GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY DEPARTMENT.

IES FRAY PEDRO DE URBINA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE EMERGING POWER

United States gained independence in 1783. In 1787 it was approved the Federal Constitution. Since the beginning, the United States will present serious problems of internal cohesion, Northern will have an industrial and very innovative economy, being predominant in rural areas the medium property devoted to food production and industrial raw materials; in the southern states they will dominate the large estate that produces tropical crops to export (coffee, cotton, sugarcane ...) with slave laborers. Northern states favoured a strong and presidential central government, while southern states were in favour of powerful state governments. The U.S. population grew rapidly by the emigration of British, Irish, German and Baltic countries. In 1790 there were 3,900,000 inhabitants and ten years later, there were 8,000,000. The first presidents (Washington, Adams and Jefferson) encouraged the colonization of the territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. The Napoleonic Wars had an impact on the United States. Given the weakness of the United Kingdom, Perpetual Peace was signed in Ghent, trying to solve all the problems between the United States and the United Kingdom because of Canadian border and tracing finally the current northern frontier. Napoleon gave in to American pressure and sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803, Spain sold Florida in 1819. The westward expansion was unstoppable. In 1845, after the first war with Mexico, Texas became part of the United States. In 1848 after the second Mexican War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, all lands north of the Rio Grande became American zone (more than two million square kilometres - Spain has 500,000). In 1829 the two parties governing the country's destiny set up. The influx of immigrants and the conquest of the west created a new society where the individualistic spirit will prevail. President Jackson imposed the democratic system of elections and the creation of a body of officials and civil servants depending on the President and not on the party. The grant of land in the west and the discovery of gold in California triggered a wave of immigration to the west at the expense of the Indians, who were practically annihilated. Tensions between pro slavery and confederate South and abolitionist and unionist North were broadened with the addition of new states (when a territory had more than 100,000 people, it could become a state as a part of the Union). In 1861 the Civil War between North and South broke out. The civil war was won by the federal government led by Lincoln (1861-1865). The country was devastated and deeply divided. Political rights of former slaves in the southern states were officially recognized, but a practical racial segregation continued until 1960. Since then, the country embarked on a policy of growth and exploitation of its vast resources to become the third world power by 1890. While the United States became a major trading power, it began a policy of interference in the affairs of other American republics with frequent military interventions, coups and all sorts of corruption to impose their hegemony.