In the first half of the 19th century, the United States experienced a process of rapid development of capitalism. In the northeast of the country, the factory industry grew rapidly, and capitalist farming also developed. In the Western United States there were a huge number of small farmers, many independent artisans, and the use of hired labor was constantly increasing. The general trend in the North and West of the country was the development of capitalist relations. in the south of the country, another feature of the US economy emerged - the growth of the plantation slave economy, which developed as an appendage to the capitalist production of Western Europe and the USA. The difference in the paths of economic development between the North and the South had a huge impact on the entire course of the historical development of the United States.

In the USA, capitalism was rapidly spreading “broadly” to new lands. The end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. were a time of rapid US territorial expansion.

The expansion of capitalism to new lands, the capture and settlement of new spaces in the Western United States created favorable conditions for the influx of settlers from Europe.

The immigrants included hundreds of thousands of skilled artisans and workers. Immigration accelerated the already very rapid growth of the country's population. But the demand for labor in the USA, due to the abundance of land and the rapid settlement of the western regions, was higher than in Europe. This contributed to the early spread of machinery in the North of the United States, and in the South led to the wider use of slave labor.

The United States followed the general laws of capitalist development. In them there was a transition to large-scale machine capitalist industry, the proletariat grew and its exploitation intensified, the class struggle intensified, and crises of overproduction arose. These general features of capitalism were combined, as in any country, with the national characteristics of historical development. Particularly characteristic of the United States is the combination of the development of capitalism with the harshest form of exploitation - slavery, as well as with the extermination and displacement of the Indian population.

All this led to the American Civil War

The prerequisite for the war was the rapid development of the country's economy, the increasing tendency for the development paths of the North and South to diverge, and economic crises that worsened the situation of the working class.

The main slogan of the war was the call for the abolition of slavery for blacks, granting them various political rights and the opportunity to own land.

The course of the civil war is characterized by large losses on both sides, the participation in the war of almost all segments of society, and an exorbitant increase in speculation, including smuggled goods.

The results of the war in the United States were:

Preserving US national unity.

Consolidation of political power to the industrial bourgeoisie.

Bourgeois control of the presidency, the Senate and the Supreme Court.

The planters lost political dominance in the state.

The abolition of slavery and the Homestead Law, which provided for a bourgeois-democratic solution to the issue of Western lands.

The final victory in the country of the farmer, American way of agricultural development.

Removing obstacles that hindered the expansion of the domestic market.

A powerful impetus for the further capitalist development of industry and agriculture in the subsequent period.

English colonists first landed in North America in the 1920s. XVII century, English colonies began to be created here, by the middle of the XVIII century. their number reached 13. They were diverse in territory, culture, ethnic composition, and nature of governance.

There were corporate colonies (Rhode Island, Massachusetts), colonies with a feudal origin (Maryland). All colonies were under the authority of the English (British) crown. Representative bodies (legislatures) were created in the colonies. The legislative acts they adopted were subject to approval by the governors of the colonies. The principles of local self-government were well developed in the colonies.

The Americans actively protested against the introduction of taxes on them by the English Parliament (in London), because there were no representatives of the North American colonies in it. England mercilessly exploited its colonies, in particular during the Seven Years' War. The pressure of indirect taxation was strengthened (for example, a fee was established for stamp paper). The colonists began violent protests (for example, the famous Boston Tea Party) and achieved the abolition of some indirect taxes(for example, stamp duty).

In 1774, the British government sent troops into the colonies, and in 1775 military operations began against the rebel colonists. Started the first civil war, also known as the war of independence, sometimes called the American bourgeois revolution (1775–1783). With the support of European powers (France, Russia, Spain, Holland), the rebellion of the North American colonies was successful. In 1783, the Anglo-American peace treaty was signed at Versailles.

The independence of the colonies was proclaimed back in 1776 by the Second Continental Congress, which on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia adopted the famous US Declaration of Independence. The text of the Declaration was written by T. Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Now the 4th of July is a US national holiday - Independence Day.

According to the Declaration of Independence of the United States, 13 independent states (states) were created in North America with their own constitutional acts. At the same time, the states, under the influence of external circumstances (primarily the military threat from Great Britain), united more and more closely, forming first a confederation and then a federal state.

In 1777, the Continental Congress adopted Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. This document came into force only in 1781 after ratification by all 13 states. Most scholars consider the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union an international treaty, and some declare them to be the first American Constitution. After all, the Articles did not provide for the right of secession and nullification for members of the confederation, implying an “eternal union” between them.

In 1787, a meeting was convened in Philadelphia Convention, which was originally to discuss amendments to the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The Chairman of the Convention was John Washington, the first President of the United States, the secretary was John Madison, the fourth President of the United States, among the members of the Convention were B. Franklin and other founding fathers of the United States. Representatives from 12 North American states attended the Convention.

At the Philadelphia Convention, which later received the name Constitutional, it was decided not to amend the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union of 1777, but to develop a new constitutional document. The convention worked in the summer of 1787 behind closed doors. In total, no more than 50 people took part in the work of the Convention; even minutes of the meetings were not kept. The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia drafted the US Constitution. the first constitution in the modern world.

The draft of the US Constitution was sent by the Convention to Congress, which forwarded the draft to the state legislatures for ratification. In 1788, the US Constitution was ratified by nine states and went into effect. Rhode Island was the last North American state to ratify the US Constitution in 1790.

The Americans themselves date their Constitution to 1789; it was in this year that the US Congress was formed, the US President was elected (John Washington became), and the US Supreme Court began its work.

The US Constitution of 1787 consists of a preamble and seven articles. Article I is devoted to the legislative power, art. II – executive power, art. Ill – judicial power, art. IV–V explained the competence of the federation, Art. VI – amendments to the US Constitution, Art. VII – the procedure for putting the US Constitution into effect.

The text of the US Constitution was short and largely unclear, which indicates its compromise nature.

As was decided at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the first convocation of the US Congress already in 1789 adopted a number of amendments to the US Constitution. dedicated to human rights (Bill of Rights).

The Bill of Rights was developed by the US Congress and a special commission chaired by J. Madison.

The Bill of Rights consisted of 12 articles, it was drafted and adopted in 1789 and ratified by 1791 (with the exception of Articles I–II), constituting Amendments 1-X to the US Constitution.

The Bill of Rights proclaims certain social and political rights and freedoms (Amendments I–III), methods of their procedural protection (Amendments IV–VIII), and determines the balance of powers of the states, the federation and the people (Amendments IX–X).

1st amendment establishes freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. II amendment establishes the right of American citizens to bear arms. Ill amendment establishes a ban on troops staying in houses in peacetime. IV amendment protects the right to protection of person, home, papers, property from unreasonable searches and (or) arrests. Fifth Amendment protects the right of property and establishes the imposition of punishment only by a jury. VI Amendment determines that the victim has the right to a speedy trial in the state where the crime was committed. VIII Amendment establishes a ban on excessive bail and fines, as well as sophisticated punishments.

Article II of the Bill of Rights, although not immediately ratified, was not ratified until 1992, becoming the 27th Amendment to the US Constitution. It establishes that a sitting congressman cannot increase his salary.

The Bill of Rights of 1789 (1st Amendment to the US Constitution) is a fundamental ideological value of American democracy.

In 1820, a settlement was reached between the industrial northern states and the slave-holding southern states. Missouri Compromise the essence of which was that henceforth slave states could not be created north of 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude. The geographical limitation of slavery did not eliminate contradictions, but only delayed the clash between North and South. Since the beginning of the 30s. XIX century in the United States a massive nationwide abolitionist movement- movement for the immediate abolition of slavery. In 1860, abolitionist A. Lincoln was elected President of the United States. At the end of 1860 - beginning of 1861, eleven slaveholding states announced their secession - the separation of the southern states and the formation of an independent state ("Confederate States of America") with its capital at Richmond. On March 11, 1861, the Constitution of the “Confederate States of America” was adopted, which declared the institution of slavery “recognized and protected.” In April 1861, the Confederates unleashed Civil war. At the first stage of the war (1861–1862), the northerners suffered a number of heavy defeats, but by the summer of 1865 the southerners were defeated, and the Confederate States of America ceased to exist. Civil War 1861–1865 and the subsequent period of Southern Reconstruction, 1865–1877. led to the completion of bourgeois-democratic transformations in the country.

The legal consequences of the Civil War were adoption of the XIII–XV amendments to the US Constitution. XIII Amendment took effect in 1865 and established that there would be no slavery or involuntary servitude in the United States “except when such condition is a punishment for crimes.” XIV Amendment took effect in 1868 and established that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are equal citizens of the United States and the state in which they live. XV Amendment went into effect in 1870 and stated that US citizens could not be denied or limited in their rights to participate in elections on account of race, color, or previous experience of slavery.

Main features of socio-economic development.

The formation of an independent state and the elimination of feudal elements created the conditions for the rapid development of capitalism in the USA. Important favorable factors for capitalist growth were the presence of vast lands and natural resources in the United States, mass immigration from Europe and the influx of foreign capital.

After the Revolutionary War, the socio-economic development of the United States followed two main directions. In the northeastern part of the country, the industrial revolution unfolded, and the main classes of bourgeois society were formed. The development of industry took place in the context of the growth of capitalism “in breadth”; farming developed in the colonized areas of the Western United States. In the southern states, the plantation slave-owning economy strengthened and spread to new territories. The simultaneous development of capitalist production in the North and slavery in the South subsequently led to a collision of two social systems - to the second bourgeois revolution in the USA.

Industrial revolution and its features.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. The preconditions for the industrial revolution arose in the United States. He had significant features here. In America, European technical and scientific achievements, capital, machinery and, most importantly, skilled labor were used on a large scale. Another feature of the US industrial revolution was its uneven nature. In the first half of the 19th century. it was localized mainly in the northeastern states. The industrial revolution began in the cotton and wool weaving industries. In 1790, the first spinning mill was opened in the USA, and in 1814, spinning and weaving processes were combined for the first time in one factory.

The Industrial Revolution, which unfolded mainly in the 1920s and 1940s, spanned several decades. The reasons that hampered its development were, on the one hand, the economic dependence of the United States on England (competition of English industry), on the other, the process of development of capitalism “in breadth”: the colonization of the West was accompanied by a temporary return to manual technology (farmers and artisans brought with them the usual manual spinning wheel and handloom). In the first half of the 19th century. Crafts and manufacturing retained a significant share in the economy. However, the industrial revolution developed irreversibly, covering all new branches of production. Mechanical engineering grew. The reaper and sewing machine were invented and put into mass production. Colt introduced standardization of parts into revolver production.

The expansion of the domestic market led in the first quarter of the 19th century. to extensive canal construction. The creation of a steamship in 1807 by R. Fulton revolutionized shipbuilding. In 1828-1830 the first railway was built, connecting the city of Baltimore with the Ohio River, and by 1848 there were already about 10 thousand km of railways in the USA. However, most of the rails for them were still imported from England. The transition to the steam engine was also slow. The peculiarity of the industrial revolution in the textile industry was that it almost exclusively used water energy as the main motive force. The country had many rivers, the cheap energy of which was easy and profitable to use.

The last stage of the industrial revolution - the production of machines using machines - began in the USA in the 50s of the 19th century. The industrial maturity of American capitalism was evidenced by the US involvement in economic crises. Cyclical crises of 1837 and

1847 were very destructive, thousands of workers were thrown onto the street. The most important social result of the industrial revolution in the United States, as in other countries, was the emergence of the industrial bourgeoisie and the factory proletariat.

Formation of the farmers' path to the development of capitalism in agriculture.

The industrial revolution in the northeastern United States occurred simultaneously with the colonization of the West. V.I. Lenin, giving a scientific analysis of this feature of the development of American capitalism, wrote: “The first process expresses the further development of existing capitalist relations; the second is the formation of new capitalist relations in a new territory. The first process means the development of capitalism in depth, the second – in breadth”29. Initially, the public lands included lands immediately west of the Allegheny Mountains. Subsequently, this fund increased due to the seizure of new territories. The struggle over land distribution was a vital part of the class struggle in the United States, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War inclusive. Under pressure from the farmer and labor movements, the government and Congress were forced to gradually reduce the size of the plots being sold from 640 to 80 acres and allow installment sales. A significant number of settlers spontaneously occupied public land that had not yet gone on sale: the law of 1841 on the right of borrowing gave squatters the right to purchase land they were already cultivating at a nominal price. This legislation contributed to an increased flow of settlers to Western lands. If in 1790 222 thousand people lived west of the Allegans, then in 1850 10.4 million (45% of the country's population).

Thus, over vast territories an economic basis was created for the rapid development of capitalism. Since the settler acquired the land directly from the state, and not from the landowner, this land was free from absolute rent, which significantly reduced

29 Lenin V.I. Complete. collection op. T. 3. P. 563.

cost of agricultural products. Only for a short time was the economy of the settlers subsistence in nature. In the colonized areas there was a process of developing patriarchal farms into capitalist farms. In 1860, the number of agricultural laborers was 800 thousand people, with a total number of farms of 2.4 million. By the middle of the 19th century. The farming economy of the West was largely of a commercial nature, its products were sold in the industrial East and the slave-owning South.

Plantation slavery.

While profound changes in industry and agriculture were taking place in the North, the slave system continued to dominate in the southern states. The fate of the slave-owning South was greatly influenced by the enormous growth of the English textile industry during the Industrial Revolution (and later by the development of the textile industry in the northern United States) and the emergence of the new cash crop of cotton. Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793, which increased labor productivity a thousand times, made the cultivation of cotton of all varieties profitable. Slavery, which was on the decline, found a second wind. The production of cotton for the emerging world market made it a completely commodity production. “...To the barbaric horrors of slavery, serfdom, etc.,” Marx wrote, “is added the civilized horror of excessive labor... Here it was no longer a question of beating out of him (the slave. - Ed.) a certain amount useful products. The point was the production of surplus value itself” 30. Cotton production increased from Ztys. bales (1000 pounds per bale) in 1790 to 3.8 million bales in 1860. During the same period, the number of black slaves increased from 700 thousand to 4 million. In the south of the United States, the “King of Cotton” ruled, determining all structure of life.

One of the means by which planters sought to make slavery profitable was to intensify the already brutal exploitation of black slaves.

30 Marx K.. Engels F. Soch. 2nd ed. T. 23. P. 247.

At the same time, given the extensive nature of the slave economy, an unlimited reserve of free land was required. In this sense, the transition to new lands was the economic law of the existence of plantation slavery. By the 1930s, the center of the plantation economy had moved to the southwest, to the fertile lands of the lower Mississippi basin. The Cotton Belt now stretches 1,000 miles from east to west and up to 700 miles from north to south. Finally, slavery, based on poor technology and low labor productivity, could pay for itself and make a profit thanks to the cotton monopoly of the southern states, which accounted for two-thirds of the world's cotton production.

The slave system hindered the development of industry and agriculture. The agricultural South was unable to even feed itself and imported food. A caste society actually formed here, at the top of which was an oligarchy of large slave owners: about 10 thousand planters owned 50 or more slaves; the vast majority of white southerners were poor whites, poisoned by racial prejudice.

Features of party political struggle.

From the end of the 18th century. The most important element of US political life was the alternating dominance of two parties. The constitution did not say anything about parties, but they turned out to be necessary to protect the interests of the bourgeois-planter bloc that came to power and the uninterrupted functioning of the state mechanism.

The most important feature in the activities of the parties was the gradual formation of the mechanism of the two-party system. During the period of “free” capitalism, the common platform of agreement among the parties was the recognition of the foundations of existing bourgeois relations and the principles of the constitution of 1787. The differences between the bourgeois parties during this period were determined to a large extent by the difference in the interests of developing capitalism “in breadth” and “in depth,” agrarian and commercial-industrial development; The rivalry was complicated by the fact that southern slave-owning planters were on the side of agrarian interests. At the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. In close connection with the socio-political development of the country and the course of the class struggle, the two-party system went through a number of stages. The first national political parties of the Federalists and Republicans, which dominated in 1790-1810, were replaced by the one-party “era of good agreement”, and in the second quarter of the 19th century. The two-party system “Whigs - Democrats” was established, which crashed in the 50s on the rock of slavery.

Federalist rule.

The first decade of the existence of the United States under the “new roof”, under the auspices of the Constitution of 1787, became a time of political dominance of the Federalists. They represented the interests of the trade, manufacturing and financial bourgeoisie, whose positions were strong primarily in the states of New England. The political philosophy of the federalists, which took shape back in the days of the struggle over the constitution, was imbued with antidemocraticism; it openly viewed the state as a tool that was designed to serve the interests of the propertied and keep the people in line.

George Washington became the first president of the United States in 1789. Although he claimed to be anti-party, in fact his sympathies were entirely with the Federalists. The key figure in Washington's cabinet was Secretary of the Treasury A. Hamilton (later the leader of the Federalist Party). A man of conservative political views (the English constitutional monarchy served as a model for him) and outstanding energy, he formulated and implemented the economic policy of the young bourgeois state - the USA. In the interests of war loan holders, Hamilton proposed paying off the huge national debt at the expense of the federal government. The sources for repaying the debt were funds received from the sale of public lands and taxes from the population. In 1791, on Hamilton's initiative, the National Bank was founded. Its task was to provide loans to public and private enterprise. He also received the right to issue paper money for the entire country. Large financial institutions took an active part in it.

sists, English capital was also widely attracted. Hamilton put forward a program to encourage industry and trade through the introduction of protective tariffs, improvement of communications, etc.

The farm poor were the first to feel the brunt of the new tax policy. Excitement reigned in the western regions of the country. In 1794, in Pennsylvania, the discontent of the farming masses resulted in open rebellion. Then Washington ordered the suppression of the “rebellion,” and in order to demonstrate the strength of the government, an army of 15,000 was sent against the lawbreakers.

The foreign policy of the Federalists, an important part of which was the economic and political orientation toward England, also had a clearly defined class character. This was especially evident as the Great French Revolution developed. The vast majority of Americans greeted news of events in France with enthusiasm. Democratic clubs were created in cities to defend the revolution in France and political freedoms in the United States. The ruling classes looked at the revolution in France differently, especially after the overthrow of the monarchy. As a tribute to the American Revolution, Lafayette sent Washington the keys to the Bastille. But the federalists did not accept the idea of ​​succession of revolutions. When the Ambassador of the French Republic, Genet, arrived in the United States in 1793, he was greeted with a markedly cold reception by President Washington. Portraits of the executed Louis XVI and members of his family were demonstratively hung in the reception residence. Zhenet's attempt to renew the alliance treaty of 1778 and obtain help from the United States ended in failure.

The anti-democratic political course of the Federalists reached its apogee under President John Adams, who succeeded Washington in 1797. Fearing the rise of radicalism in the United States, laws were passed that posed a serious threat to political freedoms and the “Bill of Rights.” The Alien Act, directed against European revolutionaries who emigrated to America, gave the president the right to expel them from the country. The Treason Act provided for fines and imprisonment for speaking in the press critical of the government.

Jeffersonian democracy.

An important consequence of the domestic and foreign policies of the federalists was party demarcation: the formation of an opposition republican party began. As a result of an intense political struggle, Jefferson was elected president in 1800. The period of Jeffersonian Republican dominance began. The fall of the Federalists was not accidental. In a country where 90% of the population was engaged in agriculture, they pursued economic policies in the interests of the narrow system of the commercial and financial bourgeoisie. In the political sphere, the federalists launched an offensive against the bourgeois-democratic gains brought by the War of Independence. Orientation towards England did not contribute to the strengthening of US national sovereignty.

The Republican Party of that time expressed the intertwined interests of planters, farmers, and small property owners in the city. Its main strength lay in farming, whose ideologists harbored illusions about a republic of independent small farmers, capable of supposedly saving America from the harmful consequences of industrial development and the domination of the commercial and financial bourgeoisie. But this was not a conservative patriarchal utopia; the struggle for a democratic resolution of the land issue objectively created conditions for the most complete development of capitalism in agriculture and throughout the country. The right flank of the party consisted of slave-owning planters, for whom the understanding of freedom came down to the autonomy of the states. Under her protection, it was easier for them to preserve the “special institution” of slavery - “King Cotton” began to gain strength.

Of the economic reforms carried out by Jefferson, the most important was partial agrarian reform: the size of plots that were acquired from the public land fund was reduced. In mitigating the severity of the agrarian question, the acquisition by the United States in 1803 of French Louisiana, a huge territory west of the Mississippi, was of no small importance. Absorbed in the war with England, Napo-

Leon sold Louisiana for 15 million dollars. Streams of planters and farmers rushed to new lands.

Reflecting the demands of the popular masses in the political field, the Republicans repealed the laws on foreigners and treason, the state apparatus was reduced and made cheaper, and the size of the army and navy was significantly reduced.

Although the internal policies of the Republicans differed significantly from the Federalists, continuity was preserved in many areas of government activity. Jefferson the President was much more moderate than Jefferson the Enlightenment. He abandoned the US development program along a purely agrarian path and, guided by pragmatic considerations, pursued a policy of encouraging US commercial and industrial development. Tariffs protected young American industry, and state resources were used to develop shipping and road construction. The Republicans did not touch the National Bank, the stronghold of the New England financial bourgeoisie.

The course of international events had a strong influence on the domestic political situation of the United States. The wars in Europe, which brought death and ruin to millions of people, enriched American traders. The US fleet increased more than sixfold between 1789 and 1807. The largest fortunes grew from income from foreign trade. The United States supplied food to all the warring countries. On this basis, relations between the United States and France and England worsened.

In subsequent years, the contradictions between the United States and England intensified so much that they led to the war of 1812-1814. The British government sought to take revenge and again make the United States dependent on England. On the part of the United States, the just goals of protecting national sovereignty were intertwined with expansionist aspirations towards Canada. The war proceeded unfavorably for the United States. Attempts to invade Canada failed, only American privateers were successful at sea. In 1814, at the end of the war in Europe, the British sent new troops to America. They occupied the capital, the city of Washington, and burned the Capitol. With the threat to American independence, the war acquired a patriotic character, and the morale of the American troops increased. The British failed to take either New York or Baltimore. The peace treaty signed at the end of 1814 restored the pre-war situation. The news of the signing of the treaty coincided with a major victory of the American General E. Jackson near New Orleans in January 1815.

From the period of "good agreement" to the two-party system "Whigs - Democrats".

The war with England marked the first stage of the party-political history of the United States. The policies of the Republican administrations, which took into account the needs of commercial and industrial development of the United States, cut the ground from under the feet of the Federalists as a rival party. The war of 1812-1814, in which the federalists took a pro-British position, finally swept them away from the political arena. The ensuing one-man rule of the Republican Party, known as the “Era of Good Accord,” was a time of political regrouping that took into account the changing balance of power in the ruling classes. And significant changes have occurred. The industrial revolution that began brought the industrial bourgeoisie into the political arena. The plantation South had entered a cotton boom, and its most eloquent speaker, J. Calhoun, was sophisticated in sophistry about the “natural inequality” of people. Any political group had to reckon with the increasing role of farming as the West was colonized.

In 1819-1820 There was a sharp political clash over the issue of slavery. The occasion was a discussion in Congress about admitting the state of Missouri to the union, but the discussion was actually about whether there should be slavery or freedom on the land previously acquired by Louisiana. By a compromise passed by Congress, Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The number of free and slave states remained equal in the union. It was also established that in the future slavery would be prohibited on the lands of Louisiana lying north of 36°30".

The Missouri Compromise temporarily delayed the inevitable conflict between the two social systems.

The “Era of Good Accord” did not last long. At the turn of the 30s, from the ruins of the Republican Party, a two-party system “Whigs - Democrats” arose. The rival parties were very diverse in their social composition. The Democrats were dominated by the planter-farmer bloc (such diverse forces were temporarily united by the opposition of the northern bourgeoisie and a common interest in expansion into Western lands). The support of the Whigs was the commercial and industrial circles of the North and part of the planters connected with them by commercial ties.

The Democratic Party was in power intermittently for thirty years before the Civil War. The most important period was the so-called Jackson era - the two-term tenure of the Democrat General E. Jackson as president (1829-1837). At a time when the issue of slavery had not yet come to the fore in the socio-political life of the country, Jackson very successfully maneuvered among diverse political forces. Coming from a poor family who worked his way up, he was known among Western farmers as a radical and an enemy of the hated financial tycoons. To Southerners, Jackson (himself a slave-owning Tennessee planter) was a man who would never go against slavery.

The political struggle during Jackson's presidency revolved around issues of the National Bank, tariffs, and the democratization of political life. Jackson liquidated the National Bank, which personified the interests of the old financial aristocracy and, moreover, was closely connected with English capital. This act was in the interests of the independent development of American capitalism. The establishment of local banks facilitated credit and capitalist enterprise.

The conflict over the issue of tariffs received great public attention - it was about priorities in the economic development of the country. The fledgling US industry developed under the protection of protective tariffs. The planters of the South, who sold cotton mainly in England and bought its cheap goods, were interested in lowering duties. The tariffs were slightly reduced by the Bill of 1832, but this was not enough for the planters; South Carolina declared them invalid and threatened to secede from the Union. Jackson acted energetically. He reinforced federal troops in South Carolina. It is true that Jackson later gave in to the slaveholders by lowering tariffs, but the firmness shown in defending state unity was important.

Under Jackson, a number of reforms were carried out: imprisonment for debt was abolished (a significant part of the prisoners were debtors), compulsory service in the militia (state military units) was abolished, and a 10-hour working day was introduced at state enterprises. Of great importance was the development of a system of free public schools, which led to a significant increase in literacy. The party-political system was democratized: the elimination of the property qualification sharply expanded the contingent of voters (if in 1824 the number of voters did not exceed 350 thousand, then in 1836 there were 1.5 million people), candidates for presidential elections began to be nominated by congressional factions, and by party conventions. All these reforms led to the expansion of bourgeois democracy in the United States. However, “Jacksonian democracy” was not granted from above; it was primarily the fruit of popular movements that gained strength during this period. The growth of the labor movement and the increased political activity of the farming masses played a major role.

Jackson was the last major presidential figure before the Civil War. After him came, as Marx put it, a series of mediocre presidents. In the 40s of the XIX century. The issue of slavery came to the forefront of political life. Neither the Whigs nor the Democrats were able to resolve it. In 1848, a very influential radical party, the Free Soilers, was founded (from the words free soil - free land), whose motto was “Free land, free

word, free labor, free people." Freesoilers demanded a ban on the spread of slavery to new territories. The two-party system has entered a period of crisis.

US expansion.

The growth of capitalism “in breadth” and “in depth”, the need for plantation slavery in new lands were the most important factors determining US foreign policy. The entire North American continent was open to colonization: the indigenous population could not provide serious resistance, and the wars of the European powers among themselves diverted their forces from the American continent. The end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. were a time of rapid US territorial expansion. The direction of expansion was determined by the internal political balance of forces: the bourgeoisie and farmers sought to seize western lands and Canada, the planters' gaze was turned to the south and southwest.

The Louisiana Purchase almost doubled the territory of the United States, but even before the deal was finalized, a stream of farmers and planters rushed there, seizing land along the Mississippi River. Florida was next. In 1810-1813 I was busy

Spanish-owned West Florida. Invading armed American settlers overthrew Spanish authorities and submitted to Congress a declaration of the “desire of the people” to join the United States. The request was granted. Then it was East Florida's turn. In 1818, General E. Jackson, under the pretext of persecuting Indians who allegedly received help from Spanish territory, captured East Florida. Retrospectively, the annexation was formalized as a purchase.

Further territorial acquisitions soon followed. Back in the 20s, slave owners began to invade Texas and, bringing with them black slaves, establish plantations there, and in 1836 they proclaimed a slave republic. Attempts by Mexican troops to prevent secession were unsuccessful. Soon Texas, equal in territory to France, was annexed by the United States. In 1846, the United States launched a new war against Mexico. The economic and military superiority of the United States left no doubt about its outcome. American troops defeated the Mexicans and occupied the capital, Mexico City. According to the peace treaty, Mexico, having transferred to the United States New Mexico, Northern

California and recognizing the loss of Texas, lost half of its territory. In 1853-1854. A new deal was imposed on Mexico to force the sale of a vast area in the Gila River Valley to the United States.

Expansion also took place in the northwest. In 1846, the United States obtained recognition from England of its claims to the Oregon territory. First of all, farmers and the bourgeoisie were interested in its accession. By the middle of the 19th century. The United States reached the Pacific Ocean all the way from Canada to Mexico. Since 1776, the area of ​​the United States has increased 8 times.

The colonization of the occupied territories was accompanied by the displacement and mass extermination of the country's indigenous population - the Indians. The disunited and poorly armed tribes, although they fought very courageously, could not resist the strong state.

The dream of liberation never left the Indians; it was often clothed in the religious shell of messianic movements, which combined preaching the rejection of everything that the “white man” brought with him and calls for struggle. One of the most famous of these movements was led by Chief Tecumseh, who sought to unite the Indian tribes. However, the uprising was suppressed in 1811, Tecumseh fell in battle, and the colonialists made souvenirs in the form of belts from his skin.

In the 30s, the resettlement of all Indians from the eastern states across the Mississippi River to “Indian Territory” began, which was essentially a huge reservation. The resettlement, carried out forcibly in stages, became one of the most tragic pages in the history of the Indians. The peaceful Cherokee tribe, which had its own constitution, alphabet, schools, newspapers, was forced to yield to force; it passed under the escort of soldiers hundreds of miles to the west. Every fourth person died on this “road of tears.” With the annexation of Texas and California, “Indian territory” found itself surrounded by white settlements. The unprecedented expansion, which lasted for many generations, influenced the most diverse aspects of the American worldview and contributed to the formation of myths about national chosenness. These theories clearly emerged in the second quarter of the 19th century. in the doctrine of “Predetermination of Destiny,” which asserted that the United States was destined from above to dominate the American continent and carry out a special mission in the world.

The ripening broad expansionist plans found expression in an important political document of that time - the Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine, proclaimed by President Monroe in 1823, was preceded by rumors of the threat of Holy Alliance intervention in Latin America to restore Spanish colonial rule. The doctrine was ambiguous. It declared the opposition of the republican principles of the American states to the monarchical ones shared by the leaders of the Holy Alliance, and put forward the idea of ​​prohibiting further colonization of the American continent by European powers. The doctrine put forward the slogan “America for Americans.” All this had a positive meaning. However, under the lush democratic phraseology of Monroe’s message, expansionist tendencies were clearly visible, determined by the internal laws of the development of capitalism and plantation slavery in the United States. The essence of the Monroe Doctrine was revealed not so much in the US attitude towards European countries, but in US policy in the Western Hemisphere itself, which was outlined as a field for North American expansion. It was this feature that turned out to be the main one in the Monroe Doctrine; the slogan “America for Americans” proclaimed by it soon began to sound like “America for North Americans.”

In 1850, the United States entered into an agreement with England to control the future canal through Central America. At the same time, the United States tried to buy or seize Cuba, which belonged to Spain. In the 40-50s, US penetration into the countries of the Far East began. The United States imposed an unequal treaty on China, and in 1854, Commodore Perry’s squadron, threatening war, “opened the doors” to Japan, forcing it to conclude a treaty of “peace and friendship.”

Labor movement.

The situation of American workers was somewhat better

than European ones. In contrast to Europe, where the impoverished peasantry was moving from the villages to the cities, in the United States there was an outflow of labor from the cities to the West. At the same time, this trend was counteracted by another, associated with the increasing flow of European immigration. From 1820 to 1860, about 5 million people immigrated to the United States. Constant European immigration also created fluidity and national heterogeneity in the American working class. The industrial revolution in the North was accompanied by the rapid growth of the proletariat (its number by 1860 was about 2 million people) and the intensification of its exploitation. The working day was 12-14 hours a day. Female and child labor was widely used. Thus, in 1820, almost half of all workers in the textile industry were children.

Until the supply of “free” lands was exhausted, until it was possible to spread capitalism “in breadth,” the acute conflicts that arose between labor and capital did not develop into complete forms. This circumstance affected both the ideology and organizational forms of the labor movement. However, the general laws of the class struggle manifested themselves here very clearly. Since the mid-20s, a strike movement has been unfolding in the United States. The workers' main demands were economic, primarily a 10-hour working day. Trade unions, which arose at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, began to grow especially rapidly in the 20s and 30s in the wake of the strike struggle; their number increased to 300 thousand people. The largest local unions of trade unions existed in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. In 1834, the National Association of Trade Unions was created, which existed for three years.

In 1828, the first political labor party in the United States arose, and over the next six years such parties arose in more than 60 cities. The demands of local workers' parties were similar. They advocated measures in favor of workers and put forward general democratic demands: a 10-hour working day, a public school system, granting voting rights to the poor, etc. The workers supported the movement for land reform, the opening of Western lands for free settlement. It was the working class that formulated the most radical reform program in the “Jackson era” and represented the left flank of the general democratic movement. Under the influence of the economic crisis of 1837 and with the increasing colonization of the West, a significant part of the workers' organizations disintegrated.

In the late 40s and early 50s, immigrants who arrived from Germany after the defeat of the 1848 revolution played a significant role in the American labor movement. Among them were followers of Marxism. The most prominent propagandist of Marxism in the United States was former member of the Communist League Joseph Weidemeyer. He published the Communist Manifesto and other works of Marx and Engels in the United States. In 1852, on the initiative of I. Weidemeyer and F. Sorge, the first Marxist organization in the USA, the Proletarian League, was established in New York.

In the first half of the 19th century. The USA, thanks to the presence of free lands and a significant degree of political freedom, became a field of social experimentation for various trends of European utopian socialism. Back in the 1920s, Robert Owen founded the New Harmony colony in Indiana. In the United States, Cabet's followers were looking for their "Ikaria". The greatest success among American workers and intelligentsia was Fourierism, according to the recipes of which they wanted to rid America of the ulcers of capitalism. In the 40s, the Fourierists created about 30 phalanxes in the United States, the most famous of which was Brook Farm. All these undertakings failed under the dominance of capitalism, but by criticizing the vices inherent in capitalism, the utopian socialists made their contribution to the workers’ and general democratic movement.

The fight against slavery. Abolitionist movement. Since the beginning of the 30s, a massive nationwide movement of abolitionism (from the word abolition - destruction, abolition) has unfolded in the United States, speaking out

neck for the abolition of slavery. Among the abolitionists were representatives of the intelligentsia, farmers, workers, and the urban petty and industrial bourgeoisie.

The most important part of the democratic movement against slavery was the struggle of the blacks. Terror in the South could not prevent slave revolts. G. Aptheker, a leading American researcher of this problem, lists dozens of such speeches. The largest slave uprising in the first half of the 19th century. There was an uprising in 1831 in Virginia led by Nat Turner, a slave and Baptist preacher nicknamed "The Prophet." Rebels armed with axes and scythes killed planters. The uprising was suppressed, many of its participants were executed, but Turner's name entered the Negro epic.

One of the most common and effective means of slave struggle was escape. “The Underground Railroad” is what abolitionists called their system of helping blacks who fled the southern states. The “underground road” had its own “stations” - houses where fugitives were sheltered, and its own “conductors” - guides. Former black slave Harriet Tubman entered the South 19 times to bring back hundreds of slaves. During 1830-1860 60 thousand fugitive slaves passed through the “underground road”. Free blacks of the North took an active part in the struggle. The famous pamphlet "Walker's Appeal," which appeared in 1829, contained a passionate, repeated appeal to the black people of the South to rise in arms. In response to plans for the resettlement of free blacks in Africa, Walker recalled that the soil of America is watered with the sweat and blood of the black people, and concluded: “America is our home.”

The beginning of an organized abolitionist movement on a national scale was the creation in 1833 of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Its leader was William Harrison, editor of the Liberator magazine (1830-1865), who for 35 years denounced the evil of slavery. Abolitionists operated in an environment of hostility and persecution. They were hunted and lynched, but they did not give up. Abolitionists opposed slavery from the standpoint of humanistic morality combined with religious argumentation. The American Anti-Slavery Society, however, did not take a clear position on the question of the means of freeing slaves. The main weapon of society was moral exhortation. Harrison believed that slavery would fall as soon as the people realized its sinfulness. The doctrine of non-resistance to evil by violence threatened to isolate abolitionists from the anti-slavery movement in the South and led to the abandonment of political action as a means of combating slavery.

In 1840, the American Anti-Slavery Society split. The views of supporters of political action were represented by Frederick Douglass. The son of a black slave, Douglass fled to the North and took part in the abolitionist movement. For more than half a century, the passionate, angry voice of this outstanding political figure and publicist, a fiery orator, did not stop. Sharing Harryson's views at first, Douglas managed to rise above them. Harrison's slogan "No alliance with slave owners!" Douglas opposed the slogan “No alliance with slavery!”, which called for the fight for the abolition of slavery throughout the United States.

Social struggle and American literature.

US writers of the first half of the 19th century - romantics, transcendentalists, abolitionist writers - did a lot to expose the social ills of American society from the standpoint of humanism. American romanticism arose out of disappointment in the results of the revolution of 1775-1783. The country's independence was achieved, and this evoked a feeling of legitimate national pride, but the principles of “liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness” proclaimed in the “Declaration of Independence” came into conflict with life, where, in the words of Washington Irving, the “almighty dollar” dominated. American romantics, despite all their differences, are united by their protest against bourgeois morality, politics, and mores. The negative aspects of American “business” and political mores became the subject of satirical depiction in the works of G. Breckenridge (“Modern Chivalry”), W. Irving (“History of New

York"), F. Cooper ("Monikins"). Each of the romantics sought to find their ideal outside the commercial world. W. Irving created the poetic world of “old-world America” of the 18th century, G. Melville and F. Cooper looked for their ideal in the life of the uncivilized peoples of the Pacific Ocean and the Indians. Humanistic motives were reflected with great force in the work of Fenimore Cooper, who created an epic about American pioneers in the five-logy of novels about Leatherstocking. The main problem of the novels - the conflict between pioneering and bourgeois civilization - is presented here in moral, economic and philosophical terms. The honest and brave explorer Natty Bumppo and his faithful friend the Indian leader Chingachgook eventually got lost in the wilds of capitalist civilization and were crushed by the world of money-grubbing property owners. Cooper's novels pose another important problem: the inhumane extermination of the Indians leads to the destruction of a unique culture.

The Indian theme received its most vivid continuation in the works of Henry Longfellow. In the magical poem “The Song of Gai-Avat,” written based on Indian legends, he sang the folk hero fighting for the happiness of all people. Like Cooper, Longfellow painted a picture of the brotherhood of whites and Indians.

The criticism of capitalism by the early romantics was continued in the late 1930s by writers, many of whom belonged to the socio-philosophical movement of transcendentalism, 31 which saw the main means of combating social ills in moral and moral improvement. At the same time, Ralph Emerson, Henry Thoreau and others sharply criticized bourgeois civilization, which turns man into a “money-making machine.” Thoreau famously described a railroad where “every tie is a man, Irish or Yankee. Rails are laid over them, over these people... and the cars roll smoothly.” “Sleepers may someday

31 Transcendental, i.e. beyond experience. The followers of this teaching contrasted the sensually cognizable reality with a “higher world” cognizable intuitively.

“somehow wake up and get up,” Thoreau added. Preaching simplification and merging with nature, Thoreau at the same time took radical positions on pressing political issues of our time. To protest the war with Mexico, he refused to pay taxes and was imprisoned. Thoreau was at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement.

The abolitionist movement opened one of the best pages in the history of American literature of the 19th century. Continuing the humanistic traditions of the Romantics and Transcendentalists, abolitionist writers denounced the slavery of blacks. The largest abolitionist prose writers were R. Hildreth and G. Beecher Stowe. Harriet Beecher Stowe showed especially terrible pictures of the inhumanity of slavery in America in her famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). The strength of the book lies in its deep life truthfulness. The everyday phenomena of the slaveholding South appeared in the coverage of Beecher Stowe in their monstrous and immoral significance. The accusatory indignation that pervades Uncle Tom's Cabin was intertwined with a Christian mindset. However, through the groans and prayers for forgiveness, the readers heard the bubbling of the class struggle in the South. Thousands of Americans read Uncle Tom's Cabin, crying and clenching their fists.

General history. History of modern times. 8th grade Burin Sergey Nikolaevich

§ 15. USA at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. American Civil War

Development of the USA in the first decades of independence

The spirit of free enterprise, which triumphed on American soil after gaining independence, made the new country even more attractive to tens and hundreds of thousands of Europeans. In 1776–1820 More than 250 thousand people immigrated (that is, entered) the United States from Europe. Most of the settlers sought to settle on fertile lands, which became less and less in the “old” colonies. Therefore, a significant part of the immigrants (like many descendants of the first settlers) rushed to the West - beyond the Allegheny Mountains and even further. On new lands, capitalist-type farms arose, settlements appeared, and then grew into large cities.

The southern part of the new lands was dominated by large plantations - large plots of land occupied by one or another agricultural crop. They used the labor of black slaves. The same plantations had long existed in the colonies of the American South, which had now become states. Slave-owner planters were, in essence, typical capitalist masters. But they did not exploit hired workers, but exclusively the cheap (almost free) labor of black slaves. Many white Americans opposed slavery.

Opponents of slavery did not proceed only from moral considerations. The fact is that Southern planters violated the “rules” of capitalist competition. They received huge profits, and their expenses were minimal - only for the purchase of slaves and their very meager maintenance. This caused irritation, envy, and then protest among the capitalists of the North and West of the United States.

Democratic ideology began to take shape in North America even before the US gained national independence. This contributed to the rapid emergence of democratic institutions in the country, including political parties. In 1828, the US Democratic Party was created, which still exists today. In 1854, the Republican Party emerged. Its social support was the bourgeoisie, farmers, and workers. Republicans condemned slavery, but believed that the fight against it should be carried out by peaceful, non-violent methods. They believed that if the area of ​​​​spread of slavery was strictly limited, then it would gradually “die out” by itself.

What were the features of the development of the American South? What was the contradiction between the South and the North?

Industrial Revolution in the USA

The young country sought to join the ranks of the leading powers of the world, and therefore the industrial revolution in the United States was carried out at an extremely fast pace. At first, the Americans used English inventions, then their own, American ones appeared. In 1793, Eli Whitney designed a cotton gin. It allowed us to increase labor productivity hundreds of times! With the introduction of the machine (and the increasing exploitation of cheap black slave labor), cotton production grew rapidly.

Slaves on a cotton plantation. Artist W. Walker

The gigantic territory of the United States required the creation of a convenient transport network and fast means of communication. Back in 1807, the self-taught Irish engineer Robert Fulton built the paddle steamer Clermont, which was propelled by a steam engine with a capacity of 20 horsepower. The Claremont made its first voyage along the Hudson River from New York to Albany (270 km) in 32 hours, going against the current and with a strong headwind.

Using a cotton gin

Since the late 1810s. River and sea shipping services began to rapidly develop in the country. Numerous canals were built to connect the main American rivers with each other and with the Atlantic coast. In 1819, the steamship Savannah made the world's first transatlantic voyage (that is, across the entire Atlantic) and delivered a cargo of cotton from the USA to Great Britain in 26 days.

Announcement of the opening of the railway

Since the 1840s Active construction of railways began throughout the country. This contributed to both the strengthening of the domestic market and the movement of immigrants to the western regions.

What advances did the United States make in industrial development? How can one explain the rapid economic development of this country?

US foreign policy and expansion of the country's territory

At the beginning of the 19th century. Anglo-American relations deteriorated again. In June 1812 a new war began. The British, having sent powerful reinforcements across the ocean, inflicted a number of sensitive blows on the Americans. In August 1814, an English landing party even captured the US capital of Washington for two days, during which time they managed to burn or destroy the main buildings of the city.

Since the forces of the opponents were approximately equal, there was no point in prolonging the war. At the end of December, a peace treaty was signed. Although the war ended in a draw, the international position of the United States was noticeably strengthened. It is no coincidence that the Americans call this war with the British the Second War of Independence.

North American Indian

The territory of the United States was constantly expanding. In 1803, Louisiana was purchased from France. During the 1810s. Americans took control of Spanish Florida. Then began a rapid advance to the West, to the Pacific Ocean.

Indians are forcibly taken to reservations - to territories specially designated for them. Artist R. Linde

Already in the 1820s. American settlers began to penetrate into the Mexican province of Texas. The number of new Texans grew rapidly, and in the early 1830s. they demanded “autonomy.” In 1835, the settlers rebelled and quickly took possession of almost the entire province. The Mexicans sent a strong army to Texas. But many volunteers arrived to help the settlers, and in April 1836 the Mexican troops were defeated.

After Texas was incorporated into the United States as a state (1845), the Americans tried to capture Mexican California using the “Texas option.” This led to the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). Despite the desperate resistance of the Mexicans, their army was again defeated.

By the peace treaty (February 1848), Mexico lost approximately 55% of its territory (including Texas).

In 1867, the United States of America acquired the huge northern peninsula of Alaska from Russia. The North American power turned into a transcontinental power (that is, crossing the continent from ocean to ocean).

US foreign policy was based on doctrine, proclaimed by American President J. Monroe? in December 1823. It was a reaction to the attempt of the powers of the Holy Alliance, at the request of Spain, to intervene in Latin America. The US President said that his country will not allow any interference by European powers in any events taking place in the Western Hemisphere. But at the same time it was made clear that the United States itself would not interfere in European affairs. In other words, the States claimed dominance throughout “their” hemisphere, and in the Eastern Hemisphere they seemed to recognize the primacy of the leading powers of Europe.

Growing “inevitable conflict”

During the first half of the 19th century. The number of black slaves in the United States was constantly growing. By the middle of the century it exceeded 3 million people. Slavery brought huge profits to the planters, while protest against slavery was growing in the American North and West. Anti-slavery fighters began to be called abolitionists (i.e., abolitionists). Among them were farmers and artisans, officials and priests, workers and members of the intelligentsia. Abolitionist societies arose throughout the country.

Sending black slaves from Africa to America

The confrontation between defenders and opponents of slavery went down in history as an “inevitable conflict.” In the 1850s. it has escalated to the limit. Slavery quickly spread to new southern lands that were annexed to the United States. As early as 1820, the area of ​​slavery was officially limited by a conventional line running along the parallel 36°30? northern latitude. But in 1855, slave owners, having won elections in the new state of Kansas, introduced slavery there too. Since Kansas was located north of the “forbidden line,” a real civil war began in the state. Volunteers from other states rushed to the aid of both slave owners and opponents of slavery. Slaveholders were eventually forced out of Kansas.

What facts indicated the growth of an “inevitable conflict”? Was it possible to resolve it peacefully?

In October 1859, white farmer John Brown, who led a detachment of abolitionists, tried to start a slave uprising in Virginia. But Brown and his supporters were not supported by local black slaves, much less white Virginians. In a shootout with the arriving troops, some of the rebels were killed, the rest, including Brown, were captured. By court verdict, Brown and several rebels were hanged.

The Underground Railroad in action

Most abolitionists tried to avoid bloodshed in the fight against slavery. In particular, they organized a system of the so-called underground railroad. It was a real secret organization with its own “stations” (transshipment points) and “conductors” (conductors) who helped runaway slaves cross to Canada or otherwise escape persecution.

What do you think was the most effective way to fight slavery - mass armed struggle (as in Kansas), uprisings involving black slaves, active nonviolent activity (example - the Underground Railroad), or simply the expectation that slavery " will die off by itself?

Beginning of the Civil War

In November 1860, Republican Abraham Linkoln, a moderate opponent of slavery, won the presidential election. Before this, Democrats had been in power for a long time, advocating non-interference in resolving the issue of slavery and constantly making concessions to slave owners.

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's four years as president placed him among the leading politicians of the modern era. Lincoln was not an abolitionist; he even stated that blacks should not be given voting rights. But the future president, like his party, advocated the limitation of slavery and its gradual abolition.

Lincoln's election victory served as a signal to action for slave owners. The leaders of the southern states agreed to jointly secede from the United States and create their own state. Without waiting for Lincoln to assume the presidency, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina, and then 10 more states, declared separation from the United States. On February 4, 1861, the seceding states formed a slave state - the Confederate States of America (or Confederacy) with its capital in Richmond (Virginia). Its president was a large planter, Jefferson Davis. The division of the country became a fact, and this, in essence, meant a declaration of war on the federal government.

On April 12-13, South Carolina troops shelled and captured Fort Sumter, located on the territory of the state, which remained loyal to the Union - as the United States was commonly called in those years without the seceded southern states. The Civil War began - the worst national tragedy in US history.

The economic and human potential of the Union was significantly greater than that of the Confederacy. By the beginning of the war, 22 million people lived in the North and West, and only 9 million people lived in the South, of which 3.5 million were black slaves.

Why did southerners, who clearly had less potential, initiate the split in the United States and the outbreak of the Civil War?

Nevertheless, the start of hostilities was unsuccessful for the northerners. In the eastern theater of the war, they suffered several defeats due to indecisive, passive actions of the command. Things were more successful for the northerners on the western fronts, where the troops led by generals Ulysses Grant and William Sherman especially distinguished themselves.

Ulysses Grant. Photo

War "revolutionary style"

It was obvious that it was extremely difficult to fight, as they said then, “in a constitutional manner.” War conditions dictate their own rules and often force them to take extraordinary measures. Caution and fear of “going too far” inevitably lead to defeat. Therefore, the question has arisen about the transition to war “in a revolutionary way,” that is, to a more decisive and uncompromising one. This meant more than just military action. The issue of slavery had to be resolved. It was extremely important to find a democratic solution to the land issue.

Abraham Lincoln took the first step towards war “in a revolutionary way” precisely on the agrarian question. On May 20, 1862, the President signed the Homestead Act - land plots located in empty territories of the West, which every adult American could receive for a nominal fee. This democratic decision attracted many farmers, workers, artisans, and urban poor to the side of the northerners.

Battle of Gettysburg

Meanwhile, the war, which was generally going well for the southerners, gradually exhausted their limited strength. During the military confrontation, a turning point in favor of the northerners was clearly brewing. A decisive turn towards war “in a revolutionary way” occurred on September 22, 1862, when Lincoln announced that, beginning in 1863, slavery would be abolished in the rebellious states of the South. Blacks were allowed to join the Union Army. They fought bravely against the southern rebels, often causing panic in their ranks.

Since the summer of 1863, the material superiority of the North increasingly influenced the course of the war. On July 1–3, a major battle took place at Gettysburg (Pennsylvania). The strongest army of the northerners and the rebel troops, led by their best commander Robert E. Lee, met there. The Confederates were defeated, and the remnants of their troops retreated south.

Confederate army soldier

The victories of the northerners marked the final turning point in the war. Attempts by the southerners to change the situation in their favor led nowhere. The final stage of the war was approaching.

American Civil War

Using a map, name the states that fought on the Union side and on the Confederate side. What were the main actions of the northern troops? Name the most important battles of the American Civil War.

End of the Civil War

In March 1864, General Ulysses Grant, who performed excellently during the war, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces. He developed a unified strategic plan to defeat the enemy. The entire military-economic potential of the Union was mobilized to fight the southerners. After heavy, bloody battles, Robert E. Lee's troops were able to push back to the two main Virginia cities - Richmond and Petersburg. It was not possible to capture these cities on the move. Their long siege began, lasting almost a year.

Of the other operations Grant planned, the most important was the three-army raid led by William Sherman through Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean. Having overcome the desperate resistance of the rebels, Sherman's armies broke through to the Atlantic coast by early December. Having besieged the large port of Savannah, northern troops took it on December 21. As a result, the Confederation, as planned, was divided in two.

In the battles in Virginia, starting in the fall of 1864, the troops of General Philip Sheridan especially distinguished themselves. The deep raids of his cavalrymen behind the rebel lines caused panic in their ranks. In early April 1865, Grant's troops finally broke through the rebel front. Richmond and Petersburg were occupied by northerners.

General Robert E. Lee signs the Armistice with the Northerners

The remnants of the southern troops retreated to the town of Appomattoks, where on April 9 Generals Grant and Lee signed a truce. The rebels were sent home, having taken the officers to sign a pledge of allegiance to the US government. In fact, the war was over. Soon the rest of the southern armies capitulated, the last of them surrendering on May 26.

One of the most tragic shots of this war was fired on the evening of April 14 at Washington's Ford Theater. Actor Boots, a Southern fanatic, mortally wounded Abraham Lincoln with a shot in the back of the head. On April 15, the President of the United States died. But this, of course, could no longer help the defeated Confederacy.

Let's sum it up

By the middle of the 19th century. The USA has become one of the leading powers in the world. The strengthening of their economic and military power allows us to talk about the emergence - along with the European one - of another civilizational “center”, the American one.

During the Civil War, black slavery and the large plantation economy of the American South were eliminated. Along with the democratic solution to the land issue (the Homestead Act), this finally eliminated the obstacles that hampered the development of capitalism in the United States.

1846–1848 - Mexican-American War.

1861, February 4- creation of the Confederate States of America - a slave state in the southern United States.

1863, January 1- The Declaration of Abolition of Slavery in the rebellious states of the South came into force.

1. What attracted immigrants from Europe to North America? Why did the number of immigrants to the United States increase significantly after the United States gained independence?

2. Due to what, in your opinion, did the United States manage to quickly (in half a century) increase its territory several times? What factors played a decisive role in this?

3. What events and actions had the greatest impact on the turning point during the Civil War? Justify your answer.

4. Was the defeat of the Confederacy, the unification of the slave states of the United States, inevitable? Did plantation slavery have the prospect of successful development in the United States?

1. In the American press in 1830, it was reported that children as young as 7 years old worked in factories in the city of Philadelphia, and the working day lasted up to 14 hours. Newspapers published letters from workers in which they complained about difficult working conditions. The workers wrote: we “must work for wages that are barely enough for the bare necessities of subsistence, otherwise our families will be doomed to starvation. We are powerless to do anything in case of illness or other misfortune; we cannot save a single dollar,” etc.

Remember the similarities between the conditions of American and European workers. How can this be explained?

2*. Vice President of the Confederate States of America A. Stephens said in the spring of 1861: “Our new government is based on the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man, that slavish subordination to a superior race is his natural and normal condition.”

Please rate this statement. How and why could such views be born that are incompatible with the ideas of democratic rights and freedoms (enshrined in the US Constitution and the US Declaration of Independence)?