History of North America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since February 2007. |
 |
The introduction of this article is vague or missing. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, it should be improved. Please discuss this issue on the talk page and read the lead section guide to make sure the introduction summarizes the article. |
Contents |
[edit] Pre-historic epoch
Scientists have several theories as to the origins of the early human population of the North America. The indegenious peoples of North America themselves have many creation stories, by which they assert that they have been present on the land since its creation.
Before contact with Europeans the natives of North America were divided into many different polities, from small bands of a few families to large empires. They lived in several "culture areas", which roughly correspond to geographic and biological zones and give a good indication of the main lifeway or occupation of the people who lived there (e.g. the Bison hunters of the Great Plains, or the farmers of Mesoamerica). Native groups can also be classified by their langauge family (e.g. Athapascan or Uto-Aztecan). It is important to note that peoples with similar languages did not always share they same material culture, nor were they always allies.
Scientists believe that the Inuit people of the high Arctic came to North America much later than other native groups, as evidenced by the disappearance of Dorset culture artifacts from the archeological record, and their replacement by the Thule people.
During the thousands of years of native inhabitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. Archeologist often name different cultural groups they discover after the site where they are first found. One of the oldest cultures yet found is the Clovis culture of modern New Mexico. A more recent example is the group of related cultures called the Mound builders (e.g. the Fort Walton Culture), found in the Mississippi river valley. They flourished from 3000 BCE to the 1500s CE.
The more southern cultural groups of North America were responsible for the domestication of many common crops now used around the world, such as tomatoes and squash. Perhaps most importantly they domesticated one of the world's major staples, maize (corn).
As a result of the development of agriculture in the south, many important cultural advances were made there. For example, the Maya civilization developed a writing system, built huge pyramids, had a complex calendar, and developed the concept of zero 500 years before anyone in the Old World. The Mayan culture was still present when the Spanish arrived in Central America, but political dominance in the area had shifted to the Aztec Empire further north.
Upon the arrival of the Europeans in the "New World", native peoples found their culture changed drastically. As such, their affiliation with political and cultural groups changed as well, several linguistic groups went extinct, and others changed quite quickly. The name and cultures that Europeans recorded for the natives were not necessarily the same as the ones they had used a few generations before, or the ones in use today.
[edit] Arrival of Europeans
There was limited contact between North American peoples and the outside world before 1492. Several theoretical contacts have been proposed, but the earliest physical evidence comes to us from the Norse or Vikings. Norse captain Leif Ericson is believed to have reached the Island of Newfoundland circa 1000 CE. They named their new discovery Vinland. The only Norse site yet discovered in North America is at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Norse colonies were later abandoned.
The Viking voyages did not become common knowledge in the Old World, and Europeans remained ignorant of the existence of the Americas, until 1492. As part of a general age of discovery Italian sailor Christopher Columbus proposed a voyage west from Europe to find a shorter route to Asia. He eventually received the backing of the King and Queen of Spain. In 1492 Columbus reached land in the Bahamas. Unlike the Norse, the Spanish were there to stay. They gained control of most of the largest islands in the Caribbean and conquered the Aztecs, gaining control of Mexico and Central America. This was the beginning of the power Spanish Empire in the New World, New Spain.
After the Spanish, other powers began to take an interest in North America. Eventually, even small powers like the Netherlands and Sweden received minor holdings on the continent. However, eventually most of the land was divided between the Spanish, French, and English crowns.
Almost 500 years after the Norse, John Cabot explored the east coast of what would become Canada in 1497. Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the East Coast of America from Florida to presumably Newfoundland in 1524. Jacques Cartier made a series of voyages on behalf of the French crown in 1534 and penetrated the St. Lawrence River.
[edit] Early European settlement
Initially European activity North of Mexico consisted mostly of trade and exploration. Eventually Europeans began to establish settlements.
The first successful English settlements were at Jamestown (1607) (and its satellite, Bermuda (1609)) and Plymouth Rock (1620), in what are today Virginia and Massachusetts respectively. The first French settlements were Port Royal (1604) and Quebec City (1608) in what is now Nova Scotia and Quebec. The Fur Trade soon became the primary buisiness on the continent and as a result transformed the Native Americans lifestyle.
Further to the south, plantation slavery became the main industry of the West Indies, and this gave rise to the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade.
[edit] Colonial Era
[edit] Northern America
By 1663 the French crown had taken over control of New France from the fur-trading companies, and the English charter colonies gave way to more metropolitan control. This ushered in a new era of more formalized colonialism in North America.
[edit] Intercolonial wars
Rivalry between the European powers created a series of wars on the North American landmass that would have great impact on the development of the colonies. Territory often changed hands multiple times. Peace was not achieved until French forces in North America were vanquished at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City, and France ceded most of her claims outside of the Carribean.
[edit] Mexico
Viceroyalty of New Spain was the name of the viceroy-ruled territories of the Spanish Empire in Asia, North America and its peripheries from 1535 to 1821.
[edit] Age of Revolutions
The coming of the American Revolution had a great impact across the continent. Most importantly it directly lead to the creation of the United States of America. However, the associated American Revolutionary War was an important war that touched all corners of the region. The flight of the United Empire Loyalists lead to the creation of English Canada as a separate community. Meanwhile, Spain's hold on Mexico was weakening. The Mexican War of Independence started in 1810, and independence came in 1821.
[edit] Expansion era
From the time of independence of the United States, that country expanded rapidly to the west, aquiring the massive Louisiana territory in 1803. An attempt at northern expansion was blocked by Britain during the War of 1812. At the same time, British settlement in Canada increased. US expansion was complicated by the division between "free" and "slave" states, which led to the Missouri Compromise 1820. Likewise, Canada faced a division between French and English communities that led to the outbreak of civil strife in 1837. Mexico faced constant political tensions between liberals and conservatives, as well as the rebellion of the English-speaking region of Tejas, which declared itself the Republic of Texas 1836. In 1845 Texas joined the United States, which would later lead to the Mexican–American War. As a result of conflict with Mexico, the United States made further territorial gains in California and the Southwest.
[edit] Conflict and Confederation
The secession of the Confederate States and the resulting civil war rocked American society. It eventually lead to the end of slavery in the United States, the destruction of most of the South, and tremendous loss of life. From the conflict the United States emerged as a powerful industrialized nation.
Partly as a response to the threat of American power, four of the Canadian colonies agreed to federate in 1867, creating the Dominion of Canada. The new nation was not fully sovereign, but enjoyed considerable independence from Britain. With the addition of British Columbia Canada would expand to the Pacific by 1871 and establish a trans-continental railway, the Canadian Pacific, by 1885.
In Mexico conflicts like the Reform War left the state weak, and open to foreign influence. This lead to the Second French Empire to invade Mexico and the establishment of a short-lived Second Mexican Empire.
[edit] Late 19th Century
In both Canada and the United States the second half of the 19th Century witness massive inflows of immigration to settle the West. These lands were not uninhabited however, in the United States the government fought numerous Indian Wars against the native inhabitants. In Canada, relations were more peaceful, as a result of the Numbered Treaties, but two rebllions broke out in 1870 and 1885 on the prairies. The British colony of Newfoundland became a dominion in 1907.
In Mexico, the entire era was dominated by the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz.
[edit] World Wars era
[edit] The Great War
As a part of the British Empire Canada immediately was at war in 1914. Canada bore the brunt of several major battles during the early stages of the war including the use of poison gas attacks at Ypres. Losses began grave, and the government eventually brought in conscription, despite the fact this was against the wishes of the majority of French Canadians. In the ensuing Conscription Crisis of 1917, riots broke out on the streets of Montreal. In neighboring Newfoundland, the new dominion suffered a devastating loss on July 1, 1916, the First day on the Somme.
The United States stayed apart from the conflict until 1917, joining the Entente powers. The United States was then able to play a crucial role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that shaped interwar Europe.
Mexico was not part of the war as the country was embroiled in the Mexican Revolution at the time.
[edit] Interwar years
The 1920s brought an age of great prosperity in the United States, and to a lesser degree Canada. But the Wall Street Crash of 1929 combined with drought ushered in a period of economic hardship in the United States and Canada.
From 1926 to 1929, this was a popular uprising against the anti-Catholic Mexican government of the time, set off specifically by the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917.
[edit] The Second World War
One again Canada found herself at war before her neighbours, however even Canadian contrubutions were slight before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The entry the United States into the helped to tip the balance in favour of the allies.
The destruction of Europe wrought by the war vaulted all North American countries to more importatant roles in world affairs. The United States especially emerged as a "superpower".
[edit] Post-War
The early Cold War era saw the United States as the most powerful nation in a Western coalition of which Mexico and Canada were also a part. At home, the United States witnessed convulsive change especially in the area of race relations. In Canada this was mirrored by the Quiet Revolution and the emergence of Quebec nationalism.
The Caribbean saw the beginnings of decolonization, while on the largest island the Cuban Revolution introduced Cold War rivalries into Latin America.
[edit] Vietnam and stagflation
During this time the United States become involved in the Vietnam War as part of the global Cold War. This war would latter prove to be highly divisive in American society, and American troops were withdrawn.
Canada during this era was dominated by the leadership of Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Eventually in 1982 at the end of his tenure, Canada received a new constitution.
Both the United States can Canada experienced stagflation. Which eventually lead to a revival in small-government politics.
[edit] The eighties
In the United States president Ronald Reagan attempted to move the United States back towards a hard anti-communist line in foreign affairs in an to assert moral leadership (compared to the Soviet Union) in the world community. Domestically, Regan attempted to bring in a package of privatization and regulation to stimulate the economy.
Canada's Brian Mulroney not only ran on a similar platform but also favored closer trade ties with the United States. This lead to the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in January of 1989.
[edit] Recent history
The End of the Cold War and the beginning of the era of sustained economic expansion coincided during the 1990s. On January 1, 1994 Mexico joined Canada and the United States in the new renamed North American Free Trade Agreement. In 2002, Vincente Fox became the first non-PRI candidate to win the Mexican presidency in over 70 years.
The optimism of the 1990s was shattered by the 9/11 attacks of 2001 on the United States, which prompted military intervention in Afghanistan, which also involved Canada. Canada did not support the United State’s later move to invade Iraq, however.
[edit] See also
[edit] By nation
Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago · United States
Dependencies and other territories
Anguilla · Aruba · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Greenland · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Montserrat · Navassa Island · Netherlands Antilles · Puerto Rico · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Turks and Caicos Islands · U.S. Virgin Islands
[edit] By region
- History of the west coast of North America
- History of Central America
- History of the Caribbean
- History of Latin America
- History of the Southern United States
- American Old West
- History of New England
- History of the US States
- Histories of cities in the United States
- Local history in Canada
- History of cities in Mexico
| History by continent | |
|---|---|
| History of Africa | History of Asia | History of Australia | History of Europe | History of North America | History of South America | |
[edit] References
- Bennett, Norma V. (1997), Pioneer Legacy, ISBN 0-9683026-0-2
