Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

arrived from Europe. Many of them

settled in cities and took jobs in factories.

In the 1880s and 1890s industrial

production more than doubled.

As Eastern cities grew, more people

moved west. In a series of wars, settlers

and the U.S. Army forced Native

Americans to move onto reservations.

The final defeat of the Native Americans

came in the battle ofWounded Knee in

South Dakota in 1890.

In 1987 the United States celebrated the

200th anniversary of the creation of the

U.S. Constitution. As part of the

celebration a group of men dressed as

soldiers from the 1700s and carried flags

of that time period.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA United States 29

 

By the end of the 1800s the reach of the

United States extended to faraway territories.

The United States bought Alaska

in 1867 and claimed Hawaii in 1898.

Also in 1898 the United States defeated

Spain in the Spanish-AmericanWar.

The United States took over Spain’s

colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the

Philippines. The United States was then

a world power.

WorldWars and the Depression

In 1914 WorldWar I broke out in

Europe. The United States entered the

war in 1917. The American side, called

the Allies, won the war in 1918.

During the 1920s the United States

enjoyed peace and economic good

times. But in 1929 a “crash” in the stock

market started a serious economic

downturn called the Great Depression.

Many people lost their jobs and their

savings. In the 1930s President Franklin

D. Roosevelt started programs that

helped businesses and farmers and gave

people jobs. The programs were called

the New Deal. By 1940 the United

States was coming out of the Depression.

The next big challenge was WorldWar

II, which began in 1939 in Europe. The

countries of Germany, Italy, and Japan

were called the Axis powers. The other

side included Britain, France, and the

Soviet Union. They were called the

Allies. On December 7, 1941, Japanese

planes bombed a U.S. naval base at Pearl

Harbor, Hawaii. Then the United States

entered the war on the side of the Allies.

Presidents of the United States

Name Political Party* Term

George Washington — 1789–97

John Adams Federalist 1797–1801

Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican 1801–09

James Madison Democratic-Republican 1809–17

James Monroe Democratic-Republican 1817–25

John Quincy Adams National Republican 1825–29

Andrew Jackson Democratic 1829–37

Martin Van Buren Democratic 1837–41

William Henry Harrison Whig 1841

John Tyler Whig 1841–45

James K. Polk Democratic 1845–49

Zachary Taylor Whig 1849–50

Millard Fillmore Whig 1850–53

Franklin Pierce Democratic 1853–57

James Buchanan Democratic 1857–61

Abraham Lincoln Republican 1861–65

Andrew Johnson Democratic (Union) 1865–69

Ulysses S. Grant Republican 1869–77

Rutherford B. Hayes Republican 1877–81

James A. Garfield Republican 1881

Chester Arthur Republican 1881–85

Grover Cleveland Democratic 1885–89

Benjamin Harrison Republican 1889–93

Grover Cleveland Democratic 1893–97

William McKinley Republican 1897–1901

Theodore Roosevelt Republican 1901–09

William Howard Taft Republican 1909–13

Woodrow Wilson Democratic 1913–21

Warren G. Harding Republican 1921–23

Calvin Coolidge Republican 1923–29

Herbert Hoover Republican 1929–33

Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic 1933–45

Harry S. Truman Democratic 1945–53

Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican 1953–61

John F. Kennedy Democratic 1961–63

Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic 1963–69

Richard M. Nixon Republican 1969–74

Gerald R. Ford Republican 1974–77

Jimmy Carter Democratic 1977–81

Ronald Reagan Republican 1981–89

George Bush Republican 1989–93

Bill Clinton Democratic 1993–2001

George W. Bush Republican 2001–09

Barack Obama Democratic 2009–

*Starting with John Adams, U.S. presidents have been elected as members of a

particular political party.

30 United States BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

U.S. forces fought in Europe and North

Africa and on islands in the Pacific

Ocean. The war in Europe ended in

May 1945, when Germany surrendered.

The war in the Pacific ended in August

1945, after the United States dropped

nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The ColdWar

AfterWorldWar II the United States

became involved in a tense rivalry with

the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had

a Communist government. The United

States wanted to keep Communism

from spreading to other countries. This

rivalry became known as the ColdWar.

The first major conflict over Communism

was the KoreanWar. In 1950

Communist troops from North Korea

invaded South Korea. U.S. forces helped

South Korea fight the Communists. The

fighting lasted until 1953.

The VietnamWar was another fight

over Communism. Starting in the 1950s

Communist rebels tried to overthrow

the government of South Vietnam. The

United States helped South Vietnam.

Many people protested against the war.

U.S. troops gradually left Vietnam in

the early 1970s.

Civil Rights

In the 1950s and 1960s African Americans

struggled to gain better treatment.

Their efforts became known as the civil

rights movement. A minister named

Martin Luther King, Jr., led nonviolent

protests against segregation, or separation.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964