Making of America- OCR, History, GCSE (9-1)

• Puritans furst people to travel to America
• Created town called Jamestown
• England conquer east side but parts belong to France and Spain
• People went to seek asylum for religious or political reasons
• 1789 George Washington first American President- Landowner in Virginia
• Britain owned 13 colonies

Boston Tea Party (1773)

• Americans protest British opppression by throwing tea shipments into the sea
• 1775 resentment turned into 'The War of Independence'
• Americans didn't like being controlled by Government + King they never saw
• 4th July 1776, Washington signed 'Declaration of Independence'
• American army forced British to surrender in 1783

The Constitution

• Rules stating how America should be run
• All states agreed to follow it
• Later would be amended 

Congress

• Group of representatives from each state who passed laws

The President

• Elected every 4 years
• Could propose or block laws
• Duty to serve the people by caring about matters that would affect the whole nation

The Supreme Court

• Heard most extreme cases  + could decide if new laws fitted Constitution

The States

• Could create own laws that didn't go against the Constitution
• Well populated area + had a settled form of Government 
• Government + Governor elected by people in that state
• State voters could vote in national elections

The Territories

• Areas of land without enough people or stability to become a state
• Ruled by Territorial Governor appointed by Congress
• Couldn't vote in national elections or send representatives to Congress, until President or Congress, allowed them to enter the union as a full state

White Americans

• Claim to be USA citizens if they were free, white and of 'good character'
• Voting rights connected to owning property
• Women, non-citizens and slaves couldn't vote

Indians

• Constitution accepted Indian Tribes as nations in their own right 
• Congress could make treaties with them
• Could vote but only if they payed taxes

Black Americans

• 1789, majority of 694,000 African Americans lived as slaves in southern states
• No right to vote

• During War of Independence, native supported the British (promised not to expand their colonies into Indian lands)
• 1783 British lost + gave newly formed USA 230 acres of Indian lands
• Indians very angry as they hadn't lost the war but land was taken from them
• US nicknamed the land Northwest + Southwest territory
• Frontiersmen started setting up farms in Indian lands
• Settlers attacked Indians in conflict over the land
• When George Washington became President he worried about this + put 80% of Governments budget into defeating the Indians (Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794)
• Territories became full states so US began to spread, forcing Indians to move further West into land inhabited by other tribes- more conflict

Reasons for expansion

Land, democracy, profit and trade. Government sold farmers, and land speculators, chunks of land at a time which led to massive profits benefiting from the sales.

• 1789 USA relied on being able to trade across Atlantic
• Became a world economy by becoming a Pacific trader
• Thomas Jefferson keen to open new land routes across the continent
• 1803 US bought port of New Orleans from the French through successful negotitations
• French negotiator sold French territory of Louisiana for $15 million 
• Added 530 acres to USA for small price

• US one of the first democratic countries
• Thomas Jefferson 3rd President of US
• He believed a democratic American was a 'Yeoman farmer'- man who owned piece of land and could provide for himself
• Believed men like this had more to lose so they would be able to make more sensible decisions than those woth no property or land
• Jefferson helped to set up Northwest and Southwest territories
• The territories divided into six-mile square grids
• Land was sold quickly as was then divided into 36 sections of 640 acres, each sold at $1-2 at at time
• Most farming families earned $100 a year so few could afford the $640 to buy the land
• Many White Americans would become 'squatters' by setting up camp in the Northwest territory and hoped to raise the funds for the land by the time the bailiff came knocking
• Many families tried to buy the land together but this was very rare

• Land Speculators also interested in buying the land
• They made huge profits by buying large amounts of cheap land from the Government and then selling it to small farmers who couldn't afford the $640 of land
• Government gave a 10% discount to those who could pay in cash
• In Wisconsin, the territory was worth 1/2 million acres and was bought by 68 men
• Angered farmers who had begun to farm the land and was brought from under them
• Had to pay large sum of money to the landowner or leave the farm and go back to the east

• Once all land was purchased, Jefferson ordered his Government to find trade oppurtunities in the West
• Merriweather Lewis + William Clark given the task of discovering new lands
• Set out May 1804 following the Missouri River into the Rocky Mountains and made way to unclaimed lands to the Pacific Coast
• Travelled through lands occupied by different tribes of Indians and got on well with them
• Misunderstanding w/ Sioux Chief (Black Buffalo), almost led to small war
• Exploration led to explosion in fur trade
• Traders used their maps to hunt beaver- Sold their furs to Europe
• Encouraged other traders to move westwards, into mountains
• Trade w/ Indians grew

• Slavery growth caused Whites to worry about risks more
• 1803- Successful slave revolt on French Island, St Dominque
• Charles Deslondes (slave) made revolt in South (1811)
• Matched through plantations and killed Whites
• After 2 days, rounded up, arrested + killed
• Had heads put on spikes to deter other slaves
• North used revolts to prove slavery was outdated + caused too much violence, but anxious about giving them right to vote

• 25% of South owned slaves
• Depended on it to live
• Children of slaves seperated from parents + sold
• 1815-1820, 2646 children under 13 years old, sold in New Orleans
• 1001 did not have a family at average age of 9
• North bought cotton + goods produced by slaves
• Bredding farms created from new land purchases
• More expansion
• 1820, 42% of cotton made up US exports

• 1783, Britsh gave US lands west of Appalachian Mountains
• 1787, Northwest Territory opened for settlement + covered land that became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois + Michigan
• Tribes moved West away from US Government + Settlers
• Southwest Territory opened to settlement (1790)
• Cotton Speculators + Slaves moved to Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee + Louisiana
• Challenged by Indians that lived there
• Creeks + Senilnoles afflicted war on settlers- stop them being overrun
• 1814- Creeks sign over 23 million acres of land as lost against army led by Tennessee slave holder, Andrew Jackson

• Late 1820s, many Indians accepted that they would have to adapt their lives to the USA
• Benjamin Hawkins learnt language + culture of Creeks to keep the peace (was slaveholder + plantation owner)
• Cherokee Indians modelled US their economy + government on US system
• Built capital city called Echota- Looked just like Washington- and created an alphabet so language could be written down
• Also had their own newspaper
• Choctaw, Chckasaw + Seminoles opened school and churches
• Some owned slaves

• 1830, Andrew Jackson president
• Persuaded Congress to pass Indian Removal Act (promised Tribes money if they relocated)
• Indians forced to move Westwards across Mississppi River
• Indians treated like children