The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers

Chapter I: Period of Authentic Discovery and Exploration, From 1492 to 1607 (1)

Text size

Preceding this Period there are some legendary accounts of
discoveries by Norsemen, Irish missionaries and even Asiatics.
Little importance attaches to any except those of the Norse
discoverers, chief of which was Lief Ericsson and his brother
Thorwald who came upon the mainland of North America about 1000 to
1004. The discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da Gama opened a new
era, during which the Spaniards explored and settled the West
Indies, Mexico, and the southern part of the present United States;
while the English and French explored, claimed, and made
unsuccessful attempts at settlement in the North.

=II. THE COLONIAL PERIOD OF UNITED STATES HISTORY, INCLUDING ITS SETTLEMENT (1607 TO 1689); AND ITS CONSOLIDATION (1689 TO 1763)=

The real history of the United States begins with this period.
Within it the original Thirteen Colonies were established; New
England and Virginia grew in influence and population; the Indian
power in the East was subdued; the Colonies increased in strength
and self-reliance, and the struggle between England and France for
control of the New World was settled in favor of the English.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

When first visited by Europeans, the country now comprised within the United States was exclusively inhabited by the race commonly called American Indians.

=Period of Discovery.=--According to the Scandinavian sagas, Leif, a Norwegian, sailed about 1001 from Iceland for Greenland, but was driven southward by storms till he reached a country called Vinland, which is supposed to have been Rhode Island or some other part of the coast of New England.

It is possible that some vague rumors of the Norse journeys had come to Christopher Columbus when he set out on Friday, August 3, 1492, to discover the western route to India. He sighted one of the Bahama Islands on October 12, and landed the following day. After cruising about for some time, he returned to Spain. He made in all four voyages to the New World for treasure-getting and discovery. His discoveries, it should be remembered, did not extend to the territory now occupied by the United States, but were confined to certain of the West India Islands, and parts of Central, and possibly, South America. (See further, under Outlines of American History.)

Among the earliest of his followers was Amerigo Vespucci, who in 1497-1498 explored the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, and who has given his name to the whole continent.

In 1497, about five years after the discovery of America by Columbus, John Cabot sailed westward from Bristol, England, and on June 24 discovered land (Labrador), along which he coasted to the southwest nearly one thousand miles. In 1498 his son, Sebastian Cabot, sailed from the same port in search of a northwest passage to China, but finding the ice impenetrable, he turned to the south and coasted as far as Chesapeake Bay.

In 1513 the Spaniard Ponce de Leon discovered Florida. In 1539 took place the expedition of the Spaniard De Soto, who in the course of two years penetrated overland from Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida to a point two hundred miles beyond the Mississippi.

Plymouth is of abiding interest as the landing place of the Pilgrim Fathers (December 21st, 1620) and the site of the first settlement in New England. Pilgrim Hall contains numerous interesting relics of the Pilgrims, paintings of their embarkation and landing, old portraits, etc. North Street leads to the so-called Plymouth Rock, a granite boulder enclosed by a railing and covered with a canopy. This, however, is only a fragment (broken off in 1774) of the flat rock where the Pilgrims landed, which lies nearer the sea and is now covered by a wharf. Cole’s Hill, opposite the rock, was the burial-place of the early settlers (1620-1621). Leyden Street was the site of the first house. From the Town Square a path ascends to the right to the ancient Burial Hill, with the graves of many of the early settlers, including Governor Bradford. A fortified church was erected here in 1622. To the south is Watson’s Hill, where the Pilgrims made a treaty with Massasoit in 1621. The National Monument to the Pilgrims, consisting of a granite pedestal forty-five feet high, surmounted by a figure of Faith, thirty-six feet high, and surrounded by seated figures twenty feet high, representing Law, Morality, Freedom and Education is about one-fourth mile from the railway station, on Allerton Street. The three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims will be elaborately celebrated here in 1920.]

=Period of Settlement.=--In 1565 the Spaniards founded St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement in the United States. In 1585 an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh made a settlement on Roanoke Island, N. C., which failed. In 1607 the English founded Jamestown on James River, Virginia, their first permanent settlement.[11] The master spirit of this enterprise was Captain John Smith. Plymouth, Mass., was founded in 1620 by the “Pilgrim Fathers,” a body of Puritans led by John Carver and others, who sailed from England in the Mayflower. Salem was settled by John Endicott in 1628. In 1630 John Winthrop settled Boston. In 1692 Plymouth colony was united to Massachusetts. Portsmouth and Dover, in New Hampshire, were settled in 1623. The first permanent English settlements in Maine were made about the same time. These settlements ultimately fell under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Connecticut was colonized in 1635-1636 by emigrants from Massachusetts, who settled at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. Rhode Island was first settled at Providence in 1636 by Roger Williams. In 1623 permanent settlements were made by the Dutch at Fort Orange (now Albany) and at New Amsterdam on the present site of New York. The Swedes settled on the Delaware in 1638, and were expelled in 1655 by the Dutch army. The English seized New Amsterdam in 1664, and with it the whole of New Netherland, which they named New York from the Duke of York, to whom it had been granted by Charles II. New Jersey at this time acquired its distinctive name. In 1681 the territory west of the Delaware was granted to William Penn, who colonized it chiefly with Friends or Quakers, and founded Philadelphia in 1682. Maryland was settled in 1634 by Roman Catholics sent out by Lord Baltimore. The first permanent settlement in North Carolina appears to have been made about 1663, on Albemarle Sound, by emigrants from Virginia. The first permanent settlement in South Carolina was made in 1670 by colonists from England on the Ashley River, near the site of Charleston, which began to be settled about the same time. Georgia was settled by General James Oglethorpe, who in 1733 founded Savannah.

[11] Jamestown is seven miles from Williamsburg, formerly the
ancient capital of Virginia and seat of the colonial governor. The
only remains of the ancient town are the tower of the church (in
which Pocahontas was married in 1614; church itself rebuilt in 1907)
and a few tombstones.

=How Europe First Divided the American Colonies.=--It will thus be seen that what is now the territory of the United States has been derived from six European nations. Resting on the discovery by Columbus and the bulls of the popes, Spain claimed the whole continent, but has been in actual possession only of the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas, and of the interior from the Mississippi to the Pacific. The Swedes once had settlements on the Delaware. The Dutch, following up the voyage of Hudson to the river bearing his name, claimed and held the country from the Delaware to the Connecticut. The French discovered the St. Lawrence and explored and held military possession of the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio and the Great Lakes. The English, by virtue of the voyages of the Cabots, claimed the Atlantic coast, and there founded the colonies which grew into the thirteen United States.

In the course of the struggle, sometimes peaceful, often bloody, by which the rule of these nations has been thrown off, the Dutch conquered the Swedes; the English conquered the Dutch and the French; the United States expelled the English, and in time, by purchase or conquest, drove out the Spaniards and the Mexicans.

=Struggle of England and France for America.=--The first serious struggle for possession occurred in the middle of the eighteenth century, when the English, moving westward, met the French moving eastward at the source of the river Ohio. In that struggle, which has come down to us as the “French and Indian war,” France was worsted, and, retiring from this continent, divided her possessions between England and Spain. To England she gave Canada and the islands and shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and, entering what is now the United States, drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi River, and gave all to the east of that line (save the island on which is the city of New Orleans) to Great Britain, and all to the west of it to Spain; Spain at the same time gave Florida to England as the price of Cuba.

=Oppression of the Colonies under British Rule.=--Having thus come into possession of all the country to the east of the Great River, King George determined to send out an army of ten thousand men to defend the colonies, and have the latter bear a part of the expense. This part he attempted to collect by duties on goods imported, and by a Stamp Tax (1765) on legal documents and printed matter. No tax for revenue had before been laid on America by act of Parliament. The colonists, therefore, resisted this first attempt, and raising the cry, “No taxation without representation,” they forced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Tax in 1766. The right to tax was at the same time distinctly asserted, and in 1767 was again used, and duties laid on paints, oils, lead, glass, and tea. Once more the colonists resisted, and, by refusing to import any goods, wares, or merchandise of English make, so distressed the manufacturers of England that Parliament repealed every tax save that on tea. All the tea needed in America was now smuggled in from Holland. The East India Company, deprived of the American market, became embarrassed, and, calling on Parliament for aid, was suffered to export tea, a privilege never before enjoyed.

Selecting commissioners in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, cargoes of tea were duly consigned to them by the East India Company; but the people agreed not to buy any of this tea or allow it to be sold. At Boston men disguised as Indians boarded the tea ships, overcame the guards, and destroyed the tea by throwing the boxes into the harbor. This has gone down in history as the “Boston Tea Party.”

=The Continental Congress and the Revolution.=--As a punishment for this, Parliament shut the port of Boston and deprived the people of Massachusetts of many functions of local government. The Assembly of Massachusetts thereupon called for a General Congress to meet at Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. The colonies gladly responded and this congress, having issued a Declaration of Rights and Addresses to the king, to Parliament, and to the people of England, adjourned to await the result.

The day for the reassembling of Congress was May 10, 1775; but, before that day came, the attempt of General Gage to seize military stores brought on a fight at Lexington, April 19, 1775. The fight at Lexington was followed by the siege of the British in Boston, by the formation of the “Continental Army,” by the appointment of George Washington to command it, by the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, and by an expedition against Quebec, which came to naught, on the last day of the year.

General William Howe meantime had succeeded Gage in command of the British at Boston, and, finding himself hard pressed by Washington, evacuated the city and sailed for Halifax. Believing New York was to be attacked, Washington now hurried to Long Island, where, August 27, 1776, Howe defeated him, took possession of New York, and drove him first up the Hudson and then southward across New Jersey.

=American Independence Declared.=--Congress, which, July 4, 1776, at Philadelphia, had declared the colonies to be free and independent states, now fled from that city to Baltimore. But Washington, turning in his retreat, surprised and captured the British outpost at Trenton. Cornwallis instantly hurried toward that town, but Washington, passing around the British rear, attacked and captured at Princeton, January 3, 1777, a detachment on its march to Trenton, and then went into winter quarters at Morristown.

With the return of spring Howe, finding that he could not reach Philadelphia by land without passing in front of the Continental army stretched out on a strongly intrenched line across New Jersey, went by sea. Washington met him at Chadd’s Ford on the Brandywine, was defeated, and on September 25, 1777, Howe entered Philadelphia. In the attempt to dislodge him Washington fought and lost the battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777; the loss of Philadelphia was more than made good by the capture of Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga, October 17, 1777, while on his way from Canada to New York City.

The fruits of this victory were the recognition of the independence of the United States by France, the treaty of alliance with France, February 8, 1778, and the evacuation of Philadelphia by General Clinton, who had succeeded Howe. Washington, who had spent the winter at Valley Forge, instantly followed, and overtaking Clinton at Monmouth fought and won the battle at that place, June 29, 1778. Clinton escaped to New York, and Washington, drawing his army in a circle about the city from Morristown on the south to West Point on the north, awaited further movements.

=PRINCIPAL CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION=

The leading battles are indicated in =bold-face=; successful commanders in _italics_

=Treason of Arnold and Execution of André.=--Turning towards the Southern states, the British commander now dispatched an expedition which took Savannah and overran the State of Georgia. The year which followed (1779) is memorable for the capture of Stony Point by Anthony Wayne; for the treason of Benedict Arnold; for the execution of Major John André; for the capture of the “Serapis” by Paul Jones after one of the most desperate naval battles on record, and by the failure of an attempt by the Americans to retake Savannah. In 1780 Clinton led an expedition from New York to Charleston, took the city, swept over South Carolina, and, leaving Cornwallis in command, hurried back to New York. Gates, who now attempted to dislodge the British, was beaten. Greene now succeeded Gates, and Morgan, the commander of his light troops, won the battle of the Cowpens, January 17, 1781. This victory brought up Cornwallis, who chased Greene across the State of North Carolina to Guilford Court House, where Greene was beaten and Cornwallis forced to retreat to Wilmington. Moving southward, Greene was again beaten in two pitched battles, but forced the British to withdraw within their lines at Charleston and Savannah.

Cornwallis meantime moved from Wilmington into Virginia and took possession of Yorktown. And now Washington, who had long been watching New York, again took the offensive, hurried across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and, while a French fleet closed the Chesapeake Bay, he besieged Cornwallis by land, till, October 19, 1781, the British general surrendered. This practically ended the war.

The treaty of peace, at Paris, in 1783, actually ended it, secured the independence of the United States, and fixed her boundaries, roughly speaking, as the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Mississippi on the west, New Brunswick, the St. Lawrence, and the Great Lakes on the north, and the parallel of thirty-one degrees on the south.

=Articles of Confederation and their Weakness.=--While the war was still raging Congress had framed an instrument of government, which the states ratified and put in force on March 1, 1781. This instrument of government which bound the thirteen states in perpetual union was known as the Articles of Confederation, and established a government as bad as any yet devised by man. There was no executive, no judiciary, and only the semblance of a legislature. The Congress consisted of not more than seven nor less than two delegates from each state; sat in secret session; was presided over by a president elected from its own members; and could not pass any law unless the delegates of nine states assented. It could wage war, make treaties, and borrow money; but it could not lay a tax of any kind whatsoever; nor regulate commerce between the states, or with foreign powers; and was dependent entirely on the liberality of the states for revenues. This defect proved fatal. Inability to regulate foreign commerce by duties stripped the country of its specie. Lack of specie forced the states to issue paper money. Paper money was followed by tender acts and force acts, and in some places by a violent stoppage of justice to the debtor class. A commercial and financial crisis followed and the people of the states, reduced to desperation, gladly acceded to a call for a national trade convention, which met in Philadelphia in May, 1787. The instructions of the delegates bade them suggest amendments to the Articles of Confederation. But the convention, considering the Articles too bad to be mended, framed the Constitution, which the people, acting through conventions in the various states, ratified during 1787 and 1788.

=Adoption of the Constitution and Organization of Parties.=--On March 4, 1789, the Constitution became the supreme law of the land. In the first Congress no trace of party lines is visible. But the work of establishing government had not gone far when differences of opinion sprang up; when the cry of partial legislation was raised, and the people all over the country began to divide into two great parties--those who favored and those who opposed a liberal construction of the language of the Constitution and the establishment of a strong national government.

The friends of national government took the name of Federalists, and under the lead of Alexander Hamilton, who as Secretary of the Treasury marked out the financial policy of the administration, they funded the foreign and domestic debt occasioned by the war for independence, assumed the debts incurred by the states in that struggle, set up a national bank with branches, and laid a tax on distilled liquors.

Each one of these acts was met with violent opposition, as designed to benefit a class, as unconstitutional, and as highly detrimental to the interests of the South. Against the Federalists were now brought charges of a leaning towards monarchy and aristocracy. Great Britain, it was said, has a funded debt, a bank, and an excise. These things are, therefore, monarchial institutions. But the Federalists have introduced them into the United States. The Federalists, therefore, are aristocrats, monarchists, and monopolists.

Of all who believed these charges, none believed them more sincerely than Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. Seeing in these acts a wide departure from the true principles of democracy, he set himself to work to organize a party of opposition, and was soon looked up to as the recognized leader of the Federal Republicans.

Hardly had the two parties thus been called into existence by difference of opinion on questions of home affairs, when they were parted yet more widely, and the dispute between them intensely embittered by questions of foreign affairs.

=Effect of the French and English Affairs Upon the New Nation.=--In 1793 the French Republic declared war against England, and sent a minister to the United States. As the United States was bound to France by the treaty of alliance and by a treaty of amity and commerce, and was not bound to Great Britain by any commercial treaty whatever, it seemed not unlikely that she would be dragged unwillingly into the war. But Washington, with the advice of his secretaries, proclaimed neutrality, and from that time every Republican was the firm friend of France and every Federalist the ally of England. Then began a seven years’ struggle for neutrality. France threw open her colonial ports to neutral commerce; Great Britain asserting the “Rule of the War of 1756,” a rule prescribing that no neutral should have in time of war a trade it did not have in peace, declared this trade was contraband, and seized the ships of the United States engaged in it. The Republicans denounced neutrality and attempted to force a war. The Federalists in alarm dispatched John Jay, the Chief Justice, to London, with offers of a commercial treaty. England responded and on February 29, 1796, the first treaty of amity and commerce between her and the United States became law. At this France took offense, rejected the new minister (C. C. Pinckney) from the United States, and drove him from her soil, suspended the treaties, insulted a special commission (sent out in the interest of peace), with demands for bribes and tribute, and almost brought on war.

Never since the days of Bunker Hill had the country been so stirred as this act of the French Directory stirred it in the summer of 1798. Then was written our national song, “Hail Columbia.” Then was established the department of the navy. Then, under the cry, “Millions for defense; not a cent for tribute,” went forth that gallant little fleet which humbled the tri-color in the West Indies and brought France to her senses.

=Causes and Events of the War of 1812.=--With the elevation of Napoleon to the First Consulship came peace in 1800. In that same year the Federalists fell from power, never to return. Once in power, the Republicans began to carry out the principles they had so long preached. They reduced the national debt; they repealed the internal taxes. They sold the navy; boldly assaulted the Supreme Court; and in 1811, when the charter of the National Bank expired, refused to renew it. Their doctrine of strict construction, however, was ruined, when, in 1803, they bought the Province of Louisiana from France and added to the public domain that splendid region which lies between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains.

At that moment it seemed as if the people were about to enter on a career of unwonted prosperity. But Napoleon suddenly made war on England, and by 1806 the United States was involved in a desperate struggle of nine years, both with France and England, for commercial independence. Great Britain searched our ships, impressed our sailors, violated the neutrality of our ports, and by the decisions of her admiralty courts and by orders in council sought to ruin our neutral commerce with Europe, unless carried on through her ports and under her license. Napoleon attacked us with his decrees of Berlin and Milan, and sought to ruin our neutral commerce with England. The United States retaliated by means of the embargo and non-intercourse, and, in 1812, declared war.

CAMPAIGNS AND BATTLES OF THE WAR OF 1812-1815

=Principal Land Battles=

=1812.=--August 16, the surrender of Detroit by Hull to Brock.

October 13, defeat of Van Rensselaer by Brock at Queenstown.

=1813.=--January 18-22, the Americans were defeated at Frenchtown by General Proctor, whose Indians massacred the wounded Americans.

April 27, York (Toronto) was captured by the Americans under General Pike.

Previous Next

Comments

The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of AnswersChapter I: Period of Authentic Discovery and Exploration, From 1492 to 1607 (1)

0%34 min left in chapter