History of the USA

Cromwell and his friends created a government which was far more severe than Charles had been. They had got rid of the monarchy, and now they got rid of the House of Lords. The Scots were shocked by Charles’ execution. They invited his son whom he recognized as King Charles II, to join them and fight against the English parliamentarian army. But they were defeated, and young Charles himself had to escape to France. Scotland was brought under English republic and rule. Cromwell took an army to Ireland “to punish the Irish” for the killing Protestants in 1641 and for the continued Royalist rebellion there. He captured two towns. His soldiers killed the inhabitants of both towns, about 6000 people. These killings were probably not worse than the killings of Protestants in 1641, but they remained powerful symbols of English cruelty to the Irish.

The Levellers. There were people at that time who had new ideas. Their ideas seemed strange to most other people of the 17th c. These people speak about equality among all men. They called themselves Levellers. By and by of ideas of the Levellers began to attract more and more people. They also spread into the army. There appeared Levellers among the officers and soldiers. In 1649 the Levellers in the army rebelled and put forwards (выдвигать) their demands. They said that parliament must meet every two years and that all men over the age of 21 must have the right to elect MP to it. They also demanded complete religious freedom, so that all religious groups could follow their religion in the way they wished. 200 years later such demands were considered as basic citizens’ rights. But in the middle of the 17^th c they had little support among the people. The rebellion of the Levellers was suppressed.

The Lord Protector. From 1653 Britain was governed by Cromwell alone. He became Lord Protector and had much more power than king Charles had had. But his efforts to govern the country through the army were extremely unpopular, and the idea of using the army to maintain (поддерживать) law and order in the kingdom has remained unpopular ever since. His other innovations were unpopular too: people were forbidden to celebrate Christmas and Easter, or to play games on Sunday. When Cromwell died in 1658, he was succeeded by his son Richard. But Richard Cromwell was a poor leader and could control neither the army nor parliament. Nobody governed the country. It was clear that this situation could be saved only by the restoration of monarchy. In1660 Charles II was invited to return to his kingdom. The republic was over.

Restoration. With the restoration of monarchy, Parliament once more became as weak as it had been in the time of James I and Charles I. However, the new king, Charles II, did not want to make parliament his enemy. He punished only those MPs who had been responsible for his father’s execution. Many MPs were given positions of authority or responsibility in the new monarchy. But in general Parliament remained weak. Charles shared his father’s belief in divine right (божественное право), and he greatly admired the all-powerful, absolute ruler of France Louis XIV. Charles hoped to make peace between the different religious groups that existed in Britain at that time. He wanted to allow Puritans and Catholics, who disliked the Church of England, to meet freely. But Parliament, whose members belonged to the Church of England, did not want to allow this. Charles himself was attracted to the Catholic Church. Parliament knew this, and many MPs were worried that Charles would became a Catholic.

The first political parties. The first political parties in Britain appeared in Charles II’s reign. One of these parties was a group of MPs who became known as Whigs (Виги), a rude name for cattle drivers. The Whigs were afraid of an absolute monarchy and of the Catholic faith with which they connected it. They also wanted to have no regular army. The other party, which opposed the Whigs, was nicknamed Tories, which is an Irish name for thieves. The Tories, who were natural inheritors of the Royalists of the Civil War, supported the Crown and the Church. These two parties, the Whigs and the Tories, became the basis of Britain’s two-party parliamentary system of government.

The Glorious Revolution (

The struggle over Catholicism became a crisis when James II became king after his brother’s death in 1685. James II was a Catholic. He tried to revive the importance of the Catholic Church and give Catholic important positions in government and Parliament. Parliament was alarmed and angry. The Tories united with the Whigs against James. They decided that James II had lost his right to the crown. James’s daughter Mary was a Protestant, and she was married to the Protestant ruler of Holland, William of Orange (Вильгельм Оранский). Parliament invited William of Orange to invade England. In 1688 William entered London. James was in danger and fled from England. The English crown was offered to William and Mary. The events of 1688 went down into history as the Glorious Revolution. It was not really a revolution: in fact it was a coup d’atat (переворот) organized by the ruling class. Now Parliament was much more powerful than the king. It was over the monarch was written into the Bill of Rights in 1689. The Bill of Rights stated that the king could not raise taxes or keep an army without the agreement of Parliament.

The union with Scotland. Scotland was still a separate kingdom, although both countries had the same king (James II was James VII of Scotland). The English wanted England and Scotland to be united. Scotland wanted to remove the limits on trade with England from which it suffered economically. The English Parliament promised to remove these limits if the Scots agreed to the union with England. Finally, in 1707, the union of Scotland and England was completed by an act of Parliament (акт парламента). The stage got a new name: Great Britain. The separate parliaments of both countries stopped functioning. A new Parliament, the Parliament of Great Britain, met for the first time.

Foreighn Relations. During the 17^th century Britain’s main rivals were Spain, Holland and France. There was a competition in trade between England and Holland. After three wars Britain achieved the trade position it wanted. At the end of the century Britain went to war against France. Partly it was because William of Orange had struggled with France before he came to the English throne. But Britain also wanted to limit French power, which had been growing under Louis XIV. The British army won several important victories over the French. By the treaty of Utrecht (Утрехт) in 1713 Britain got possession of the rock of Gibraltar, so now it controlled the entrance to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. Colonizing foreign lands was important for Europe’s economic development. In the 17^th century Britain did not have so many colonies abroad as either Spain or Holland, but it had greater variety. It had twelve colonies on the east coast of North America. In the West Indies it had new colonies where sugar was grown. Besides, by this time Britain’s East India Company had established its first trading settlements in India, on both the west and east coasts.

History of the USA

A) Periods of the American History

I. Early Colonization: a) the Indians (≈ 10,000 – 30,000 BC)

b) the Vikings (11^th c. AD)

II. European Discoveries (15^th c.)

III. The First Colonies (16-17^th cc.)

IV. The War of Independence / the American Revolution (1775-1783)

V. The Civil War/ the War between the North and the South (1861-1865)

VI. Modern Time (20^th c. – up till now)

B) Early Colonization

a) the Indians

Approximately 10,000 – 30,000 BC a few groups of tribes came to the territory of North America from Asia through Bering Strait. They were mainly hunters, who followed animal herds. Later on their descendants became known as “Indians”.

NB! American culture is greatly influenced by the Natives (Indians). Some of the tribes, living today in reservations, try to retain their identity and culture through teaching their young at schools and sticking to their customs and traditions. Besides, countless tourists come to the reservations to dive into the Indian culture and buy some memorabilia (souvenirs). As soon as you cast a glance at the map of the USA you may notice quite a number of Indian names. Thus, 28 States have the names of the Indian origin: Dakota (= “friend” from Sioux language), Utah (= “upper hand” from Navajo language), Iowa (= “the sleepy one” from Dakota language). Other place-names include Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, the Mississippi, Missouri, etc. Some Indian words came into usage in the World Languages, as well as English: wigwam (Indian house), tomahawk (type of tapering axe), squaw (a wife), moose, skunk, canoe (an Indian boat), moccasins (shoes), etc.

b) the Vikings

In the year 1000 AD an expedition was organized headed by Leif Ericson (nicknamed “Lucky Leif”) to discover the lands lying in the north and north-west. It was a success as they had found a new land. They landed on the northern tip of Newfoundland Island (Canada) and founded a settlement there. They called it “Vinland (the Good)”, because of the vine that grew there in big amounts. After Ericson there were some attempts to settle there but they failed and left.

For quite a time this discovery had been forgotten until 1960s when the archeologists found traces of the Viking settlements in Newfoundland and New England. The evidences found were also supported by the Vikings’ “sagas” (legends) about Leif Ericson his travel from Greenland to North America.

C) European Discoveries

In 1492 an expedition headed by Christopher Columbus was organized with the help of Spanish Crown. Columbus had an ambitious idea of discovering the new way to India. The existing ways were dangerous and took much time. He supposed that the journey won’t be so problematic if one sailed westwards. There he intended to load his ships with silk, gold and spices and return to Europe. In October 1492 he landed on the island of San Salvador (the Bahamas). He believed that he had actually come to India and the people who greeted him were “Indians” (“los Indios”). But he never understood that he was not far from the shores of the new continent.

In 1493 the second expedition of Columbus was organized with the help of an Italian nobleman, Amerigo Vespucci. Later on the Italian undertook 4 voyages himself. As the result the map of the New World appeared, depicting the coastal outline of the new continent. And some time later the new land got the name “America”

NB! Why America is called “America”? Though Columbus was the first to discover the New World, he believed that he discovered part of Asia. Amerigo Vespucci had done a lot more to correct the “mistake of Columbus”. During his voyages he wrote a number of letters describing his exploration of the South American coast. He was also convinced that this coast was the new continent. It’s due to his letters that the German scholar got the idea of the New Continent and that the Italian was correct. To honour him the scholar gave the continents the feminine version of Vespucci’s first name, as the other continents had feminine names.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1042