The+United+States+of+America

By Brett Huxtable The United States of America is the country located in North America bordering Canada to the north and Mexico to the South. The USA is made up of 50 states including Alaska, Hawaii, and several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.It is a Federal Constitutional Republic that has a 48 contiguous states and a federal district. The US is the third or fourth largest country by total area and the third largest by population and land area.It is one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural countries in the world which is caused by a large amount immigration form other countries





- Beginnings - Word War I - The Great Depression - Ward War II - The Cold War ||
 * **Contents**

**Beginnings**

The United States were first inhabited by Alaskan Natives, said to have migrated over to North America from Asia about 12,000 and 40,000 years ago.In1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus came to North America looking for a passage way to India, but instead discovered a new world. Years after European countries including France and Britain created colonies in these lands. Many people inhabited these lands in prosper of a new life and more property.

From 1775 through 1781 the British colonies also known as the Eastern States from Minnesota on wanted to break of from the British Empire, and during these years a war was fought for the Independence of this colony. After the British were defeated by American Forces, the Untied States of America had now been recognized as a country and was independent. On July 4, 1776 The Americans celebrate Independence Day because of Thomas Jefferson signing the Declaration of Independence that made the USA a country.

//-This is a picture of what the USA looked like when Britian controlled it and other// //countries held territory here.// **World War I** During WWI the United states were Neutral for the most part this was part of their policy of non-Intervention. Although they weren't fighting in the war the us did supply the Allies with war machines, weapons, and other materials. The US would ship the materials over on boats to Britain for them to use. The ship that was sunk by a German U-boat.was the British liner Lusitania in 1915, and it had 128 Americans aboard which was the reason for the Americans joining the war. On the 6th April 1917 the USA declared war on Germany and the Axis powers.The United States was never formally a member of the Allies but became a self-styled "Associated Power".

The United States had a small army, but, after the passage of the Selective Service Act, it drafted 2.8 million men and by summer 1918 was sending 10,000 fresh soldiers to France every day.The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown and Ireland. and also submarines to help guard convoys. The British and French commanders wanted to use the American soldiers as reinforcements for their own troops fighting but the US commanders wouldn't allow this. But they did allow African American troops be reinforcements for the French, and they were known as the Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, this group earning a unit Croix de guerre for their actions at Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood and Sechault. In Spring of 1918 the American troops that were being sent over were very enthusiastically welcomed by the war-weary Allied armies. Since the Americans were replacing their men so fast the Germans couldn't keep up. This helped the US stop the spring offensive, which was the final advance of the German forces. Finally on November 11, 1918 was the victory over the Germans.

//-This is US propaganda during WWI//

After the war the Americans wanted the Germans to pay for what they did in the war.The Americans helped create economic penalties for the Germans in the Treaty of Versailles, but they didn't want to be a part of the rest of the treaty because they didn't agree with everything they did. Woodrow Wilson the American President Created his 14 points to not punish the Germans completely but to stop them from building up their army and trying to create a war, and also so other countries wouldn't do the same. If you want to see the 14 points go to this link []

The Great Depression was the started in the US and created a worldwide economic distress. Since the US had been lending out lots of money the worlds financial capital moved from London to New York. There were many causes to the depression like the stock market crash, overproduction, economic nationalism and tariffs, and international debt from the war. Between 1925 and 1929 the US had expanded way beyond the ability of the consumer to consume. Many factories to close and many companies to sell all of their product and this caused increasing unemployment. Then October, 1929 the stock market crashed which was the start of the depression. The crash was caused by too much buying on margin and too much speculation. This caused the flow of money in the US to slow down which many other nations had become dependent on. After the Wall Street Crash other countries had little choice but to try and protect their own industries and products by raising tariffs. But this only made the problem worse because it meant that trade would be even more restricted. Since the Americans were the first to raise their tariff barriers it caused may problems with other countries that were repaying the US by selling the products. In WWI the US lent a lot of money out to many countries and since trade was reduce a lot the countries lost their ability to repay back their loans due to them paying them back by selling them products.
 * The Great Depression **

The depression caused many repressions to everyone. one of the biggest things was unemployment. As the depression got worse so did unemployment and nations back then didn't have welfare or insurance to give them some money if they were unemployed. Also there were many banking failures due to many farms going bankrupt from owing the banks money, //- This is a sign that shows what happened to people in the depression// and since the farms couldn't pay back the money the banks would money from the people who deposited money into the bank. All through the depression many people were losing jobs and money, and it was worldwide and caused a lot of problems for everyone.

Just like in WWI the US were neutral for the first part of the war. The US were very important to the Allied forces even though they weren't in the war because they shipped large amounts of supplies to them. But soon after they started doing this the US were forced to become a part of this war. On December 7 1941 the US naval base Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, this was a surprise attack which caught them off guard. But the Japanese didn't completely accomplish their goal, there main objective was to destroy the Americans fleet of aircraft carries, but when they attacked the carries were not at the naval base they were out at sea.
 * World War II **

Since the US were now in the war they became a big part of stopping the Axis advance. The US was a big part in the Pacific war against the Japanese, but they also helped in Europe and Africa. The Americans with the help of the British made a successful invasion of Italy, which caused Italy to get out of the war but turned it into an occupied territory of Germany's. The biggest part that the Americans was getting the Japanese out of the pacific, the most important battles in the pacific for the Americans was Midway, the battle for Guadalcanal, and one of the biggest invasions they helped with was D-Day. The biggest thing that helped the US defeat the Japanese in the pacific was the use of their atomic bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The bombing of these really scared the Japanese and caused them to surrender because they didn't want to be bombed like that again. But little did they know that the US only had 2 atomic bombs at that time but they had the technology and resources to make more.

After the war was over the US did help in reconstructing governments of the Axis countries. Like in Germany it was split into four different zones one was controlled by the US, one by British, one by France, and one by Russia, they did the same thing with Berlin the capital of Germany. The US were trying to influence these parts to be Democratic and learn those ways other than become Communist like the Russians. This also happened over in Korea too, Korea was occupied by the Japanese but the Americans took over the south part of Korea below the 38th parallel while the Russians took the part above the parallel. This would become a future problem for the Americans trying to stop the Communist expansion. The US took over many island in the Pacific from the Japanese and they also took control of the Japanese government so they could establish a proper government according to the US. The US were also involved in the Nuremberg trails which tried 24 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany except for several key people of Nazi Germany that committed suicide. The US also implemented the Marshal Plan which was a way to stop the spread of communism, the US would help European countries re-build their economy by sending monetary support in order to stop the spread of Communism.

//- The separation of Germany//

**The Cold War** The Cold war was not really a war it was more of a political conflict between two super powers. The US and Russia were at stalemate because they were both the very strong militarily and had the capability of causing a nuclear war. The US being democratic wanted all other nations to become democratic like them, but the Russians were trying to spread Communism around. There were no actual fighting between these two countries but there were many conflicts they opposed each other in such as military coalitions, proxy wars, espionage, propaganda, conventional and nuclear arms races, appeals to neutral nations, and technological expansions such as the space race. The US formed NATO which was a military alliance between 12 countries which were all against the take over of Communism. NATO was put in so that if one of these countries was attacked all of the others would help protect it. The Russians had an answer the NATO, they had the Iron Curtain which was an bunch of satellite states that they had influenced and controlled.

//- The Iron Curtain is in red// Though the US and Russia never fought against each other they still fought against others, like the Korean war, the Vietnam war, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and many others. In the Korean war the Americans supported the south and helped supply troops and military help. Throughout the war each sides territory changed a lot, at the start the North almost took over all of Korea until UN forces came in. then the sides turned and the south had almost completely taken over, but that offensive was stopped and the border line was almost the same as they started at the 38th parallel. The war ended in an armistice and there has been no war between the two for a while but the tensions are still high. The Vietnam war was a complete failure for the USA, because the US were supposed to be this major super power but couldn't defeat the Vietnamese. Just like in the Americans supported the south because they were anti communist and the Russians supported the North because they were communist. The North had help form the Viet Cong a communist military force that fought in guerrilla warfare against the south. In this war the US relied on their air force a lot because it was so reliable and could take out targets easily.

In the Soviet war in Afghanistan the Russians were also embarrassed just like the Americans in the Vietnam war. The Soviets fought against the against the indigenous Afghan Mujahideen who were supported and given resources by the Americans and other countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Egypt, China and other nations. This war lasted about 8 years before the Russians decided to get out of the war due to many casualties and by 1989 the Soviets had gotten out of the war completely.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was another show of who had more bombs than the other. It started out with the US doing a photo reconnaissance mission capturing photographic proof of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba which had missiles that could hit any target in the US. The US considered a large attack on the Cuban missile bases but it could've started another nuclear war with Russia, so instead they quarantined the island of Cuba by not letting any ships get in or out of Cuba. Then they made their demands for Russia to take down the missile bases in Cuba. The US had also placed a Thor IRBMs in the UK (Project Emily) and Jupiter IRBMs to Italy and Turkey in case the Russians launched their missile from Cuba they could retaliate with these missiles. The Americans also tried to overthrow the Cuban government with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and Operation Mongoose. The Bay of Pigs invasion was an Invasion attempt by some Cuban exiles to try and take over the government, the US helped these exiles plan their attack and gave them resources. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion failed Operation Mongoose was a secret program of propaganda, psychological warfare, and sabotage against Cuba to remove the communists from power.

The US implemented the Reagan Doctrine which increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union. But at the same time the Soviets were already in economic trouble. Then the Cold War finally ended after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the dominant military power.

//- This shows the range of the missiles that were in Cuba//