1.English Exploration, Early Settlements
With the exception of John Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland in 1497, the English showed little interest in the New World until the reign of Elizabeth I. Wary of confronting powerful Spain directly, Elizabeth secretly supported English seamen who raided Spanish settlements in the Western Hemisphere and captured their treasure ships. Men such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake, popularly known as “sea dogs,” received titles from the queen, who shared in their booty. More than fifty years after Magellan circumnavigated the globe, Drake duplicated the feat following attacks against Spanish ports on the west coast of South America (1577–80).
The lost colony of Roanoke. While English explorers, most notably Martin Frobisher, continued to look for the Northwest Passage, there was interest in colonizing North America. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh scouted possible sites for a colony farther to the south. Naming the land Virginia after Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, he chose Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina. The first attempt to settle there (1585–86) was quickly abandoned. A group of 110 men, women, and children sailed for Roanoke in the following year. The colony's leader, John White, returned to England for additional supplies but did not return until 1590 because of the war between England and Spain. He found no trace of the colonists, and the only message left was the cryptic word “Croatoan” carved on a wooden post. It is most likely that the small settlement was overrun by local tribes, but to this day, no one has explained the meaning of “Croatoan” or found definitive evidence of the fate of the Roanoke colony.
The failure of Roanoke was expensive, and, with the war against Spain still raging, Elizabeth made it clear that there was no money for colonization ventures. When peace came in 1604, private funds rather than the royal treasury financed English settlement in North America.
The joint-stock company and the founding of Jamestown. In 1606, Elizabeth's successor, James I, issued charters to the Virginia Company of Plymouth and the Virginia Company of London to establish colonies along the Atlantic coast from modern-day North Carolina to Maine. These were joint-stock companies, the forerunner of the modern corporation. Individuals bought stock in the companies, which paid for ships and supplies, hoping to realize a profit from their investment.
The Virginia Company of Plymouth founded a colony at Sagadahoc in Maine in 1607, which quickly failed due to hostility from the local tribes, conflicts among the settlers, and inadequate supplies. The same fate almost befell the London Company's effort at Jamestown near Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Most of the colonists were gentry unaccustomed to manual labor who wanted to spend their time looking for gold and hunting. Only the leadership of John Smith, who forced everyone to work and who negotiated with the Indians, guaranteed Jamestown's initial survival.
Conditions deteriorated after Smith left in 1609, but there were important developments over the next decade. John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a cash crop, and even though James I was an ardent antismoking advocate, it quickly became a valuable export for the colony. To attract labor and new capital, the London Company instituted the headright system in 1618. Anyone who paid his or her own passage to Jamestown received fifty acres of land plus another fifty acres for each additional individual they might bring. The latter were indentured servants, who agreed to work for their sponsor for a fixed term (usually four to seven years) in return for their passage. There were also newcomers to the colony that came in chains. The first ship to bring African slaves to North America landed at Jamestown in 1619.
Even with the headright system and the influx of indentured servants, Jamestown grew slowly. There were only about twelve hundred settlers by 1622. Death from disease and malnutrition took its toll, the company was in debt to its shareholders, and conflicts with the Indians became more common as the colony expanded. These problems led the king to revoke the charter of the London Company; Virginia became a royal colony under the direct control of the crown in 1624.

2. At first life was hard and rough in the North American colonies. However by the early 18th century people in the American colonies lived in houses as comfortable as those in Europe. Wealthy people had finely carved furniture, wallpaper, china, silver and crystal and chairs were common.
Of course, for the poor things were different. Their houses were often small and crowded and their furniture was basic. They could not afford luxuries like silver but some ordinary people had pewter, which was sometimes called poor man's silver.
On the frontier in the 18th century life was very rough and people often lived in log cabins.
Colonial Food and Drink
Beer and cider were common. For the wealthy wine and brandy were imported. For ordinary people rum became a popular drink in the late 17th century. In the 18th century tea became popular.
In the 18th century grains like rye, wheat and barley were grown. Colonists also grew vegetable like onions, turnips, parsnips and carrots. In the 18th century they grew potatoes. If meat was available stew was a popular meal.
Clothing
In the 18th century men wore breeches and stockings. They also wore waistcoats and frock coats. They wore linen shirts. Both men and women wore wigs and for men three-cornered hats were popular. Men wore buckled shoes.
Women wore stays (a bodice with strips of whalebone) and hooped petticoats under their dresses. However in the 18th century women did not wear panties.
Fashionable women carried folding fans.
Fashion was very important for the wealthy but poor people's clothes hardly changed at all.
Work in Colonial America
Most people in North America lived by farming. It was back breaking work and usually lasted from dawn to dusk. However in the south by the 18th century great plantations existed alongside the many small farms.
In North America there were the same craftsmen found in Europe such as carpenters, coopers, tanners, millers and blacksmiths. There were also apothecaries who sold drugs.
By the 18th century most towns had specialised trades such as gunsmiths, locksmiths, clock and watch makers, silversmiths and cabinet makers.
In the north shipbuilding flourished in the 18th century and there were many shipwrights, caulkers, ropemakers, blockmakers and sailmakers.
By 1700 most towns also had a sawmill powered by water. In the North American colonies lumber was abundant. So were streams and rivers.
Colonial Pastimes
Pastimes in North America were the same as those in Europe. Horse racing was popular. So was cock fighting. Bull baiting was also a popular 'sport'. A bull was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it.
Hunting and fishing were also common as a way of obtaining food as well as for fun.
Gambling was very common and people placed bets on games like cards, dice, skittles and shuffleboard. Billiards was also a popular game.
Colonial Religion
In the early 18th century there was a great religious revival in the North American colonies. (Later it was given the name 'The Great Awakening'). Leading figures in the revival were William Tennent 1673-1745, a Scottish-Presbyterian preacher, Jonathan Edwards 1703-1758, a Congregationalist and John Davenport 1716-1757. The English preacher George Whitefield 1714-1770 also visited the colonies and won many converts.
Causes and Early Troubles
By the middle of the 18th cent., differences in life, thought, and interests had developed between the mother country and the growing colonies. Local political institutions and practice diverged significantly from English ways, while social customs, religious beliefs, and economic interests added to the potential sources of conflict. The British government, like other imperial powers in the 18th cent., favored a policy of mercantilism; the Navigation Acts were intended to regulate commerce in the British interest. These were only loosely enforced, however, and the colonies were by and large allowed to develop freely with little interference from England.
Conditions changed abruptly in 1763. The Treaty of Paris in that year ended the French and Indian Wars and removed a long-standing threat to the colonies. At the same time the ministry (1763–65) of George Grenville in Great Britain undertook a new colonial policy intended to tighten political control over the colonies and to make them pay for their defense and return revenue to the mother country. The tax levied on molasses and sugar in 1764 caused some consternation among New England merchants and makers of rum; the tax itself was smaller than the one already on the books, but the promise of stringent enforcement was novel and ominous.
It was the Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1765, with its direct demand for revenue that roused a violent colonial outcry, which was spearheaded by the Northern merchants, lawyers, and newspaper publishers who were directly affected. Everywhere leaders such as James Otis, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry denounced the act with eloquence, societies called the Sons of Liberty were formed, and the Stamp Act Congress was called to protest that Parliament was violating the rights of trueborn Englishmen in taxing the colonials, who were not directly represented in the supreme legislature. The threat of boycott and refusal to import English goods supported the colonial clamor. Parliament repealed (1766) the Stamp Act but passed an act formally declaring its right to tax the colonies.
The incident was closed, but a barb remained to wound American feelings. Colonial political theorists—not only radicals such as Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Josiah Quincy (1744–75), and Alexander McDougall but also moderates such as John Dickinson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin—asserted that taxation without representation was tyranny. The teachings of 18th-century French philosophers and continental writers on law, such as Emmerich de Vattel, as well as the theories of John Locke, were implicit in the colonial arguments based on the theory of natural rights. The colonials claimed that Parliament had the sovereign power to legislate in the interest of the entire British Empire, but that it could only tax those actually represented in Parliament.
Trouble flared when the Chatham ministry adopted (1767) the Townshend Acts, which taxed numerous imports; care was taken to levy only an “external” or indirect tax in the hope that the colonials would accept this. But this indirect tax was challenged too, and although the duties were not heavy, the principle was attacked. Incidents came in interrupted sequence to make feeling run higher and higher: the seizure of a ship belonging to John Hancock in 1768; the bloodshed of the Boston Massacre in 1770; the burning of H. M. S. Gaspee in 1772.
3. Although some believe that the history of the American Revolution began long before the first shots were fired in 1775, England and America did not begin an overt parting of the ways until 1763, more than a century and a half after the founding of the first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. In 1763, the end of the Seven Years' War and the French and Indian War left England in control of Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi. The colonies long accustomed to a large measure of independence, were now demanding more freedom. They had grown vastly in economic strength and cultural attainment, and virtually all had long years of self-government behind them.
The British government, which needed more money to support its growing empire, started a new financial policy. Money for the colonies' defense was to be extracted from the colonists through a stronger central administration. This would come at the expense of colonial self-government. The colonists resisted the new taxes and regulations imposed by England, such as the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act or the Coercive Act. They insisted that they could be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies, and the colonists rallied behind the slogan "no taxation without representation." The conflict escalated and King George III issued a proclamation on August 23, 1775, declaring the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence. Armed conflict between America and England lasted until 1783. Known as the Treaty of Paris, the peace settlement acknowledged the independence, freedom and sovereignty of the 13 former colonies, now states, to which Great Britain granted the territory west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada and south to Florida, which was returned to Spain.
The 13 colonies were now "free and united independent states" - but not yet one united nation. The success of the Revolution gave Americans the opportunity to give legal form to their ideals as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, and to remedy some of their grievances through state constitutions. As early as May 10, 1776, Congress had passed a resolution advising the colonies to form new governments. On a national level, the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" produced by John Dickinson in 1776, were adopted by the Continental Congress in November 1777, and they went into effect in 1781. The governmental framework established by the Articles had many weaknesses, for example the national government lacked the authority to set up tariffs, to regulate commerce and to levy taxes. It lacked sole control of international relations: a number of states had begun their own negotiations with foreign countries. Nine states had organized their own armies, and several had their own navies.
In May 1787, a convention met in Philadelphia to draft a new Constitution which established a stronger federal government empowered to collect taxes, conduct diplomacy, maintain armed forces and regulate foreign trade and commerce among the states. The Constitution divides the government into three branches, each separate and distinct fom one another. The powers given to each are delicately balanced by the powers of the other two; and each branch serves as a check on potential excesses of the others. Within two years of its adoption, ten amendments, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were added to the Constitution.
The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress.
After finalizing the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as a printed broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The most famous version of the Declaration, a signed copy that is usually regarded as the Declaration of Independence, is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. According to most historians, Congress signed this document on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4, as is often believed.
The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III, and by asserting certain natural rights, including a right of revolution. Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, the text of the Declaration was initially ignored after the American Revolution. Its stature grew over the years, particularly the second sentence, a sweeping statement of human rights:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
This sentence has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language"[2] and "the most potent and consequential words in American history".[3] The passage has often been used to promote the rights of marginalized groups, and came to represent for many people a moral standard for which the United States should strive. This view was greatly influenced by Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy,[4] and promoted the idea that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.
The Philadelphia Convention (now also known as the Constitutional Convention, the Constitutional Congress, the Federal Convention, or the "Grand Convention at Philadelphia") took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. Although the Convention was purportedly intended only to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, was from the outset to create a new government rather than "fix" the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the convention. The result of the Convention was the United States Constitution. The Convention is one of the central events in the history of the United States.
The 55 delegates who drafted the Constitution included most of the outstanding leaders, or Founding Fathers, of the new nation. Thomas Jefferson, who was Minister to France during the convention, characterized the delegates as an assembly of "demi-gods."[1] John Adams also did not attend, being abroad in Europe as Minister to Great Britain, but he wrote home to encourage the delegates. Patrick Henry was also absent; he refused to go because he "smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward the monarchy." Rhode Island refused to send delegates to the convention.
In late July, the convention appointed a Committee of Detail to draft a document based on the agreements that had been reached. After another month of discussion and refinement, a second committee, the Committee of Style and Arrangement, headed by Gouverneur Morris, and including Hamilton, William Samuel Johnson, Rufus King, and Madison, produced the final version, which was submitted for signing on September 17. Morris is credited now, as then, as the chief draftsman of the final document, including the stirring preamble.

Not all the delegates were pleased with the results; some left before the ceremony, and three of those remaining refused to sign: Edmund Randolph, George Mason of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. George Mason demanded a Bill of Rights if he was to support the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was finally added and is considered the final compromise of the Convention - several states asked specifically for these amendments when ratifying the Constitution, and others ratified the Constitution with the understanding that a bill of rights would soon follow.[7] Of the 39 who did sign, probably no one was completely satisfied.

4. – am. Ind. And Alaska natives are projected to increase from 1,6% (4.4 mil) in 2008 to 2% in 2050; - the largest populations line in California, Oklahoma, Arizona and Alaska; - native Americans speak more than 250 lang., and there are 561 federally recognized tribal governments in the US; - some live on rural or remote reservations, in villages and pueblos or on rancheros; - 250 00 BC – the native am-s are believed to have arrived in native am.; - 1786 – the US established 1st native am. Reservation; 1830 – longress passes the Removal Act, forcing native am-s to settle in Indian ter-ry west of the Mississippi river; 1887 – the Dawes act dissolves many Indian reservation in US.
Native Americans today
1934 – the Indian reorganization act or the Indian new deal encouraged NA to set up their own councils to run the affairs of their reservations. An Indian reservation is a formal term for land which is managed by a native Am.tribe under the US Depart. of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. The land is federal ter-ry and native am. have limited national Soereignity, they are legal casinos on their ter-ry; there are about 300 Ind.reservations in the USA, meaning not all the country’s 500-plus recognized tribes have a reservations. There 12 Ind. Reservations that are larger that the state of Rhode Island and 9 reservations larger that Delaware. Reservations are unevenly distribute a throughout the country.
5. The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 1700s. The first black congregations and churches were organized before 1800 in both northern and southern cities following the Great Awakening. By 1775, Africans made up 20% of the population in the American colonies, which made them the second largest ethnic group after the English.[9] During the 1770s Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious English colonists secure American Independence by defeating the British in the American Revolution.[10] Africans and Englishmen fought side by side and were fully integrated.[11] James Armistead, an African American, played a large part in making possible the 1781 Yorktown victory that established the United States as an independent nation.[12] Other prominent African Americans were Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell, who are both depicted in the front of the boat in George Washington's famous 1776 Crossing the Delaware portrait.
By 1860, there were 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the United States due to the Atlantic slave trade, and another 500,000 African Americans lived free across the country.[13] In 1863, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declared all slaves in states that had seceded from the Union were free.[14] Advancing Union troops enforced the proclamation with Texas being the last state to be emancipated in 1865.[15] African Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves, as well as schools, community and civic associations, to have space away from white control or oversight. While the post-war reconstruction era was initially a time of progress for African Americans, in the late 1890s, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation and disenfranchisement.[16] Most African Americans followed the Jim Crow laws, using a mask of compliance to prevent becoming victims of racially motivated violence. To maintain self-esteem and dignity, African Americans continued to build their own schools, churches, banks, social clubs, and other businesses.[17
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, racially discriminatory laws and racial violence aimed at African Americans began to mushroom in the United States. These discriminatory acts included racial segregation—upheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896[18]—which was legally mandated by southern states and nationwide at the local level of government, voter suppression or disenfranchisement in the southern states, denial of economic opportunity or resources nationwide, and private acts of violence and mass racial violence aimed at African Americans unhindered or encouraged by government authorities. The desperate conditions of African Americans in the South that sparked the Great Migration of the early 20th century,[19] combined with a growing African-American intellectual and cultural elite in the Northern United States, led to a movement to fight violence and discrimination against African Americans that, like abolitionism before it, crossed racial lines.
The Civil Rights Movement between 1954 to 1968 was directed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans, particularly in the southern United States. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the conditions which brought it into being are credited with putting pressure on President John F. Kennedy and then Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson put his support behind passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and labor unions, and the Voting Rights Act (1965), which expanded federal authority over states to ensure black political participation through protection of voter registration and elections. By 1966, the emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted from 1966 to 1975, expanded upon the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from white authority.[20]
In 2008, Democratic Senator Barack Obama defeated Republican Senator John McCain to become the first Black American elected to the office of President of the United States. Ninety-five percent of African American voters voted for Obama. He also received overwhelming support from young and educated whites, and a majority of Hispanics, Asians,[21] and Native Americans[22] picking up a number of new states in the Democratic electoral column.[23][24] Obama lost the overall white vote.[25] The following year Michael S. Steele was elected the first African-American chairman of the national Republican Party.[26]
The American Civil War (1861–1865), also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the U.S. and formed the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). Led by Jefferson Davis, they fought against the U.S. federal government (the Union), which was supported by all the free states and the five border slave states in the north.
In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. The Republican victory in that election resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. Both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion.
Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state, leading to declarations of secession by four more Southern slave states. Both sides raised armies as the Union assumed control of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade. In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, and dissuaded the British from intervening. Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won battles in the east, but in 1863 his northward advance was turned back at Gettysburg and, in the west, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River at the Battle of Vicksburg, thereby splitting the Confederacy. Long-term Union advantages in men and material were realized in 1864 when Ulysses S. Grant fought battles of attrition against Lee, while Union general William Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, and marched to the sea. Confederate resistance collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
The American Civil War was the deadliest war in American history, causing 620,000 soldier deaths and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Its legacy includes ending slavery in the United States, restoring the Union, and strengthening the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the reconstruction era that lasted to 1877, and brought changes that helped make the country a united superpower.
Civil Rights Movement in the United States In a relatively stable political system, after a status had been reached in which every citizen has the same rights by law, practical issues of discrimination remain. Even if every person is treated equally by the state, there may not be equality due to discrimination within society, such as in the workplace, which may hinder civil liberties in everyday life. During the second half of the 20th century, Western societies introduced legislation that tried to remove discrimination on the basis of race, gender or disability.
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States refers in part to a set of noted events and reform movements in that country aimed at abolishing public and private acts of racial discrimination and racism against African Americans between 1954 to 1968, particularly in the southern United States. It is sometimes referred to as the Second Reconstruction era.
Later, groups like the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, the Weathermen and the Brown Berets turned to more harsh tactics to make a revolution that would establish, in particular, self-determination for U.S. minorities — bids that ultimately failed due in part to a coordinated effort by the United States Government's COINTELPRO efforts to subvert such groups and their activities.

6. – represent the 2nd largest and the fasters growing ethnic minority (11% of the US population); - hispanics are people who reported that their normal lang. is Spanish, they are also described as being of any race; - hisp. is considerate an ethnicity, not a race; people of hisp. ethnicity can be of any race; - they’ve come since about 1950 in very large numbers; - they tend to remain in the certain parts of the US; - they are slow to learn engl.; - majority of them appear to be ethnically different from white or black amer-s.
7. – the early immigration in the 17-18th cent.; - the century of massive immigration 1820-1920: 1820 – 1840 – 1 mil people from northern and western Europe; 1840-1880 – 10 mil people from Germany, Ireland – “war immigr-s”; 1880-1920 – more than 20 mil people from southern and eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece…); 1892 – 1st custom in Ellis Island ; 1920 – the modern period of immigr. Reasons (political former soviet republics social better education, prospects, better job opportunities).
Immigr. Act of the 20th cent.: quota syst. and World Wide Limit – 1892 – 1st federal imm.agency – Ellis Island; 1924 – The Reed-Johnson Imm.Act – fixed quotas of national origin and eliminates Far East imm./150.000 a year; 1952 – the Mc Carran-Walter act:-allows individuals of all races to be eligible for naturalization (are all equal);-reaffirms national origins quota syst.;-limits imm.from Eastern Hemisphere while leaving the Western Hemisphere unrestricted;-establishes preferences for skilled workers and relatives of US citizens and permanent resident aliens. 1965 – Quotas of national origin were abolished in favor of quota syst-s with 20.000 imm.percounty limits. 1968 – Quota syst. for western Hemisphere – 120.000 for eastern 170.000. 1978 – limits for hemispheres were abolished, world-wide limit of 250.000. 1980 – World-wide limit of 650.000. 1986 – the imm. Reform and control act (IRCA) legalizes illegal aliens residing in the US unlawfully since 1982. 1990 – world-wide limit of 675.000.
Refugee Act. 1948 admits persons feeling persecution in their native lands; allowing 205.000 refugees to enter within 2 years. 1953 Congress allows for the admission of 200.000 more refugees. 1980 the Refugee Act redefines criteria and procedures for admitting refugees. 1996 – legislation was passed imposing new restrictions:-citizenship was needed for eligibility for many social benefits;-asylum was made more difficult obtain;-US national borders were more tightly controlled because of the concern about illegal imm.
Hispanic imm.and federal acts 1942. congress allows for importation of agricultural workers from central and south am.
The Brocero progr.
1961 the Cuban Refugee progr. 1940 – the Refugee Act redefines criteria and procedures for admitting refugees. 1986 – the imm. Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalized illegal aliens residing in the US unlawfully since 1982.
Asians imm. And Federal Act 1849 – 1st mass immigr. From China. 1882 – the Chinese Exclusion Act. 1885 – congress bans the admission of contract laborers. 1924-fixes quotas for hemispheres. 1942-Executive order 9066; relocation camps “for Japanese am-s” – “answer on Perl Harbor”. 1943-the Magnuson Act repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, establishes quotas for Chinese imm-s. 1965-abolishes quota syst. in favor of quota.
Diaspora – a group of people who were together originally, but have been disported or scattered, usually by force. Nativity of the population and Place of Birth of the Native population: 1850 to 1990. –the Native population includes all US residents who were born in the US or who were born in a foreign country, but who had at least one parent who was an am.citizen. –all other residents of the US are classified as foreign born.-citizens of the USA.-naturalized citizens – people who have recently become US citizens – foreign born citizens.-resident aliens – people who can become citizens after they live legally in the US and take citizenship exam. –illegal aliens people who immigrated to the country illegally and who still live there.
Illegal imm. – about 5 mil people are living without permission and the number is growing by 275.000 a year. 1986-IRCA “illegal aliens” who had been in the country since 1982 became eligible to apply for legal residency. Measures to prevent it. The US has increased the number of legal immigrants but this change made almost no differences in stopping illegal immigration from mexico. Increased border enforcement operations at the US-Mexican border (the border patrols, 2006 Congress Act on building Borders wall between Mexico and USA). The cost of mass deportation effort would be at least $206 billion over 5 years. It undocumented were removed from the labor force, there would be a shortfall of nearly 2.5 mil low skill workers, a major shock to the economy.
Requirements for naturalization in the USA. –has been lawfully admitted for permanent residence (an I-155 Alien Registration Receipt Card). –has lived continuously as a resident in the USA for at least 5 y.; with no single absence of more that 1 y. –has resided within a state or district for at least 3 months. –has been physically present in the USA for at least 30 months out of previous 5 y. –has good moral character. –be able to read, write and speak basic eng. –follow the principles of the constitution of the USA. –take the oath of allegiance to the US. –demonstrate knowledge of the fundamentals of the history and of the form of government of the USA. Beginning October 1, 2008, the US citizenship – changed.
Internal imm. – the center of population gravity has been moving from north and east to south and west. California – the largest state 27 mil people; texas – 17; from 1980 to 2000 – the south and west had 85% population growth; between 1985 and 1990 – 45% of nation’s families changed their residence.
Reason for sunbelt migration: -opportunities of employment(Las Vegas, Atlanta). –retirement in better conditions (climate and facilities for the elderly). –am.imm. Law based on family reunification (the west has the highest concentration of hisp. population).
8,9. America today is witnessing the largest and most sustained wave of immigrants its borders have ever seen. Although factors like the Great Depression, World War II, and quota restrictions had slowed the massive influx of Europeans from the early part of the 20th century, policies like the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act have relaxed quotas and opened America's doors to hundreds of thousands of immigrants a year, from both Eastern and Western hemispheres, to reach a height of over 9 million immigrants in the 1990s. Today, immigrants and policy-makers alike grapple with issues regarding employment, education, refugee status, and family reunification; as well as illegal immigrants--many from Mexico, whose legal immigration alone accounts for more than 20% of immigrants in the US. Despite this, this comprehensive reference source allows a glimpse of the same motivating factors that drove earlier immigrants through Ellis Island's gates--the promise of economic opportunity and the hope of a better life.

10. the south extends from Virginia to Texas and is subdivided into: south atlantic states: Virginia, Maryland, north and south Carolina, Washington DC, Delaware. East south central states: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi. West south central: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas west south central or south west, OLD.
New England – districtive political format, more religious, more thickly settled, cultural and educational center.

14. 1787-constitutional convention met in Philadelphia; 1789-the new Constitution was adopted by the 13 states; 1791-the Bill of Rights was added to the constitution-set the basic form of government: 3 separate branches, each one having powers over the others; -gives the US a “Federal” syst. of government: a Federal syst. is one in which the power to rule is shared; -specifies the powers and duties of each federal branch of government with all other powers and duties belonging to the states; -gives the ultimate power not to the President, or to the Congress, or to the Supreme Court or to any political parties, but to “we, the people”, in fact and in spirit.
Articles of the Constitution: 1.Legislative: Congress and its Power. 2.Executive: the President and his powers. 3.Judicial: the Supreme Court and its Powers. 4.States and organization of their governments. 5.how to amend the constitution. 6.the constitution is the supreme law. 7.how to ratify the constitution. –Bill of Rights (10 amendments).
The main principles of the Am.government: -federalism (the principle of limited government); -separation of powers among 3 different branches of gov-t; -syst.of checks and balances to restrict the power of each branch; -respect for the constitution.
The US is a representative democracy: all government power rests with the people who directs policies by voting for gov-tal representatives.
Bill of Rights - In the United States, the Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of articles, and came into effect on December 15, 1791, when they had been ratified by three-fourths of the States. Thomas Jefferson was the main proponent of the Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise therof, forbids infringement of "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms...", and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. In federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by grand jury for any capital or "infamous crime", guarantees a speedy public trial with an impartial jury composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy. Madison proposed the Bill of Rights while ideological conflict between Federalists and anti-Federalists, dating from the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, threatened the overall ratification of the new national Constitution.
15. look at 3 answer
16. the constitution: 1.Federal government = the authority is divided between = 2.state governments: 1.executive (made by state gov-ts); 2.legislative (senate, House of Representatives); 3.judicial (County Courts).
E=L(oversight power)=J(power of judicial Revien) – California is the largest city – 37.000 000p.
Legislative Branch
Checks on the Executive
Impeachment power (House)
Trial of impeachments (Senate)
Selection of the President (House) and Vice President (Senate) in the case of no majority of electoral votes
May override Presidential vetoes
Senate approves departmental appointments
Senate approves treaties and ambassadors
Approval of replacement Vice President
Power to declare war
Power to enact taxes and allocate funds
President must, from time-to-time, deliver a State of the Union address
Checks on the Judiciary
Senate approves federal judges
Impeachment power (House)
Trial of impeachments (Senate)
Power to initiate constitutional amendments
Power to set courts inferior to the Supreme Court
Power to set jurisdiction of courts
Power to alter the size of the Supreme Court
Checks on the Legislature - because it is bicameral, the Legislative branch has a degree of self-checking.
Bills must be passed by both houses of Congress
House must originate revenue bills
Neither house may adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other house
All journals are to be published
Executive Branch
Checks on the Legislature
Veto power
Vice President is President of the Senate
Commander in chief of the military
Recess appointments
Emergency calling into session of one or both houses of Congress
May force adjournment when both houses cannot agree on adjournment
Compensation cannot be diminished
Checks on the Judiciary
Power to appoint judges
Pardon power
Checks on the Executive
Vice President and Cabinet can vote that the President is unable to discharge his duties

Judicial Branch
Checks on the Legislature
Judicial review
Seats are held on good behavior
Compensation cannot be diminished
Checks on the Executive
Judicial review
Chief Justice sits as President of the Senate during presidential impeachment
17. the division of powers between federal and state government. Federal: -declare war; -regulate foreign commerce; -regulate interstate commerce; -coin and print money; -conduct foreign affairs. State gov-t: -conduct elections and set qualifications for resident voters; -gov-t marriage and divorce laws; -regulate interstate commerce. (51 const. = main const.). Powers available to both Federal and State gov-ts (concurrent powers). 1.tax and collect taxes;2.set standards of public health;3.establish courts;4.make and enforce laws;5.fund and regulate public education, “Government” in the US includes p.2 ,83094 gov-ts.
State gov-ts: -the individual states all have republican forms of gov-t with a senate and a house; -all must respect Federal Laws and not make Laws that interfere with those of the other states; -each state has it own constitution. Local gov-t: -are created and empowered by the state; -they exercise only those powers clearly given to them by the state legislature; -about half of the states have adopted “home-rule” provisions for local gov-t; -under “home-rule” local gov-t can exercise all powers not prohibited to them.
What are the main functions of congress? –to make laws; -to change laws; -to watch gov-t expenditure (president’s spending); -to create new court syst.; -to abolish exiting ones.
The oversight powers of congress: -prevents waste and fraud; -protects civil liberties and indep.rights; -ensures executive compliance (agreement) with the law; -gathers inform.for making laws and adulating the puss; -evaluates exec.performance. 2/3 vote in each house-congress can overdid. House of repr. The senate = president.
18. The executive branch of government
President: 1.executive office;2.cabinet;3.independed agencies gov-t
-the cabinet meets at least once a week to discuss matters that effect the US; -executive Depar-t Secretaries and Attorney General serve as lang. as President want them; -15 secretaries; -purpose: to give advise to president.
19. Judicial branch. Function – to see whether the law of Congress and the actions of the President Violate the Const. The Supreme Court has the Power to declare laws and actions of the federal state, local gov-ts unconstitutional (through legal procedure). –impeached. Highest – 9 judges, no jury, final decisions, justice – 13 circuit courts of appeals, no jury, a group of 3 judge – Higher Court; 1 judge – jury (присяжн) Lower Courts 94 District Courts. Special Court – a court of international trade Court of Federal Claim.
20. legislative branch – responsible for administering the laws passed by longness (20-25 members). Presidence – inauguration – 20 Jan; salary: 400.000$ per year; Native-born am.citizen, at least 35 years old, 14 years, a president 4 years term – 2 terms; -in the US, the president and legislature are elected separately, ho-used s, operate s-syst. of powers; -in the parliamentary syst-s the national leader is chosen by the parliament. President has to be approved by Congress.