friday they arrived at a small island of the Lucayos, called, in the language of the Indians, Guanahani. Presently they saw naked people. The Admiral went on shore in the armed boat, and Martin Alonso Pinzon, and Vicente Yanez, his brother, who was captain of the Nia. The Admiral took the royal standard, and the captains went with two banners of the green cross, which the Admiral took in all the ships as a sign, with an F and a Y and a crown over each letter, one on one side of the cross and the other on the other.
Having landed, they saw trees very green, and much water, and fruits of diverse kinds. The Admiral called to the two captains, and to the others who leaped on shore, and to Rodrigo Escovedo, secretary of the whole fleet, and to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, and said that they should bear faithful testimony that he, in presence of all, had taken, as he now took, possession of the said island for the King and for the Queen his Lords, making the declarations that are required, as is now largely set forth in the testimonies which were then made in writing."

Shortly after landing, many of the island's inhabitants assembled on the beach and Columbus gave them gifts of red hats and beads. The natives reciprocated with gifts of parrots, cotton and other goods. In describing the natives, Columbus wrote: "They go as naked as when their mothers bore them, and so do the women, although I did not see more than one girl. They are very well made, with very handsome bodies, and very good countenances."

References:
Columbus's journal appears in Olson, Julius, The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 (1926); Dyson, John, Columbus: for Gold, God, and Glory (1991); Morrison, Samuel Eliot, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942);

How To Cite This Article:
"Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2004).

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Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492

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An eyewitness account of Columbus's first landfall in the New World.

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This article is about the state of political tension in the 20th century. For the general term, see Cold war (term). For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation).

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Cold War in 9 Minutes - Manny Man Does History

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Schoolbytes - Free book summaries, papers, US history, and math

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The powerful nations in Europe were starting colonies in the New World (America). Britain didn’t want to be left out, but they were low on cash. The Roanoke Colony was a trial run colony in Virginia that proved how risky they were. When supply ships reached the colony after it was settled, everyone had mysteriously disappeared. No clues were left behind, but there are now legends of blue-eyed Croatan Indians in the area.

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American Revolution in 9 Minutes - Manny Man Does History

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September 11 attacks - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Nearly 500 years before the birth of Christopher Columbus, a band of European sailors left their homeland behind in search of a new world. Their high-prowed Viking ship sliced through the cobalt waters of the Atlantic Ocean as winds billowed the boat's enormous single sail. After traversing unfamiliar waters, the Norsemen aboard the wooden ship spied a new land, dropped anchor and went ashore. Half a millennium before Columbus "discovered" America, those Viking feet may have been the first European ones to ever have touched North American soil.

Exploration was a family business for the expedition's leader, Leif Eriksson (variations of his last name include Erickson, Ericson, Erikson, Ericsson and Eiriksson). His father, Erik the Red, founded the first European settlement of Greenland after being expelled from Iceland around A.D. 985 for killing a neighbor. (Erik the Red's father, himself, had been banished from Norway for committing manslaughter.) Eriksson, who is believed to have been born in Iceland around A.D. 970, spent his formative years in desolate Greenland. Around A.D. 1000, Eriksson sailed east to his ancestral homeland of Norway. There, King Olaf I Tryggvason converted him to Christianity and charged him with proselytizing the religion to the pagan settlers of Greenland. Eriksson converted his mother, who built Greenland's first Christian church, but not his outlaw father.

Icelandic legends called sagas recounted Eriksson's exploits in the New World around A.D. 1000. These Norse stories were spread by word of mouth before becoming recorded in the 12th and 13th centuries. Two sagas give differing accounts as to how Eriksson arrived in North America. According to the "Saga of Erik the Red," Eriksson crossed the Atlantic by accident after sailing off course on his return voyage from Norway after his conversion to Christianity. The "Saga of the Greenlanders," however, recounts that Eriksson's voyage to North America was no fluke. Instead, the Viking explorer had heard of a strange land to the west from Icelandic trader Bjarni Herjolfsson, who more than a decade earlier had overshot Greenland and sailed by the shores of North America without setting foot upon it. Eriksson bought the trader's ship, raised a crew of 35 men and retraced the route in reverse.

After crossing the Atlantic, the Vikings encountered a rocky, barren land in present-day Canada. Eriksson bestowed upon the land a name as boring as the surroundings-Helluland, Norwegian for "Stone Slab Land." Researchers believe this location could possibly have been Baffin Island. The Norsemen then voyaged south to a timber-rich location they called Markland (Forestland), most likely in present-day Labrador, before finally setting up a base camp likely on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland.

The Vikings spent an entire winter there and benefitted from the milder weather compared to their homeland. They explored the surrounding region abounding with lush meadows, rivers teeming with salmon, and wild grapes so suitable for wine that Eriksson called the region Vinland (Wineland).

After spending the winter in Vinland, Eriksson and his crew sailed home to windswept Greenland with badly needed timber and plentiful portions of grapes. Eriksson, who would succeed Erik the Red as chief of the Greenland settlement after his father's death, never returned to North America, but other Vikings continued to sail west to Vinland for at least the ensuing decade. In spite of North America's more bountiful resources, the Viking settlers remained in desolate Greenland. This was perhaps due to the violent encounters-including the slaying of Eriksson's brother Thorwald-they had with the indigenous population of North America.

Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that supports the sagas' stories of the Norse expeditions to America. In 1960, Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad scoured the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland for signs of a possible settlement, and he found it on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland at L'Anse aux Meadows. An international team of archaeologists that included Ingstad's wife, Anne, excavated artifacts of Viking origin dating from around A.D. 1000, and the remains of the Norse village are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

While Columbus is honored with a federal holiday, the man considered to be the leader of the first European expedition to North America has not been totally forgotten on the calendar. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation that declared October 9 to be Leif Eriksson Day in honor of the Viking explorer, his crew and the country's Nordic-American heritage. The proximity of the days honoring Eriksson and Columbus is coincidence. October 9 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the 1825 arrival in New York of the ship Restaruation, which carried the first organized band of Norwegian immigrants to the United States.

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The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America

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Nearly 500 years before the birth of Christopher Columbus, a band of European sailors left their homeland behind in search of a new world. Their high-prowed Viking ship sliced through the cobalt waters of the Atlantic Ocean as winds billowed the boat's enormous single sail.

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This digital collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression.

Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, the collection includes:

over 400,000 pages from more than 2,200 books, pamphlets, and serials

over 9,600 pages from manuscript and archival collections

more than 7,800 photographs

By incorporating diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants.

The collection also includes contextual information on voluntary immigration and quantitative data.

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Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930

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This digital collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression.

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Log in to your Preceden account to continue working on your timelines.

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American pioneers were European American and African American settlers who migrated westward from the Thirteen Colonies and later United States to settle in and develop areas of North America that had previously been inhabited or used by Native Americans.

The pioneer concept and ethos greatly predate the migration to the Western United States, with which they are commonly associated, and many places now considered "East" were settled by pioneers from even further east. For example, Daniel Boone, a key figure in American history, settled in Kentucky, when that "Dark and Bloody Ground" was still undeveloped.

One important development in the Western settlement was the Homestead Act, which provided formal legislation for the settlers which regulated the settlement process.

The word "pioneer" originates with the Middle French pionnier (originally, a foot soldier, or soldier involved in digging trenches), from the same root as peon or pawn. In the English language, the term independently evolved a sense of being an innovator or trailblazer. As early as 1664, Englishman John Evelyn used the term with a self-effacing "workman" meaning when he wrote in his treatise on planting, Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees: "I speak now in relation to the Royal Society, not my self, who am but a Servant of it only and a Pioneer in the Works".

Various figures in American folklore and literature typify the pioneer. James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer (1841) became the most successful of his early series, the Leatherstocking Tales, about pioneer life in the Province of New York. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series, published a century later in 1932-1943 but set in the 1870s and 1880s, typified later depictions of pioneer families. Daniel Boone (1734-1820) and Davy Crockett (1786-1836) became two real-life icons of pioneer history.

History of settlement efforts

The first westward migrations occurred as representatives of the Thirteen Colonies sought to open up new lands for their respective colonies westward. Those whose original royal charters did not specify a western limit simply extended their lands directly and indefinitely westward.

After the United States was formed upon the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, federal coordination and legislation began to give settlement a more unified approach.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 was the first official action by the federal government in deciding how political organization of new territories would be handled. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was a major step, declaring that states could not individually claim new lands, but exploration would be handled by the national U.S. government. In the Land Act of 1804, the federal government took its first steps towards legislating the manner in which pioneer lands would be individually claimed and distributed.

Further evidence of the government's involvement in encouraging western settlement was the publication of The Prairie Traveler, published in 1859, three years before the Homestead Act's passage. Randolph B. Marcy, Captain of the U.S. Army was commissioned by War Department to provide a guide for those moving west. It provided not only mileage and stopping points during travel but also gave advice about what to take on the journey, how to interact with Native Americans and also how to respond to threatening situations such as encounters with bears.

There were many other forms of this process, such as land runs including the Land Run of 1889, in Oklahoma, which occurred when parts of the territory of Oklahoma were first opened, allowing anyone to claim land on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Details of pioneer efforts and actions

As western settlement grew, certain common details began to emerge. Most pioneers traveled in wagon trains, groups of wagons containing settlers and their families. They banded together for common defense and to combine their efforts.

Pioneers in the East often had to clear the land, owing to lush forests there. In the Midwest, the task was to bring agricultural fertility to the Great Plains.

Some pioneers were drawn with the original intent of claiming lands and settling their families. Others were trappers, or others who went west for commercial reasons, and remained there as residents when their businesses proved to be profitable.

The figure of the pioneer has played a large role in American culture, literature and folklore. The pioneer is not the only iconic figure which figures in the settlement of the West. Much cultural note is given to other figures of a more transient nature, such as cowboys, trappers, prospectors, miners etc. However, the pioneer alone represents those who went into unexplored territory in search of a new life, looking to establish permanent settlement.

Various figures in American folklore and literature typify the pioneer. The Deerslayer was the most successful of an early series, the Leatherstocking Tales, about pioneer life in New York. Little House on the Prairie, a century later, typified a later series of novels describing a pioneer family. Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett are two real-life icons of pioneer history.

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American pioneers were European American and African American settlers who migrated westward from the Thirteen Colonies and later United States to settle in and develop areas of North America that had previously been inhabited or used by Native Americans.

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American Indian Research in the 1800s - Ancestry Blog

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In 19th-century America, the eyes of the country were looking west. The Louisiana Purchase, annexation of Texas, Mexican-American War, resolving of the Oregon boundary dispute, California gold rush, Homestead Act, and transcontinental railroad all contributed to opening more of the American continent to white settlement.

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checks and balances, principle of government under which separate branches are empowered to prevent actions by other branches and are induced to share power. Checks and balances are applied primarily in constitutional governments. They are of fundamental importance in tripartite governments, such as that of the United States, which separate powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

The Greek historian Polybius analyzed the ancient Roman mixed constitution under three main divisions: monarchy (represented by the consul); aristocracy (the Senate); and democracy (the people). He greatly influenced later ideas about the separation of powers.

Checks and balances, which modify the separation of powers, may operate under parliamentary systems through exercise of a parliament's prerogative to adopt a no-confidence vote in a government; the government, or cabinet, in turn, ordinarily may dissolve the parliament. The British Parliament is supreme, and laws passed by it are not subject to review by the courts for constitutionality. In France, under the Fifth Republic (1958), a Constitutional Council of nine members (appointed for nine years by the president, Senate, and National Assembly) reviews the constitutionality of legislation. The Federal Republic of Germany combines features of parliamentary systems and of federal systems like that of the United States. It vests the right to declare a law unconstitutional in the Federal Constitutional Court (1951).

The framers of the U.S. Constitution, who were influenced by Montesquieu and William Blackstone among others, saw checks and balances as essential for the security of liberty under the Constitution: "It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts in human nature toward tyranny can alone be checked and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution" ( John Adams). Though not expressly covered in the text of the Constitution, judicial review-the power of the courts to examine the actions of the legislative and the executive and administrative arms of government to ensure that they are constitutional-became an important part of government in the United States. Other checks and balances include the presidential veto of legislation (which Congress may override by a two-thirds vote) and executive and judicial impeachment by Congress. Only Congress can appropriate funds, and each house serves as a check on possible abuses of power or unwise action by the other. Congress, by initiating constitutional amendments, can in practice reverse decisions of the Supreme Court. The president appoints the members of the Supreme Court but only with the consent of the Senate, which also approves certain other executive appointments. The Senate also must approve treaties.

From 1932 the U.S. Congress exercised a so-called legislative veto. Clauses in certain laws qualified the authority of the executive branch to act by making specified acts subject to disapproval by the majority vote of one or both houses. In 1983, in a case concerning the deportation of an alien, the U.S. Supreme Court held that legislative vetoes were unconstitutional (the House of Representatives had overturned the Justice Department's suspension of the alien's deportation). The decision affected clauses in some 200 laws covering a wide range of subjects, including presidential war powers, foreign aid and arms sales, environmental protection, consumer interests, and others. Despite the court's decision, Congress continued to exercise this power, including the legislative veto in at least 11 of the bills it passed in 1984 alone.

Checks and balances that evolved from custom and Constitutional conventions include the congressional committee system and investigative powers, the role of political parties, and presidential influence in initiating legislation.

In one-party political systems, informal, and perhaps even illegal, checks and balances may operate when organs of an authoritarian or totalitarian regime compete for power.

See also Federalist papers; judicial review; and powers, separation of.

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Checks and balances | Definition, History, & Facts

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Checks and balances, principle of government under which separate branches are empowered to prevent actions by other branches and are induced to share power. Checks and balances are of fundamental importance in tripartite governments, which separate powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

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Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances: Crash Course Government and Politics #3

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The Constitution of the United States established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens.

It was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Under America's first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, the national government was weak and states operated like independent countries. At the 1787 convention, delegates devised a plan for a stronger federal government with three branches-executive, legislative and judicial-along with a system of checks and balances to ensure no single branch would have too much power.
READ MORE: How the Constitution Has Changed and Expanded Since 1787
The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

The Preamble outlines the Constitution's purpose and guiding principles. It reads:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Bill of Rights were 10 amendments guaranteeing basic individual protections, such as freedom of speech and religion, that became part of the Constitution in 1791. To date, there are 27 constitutional amendments.
READ MORE: Why Does the Constitution Include the Bill of Rights?
Articles of Confederation

America's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was ratified in 1781, a time when the nation was a loose confederation of states, each operating like independent countries. The national government was comprised of a single legislature, the Congress of the Confederation; there was no president or judicial branch.

The Articles of Confederation gave Congress the power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war and regulate currency; however, in reality these powers were sharply limited because Congress had no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops.

Did you know? George Washington was initially reluctant to attend the Constitutional Convention. Although he saw the need for a stronger national government, he was busy managing his estate at Mount Vernon, suffering from rheumatism and worried that the convention wouldn't be successful in achieving its goals.

Soon after America won its independence from Great Britain with its 1783 victory in the American Revolution, it became increasingly evident that the young republic needed a stronger central government in order to remain stable.

In 1786, Alexander Hamilton, a lawyer and politician from New York, called for a constitutional convention to discuss the matter. The Confederation Congress, which in February 1787 endorsed the idea, invited all 13 states to send delegates to a meeting in Philadelphia.

Forming a More Perfect Union

On May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence had been adopted 11 years earlier. There were 55 delegates in attendance, representing all 13 states except Rhode Island, which refused to send representatives because it did not want a powerful central government interfering in its economic business. George Washington, who'd become a national hero after leading the Continental Army to victory during the American Revolution, was selected as president of the convention by unanimous vote.

The delegates (who also became known as the "framers" of the Constitution) were a well-educated group that included merchants, farmers, bankers and lawyers. Many had served in the Continental Army, colonial legislatures or the Continental Congress (known as the Congress of the Confederation as of 1781). In terms of religious affiliation, most were Protestants. Eight delegates were signers of the Declaration of Independence, while six had signed the Articles of Confederation.

At age 81, Pennsylvania's Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) was the oldest delegate, while the majority of the delegates were in their 30s and 40s. Political leaders not in attendance at the convention included Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and John Adams (1735-1826), who were serving as U.S. ambassadors in Europe. John Jay (1745-1829), Samuel Adams (1722-1803) and John Hancock (1737-93) were also absent from the convention. Virginia's Patrick Henry (1736-99) was chosen to be a delegate but refused to attend the convention because he didn't want to give the central government more power, fearing it would endanger the rights of states and individuals.

Reporters and other visitors were barred from the convention sessions, which were held in secret to avoid outside pressures. However, Virginia's James Madison (1751-1836) kept a detailed account of what transpired behind closed doors. (In 1837, Madison's widow Dolley sold some of his papers, including his notes from the convention debates, to the federal government for $30,000.)

Debating the Constitution

The delegates had been tasked by Congress with amending the Articles of Confederation; however, they soon began deliberating proposals for an entirely new form of government. After intensive debate, which continued throughout the summer of 1787 and at times threatened to derail the proceedings, they developed a plan that established three branches of national government-executive, legislative and judicial. A system of checks and balances was put into place so that no single branch would have too much authority. The specific powers and responsibilities of each branch were also laid out.

Among the more contentious issues was the question of state representation in the national legislature. Delegates from larger states wanted population to determine how many representatives a state could send to Congress, while small states called for equal representation. The issue was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation of the states in the lower house ( House of Representatives) and equal representation in the upper house (Senate).

Another controversial topic was slavery. Although some northern states had already started to outlaw the practice, they went along with the southern states' insistence that slavery was an issue for individual states to decide and should be kept out of the Constitution. Many northern delegates believed that without agreeing to this, the South wouldn't join the Union. For the purposes of taxation and determining how many representatives a state could send to Congress, it was decided that enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person. Additionally, it was agreed that Congress wouldn't be allowed to prohibit the slave trade before 1808, and states were required to return fugitive enslaved people to their owners.
READ MORE: 7 Things You May Not Know About the Constitutional Convention
Ratifying the Constitution

By September 1787, the convention's five-member Committee of Style (Hamilton, Madison, William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, Gouverneur Morris of New York, Rufus King of Massachusetts) had drafted the final text of the Constitution, which consisted of some 4,200 words. On September 17, George Washington was the first to sign the document. Of the 55 delegates, a total of 39 signed; some had already left Philadelphia, and three-George Mason (1725-92) and Edmund Randolph (1753-1813) of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry (1744-1813) of Massachusetts-refused to approve the document. In order for the Constitution to become law, it then had to be ratified by nine of the 13 states.

James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, with assistance from John Jay, wrote a series of essays to persuade people to ratify the Constitution. The 85 essays, known collectively as "The Federalist" (or "The Federalist Papers"), detailed how the new government would work, and were published under the pseudonym Publius (Latin for "public") in newspapers across the states starting in the fall of 1787. (People who supported the Constitution became known as Federalists, while those opposed it because they thought it gave too much power to the national government were called Anti-Federalists.)

Beginning on December 7, 1787, five states- Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut-ratified the Constitution in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve un-delegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion and the press.

In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. George Washington was inaugurated as America's first president on April 30, 1789. In June of that same year, Virginia ratified the Constitution, and New York followed in July. On February 2, 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court held its first session, marking the date when the government was fully operative.

Rhode Island, the last holdout of the original 13 states, finally ratified the Constitution on May 29, 1790.

The Bill of Rights

In 1789, Madison, then a member of the newly established U.S. House of Representatives, introduced 19 amendments to the Constitution. On September 25, 1789, Congress adopted 12 of the amendments and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, were ratified and became part of the Constitution on December 10, 1791. The Bill of Rights guarantees individuals certain basic protections as citizens, including freedom of speech, religion and the press; the right to bear and keep arms; the right to peaceably assemble; protection from unreasonable search and seizure; and the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. For his contributions to the drafting of the Constitution, as well as its ratification, Madison became known as "Father of the Constitution."

To date, there have been thousands of proposed amendments to the Constitution. However, only 17 amendments have been ratified in addition to the Bill of Rights because the process isn't easy-after a proposed amendment makes it through Congress, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. The most recent amendment to the Constitution, Article XXVII, which deals with congressional pay raises, was proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992.
READ MORE: 8 Things You Should Know About the Bill of Rights
The Constitution Today

In the more than 200 years since the Constitution was created, America has stretched across an entire continent and its population and economy have expanded more than the document's framers likely ever could have envisioned. Through all the changes, the Constitution has endured and adapted.

The framers knew it wasn't a perfect document. However, as Benjamin Franklin said on the closing day of the convention in 1787: "I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such, because I think a central government is necessary for us... I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution." Today, the original Constitution is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Constitution Day is observed on September 17, to commemorate the date the document was signed.

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The Constitution of the United States established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. It was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Under America's first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, the national government was weak and states operated like independent countries.

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Causes of the Revolutionary War

For more than a decade before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, tensions had been building between colonists and the British authorities.

The French and Indian War, or Seven Years' War (1756-1763), brought new territories under the power of the crown, but the expensive conflict lead to new and unpopular taxes. Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies (notably the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Acts of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773) met with heated protest among many colonists, who resented their lack of representation in Parliament and demanded the same rights as other British subjects.

Colonial resistance led to violence in 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre. After December 1773, when a band of Bostonians altered their appearance to hide their identity boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party, an outraged Parliament passed a series of measures (known as the Intolerable, or Coercive Acts) designed to reassert imperial authority in Massachusetts.

Did you know? Now most famous as a traitor to the American cause, General Benedict Arnold began the Revolutionary War as one of its earliest heroes, helping lead rebel forces in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775.

In response, a group of colonial delegates (including George Washington of Virginia, John and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, Patrick Henry of Virginia and John Jay of New York) met in Philadelphia in September 1774 to give voice to their grievances against the British crown. This First Continental Congress did not go so far as to demand independence from Britain, but it denounced taxation without representation, as well as the maintenance of the British army in the colonies without their consent. It issued a declaration of the rights due every citizen, including life, liberty, property, assembly and trial by jury. The Continental Congress voted to meet again in May 1775 to consider further action, but by that time violence had already broken out.

On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord, Massachusetts in order to seize an arms cache. Paul Revere and other riders sounded the alarm, and colonial militiamen began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoats. On April 19, local militiamen clashed with British soldiers in the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, marking the "shot heard round the world" that signified the start of the Revolutionary War.

HISTORY Vault: The Revolution

Declaring Independence (1775-76)

When the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, delegates-including new additions Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson-voted to form a Continental Army, with Washington as its commander in chief. On June 17, in the Revolution's first major battle, colonial forces inflicted heavy casualties on the British regiment of General William Howe at Breed's Hill in Boston. The engagement, known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, ended in British victory, but lent encouragement to the revolutionary cause.

Throughout that fall and winter, Washington's forces struggled to keep the British contained in Boston, but artillery captured at Fort Ticonderoga in New York helped shift the balance of that struggle in late winter. The British evacuated the city in March 1776, with Howe and his men retreating to Canada to prepare a major invasion of New York.

By June 1776, with the Revolutionary War in full swing, a growing majority of the colonists had come to favor independence from Britain. On July 4, the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, drafted by a five-man committee including Franklin and John Adams but written mainly by Jefferson. That same month, determined to crush the rebellion, the British government sent a large fleet, along with more than 34,000 troops to New York. In August, Howe's Redcoats routed the Continental Army on Long Island; Washington was forced to evacuate his troops from New York City by September. Pushed across the Delaware River, Washington fought back with a surprise attack in Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas night and won another victory at Princeton to revive the rebels' flagging hopes before making winter quarters at Morristown.

Saratoga: Revolutionary War Turning Point (1777-78)

British strategy in 1777 involved two main prongs of attack aimed at separating New England (where the rebellion enjoyed the most popular support) from the other colonies. To that end, General John Burgoyne's army marched south from Canada toward a planned meeting with Howe's forces on the Hudson River. Burgoyne's men dealt a devastating loss to the Americans in July by retaking Fort Ticonderoga, while Howe decided to move his troops southward from New York to confront Washington's army near the Chesapeake Bay. The British defeated the Americans at Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania, on September 11 and entered Philadelphia on September 25. Washington rebounded to strike Germantown in early October before withdrawing to winter quarters near Valley Forge.

Howe's move had left Burgoyne's army exposed near Saratoga, New York, and the British suffered the consequences of this on September 19, when an American force under General Horatio Gates defeated them at Freeman's Farm in the first Battle of Saratoga. After suffering another defeat on October 7 at Bemis Heights (the Second Battle of Saratoga), Burgoyne surrendered his remaining forces on October 17. The American victory Saratoga would prove to be a turning point of the American Revolution, as it prompted France (which had been secretly aiding the rebels since 1776) to enter the war openly on the American side, though it would not formally declare war on Great Britain until June 1778. The American Revolution, which had begun as a civil conflict between Britain and its colonies, had become a world war.

Stalemate in the North, Battle in the South (1778-81)

During the long, hard winter at Valley Forge, Washington's troops benefited from the training and discipline of the Prussian military officer Baron Friedrich von Steuben (sent by the French) and the leadership of the French aristocrat Marquis de Lafayette. On June 28, 1778, as British forces under Sir Henry Clinton (who had replaced Howe as supreme commander) attempted to withdraw from Philadelphia to New York, Washington's army attacked them near Monmouth, New Jersey. The battle effectively ended in a draw, as the Americans held their ground, but Clinton was able to get his army and supplies safely to New York. On July 8, a French fleet commanded by the Comte d'Estaing arrived off the Atlantic coast, ready to do battle with the British. A joint attack on the British at Newport, Rhode Island, in late July failed, and for the most part the war settled into a stalemate phase in the North.

The Americans suffered a number of setbacks from 1779 to 1781, including the defection of General Benedict Arnold to the British and the first serious mutinies within the Continental Army. In the South, the British occupied Georgia by early 1779 and captured Charleston, South Carolina in May 1780. British forces under Lord Charles Cornwallis then began an offensive in the region, crushing Gates' American troops at Camden in mid-August, though the Americans scored a victory over Loyalist forces at King's Mountain in early October. Nathanael Green replaced Gates as the American commander in the South that December. Under Green's command, General Daniel Morgan scored a victory against a British force led by Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens, South Carolina, on January 17, 1781.

Revolutionary War Draws to a Close (1781-83)

By the fall of 1781, Greene's American forces had managed to force Cornwallis and his men to withdraw to Virginia's Yorktown peninsula, near where the York River empties into Chesapeake Bay. Supported by a French army commanded by General Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau, Washington moved against Yorktown with a total of around 14,000 soldiers, while a fleet of 36 French warships offshore prevented British reinforcement or evacuation. Trapped and overpowered, Cornwallis was forced to surrender his entire army on October 19. Claiming illness, the British general sent his deputy, Charles O'Hara, to surrender; after O'Hara approached Rochambeau to surrender his sword (the Frenchman deferred to Washington), Washington gave the nod to his own deputy, Benjamin Lincoln, who accepted it.

Though the movement for American independence effectively triumphed at the Battle of Yorktown, contemporary observers did not see that as the decisive victory yet. British forces remained stationed around Charleston, and the powerful main army still resided in New York. Though neither side would take decisive action over the better part of the next two years, the British removal of their troops from Charleston and Savannah in late 1782 finally pointed to the end of the conflict. British and American negotiators in Paris signed preliminary peace terms in Paris late that November, and on September 3, 1783, Great Britain formally recognized the independence of the United States in the Treaty of Paris. At the same time, Britain signed separate peace treaties with France and Spain (which had entered the conflict in 1779), bringing the American Revolution to a close after eight long years.

Fact Check

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Revolutionary War - Timeline, Facts & Battles | HISTORY

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The Revolutionary War (1775-83), also known as the American Revolution, arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain's 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown.

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The United States of America is the third largest country in the world based on population and land area. The United States also has the world's largest economy and is one of the most influential nations in the world.

Fast Facts: U.S. Geography

Population: 325,467,306 (2017 estimate)

Capital: Washington D.C.

Area: 3,794,100 square miles (9,826,675 sq km)

Bordering Countries: Canada and Mexico

Coastline: 12,380 miles (19,924 km)

Highest Point: Denali (also called Mount McKinley) at 20,335 feet (6,198 m)

Lowest Point: Death Valley at -282 feet (-86 m)

Independence and Modern History of the United States

The original 13 colonies of the United States were formed in 1732. Each of these had local governments and their populations grew quickly throughout the mid-1700s. However, during this time tensions between the American colonies and the British government began to arise as the American colonists were subject to British taxation but had no representation in the British Parliament.

Following its independence, the U.S. grew rapidly and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 nearly doubled the nation's size. The early to mid-1800s also saw growth on the west coast as the California Gold Rush of 1848-1849 spurred western migration and the Oregon Treaty of 1846 gave the U.S. control of the Pacific Northwest.

Despite its growth, the U.S. also had severe racial tensions in the mid-1800s as African slaves were used as laborers in some states. Tensions between the slave states and non-slave states led to the Civil War and eleven states declared their secession from the union and formed the Confederate States of America in 1860. The Civil War lasted from 1861-1865 when the Confederate States were defeated.

Following the Civil War, racial tensions remained through the 20th century. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.S. continued to grow and remained neutral at the beginning of World War I in 1914. It later joined the Allies in 1917.

The 1920s were a time of economic growth in the U.S. and the country began to grow into a world power. In 1929, however, the Great Depression began and the economy suffered until World War II. The U.S. also remained neutral during this war until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, at which time the U.S. joined the Allies.

Following WWII, the U.S. economy again began to improve. The Cold War followed shortly thereafter as did the Korean War from 1950-1953 and the Vietnam War from 1964-1975. Following these wars, the U.S. economy, for the most part, grew industrially and the nation became a world superpower concerned with its domestic affairs because public support waivered during previous wars.

On September 11, 2001, the U.S. was subject to terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C., which led to the government pursuing a policy of reworking world governments, particularly those in the Middle East.

Government of the United States

The U.S. government is a representative democracy with two legislative bodies. These bodies are the Senate and House of Representatives. The Senate consists of 100 seats with two representatives from each of the 50 states. The House of Representatives consists of 435 seats and are elected by the people from the 50 states. The executive branch consists of the President who is also the head of government and chief of state.

The U.S. also has a judicial branch of government that is made up of the Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. District Courts and State and County Courts. The U.S. is comprised of 50 states and one district (Washington D.C.).

Economics and Land Use in the United States

The U.S. has the largest and most technologically advanced economy in the world. It mainly consists of the industrial and service sectors. The main industries include petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, and mining. Agricultural production, though only a small part of the economy, includes wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton, beef, pork, poultry, dairy products, fish and forest products.

Geography and Climate of the United States

The U.S. borders both the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans and is bordered by Canada and Mexico. It is the third largest country in the world by area and has a varied topography. The eastern regions consist of hills and low mountains while the central interior is a vast plain (called the Great Plains region) and the west has high rugged mountain ranges (some of which are volcanic in the Pacific Northwest). Alaska also features rugged mountains as well as river valleys. Hawaii's landscape varies but is dominated by volcanic topography.

Like its topography, the climate of the U.S. also varies depending on location. It is considered mostly temperate but is tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the plains west of the Mississippi River and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest.

References

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Why the USA Is One of the Most Influential Nations in the World

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The United States of America is the third largest country in the world based on population and land area. The United States also has the world's largest economy and is one of the most influential nations in the world. Population: 325,467,306 (2017 estimate) Capital: Washington D.C.

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Westward Expansion summary: The story of the United States has always been one of westward expansion, beginning along the East Coast and continuing, often by leaps and bounds, until it reached the Pacific-what Theodore Roosevelt described as "the great leap Westward." The acquisition of Hawaii and Alaska, though not usually included in discussions of Americans expanding their nation westward, continued the practices established under the principle of Manifest Destiny.

Even before the American colonies won their independence from Britain in the Revolutionary War, settlers were migrating westward into what are now the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as parts of the Ohio Valley and the Deep South. Westward expansion was greatly aided in the early 19th century by the Louisiana Purchase (1803), which was followed by the Corps of Discovery Expedition that is generally called the Lewis and Clark Expedition; the War of 1812, which secured existing U.S. boundaries and defeated native tribes of the Old Northwest, the region of the Ohio and Upper Mississippi valleys; and the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forcibly moved virtually all Indians from the Southeast to the present states of Arkansas and Oklahoma, a journey known as the Trail of Tears.

In 1845, a journalist named John O'Sullivan coined the term "Manifest Destiny," a belief that Americans and American institutions are morally superior and therefore Americans are morally obligated to spread those institutions in order to free people in the Western Hemisphere from European monarchies and to uplift "less civilized" societies, such as the Native American tribes and the people of Mexico. The Monroe Doctrine, adopted in 1823, was the closest America ever came to making Manifest Destiny official policy; it put European nations on notice that the U.S. would defend other nations of the Western Hemisphere from further colonization.

The debate over whether the U.S. would continue slavery and expand the area in which it existed or abolish it altogether became increasingly contentious throughout the first half of the 19th century. When the Dred Scott case prevented Congress from passing laws prohibiting slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska act gave citizens of new states the right to decide for themselves whether their state would be free or slaveholding, a wave of settlers rushed to populate the Kansas-Nebraska Territory in order to make their position-pro- or anti-slavery-the dominant one when states were carved out of that territory.

The slavery debate intensified after the Republic of Texas was annexed and new lands acquired as a result of the Mexican War and an agreement with Britain that gave the U.S. sole possession of a portion of the Oregon Territory. The question was only settled by the American Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery.

When gold was discovered in California, acquired through the treaty that ended the war with Mexico in 1848, waves of treasure seekers poured into the area. The California Gold Rush was a major factor in expansion west of the Mississippi.

That westward expansion was greatly aided by the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and passage of the Homestead Act in 1862. That act provided free 160-acre lots in the unsettled West to anyone who would file a claim, live on the land for five years and make improvements to it, including building a dwelling.

From the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 through the migration that resulted from the Transcontinental Railroad and the Homestead Act, Americans engaged in what Theodore Roosevelt termed "the Great Leap Westward." In less than a century, westward expansion stretched the United States from a handful of states along the Eastern Seaboard all the way to the Pacific. The acquisition of Hawaii and Alaska in the mid-19th century assured westward expansion would continue into the 20th century.

The great losers in this westward wave were the Native American tribes. Displaced as new settlers moved in, they lost their traditional way of life and were relegated to reservations. However, westward expansion provided the United States with vast natural resources and ports along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts for expanding trade, key elements in creating the superpower America is today.

Timeline of Westward Expansion

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny, a term coined by journalist John O'Sullivan in 1845, was a driving force in 19th century America's western expansion-the era of U.S. territorial expansion is sometimes called the Age of Manifest Destiny. It was the notion that Americans and the institutions of the U.S. are morally superior and therefore Americans are morally obligated to spread those institutions in order to free people from the perceived tyranny of the European monarchies.

Those beliefs had their origins in the Puritan settlements of New England and the idea that the New World was a new beginning, a chance to correct problems in European government and society-a chance to get things right. Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, echoed these sentiments in arguing for immediate revolution for independence: "We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest, purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

Manifest Destiny found its greatest support among Democrats, particularly in the northeastern states, where Democratic newspapers preached a utopian dream of spreading American philosophies through nonviolent, noncoercive means. The Whig Party stood in opposition, in part because Whigs feared a growing America would bring with it a spread of slavery. In the case of the Oregon Territory of the Pacific Northwest, for example, Whigs hoped to see an independent republic friendly to the United States but not a part of it, much like the Republic of Texas but without slavery. Democrats wanted that region, which was shared with Great Britain, to become part and parcel of the United States.

Citizens of the Midwestern states were more inclined to active acquisition of territory, rather than relying on noncoercive persuasion. As the century wore on, the South came to view Manifest Destiny as an opportunity to secure more territory for the creation of additional slaveholding states in Central America and the Caribbean.

Although Manifest Destiny's proponents envisioned the use of nonviolent means to achieve their goals, in practice America's westward expansion was greatly hastened by a war with Mexico and the violent suppression of the native tribes of the West. It also nearly resulted in war with Great Britain over the Oregon Territory. Learn more about Manifest Destiny.

Louisiana Purchase

In 1803, during President Thomas Jefferson's administration, the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 50 million francs and the cancellation of debts totaling about 18 million francs. This purchase more than doubled the area of the U.S., removed France entirely from North America, and secured access to New Orleans and transport along the Mississippi River.

France's Louisiana Territory stretched from New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico northward through the plains into what is today part of Canada, and from the Mississippi River west to the Rocky Mountains-encompassing all or part of 15 states and two Canadian provinces. To secure New Orleans and the trade route to the western territories, Thomas Jefferson sent envoys to purchase New Orleans from France, authorizing them to pay up to $10 million. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte offered them the entire territory for $15 million.

The constitutionality of the purchase was questioned by many members of the U.S. House of Representatives and even by Jefferson himself, but the security and economic benefits of acquiring the territory won out, and the treaty was ratified on October 20, 1803. Learn more about the Louisiana Purchase

The Corps of Discovery Expedition (Lewis and Clark Expedition)

In late 1802, Jefferson asked his private secretary and military advisor, U.S. Army captain Merriweather Lewis, to plan an expedition through the Louisiana Territory to survey its natural resources, look for "the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent," and explore the Pacific Northwest in order to discover and claim it before Europeans could. Following the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, finalized in October 1803, Jefferson expanded the mission of the Corps: they would also establish friendly, diplomatic contact with as many of the Native American tribes as possible.

In June 1803, Lewis selected William Clark to be joint commander of the expedition, which would be a corps in the U.S. Army created solely for the expedition. Over the next year, they assembled the Corps of Discovery, a 32-man mixed group of soldiers, skilled civilians, and Lewis' slave York. Along the way they were joined and aided by a French trader named Toussaint Charboneau and his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, who gave birth to her first child-named Jean Baptise-on February 11, 1805, just before they departed with the Corps of Discovery on April 7.

After a two and half year journey-the first transcontinental expedition-the Corps of Discovery arrived back in St. Louis on September 23, 1806. They had achieved their objectives, except for the discovery of a Northwest passage via water to the Pacific, although the route that they took became part of the Oregon Trail. Their journey helped open the American west to further exploration and settlement, providing valuable geographical and diplomatic information, giving the U.S. a foothold in the region's fur trade and making contact with more than 72 Native American tribes. Their scientific data alone provided great advances, including the discovery of 178 new plants and 122 previously unknown species and subspecies of animals. Learn more about the Lewis And Clark Expedition

The War of 1812

The War of 1812 is sometimes called the second war for independence in the U.S. since it was fought against British colonial Canada, which allied Tecumseh, the Shawnee leader of a confederation of native tribes. The Americans initially saw themselves both as defenders of their own country and as liberators of the Canadian settlers, but after the first handful of battles fought on the Canadian border in Michigan and near Niagara Falls, it became clear that the Canadians did not want to be "liberated." Instead, the war unified the Canadians and is viewed with great patriotic pride to this day.

The war lasted for three years and was fought on three fronts: the lower Canadian Frontier along the Great Lakes, along the border with Upper Canada-now Quebec-and along the Atlantic Coast. Although both countries invaded each other, borders at the end of the war remained the same. There was no clear victor, although both the U.S. and Britain would claim victory. Learn more about the War Of 1812

The War of 1812 did have a clear loser, however: the native tribes. Tecumseh's confederation was greatly weakened when he was killed on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames. The confederation completely dissolved at the end of the war when the British retreated back into Canada, breaking their promises to help the tribes defend their lands against U.S. settlement. Prior to the war, many settlers in Ohio, the Indiana Territory, and the Illinois Territory had been threatened by Indian raids; following the war, the tribes were either restricted to ever-shrinking tribal lands or pushed further west, opening new lands for the United States' westward expansion.

Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act

When the slaveholding territory of Missouri applied for statehood in 1819, it led to a confrontation between those who favored the expansion of slavery and those who opposed it. An agreement called the Missouri Compromise was passed by Congress two years later, under which states would be admitted in pairs, one slaveholding and one free. Then, in the 1857 Dred Scott case the Supreme Court ruled Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in the territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the law that prohibited slavery above the 36 degrees, 30 minutes longitude line in the old Louisiana Purchase. Territories would henceforth have the right of popular sovereignty, with the settlers of those territories, not Congress, determining if they would permit or prevent slavery within their borders. As a result, settlers on both sides of the issue poured into the Kansas and Nebraska territories, eager to establish their sides' claim, swelling the population there faster than would have occurred otherwise. Learn more about the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Monroe Doctrine

December 2, 1823, the U.S. adopted the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that America would view any additional colonization in the Western Hemisphere by any European country as an act of aggression. It was the closest that Manifest Destiny would come to being written into official government policy. The doctrine was authored mainly by John Quincy Adams, who saw it as an official moral objection to and opposition of colonialism. Although the doctrine was largely ignored-the U.S. did not have a large army or navy at the time to enforce it-Great Britain supported it, mainly on the seas, as part of Pax Britannica. The Monroe Doctrine implied that the U.S. would expand westward into remaining uncolonized areas-indeed, it necessitated expansion to free or annex European colonies. Learn more about The Monroe Doctrine.

Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears

On May 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, which formally changed the course of U.S. policy toward the Native American tribes. It had immediate impact on the so-called Five Civilized Tribes-the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, and Seminole-who had been until then been permitted to act as autonomous nations on their lands the southern U.S. While removal to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) was supposed to be voluntary, the Indian Removal Act allowed the U.S. government to put enormous pressure on the chiefs to signs removal treaties and provided some legal standing to remove them by force.

The first treaty signed following the passage of the act was on September 27, 1830: the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek removed the Choctaws from land east of the Mississippi River in exchange for land in Oklahoma and money. The U.S. Army and the newly formed Bureau of Indian Affairs did not plan the removal well, resulting in delays, food shortages, and exposure to the elements, including a blizzard in Arkansas during the first phase of the tribe's removal. A Choctaw chief who was interviewed in late 1831 shortly after the blizzard called the removal a "trail of tears and death" for his people-a phrase that was widely repeated in the press and seared into popular memory when it was applied to the brutal removal of the Cherokee from Georgia in 1838.

Georgia had been one of the strongest supporters the Indian Removal Act. Tensions between the Cherokee and settlers had risen to new heights with the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1829, leading to the Georgia Gold Rush-the first U.S. gold rush. The state put enormous pressure on the Cherokees to sign a treaty, and a minority of the tribe signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835. After much legal maneuvering, the treaty was narrowly passed in the House and Senate in 1836 without Chief John Ross's agreement or that of the majority of Cherokees. From May 18 to June 2, 1838, the Cherokees were rounded up into forts as settlers began moving onto their lands. Some Cherokee were forced to live in the forts-little more than stockades-on Army rations for up to five months before starting their journey to Indian Territory. Of the approximately 16,000 Cherokees, more 4,000 died as a result of conditions in the forts, some from the journey-on foot, by wagon and steamboat-to Oklahoma, and some from the consequences of the relocation. About 1,000 Cherokees stayed behind, living on private lands or eking out an existence in the wilderness. Read more about the Indian Removal Act.

The Oregon Trail And Oregon Territory

Disputes over who owned the Oregon Territory nearly led to a third war between the United States and Britain. Ultimately, the question was settled peacefully in a manner that gave the United States clear possession of its first important Pacific port, the area of Puget Sound.

The Oregon Territory stretched from the northern border of California into Alaska, between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. Britain, Spain, Russia and the U.S. all laid claim to parts or all of it. The U.S. claim was based on the fact that in 1792 Captain Robert Gray had sailed 10 miles up a river, which he named for his vessel, the Columbia. By international principle, his journey gave the United States a claim to all the area drained by the river and its tributaries.

President John Quincy Adams, who dreamed of an America that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, used threats and diplomacy to end Spain's claims to the northwest in Transcontinental Treaty, signed in February 1819. This treaty also defined the western borders of the Louisiana Purchase, which had been somewhat vague. The southern borderline would be the 42nd parallel, the top of present California, and would extend across the Rockies to the Pacific.

That left the northern boundary to be defined. The Anglo-American Convention of 1818 between the U.S. and Britain placed the border of British North America (Canada) along the 49th parallel, from the Great Lakes to the Rockies, and opened all of the Oregon Territory to citizens of either country. Under the treaty, the question of dividing that region could be revisited every 10 years. In 1824, Russia abandoned its claims south of the 54 degrees, 40 minutes parallel (54-40).

In the 1840s, Americans began their major push west of the Mississippi, into lands that were largely unsettled except by the indigenous tribes. Some went in search of land, some in search of gold and silver, and in the case of the Mormons, in search of religious freedom. Four trails provided their primary pathways: the Santa Fe Trail into the Southwest, the Overland Trail to California, the Mormon Trail to the Great Salt Lake (in the future state of Utah), and the Oregon Trail to the Northwest. Braving harsh weather, attacks by Indians or wild animals, and isolation, their numbers rose into the tens of thousands. Increasingly, Americans talked of the prospect of a transcontinental railroad.

The Oregon Territory took on renewed importance to America's dream of Manifest Destiny. In the presidential election of 1844, Democrat James K. Polk narrowly won on a platform of national expansion. The youngest president up to that time, Polk tended toward confrontational diplomacy. Britain had long offered to split the Oregon Territory, along the line of the Columbia River. The U.S. preferred the 49th parallel as the boundary. The only area of contention was Puget Sound, which promised its owner a deep-water port for trade with China and Pacific Islands.

In March 1845, the British ambassador spurned Polk's offer to divide Oregon along the 49th parallel, not even informing his government of the offer. Polk then demanded the whole territory, north to the 54-40 line. In April 1846, Congress authorized Polk to end the joint agreement of 1818. Americans took up the slogan "54-40 or fight," and war loomed with Britain. The British, however, saw little value in another war with its former colonies in order to protect the interest of the Hudson Bay Company along the Pacific Coast. An agreement was reached that split the Oregon Territory along the 49th parallel (excepting the southern portion of Vancouver Island) in exchange for free navigation along the Columbia for the Hudson Bay Company. Despite the "54-40 or fight" rhetoric, the United States didn't need war with Britain; a war with Mexico was breaking out.

Mexican-American War

In 1845, during the administration of President John Tyler, the U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas (present-day U.S. state of Texas and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico). Texas had won independence from Mexico in 1836, although Mexico refused to officially acknowledge the republic or its borders. Tyler's successor, James K. Polk, who had campaigned on a platform that supported Manifest Destiny and expansion, secretly sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico City to negotiate the purchase of provinces of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México-present-day California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Upon learning Slidell was there to purchase more territory instead of compensate Mexico for Texas, the Mexican government refused to receive him. Slidell wrote to Polk, "We can never get along well with them, until we have given them a good drubbing." Polk began preparations to declare war based on Slidell's treatment.

In January 1846, to defend the disputed Texas border and put pressure on Mexican officials to work with Slidell-and perhaps to provoke the Mexicans into a military response-Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor with a small U.S. Army contingent to the north bank of the Rio Grande. Texas and the U.S. government said the Rio Grande was the southern border Texas; Mexico said the border was about 200 miles farther north, along the Nueces.

On April 25, 1846, a patrol under Captain Seth Thornton encountered a force of 2,000 Mexican soldiers; 11 Americans were killed and the rest captured. One wounded man was released by the Mexicans and reported news of the skirmish. Polk received word of the conflict a few days before he addressed Congress. The Thornton Affair, which "shed American blood upon American soil," provided a more solid footing for his declaration of war, though the veracity of the account is still questioned today.

Some opposed the war on grounds that war should not be used to expand the U.S. Some thought that Polk, a Southerner, wanted to expand slavery and strengthen the influence of slave owners in the federal government. Despite the opposition by Whigs-Polk was a Democrat-the U.S. declared war on Mexico May 13, 1846. Many Whigs continued to question the validity of Polk's war, including a freshman Congressman from Illinois, the future president Abraham Lincoln.

American success on the battlefield was swift. By August, General Stephen W. Kearny had captured New Mexico-there had been no opposition when he arrived in Santa Fe. Securing California would take longer, although on June 14, 1846, settlers in Alta California began the Big Bear Flag Revolt against the Mexican garrison in Sonoma, without knowing of the declaration of war. Armed resistance by the Californios didn't end until mid January 1847.

In Northeastern Mexico, Taylor had immediate success in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Cumulative U.S. victories threw the Mexican government into turmoil, and in mid-August, its former president Antonio López de Santa Anna saw an opportunity to come out of self-imposed exile in Cuba. He promised the U.S. that he would negotiate a peaceful end to the war and sell New Mexico and California, if given safe passage through the U.S. blockade. Once in Mexico City, however, he reneged on the agreement and seized the presidency. Taylor pushed south into Monterrey, Mexico, in September. After a hard-won victory, Taylor negotiated the surrender of the city and agreed to an eight-week armistice, during which the Mexican troops would be allowed to go free.

Polk, upset by these conciliatory terms and nervous about Taylor becoming a political rival, began to shift Taylor's men to other commanders to participate in Major General Winfield Scott's invasion of central Mexico. In January 1847, Santa Anna learned of the U.S. plans and moved to defeat Taylor, and then attack Scott on the coast. Instead, Taylor, with about 500 regulars and some 4,500 volunteers who had not yet seen combat, was able to defeat Santa Anna's force of about 22,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista on February 23, 1847. Santa Anna began the long march back to Mexico City.

Scott's forces captured Veracruz by the end of March 1847 and began the campaign toward Mexico City, which they captured and occupied on September 13, 1847. Although the fighting was largely over, the war didn't end until February 2, 1848, with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico renounced all rights to Texas, set the permanent border at the Rio Grande, and ceded land that is now California, Utah, and Nevada, as well as parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado for $15 million. In 1853, James Gadsden, the American minister to Mexico, arranged for the purchase of what is now part of southern Arizona and New Mexico for an additional $15 million. Read more about the Mexican American War.

California Gold Rush

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold in the American River at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range northeast of Sacramento. Although he and Sutter tried to keep it a secret, word got out-the first printed notice of the discovery was in the March 15, 1848, San Francisco newspaper The Californian. Not long after, gold was discovered in the Feather and Trinity Rivers, also located northeast of Sacramento.

The first people to rush the gold fields were those already living in California, but as word slowly got out overland and via the port city of San Francisco, people from Oregon, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Pacific Islands arrived 1848 to find their fortunes. In 1849, there was such a huge influx of gold-seekers-approximately 90,000-that they would be referred to collectively as "forty-niners." They came over the Rockies from other parts of the U.S. Foreign treasure hunters came by ship from Australia, New Zealand, China and other parts of Asia, and some from Europe, mainly France. It is estimated that by 1855 some 300,000 people had streamed into California hoping to strike it rich. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in 1859, further drove California's population growth and development-over the course of the gold rush, California went from a military-occupied part of Mexico to being a U.S. possession to statehood as part of the Compromise of 1850. The port town of San Francisco went from a population of about 1,000 in 1848 to become the eighth largest city in the U.S. in 1890, with a population of almost 300,000. Read more about the California Gold Rush.

Klondike Gold Rush

The Klondike gold rush consisted of the arrival of thousands of prospectors to the Klondike region of Canada as well as Alaska in search of gold. Over 100,000 people set out on the year long journey to the Klondike, with less than one third ever finishing the arduous journey. Only a small percentage of the prospectors found gold, and the rush was soon over. Read more about the Klondike Gold Rush.

Transcontinental Railroad

The first concrete plan for a transcontinental railroad in the United States was presented to Congress by dry-goods merchant Asa Whitney in 1845. Whitney had ridden on newly opened railway lines in England and an 1842-1844 trip to China, which involved a transcontinental trip and the transport of the goods he had bought, further convinced him that the railroad was the future of transport. In 1862, Congress passed the first of five Pacific Railroad Acts that issued government bonds and land grants to the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad. The act, based on a bill proposed in 1856 that had been a victim of the political skirmishes over slavery, was considered a war measure that would strengthen the union between the eastern and western states.

The Central Pacific started work in Sacramento, California, in January 8, 1863, but progress was slow due to the resource and labor shortage caused by the Civil War. The Central Pacific faced a labor shortage in the west and relied heavily on Chinese immigrants, who represented over 80 percent of the Central Pacific's laborers at the height of their employment. The California Gold Rush and the building of the Transcontinental Railroad brought the first great waves of emigration from Asia to America. Learn more about the Transcontinental Railroad

The Union Pacific also faced war shortages as well as incompetence, corruption, and lack of funds; it broke ground in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 12, 1863, but the first rail wasn't laid until July 10, 1865. Since construction began in earnest after the end of the war, most of the workers on the Union Pacific were Army veterans and Irish immigrants who had come to the U.S. because of the Irish Potato Famine.

When the railroad was completed on May 10, 1869, with the ceremonial driving of the last spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, it had already facilitated further population of the western states in concert with the Homestead Act. The railroads led to the decline and eventual end to the use of emigrant trails, wagon trains, and stagecoach lines, and a further constriction of the native population and their territories. The supposed Great American Desert-the western Great Plains-was rapidly populated. Telegraph lines were also built along the railroad right of way as the track was laid, replacing the first single-line Transcontinental Telegraph with a multi-line telegraph.

Homestead Act

The Homestead Act of 1862 was intended to make lands opening up in the west available to a wide variety of settlers, not just those who could afford to buy land outright or buy land under the Preemption Act of 1841, which established a lowered land price for squatters who had occupied the land for a minimum of 14 months. In the 1850s, Southerners had opposed three similar efforts to open the west out of fear that western lands would be established as free, non-slaveholding areas. Most of those objecting to such legislation left Congress when the Southern states seceded, allowing the Homestead Act to be passed during the American Civil War. Learn more about the Homestead Act

The Homestead Act required settlers to complete three steps in order to obtain 160-acre lots of surveyed government land. First, an application for a land claim had to be filed, then the homesteader had to live on the land for the next five years and make improvements to it, including building a 12 by 14 shelter. Finally, after five years, the homesteader could file for patent (deed of title) by filing proof of residency and proof of improvements with the local land office, which would then send paperwork with a certificate of eligibility to the General Land Office in Washington, DC, for final approval. The land was free except for a small registration fee. Homesteaders could also apply for patent after a six-month residency and after making small improvements, but they would have to pay $1.25 per acre for the land.

The first homesteader was Daniel Freeman, a Union Army scout scheduled to leave Gage County, Nebraska Territory, on January 1, 1863. On New Years Eve, he met local Land Office officials and persuaded them to open early so he could file a land claim. By the end of the century, more than 80 million acres had been granted to over 480,000 successful homesteaders. In total, about 10 percent of the U.S. was settled because of the Homestead Act, which was in effect until 1976 all states except for Alaska, which repealed the Homestead Act in 1986.

Other Events of Westward Expansion

Pony Express: The Pony Express was a system of horse and riders set up in the mid-1800s to deliver mail and packages. It employed 80 deliverymen and between four and five hundred horses. Read more about Pony Express.

Battle Of The Alamo: The battle of the Alamo was fought from 2/23-6/6/1826 between the United States and Mexico for what is now San Antonio, Texas. It resulted in Mexico taking control. Read more about Battle Of The Alamo.

French Indian War: The French and Indian War was fought from 1756-1763 between the British and the French. It took place in North America and involved many Native American people. Read more about French Indian War.

The Sand Creek Massacre: The Sand Creek Massacre was the brutal attack of Cheyenne Indians consisting mostly of women and children by Union Soldiers that occurred, despite the flying of an American flag to show that they were peaceful and a white flag after the attack began, in Colorado in 1864. . Read more about The Sand Creek Massacre.

Oregon Territory: The Oregon Territory was the name given to the area that became the state of Oregon. It became an official state in February of 1859. Read more about Oregon Territory.

The Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail is a reference to the path that stretches 2,000 miles across the United States. It was used by thousands of people to populate the western frontier. Read more about The Oregon Trail.

Black Hawk War: The Battle of Black Hawk refers to several conflicts between the United States government and a group of Native Americans called the British Band. They were led by a Sauk warrior named Black Hawk. Read more about Black Hawk War.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Mountain Meadows Massacre refers to an event where militia men from Utah attaché a group of wagon travelers that had made camp for a rest. . Read more about The Mountain Meadows Massacre.

John Jacob Astor: John Jacob Astor was a wealthy merchant and fur trader whose enterprise was played an important role in the westward expansion of the United States. Read more about John Jacob Astor.

O.K. Corral: The O.K. Corral refers to a fight at this corall in Tombstone, Arizona. It's one of the most famous gunfights in American history and has many films made about it. Read more about the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Davy Crockett: Davy Crockett was a famous Tennessee outdoorsman who also served many political offices in North America. He was part of the Texas Revolution and died at the Alamo. Read more about Davy Crockett.

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Westward Expansion summary: The story of the United States has always been one of westward expansion, beginning along the East Coast and continuing, often by leaps and bounds, until it reached the Pacific-what Theodore Roosevelt described as "the great leap Westward."

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"Isolationism" is a government policy or doctrine of taking no role in the affairs of other nations. A government's policy of isolationism, which that government may or may not officially acknowledge, is characterized by a reluctance or refusal to enter into treaties, alliances, trade commitments, or other international agreements.

Supporters of isolationism, known as "isolationists," argue that it allows the nation to devote all of its resources and efforts to its own advancement by remaining at peace and avoiding binding responsibilities to other nations.

American Isolationism

While it has been practiced to some degree in U.S. foreign policy since before the War for Independence, isolationism in the United States has never been about a total avoidance of the rest of the world. Only a handful of American isolationists advocated the complete removal of the nation from the world stage. Instead, most American isolationists have pushed for the avoidance of the nation's involvement in what Thomas Jefferson called "entangling alliances." Instead, U.S. isolationists have held that America could and should use its wide-ranging influence and economic strength to encourage the ideals of freedom and democracy in other nations by means of negotiation rather than warfare.

Isolationism refers to America's longstanding reluctance to become involved in European alliances and wars. Isolationists held the view that America's perspective on the world was different from that of European societies and that America could advance the cause of freedom and democracy by means other than war.

American isolationism may have reached its zenith on 1940, when a group of Congress members and influential private citizens, headed by already-famed aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, formed the America First Committee (AFC) with the specific goal of preventing America from becoming involved in World War II then being waged in Europe and Asia.

When the AFC first convened on September 4, 1940, Lindbergh told the gathering that while isolationism did not mean walling off America from contact with the rest of the world, "it does mean that the future of America will not be tied to these eternal wars in Europe. It means that American boys will not be sent across the ocean to die so that England or Germany or France or Spain may dominate the other nations."

"An independent American destiny means, on the one hand, that our soldiers will not have to fight everybody in the world who prefers some other system of life to ours. On the other hand, it means that we will fight anybody and everybody who attempts to interfere with our hemisphere," Lindbergh explained.

Related to the overall war effort, the AFC also opposed President Franklin Roosevelt's Lend-Lease plan to send U.S. war materials to Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union. "The doctrine that we must enter the wars of Europe in order to defend America will be fatal to our nation if we follow it," said Lindbergh at the time.

After growing to over 800,000 members, the AFC disbanded on December 11, 1941, less than a week after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In its final press release, the Committee stated that while its efforts might have prevented it, the Pearl Harbor attack made it the duty of all Americans to support the war effort to defeat Nazism and the Axis powers.

His mind and heart changed, Lindbergh flew more than 50 combat missions in the Pacific theater as a civilian, and after the war, traveled throughout Europe helping with the U.S. military rebuild and revitalize the continent.

American Isolationism Born in the Colonial Period

Isolationist feelings in America dates back to the colonial period. The last thing many American colonists wanted was any continued involvement with the European governments that had denied them religious and economic freedom and kept them enmeshed in wars. Indeed, they took comfort in the fact that they were now effectively "isolated" from Europe by the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite an eventual alliance with France during the War for Independence, the basis of American isolationism can is found in Thomas Paine's famed paper Common Sense, published in 1776. Paine's impassioned arguments against foreign alliances drove the delegates to the Continental Congress to oppose the alliance with France until it became obvious that the revolution would be lost without it.

Twenty years and an independent nation later, President George Washington memorably spelled out the intent of American isolationism in his Farewell Address:

"The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities."

Washington's opinions of isolationism were widely accepted. As a result of his Neutrality Proclamation of 1793, the U.S. dissolved its alliance with France. And in 1801, the nation's third president, Thomas Jefferson, in his inaugural address, summed up American isolationism as a doctrine of "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none..."

The 19th Century: The Decline of US Isolationism

Through the first half of the 19th century, America managed to maintain its political isolation despite its rapid industrial and economic growth and status as a world power. Historians again suggest that the nation's geographical isolation from Europe continued to allow the U.S. to avoid the "entangling alliances" feared by the Founding Fathers.

Without abandoning its policy of limited isolationism, the United States expanded its own borders from coast-to-coast and began creating territorial empires in the Pacific and the Caribbean during the 1800s. Without forming binding alliances with Europe or any of the nations involved, the U.S. fought three wars: the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War.

In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine boldly declared that the United States would consider the colonization of any independent nation in North or South America by a European nation to be an act of war. In delivering the historic decree, President James Monroe voiced the isolationist view, stating, "In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken part, nor does it comport with our policy, so to do."

But by the mid-1800s, a combination of world events began to test the resolve of American isolationists:

The expansion of the German and Japanese military industrial empires that would eventually immerse the United States in two world wars had begun.

Though short-lived, the occupation of the Philippines by the United States during the Spanish-American war had inserted American interests into the Western Pacific islands - an area generally considered to be part of Japan's sphere of influence.

Steamships, undersea communications cables, and radio enhanced America's stature in world trade, but at the same time, brought her closer to her potential enemies.

Within the United States itself, as industrialized mega-cities grew, small-town rural America - long the source of isolationist feelings - shrank.

The 20th Century: The End of US Isolationism

World War I (1914 to 1919)

Though actual battle never touched her shores, America's participation in World War I marked the nation's first departure from its historic isolationist policy.

During the conflict, the United States entered into binding alliances with the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, and Serbia to oppose the Central Powers of Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire.

However, after the war, the United States returned to its isolationist roots by immediately ending all of its war-related European commitments. Against the recommendation of President Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. Senate rejected the war-ending Treaty of Versailles, because it would have required the U.S. to join the League of Nations.

As America struggled through the Great Depression from 1929 to 1941, the nation's foreign affairs took a back seat to economic survival. To protect U.S. manufacturers from foreign competition, the government imposed high tariffs on imported goods.

World War I also brought an end to America's historically open attitude toward immigration. Between the pre-war years of 1900 and 1920, the nation had admitted over 14.5 million immigrants. After the passage of the Immigration Act of 1917, fewer than 150,000 new immigrants had been allowed to enter the U.S. by 1929. The law restricted the immigration of "undesirables" from other countries, including "idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, alcoholics, poor, criminals, beggars, any person suffering attacks of insanity..."

World War II (1939 to 1945)

While avoiding the conflict until 1941, World War II marked a turning point for American isolationism. As Germany and Italy swept through Europe and North Africa, and Japan began taking over Eastern Asia, many Americans started to fear that the Axis powers might invade the Western Hemisphere next. By the end of 1940, American public opinion had started to shift in favor of using U.S. military forces to help defeat the Axis.

Still, nearly one million Americans supported the America First Committee, organized in 1940 to oppose the nation's involvement in the war. Despite pressure from isolationists, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proceeded with his administration's plans to assist the nations targeted by the Axis in ways not requiring direct military intervention.

Even in the face of Axis successes, a majority of Americans continued to oppose actual U.S. military intervention. That all changed on the morning of December 7, 1941, when naval forces of Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On December 8, 1941, America declared war on Japan. Two days later, the America First Committee disbanded.

After World War II, the United States helped establish and became a charter member of the United Nations in October 1945. At the same time, the emerging threat posed by Russia under Joseph Stalin and the specter of communism that would soon result in the Cold War effectively lowered the curtain on the golden age of American isolationism.

War on Terror: A Rebirth of Isolationism?

While the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001, initially spawned a spirit of nationalism unseen in America since World War II, the ensuing War on Terror may have resulted in the return of American isolationism.

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq claimed thousands of American lives. At home, Americans fretted through a slow and fragile recovery from a Great Recession many economists compared to the Great Depression of 1929. Suffering from war abroad and a failing economy at home, America found itself in a situation very much like that of the late 1940s when isolationist feelings prevailed.

Now as the threat of another war in Syria looms, a growing number of Americans, including some policymakers, are questioning the wisdom of further U.S. involvement.

"We are not the world's policeman, nor its judge and jury," stated U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) joining a bipartisan group of lawmakers arguing against U.S. military intervention in Syria. "Our own needs in America are great, and they come first."

In his first major speech after winning the 2016 presidential election, President-Elect Donald Trump expressed the isolationist ideology that became one of his campaign slogans - "America first."

"There is no global anthem, no global currency, no certificate of global citizenship," Mr. Trump said on December 1, 2016. "We pledge allegiance to one flag, and that flag is the American flag. From now on, it's going to be America first."

In their words, Rep. Grayson, a progressive Democrat, and President-Elect Trump, a conservative Republican, may have announced the rebirth of American isolationism.

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered an outpouring of sympathy for the plight of the Ukrainian people, it also spurred a surprising amount of isolationist sentiment in the United States. At the same time, more than half of Americans favored imposing harsh economic sanctions against the Russian government for waging a war on Ukraine, another significant portion of the country felt it best for President Joe Biden and other world leaders to stay out of European affairs.

For example, on February 28, 2020, JD Vance, a Republican running for US Senate in Ohio, said he wasn't particularly interested in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

"I gotta be honest with you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another," Vance said during an episode of Steve Bannon's War Room podcast. "I do care about the fact that in my community right now the leading cause of death among 18-45-year-olds is Mexican fentanyl that's coming across the southern border."

"I'm sick of Joe Biden focusing on the border of a country I don't care about while he lets the border of his own country become a total war zone," Vance said.

Polls conducted at the time suggested Vance was not alone in his decidedly isolationist sentiment, with one poll showing that 34% of Americans thinking the war in Ukraine should be Ukraine's problem and the United States should play no role whatsoever. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll fielded in late February and early March 2022, only 40% said they approved of the way Biden had handled Russia, and only 43% said they approved of how he had handled the Ukraine invasion. The same poll showed that 63% of Americans opposed sending the U.S. military to Ukraine to help defend them against Russian forces-an action Biden ruled out.

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The Evolution of Isolationism in America

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"Isolationism" is a government policy or doctrine of taking no role in the affairs of other nations. A government's policy of isolationism, which that government may or may not officially acknowledge, is characterized by a reluctance or refusal to enter into treaties, alliances, trade commitments, or other international agreements.

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9/11~September 11th 2001-Attack on the World || Trade Center