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US history (Part II), Lewis and Clark where hired to explore the territory…
US history (Part II)
The Constitutional Convention (1787) 
Cause
A rebellion of unpaid soldiers broke out [Shay’s rebellion (1786-1787)], since the small government was unable to collect taxes.
Since the government was also unable to gather a large army, all states except Rhode Island gathered in Philadelphia to draft the US constitution.
Draft
The Three-Fifths Compromise apportioned representation to the southern slaveholding states in a scheme that counted five enslaved men and women as three.
Whether the legislative should be unicameral or bicameral resulted in the proposal of the Virginia Plan by the larger states, and the Jersey Plan by the smaller, and thus the Connecticut compromise was created to satisfy both.
The US constitution is more focused in establishing basic principles instead of defining laws for almost everything. It focused on preventing tyranny from the Federal Government with the Bill of Rights and the division of powers.
Aftermath
The Whiskey rebellion (1791-1794) opposed the increase in taxes for whiskey, but was easily beaten, showing that the Constitution was much more powerful than the Articles of the Confederation.
With their neutrality during the French revolution, the US adopted a policy of non-intervention for the next hundred years.
First Party System (1796-1824)
Political parties
Federalists (1791-1824)
Created by Alexander Hamilton, they were the upper class and wanted a strong central government, a loose interpretation of the Constitution, plus improving relations with Britain and industrialization.
The Federalist party became divided after Alexander Hamilton published papers criticizing John Adams.
Unhappy with the War of 1812, during the Hartford Convention (1814) they suggested secession, but this only served to make the party even more unpopular.
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Events
War of 1812
Tensions over Jefferson’s embargo and the British desire to stop American expansion led to the US declaring war on Britain in 1812, despite Federalist claims that this would hurt trade.
The US army was still weak, but managed important victories such as the Battle of the Thames (1813) in which native American resistance was crushed. But when Napoleon abdicated in 1814, the tides turned.
In the Battle of Bladensburg (August 24, 1814), the British sacked and burned Washington, DC, plundering the White House.
A stalemate led to the Treaty of Ghent (1815), with no significant territorial change, but the start of the “Era of Good Feelings” in which British-American relations improved.
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Presidents
John Adams (1797-1801)
The XYZ affair worsened relations with the French Republic and even led to an undeclared war between 1798 and 1800 (Quasi War).
The Alien and sedition acts (1798) were meant to keep the US out of the French Revolution, as they limited free press and made life harder for immigrants.
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James Monroe (1817-1825)
Established the Monroe doctrine against European expansionism, but since the US was still a minor power, the Europeans met it with indifference. Still, it became an important principle of American Foreign Policy.
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Second Party System (1828-1854)
Political parties
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Those who opposed Jackson, such as Republicans and unhappy Democrats, went on to form the Whig party (1833-1854).
The Whig party was mostly composed by the traditional elites, such as those coming from rich families in Virginia.
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Civil War era (1844-1877)
Context
Heating up
After the war with Mexico, the Compromise of 1850 sought to equally distribute slave and non-slave states, angering both North and South.
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Due to tensions over slavery, the Democrats and Whigs began to collapse, with the Free Soil Party (1848-1854) being a coalition of Northerners abolitionists, and eventually becoming the Republican Party, starting the Third Party sytem (1854-1890s)
Calm before the storm
In 1808, Congress abolished foreign slave trade, but internal and illegal trade kept slavery going.
The Missouri compromise of 1820 dictated that states in the North would be free, while states in the South would have slaves.
With the Kansas-Nebraska act (1854), the compromise became irrelevant, now that these states could choose whether or not to have slaves.
Abolitionism started in religious groups, but soon gathered the support of the upper class, feminists and former slaves, such as Frederick Douglas.
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The Colonization movement sought to compromise with the South by sending slaves to Liberia, in Africa, but it was almost universally unpopular across the country.
Lincoln
Dread Scott’s case (1858) heated the senate election between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, and although Lincoln lost, he got a lot of popularity from the occasion.
In the last days of James Buchanan’s presidency (1857-1861), the Crittenden Compromise tried to prevent secession by making slavery constitutional in the South, but it was not approved.
In the election of 1860, the divided Democrats ran two candidates for North and South, while the Republicans went for Lincoln, the first Republican to be elected.
War (1861-1865)
1861
Before Lincoln’s inauguration, the South secedes and forms the Confederate States with Jefferson Davis as president.
The South, having the advantage of fighting at home and better leadership (Robert E. Lee), decided to fight a defensive war of attrition and have England join them for cotton.
The North, having 4 times the population of the South and a much larger industry, wanted to block Southern access to the Atlantic and Mississippi commerce (Anaconda plan).
Fort Sumter was located in the South, but still manned by Union soldiers, so its siege by the Confederacy sparked the civil war in April 12.
The First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861), Virginia, was the first major battle of the war and a Confederate victory, showing the Union that the war wasn't a simple minor rebellion.
1862-1863
Having done well in 1861, Lee attacks the North and, at the inconclusive Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), 23.000 Americans die, the bloodiest day in American history.
Alexander Gardner’s photography of Antietam results in a decline of morality for the North. Thus, five days later, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration, outlawing slavery in rebel states.
Lee again attacks the North in 63, hoping to make Lincoln lose reelection, but is beaten at Gettysburg (July 1, 1863).
This, plus the capture of the Mississippi river on July 4 by Ulysses Grant, makes it clear that the Confederacy will lose, and Lincoln uses the Gettysburg address to boost his popularity.
1864-1865
Sherman’s march (1864) plundered the South while Lee retreated, decreasing Confederate morale even further.
During the election, Lincoln picks Andrew Johnson, a slave owner, as VP to please the Democrats, while running against his former general, McClellan.
In Appomattox (April 9, 1865), Lee realizes he can’t fight anymore and surrenders, effectively ending all major clashes in the war.
The 13th Amendment is approved, permanently banning slavery.
Lincoln is assassinated by John Booth, a pro-slavery man who refuses to be captured alive. Thus, Lincoln is the first president to be assassinated.
Aftermath
Reconstruction
The Federal Government expands. The country is now referred to as The United States, instead of These United States.
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The reconstruction amendments (13th, 14th and 15th) sought to rebuild the rebuild the nation and prevent discrimination, however state laws hindered this.
Although women played an important role in the war, the 15th amendment only gave African American men the right to vote.
The Compromise of 1877 removed all occupying troops from the South, ending the reconstruction period and allowing racism to run rampant.
Systematic racism
The South passed the Black Codes, a series of discriminatory laws that took away as many rights as possible from the former slaves.
Since the former slaves had no education, they worked in white properties as sharecroppers, paying part of their crops as rent.
The KKK was created in 1866 to attack blacks, republicans, and anyone who helped the African American population. It was outlawed in 1871.
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After the Revolution, the Northern states began approving laws that would gradually end slavery, contrary to the South.
The Federalist Papers were a series of articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, discussing the US constitution and arguing in favor of its ratification.
The Monroe doctrine was mostly enforced by Britain, as it wanted colonies to be free in order to trade with them.
In the Battle of Fort McHenry (1814), Francis Scott Key penned the poem that would later become the US national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner.
After the war, Native Americans were left with no allies and Andrew Jackson became a national hero.
From the 1820s to the 1840s, Germans and Irish were the two largest groups of immigrants to the United States, facing xenophobia and religious prejudice, though they eventually assimilated.
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin greatly increased cotton production and made the cotton industry much more profitable, entrenching slavery in the US.
Now all adult white men could vote, rather than only people who were rich.
America started to develop its own culture, rather than simply copying European trends.
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Cotton was the most important export of the (Deep) South, making up two thirds of the global supply, and New Orleans was its most important city.
The main theater was the state of Virginia, as it stood between the capitals of both countries. The West, near the Mississippi river, was also important.
Lincoln was afraid that neutral states would join the Confederacy, so he allowed them to maintain slavery
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