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Civil war breaks out
- North vs South
- Lincoln had won the presidential election on a platform aiming to abolish slavery
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Homestead Act
- stimulated westward migration
- offered 160 acres of free land to anybody with a family, willing to farm for five years
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Emancipation proclamation
Presiden Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the South. -
Civil war ends
- The war ends
- The North win
- Northern forces led by Ulysses S. Grant
- Constitution is amended, making slavery illegal throughout the union
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Transcontinental railway
- First transcontinental railway link from coast to coast established
- Easier to transport people
- Easier to industrialize
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No more free land!
- No more free land to hand out
- Immigrants started settling in cities
- American industry was expanding - need for workers
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Industrialization
- USA is now a major producer of iron and steel
- Industry started on east coast, but expanded gradually westwards
- Henry Ford (cars)
- JD Rockefeller (oil)
- C Vanderbilt (shipping)
- A Carnegie (steel)
- G Eastman (cameras and film)
- W Wrigley (chewing gum!)
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Ford's assembly line production
Henry Ford starts assembly line production of cars. -
WWI breaks out in Europe
- US policy of non-interventionism prevents the US from taking part - at first
-
Lusitania goes down
- British passenger liner
- Sunk by German submarine
- 128 Americans killed
- Over 1000 others killed ¨- Question arises: Should the US join the war?
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USA joins WWI
- American troops are sent to Europe
-
WWI ends
- US President Woodrow Wilson wants a lenient peace
- The peace treaty, the Treaty of Versailles, is rather agressive!
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The Roaring Twenties
- More money, more free time
- Comsuner products + labour saving devices
- Film industry
- Radio
- Jazz music
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Ban on alcohol
The sale and distribution of alcohol is banned in the USA (as well as in Scandinacia). A lively black market breaks out, and smuggling alcohol could mean big profits for thise taking the risk. -
Period: to
The Roaring Twenties
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Lindberg flies across Atlantic
- Aviation: C Lindberg flies across the Atlantic on his own
-
"Black Tuesday"
- New York Stock Exchange crashes completely
- Stock holders lose their money
- A lot of bancrupcies --> unemployment
- Urbanization had made the USA vulnerable to economic recession
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The Great Dustbowl
Farmers in the Midwest experience a great drought, destroying their crops. Large numbers of people must give up their farms. -
FD Roosevelt's "New Deal"
- President FD Roosevelt starts his "New Deal" policy
- Aim: Create work for the unemployed \ get country back on its feet
- How? Public projects: Dam building, road building
- Expensive public project
- Established a social security system
- Gradually began to reverse the downward spiral
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WWII breaks out in Europe
- Germany invades Poland. War is declared by France and the UK
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Pearl Harbour
- Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941
- Attack leads USA to enter the war
-
WWII ends
- WWII is officially over
- Millions of people dead, Europe in ruins
-
United Nations is formed
- The powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France—formed the permanent members of the UN's Security Council.
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948
