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A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. EUROPE FINDS AMERICA
II. THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES
III. ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD
IV. THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND
V. THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES
VI. THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
VII. THE INDIANS
VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA
IX. LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763
X. "LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS"
XI. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
XII. UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
XIII. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION
XIV. OUR COUNTRY IN 1790
XV. THE RISE OF PARTIES
XVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY
XVII. STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS"
XVIII. THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE
XIX. PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815
XX. SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES
XXI. THE RISING WEST
XXII. THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE
XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845
XXIV. EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA
XXV. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL
XXVI. PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860
XXVII. WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865
XXVIII. WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA
XXIX. THE COST OF THE WAR
XXX. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH
XXXI. THE NEW WEST (1860-1870)
XXXII. POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880
XXXIII. GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST
XXXIV. MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
XXXV. POLITICS SINCE 1880

APPENDIX

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
INDEX

LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS

DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA
EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS, 1650
FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC., IN 1700
BRITISH COLONIES, 1733
EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS, 1763
THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764
BRITISH COLONIES, 1776
RESULTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
THE UNITED STATES, 1783
THE UNITED STATES, 1789
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790
SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790
THE UNITED STATES, 1801
THE UNITED STATES, 1810
NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1820
FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820
THE UNITED STATES, 1826
TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS IN 1845
THE OREGON COUNTRY
ROUTES OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS
TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO, 1848 AND 1853
RESULTS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
THE UNITED STATES IN 1851
EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL, 1790-1860
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1850
THE UNITED STATES, 1861
WAR FOR THE UNION
INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES

A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES

* * * * *

_DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS_

CHAPTER I

EUROPE FINDS AMERICA

%1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%--Before the United States
became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various
portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England
claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held
Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of
Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland
once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New
York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes
had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession.

Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is
necessary, therefore, to tell

1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it.

2. How these parts passed from them to us.

3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Europeans had on
our history and institutions before 1776.

%2. European Trade with the East; the Old Routes.%--For two hundred
years before North and South America were known to exist, a splendid
trade had been going on between Europe and the East Indies. Ships loaded
with metals, woods, and pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria
and Constantinople, and brought back silks and cashmeres, muslins,
dyewoods, spices, perfumes, ivory, precious stones, and pearls. This
trade in course of time had come to be controlled by the two Italian
cities of Venice and Genoa. The merchants of Genoa sent their ships to
Constantinople and the ports of the Black Sea, where they took on board
the rich fabrics and spices which by boats and by caravans had come up
the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from the Persian Gulf. The
men of Venice, on the other hand, sent their vessels to Alexandria, and
carried on their trade with the East through the Red Sea.

[Illustration: Routes to India]

%3. New Routes wanted.%--Splendid as this trade was, however, it was
doomed to destruction.

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A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES