Regional division of the US: The South (general characteristics, major cities, economy, culture, etc.)

Includes the whole area to the south of the N-E & the M-W, 14 states: Virginia, W.Virginia, N/S.Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas.

¼ of Am.ppl lives here. The S has certain characteristics:

1. has lagged behind the N in industrial development -> has fewer large cities;

2. typical crops – cotton & tobacco;

3. large black population (the Black Belt), racial prejudices here are deep-rooted; most inequality btw blacks & whites in this part of the country;

4. is a supplier of raw materials (petroleum in Texas, coal in W.Virginia, lumber);

5. the standard of living here is lower, the poorest region.

But – some important changes, esp. in the post WW2 period: more industries, less cotton, mechanization, blacks move north.

Is divided into 3 regions:

· The South Atlantic Region: Virginia, W.Virginia, N/S. Carolina, Florida; Atlanta;

· The Deep South: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis;

· The West South Central Region: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas (has undergone the most rapid economic development in the post WW2 period, now – a very important economic region); Houston, Dallas, Oklahoma City.

Regional identity has been most pronounced in the South, where the peculiarities of Southern history have played an important role in shaping the region's character. The South was originally settled by English Protestants who came not for religious freedom but for profitable farming opportunities. Most farming was carried out on single family farms, but some farmers, capitalizing on tobacco and cotton crops, became quite prosperous. Many of them established

large plantations. African slaves, shipped by the Spanish, Portuguese, and English, supplied labor for these plantations. These slaves were bought and sold as property. Even though the system of slavery was regarded by many Americans as unjust. Southern slaveowners defended it as an economic necessity. Even after the North began to industrialize after 1800, the South remained agricultural. As the century progressed, the economic interests of the manufacturing North became evermore divergent from those of the agrarian South. Economic and political tensions began to divide the nation and eventually led to the Civil War (1861—65). Most Northerners opposed slavery. The unresolved dispute over slavery was one of the issues which led to a national crisis in 1860. Eleven Southern states left the federal union and proclaimed themselves an independent nation. The war that broke out as a direct result was the most

bloody war in American history. With the South's surrender in 1865, Southerners were forced to accept many changes, which stirred up bitterness and resentment towards Northerners and

the Republican Party of the national government. During the post-war period of reconstruction which lasted until 1877, slavery was not only abolished, but blacks were given a voice in Southern government. Southerners opposed the Civil War (1861-65): the war between the Union (the North) and the Confederacy (the South).
For the next century white Southerners consistently voted for Democrats. The Civil War experience helps explain why Southerners have developed a reverence for the past and a resistance to change, and why the South is different from the rest of the country. Other regions have little in common with the South's bitterness over the Civil War, its one-party politics, agrarian traditions and racial tensions. Recent statistics show that the South differs from other regions in a number of ways. Southerners are more conservative, more religious, and more violent than the rest of the country. Because fewer immigrants were attracted to the less industrialized Southern states. Southerners are the most "native" of any region. Most black and white Southerners can trace their ancestry in this country back to before 1800. Southerners tend to be more mindful of social rank and have strong ties to hometown and family. Even today. Southerners tend to have less schooling and higher illiteracy rates than people from other regions, and pockets of poverty are scattered throughout the Southern states.

Americans of other regions are quick to recognize a Southerner by his/her dialect. Southern speech tends to be much slower and more musical. The Southern dialect characteristically uses more diphthongs: a one-syllable word such as yes is spoken in the South as two syllables, i/a-es. In addition, Southerners say "you all" instead of "you" as the second person plural. The South is also known for its music. In the time of slavery, black Americans created a new folk music, the negro spiritual. Later forms of black music which began in the South are blues and jazz. White Southerners created bluegrass mountain music, and most American country music has a Southern background. The South has been one of the most outstanding literary regions in the twentieth century. Novelists such as William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, Thomas Wolfe, and Carson McCullers have addressed themes of the Southern experience such as nostalgia for the rural Southern past.

 

Regional division of the US: The West (general characteristics, major cities, economy, culture, etc.)

The American West comprises the following eleven states: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California. It is historically the youngest, it has the lowest density of the population, it is an important supplier of raw material This vast region is extremely varied, nevertheless certain features can be pointed out which distinguish the West from the rest of the country

-the West is historically the youngest

-most of the western states are mountain states

-of all the US regions the West has the lowest density of population, the only densely populated part is California

-The Western States are mostly agricultural with emphasis on pastoral farming, only California and Oregon are important industrial states

-the west is an important supplier of raw materials, especially non-ferrous metals (in the rocky mountains) an oil (California)

The West can be divided into 3 regions

1) the great plains, the cattle country of the “Wild West”,-agricultural part(cattle breeding-the main industry, growing corn and weat) the eastern parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and the western parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, Denver

1) the High West, this mass of plateaus, mountains, canyons, deserts, salt lakes, forests, scrublands, prairies and irrigated valleys occupies 1\3 o the country; the Rockies are rich in minerals, the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah (the states of the Mormons) Non-ferrous metals are produced here, here used to be the place of automic tests. Las Vegas-casinos(lost wages)

2) the Pacific Coast, economically the most important part of the American West, comprises the states of California (San Francisco, Los Angelos (L.A)

Oregon (Portland)

Washington(Seattle)

 

23. The USA as a multiethnic society.

American culture (different aspects: theater, cinema, literature, art, customs and traditions, etc.).

Traditions

Americans widely observe other holidays which stem from traditions older than those of the United States. One is Easter, the Christian feast of the Resurrection of Jesus. Easter always falls on a Sunday. For most Americans, it is a day of worship and a gathering of the family. Many follow old traditions such as the dyeing of hard-boiled eggs and the giving of gifts of candy eggs, rabbits and chicks for the children. Many households organize Easter egg hunts, in which children look for dyed eggs hidden around the house or yard or in a park. The President of the United States even has an annual Easter egg hunt on the lawn of the White House the day after Easter, known as "Easter Monday."

Christmas is a most important religious holyday for Christians, who attend special church services to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Because it is a religious holy day, it is not an official holiday. However, since most Americans are Christian, the day is one on which most businesses are closed and the greatest possible number of workers, including government employees, have the day off. Many places of business even close early on the day before Christmas. When Christmas falls on a Sunday, the next day is also a holiday.

Halloween is known and loved today as a time to wear costumes, go door to door asking for candy, and watch monster movies. But the holiday's origins go back centuries to the enactment of All Saints' Day, a Christian holiday. Along the way, it has also picked up traditions from Samhain, a Celtic festival celebrating the start of winter.

The name "Halloween" began as "All Hallows Eve." This became "All Hallow E'en," leading to "Hallowe'en," or Halloween. It was the evening before All Hallows Day, which was later called All Saints' Day. (In this case, "hallows" meant "saints.")

All Saints' Day, a feast for all martyrs and saints, was celebrated on November 1st for the first time during the 8th century, but customs varied regarding its observance. This date was officially established for all Catholic churches in 837 by Pope Gregory IV.

Starting in the 10th century, this feast was the eve of All Souls' Day.American Cinema

The world of American cinema is so far-reaching a topic that it deserves, and often receives, volumes of its own. Hollywood (in Los Angeles, California), of course, immediately comes to mind, as do the many great directors, actors and actresses it continues to attract and produce. But then, one also thinks of the many independent studios throughout the country, the educational and documentary series and films, the socially-relevant tradition in cinema, and the film departments of universities, such as the University of Southern California (USC), the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) or New York University.

For over 50 years, American films have continued to grow in popularity throughout the world. Television has only increased this popularity.

The great blockbusters of film entertainment that stretch from "Gone with the Wind" to "Star Wars" receive the most attention. A look at the prizes awarded at the leading international film festivals will also demonstrate that as an art form, the American film continues to enjoy-considerable prestige. Even when the theme is serious or, as they say, "meaningful", American films remain "popular". In the past decade, films which treated the danger of nuclear power and weapons, alcoholism, divorce, inner-city blight,.the effects of slavery, the plight of Native Americans, poverty and immigration have all received awards and international recognition. And, at the same time, they have done well at the box-office.

Movies (films), including those on video-cassettes, remain the most popular art form in the USA. A book with 20,000 readers is considered to be a best-seller. A hit play may be seen by a few thousand theatergoers. By contrast, about a billion movie tickets are sold at movie houses across the USA every year.

There are three main varieties of movie theaters in the USA: 1) the "first-run" movie houses, which show new films; 2) "art theaters", which specialize in showing foreign films and revivals; 3) "neighborhood theaters", which run films — sometimes two at a time — after the "first-run" houses.

New York is a movie theater capital of the country. Many of the city's famous large movie theaters, once giving Times Square so much of its glitter, have been torn down or converted (in some cases into smaller theaters), and a new generation of modem theaters has appeared to the north and east of the area. Most of them offer continuous performances from around noon till midnight. Less crowded and less expensive are the so-called "neighborhood theaters", which show films several weeks or months after the "first-run" theaters. There are several theaters that specialize in revivals of famous old films and others that show only modernist, avant-garde films. Still others, especially those along 42nd Street, between the Avenue of Americas and Eighth Avenue, run movies about sex and violence. Foreign films, especially those of British, French, Italian and Swedish origin, are often seen in New York, and several movie theaters specialize in the showing of foreign-language films for the various ethnic groups in the city.

 

Identify the following person or place(s):

Amerigo Vespucci - (March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Afro-Eurasians. Colloquially referred to as the New World, this second super continent came to be termed "America", deriving its name from the feminized Latin version of Vespucci's first name.

Christopher Columbus - (born between October 31, 1450 and October 30, 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer, born in the Republic of Genoa (Italy). Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World.

In the context of emerging western imperialism and economic competition between European kingdoms seeking wealth through the establishment of trade routes and colonies, Columbus' speculative proposal, to reach the East Indies by sailing westward, eventually received the support of the Spanish crown, which saw in it a chance to gain the upper hand over rival powers in the contest for the lucrative spice trade with Asia. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan as he had intended, Columbus landed in the Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he named San Salvador. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for the Spanish Empire.

Though Columbus was not the first European explorer to reach the Americas (having been preceded by the Norse expedition led by Leif Ericson in the 11th century), Columbus' voyages led to the first lasting European contact with the Americas, inaugurating a period of European exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for several centuries. They had, therefore, an enormous impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion.

Never admitting that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies he had set out for, Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands he visited indios (Spanish for "Indians"). Columbus' strained relationship with the Spanish crown and its appointed colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and dismissal as governor of the settlements on the island of Hispaniola in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over the benefits which Columbus and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.

William Penn - (October 14, 1644 – July 30, 1718) was founder and "Absolute Proprietor" of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future U.S. state of Pennsylvania. He was known as an early champion of democracy and religious freedom and famous for his good relations and his treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, Philadelphia was planned and developed.

George Washington - served as the first President of the United States of America (1789–1797),[4] and led the Continental Army to victory over the Kingdom of Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

Lexington and Concord - the cities in Massachusetts where in 1775 (April 19) (the Battle of Lexington and Concord) the first battle in The War of Independence took place. Английский отряд, действовавший в линейном боевом порядке, был разбит меньшим по численности отрядом повстанцев, действовавшим в рассыпном строю.

Paul Revere - (January 1, 1735 – May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith of French descent and a patriot in the American Revolutionary War. Immortalized after his death for his role as a messenger in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Revere was a prosperous and well-known craftsman who was born in the class of tradesmen yet yearned to advance to the class of gentleman. He served as an officer in one of the most disastrous campaigns of the war, a role for which he was later exonerated. Soon after the war, he recognized the potential for large-scale manufacturing of metal goods and is considered by some historians to be the prototype of the American industrialist.

Thomas Jefferson - (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806).

Abraham Lincoln - (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, only to be assassinated as the war was coming to an end. Before becoming the first Republican elected to the Presidency, Lincoln was a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Senate.

As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. During his time in office, he contributed to the effort to preserve the United States by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which passed Congress before Lincoln's death and was ratified by the states later in 1865.

Franklin D. Roosevelt - (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems. Although recovery of the economy was incomplete until almost 1940, the programs he initiated such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continue to have instrumental roles in the nation's commerce. One of his most important legacies is the Social Security system.

Martin Luther King - Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister, a social activist, a clergyman and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. One of the leading figures in the civil rights movement, he has had a defining influence on the recent history of the United States. King's challenges to segregation and racial discrimination helped convince many white Americans to support the cause of civil rights in the United States. In 1957 King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization of black churches and ministers that aimed to challenge racial segregation. His assassination in 1968 was met with shock around the world.

Pearl Harbor - The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United Statesnaval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.

The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

From the standpoint of the defenders, the attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but one were later raised, and six of the eight battleships returned to service and fought in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.

The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both thePacific and European theaters. The following day (December 8), the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been strong, disappeared. Clandestine support of Britain (for example the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.

There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy".

William Penn - (14 October 1644 – 30 July 1718) was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy andreligious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed.

In 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his American land holdings to William Penn to satisfy a debt the king owed to Penn's father. This land included present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn immediately sailed to America and his first step on American soil took place in New Castle in 1682. On this occasion, the colonists pledged allegiance to Penn as their new Proprietor, and the first general assembly was held in the colony. Afterwards, Penn journeyed up river and founded Philadelphia. However, Penn's Quaker government was not viewed favorably by the Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers in what is now Delaware. They had no "historical" allegiance to Pennsylvania, so they almost immediately began petitioning for their own Assembly. In 1704 they achieved their goal when the three southernmost counties of Pennsylvania were permitted to split off and become the new semi-autonomous colony of Lower Delaware. As the most prominent, prosperous and influential "city" in the new colony, New Castle became the capital.

As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a Union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe("European Dyet, Parliament or Estates") in his voluminous writings.

New Amsterdam - was the name of the 17th century fortified settlement in the New Netherland Province, established in 1624, that would eventually become New York City.

Manhattan - an island at the mouth of the Hudson River. It originally belonged to Indians and was bought from them in 1626 by the Dutch who set up a town known as New Amsterdam. Later the island was captured by the British and New Amsterdam was renamed New York.

Jamestown - At Jamestown Settlement, prepare to embark on a journey to 17th-century Virginia. The world of America’s first permanent English colony, founded in 1607 – 13 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, comes to life through film, gallery exhibits and outdoor living history.

Empire State Building - is a 102-story contemporary Art Deco style skyscraper in New York, USA, declared by the American Society of Civil Engineers to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, The tower rises to 1,250 feet (381 m) at the 102nd floor, and its full structural height (including broadcast antenna) reaches 1,453 feet and 8 9/16th inches (443 m). It was the first building to have more than 100 floors. It remained the tallest skyscraper in the world for a record 41 years (and the world's tallest man-made structure for 23 years) until the construction of the World Trade Center, and shortly afterwards the Sears Tower. Following the events of September 11, 2001, the Empire State Building regained the title of tallest building in New York, and the 2nd tallest building in the United States (see the 50 Tallest buildings in the U.S. list).

 

 

What / who is meant by…?

Potlatch - is a gift-giving feast practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States, among whom it is traditionally the primary economic system. This includes the Heiltsuk, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures. The word comes from the Chinook Jargon, meaning "to give away" or "a gift"; originally from the Nuu-chah-nulth word paɬaˑč, to make a ceremonial gift in a potlatch. It went through a history of rigorous ban by both the Canadian and United States federal governments, and has been studied by many anthropologists.

A potlatch was held on the occasion of births, deaths, adoptions, weddings, and other major events. Typically the potlatch was practiced more in the winter seasons as historically the warmer months were for procuring wealth for the family, clan, or village, then coming home and sharing that with neighbors and friends. The event was hosted by a numaym, or 'House', in Kwakwaka'wakw culture. A numaym was a complex cognatic kin group usually headed by aristocrats, but including commoners and occasional slaves. It had about one hundred members and several would be grouped together into a tribe. The House drew its identity from its ancestral founder, usually a mythical animal who descended to earth and removed his animal mask, thus becoming human. The mask became a family heirloom passed from father to son along with the name of the ancestor himself. This made him the leader of the numaym, considered the living incarnation of the founder.

Only aristocrats could host a potlatch. The potlatch was the occasion on which titles associated with masks and other objects were "fastened on" to a new office holder. Two kinds of titles were transferred on these occasions. Firstly, each numaym had a number of named positions of ranked "seats" (which gave them a seat at potlatches) transferred within itself. These ranked titles granted rights to hunting, fishing and berrying territories. Secondly, there were a number of titles that would be passed between numayma, usually to in-laws, which included feast names that gave one a role in the Winter Ceremonial. Aristocrats felt safe giving these titles to their out-marrying daughter's children because this daughter and her children would later be rejoined with her natal numaym and the titles returned with them. Any one individual might have several "seats" which allowed them to sit, in rank order, according to their title, as the host displayed and distributed wealth and made speeches. Besides the transfer of titles at a potlatch, the event was given "weight" by the distribution of other less important objects such as Chilkat blankets, animal skins (later Hudson Bay blankets) and coppers. It is the distribution of large numbers of Hudson Bay blankets, and the destruction of valued coppers that first drew government attention (and censure) to the potlatch.

Conquistadors - (from Portuguese or Spanish conquistadores "conquerors"; Spanish pronunciation: [koŋkistaˈðoɾes]) were soldiers, explorers, and adventurers at the service of the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Empire. They sailed beyond Europe, conquering territory and opening trade routes. They colonized much of the world for Portugal and Spain in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

The conquistadors were professional warriors, using European tactics, firearms, and cavalry. Their units (Compañia, Companhia) would often specialize in forms of combat that required long periods of training that were too costly for informal groups. Their armies were mostly composed of Iberian and other European soldiers.

Native allied troops were largely infantry equipped with armament and armour that varied geographically. Some groups consisted of young men without military experience, Catholic clergy which helped with administrative duties, and soldiers or mercenaries with military training. These native forces often included African slaves and Native Americans. They not only fought in the battlefield but served as interpreters, informants, servants, teachers, physicians, and scribes. India Catalina and Malintzin were Native American women slaves who worked for the Spaniards.

Frequently, clergy occupied administrative positions of political responsibility. To enter the Catholic clergy was a way out of poverty, and also was a way to obtain prestige and power among the nobility. The high clergy were mostly of noble birth.

The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April 1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America. The two companies, called the "Virginia Company of London" (or the London Company) and the "Virginia Company of Plymouth" (or Plymouth Company) operated with identical charters but with differing territories. An area of overlapping territory was created within which the two companies were not permitted to establish colonies within one hundred miles of each other. The Plymouth Company never fulfilled its charter, and its territory that later became New England was at that time also claimed by England.

As corporations, the companies were empowered by the Crown to govern themselves, and they ultimately granted the same privilege to their colony. In 1624, the Virginia Company failed; however, its grant of self-government to the colony was not revoked, and, "either from apathy, indecision, or deliberate purpose," the Crown allowed the system to continue. The principle was thus established that a royal colony should be self-governing, and this formed the genesis of democracy in America.

The Plymouth Company was an English joint stock company founded in 1606 by James I of England with the purpose of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.

The Plymouth Company was one of two companies, along with the London Company, chartered with such a purpose as part of the Virginia Company. In form it was similar to the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London. The territory of the company was the coast of North America from the 38th parallel to the 45th parallel, but being part of the Virginia Company and Colony, The Plymouth Company owned a large portion of Atlantic and Inland Canada. The portion of company's area south of the 41st parallel overlapped that of the London Company, with the stipulation being that neither company could found a settlement within 100 miles (160 km) of an existing settlement of the other company.

In 1607, the company established the Popham Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in present-day Maine. The settlement was founded in the same year that the London Company had established Jamestown, but unlike Jamestown, the Popham settlement was abandoned after only one year.

The company thus fell into disuse and in 1609, the Virginia Colony charter was reorganized to grant the London Company exclusive rights to most of the previously shared territory along the coast.

In 1620, after years of disuse, the company was revived and reorganized as the Plymouth Council for New England. The Plymouth Company had 40 patentees at that point, and established the Council for New England to oversee their efforts. The leading merchant-adventurer of the new company was Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Another patentee and member of the Council was Capt. Christopher Levett, an explorer, writer and naval captain who would attempt his own settlement at present-day Portland, Maine.

The London Company (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) was an English joint stock company established by royal charter by King James I with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

The territory granted to the London Company included the coast of North America from the 34th parallel (Cape Fear) north to the 41st parallel (in Long Island Sound), but being part of the Virginia Company and Colony, the London Company owned a large portion of Atlantic and Inland Canada. The company was permitted by its charter to establish a 100-square-mile (260 km2) settlement within this area. The portion of the company's territory north of the 38th parallel was shared with the Plymouth Company, with the stipulation that neither company found a colony within 100 miles (161 km) of each other.

The London Company made landfall on April 26, 1607 at the southern edge of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, which they named Cape Henry, near present day Virginia Beach. Deciding to move the encampment, on May 24, 1607 they established the Jamestown Settlement on the James River about 40 miles (64 km) upstream from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Later in 1607, the Plymouth Company established its Popham Colony in present day Maine, but it was abandoned after about a year. By 1609, the Plymouth Company had dissolved. As a result, the charter for the London Company was adjusted with a new grant that extended from "sea to sea" of the previously-shared area between the 34th and 40th parallel. It was amended in 1612 to include the new territory of the Somers Isles (or Bermuda).

The London Company struggled financially for a number of years, with results improving after sweeter strains of tobacco than the native variety were cultivated and successfully exported from Virginia as a cash crop beginning in 1612. In 1624, the company lost its charter, and Virginia became a royal colony (although its spin-off, the Somers Isles Company existed until 1684).

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the Separatists, sometimes referred to as the "Saints", fleeing from religious persecution by King James of England. They traveled aboard the Mayflower in 1620 along with adventurers, tradesmen, and servants, most of whom were referred to, by the Separatists as "Strangers".

The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on November 11, 1620 by most adult men. The Pilgrims used the Julian Calendar, also known as Old Style dates, which, at that time, was ten days behind the Gregorian Calendar. Signing the covenant were 41 of the ship's 101 passengers, while the Mayflower was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor within the hook at the northern tip of Cape Cod.

The Mayflower was originally bound for the Colony of Virginia, financed by the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London. Storms forced them to anchor at the hook of Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts. This inspired some of the passengers to proclaim that since the settlement would not be made in the agreed upon Virginia territory, they "would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them...." To prevent this, many of the other colonists chose to establish a government. The Mayflower Compact was based simultaneously upon a majoritarian model (taking into account that women could not vote) and the settlers' allegiance to the king. It was in essence a contract in which the settlers consented to follow the compact's rules and regulations for the sake of order and survival.

In November 1620, the Mayflower anchored at Plymouth, named after the major port city in Devon, England from which she sailed. The settlers named their settlement "New Plimoth" or "Plimouth", using the Early Modern English spellings of the early 17th century.

Thanksgiving -U.S. holiday. It originated in the autumn of 1621 when Plymouth governor William Bradford invited neighbouring Indians to join the Pilgrims for a three-day festival of recreation and feasting in gratitude for the bounty of the season, which had been partly enabled by the Indians' advice. Neither the standard Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie nor the family orientation of the day reflects the Plymouth event, however. Proclaimed a national holiday in 1863, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November (though it was moved back one week in 193941 to extend the Christmas shopping season). Canada adopted Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1879; since 1957 it has been celebrated on the second Monday in October.

indentured servants person under contract to work for another person for a definite period of time, usually without pay but in exchange for free passage to a new country. During the seventeenth century most of the white laborers in Maryland and Virginia came from England as indentured servants.

The Sons of Liberty secret organizations formed in the American colonies in protest against the Stamp Act (1765). They took their name from a phrase used by Isaac Barré in a speech against the Stamp Act in Parliament, and were organized by merchants, businessmen, lawyers, journalists, and others who would be most affected by the Stamp Act. The leaders included John Lamb and Alexander McDougall in New York, and Samuel Adams and James Otis in New England. The societies kept in touch with each other through committees of correspondence, supported the nonimportation agreement, forced the resignation of stamp distributors, and incited destruction of stamped paper and violence against British officials. They participated in calling the Continental Congress of 1774. In the Civil War, the Knights of the Golden Circle adopted (1864) the name Sons of Liberty.

" No taxation without representation" («Нет налогов без представительства») was a slogan in the period 1763–1776 that summarized a primary grievance of the American colonists in the thirteen American colonies. The phrase "No Taxation Without Representation!" was coined by Reverend Jonathan Mayhew in a sermon in Boston in 1750. By 1765 the term "no taxation without representation" was in use in Boston, but no one is sure who first used it. Boston politician James Otis was most famously associated with the term, "taxation without representation is tyranny.

The Boston Tea Party - occurred on 16 December 1773, two years before the American Revolution. In order to protest against the British tax on tea, a group of Americans dressed as Mohawk Indians went into three British ships in Boston harbor and threw 342 large boxes of tea into the sea.

1773 - Victory in the French and Indian War was costly for the British. At the war's conclusion in 1763, King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted by the war. Royal ineptitude compounded the problem. A series of actions including the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767) and the Boston Massacre (1770) agitated the colonists, straining relations with the mother country. But it was the Crown's attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.

The colonies refused to pay the levies required by the Townsend Acts claiming they had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no representation. In response, Parliament retracted the taxes with the exception of a duty on tea - a demonstration of Parliament's ability and right to tax the colonies. In May of 1773 Parliament concocted a clever plan. They gave the struggling East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea to America. Additionally, Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than ever before. However, if the colonies paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them. Tea was a staple of colonial life - it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea.

The colonists were not fooled by Parliament's ploy. When the East India Company sent shipments of tea to Philadelphia and New York the ships were not allowed to land. In Charleston the tea-laden ships were permitted to dock but their cargo was consigned to a warehouse where it remained for three years until it was sold by patriots in order to help finance the revolution.

In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor. The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of the duty. Stalemate. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a howl erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war chants, the crowd marched two-by-two to the wharf, descended upon the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.

Most colonists applauded the action while the reaction in London was swift and vehement. In March 1774 Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts which among other measures closed the Port of Boston. The fuse that led directly to the explosion of American independence was lit.

Minutemen[‘minitmn ] - a name given to members of the militia[mi’liòe] of the American Colonies during the American Revolution, who were ready to fight with only a minute's warning. The best known minutemen are from Massachusetts who fought at the battles of Lexington and Concord. The same groups were also formed in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maryland.

Minutemen were members of well-prepared militia companies of select men from the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats, hence the name.

The minutemen were among the first people to fight in the American Revolution. Their teams constituted about a quarter of the entire militia. Generally younger and more mobile, they served as part of a network for early response. Minuteman and Sons of Liberty member Paul Revere was among those who spread the news that the British Regulars (soldiers) were coming out from Boston. Revere was captured before completing his mission when the British marched toward the arsenal in Concord to confiscate the weapons and ammunition that were stored there.

The Founding Fathers - the Americans who established the form of the US government at the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787 when they created and signed the American Constitution. The best known FF are G. Washington, Th. Jefferson, B. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams and James Madison.

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, and establishing the United States Constitution. Within the large group known as the "Founding Fathers", there are two key subsets: the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (who signed the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776) and the Framers of the Constitution (who were delegates to the Constitutional Convention and took part in framing or drafting the proposed Constitution of the United States). A further subset is the group that signed the Articles of Confederation.

Many of the Founding Fathers owned African American slaves and the Constitution adopted in 1787 sanctioned the system of slavery. The Founding Fathers made successful efforts to contain or limit slavery throughout the United States and territories, including banning slavery in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and abolishing the international slave trade in 1807.

Some historians define the "Founding Fathers" to mean a larger group, including not only the Signers and the Framers but also all those who, whether as politicians, jurists, statesmen, soldiers, diplomats, or ordinary citizens, took part in winning American independence and creating the United States of America. Historian Richard B. Morris in 1973 identified the following seven figures as the key Founding Fathers: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.[5] Three of these (Hamilton, Madison and Jay) were authors of the Federalist Papers, advocating ratification of the Constitution.

The phrase 'Founding Fathers' was coined by Warren G. Harding, then a Republican Senator from Ohio, in his keynote address to the 1916 Republican National Convention. He used it several times thereafter, most prominently in his 1921 inaugural address as President of the United States.

the Louisiana Purchase - was a land purchase made by United States president Thomas Jefferson in 1803. He bought the Louisiana territory from France, which was being led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time.

Carpetbaggers - In United States history, carpetbagger was a pejorative term Southerners gave to Northerners (also referred to as Yankees) who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era, between 1865 and 1877. The term referred to the observation that these newcomers tended to carry "carpet bags," a common form of luggage at the time (sturdy and made from used carpet).

“Bountyhunters” – охотники за головами, captures fugitives for a monetary reward (bounty).

Sharecropping - is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on the land. Sharecropping was very common in the Southern United States after the Civil War and the end of slavery. Sharecropping became widespread as a response to economic upheaval caused by the end of slavery during and after Reconstruction. Sharecropping was a way for very poor farmers (both black and white) to earn a living from land owned by someone else. The landowner provided land, housing, tools and seed, and perhaps a mule, and a local merchant loaned money for food and supplies. At harvest time the sharecropper received a share of the crop (from one-third to one-half), which paid off his debt to the merchant.

Dixie - is a nickname for the Southern United States

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), informally known as the Klan or the "Hooded Order", is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically expressed through terrorism

The New Deal was a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They involved laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression

The Truman Doctrine was an international relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947, which stated that the U.S. would support Greece andTurkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere. Historians often consider it as the start of the Cold War, and the start of the containment policy to stop Soviet expansion. President Harry S. Truman told Congress the Doctrine was "to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. "Truman reasoned, because these "totalitarian regimes" coerced "free peoples", they represented a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States. Truman made the plea amid the crisis of the Greek Civil War (1946–1949). He argued that if Greece and Turkey did not receive the aid that they urgently needed, they would inevitably fall to communism with grave consequences throughout the region. Because Turkey and Greece were historic rivals, it was necessary to help both equally, even though the threat to Greece was more immediate.

For years Britain had supported Greece, but was now near bankruptcy and was forced to radically reduce its involvement. In February 1947, Britain formally requested the United States take over its role in supporting the Greek government

A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The term originated in the United States, but has spread to Australia, Canada and New Zealand. As the use of the term has been expanded, the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.

A primary election is an election that narrows the field of candidates before an election for office. Primary elections are one means by which apolitical party or a political alliance nominates candidates for an upcoming general election or by-election.

Primaries are common in the United States, where their origins are traced to the progressive movement to take the power of candidate nomination from party leaders to the people.

Nominee - A person named, or designated, by another, to any office, duty, or position; one nominated, or proposed, by others for office or for election to office. (One who has been nominated to an office or for a candidacy).

Nomination - is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to an office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list.

The Electoral College is a process, not a place (it is the institution that officially elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years.). The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.

Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature that allows for formal charges against a civil officer of government for crimes committed in office. If a federal official commits a crime or otherwise acts improperly, the House of Representatives may impeach—formally charge—that official. If the official subsequently is convicted in a Senate impeachment trial, he is removed from office.

The inauguration of the president of the United States is a ceremonial event marking the commencement of a new four-year term of a president of the United States. The day a presidential inauguration occurs is known as "Inauguration Day" and occurs on January 20 (or 21st if the 20th is a Sunday).

A system of checks and balances - a political system in which no single part of a government can become too powerful, because it needs the agreement of the other parts for its actions to be legal, a system that limits power within a group or organization.

DC (as in Washington, DC) – abbreviation, District of Columbia (a federal area on the Maryland side of the Potomac River that encompasses only the U.S. capital city of Washington)

Yankee - The origin of Yankee has been the subject of much debate, but the most likely source is the Dutch name Janke, meaning "little Jan" or "little John," a nickname that dates back to the 1680s. Perhaps because it was used as the name of pirates, the name Yankee came to be used as a term of contempt. It was used this way in the 1750s by General James Wolfe, the British general who secured British domination of North America by defeating the French at Quebec. The name may have been applied to New Englanders as an extension of an original use referring to Dutch settlers living along the Hudson River. Whatever the reason, Yankee is first recorded in 1765 as a name for an inhabitant of New England. The first recorded use of the term by the British to refer to Americans in general appears in the 1780s, in a letter by Lord Horatio Nelson, no less. Around the same time it began to be abbreviated to Yank. During the American Revolution, American soldiers adopted this term of derision as a term of national pride.
A pocket veto is a legislative maneuver in lawmaking that allows a president or other official with veto power effectively to exercise that power over a bill by taking no action.

Stars and Stripes - The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the American flag, consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states of the United States of America and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the first states in the Union. Nicknames for the flag include the "Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory", and "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Uncle Sam - (initials U.S.) is a common national personification of the American government that, according to legend, came into use during the War of 1812 and was supposedly named for Samuel Wilson. The first use of Uncle Sam in literature was in the 1816 allegorical book "The Adventures of Uncle Sam in Search After His Lost Honor" by Frederick Augustus Fidfaddy, Esq. An Uncle Sam is mentioned as early as 1775, in the original "Yankee Doodle" lyrics of the Revolutionary War. It is not clear whether this reference is to Uncle Sam as a metaphor for the United States. The lyrics as a whole clearly deride the military efforts of the young nation, besieging the British at Boston.