The American Civil War (1523)

On the eve of the Civil War the USA was a nation divided into two quite distinct regions: the industrializing North with free labour and the agricultural South with slave labour.

Negro slaves worked on plantations in many southern states. The life of the slaves was very hard: they worked from morning till night and were beaten and starved.

There were many revolts of the slaves and sometimes white people helped them in their struggle but the revolts came to nothing.

In the political struggle of this period, the forces of the enemies of slavery were united in the Republican Party. It was founded in 1854, led by the industrial bourgeoisie of the North and supported by the workers and farmers. Its rival, the Democratic Party, founded in 1828, stood for slavery. In 1860 the republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the USA. His election signified the end of domination of the government by the Southerners and was interpreted as a signal for a long-plotted rebellion. At the beginning of 1861, the southern states left the Union, founded a Confederation and started military action. So the four-year war which became the second American Revolution began.

The population of the northern states was 22 million, and that of the southern states was 9 million, but the army of the South was well organized and ready for war. This could not be said of the army of the North. So in the first months of the war the South won several victories. Only when General Grant became commander-in-chief of the Northern army, the North began to win the war and in April 1865 it ended.

The Civil War swept away the obstacles to capitalist development and did away with slavery. It spread the American way of agricultural development all over the country and consolidated the American nation both territorially and ethnically.

Check your comprehension.

1. What kind of nation was the US on the eve of the Civil War? 2. What was the reason of the Civil War? 3. How did the North and South of the US differ? 4. What was the life of slaves on the southern cotton plantations? 5. What was the result of the slaves' revolts? 6. When was the Republican Party founded? 7. Whose interests did it present? 8. What did the election of A. Lincoln signify? 9. What states started the military actions? 10. How long did the Civil War last? 11. What did it result in?

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10. America in the 19^th Century (1487)

Oklahoma [,оuklə'houmə] – Оклахома

the Caribbean (Sea) [,kæri'bi:ən si:] – Карибское море

the Hawaiian Islands [ha:'waiian 'ailəndz] – Гавайские острова

Puerto Rico ['pwə:tou'ri:kou] – Пуэрто-Рико

the Philippine Islands ['filipi:n 'ailəndz] – Филиппинские острова

Guam [gwom] – о-в Гуам

American industry developed very rapidly after the Civil War. Families of immigrants moved into the United States from Europe and there was work on land for all who were willing to work hard. The population increased quickly. The industrial revolution was coming to an end. The railroad network was growing fast actively promoting the development of the western part of the country. New states gradually came into being on these lands.

Great mineral wealth was discovered and exploited, and important technological innovations sped industrialization, which had already gained great impetus during the Civil War. Thus developed an economy based on steel, oil, railroads and machines, an economy that a few decades after the Civil War ranked first in the world.

The latter part of the 19^th century also saw the rise of the modern American city. Rapid industrialization attracted great numbers of people to cities. Electricity was widely used to power streetcars, elevated railways and subways; it made cities viable at night as well as during the day. With the appearance of skyscrapers, which used steel construction technology, cities were able to grow vertically as well as horizontally.

By the 1890s a new wave of expansion was affecting the US foreign policy. With the purchase of Alaska in 1867 and the rapid settlement of the last Western territory, Oklahoma, American capital and attention were directed toward the Pacific and the Caribbean. The United States established commercial and then political hegemony in the Hawaiian Islands and annexed them in 1898. In that year expansionist energy found release in the Spanish-American war, which resulted in US acquisition of Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and Guam and in a US quasi-protectorate over Cuba.

Check your comprehension.

1. What changes took place in the US after the Civil War? 2. Due to what did the population of the country increase quickly? 3. What sped industrialization of the country? 4. When and how did American cities change? 5. How did electricity influence the development of American economy? 6. What contributed to the vertical growth of American cities? 7. When was Alaska bought? 8. What foreign policy did the US pursue?

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