• Treaty of Paris of 1783: the international recognition of the United States

• The USA is founded on the Declaration of Independence and the institution of slavery

• The new nation consists of 13 individual states with their own constitutions, governments and conflicting interests. There is no real national government, financial system, or true foreign allies.

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

AND PERPETUAL UNION

(adopted: 1777, ratified: 1781, in force until 1789)

The first frame of government or “constitution” for the Thirteen States adopted by the Continental Congress. The USA becomes a firm league of friendship - a loose confederation of states with a weak central government.

o   all decisions were unanimously made by the unicameral Continental Congress: one state - one vote

o   the Congress deals with military and international matters, post office, measures and weight, money but asks for permission of the states in many matters

o   no separate executive

o   no national court system or law enforcement

o   only states can levy taxes

o   all changes in the Articles must be ratified by ALL state legislatures

The main problem of the Articles: a weak NATIONAL government with inadequate:

o   authority over interstate affairs - no commerce regulation between states

o   influence on national economy - problems with raising national revenue (states had their own currencies)

o   foreign policy - threat of foreign influences

There is a need to coordinate policies between states and improve the political system.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

(adopted: 1787, ratified: 1788, in force since 1789)

The Constitutional Convention is set in Philadelphia in May 1787, presided by George Washington and attended by twelve state delegations (no Rhode Island) to revise the Articles.

After five months of discussion and disagreements between federalists and antifederalists the Convention adopts a new document: the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (1787)

STRUCTURE

o   Preamble

o   7 Articles

o   27 Amendments (so far) (added between 1791-1992)

The USA becomes a FEDERATION with authority divided between the strong federal (national) government and state governments - the Constitution is the “supreme law of the land” (Article Six)

CHECKS AND BALANCES: SEPARATION OF POWERS

o   LEGISLATIVE branch: elected bicameral Congress (the House of Representatives representing people and the Senate representing states) with the right of taxation

o   EXECUTIVE branch: elected President and Vice-President

o   JUDICIAL branch : Supreme Court

After the landmark case Marbury v. Madison (1803) – the Supreme Court gains the power of JUDICIAL REVIEW, i.e. the power to interpret the Constitution and declare laws passed by the Congress and decisions of the President unconstitutional.

The Constitution makes NO mention of WOMEN or SLAVERY

o   Three-fifths Compromise in Article One: argument of the South: slaves need representation, not rights. Each slave is counted as three-fifths of a person in a state's total population for the number of seats in the House of Representatives. Slaves had no voting rights but southern states have a bigger representation

o   slave trade to be abandoned by 1808 – slavery is abolished by the 13^th Amendment in 1865

Campaigning for constitutional ratification

o   federalists VERSUS antifederalists

o   according to Article Seven – 9 states out of 13 are enough to ratify the Constitution (1788 - New Hampshire is the 9^th state)

o   FEDERALIST PAPERS (1788) - 85 essays written anonymously in support of the Constitution by J. Jay, J. Madison, A. Hamilton under pseudonym “Publius”

o   1789 - the Constitution comes in full effect

o   1791 – the BILL OF RIGHTS – the first 10 Amendments are added to the Constitution – a compromise between federalists and antifederalists

The first US government (1789)

·       1^st Congress (March 4, 1789)

·       1^st  President: George Washington (April 30, 1789) - elected unanimously (for the first and only time in US history)

·       1^st US Cabinet (not mentioned in the Constitution):

o   balance of political interests

o   initially small – growing with each new presidency

Vice President: John Adams

Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson

Secretary of War: Henry Knox

Secretary of the Treasury: Alexander Hamilton

Attorney-General: Edmund Randolph

·       1^st Supreme Court: John Jay becomes the 1^st Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Rise of the two-party system

Divisions among the FOUNDING FATHERS lead to the rise of the first political parties representing two different visions of the USA:

FEDERALISTS (Hamiltonians)

·       BELIEVING in strong central government as it preserves national independence

·       FEARING complete democracy would lead to anarchy

·       envisioning the US as an industrial power

·       loose reading of the Constitution (e.g. YES to the National Bank)

·       focus on the rich, order, faith – supported in cities

·       pro-British in foreign policy

·       Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, John Jay

DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS (Jeffersonians)

·       BELIEVING in limited central government – states’ rights must be preserved

·       FEARING tyranny

·       envisioning the US as an agrarian nation

·       trust in the common people

·       strict reading of the Constitution (e.g. NO to the National Bank)

·       focus on the poor, liberty, reason – supported in rural areas

·       pro-French in foreign policy

·       Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe

CAPITALS of the USA

New York (1789-1790)

Philadelphia (1790-1800)

Washington D.C. (since 1800)

Presidency of George Washington (1789-1797)

o   the only candidate - the richest man in the country

o   wise and compromising rule of the country

o   opposing political parties

By leaving office after eight years Washington established the two-term precedent - not regulated in the Constitution

Farewell Address, 1796 – George Washington’s powerful speech before retiring to Mount Vernon, Virginia

Main warnings:

• religious principles must be the foundations of public morality

• avoidance of permanent alliances - maintaining only commercial ties to other nations

• avoidance of sectionalism

• distrust of political parties

First PARTISAN Presidents:

John Adams (1797-1800) (Federalist)

Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) (Democratic-Republican)

Economic developments

According to the Constitution the Congress and states share the power of concurrent taxation.

After the War of Independence the United States faces economic difficulties and huge DEBTS.

The national debt is established (Hamilton) and the US dollar becomes the national currency (Coinage Act 1792)

Examples of early resistance:

• Daniel Shay's Rebellion (1786) in Massachusetts against debts

• Whiskey Rebellion (1791-94) in Western Pennsylvania against heavy taxation on corn and whiskey (Hamilton's regressive tax - excise of 25% to reduce the national debt). The federalized militia led by George Washington suppresses the rebellion without a shot. The rebel leaders are later pardoned by the President. 

Growing economic differences between the North (industry) and the South (slave-holding plantations)

·       slavery becomes the established "peculiar institution" in the south

·       northern states gradually abolish slavery

·       slave trade is banned in 1808

FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN THE UNITED STATES

• Samuel Slater "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" introduces the cotton mill (imported British textile manufacturing technology) – mill towns are established in the north

• Eli Whitney “Father of Mass Production” invents the cotton gin (1793) - mechanization of cotton plantations leads to the highly lucrative cotton industry in the South (King Cotton) and further growth of slavery

• Robert Fulton – introduction of steamboats

US TERRITORIAL EXPANSION

After 1783 the US gains new lands west of the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi River.

The conflicts with Native Americans (Western Confederacy) ensue, ending in the Treaty of Greenville (1795) and cession of the land in the Northwest.

The gradual expansion to the Northwest is regulated by:

Land Ordinance (1785)

o   establishment of townships in territories won from Britain unclaimed by states

o   first administration patterns

o   one plot of land in each township reserved for public education

NORTHWEST ORDINANCE ACT (1787)

o   organization of government in new territories the same way as in the original states

o   new states can have their constitutions and jurisdiction – they must be equal to the original Thirteen States

o   Bill of Rights guaranteed to settlers

o   no slavery in the new territories

o   5 thousand adult men - election of a two-chamber assembly; 60 thousand adult men - can access the Union the same way as 13 original states.

o   PATTERN for future states - prevention of the original 13 to control the rest.

o   land to be bought with consent of the Indians - contrary in practice

LOUISIANA PURCHASE (1803)

In 1800 Spain cedes Louisiana secretly back to France (Treaty of San Ildefonso) as Napoleon Bonaparte hopes to re-build a French empire in North America.

In 1803 Napoleon changes his mind (in need of money for his war in Europe) and sells the Louisiana Territory to President Thomas Jefferson for $ 15 million (3 cents per acre).

With Louisiana the US territory extends from the Mississippi to the Rockies and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Two exploratory expeditions:

• 1804-1806 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific gathering huge information about the land and the natives – their path is later followed by pioneers along the Oregon Trail

•  

• 1806 - Zebulon Pike - exploration of the Spanish Southwest

Foreign policy: US-French relations

The USA emerges from the war of independence allied with France. After the French Revolution (1789) and war between France and Britain (from 1793) the USA stays NEUTRAL

Incidents:

• Citizen Genet Affair (1793)

• XYZ Affair (1797)

• Quasi-War (1798-1800)

• Alien and Sedition Acts (1798-1801)

In 1800 the Franco-US relations are re-established leading to the Louisiana Purchase.

Foreign policy: US-British relations

After 1783 Britain still keeps troops on US northwest territories.

The Jay Treaty with Britain (1794):

o   British evacuation of the Northwest forts

o   Britain treated as the most favored nation in commerce

o   trade with British West Indies

o   the British continue fur trade at the Canadian border

Reaction:

Republican-Democrats: pro-French opposing the treaty

Federalists: pro-British supporting the treaty

WAR OF 1812

SECOND WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

(1812-1815)

CAUSES:

o   Napoleonic Wars - rivalry between Britain and France at sea (1803-1815) and seizure of US ships by Britain

o   impressment of American seamen and cargo by the British

o   Embargo Act of 1807 – signed by President Jefferson banning trade with any foreign nations (as an equivalent of war) – totally ineffective and unpopular, especially in New England

o   new Indian wars in the Ohio Territory led by Tecumseh (1811-1813) supported by the British and the Red Sticks War of Creeks in the South (1813-14)

COURSE:

o   1812 declaration of war on Britain by US Congress for “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights”  

o   border raids between Canada and the USA

o   blockade of the US coast by the Royal Navy

o   1814 - the British burn the Capitol and the White House in Washington DC

o   1814 - Treaty of Ghent status quo

o   1815 – the Battle of New Orleans – great victory of General Andrew Jackson over the British - pointless as the treaty had been signed two weeks before but Jackson becomes a American hero

CONSUEQUENCES:

o   totally pointless and unnecessary war

o   Americans start to manufacture their own goods. Thomas Jefferson: "We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturist"

o   consolidation of American nationalism

o   disappearance of the Federalist Party

o   The US and Canada are re-affirmed as separate nations

o   1817 - Rush-Bagot Treaty – demilitarization of the Great Lakes

o   Treaty of 1818 - 49th parallel established as the border – joint occupation of Oregon until 1846

THE US NATIONAL ANTHEM

The battle of Baltimore (1814) inspires Francis Scott Key to write a popular poem “Defence of Fort M'Henry.” In 1931 the song The Star Spangled Banner with the lyrics of the poem becomes the US national anthem