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Shaping Of The United States Of America,
Settling American Old West, - - Indian Wars, - - American Civil War,
Europe, - - World, - - Technology,
1800's When studying history it is well to remember that one of the countries that went through the largest transformation in the 1800's was the United States Of America, just a quick look at some of the events occurring during the century makes you realize how different America was at the start of the century compared to the end of the century. The events that shaped that transformation include
(1). America evolves after the American Revolution which gained Independence from the British ( 1775 to 1783 ) ,
(2). Purchase of Louisiana (1804 ),
(3). Texas Joins The Union (1845 ),
(4).American Civil War (1861–1865)
(5). The Indian Wars ( ran for over 200 years ending in 1890 )
(6) Statehood creation of most of the States that exist today ( 28 States Created ).
(7) American Old West Settled
We should also remember that some of the best known Military Leaders attained almost star quality in their countries I.E. Nelson and the Duke of Wellington ( Arthur Wellesley ) in Britain, Napoleon in France.
Under the watchful eye of Queen Victoria by the end of the 1800's "The British Empire" controls nearly 1/4 of the world's population.
The invention and first use of technology from the 1800's is also integral to our lives today, steam locomotives, the Battery, photography, sewing machine, pasteurization, dynamite, the telephone, first practical car using internal-combustion engine and Coca Cola just to name a few.
Shaping Of The United States Of America in the 1800's
Louisiana Purchase
Following the end of the American Revolution, The United States Purchased France's claim to the territory of Louisiana which was larger than just Louisiana and included all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, plus part of what are now Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana. The total land mass was 828,800 square miles for a total cost of 15 million dollars. At that time this doubled the size of the United States ( today is about 1/4 of the country's total size )
Texas Joins United States
Texas became an independent Republic in 1936 after the Texas Revolution from Mexico, led by Sam Houston, and became the 28th state in 1845, becoming the largest state in the Union at that time ( Alaska is larger in area )
Alaska Is Purchased From Russia ( 1867 )
The northwestern tip of the North American continent purchased from Russia Empire by America. Its 586,412 square miles cost $7.2 million which meant the US was paying roughly two cents per acre of land.
California and New Mexico Becomes Part Of The United States
Following the defeat of Mexico in the Mexican-American War ( 1846 to 1848 ), Mexico Sells California and New Mexico to the United States in exchange for $15 million.
Statehood
Following the end of The American Revolution 16 states created prior to 1800 but during the next 100 years a further 29 would be created bringing the total to 45.
- Delaware ( 1787 ),
- Pennsylvania ( 1787 )
- New Jersey ( 1787 )
- Georgia ( 1788 )
- Connecticut ( 1788 )
- Massachusetts ( 1788 )
- Maryland ( 1788 )
- South Carolina ( 1788 )
- New Hampshire ( 1788 )
- Virginia ( 1788 )
- New York ( 1788 )
- North Carolina ( 1789 )
- Rhode Island ( 1790 )
- Vermont ( 1791 )
- Kentucky ( 1792 )
- Tennessee ( 1796 )
- Ohio ( 1803 )
- Louisiana ( 1812 )
- Indiana ( 1816 )
- Mississippi ( 1817 )
- Illinois ( 1818 )
- Alabama ( 1819 )
- Maine ( 1820 )
- Missouri ( 1821 )
- Arkansas ( 1836 )
- Michigan ( 1837 )
- Florida ( 1845 )
- Texas ( 1845 )
- Iowa ( 1846 )
- Wisconsin ( 1848 )
- California ( 1850 )
- Minnesota ( 1858 )
- Oregon ( 1859 )
- Kansas ( 1861 )
- West Virginia ( 1863 )
- Nevada ( 1864 )
- Nebraska ( 1867 )
- Colorado ( 1876 )
- North Dakota ( 1889 )
- South Dakota ( 1889 )
- Montana ( 1889 )
- Washington ( 1889 )
- Idaho ( 1890 )
- Wyoming ( 1890 )
- Utah( 1896 )
Settling American Old West
Just over 200 years ago shortly after the Louisiana Purchase the Lewis and Clark Expedition ( 1804–1806 ) set out to discover the resources now available on the West Coast of the American continent. Following the end of the Civil war and forcing Native Americans to relocate to Reservations tens of thousands of settlers set out to seek fame and fortune in the west travelling for weeks and months through hostile environments to settle vast areas of the country.
Indian Wars
The Indian wars date back to the time of the first settlers, but after the end of The American Revolution and the British ceding a vast amount of Native American territory to the United States, the wars became more focussed, many Native American Tribes had sided with the British so retribution combined with a need for more land for settlers, discovery of Gold and a general need for expansion meant the tribes were doomed. In the beginning the national government initially sought to achieve this by purchasing Native American land in treaties, but as some Native American Leaders began to organize and fight against the loss of their heritage the use of force increased. In 1830 Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which basically took the lands the United States wanted to expand to away from the Native American Indians forcing them to relocate to other areas that the US did not consider as desirable. Some of the worst fighting during the century occurred in the most desirable areas for farming, ranching and Gold and included Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, Oregon and Utah, The tribes who did survive ended up in the 310 Indian reservations often in arid areas unsuitable for agriculture in the United States ( There were originally over 500 Native American Tribes ).
American Civil War
Depending on where you are from will depend on your view of the causes of the Civil War, so I will try to concentrate on facts.
Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, also known as "the Confederacy". Following the creation of the Confederacy both sides began to form large armies and atrocities and wrongs were committed on both sides including the murder of civilians. Some of the few facts that should be noted are Ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years of age died, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40 died, the war remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and unknown number of civilians ( World War II approximately U.S. 406000 deaths ) , ( World War II approximately U.S. 1357800 deaths ). Following a number of heavy defeats and the Union decision to use total war ( utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base including destroying homes, farms, and railroads ) the Confederacy Surrenders in 1865
Events In Europe
Like America Europe is a continent in turmoil during the 1800's with wars being fought at sea and on land. The main combatants were Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain and France with possibly the best known of the sea battles "The Battle Of Trafalgar" between the British Royal Navy led by Admiral Nelson and the combined forces of the French and Spanish. Like many sea battles during the period the British were heavily outnumbered but due to the combination of leadership and better trained gun crews were victorious.
But in mainland Europe the French forces under the leadership of Napoleon was equally successful with defeats over the Russia and Spain expanding French influence. But Napoleon met his match at the Battle Of Waterloo 1816 ( Belgium ) against combined forces of the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria and Prussia led by the Duke of Wellington.
Queen Victoria becomes the British Queen in 1937 leading to the Victorian era, a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military progress including further growth and influence of "The British Empire" including taking control of India one of her many titles was "Empress of India".
Events Around The World
Argentina gains independence from Spain, India comes under British Rule and becomes part of the British Empire, Britain continues it's building and control of the British Empire around the world including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, New Zealand, South Africa, Egypt. In it's heyday in the late 1800's and very early 1900's under the rule of Queen Victoria the British Empire controlled one-quarter of the world's population and a quarter of the Earth's total land area.Agricultural Revolution
The 1800's provided the inventions and improvements in Farm Machinery to change farming from an extremely labor intensive industry to technology driven, the creation of Combine Harvesters which took three separate operations (reaping, binding, and threshing) and combined them into one, traction engines / tractors, and vastly improved plowing and planting machines led to increased automation, which allowed for cultivation on an ever greater scale. These improvements also led to decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops or other techniques to prevent erosion and were one of the contributing factors to the Dust bowl years of the 1930's ( Combined with severe drought ).Technology 1800's
The 1800's was an important time in our history with many of the most important technology we rely on today first invented, not only that but the names associated with those breakthroughs are still in use today, here are just a few from the list below Electric Light, Photography, Revolver, Pasteurization, The Telephone, First Car using internal combustion engine ( Here we are nearly 150 yrs later still using the same basic principle ) , Coca Cola ( No longer using Cocaine as important ingredient ), Sewing Machine and Contact Lenses. Some of the names associated with these important breakthroughs, Singer, Goodyear, Dunlop, Pasteur, Benz, Colt, Gatling.Inventions The Year Invented Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )
Ultraviolet Radiation Discovered ----- 1801 Germany by Johann Ritter
First Electric light ----- 1809 Britain by Humphry Davy
First Steam Locomotive ----- 1814 England By George Stephenson
Photograph ----- 1814 France by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
Mackintosh ----- 1823 Scotland by Charles Mackintosh
Typewriter ----- 1829 U.S.A. by W.A. Burt
Braille printing ----- 1829 France Louis Braille
Sewing Machine ----- 1830 France by Barthelemy Thimonnier
Sewing Machine ----- 1851 U.S.A. by Isaac Singer ( Not Inventor but Improvements which made the machine much more usable )
Mechanical Calculator. ----- 1835 England by Charles Babbage
Revolver ----- 1836 USA by Samuel Colt
Morse Code ----- 1838 USA by Samual Morse
Rubber Vulcanization ----- 1839 USA by Charles Goodyear
Safety Pin ----- 1849 U.S.A. by Walter Hunt
Pasteurisation ----- 1856 France by Louis Pasteur
Machine Gun ----- 1861 USA by Richard Gatling
Dynamite ----- 1866 Sweden by Alfred Nobel
Telephone ----- 1876 Scotland by Alexander Graham Bell
Photographic Film ----- 1884 USA by George Eastman
First Practical Car Powered By an internal-combustion engine. ----- 1885 Germany by Karl Benz
Coca Cola ----- 1886 USA by John Pemberton
Contact Lenses ----- 1887 Germany by F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick
Pneumatic tire ----- 1888 USA by John Boyd Dunlop
zipper ----- 1893 USA by W.L. Judson
