- •1. The land of the us: geography, the face of the land, mountain and rivers, weather and climate.
- •2. The people of the usa: population, the society. Ellis Island - Gateway to America. Contribution of the immigrants to the national identity.
- •"Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,....
- •A new era, a new mission
- •3. The regions of the us: the Northeast, the Central Basin, the Southeast, the Great Plains.
- •The Regions of the United States The Northeast
- •4. Discovery of America. American Indians - the accomplishments of the Iroquois, the Sioux, the Pueblo; great civilizations of the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas.
- •5. The History of the usa: Columbus or Vikings? Exploring and settling the New World: Spanish, Dutch and French territories in North America. Russian discovery of America.
- •French colonization of the Americas
- •6. The voyage of the Mayflower, Pylgrims and Puritans. Virginia Company with the right to colonise the South and the Plymouth Company with the right to colonise the North.
- •Pilgrims' voyage
- •Second Mayflower
- •Virginia Company
- •The Plymouth Company
- •7. Britain and the colonies. Jamestown colony, the dramatic history of Virginia.
- •8. The move to independence: the colonies in their fight to protect their liberties, the Tea Act and Boston Tea Party.
- •First Continental Congress
- •Second Continental Congress
- •10. The Founding Fathers of the nation (g. Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin).
- •Collective biography of the Framers of the Constitution
- •11. Constitution of the us, structure and main principles. Bill of rights.
- •The First Constitution
- •Louisiana Purchase
- •Florida Purchase
- •Republic of Texas
- •Alaska Purchase
- •13. The Civil War - the reasons, the process, the generals, the battles the consequences. The Emancipation Proclamation. The role of a. Lincoln. The Gettysburg address.
- •The reasons of the Civil War.
- •How many Generals were there?
- •List of u.S. Army generals and chief staff officers in early 1861 Line officers
- •Staff Officers
- •Lincoln's role
- •14. Afterwar peiod (Reconstruction), the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the constitution. Carpetbaggers, Ku-Klux-Klan. What did Reconstruction fail?
- •15. America at the turn of the century: Foreign policy - the fight for new colonies: Venezuelan conflict, Cuban crisis, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the Panama Isthmus.
- •16. The Manifest Destiny, Monroe's Doctrine, Olney (or Roosevelt) Collorary.
- •17. Economic development: "captains of industry", industrialization. "The Square Deal" of Theodore Roosevelt and "The New Freedom" of w. Wilson. The us - a world leader.
- •List of businessmen who were called robber barons
- •U.S. Industrialization
- •History
- •18. America in the World War I. The League of Nations.
- •19. The roaring twenties. The rush for wealth. The movies. The bootleggers. Prohibition.
- •20. The Great Depression and the New Deal. The difference of the Roosevelt Administration from all previous administrations.
- •21. America before and at the time of the World War II. Hirishima 1945: right or wrong?
- •22. After the wwii: prodperity and problems - presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. "McCarthyism". Cold War with the Soviet Union.
- •23. Korean War, the birth of Nato, the War in Vietnam, crisis over Cuba.
- •24. The American century - the Americanization of the world. Mail Concepts of American Business.
- •27. The symbols of the us: the Statue of Liberty, the White house, the Library of Congress, the American Flag, the national Anthem.
- •28. Churches in the usa. America as a shelter for many people oppressed in their native countries for their religious beliefs. The role of religion in the us.
- •28. The main concepts of American Education.
- •30. The American Character: its origin and development. Values in the american character.
- •30. Cities of the us: Washington - planned city, New York (Big Apple) and its boroughs.
- •Economy
- •State finances
2. The people of the usa: population, the society. Ellis Island - Gateway to America. Contribution of the immigrants to the national identity.
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The Population
When the first census was taken in 1790, much of the country had not even been explored, and much of it did not belong to the United States, but to France and Spain. The "western settlers" of that day were in the Appalachian Mountains.
By 1854, the United States had acquired the western part of the country by purchase and by treaty. This region had been unified politically, and there were about as many people living west of the Appalachians as east of them. At that time people seriously believed that the task of settling and developing the country would require at least 500 years. The speed with which it actually was settled is one of the most exciting stories in American history.
At first, the settlers pushed westward in thin lines along the rivers; then they began to fill the intervening spaces throughout the middle of the country. And there, dramatically, the movement of the population jumped to the Pacific.
As of the census taken in the year 2000 the population of the United States was 281, 421, 906. Just over three quarters of the people live in urban areas and the rest in rural areas. The peoples of the United States represent many cultures and ethnic groups from around the world. After a growth of 13 million since the 1990 census Hispanics (primarily from Latin America) number about 35 million people, just about equal to the number of Afro-Americans, who had previously been the largest minority in the country. Native Americans comprise less than one half of one percent of the total population. Minorities of Asian descent include Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, as well as people from India and Pakistan. More and more people are now claiming to belong to more than one of the government's official ethnic and racial categories.
WHY ELLIS ISLAND WAS THE GATEWAY TO AMERICA
This may be hard to believe but it’s true: 9 percent of the population of Norway relocated to the United States during the 1880’s. And that was just the beginning. Another 27 million immigrants arrived on our shores between 1890 and 1930, most in search of a new life and a brighter future. For about 20 million of these courageous passengers, Ellis Island was their first stop. This is the reason why 40% of all Americans alive today have at least one ancestor who entered this country through that 27.5-acre portal in New York Harbor know as the "Gateway to America."
THEN AND NOW
Way back, the local Indians called it "Kioshk’ or Gull Island but, later, it was known as Oyster, Dyre, Bucking and Anderson’s Island by the Dutch and English colonialist who replaced them. When Samuel Ellis bought it in 1770, only 3-acres was visible at high tide. Still, the Federal government purchased it from New York State in 1808 and by the start of the War of 1812, it was a major component of the defense system that encircled New York Harbor. The battery of cannon on Ellis Island, the other fortresses on Governor’s Island, at Battery Park, and on Bedloe’s Island, plus two more installations on the Varrazano Narrows at the entrance to the harbor, proved to be an impenetrable guantlet. With the help of landfill development, the size of Ellis Island has grown to 27.5-acres. Also, today, Bedloe’s Island is called Liberty Island and is the home of the Statue of Liberty.
Fifteen-year-old Annie Moore became the first new immigrant to be processed on Ellis Island.