Page:LA2-NSRW-4-0532.jpg

UNITED STATES and the southwest and California after 1848 added many French and Spanish inhabitants to the United States.) After 1820 immigration began to be considerable, the British predominating. In the 40's and 50's the Irish immigration first and then the German immigration assumed enormous proportions, the Irish settling chiefly in the eastern cities, the Germans on the western prairies. In the 70's the Scandinavian immigration became large, Maine, Minnesota and Wisconsin gaining many farmers from the storied Northland of Europe, and since 1890 Hungary, Italy, Poland and Russia have poured their millions in. In 1906-7, of 1,285,349 immigrants 338,452 or over a third came from Austria-Hungary; 285,731 were Italians; and 258,943 Russians (chiefly Jews). But in 1911 only 878,587 immigrants entered. Chinese are the only people excluded as a nation, though Japanese immigration is restricted, but all persons likely to become a public charge are also excluded by act of Congress (1882). In 1885 and 1903 more drastic laws were enacted, that of 1885 being later modified and in 1891 extended. (See and .)

The story of our country naturally falls into three parts. These are the colonial period, the revolutionary epoch and the era of union. The first extends from 1576 to 1763; the second to 1789; and the third to the present day. But the first overlaps the second, because the revolution began while the United States was colonies; and the third runs back into the second, because American nationality and federal union began in revolution. Only the briefest account of American history can here be attempted. So it is suggested to the student, who wants to inform himself more fully, that he not only consult the articles named at the end of each paragraph but see articles on all the men and places and events mentioned within each paragraph itself.

The Colonial Period. This is marked by colonization (1576—1750), by a struggle for expansion (1750-63) and by attempts at union (1763—75). English colonization began in 1585, when Raleigh planted settlements in North Carolina, and in 1602, when Gosnold placed colonists on islands off Massachusetts. It ended in 1733, when Oglethorpe founded Georgia. Permanent settlement came in 1607 in Virginia; in 1612 (by the Dutch) in New York; in 1616 in Maine; and in 1620 in Massachusetts. New Hampshire (1623); Maryland (1634); Connecticut and Rhode Island (1636); Delaware (1638, by Sweden); New Jersey (in 1640 by Swedes, before 1650 by Dutch and in 1664 by Englishmen); North Carolina (by Virginians before 1650, by English colonists in 1663); South Carolina (1670); and

Pennsylvania (1661, though Swedes had founded settlements there in 1627 and Englishmen in 1641) successively became permanently settled. The separate histories of these colonies are given in articles under titles as above. They were governed by charters to the colonists or by proprietors or by the king, but all in effect were representative democracies. Life had all the hardships of existence in any new country, and these were increased by the difficulties of communication. The southern planters, however, enjoyed a luxury that the middle colonies and New England could not then have. Nevertheless, as early as 1760 material prosperity abounded everywhere. In New England education was general; in the central colonies special classes had good education; and in the south the better class received education of a high order. Six colleges — Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Pennsylvania and King's (now Columbia) — were founded before 1760. Religious freedom prevailed to an exceptional extent. Thirteen governments (Maine being included in Massachusetts and Vermont in New Hampshire and New York) stretched from French Canada to Spanish Florida and from the Atlantic into the Appalachians. Their people numbered 1,250,000; had tamed the wilderness; had survived many struggles with the Indians; and were beginning to swarm across the mountains into the fertile valleys of the west. They were not unaware of their power. In 1690 and in 1710 New England had captured Port Royal, Nova Scotia, from France, and in 1745 it took Louisbourg, the strongest of American fortresses, on Cape Breton Island. But the colonists feared France in (q. v.) and the French alliance with the Indians of the west. In 1749-54 came the crisis in the conflict for the continent, when the Virginians entered the Ohio Valley at Pittsburgh and Washington (1755) fought with and surrendered to the French, (See .) In 1763 France ceded its American possessions (except New Orleans) from the Mexican Gulf to the Arctic Ocean and from the Appalachians to the Mississippi to Great Britain. It also ceded the Louisiana country between the Mississippi and the Rockies to Spain. So the colonists made good their claim to the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley, and cleared the way for the march of the Americans of the 19th century from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The French and Indian War showed the colonies their full strength, trained the soldiers and generals of the War for Independence and first united all the colonies. But its last result was to kill all sense of dependence on England. (See ; ; ; ; ;, ;