History
Before the arrival of Christopher
Columbus in North America in 1492, the
continent was inhabited by peoples thought to have been descended from nomadic
Mongolian tribes. The first wave of European settlers, mainly English, French
and Dutch, crossed the Atlantic in the 17th century and colonised the Eastern
Seaboard. The restrictions on political rights and the punitive taxation which
the British government imposed on the American colonists led to the American
War of Independence (1775–1783), with the Declaration of Independence signed in
1776.
A period of settlement, purchases
from the French and Spanish, and annexation of Indian and Mexican lands
followed. By 1853, the boundaries of the United States were, with the exception
of Alaska andHawaii, as they
are today. Economic activity in the southern States centred on plantation
agriculture dependent on slavery. Attempts to end slavery were fiercely
opposed. The election of Lincoln to the presidency in 1861 precipitated a
political crisis in which seven southern States (joined later by three others)
seceded from the Union, leading to the American Civil War. The more powerful
and better equipped Union forces prevailed over the rebel Confederacy after
four years of fighting.
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