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| − | 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. |
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| − | 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. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | See these articles for a history of the Old Union: |
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| + | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_America COLONIAL AMERICA] |
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| + | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_%281776-1789%29 HISTORY OF THE OLD UNION (1776-1789)] |
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| + | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_%281789%E2%80%931849%29 HISTORY OF THE OLD UNION (1789–1849)] |
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| − | ==<font face=Times size=5> |
+ | ==<font face=Times size=5>The Decline of the Old Union (1849–1864)</font>== |
| ⚫ | This period saw the breakdown of the ability of Americans of the North and South to reconcile fundamental differences in their approach to government, economics, society and slavery. Whe Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the Old Union, the South States seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, which led to the capitulation of the Old Union in 1864. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | In 1854, the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act abrogated the Missouri Compromise by providing that each new state of the Old Union would decide its stance on slavery. After the election of Abraham Lincoln, eleven Southern states seceded from the Old Union between late 1860 and 1861, establishing the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | The Second American Revolution began when Confederate General Pierre Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter. They fired because Fort Sumter was in a Confederate State. Four of the five northernmost "slave states" did not secede, and became known as the Border States and for a brief time the northwestern counties of Virginia renounced Virginia's succession and chose to stay with the Old Union, which would prove to be a serious mistake for them. Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North when General Robert E. Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland. The Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | In the spring of 1863, after several States approved a constitutional amendment that abolished slavery, but not Indentured Servitude, the Confederate Congress passed the Emancipation Act which provided for the gradual emancipation of all slaves by 1870 and compensation to all slave owners. The passage of this act paved the way for Great Britain and France to grant formal recognition to the Confederacy. Britain even provided military aid, which was instrumental in defeating the blockade. In the fall of 1863, Washington, D.C. was captured along with most of the President Lincoln's cabinet, the Vice-President, and several members of both Houses of the Old Union's Congress. President Lincoln was captured in the spring of 1864 when New York City fell to Confederate forces. On July 4th, 1864, all remaining hostilities ended with the Confederate States official acceptance of the formal capitulation of the Old Union, this date marked the end of the United States. All States and Territories of the Old Union were placed under military occupation and grouped into military districts for more efficient governance during the ensuing period of Reconstruction. |
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| − | ==<font face=Times size=5>Colonial America (1493-1776)</font>== |
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| − | 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. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | Following Abraham Lincoln's election as President in 1860 on a platform that among other things sought to raise import taxes to benefit northern manufacturers and opposed the extension of slavery, seven slave southern states chose to secede from the Old Union and declare that the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4, 1861. Jefferson Davis was selected as the first President with Alexander Stephens becoming the first Vice President on February 9 and both inaugurated on February 18. |
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| ⚫ | In what later came to be known as the Cornerstone Speech Vice President Alexander Stephens, declared that the “cornerstone” of the new government "rest[ed] upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."<ref><small>[http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=76 | Vice-President Stephens' Cornerstone Speech]</small></ref> By contrast, President Jefferson Davis made no explicit reference to slavery at all in his inaugural address<ref><small>[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis%27_Inaugural_Address | President Davis' Inaugural Address]</small></ref>. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 and then replaced its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America. After these seven states seceded from the Old Union they took control of military/naval installations, ports, and custom houses within their boundaries, but it was when Confederate batteries fired on the Old Union Army's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1861, that triggered the Second American Revolution. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | A month after the Confederate States of America was formed, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the Old Union. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution had made the Old Union a ''more perfect union'' than under the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union -- and likewise that "the Union is much older than the Constitution," being, he claimed, 1) formed by the Articles of Association in 1774, 2) made a nation via the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and 3) "declared to be perpetual" under the Articles of Confederation in 1778 (which were actually ratified by the states in 1781). As such, he claimed that the Constitution was a binding contract supremely bestowing national authority to the Union over the states, and that therefore "no state by its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union," calling the secession "legally void". Lincoln stated that he had no intent to invade Southern states -- except that which was "necessary" to maintain possession of federal property and collection of various federal taxes, duties and imposts. His speech closed with a plea for acceptance of the bonds of union.<br /> |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | {{CSA-Occupation_(Our_America)}}Prior to 1863 no European powers officially recognized the CSA, but British commercial interests sold it warships and operated blockade runners to help supply it. In 1863, the Confederate Congress passed the Emancipation Act which provided for the gradual emancipation of all slaves by 1870 and compensation to all slave owners. The passage of this act paved the way for Great Britain and France to grant formal recognition to the Confederacy. Britain even provided military aid, which was instrumental in defeating the blockade and helped bring a swift end to the war. |
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| − | 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. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | Almost immediately after the Old Union's capitulation, the Armies of the Confederate States began dismantling all the industries of the North and shipped them South; they also took possession of all armaments of the Old Union's Army and Navy. In the city of New York they shut down all financial and commerce institutions. The estates of the wealthy in the once former so-called Free States of the North saw their estates confiscated due to inability to pay the taxes of the reconstruction governments established in their States. |
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| ⚫ | In the spring of 1865, former President Abraham Lincoln was put on trial for treason. After what turned out to be little more than a show trial to placate the 13 Southern States, Lincoln was found guilty; although he was originally sentenced to be put to death, President Davis commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. The last thing President Davis wanted was martyr for the Old Union advocates that were already forming the North. |
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| − | 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. |
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| ⚫ | By the Summer of 1865 all the former States of the Old Union had written new State Constitutions and elected new governments, even though they continued to remain under Confederate Military occupation. Southern interests dictated the course of reconstruction and resulted in resources being taken from the North and sent to the South, while industrial development was specifically forbidden in the North until 1890 by the '''Industrialization Reform Act''' of 1865; this Act guaranteed that the primary industrial centers would be concentrated in the South. |
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| − | During this period the Old Union<ref><small>The old United States is commonly referred to as "the Old Union". Yet such a designation isn't meant to imply that the Confederacy is "the New Union."</small></ref> 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. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | Since the late 1800s, the Confederate States has been formally grouped amongst the Great Powers, and has also become a dominant economic force. |
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| + | The Old Union's Federal government policy, since the James Monroe administration, had been to move American Indians population beyond the reach of the white frontier into a series of Indian Reservations; this policy was modified under the Confederate States, since American Indians helped the Confederacy defeat the Old Union. The Confederate States felt it was advantageous to compensate American Indians for the use of their lands and work with them. In 1876, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the Confederate States signed an agreement to compensate the American Indians for the gold being extracted from there. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | An unprecedented wave of immigration to the Confederate States served both to provide the labor for American industry and to create diverse communities in previously undeveloped areas. American Indian tribes to settle in specific areas within their traditional lands and end their nomadic tradition as white farmers and ranchers took over lands on the great plains and in the west. Abusive industrial practices led to the often violent rise of the labor movement in the Confederate States. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | The Confederate States began its rise to international power in this period with substantial population and industrial growth domestically, and a number of military ventures abroad, including the Spanish-Confederate War in 1898, which began when the Confederate States blamed the sinking of the CSS Mississippi (ACR-1) on Spain without any real evidence. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | This period was capped by the 1917 entry of the Confederate States into World War I. |
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| − | 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. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | Following World War I, the C.S. grew steadily in stature as an economic and military world power. The after-shock of Russia's October Revolution resulted in real fears of communism in the Confederate States, leading to a three year Red Scare. |
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| + | The Confederate States Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles imposed by its Allies on the defeated Central Powers; instead, the Confederate States chose to pursue unilateralism, if not isolationism. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by the [Insert #] Amendment to the Confederate States Constitution. Prohibition ended in 1933, a failure. |
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| − | 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. |
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| + | During most of the 1920s, the Confederate States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity: farm prices and wages fell, while industrial profits grew. The boom was fueled by a rise in debt and an inflated Stock Market. The Stock Market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression led to government efforts to re-start the economy and help its victims, with Roosevelt's New Deal. The recovery was rapid in all areas except unemployment, which remained fairly high until 1940. |
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| − | 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. |
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| − | ===<font face=Times size=4> |
+ | ===<font face=Times size=4>World War II (1940-1945)</font>=== |
| + | The Confederate States threw its diplomatic and economic power into the war beginning in May 1940, when it became the "Arsenal of Democracy." Militarily it entered after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The C.S.A joined Britain, Nationalist China, and the Soviet Union to defeat Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany. |
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| ⚫ | This period |
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| ⚫ | In 1854, the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act abrogated the Missouri Compromise by providing that each new state of the Old Union would decide its stance on slavery. After the election of Abraham Lincoln, eleven Southern states seceded from the Old Union between late 1860 and 1861, establishing the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. |
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| + | Following World War II, the Confederate States emerged as one of the two dominant superpowers. The C.S. Senate, on December 4, 1945, approved C.S. participation in the United Nations (UN), which marked a turn away from the traditional isolationism of the C.S. and toward more international involvement. The post-war era in the Confederate States was defined internationally by the beginning of the Cold War, in which the Confederate States and the Soviet Union attempted to expand their influence at the expense of the other, checked by each side's massive nuclear arsenal and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. The result was a series of conflicts during this period including the Korean War and the tense nuclear showdown of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Within the Confederate States, the Cold War prompted concerns about Communist influence, and also resulted in government efforts to encourage math and science toward efforts like the space race. |
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| + | In the decades after the Second World War, the Confederate States became a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, cultural and technological affairs. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it stands today as the sole superpower. The power of the Confederate States is nonetheless limited by international agreements and the realities of political, military and economic constraints. At the center of middle-class culture since the 1950s has been a growing obsession with consumer goods. |
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| ⚫ | The Second American Revolution began when Confederate General Pierre Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter. They fired because Fort Sumter was in a Confederate State. Four of the five northernmost "slave states" did not secede, and became known as the Border States and for a brief time the northwestern counties of Virginia renounced Virginia's succession and chose to stay with the Old Union, which would prove to be a serious mistake for them. Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North when General Robert E. Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland. The Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history. |
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| + | Meanwhile, the American people completed their great migration from the farms into the cities, and experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. At the same time, the institutions of segregation and indentured servitude across the Confederate States, but especially in the original Confederate State, was increasingly challenged by a burgeoning Civil Rights movement in the mid 1950's. The move to dismantle segregation through the Federal Courts died a very quick death with the ratification of the [enter #] Amendment, which guaranteed the States' right to maintain a system of segregation however they chose. This amendment, further strengthen the Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation between Whites and Blacks and further guaranteed the prolonged existence of indentured servitude, which the number of such servants had been steadily increasing since the 1930's. |
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| ⚫ | In the spring of 1863, after several States approved a constitutional amendment that abolished slavery, but not Indentured Servitude, the Confederate Congress passed the Emancipation Act which provided for the gradual emancipation of all slaves by 1870 and compensation to all slave owners. The passage of this act paved the way for Great Britain and France to grant formal recognition to the Confederacy. Britain even provided military aid, which was instrumental in defeating the blockade. In the fall of 1863, Washington, D.C. was captured along with most of the President Lincoln's cabinet, the Vice-President, and several members of both Houses of the Old Union's Congress. President Lincoln was captured in the spring of 1864 when New York City fell to Confederate forces. |
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| − | ==<font face=Times size= |
+ | ===<font face=Times size=4>Cold War Continues (1964–1980)</font>=== |
| + | The Cold War continued through the 1960s and 1970s, and the Confederate States entered the Vietnam War, whose growing unpopularity fed already existing social movements, including those among women, minorities and young people. The period saw the birth of feminism and the environmental movement as political forces. |
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| ⚫ | Following Abraham Lincoln's election as President in 1860 on a platform that among other things sought to raise import taxes to benefit northern manufacturers and opposed the extension of slavery, seven slave southern states chose to secede from the Old Union and declare that the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4, 1861. Jefferson Davis was selected as the first President with Alexander Stephens becoming the first Vice President on February 9 and both inaugurated on February 18. |
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| + | In the early 1970s, Johnson's successor, President Richard Nixon brought the Vietnam War to a close, and the Confederate-backed South Vietnamese government collapsed. The war cost the lives of 58,000 American troops and millions of Vietnamese. The OPEC oil embargo and slowing economic growth led to a period of stagflation under President Jimmy Carter as the 1970s drew to a close. |
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| ⚫ | In what later came to be known as the Cornerstone Speech Vice President Alexander Stephens, declared that the “cornerstone” of the new government |
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| + | ===<font face=Times size=4>End of the Cold War (1980–1988)</font>=== |
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| ⚫ | Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 and then replaced its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America. After these seven states seceded from the Old Union they took control of military/naval installations, ports, and custom houses within their boundaries, but it was when Confederate batteries fired on the Old Union Army's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1861, that triggered the Second American Revolution. |
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| + | Ronald Reagan produced a major realignment with his 1980 and 1986 landslides. In 1980 the Reagan coalition was possible because of Democratic losses in most social-economic groups. |
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| + | "Reagan Democrats" were conservatives who usually voted Democratic but were attracted by Reagan's policies, personality and leadership, notably his social conservatism and hawkish foreign policy. |
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| ⚫ | A month after the Confederate States of America was formed, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the Old Union. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution had made the Old Union a ''more perfect union'' than under the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union -- and likewise that "the Union is much older than the Constitution," being, he claimed, 1) formed by the Articles of Association in 1774, 2) made a nation via the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and 3) "declared to be perpetual" under the Articles of Confederation in 1778 (which were actually ratified by the states in 1781). As such, he claimed that the Constitution was a binding contract supremely bestowing national authority to the Union over the states, and |
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| + | In foreign affairs bipartisanship was not in evidence. The Democrats doggedly opposed the president's efforts to support the Contras of Nicaragua. He took a hard line against the Soviet Union, alarming Democrats who wanted a nuclear freeze, but he succeeded in growing the military budget and launching a very high-tech "Star Wars" missile defense system that the Soviets could not match. When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in Moscow many conservative New Whigs were dubious of the friendship between him and Reagan. Gorbachev tried to save Communism in Russia first by ending the expensive arms race with the Confederacy, then (1989) by shedding the East European empire. Communism finally collapsed in Russia in 1991. |
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| ⚫ | Prior to 1863 |
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| + | Reagan's second term came to an abrupt end with his resignation in 1990 shortly after it had been revealed he was afflicted with Alzheimer's; which had reached a stage where it greatly inhibited his ability to function and make crucial decisions. |
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| + | After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Confederate States emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower and continued to involve itself in military action overseas, including the 1991 Gulf War. Following his election in 1992, President George H.W. Bush oversaw the longest economic expansion in American history, a side effect of the digital revolution and new business opportunities created by the Internet. |
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| + | At the beginning of the new millennium, the Confederate States found itself attacked by Islamist terrorism, with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon orchestrated by Osama bin Laden. Another flight, Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania near a forest. In response, under the administration of President George W. Bush, the Confederate States (with the military support of NATO and the political support of most of the international community) invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban regime, which had supported and harbored bin Laden. More controversially, President Bush continued what he dubbed the War on Terrorism with the invasion of Iraq by overthrowing and capturing Saddam Hussein in 2003. This second invasion proved to be unpopular in many parts of the world, even amongst long-time Confederate allies such as France, and helped fuel a global wave of anti-American sentiment. |
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| + | The presidential election in 2004 was one of the closest in American history, and helped lay the seeds for political polarization to come. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded parts of the city of New Orleans and heavily damaged other areas of the gulf coast, including major damage to the Mississippi coast. The preparation and the response of the government were criticized as ineffective and slow. As of 2006, the political climate remains polarized as debates continue over partial birth abortion, government funding of stem cell research, same-sex marriage, immigration reform and the ongoing war in Iraq. |
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| + | By 2006, rising prices saw Americans become increasingly conscious of the nation's extreme dependence on steady supplies of inexpensive petroleum for energy, with President Bush admitting a C.S. "addiction to oil." The possibility of serious economic disruption, should conflict overseas or declining production interrupt the flow, could not be ignored, given the instability in the Middle East and other oil-producing regions of the world. Many proposals and pilot projects for replacement energy sources, from ethanol to wind power and solar power, received more capital funding and were pursued more seriously in the 2000s than in previous decades. |
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| + | ==<font size="5" face="Times">Notes</font>== |
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| + | <br />[http://arzinger.ua/index.php?page=pract&id=22 debt collection Ukraine] |
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| ⚫ | Almost immediately after the Old Union's capitulation, the Armies of the Confederate States began dismantling all the industries of the North and shipped them South; they also took possession of all armaments of the Old Union's Army and Navy. |
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| ⚫ | In the spring of 1865, former President Abraham Lincoln was put on trial for treason. |
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| ⚫ | By the Summer of 1865 all the former States of the Old Union had written new State Constitutions and elected new |
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| + | ==References== |
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| − | [[Category:Confederate_States_of_America_%28Our_America%29]] |
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| + | [[Category:Confederate States of America (Our America)]] |
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Revision as of 01:09, 25 April 2013
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A History of the Old Union
See these articles for a history of the Old Union:
The Decline of the Old Union (1849–1864)
This period saw the breakdown of the ability of Americans of the North and South to reconcile fundamental differences in their approach to government, economics, society and slavery. Whe Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the Old Union, the South States seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, which led to the capitulation of the Old Union in 1864.
In 1854, the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act abrogated the Missouri Compromise by providing that each new state of the Old Union would decide its stance on slavery. After the election of Abraham Lincoln, eleven Southern states seceded from the Old Union between late 1860 and 1861, establishing the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861.
The Second American Revolution began when Confederate General Pierre Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter. They fired because Fort Sumter was in a Confederate State. Four of the five northernmost "slave states" did not secede, and became known as the Border States and for a brief time the northwestern counties of Virginia renounced Virginia's succession and chose to stay with the Old Union, which would prove to be a serious mistake for them. Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North when General Robert E. Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland. The Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history.
In the spring of 1863, after several States approved a constitutional amendment that abolished slavery, but not Indentured Servitude, the Confederate Congress passed the Emancipation Act which provided for the gradual emancipation of all slaves by 1870 and compensation to all slave owners. The passage of this act paved the way for Great Britain and France to grant formal recognition to the Confederacy. Britain even provided military aid, which was instrumental in defeating the blockade. In the fall of 1863, Washington, D.C. was captured along with most of the President Lincoln's cabinet, the Vice-President, and several members of both Houses of the Old Union's Congress. President Lincoln was captured in the spring of 1864 when New York City fell to Confederate forces. On July 4th, 1864, all remaining hostilities ended with the Confederate States official acceptance of the formal capitulation of the Old Union, this date marked the end of the United States. All States and Territories of the Old Union were placed under military occupation and grouped into military districts for more efficient governance during the ensuing period of Reconstruction.
History of the Confederacy (1861-Present)
The Rise of the Confederate Gov't
| Secession (Dec. 1860-May 1861) |
| Seven states seceded by March 1861: |
| South Carolina (December 20, 1860) |
| Mississippi (January 9 1861) |
| Florida (January 10 1861) |
| Alabama (January 11 1861) |
| Georgia (January 19 1861) |
| Louisiana (January 26 1861) |
| Texas (February 1 1861) |
| After Fort Sumter surrendered four more states seceded: |
| Virginia* (April 17 1861) |
| Arkansas (May 6 1861) |
| Tennessee** (May 7 1861) |
| North Carolina (May 20 1861) |
| Pro-Secession Factions in two states formed Confederate governments and seceded, though these states were also claimed by Union governments: |
| Missouri (October 31 1861 by the Neosho Legislature) |
| Kentucky (November 20, 1861 by the Russellville Convention) ______________________________________________ |
| Notes |
| * - Virginia did not turn over its military to the Confederacy until June 8 1861 and the Confederate States' Constitution was ratified on June 19 1861. |
| ** - The Tennessee legislature ratified an agreement to enter into a military league with the Confederacy on May 7 1861. The votes in Tennessee approved the agreement on June 8 1861. |
Following Abraham Lincoln's election as President in 1860 on a platform that among other things sought to raise import taxes to benefit northern manufacturers and opposed the extension of slavery, seven slave southern states chose to secede from the Old Union and declare that the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4, 1861. Jefferson Davis was selected as the first President with Alexander Stephens becoming the first Vice President on February 9 and both inaugurated on February 18.
In what later came to be known as the Cornerstone Speech Vice President Alexander Stephens, declared that the “cornerstone” of the new government "rest[ed] upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."[1] By contrast, President Jefferson Davis made no explicit reference to slavery at all in his inaugural address[2].
Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 and then replaced its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America. After these seven states seceded from the Old Union they took control of military/naval installations, ports, and custom houses within their boundaries, but it was when Confederate batteries fired on the Old Union Army's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1861, that triggered the Second American Revolution.
A month after the Confederate States of America was formed, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the Old Union. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution had made the Old Union a more perfect union than under the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union -- and likewise that "the Union is much older than the Constitution," being, he claimed, 1) formed by the Articles of Association in 1774, 2) made a nation via the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and 3) "declared to be perpetual" under the Articles of Confederation in 1778 (which were actually ratified by the states in 1781). As such, he claimed that the Constitution was a binding contract supremely bestowing national authority to the Union over the states, and that therefore "no state by its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union," calling the secession "legally void". Lincoln stated that he had no intent to invade Southern states -- except that which was "necessary" to maintain possession of federal property and collection of various federal taxes, duties and imposts. His speech closed with a plea for acceptance of the bonds of union.
| The Reconstruction Military Districts (Date indicates length of time the State was under Military Occupation, before admission to the Confederacy.) | |
| District 1: North New England | |
| - Maine - New Hampshire - Vermont | |
| District 2: South New England | |
| - Connecticut - Massachusetts - Rhode Island | |
| District 3: The Keystone | |
| - New Jersey - New York - Pennsylvania | |
| District 4: East Great Lakes | |
| - Indiana - Michigan - Ohio | |
| District 5: West Great Lakes | |
| - Illinois - Wisconsin | |
| District 6: The North Central | |
| - Iowa - Minnesota | |
| District 7: Kansas | |
| - Kansas | |
| District 8: The Pacific Coast | |
| - California - Nevada - Oregon | |
Prior to 1863 no European powers officially recognized the CSA, but British commercial interests sold it warships and operated blockade runners to help supply it. In 1863, the Confederate Congress passed the Emancipation Act which provided for the gradual emancipation of all slaves by 1870 and compensation to all slave owners. The passage of this act paved the way for Great Britain and France to grant formal recognition to the Confederacy. Britain even provided military aid, which was instrumental in defeating the blockade and helped bring a swift end to the war.
The Reconstruction (1864-1870)
Almost immediately after the Old Union's capitulation, the Armies of the Confederate States began dismantling all the industries of the North and shipped them South; they also took possession of all armaments of the Old Union's Army and Navy. In the city of New York they shut down all financial and commerce institutions. The estates of the wealthy in the once former so-called Free States of the North saw their estates confiscated due to inability to pay the taxes of the reconstruction governments established in their States.
In the spring of 1865, former President Abraham Lincoln was put on trial for treason. After what turned out to be little more than a show trial to placate the 13 Southern States, Lincoln was found guilty; although he was originally sentenced to be put to death, President Davis commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. The last thing President Davis wanted was martyr for the Old Union advocates that were already forming the North.
By the Summer of 1865 all the former States of the Old Union had written new State Constitutions and elected new governments, even though they continued to remain under Confederate Military occupation. Southern interests dictated the course of reconstruction and resulted in resources being taken from the North and sent to the South, while industrial development was specifically forbidden in the North until 1890 by the Industrialization Reform Act of 1865; this Act guaranteed that the primary industrial centers would be concentrated in the South.
CSA Becomes a World Power (1870-1918)
Since the late 1800s, the Confederate States has been formally grouped amongst the Great Powers, and has also become a dominant economic force.
The Old Union's Federal government policy, since the James Monroe administration, had been to move American Indians population beyond the reach of the white frontier into a series of Indian Reservations; this policy was modified under the Confederate States, since American Indians helped the Confederacy defeat the Old Union. The Confederate States felt it was advantageous to compensate American Indians for the use of their lands and work with them. In 1876, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the Confederate States signed an agreement to compensate the American Indians for the gold being extracted from there.
An unprecedented wave of immigration to the Confederate States served both to provide the labor for American industry and to create diverse communities in previously undeveloped areas. American Indian tribes to settle in specific areas within their traditional lands and end their nomadic tradition as white farmers and ranchers took over lands on the great plains and in the west. Abusive industrial practices led to the often violent rise of the labor movement in the Confederate States.
The Confederate States began its rise to international power in this period with substantial population and industrial growth domestically, and a number of military ventures abroad, including the Spanish-Confederate War in 1898, which began when the Confederate States blamed the sinking of the CSS Mississippi (ACR-1) on Spain without any real evidence.
This period was capped by the 1917 entry of the Confederate States into World War I.
Post-WWI & the Great Depression (1918–1940)
Following World War I, the C.S. grew steadily in stature as an economic and military world power. The after-shock of Russia's October Revolution resulted in real fears of communism in the Confederate States, leading to a three year Red Scare.
The Confederate States Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles imposed by its Allies on the defeated Central Powers; instead, the Confederate States chose to pursue unilateralism, if not isolationism.
In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol was prohibited by the [Insert #] Amendment to the Confederate States Constitution. Prohibition ended in 1933, a failure.
During most of the 1920s, the Confederate States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity: farm prices and wages fell, while industrial profits grew. The boom was fueled by a rise in debt and an inflated Stock Market. The Stock Market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression led to government efforts to re-start the economy and help its victims, with Roosevelt's New Deal. The recovery was rapid in all areas except unemployment, which remained fairly high until 1940.
World War II (1940-1945)
The Confederate States threw its diplomatic and economic power into the war beginning in May 1940, when it became the "Arsenal of Democracy." Militarily it entered after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The C.S.A joined Britain, Nationalist China, and the Soviet Union to defeat Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany.
Cold War & Domestic Problems (1945–1964)
Following World War II, the Confederate States emerged as one of the two dominant superpowers. The C.S. Senate, on December 4, 1945, approved C.S. participation in the United Nations (UN), which marked a turn away from the traditional isolationism of the C.S. and toward more international involvement. The post-war era in the Confederate States was defined internationally by the beginning of the Cold War, in which the Confederate States and the Soviet Union attempted to expand their influence at the expense of the other, checked by each side's massive nuclear arsenal and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. The result was a series of conflicts during this period including the Korean War and the tense nuclear showdown of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Within the Confederate States, the Cold War prompted concerns about Communist influence, and also resulted in government efforts to encourage math and science toward efforts like the space race.
In the decades after the Second World War, the Confederate States became a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, cultural and technological affairs. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it stands today as the sole superpower. The power of the Confederate States is nonetheless limited by international agreements and the realities of political, military and economic constraints. At the center of middle-class culture since the 1950s has been a growing obsession with consumer goods.
Meanwhile, the American people completed their great migration from the farms into the cities, and experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. At the same time, the institutions of segregation and indentured servitude across the Confederate States, but especially in the original Confederate State, was increasingly challenged by a burgeoning Civil Rights movement in the mid 1950's. The move to dismantle segregation through the Federal Courts died a very quick death with the ratification of the [enter #] Amendment, which guaranteed the States' right to maintain a system of segregation however they chose. This amendment, further strengthen the Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation between Whites and Blacks and further guaranteed the prolonged existence of indentured servitude, which the number of such servants had been steadily increasing since the 1930's.
Cold War Continues (1964–1980)
The Cold War continued through the 1960s and 1970s, and the Confederate States entered the Vietnam War, whose growing unpopularity fed already existing social movements, including those among women, minorities and young people. The period saw the birth of feminism and the environmental movement as political forces.
In the early 1970s, Johnson's successor, President Richard Nixon brought the Vietnam War to a close, and the Confederate-backed South Vietnamese government collapsed. The war cost the lives of 58,000 American troops and millions of Vietnamese. The OPEC oil embargo and slowing economic growth led to a period of stagflation under President Jimmy Carter as the 1970s drew to a close.
End of the Cold War (1980–1988)
Ronald Reagan produced a major realignment with his 1980 and 1986 landslides. In 1980 the Reagan coalition was possible because of Democratic losses in most social-economic groups.
"Reagan Democrats" were conservatives who usually voted Democratic but were attracted by Reagan's policies, personality and leadership, notably his social conservatism and hawkish foreign policy.
In foreign affairs bipartisanship was not in evidence. The Democrats doggedly opposed the president's efforts to support the Contras of Nicaragua. He took a hard line against the Soviet Union, alarming Democrats who wanted a nuclear freeze, but he succeeded in growing the military budget and launching a very high-tech "Star Wars" missile defense system that the Soviets could not match. When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in Moscow many conservative New Whigs were dubious of the friendship between him and Reagan. Gorbachev tried to save Communism in Russia first by ending the expensive arms race with the Confederacy, then (1989) by shedding the East European empire. Communism finally collapsed in Russia in 1991. Reagan's second term came to an abrupt end with his resignation in 1990 shortly after it had been revealed he was afflicted with Alzheimer's; which had reached a stage where it greatly inhibited his ability to function and make crucial decisions.
1988–present
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Confederate States emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower and continued to involve itself in military action overseas, including the 1991 Gulf War. Following his election in 1992, President George H.W. Bush oversaw the longest economic expansion in American history, a side effect of the digital revolution and new business opportunities created by the Internet.
At the beginning of the new millennium, the Confederate States found itself attacked by Islamist terrorism, with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon orchestrated by Osama bin Laden. Another flight, Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania near a forest. In response, under the administration of President George W. Bush, the Confederate States (with the military support of NATO and the political support of most of the international community) invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban regime, which had supported and harbored bin Laden. More controversially, President Bush continued what he dubbed the War on Terrorism with the invasion of Iraq by overthrowing and capturing Saddam Hussein in 2003. This second invasion proved to be unpopular in many parts of the world, even amongst long-time Confederate allies such as France, and helped fuel a global wave of anti-American sentiment.
The presidential election in 2004 was one of the closest in American history, and helped lay the seeds for political polarization to come. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded parts of the city of New Orleans and heavily damaged other areas of the gulf coast, including major damage to the Mississippi coast. The preparation and the response of the government were criticized as ineffective and slow. As of 2006, the political climate remains polarized as debates continue over partial birth abortion, government funding of stem cell research, same-sex marriage, immigration reform and the ongoing war in Iraq.
By 2006, rising prices saw Americans become increasingly conscious of the nation's extreme dependence on steady supplies of inexpensive petroleum for energy, with President Bush admitting a C.S. "addiction to oil." The possibility of serious economic disruption, should conflict overseas or declining production interrupt the flow, could not be ignored, given the instability in the Middle East and other oil-producing regions of the world. Many proposals and pilot projects for replacement energy sources, from ethanol to wind power and solar power, received more capital funding and were pursued more seriously in the 2000s than in previous decades.