History of the Confederate States of America (Our America)

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Introduction

The Confederate States is a country occupying part of the North American continent ranging from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and including outlying areas as well. The first inhabitants of the area now claimed by the United States arrived at least 12,000 years ago, probably by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska. Relatively little is known of these early settlers compared to the Europeans who colonized the area after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Columbus' men were also the first known Old Worlders to land in the territory of the Confederate States when they arrived in Puerto Rico the next year on their second voyage; the first European known to set foot in the continental C.S. was Juan Ponce de León, who arrived in Florida in 1513, though he may have been preceded by John Cabot in 1497.

Pre-Colonial America

Archeologists believe the present-day Confederate States was first populated by people migrating from Asia via the Bering land bridge sometime between 50,000 and 11,000 years ago. These people became the indigenous people who inhabited the Americas prior to the arrival of European explorers in the 1400s and who are now called Native Americans.

Many cultures thrived in the Americas before Europeans came, including the Puebloans (Anasazi) in the southwest and the Adena Culture in the east. Several such societies and communities, over time, intensified this practice of established settlements, and grew to support sizeable and concentrated populations. Agriculture was independently developed in what is now the eastern Confederate States as early as 2500 BC, based on the domestication of indigenous sunflower, squash and goosefoot. Eventually, the Mexican crops of maize and legumes were adapted to the shorter summers of eastern North America and replaced the indigenous crops.

Early European exploration and settlements

One recorded European exploration of the Americas was by Christopher Columbus in 1492, sailing on behalf of the King and Queen of Spain. He did not reach mainland America until his fourth voyage, almost 20 years after his first voyage. He first landed on Haiti, where the Arawaks, whom he mistook for people of the Indies (thus, "Indians") greeted him and his fleet by swimming out to their ships with gifts and food. Columbus, after island-hopping for several months, heard nothing of gold, his main drive for the voyage. However, he realized that a great market of slavery could be made with these populations. By 1550, there were only 500 Arawaks left; about 250,000 Indians on Haiti had died from murder or suicide.

After a period of exploration by various European countries, Dutch, Spanish, English, French, Swedish, and Portuguese settlements were established. Columbus was the first European to set foot in U.S. territory when he came to Puerto Rico in 1493; the oldest remaining European settlements in the C.S. are San Juan, Puerto Rico, founded 1521, and on the mainland, St. Augustine in what is now the state of Florida, founded in 1565.

In the 15th century, Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. The introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America. The horse offered revolutionary speed and efficiency, both while hunting and in battle. The horse also became a sort of currency for native tribes and nations. Horses became a pivotal part in solidifying social hierarchy, expanding trade areas with neighboring tribes, and creating a stereotype both to their advantage and against it.

Colonial America (1493-1776)

Colonial America was defined by ongoing battles between mainly English-speaking colonists and Natives, by a severe labor shortage that gave birth to forms of unfree labor such as slavery and indentured servitude, and by a British policy of benign neglect (salutary neglect) that permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders.

The first truly successful English colony was established in 1607, on the James River near the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia Company of London financed the purchase of three ships to transport settlers to the Virginia colony. The names of the three ships were The Susan Constant, Godspeed and the Discovery. The leader of the group was Captain Christopher Newport. Also on board was John Smith, an explorer, soldier, and writer. King James decided to give the Virginia Company a charter for the settlement. The settlers sought a location which had fresh water, deep water to dock their ships, and was easy to defend. The settlement was named Jamestown after the king. England also wanted to find gold, silver and other riches in North America.

As increasing numbers of settlers arrived in Virginia, many conflicts arose between the Native Americans and the colonists. The colonists increasingly appropriated land to farm and grow tobacco. This was the beginning of a general trend towards displacing Native Americans westward to make room for settlers.

One example of conflict between Native Americans and English settlers was the 1622 Powhatan uprising in Virginia, in which Indians had killed hundreds of English settlers. The largest conflict between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century was King Philip's War in New England.

Differences of language, religion and culture also contributed to the friction between the two groups. At the base of the friction was an assumption by the English colonists of racial, cultural and moral superiority.

New England was founded by two separate groups of religious dissenters. A second group of colonists called the Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, were characterized by a large degree of diversity. The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina, with Georgia Colony the last of the Thirteen Colonies established in 1733.

Spain claimed or controlled a large part of what is now the central and western United States as part of New Spain which included Spanish Florida, California and Texas. In 1682, French explorer Sieur de La Salle explored the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and claimed the entire territory as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, which became New France. The Louisiana Territory, under Spanish control since the end of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), remained off-limits to settlement from the 13 American colonies. The colonies of East Florida, West Florida, Grenada, and Quebec, added to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris (1763), were part of British North America open to travel, and during the revolutionay war many Loyalists fled to them.

These are historic regions of the Confederate States, meaning regions that were legal entities in the past, or which the average modern American would no longer immediately recognize as a regional description.

History of the Old Union (1776-1864)

Beginning of the Old Union (1776-1789)

During this period the Old Union won its independence from Great Britain with help from France in the American Revolutionary War, and the thirteen former colonies established themselves under the Articles of Confederation.

On 4 July 1776, the Second Continental Congress, still meeting in Philadelphia, declared the independence of the thirteen colonies in a remarkable document, the Declaration of Independence, primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson. Although it is said that Morocco was the first country in the world to officially recognize the sovereignty of thirteen colonies of the Old Union in 1777, it was Dutch Governor Johannes de Graaff who fired an 11-gun salute when an American war ship called Andrew Doria sailed into Gallows Bay of St. Eustatius flying the joint flag of the newly independent thirteen colonies on 16 November 1776. The Netherlands became the first foreign country (de facto) to recognize the Old Union as the United States of America. The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship stands as the Old Union's oldest non-broken friendship treaty. Signed by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, it was even reaffirmed with the Confederate States of America shortly after the Old Union's capitulation.

The Old Union celebrated its founding date as 4 July 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence that rejected British authority in favor of self-determination. The structure of the government was profoundly changed on 4 March 1789, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the Old Union's Constitution. The new government reflected a radical break from the normative governmental structures of the time, favoring representative, elective government with a weak executive, rather than the existing monarchial structures common within the western traditions of the time. The system borrowed heavily from Enlightenment Age ideas and classical western philosophy in that a primacy was placed upon individual liberty and upon constraining the power of government through division of powers and a system of checks and balances.

The colonists' victory at Saratoga led the French into an open alliance with the Old Union. In 1781, a combined American and French Army, acting with the support of a French fleet, captured a large British army, led by General Charles Cornwallis, at Yorktown, Virginia. The surrender of General Cornwallis ended serious British efforts to find a military solution to their American problem.

A series of attempts to organize a movement to outline and press reforms culminated in the Congress calling the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Westward expansion (1789–1849)

George Washington—a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, commander and chief of the Continental Army, and president of the Constitutional Convention—became the first President of the Old Union under the old Constitution. The Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, when settlers in the Monongahela River valley of western Pennsylvania protested against a federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks, was the first serious test of the federal government.

The Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, gave Western farmers use of the important Mississippi River waterway, removed the French presence from the western border of the Old Union, and provided American settlers with vast potential for expansion. In response to continued British impressment of American sailors into the British Navy, Madison had the Twelfth Congress of the Old Union— led by Southern and Western Jeffersonians — declare war on Britain in 1812. The Old Union and Britain came to a draw in the War of 1812 after bitter fighting that lasted until 8 January 1815. The Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, essentially resulted in the maintenance of the 'status quo ante bellum'; crucially for America, the British ended their alliance with the Native Americans.

The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the Old Union's opinion that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas. This was a defining moment in the foreign policy of the Old Union. A policy that has been continued under the Confederacy.

In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the president to negotiate treaties that exchanged Indian tribal lands in the eastern states for lands west of the Mississippi River. This established Andrew Jackson, a military hero and President, as a cunning tyrant in regards to native populations. The act resulted in the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes dying en route to the West, the Creek's violent opposition and eventual defeat, and the Cherokee Nation taking up farming and "civilized behavior." The Cherokees, under Jackson's presidency, were eventually pushed from their land—even after success with agriculture, trade, and the creation of the first North American Indian written language. The Indian Removal Act also directly caused the ceding of Spanish Florida and subsequently led to the many Seminole Wars.

Mexico refused to accept the annexation of Texas in 1845, and war broke out in 1846. The Old Union, using regulars and large numbers of volunteers, defeated Mexico which was badly led, short on resources, and plagued by a divided command. Public sentiment in the Old Union was divided as Whigs and anti-slavery forces opposed the war. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded California, New Mexico, and adjacent areas to the Old Union. In 1850, the issue of slavery in the new territories was settled by the Compromise of 1850 brokered by Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas.