America’s Political History
The Federal Republic of the United States of America is oldest constitutional republic in the world, even though it was merely by chance that it was found. Christopher Columbus, a Spaniard, was sailing due west in order to find the Indies, but instead
landed in a country we now as America in 1942.
The Spaniards weren’t to impress with this country and virtually left it alone. But just over one hundred years later the British decided to establish a permanent settlement on the banks of the James River, called James town. These early settlements had their share of difficulties but managed to survive and soon word spread that this land was a place of new opportunity and by the late 1750’s America had a population of over 2 million people separated into 12 colonies along the west coast. Britain’s rule at this time was described as ‘Benign and Distant’ and each of the colonies had set up there own form of local government. They had their own elected mayor and councillors who had extensive legislative power, which meant that they could do what ever they wanted in terms of lawmaking.
Back in England, come 1760, would see the ascension of King George III. And at this time Britain we fighting a war against the French and the Indians and at the conclusion of that war in 1763, The British drew up what is known as the Proclamation line. The Proclamation line was a line that the settlers in America could not cross to expand westward. It was a tool used so that Britain could keep more control over the settlers. After the war Britain was in tremendous debt and over the next ten years imposed various taxes on the settlers such as: Stamp Tax, Sugar Tax and even a Tax to pay for the garrisoned soldiers in the states. In response to this the settlers started to revolt, the catch phrase “no taxation without representation” was forged because the British wouldn’t allow an American representative in their parliament but had no problem hitting them up for money. In 1773 a group of settlers dressed up as Indians and threw a ships cargo of Tea into the sea, this is known as the Boston tea party. A group of America’s most wealthy and influential men met in secret to discuss the draft for an ‘article of confederation’ a set of laws upon which they would live and be governed by, they met once in 1774 (to no avail) and again in 1775. That year was when fighting first broke out in Lexington, Concord and it was then that they formed their first army the Continental Army.
On the 4th July 1776, America declared it’s independence from Britain but it wasn’t until eight years later that the war was over and the British pulled out of America. The same group of rich, influential white males that gathered 10 years earlier decided to fix the articles of confederation and drew up the American constitution that was ratified in September that year. In 1785, that country was now formally known as the United Stated of America.
In 1791 a Bill of Rights was written to allow the ‘great American dream’ to open for all men. Throughout the 1800’s America prospered with a number of states admitted to the Union. But there was a major issue of slavery as the states were divided into slave states and free states, the Northern states called for the abolition of slavery and the southern states decided to ‘break away’ from the North. It was this fact that started the Civil war and at a later date it was said that slaves should be free in order to get their support for the war. In 1865 the emancipation proclamation was laid down and slavery was officially abolished at the end of the war.
Over the next few centuries many amendments have been made to the constitution such as in 1951 when an amendment was made to limit the number of terms that a president could serve, brought on by the fact that a president died from old age whilst in term of office. Also another amendment was the fact that no president can engage in war for more that 90 days with out congressional support, this was brought on after Nixon put troops in Korea.
That is a very brief over view on America’s political history re-enforcing the statement that The Federal Republic of the United States of America is oldest constitutional republic in the world. America is now a country where a man in a log cabin can one day become president of the United States.