Amerigo Vespucci (1451 or 1454-1512)

Amerigo Vespucci, a native of Florence and a navigator, was first employed by Spain and later by Portugal, to make explorations. In 1499 he skirted the coast of Venezuela and northeastern South America. During the next four years he made several voyages to Brazil, and explored its coasts as far south as the mouth of the La Plata River. On returning to Europe he wrote a good descriptions of what he had seen. This was published in 1504, and constituted the first printed account of the mainland of the New World. Up to that time Europe, Asia, and Africa were known as the three parts of the world, and one distinguished geographer believed there was an unknown southern continent which constituted the fourth part.

It now seemed clear that Amerigo Vespucci proved the existence of the fourth part. In consequence of this belief a German professor, who printed a little treatise on geography a few years later, suggested that the fourth part should be called America, after Amerigo Vespucci. According to this suggestion the name America was at first applied to Brazil, later to South America, and later still to the whole of the New World.

Other European Explorers

The English had visited America at different times. But they had never stayed very long. John Cabot came to Newfoundland in 1447. In 1577 Sir Francis Drake sailed along the western coast of America on his voyage around the world. In 1583 a few men with Sir Humphrey Gilbert tried to settle in Newfoundland, but they found it too cold. Soon after Gilbert`s visit, Sir Walter Raleigh, another Englishman, thought of sending ships to the New World. The first people came over in 1585. They named the land Virginia. A second company came a little later. Neither was successful.

3. English Settlements

People from England also started colonies. Although these first settlements were very small, they soon grew. By the 1750’s there were thirteen English colonies along the eastern coast of North America.

Virginia and Jamestown. In 1606 some merchants in London formed a private business called the Virginia Company. The Company asked England’s King James I to give them some land in America to establish a colony. The King agreed. The Virginia Company invited people to go and settle in the new colony, offering to pay their travel costs. In return the settlers agreed to send the Company share of the crops they grew. More than 120 people accepted the offer and set out for Virginia, as the colony was called. They arrived in the spring of 1607. They built a settlement and called it Jamestown, in honour of the King.

In the following years more settlers came to Virginia. By 1619 there were eleven settlements in Virginia. The Virginia Company wanted the colony to grow, and the settlers were given the right to vote and elect their own governor. It was the beginning of self-government in the future United States.

The Pilgrims. There were people in England who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England. In 1620 a large group of such people left England and sailed to North America on a ship called the Mayflower. These people were called Pilgrims. They wanted to find a place where they could worship as they wanted. The Pilgrims settled in present-day Massachusetts. They called their settlement Plymouth. The Pilgrims’ first winter was very hard. Many people died from cold. But the colony survived. In early 1621 an American Indian called Samoset came to Plymouth and greeted the Pilgrims in English. The Pilgrims were surprised when they heard the Indian’s words. Samoset explained that he had learned the language at sea, sailing with English captains. Soon Samoset returned with a friend, Squanto. Squanto stayed with the Pilgrims. He taught them how to survive in the wilderness. Squanto showed the colonists how to grow corn, how to catch fish with a spear and where to hunt deer. He also taught them that they could make the soil rich by burying fish in the earth. Thanks to Squanto, the Pilgrims had a good harvest that autumn. To give thanks, they invited Squanto and other Indians to a great feast. The celebration, which lasted three days, was the first Thanksgiving.

The Puritans. In England There was another group of people who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England. They said that the services of the Church of England had become too complicated and too rich and took too much money. They wanted to make the Church of England more modest, to “purify” it. For this reason they were called Puritans.

The Puritans also decided to sail to North America, to establish a Puritan Church there and to worship as they thought proper. The Puritans set sail in 1630. Many Puritans were richer than the Pilgrims. Their journey was very different from the Pilgrims’ trip on the Mayflower. One thousand people took part in it. They sailed in fifteen ships full of supplies and tools. The Puritans also came to Massachusetts. They explored the coastline and found an excellent harbour where the Charles River empties into the ocean. They settled there and called the place Boston.

The Puritan Church was very powerful in the Massachusetts colony. The colony’s political leaders were also church leaders. They established very to act. Everybody was obliged to attend church on Sundays. Anyone who disobeyed the church teachings was punished. One Puritan punishment was putting a person into the pillory. The pillory was a wooden frame with holes for a person’s head and arms. Those who disobeyed church teachings were locked into the pillory. Then they were left for a time on display as a lesson to the other people.

The colonists learned to grow tobacco. And soon ships filled with tobacco sailed for England and returned with things that the colony needed.

Twenty Negroes were brought to Jamestown in 1619 and sold to the tobacco planters. This was the beginning of slavery in America.

The States of the USA. The United States began as a nation of 13 states. By 1750 they were rich enough and did not have to struggle to survive. Merchants were selling goods to other colonies and trading with other nations. The colonists felt stronger. They wanted to have more control over their future. These were the colonies which had broken away from Great Britain on July 4, 1776 and fought a six – year War for Independence.

Control questions:

1. What was the Ice Age and when did it occur?

2. Who helped Columbus to organize an expedition to the West?

3. What did Columbus call the people he found in the New World? Why?

4. What was the first English settlement in the New World? When was it started?

5. Who were the Puritans? Why did they call themselves Puritans? Why did they sail to America?

6. Where did the Puritans settle? What did they call their settlement?

7. Who was Squanto? How did he help the Pilgrims?

8. Name some reasons why newcomers come to settle in the United States today.

10- Lecture. Theme: A brief history of the United States (after the independence)

Plan: 1. The war for Independence

2. Slavery divides the nation

3. Civil War and reconstruction

4. The great depression

5. World war the second

The aim of the lecture: To get acquainted with the history of the USA.

Key words:

enforcement

resentment

rivalry

restriction

smuggler

The content of the lecture: THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

The discovery of America resulted from the break-up of the feudal system, the rise of the nation, the revival of commerce, and the search for the trade routes to the riches of the East. Later, the long process of the English colonization of the New World was motivated by the desire for economic opportunity colonies existed to produce essential raw materials cheaply, to provide an unlimited market for manufacturing goods, and to offer a minimum of economic competition. Competition by the colonists was nearly eliminated through laws such as the Woolens Act (1699), the Hat Act (1732), and the Iron Act (1750), which prohibited or limited local efforts at manufacturing.

For long decades before the conclusion of the French and British were too immersed in bitter rivalry with France to enforce their restrictive legislation. With the defeat of France, however, the British were able to turn their full attention to strict enforcement of colonial policy. The Sugar Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), the Tea Act (1773), and others imposed the severest restrictions upon colonial self-government.

The Sugar Act. In 1764 Britain’s parliament passed a law taxing the colonies. It was called the Sugar Act. The Sugar Act put a tax on sugar, wine and other products that were shipped to the colonies from countries other than Great Britain. When ships landed in the colonies with these products, a tax had to be paid by the people who ordered the goods.

The colonists refused to pay the tax: they did not want to pay taxes passed by the British Parliament. They wanted to decide themselves whether a tax was necessary. However, the British leaders were serious about the Sugar Act. They sent tax collectors from Great Britain to collect the money. These men searched all the ships that came into colonial harbours. If they found hidden goods that were supposed to be taxed, they could take the ship away from its owner.

To avoid paying the tax, many ship-owners became smugglers – the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act put a tax on all printed paper goods that colonists bought. Colonists had to pay a tax when buying books, newspapers and playing cards. A person who finished college had to pay a tax on the diploma. Lawyers had to pay a tax on the wills, agreements and other documents. To show that the tax had been paid, a stamp seller put a stamp on the paper.

The colonists hated the Stamp Act. In Boston crowds broke the offices of the stamp sellers. They poured hot tar on the sellers and then covered them with feathering.

Why did the colonists fight so strongly against the tax? The main reason was that the tax had been passed without their agreement. The colonists knew about taxes and paid them at home. They elected representatives who decided how much tax money to collect. The colonists were ready to pay these taxes, because their representatives used the tax money to improve the life of the colony. The tax money was used to pay for things which the colonists needed, such as roads. But the Stamp Act and other British taxes had been passed by the British Parliament. The colonists had no representatives in the British Parliament. The British tax laws were passed by people that the colonists did not elect, and the tax money was used for the British soldiers whom the colonists did not want.

The Boston Tea Party. Three ships loaded with tea came into the port of Boston. Before unloading the ships it was necessary to pay the tax. Colonists refused to unload the ships. The British governor of Boston said that the ships would stay in the harbour until the colonists agreed to pay the tax on the tea.

On the night of December 16, 1773, some colonists, dressed as American Indians, climbed aboard the ships. They opened hundreds of boxes of tea and threw them into the water. If there was no tea, they said angrily, there would be nothing to tax. This event became known as the Boston Tea Party.

Britain’s King George and Parliament were furious. British warships were sent to Boston Harbour to block any ships sailing into or out of Boston. The British said that they would block the harbour until the tea was paid for. This British blockade ruined Boston’s trade. But still the colonists refused to pay for the tea which they had thrown overboard.

Meeting for action. In September 1774 the colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia. The Congress decided to take action on the blockade of Boston.

The members of the Congress wrote to King George asking him to reopen Boston Harbour. They also told him that the colonists would decide themselves what their taxes should be and what the tax money should be used for. Finally they said that they would boycott British goods until they got what they wanted.

King George never answered the letter. Instead of it, he sent more warships to the colonies.

Preparing for War

In Massachusetts people were especially upset by the blockade of Boston Harbour. Farmers in the area began organizing to practice shooting and marching. These men were called minutemen, because they could get ready to fight at a minute’s notice. On the cold Wednesday morning of April 19, 1775, the tension which existed between the colonists and the British led to shooting. British soldiers met a group of armed colonists at Lexington. A shot was fired. That shot was the start of the War for Independence, in which a brave group of colonists fought mighty Great Britain. In the spring of 1775 the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. They met to organize an army and navy to defend and support colonial rights.

In June 1775 the Congress appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of the colonial army. Washington left Philadelphia to take command of the army near Boston. By the following year more and more people had come to believe that the colonies should be independent. Colonial soldiers had died fighting for colonial rights. British leaders had shown no respect for the colonists’ rights. In the spring of 1776 the Continental Congress decided to take action. Thomas Jefferson, a young Virginian, was asked to write a declaration explaining why the colonies should be free. In the declaration Jefferson described his ideas about human rights. Jefferson said that all people had the right to life and liberty. No government could take these rights away. If the rulers tried to do so, the people had the right to choose a new government. Jefferson blamed the King for ignoring colonial laws; ruining trade and making people pay high taxes.

On July 4, 1776, the Congress adopted Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. The colonies stated that they were no longer a part of Great Britain. A new nation was born.