A Brief History of the United States

The United States has a rich history of ups and downs. In the early years, the country was a fledgling nation trying to forge its own identity on a new continent. The United States faced many political challenges, including a struggle to create a self-sustaining economy. The country also had to deal with the threat of slavery and racial discrimination. Despite these difficulties, Americans of all backgrounds came together to support the country through its most difficult times.

The American dream is a concept that has been defined in many different ways by writers, historians, and philosophers. For some, it refers to a belief in the self-made man who bootstrapped his way to success. For others, the dream is symbolized by a house with a white picket fence. Regardless of how the American dream is viewed, it has become a cultural touchstone that defines what it means to be an American.

In the beginning, the American colonies were under the control of Great Britain, which controlled the seas and most of the world’s trade routes. After a revolution in 1776, the colonies gained independence from Great Britain and formed a new nation. But the young country soon ran into trouble. Disputes over territory, war pensions, taxation, and other issues threatened to tear the country apart. In addition, the nation’s first constitution—the Articles of Confederation—was outdated and had very few powers.

To address these problems, delegates met at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 to revise the nation’s constitution. The delegates, representing wildly different interests and views, worked out compromises and produced one of the most long-lived and influential constitutions in the world. The delegates who supported a strong central government came to be called Federalists. Those who opposed it were known as Anti-Federalists. These groups became the first political parties in America.

Following the Revolution, the country began to grow as settlers moved westward into the land that would become the state of Louisiana. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson convinced France to sell the U.S. all of its land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. This purchase—known as the Louisiana Purchase—nearly doubled the size of the nation.

The nation’s division over slavery reached a climax in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln of the antislavery Republican Party defeated the pro-slavery Democratic candidate, Jefferson Davis. Shortly afterward, seven southern states departed from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The Civil War ended with a Union victory, but racism continued to plague the country. In the 20th century, African American and other minority leaders broke through barriers to achieve historic firsts, such as Dalip Singh Saund becoming the first Asian American elected to Congress in 1957 and Thurgood Marshall and Shirley Chisholm serving on the Supreme Court. The country continues to face obstacles in its fight for equality today. But its citizens continue to show extraordinary courage and commitment, as evidenced by their participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in events such as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.