U.S. History at a glance – Sample Essay
The U.S. history can be traced back to the Pre- Columbian Era when the land was habituated by Native Americans. All Native Americans in United States shared similar culture however; they were different in many activities. For instance, the natives in Eastern side hunted animals for food whereas; the natives in Western United States went fishing. Later Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492 and thus, began the era of English settlers from Europe. People from England, Spain, France, Dutch, Scotland, Germany and Sweden settled in various parts of the United States that overthrew the Native Americans.
As a result, the native Americans died due to killings, lost their lands and succumbed to various diseases brought from the Europe. By this time the United States had already been a home to 13 colonies, which further resulted in the Revolutionary War between these colonies and Britain in 1775. This war was a result of changes in British colonies and thus the 13 colonies created United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. Under the control of George Washington, the Americans won this war and a state constitution was later created in 1787 under the presidentship of George Washington.
After the framing of constitution United States gained more land and developed industries embarking the journey of industrialization in 1800’s. However, the states in Southern US wanted to develop their own separate country known as the Confederate States of America, which later resulted in the American Civil War. By the end of the war many people were left with lot of wealth called as the Gilded age and thus, U.S. developed as one of the biggest economies of the world.
With the advent of 20th century U.S was already a world leader and took significant part in both World War I and II, which was signified with the Roaring Twenties because of economic boon and people got very rich. However, this period later came to an end with the Great Depression when American markets crashed and most people became poor, which ended with the World War II. By this time, the world was divided between two great superpowers namely, The U.S.A and U.S.S.R. and later entered in a cold war that lasted for several years and cost a lot of money for both the countries, additionally the war between Korea and Vietnam proved to be more expensive.
After these major political events, the U.S. witnessed social reforms when different groups such as, African- Americans, women and Chicanos fought for their rights. Moreover, President Richard Nixon resigned from his office in 1974 because of Ronald Reagan. After this time the cold war also ended and the American economy started to grow as it came out of recession and lowered the inflation rates. And after the attacks in September 11 2001, the Middle- East countries shared a special relation with U.S. because of their several foreign policies. Finally, the United States witnessed history when Barack Obama was elected as the first black president of the country.
