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Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Declaration announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would now regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these states formed a new nation. -
Louisiana Purchase
France's failure to put down the revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the UK, prompted Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the US to fund his military. The US originally sought to purchase only New Orleans and its coastal lands but accepted the bargain. The US paid $11,250,000 USD and a cancellation of debts worth $3,750,000 USD $15 million USD. The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. -
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War of 1812
Causes of the war included British attempts to restrict US trade, the Royal Navy’s impressment of American seamen and America’s desire to expand its territory. The US suffered many costly defeats at the hands of British, Canadian and Native American troops over the course of the war, including the capture and burning of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. American troops were able to repulse British invasions boosting national confidence and fostering a new spirit of patriotism. -
Founding of Liberia
This founding was motivated by the domestic politics of slavery and race in the United States as well as by U.S. foreign policy interests. In 1816, a group of white Americans founded the American Colonization Society (ACS) to deal with the “problem” of the growing number of free blacks in the United States by resettling them in Africa. The resulting state of Liberia would become the second (after Haiti) black republic in the world at that time. -
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Mexican/American War
Native American raids in Mexico's settled north in the decades preceding the war prompted the Mexican government to sponsor migration from the US on its northeast border to the Mexican province of Texas. However, "Texians" revolted against the Mexican government in the Texas Revolution, creating a republic not recognized by Mexico, which still claimed it as part of its national territory. The Texan Republic agreed to an offer of annexation by the US Congress and became the 28 state in the Union. -
Purchase of Alaska
This marked the end of Russian efforts to expand trade and settlements to the Pacific coast of North America and became a step in the US rise as a great power in the Asia-Pacific region. When Russian Czar Peter the Great dispatched Vitus Bering to explore the Alaskan coast, Russia had a keen interest in this region, which was rich in natural resources and lightly inhabited. As the United States expanded westward, Americans soon found themselves in competition with Russian explorers and traders -
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Spanish American War
The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the US public by several sensational newspapers, and American sympathy for the rebels rose. The growing popular demand for US intervention became an insistent chorus after the unexplained sinking in Havana harbor of the battleship USS Maine, which had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana. -
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Building the Panama Canal
The United States and Great Britain negotiated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty to rein in rivalry over a proposed canal through the Central American Republic of Nicaragua. French attempts to build a canal through Panama advanced. Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the French began excavating in 1880. Malaria, yellow fever, and other diseases conspired against the de Lesseps campaign and after 9 years and a loss of approximately 20,000 lives, the French went bankrupt. -
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Dollar Diplomacy
The goal of diplomacy was to create stability and order abroad that would best promote American interests. Knox felt that not only was the goal of diplomacy to improve financial opportunities, but also to use private capital to further US interests overseas. It was evident in extensive US interventions in the Caribbean and Central America. In China, Knox secured the entry of an American banking conglomerate into a European-financed consortium financing the construction of a railway. -
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WWI
World War I is known for the extensive system of trenches from which men of both sides fought. Lethal new technologies were unleashed, and for the first time, a major war was fought not only on land and on the sea but below the sea and in the skies as well. The two sides were known as the Allies or Entente, consisting primarily of France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, and the United States, and the Central Powers, primarily comprised of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire Turkey. -
Zimmerman Telegram
Secret diplomatic communication issued from the Germany that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico in the prior event of the US entering WWI against Germany. Mexico would get Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The proposal was decoded by British intelligence. The revelation of the contents enraged American public opinion, especially after the German Foreign Secretary publicly admitted the telegram was genuine and helped generate support for the US declaration of war on Germany. -
Red Line Agreement
The 1928 Group Agreement (better known as the “Red Line” Agreement) was a deal struck between several American, British, and French oil companies concerning the oil resources within territories that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire within the Middle East. The origins of the Red Line Agreement can be traced back to the initial formation of the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) in 1912. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
This pact is an international agreement that signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them".Parties failing to abide by this promise "should be denied benefits furnished by the treaty". It was signed by Germany, France, and the United States, and by most other nations soon after. The Pact renounces the use of war and calls for the peaceful settlement of disputes. -
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Great Depression
The depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices and became worldwide news with the stock market crash. This lasted until the beginning of World War II for many countries. It had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits, and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33% -
Good Neighbor Policy
The policy's main principle was that of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin America. It also reinforced the idea that the US would be a "good neighbor" and engage in reciprocal exchanges with Latin American countries. Overall, the Roosevelt administration expected that this new policy would create economic opportunities in the form of trade agreements and reassert the influence of the US in Latin America, but many Latin American governments were not convinced. -
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WWII
On average 27,000 people were killed each day between September 1, 1939, until the surrender of Japan.Technological advances had turned upon itself, bringing about the most destructive war in history. The Axis nations of Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Allied nations, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the US. 7 days after the suicide of Hitler, Germany surrendered. The Japanese would fight for nearly 4 more months until their surrender, which was brought on by the US dropping atomic bombs. -
United Nations
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization tasked to promote international cooperation and to create and maintain international order. There are now 193 founding states. The organization is financed voluntary from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict -
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Cold War
Cold War split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union and the US as two superpowers with economic and political differences. Led by its Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in turn, was dominated by a leader with different titles over time, and a small committee. The Party controlled the press, military, economy, and organizations. In opposition stood the capitalist West, led by the United States, a federal republic with a two-party presidential system. -
Creation of Isreal
Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration, which favored the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, the president had assured the Arabs that the United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region. The British opposed both the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region. But despite this, Isreal was verified to do so. -
National Security Act
The National Security Act of 1947 mandated a major reorganization of the foreign policy and military establishments of the U.S. Government. The act created many of the institutions that Presidents found useful when formulating and implementing foreign policy, including the National Security Council (NSC). -
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Arab Isreal War
The ongoing civil war transformed into an inter-state conflict between Israel and the Arab states, following the Israeli Declaration of Independence. An invasion by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, together with forces from Iraq, entered Palestine having declared privately to Yishuv emissaries that it would abide by a decision not to attack the Jewish state.The invading forces took control of the Arab areas and immediately attacked Israeli forces and several Jewish settlements. -
Marshall Plan
The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous once more, and prevent the spread of Communism. The Marshall Plan required a lessening of interstate barriers, a dropping of many regulations, and encouraged an increase in productivity, trade union membership, as well as the adoption of modern business procedures. -
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Berlin Blockade
One of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. -
Rio Treaty
Rio Treaty was an agreement binding the republics of the Western Hemisphere together in a mutual defense system. Also called the Rio Pact or Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance when 2/3 of the member states had ratified it. The treaty provided for mutual assistance if an act of aggression threatened the peace of the Western Hemisphere. An act of aggression against one member state was considered an act against all the signatory states, which were obligated to provide assistance. -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a military alliance of European and North American democracies founded after World War II to strengthen international ties between member states and to serve as a counter-balance to the Soviet Union. Member states pledge to come to each other's aid whenever one is attacked. By 2010, NATO included 28 countries, including former Warsaw Pact members, and its collective security actions included the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 -
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Korean War
By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments. Both claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces, supported by the Soviet Union and China, moved into the south. The UN Security Council authorized the formation and dispatch of UN forces to Korea to repel the Korean War -
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Vietnam War
US and other members of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) joined the forces with the Republic of South Vietnam to contest communist forces, comprised of South Vietnamese guerrillas and regular-force units, generally known as Viet Cong, and the North Vietnamese Army. The US, possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentially directed the war from 1965 to 1968. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known as the American War. -
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Bay of Pigs
The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion was an attempt by a group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was a complete failure, resulting in the capture or death of most of the invading force and a propaganda victory for Castro. -
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Berlin Wall Rise and Fall
In Berlin, Germany after World War II, half of Germany was divided by the Federal Republic of Germany (west) and the German Democratic Republic (east), same goes for Berlin. 3.5 million people in the east had moved to the west, so to prevent this, they built a wall to try to cease the people trying to get out of the western part. After the citizens started to rebel, the citizens were able to start doing things themselves and finally reunited the city in October 1990 -
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. -
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India Pakistan War
The 1965 war between India and Pakistan was the second conflict between the two countries over the status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The clash did not resolve this dispute, but it did engage the United States and the Soviet Union in ways that would have important implications for subsequent superpower involvement in the region. -
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SALT I & II
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), negotiations between the US and the Soviet Union that were aimed at curtailing the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The first agreements were signed by the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1972 and 1979 and were intended to restrain the arms race in strategic ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons. Strategic arms limitation talks were agreed on by the two superpowers. -
Detente Nixon
Some treaties were not developed until the Nixon Administration came into office. The Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact sent an offer to the West, urging them to hold a summit on security and cooperation in Europe. West agreed and talks began towards actual limits in the nuclear capabilities of the 2 superpowers. This led to the signing of the SALT I treaty, limiting each power's nuclear arsenals. -
Camp David Accords
signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David. The two framework agreements were signed at the White House and were witnessed by US President Jimmy Carter. The second of these frameworks led directly to the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. Due to the agreement, Sadat and Begin received the shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. -
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Persian Gulf War
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. -
Dissolution of Soviet Union
officially granting self-governing independence to the Republics of the Soviet Union. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The declaration acknowledged the independence of the former Soviet republics and created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), although five of the signatories ratified it much later or did not do so at all. -
NAFTA
NAFTA is an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. NAFTA required the elimination of tariffs on half of U.S. goods shipped to Mexico and the gradual phase out of other tariffs among the U.S., Canada and Mexico over a 14-year period. -
9/11
On September 11, 2001, a terrorist group called al-Qaeda highjacked 4 planes and targeted the United States. They hit the "Twin towers", the 2 tallest trade centers in New York, and killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000 others. They also hit the Pentagon in Virginia (headquarters of the United States Department of Defense). The fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after being overrun by a captive member on the plane because it was thought they would be targeting Washington D.C. -
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War on Terror
US military dimension involved major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, covert operations in Yemen, military-assistance programs for cooperative regimes, and major increases in military spending. Its intelligence dimension comprised institutional reorganization and considerable increases in the funding of America’s intelligence-gathering capabilities expanded cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies, and the tracking and interception of terrorist financing. -
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Iraq War
Iraq War began with the invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict. The US became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition; the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. The invasion occurred as part of a declared war against international terrorism and its sponsors, following the September 11 terror attacks.
