View source for History of the United States

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[[File:United States (+overseas), administrative divisions - en - colored (zoom).svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Current territories of the [[United States]] after the [[Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands]] were given independence in October 1994]]
{{History of the United States}}

The land which became the [[United States]] was inhabited by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] for tens of thousands of years; their descendants include but may not be limited to 574 federally recognized tribes. The history of the present-day United States began in 1607 with the establishment of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] in modern-day Virginia by settlers who arrived from the Kingdom of England, and the landing of the ''[[Mayflower]]'' by English pilgrims to [[Plymouth, Massachusetts|Plymouth]] in 1620. In the late 15th century, [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]] began and largely decimated [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous societies]] through wars and epidemics. By the 1760s, the [[Thirteen Colonies]], then part of [[British America]] and the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]], were established. The [[Southern Colonies]] built an agricultural system on [[Slavery in the United States|slave labor]] and [[Atlantic slave trade|enslaving millions from Africa]]. After the British victory over the [[Kingdom of France]] in the [[French and Indian Wars]], [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] imposed a series of taxes and issued the [[Intolerable Acts]] on the colonies in 1773, which were designed to end self-governance. Tensions between the colonies and British authorities subsequently intensified, leading to the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], which commenced with the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] on April 19, 1775. In June 1775, the [[Second Continental Congress]] established the [[Continental Army]] and unanimously selected [[George Washington]] as its commander-in-chief. The following year, on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously declared its independence, issuing the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]. On September 3, 1783, in the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]], the British acknowledged the independence and sovereignty of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States. On September 17, 1787, the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] was signed by a [[Founding Fathers of the United States|majority of delegates]], and was later ratified by the [[Thirteen Colonies]], leading to the first modern U.S. government.

In the [[1788–89 United States presidential election|1788-89 presidential election]], Washington was elected the nation's first [[President of the United States|U.S. president]]. Along with his [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Treasury Secretary]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], Washington sought to create a relatively stronger central government than that favored by other [[Founding Fathers of the United States|founders]], including [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[James Madison]]. On March 4, 1789, the new nation [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|debated, adopted, and ratified]] the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]], which is now the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in the world.<ref>[http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2014/sep/22/bob-goodlatte/goodlatte-says-us-has-oldest-working-national-cons/ Goodlatte says U.S. has the oldest working national constitution], Politifact Virginia website, September 22, 2014.</ref> In 1791, a [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] was added to guarantee [[Natural rights and legal rights|inalienable rights]]. In 1803, Jefferson, then serving as the [[Presidency of Thomas Jefferson|nation's third president]], negotiated the [[Louisiana Purchase]], which doubled the size of the country. Encouraged by available, inexpensive land, and the notion of [[manifest destiny]], the country expanded to the [[West Coast of the United States|Pacific Coast]] underwent [[westward expansion]] in a project of [[settler colonialism]] marked by a [[Indian Wars|series of conflicts]] with the continent's indigenous inhabitants. The most notable advocate of [[manifest destiny]] was President [[James K. Polk]], who annexed [[Republic of Texas|Texas]] in 1845, and declared war on [[Second Federal Republic of Mexico|Mexico]] the next year. An overwhelming U.S. victory in the [[Mexican-American War]] led to the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] in 1848, where the U.S. acquired much of the [[American Southwest]] from Mexico. Whether or not slavery should be legal in the expanded territories was an issue of national contention, and led to increasing tensions over [[slavery]].

Following the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]] as the nation's 16th president in the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 presidential election]], southern states [[Ordinance of Secession|seceded]] and formed the pro-slavery [[Confederate States of America]]. In April 1861, at the [[Battle of Fort Sumter]], Confederates launched the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. However, the [[Union army|Union]]'s victory at the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], the [[List of battles with most United States military fatalities|deadliest battle in American military history]] with over 50,000 casualties, proved a [[Turning point of the American Civil War|turning point in the war]], leading to the [[Conclusion of the American Civil War|Union's victory]] in 1865, which preserved the nation. On April 15, 1865, Lincoln was [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassinated]]. The Confederates' defeat led to the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|abolition of slavery]]. In the subsequent [[Reconstruction era]] from 1865 to 1877, the national government [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|gained explicit duty to protect individual rights]]. In 1877, white southern Democrats regained political power in the South, often using paramilitary [[Voter suppression in the United States|suppression of voting]] and [[Jim Crow laws]] to maintain [[white supremacy]]. During the [[Gilded Age]] from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the United States emerged as the world's leading industrial power, largely due to entrepreneurship, [[Second Industrial Revolution|industrialization]], and the [[European emigration|arrival of millions of immigrant workers]]. Dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency, and traditional politics stimulated the [[Progressive Era|Progressive movement]], leading to reforms, including to the [[Income tax in the United States|federal income tax]], direct election of [[United States Senate|U.S. Senators]], citizenship for many Indigenous people, [[Prohibition in the United States|alcohol prohibition]], and [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]].

Initially neutral during [[World War I]], the United States [[American entry into World War I|declared war on Germany]] in 1917, joining the successful [[Allies of World War I|Allies]]. After the prosperous [[Roaring Twenties]], the [[Wall Street crash of 1929]] marked the onset of a decade-long global [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] launched [[New Deal]] programs, including [[Unemployment benefits|unemployment relief]] and [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]].{{Sfn|Milkis}} Following the [[Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941, the United States entered [[World War II]], helping defeat [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Fascist Italy]] in the [[European theatre of World War II|European theater]] and, in the [[Pacific War]], defeating [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]] after using [[nuclear weapon]]s on [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] in August 1945. The war led to the [[U.S. occupation of Japan]] and the [[Allied-occupied Germany]].

Following the end of World War II, the [[Cold War]] commenced with the United States and the [[Soviet Union]] emerging as [[superpower]] rivals; the two countries largely confronted each other indirectly in the [[arms race]], the [[Space Race]], propaganda campaigns, and [[proxy war]]s, which included the [[Korean War]] and the [[Vietnam War]]. In the 1960s, due largely to the [[civil rights movement]], social reforms enforced African Americans' constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement. In 1991, the United States [[Coalition of the Gulf War|led a coalition]] and invaded [[Iraq]] during the [[Gulf War]]. Later in the year, the Cold War ended with the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], leaving the United States as the world's sole superpower.

In the [[Post–Cold War era|post-Cold War era]], the United States has been drawn into [[List of modern conflicts in the Middle East|conflicts in the Middle East]], especially following the [[September 11 attacks]], with the start of the [[war on terror]]. In the 21st century, the country was negatively impacted by the [[Great Recession in the United States|Great Recession]] of 2007 to 2009 and the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|COVID-19 pandemic]] of 2020 to 2023. Recently, the U.S. [[2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan|withdrew from the war in Afghanistan]], [[United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine|intervened in the Russian invasion of Ukraine]], and became militarily involved in the [[Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present)|Middle Eastern crisis]], which included the [[Red Sea crisis]], a military conflict between the U.S., and the [[Houthi movement]] in [[Yemen]], and the [[United States strikes on Iranian nuclear sites|American bombing of Iran]] during the [[Iran–Israel war]].

==Indigenous inhabitants==
{{Main|Geological history of North America|History of Native Americans in the United States|Pre-Columbian era}}
{{See also|Native Americans in the United States}}
[[File:Peopling of America through Beringia.png|thumb|Approximate location of the ice-free corridor and specific Paleoindian sites, according to the [[Clovis theory]]]]
It is not definitively known how or when Native Americans first [[Settlement of the Americas|settled the Americas]]. The prevailing theory proposes that people from [[Eurasia]] followed [[Game (hunting)|game]] across [[Beringia]], a [[land bridge]] that connected [[Siberia]] to present-day [[Alaska]] during the [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]], and then spread southward, perhaps as early as 30,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 29, 2007 |title=New Ideas About Human Migration From Asia To Americas |work=ScienceDaily |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025160653.htm |url-status=live |access-date=March 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110225103124/http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025160653.htm |archive-date=February 25, 2011}}</ref> These early inhabitants, called [[Paleo-Indians]], soon diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct groups.

===Paleo-Indians===
{{Main|Pre-Columbian North America}}
[[File: North American cultural areas.png|thumb|The [[cultural area]]s of [[pre-Columbian North America]], according to [[Alfred Kroeber]]]]

By 10,000 BCE, humans had already been well-established throughout North America. Originally, Paleo-Indians hunted Ice Age [[megafauna]] like [[mammoth]]s, but as they began to go extinct, people turned instead to [[bison]] as a food source, and later foraging for berries and seeds. Paleo-Indians in central Mexico were the first in the Americas to farm, around 8,000 BCE. Eventually, the knowledge began to spread northward. By 3,000 BCE, corn was being grown in the valleys of [[Arizona]] and [[New Mexico]], followed by primitive [[irrigation]] systems and, by 300 BCE, early villages of the [[Hohokam]].{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}{{Sfn|Chenault}}

One of the earlier cultures in the present-day United States was the [[Clovis culture]] (9,100 to 8,850 BCE), who are primarily identified by the use of fluted [[spear]] points called the [[Clovis point]]. The [[Folsom culture]] was similar, but is marked by the use of the [[Folsom point]].

A later migration around 8,000 BCE included [[Na-Dene]]-speaking peoples, who reached the [[Pacific Northwest]] by 5,000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dumond |first=D. E. |year=1969 |title=Toward a Prehistory of the Na-Dene, with a General Comment on Population Movements among Nomadic Hunters |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=71 |issue=5 |pages=857–863 |doi=10.1525/aa.1969.71.5.02a00050 |jstor=670070 |doi-access=free |issn=0002-7294}}</ref> From there, they migrated along the [[West Coast of the United States|Pacific Coast]] and into the interior.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Leer |first1=Jeff |title=Interior Tlingit Noun Dictionary: The Dialects Spoken by Tlingit Elders of Carcross and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia |last2=Hitch |first2=Doug |last3=Ritter |first3=John |year=2001 |publisher=Yukon Native Language Centre |isbn=1-55242-227-5 |location=[[Whitehorse, Yukon Territory]]}}</ref> Another group, the [[Oshara tradition]] people, who lived from 5,500 BCE to 600 CE, were part of the [[Archaic Southwest]].

===Mound builders and pueblos===
{{Main|Mound Builders|Ancestral Puebloans}}
[[File:Monks Mound in July.JPG|thumb|[[Monks Mound]] of [[Cahokia]], a [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]], in summer]]
The [[Adena culture|Adena]] began constructing large [[Earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] mounds around 600 BCE. They are the earliest known people to have been [[Mound Builders]], although there are [[mound]]s in the United States that predate this culture. The Adenans were absorbed into the [[Hopewell tradition]], a powerful people who traded tools and goods across a wide territory. They continued the Adena tradition of mound-building and pioneered a trading system called the Hopewell Exchange System, which at its greatest extent ran from the present-day Southeast up to the Canadian side of [[Lake Ontario]].<ref name="OHC-2011">{{Cite web |title=Hopewell |url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1283 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604015341/http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1283 |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |access-date=December 31, 2015 |publisher=Ohio History Central}}</ref> By 500 CE, the Hopewellians had been absorbed into the larger [[Mississippian culture]].

The Mississippians were a broad group of tribes. Their most important city was [[Cahokia]], near modern-day [[St. Louis, Missouri]]. At its peak in the 12th century, the city had an estimated population of 20,000, larger than the population of London at the time. The entire city was centered around the [[Monks Mound]] that stood {{Convert|100|ft|m |abbr=}} tall. Cahokia, like many other cities and villages of the time, depended on hunting, foraging, trading, and agriculture, and developed a class system with slaves and human sacrifice that was influenced by societies to the south, like the [[Maya peoples|Mayans]].{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

In the [[Southwestern United States|Southwest]], the [[Anasazi]] began constructing stone and adobe pueblos around 900 BCE.<ref name="eb">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Ancestral Pueblo culture |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/22804/Ancestral-Pueblo-culture |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429223628/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/22804/Ancestral-Pueblo-culture |archive-date=April 29, 2015 |access-date=June 4, 2012 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> These apartment-like structures were often built into cliff faces, as seen in the [[Cliff Palace]] at [[Mesa Verde]]. Some grew to be the size of cities, with [[Pueblo Bonito]] along the [[Chaco River]] in New Mexico once consisting of 800 rooms.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

===Northwest and northeast===
{{Main|Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands|Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast}}
[[File:Tlingit K'alyaan Totem Pole August 2005.jpg|upright=0.9|thumb|The ''K'alyaan'' [[Totem pole]] of the [[Tlingit]] Kiks.ádi Clan, erected at [[Sitka National Historical Park]] to commemorate the lives lost in the [[Battle of Sitka]] in 1804]]
The [[Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest]] were likely the most affluent Native Americans. Many distinct cultural groups and political entities developed there, but they all shared certain beliefs, traditions, and practices, such as the centrality of [[salmon]] as a resource and spiritual symbol. Permanent villages began to develop in this region as early as 1,000&nbsp;BCE, and these communities celebrated by the gift-giving feast of the [[potlatch]].

In present-day [[upstate New York]], the [[Iroquois]] formed a [[confederacy]] of tribal peoples in the mid-15th century, consisting of the [[Oneida Indian Nation|Oneida]], [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]], and [[Seneca people|Seneca]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woods |first=Thomas E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCMcnBRKR-0C&pg=PA62 |title=33 questions about American history you're not supposed to ask |year=2007 |publisher=Crown Forum |isbn=978-0-307-34668-1 |page=62 |access-date=December 31, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101083603/https://books.google.com/books?id=dCMcnBRKR-0C&pg=PA62 |archive-date=January 1, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=R. |title=Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas |year=2005 |publisher=Mariner Books |isbn=978-0-618-49240-4}}</ref>{{Sfn|Tooker|pp=107–128}} Each tribe was represented in a group of 50 [[Sachem|sachem chiefs]]. It has been suggested that their culture contributed to political thinking during the development of the United States government.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} The Iroquois were powerful, waging war with many neighboring tribes, and later, Europeans. As their territory expanded, smaller tribes were forced further west, including the [[Osage Nation|Osage]], [[Kaw people|Kaw]], [[Ponca]], and [[Omaha people|Omaha]] peoples.{{Sfn|Tooker|pp=107–128}}<ref name="Burns">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Burns |first=L. F. |title=Osage |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102050914/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html |archive-date=January 2, 2011 |access-date=November 29, 2010 |encyclopedia=Oklahoma Encyclopedia of History and Culture}}</ref>

===Native Hawaiians===
{{Main|Ancient Hawaii|Hawaiian Kingdom}}

The exact date for the settling of Hawaii is disputed but the first settlement most likely took place between 940 and 1130 CE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dye |first=Thomas S. |year=2011 |title=A model-based age estimate for Polynesian colonization of Hawai'i |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.2011.tb00107.x |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=130–138 |doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.2011.tb00107.x |issn=0728-4896|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Around 1200 CE, [[Tahitians|Tahitian]] explorers found and began settling the area. This marked the rise of the Hawaiian civilization, which would be largely separated from the rest of the world until the arrival of the British 600 years later.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kirch |first=Patrick |title=When Did the Polynesians Settle Hawai'i? |url=https://www.academia.edu/1034367}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Conte |first1=Eric |last2=Anderson |first2=Atholl |year=2003 |title=Radiocarbon Ages for Two Sites on Ua Huka, Marquesas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/asi.2003.0018 |journal=Asian Perspectives |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=155–160 |doi=10.1353/asi.2003.0018 |hdl=10125/17184 |s2cid=162470429 |issn=1535-8283 |hdl-access=free|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Atholl |last2=Leach |first2=Helen |last3=Smith |first3=Ian |last4=Walter |first4=Richard |year=1994 |title=Reconsideration of the Marquesan sequence in East Polynesian prehistory, with particular reference to Hane (MUH1) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arco.1994.29.1.29 |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=29–52 |doi=10.1002/arco.1994.29.1.29 |issn=0728-4896|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Europeans under the British explorer [[James Cook]] arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and within five years of contact, European military technology would help [[Kamehameha I]] conquer most of the island group, and eventually unify the islands for the first time, establishing the [[Hawaiian Kingdom]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fitzpatrick |title=Early mapping of Hawaii |date=March 9, 2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-72652-4 |oclc=1151955837}}</ref>

===Puerto Rico===
{{Main|History of Puerto Rico|Taino}}

The island of Puerto Rico has been settled for at least 4,000 years. Starting with the [[Ortoiroid culture]], successive generations of native migrations arrived replacing or absorbing local populations. By the year 1000 [[Arawak]] people had arrived from South America via the [[Lesser Antilles]]; these settlers would become the [[Taíno]] encountered by the Spanish in 1493. Upon European contact a native population between 30,000 and 60,000 was likely, led by a single chief called a [[Cacique]].<ref name="Rouse 1992">{{Cite book |last=Rouse |first=Irving |title=The Tainos : Rise & Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus |year=1992 |isbn=0-300-05181-6 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |oclc=24469325}}</ref> Colonization resulted in the decimation of the local inhabitants due to the harsh [[Encomienda]] system and epidemics caused by Old World diseases. Puerto Rico would remain a part of Spain until American annexation in 1898.<ref name="Rouse 1992"/>

==European colonization (1075–1754)==
{{Main|Colonial history of the United States}}

===Norse exploration===
{{Main|Norse colonization of North America}}

The earliest recorded European mention of America is in a [[Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum|treatise]] by the medieval chronicler [[Adam of Bremen]], circa 1075, where it is referred to as [[Vinland]].{{Efn|'In addition, he [i.e., [[Sweyn Estridsson]], king of Denmark (reigned 1047–1076)] named one more island in this ocean, discovered by many, which is called "Vinland", because vines grow wild there, making the best wine. For [that] crops [that are] not sown, abound there, we learn not from fanciful opinion but from the true account of the Danes.'<ref>{{Cite book |last=von Bremen |first=Adam |url=https://archive.org/stream/adamvonbremenham00adam#page/274/mode/2up |title=Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte |year=1917 |publisher=Hahnsche |editor-last=Schmeidler |editor-first=Bernhard |publication-place=Hannover and Leipzig |pages=275–276 |language=la, de |trans-title=Hamburg's Church History}}</ref>}} It is also extensively referred to in the Norse [[Vinland sagas]]. The strongest archaeological evidence of the existence of [[Norsemen|Norse]] settlements in America is located in Canada; there is significant scholarly debate as to whether Norse explorers also made landfall in [[New England]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Linden |first=Eugene |title=The Vikings: A Memorable Visit to America |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vikings-a-memorable-visit-to-america-98090935 |access-date=May 28, 2020 |website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

===Early settlements===
{{Main|European colonization of the Americas}}
[[File:Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, by William Halsall.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Mayflower]]'' in [[Plymouth Harbor]]. [[Fluyt]]s, [[caravel]]s, and [[carrack]]s brought Europeans to the [[Americas]].]]
Europeans brought horses, cattle, and hogs to the Americas and took back maize, turkeys, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, beans, and [[Cucurbita|squash]] to Europe. Many explorers and early settlers died after being exposed to new diseases in the Americas. However, the effects of new Eurasian diseases carried by the colonists, especially smallpox and measles, were much worse for the Native Americans, as they had no [[Immunity (medical)|immunity]] to them. They [[Native American disease and epidemics|suffered epidemics]] and died in very large numbers, usually before large-scale European settlement began. Their societies were disrupted by the scale of deaths.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Byrne |first=Joseph Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Pvi-ksuKFIC&pg=PA415 |title=Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues |year=2008 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |pages=415–416 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101125507/http://books.google.com/books?id=5Pvi-ksuKFIC&pg=PA415 |archive-date=January 1, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hinderaker |first1=Eric |last2=Horn |first2=Rebecca |year=2010 |title=Territorial Crossings: Histories and Historiographies of the Early Americas |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=67 |issue=3 |page=395 |doi=10.5309/willmaryquar.67.3.395 |jstor=10.5309/willmaryquar.67.3.395}}</ref>

====Spanish contact====
{{Main|Spanish Florida|Santa Fe de Nuevo México|Spanish Texas}}
{{See also|Spanish colonization of the Americas|New Spain}}

[[Conquistador|Spanish explorers]] were the first Europeans, after the Norse, to reach the present-day United States, after the [[voyages of Christopher Columbus]] (beginning in 1492) established [[Spanish West Indies|possessions in the Caribbean]], including the modern-day [[U.S. territories]] of [[Captaincy General of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rico]], and parts of the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]]. [[Juan Ponce de León]] landed in [[Spanish Florida|Florida]] in 1513.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenberger |first=Robert |title=Juan Ponce de León: the exploration of Florida and the search for the Fountain of Youth |year=2003}}</ref> Spanish expeditions quickly reached the [[Appalachian Mountains]], the [[Mississippi River]], the [[Grand Canyon]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pyne |first=Stephen J. |url=https://archive.org/details/howcanyonbecameg00pyne/page/4 |title=How the Canyon Became Grand |year=1998 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-670-88110-9 |publication-place=New York City |pages=[https://archive.org/details/howcanyonbecameg00pyne/page/4 4–7]}}</ref> and the [[Great Plains]].{{Sfn|Day}}

In 1539, [[Hernando de Soto]] extensively explored the Southeast,{{Sfn|Day}} and a year later [[Francisco Coronado]] explored from Arizona to central Kansas in search of gold.{{Sfn|Day}} Escaped horses from Coronado's party spread over the Great Plains, and the Plains Indians mastered horsemanship within a few generations.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}} Small Spanish settlements eventually grew to become important cities, such as [[San Antonio]], [[Albuquerque]], [[Tucson]], Los Angeles, and San Francisco.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=David J. |title=New Spain's Far Northern Frontier: Essays on Spain in the American West, 1540–1821 |year=1979}}</ref>

====Dutch mid-Atlantic====
{{Main|New Netherland}}
{{See also|Dutch colonization of the Americas}}

The [[Dutch East India Company]] sent explorer [[Henry Hudson]] to search for a [[Northwest Passage]] to Asia in 1609. [[New Netherland]] was established in 1621 by the company to capitalize on the [[North American fur trade]]. Growth was slow at first due to mismanagement by the [[Dutch colonization of the Americas|Dutch]] and Native American conflicts. After the Dutch purchased the island of [[Manhattan]] from the Native Americans, the land was named [[New Amsterdam]] and became the capital of New Netherland. The town rapidly expanded and in the mid-1600s it became an important trading center. Despite being [[Calvinists]] and building the [[Reformed Church in America]], the Dutch were tolerant of other religions and cultures and traded with the [[Iroquois]] to the north.{{Sfn|Jacobs}}

The colony served as a barrier to British expansion from [[New England Confederation|New England]], and as a result a [[Anglo-Dutch Wars|series of wars]] were fought. The colony was taken over by Britain as [[Province of New York|New York]] in 1664 and its capital was renamed New York City.

====Swedish settlement====
{{Main|New Sweden}}
[[File:Nothnagle Log House.JPG|thumb|[[C. A. Nothnagle Log House]] in [[Gibbstown, New Jersey]], the oldest wooden building in the United States]]
In the early years of the [[Sweden#Swedish Empire|Swedish Empire]], Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders formed the [[New Sweden Company]] to trade furs and tobacco in North America. The company's first expedition was led by [[Peter Minuit]], who had been governor of New Netherland from 1626 to 1631, and landed in [[Delaware Bay]] in March 1638. The settlers founded [[Fort Christina]] at the site of modern-day [[Wilmington, Delaware]], and made treaties with Indigenous peoples for land ownership on both sides of the [[Delaware River]].<ref name="SCS-2021">{{Cite web |title=Brief History of New Sweden in America |url=https://colonialswedes.net/History/History.html |website=colonialswedes.net |access-date=July 18, 2020 |archive-date=September 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921135312/http://www.colonialswedes.net/History/History.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="genealogia.fi-2020">{{Cite web |title=The Finns in America. The First Settlers |url=https://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article385e.htm |website=genealogia.fi |access-date=July 18, 2020 |archive-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001220039/https://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article385e.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Over the following seventeen years, 12 more expeditions brought settlers from the Swedish Empire to New Sweden. The colony established 19 permanent settlements along with many farms, extending into modern-day [[Maryland]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[New Jersey]]. It was incorporated into New Netherland in 1655 after a Dutch invasion from the neighboring New Netherland colony during the [[Second Northern War]].<ref name="SCS-2021" /><ref name="genealogia.fi-2020" />

==== French ====
{{Main|French Florida|Canada (New France)|Louisiana (New France)|Illinois Country|Ohio Country}}
{{See also|French colonization of the Americas|New France}}
[[File:San Pablo Bastion, Castillo de San Marcos.jpg|thumb|The San Pablo Bastion of the [[Castillo de San Marcos]], completed in 1683, in [[History of St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine, Florida]]]]
[[Giovanni da Verrazzano]] landed in [[North Carolina]] in 1524, and was the first European to sail into [[New York Harbor]] and [[Narragansett Bay]]. In the 1540s, French [[Huguenots]] settled at [[Fort Caroline]] near present-day [[Jacksonville, Florida]]. In 1565, Spanish forces led by [[Pedro Menéndez]] destroyed the settlement and established the first Spanish settlement in what would become the United States — [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]].

Most French lived in [[Quebec]] and [[Acadia]] (modern Canada), but far-reaching trade relationships with Native Americans spread their influence. French colonists in small villages along the Mississippi and [[Illinois River|Illinois]] rivers lived in farming communities that served as a grain source for Gulf Coast settlements. The French established plantations in Louisiana along with settling [[New Orleans]], [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], and [[Biloxi]].

===British colonies===
{{Further|British colonization of the Americas|British North America}}
The English, drawn in by [[Francis Drake]]'s raids on [[Spanish treasure fleet|Spanish treasure ships]] leaving the New World, settled the strip of land along the east coast in the 1600s.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}} The early British colonies were established by private groups seeking profit, and were marked by starvation, disease, and Native American attacks. Many immigrants were people seeking religious freedom or escaping political oppression, peasants displaced by the [[Industrial Revolution]], or those simply seeking adventure and opportunity. Between the late 1610s and the Revolution, the British shipped an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts to their American colonies.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1833611 |title=British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies |last=Butler |first=James Davie |year=1896 |journal=American Historical Review |volume=2 |number=1 |pages=12–33 |doi=10.2307/1833611 |jstor=1833611|url-access=subscription }}; {{cite book |last=Keneally |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Keneally |year=2005 |title=[[The Commonwealth of Thieves]] |location=Sydney |publisher=Random House}}</ref>

In some areas, Native Americans taught colonists how to grow local crops. In others, they attacked the settlers. Virgin forests provided an ample supply of building material and firewood. Natural inlets and harbors lined the coast, providing easy ports for essential trade with Europe. Settlements remained close to the coast due to this as well as Native American resistance and the Appalachian Mountains in the interior.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

====First settlement in Jamestown====
{{Main|Jamestown, Virginia|Colony of Virginia}}
[[File:Matthäus Merian dÆ, Således blev også denne fred brudt på grund af bedrag, , KKSgb10894-5, Statens Museum for Kunst.jpg|thumb|Following the [[Indian massacre of 1622|Indian massacre of Jamestown settlers]] in 1622, colonists in [[Virginia]] feared all natives as enemies.]]
The first successful English colony, [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], was established by the [[Virginia Company of London|Virginia Company]] in 1607 on the [[James River]] in [[Virginia]]. The colonists were preoccupied with the search for gold and were ill-equipped for life in the New World. Captain [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]] held the fledgling Jamestown together in the first year, and the colony descended into anarchy and nearly failed when he returned to England two years later. [[John Rolfe]] began experimenting with tobacco from the West Indies in 1612, and by 1614 the first shipment arrived in London. It became Virginia's chief source of revenue within a decade.

In 1624, after years of disease and Indian attacks, including the [[Powhatan attack of 1622]], King [[James VI and I|James I]] revoked the Virginia Company's charter and made Virginia a royal colony.

====New England Colonies====
{{Main|New England Colonies|Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)}}

[[New England]] was initially settled primarily by [[Puritans]] fleeing religious persecution. The [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] sailed for Virginia on the Mayflower in 1620, but were knocked off course by a storm and landed at [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]], where they agreed to a social contract of rules in the [[Mayflower Compact]]. About half died in the first winter.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mintz |first=Steven |title=Death in Early America |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/usdeath.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230203658/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/usdeath.cfm |archive-date=December 30, 2010 |access-date=February 15, 2011 |website=Digital History}}</ref> Like Jamestown, Plymouth suffered from disease and starvation, but local [[Wampanoag]] Indians taught the colonists how to farm maize.

Plymouth was followed by the Puritans and [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1630. They maintained a charter for self-government separate from England, and elected founder [[John Winthrop]] as governor. [[Roger Williams]] opposed Winthrop's treatment of Native Americans and religious intolerance, and established the colony of [[Providence Plantations]], later [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], on the basis of freedom of religion. Other colonists established settlements in the [[Connecticut River]] Valley, and on the coasts of present-day [[New Hampshire]] and [[Maine]]. Native American attacks continued, with the most significant occurring in the 1637 [[Pequot War]] and the 1675 [[King Philip's War]].

New England became a center of commerce and industry due to the poor, mountainous soil making agriculture difficult. Rivers were harnessed to power grain mills and sawmills, and the numerous harbors facilitated trade. Tight-knit villages developed around these industrial centers, and [[Boston]] became one of America's most important ports.

====Middle Colonies====
{{Main|Middle Colonies}}
[[File:Treaty of Penn with Indians by Benjamin West.jpg|thumb|''Treaty of Penn with the Indians'', a portrait depicting [[William Penn]] signing the [[Treaty of Shackamaxona]] with [[Lenape]] Indians in the [[Province of Pennsylvania]] in 1682 by [[Benjamin West]]]]
In the 1660s, the [[Middle Colonies]] of [[Province of New York|New York]], [[Province of New Jersey|New Jersey]], and [[Delaware Colony|Delaware]] were established in the former Dutch New Netherland, and were characterized by a large degree of ethnic and religious diversity. At the same time, the [[Iroquois]] of New York, strengthened by years of fur trading with Europeans, formed the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.

The last colony in this region was [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], established in 1681 by [[William Penn]] as a home for religious dissenters, including [[Quakers]], [[Methodists]], and the [[Amish]].{{Sfn|Middleton and Lombard}} The capital of the colony, [[Philadelphia]], became a dominant commercial center in a few short years. While Quakers populated the city, [[German Americans|German]] immigrants began to flood into the Pennsylvanian hills and forests, while the [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] pushed into the far western frontier.

====Southern Colonies====
{{Main|Southern Colonies}}
[[File:Gullah s carolina 1790.jpg|thumb|''The Old Plantation'', a portrait depicting a plantation in [[South Carolina]] in approximately 1790 with [[Gullah]] slaves playing traditional [[West Africa]] instruments resisting forced assimilation from the planation culture.]]
The overwhelmingly rural [[Southern Colonies]] contrasted sharply with the New England and Middle Colonies. After Virginia, the second British colony south of New England was [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]], established as a Catholic haven in 1632. The economy of these two colonies was built entirely on [[yeoman]] farmers and planters. The planters established themselves in the [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater]] region of Virginia, establishing massive [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]] with slave labor.

In 1670, the [[Province of Carolina]] was established, and [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] became the region's great trading port. While Virginia's economy was also based on tobacco, Carolina was more diversified, exporting rice, indigo, and lumber as well. In 1712, it was divided in two, creating [[Province of North Carolina|North]] and [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]]. The [[Georgia Colony]] was established by [[James Oglethorpe]] in 1732 as a border to [[Spanish Florida]] and a reform colony for former prisoners and the poor.{{Sfn|Middleton and Lombard}}

====Religion====
{{Main|History of religion in the United States}}

Religiosity expanded greatly after the [[First Great Awakening]], a religious revival in the 1740s led by preachers such as [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]] and [[George Whitefield]]. American [[Evangelicals]] affected by the Awakening added a new emphasis on divine outpourings of the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]] and conversions that implanted new believers with an intense love for God. Revivals encapsulated those hallmarks and carried the newly created evangelicalism into the early republic, setting the stage for the [[Second Great Awakening]] in the late 1790s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kidd |first=Thomas S. |title=The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America |url=https://archive.org/details/greatawakeningbr0000kidd |year=2009 |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |isbn=9780312452254}}</ref> In the early stages, evangelicals in the South, such as [[Methodists]] and [[Baptists in the United States|Baptists]], preached for religious freedom and abolition of slavery.

====Government====
{{Main|Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies}}

Each of the American colonies had a slightly different governmental structure. Typically, a colony was ruled by a governor appointed from London who controlled the executive administration and relied upon a locally elected legislature to vote on taxes and make laws. By the 18th century, the American colonies were growing very rapidly as a result of low death rates along with ample supplies of land and food. The colonies were richer than most parts of Britain, and attracted a steady flow of immigrants, especially teenagers who arrived as indentured servants.{{Sfn|Savelle|pages=185–190}}

====Servitude and slavery====
{{Main|Indentured servitude in British America|Slavery in the colonial history of the United States}}
[[File:Nouvelle-France map-en.svg|thumb|A map of the [[British colonization of the Americas|British]], [[New France|French]] and [[New Spain|Spanish]] settlements in North America in 1750, before the [[French and Indian War]]]]
Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America arrived as [[indentured servants]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barker |first=Deanna |title=Indentured Servitude in Colonial America |url=http://www.geocities.com/nai_cilh/servitude.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022161033/http://geocities.com/nai_cilh/servitude.html |archive-date=October 22, 2009 |website=National Association for Interpretation, Cultural Interpretation and Living History Section}}</ref> Typically, people would sign a contract agreeing to a set term of labor, usually four to seven years, and in return would receive transport to America and a piece of land at the end of their servitude. In some cases, ships' captains received rewards for the delivery of poor migrants, and so extravagant promises and kidnapping were common.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

The first [[Slavery in the United States|African slaves]] arrived in 1619.{{Sfn|Corbett et al.}} Initially regarded as indentured servants who could buy their freedom, the institution of slavery began to harden and the involuntary servitude became lifelong{{Sfn|Corbett et al.}} as the demand for labor on tobacco and rice plantations grew in the 1660s.{{Citation needed |date=August 2020}} Slavery became identified with brown skin color, and the children of slave women were born slaves, known as ''[[partus sequitur ventrem]]''.{{Sfn|Corbett et al.}} By the 1770s, African slaves comprised a fifth of the American population.

The question of independence from Britain did not arise as long as the colonies needed British military support against the French and Spanish powers. Those threats were gone by 1765. However, London continued to regard the American colonies as existing for the benefit of the mother country in a policy known as [[mercantilism]].{{Sfn|Savelle|pages=185–190}}

Colonial America was defined by a severe labor shortage that used forms of [[unfree labor]], such as [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|slavery]] and indentured servitude. The British colonies were also marked by a policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, known as [[salutary neglect]]. This permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders.{{Sfn|Encarta Online}}

==Revolutionary period (1754–1793)==
{{Main|History of the United States (1776–1789)}}

=== Lead-up to the Revolution ===
{{Further|Boston Tea Party}}
[[File:Boston Tea Party Currier colored.jpg|thumb|A portrait depicting the [[Boston Tea Party]] on December 16, 1773, a prominent act of rebellion that served to dramatically escalate the [[American Revolution]], leading ultimately to the commencement of the [[American Revolutionary War]] at the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] on April 19, 1775]]
The [[French and Indian War]] (1754–1763), part of the larger [[Seven Years' War]], was a watershed event in the political development of the colonies. The influence of the French and Native Americans, the main rivals of the [[British Crown]] in the colonies and Canada, was significantly reduced and the territory of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] expanded into [[New France]] in Canada and [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]].{{Citation needed|reason=A separate government was established in Canada called the Province of Quebec under the authority of the British Army and Louisiana was given to Spain. The thirteen colonies didn't gain any territory from this war.here|date=January 2022}} The war effort also resulted in greater political integration of the colonies, as reflected in the [[Albany Congress]] and symbolized by [[Benjamin Franklin]]'s call for the colonies to "[[Join, or Die]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brands |first=H.W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLdOMa1MEqsC&pg=PA232 |title=The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |year=2010 |publisher=Random House Digital, Inc. |isbn=9780307754943 |pages=232–240, 510–512 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=TLdOMa1MEqsC&pg=PA232 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[King George III]] issued the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], to organize the new North American empire and protect the Native Americans from colonial expansion west of the Appalachian Mountains. Strains developed in the relations between the colonists and the Crown. The [[British Parliament]] passed the [[Stamp Act of 1765]], imposing a tax on the colonies without going through the colonial legislatures. Crying "[[No taxation without representation]]", the colonists refused to pay.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Edmund S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr_ruAAACAAJ |title=The Birth of the Republic, 1763–89 |year=2012 |publisher=U. of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226923420 |edition=4th |pages=14–27 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr_ruAAACAAJ |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live |orig-year=1956}}</ref> On March 5, 1770, in an event that would fuel anti-British sentiment in Boston, British troops opened fire on protesters in [[Boston]], killing five people in the [[Boston Massacre]].

On December 16, 1773, the [[Boston Tea Party]] was a direct action to protest the new tax on tea. Parliament responded the next year with the [[Intolerable Acts]], stripping Massachusetts of its historic right of self-government and putting it under military rule, which sparked outrage and resistance in all thirteen colonies. [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] leaders from every colony convened the [[First Continental Congress]] to coordinate their resistance. The Congress called for a [[Continental Association|boycott of British trade]], published a [[Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress|list of rights and grievances]], and [[Petition to the King|petitioned the king]] to rectify those grievances.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allison |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6x7Cmio5hoC |title=The Boston Tea Party |year=2007 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=9781933212111 |pages=47–63 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=D6x7Cmio5hoC |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> This appeal had no effect.

=== American Revolution ===
{{Main|American Revolution}}
[[File:Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrandt Peale, 1800)(cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Jefferson]], the principal author of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and a principle intellectual force behind the [[American Revolution]], wrote the first draft of the Declaration in isolation over a period of two weeks between June 11, 1776, and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 [[Market Street (Philadelphia)|Market Street]] in [[Philadelphia]]. The Declaration was unanimously adopted by the [[Second Continental Congress]] a week later, on July 4, 1776, at present-day [[Independence Hall]]]]
[[File:Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851.jpg|thumb|[[George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River|Washington's covert crossing of the Delaware River]] over the night of December 25–26, 1776, represented a major comeback for the cause of American independence following the loss of New York City, allowing Washington and the [[Continental Army]] to launch surprise attacks on the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] in [[Battle of Trenton|Trenton]] and [[Battle of Princeton|Princeton]] and recapture [[New Jersey]].]]
The [[Second Continental Congress]] voted to declare independence on July 2, 1776. The [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] presented arguments in favor of the rights of citizens, stating that [[all men are created equal]], supporting the rights of [[Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness]], and demanding the [[consent of the governed]].<ref name="Hamowy-2000">{{Cite book |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470756454 |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=Blackwell |year=2000 |isbn=9780631210580 |editor-last=Pole |editor-first=J. R. |edition=1st |pages=258–261 |chapter=The Declaration of Independence |doi=10.1002/9780470756454 |editor-last2=Greene |editor-first2=J. P.}}</ref> The [[Founding Fathers]] were guided by the ideology of [[republicanism]], rejecting the [[monarchism]] of Great Britain.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wood |first=Gordon S. |year=1990 |title=Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/chknt66&id=27&div=&collection= |journal=Chicago-Kent Law Review |volume=66 |page=13}}</ref> The Declaration of Independence was [[Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence|signed]] by members of the Congress on July 4.<ref name="Hamowy-2000" /> This date has since been [[Commemoration of the American Revolution|commemorated]] as [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Today in History - July 4 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-04/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221029013828/https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-04/ |archive-date=October 29, 2022 |access-date=April 27, 2023 |website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

The [[American Revolutionary War]] began with the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] on April 19, 1775.<ref name="Conroy-2000">{{Cite book |last=Conroy |first=David W. |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470756454 |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=Blackwell |year=2000 |isbn=9780631210580 |editor-last=Pole |editor-first=J. R. |edition=1st |pages=216–221 |chapter=Development of a revolutionary organization, 1765–1775 |doi=10.1002/9780470756454 |editor-last2=Greene |editor-first2=J. P.}}</ref> [[George Washington]] was appointed general of the [[Continental Army]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Douglas S. |title=George Washington: A Biography |year=1948 |isbn=9780678028346 |page=42 |publisher=Augustus M. Kelley |author-link=Douglas Southall Freeman}}</ref> Washington's [[George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River|crossing of the Delaware River]] began a series of victories that expelled British forces from New Jersey.{{Sfn|Cogliano|2009|pp=101–102}} The British began the [[Saratoga campaign]] in 1777 to capture [[Albany, New York]], as a [[choke point]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snow |first=Dean R. |title=1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780190618759 |pages=7–9}}</ref> After American [[Battles of Saratoga|victory at Saratoga]], France, the Netherlands, and Spain began providing support to the Continental Army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Howard |title=Crucible of power: a history of American foreign relations to 1913 |year=2001 |isbn=9780842029186 |page=12 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield}}</ref> Britain responded to defeat in the [[Northern theater of the American Revolutionary War|northern theater]] by advancing in the [[Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War|southern theater]], beginning with the [[Capture of Savannah]] in 1778.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lumpkin |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lnwsAAAAMAAJ |title=From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-87249-408-4 |pages=27–30 |language=en}}</ref> American forces reclaimed the south in 1781, and the British Army was defeated in the [[Siege of Yorktown]] on October 19, 1781.{{Sfn|Cogliano|2009|p=110}}

King George III formally ordered the end of hostilities on December 5, 1782, recognizing American independence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Richard Brandon |url=https://archive.org/details/peacemakersgrea00morr |title=The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1965 |edition=1st |pages=411–412}}</ref> The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] was signed on September 3, 1783,<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 10, 2022 |title=Treaty of Paris (1783) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031123838/https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris |archive-date=October 31, 2022 |access-date=April 28, 2023 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref> and was ratified by the [[Congress of the Confederation]] on January 14, 1784.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Confederation Congress's Ratification of the "Treaty of Paris" |url=https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/The-Continental-Congress-s-ratification-of-the-%E2%80%9CTreaty-of-Paris%E2%80%9D/ |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103022351/https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/The-Continental-Congress-s-ratification-of-the-%E2%80%9CTreaty-of-Paris%E2%80%9D/ |archive-date=November 3, 2022 |website=US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |language=en}}</ref>

===Confederation period===
{{Main|Confederation period}}The [[Articles of Confederation]] were ratified as the governing law of the United States, written to limit the powers of the central government in favor of states. This caused [[Financial costs of the American Revolutionary War|economic decline]], as the government was unable to pass economic legislation, levy taxes, and pay its debts.<ref name="Van Cleve-2019">{{Cite book |last=Van Cleve |first=George William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5r0lEAAAQBAJ |title=We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2019 |isbn=9780226641522 |pages=2–7 |access-date=November 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120192825/https://www.google.com/books/edition/We_Have_Not_a_Government/5r0lEAAAQBAJ |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Nationalists worried that the [[Confederation|confederate]] nature of the union was too fragile to withstand an armed conflict with any adversarial states, or even internal revolts such as [[Shays' Rebellion]] of 1786 in Massachusetts.{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}}

In the 1780s the western regions were ceded by the states to Congress and became territories. With the migration of settlers to the Northwest, soon they became [[U.S. state|states]].{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}} The [[American Indian Wars]] continued in the 1780s as settlers moved west.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grenier |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGCin1JJp8cC |title=The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=9781139444705 |pages=146–148 |access-date=November 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120192830/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_First_Way_of_War/JGCin1JJp8cC |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Northwestern Confederacy]] and American settlers began fighting the [[Northwest Indian War]] in the late 1780s; the Northwestern Confederacy received British support, but the settlers received little assistance from the American government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herring |first=George |title=From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 |year=2008 |isbn=9780199743773 |pages=43–44, 61–62 |publisher=Oxford University Press |author-link=George C. Herring}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E92aCwAAQBAJ |title=American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-393-25387-0 |page=343 |language=en}}</ref>

Nationalists – most of them war veterans – organized in every state and convinced Congress to call the [[Philadelphia Convention]] in 1787. The delegates from every state wrote a new [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] that created a federal government with a strong president and powers of taxation. The new government reflected the prevailing republican ideals of guarantees of [[Natural rights and legal rights|individual liberty]] and of constraining the power of government through [[separation of powers]].{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}} The constitution was ratified by a sufficient number of states in 1788 to begin forming a federal government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Countryman |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_fuBSLGMgIC |title=The American Revolution |year=1985 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8090-2563-3 |pages=193–196 |language=en}}</ref>

== Early republic (1793–1830) ==
{{Main|History of the United States (1789–1815)}}
The [[United States Electoral College]] chose George Washington as the first [[President of the United States|President]] in 1789.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berkin |first=Carol |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBqPVWAD51cC |title=A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution |year=2002 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-15-602872-1 |page=192 |language=en}}</ref> The national capital moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790 and finally, in 1800, to Washington, D.C.

The major accomplishment of the [[Washington Administration]] was the creation of a strong national government that was recognized by all Americans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Forrest |title=The Presidency of George Washington |url=https://archive.org/details/presidencyofgeo000mcdo |year=1974 |location=Lawrence, KS |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=9780700601103}}</ref> Washington's government, following the vigorous leadership of Treasury Secretary [[Alexander Hamilton]], assumed the debts of the states, created the [[First Bank of the United States|Bank of the United States]], and set up a uniform system of [[tariff]]s and other taxes to pay off the debt and provide a financial infrastructure. Hamilton created the [[Federalist Party]] to support his programs. In 1791, to assuage the [[Anti-Federalists]] who feared a too-powerful central government, the Congress adopted the [[United States Bill of Rights]] by amending it to the U.S. Constitution, to guarantee individual liberties such as freedom of speech and religious practice.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Labunski |first=Richard |title=James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights |year=2008}}</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[James Madison]] formed an opposition Republican Party (usually called the [[Democratic-Republican Party]]). In 1794, Hamilton and Washington presented the country with the [[Jay Treaty]] which re-established good relations with Britain. The Jeffersonians vehemently protested, and the voters aligned behind one party or the other, thus setting up the [[First Party System]].<ref name="in JSTOR" /> Although the treaty passed, politics became intensely heated.{{Sfn|Miller}} Serious challenges to the new federal government included the [[Northwest Indian War]], the ongoing [[Cherokee–American wars]], and the 1794 [[Whiskey Rebellion]], in which western settlers protested against a federal tax on liquor.{{Sfn|Lesson Plan on Washington}}

Washington refused to serve more than two terms, setting a precedent for future administrations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Washington's Farewell Address |url=http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527211849/http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell |archive-date=May 27, 2008 |access-date=June 7, 2008 |website=Archiving Early America}}</ref> [[John Adams]] of the Federalist Party defeated Jefferson in the [[1796 United States presidential election|1796 election]]. War was looming with France, and the Federalists used the opportunity to try silencing the Republicans with the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]]; they also built up a large army with Hamilton at the head, in preparation for a French invasion. However, the Federalists became divided after Adams sent a successful peace mission to France that ended the [[Quasi-War]] of 1798.<ref name="in JSTOR">{{Cite journal |last=Smelser |first=Marshall |year=1959 |title=The Jacobin Phrenzy: The Menace of Monarchy, Plutocracy, and Anglophilia, 1789–1798 |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=239–258 |doi=10.1017/S003467050002204X |jstor=1405347 |s2cid=144230619}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McCullough |first=David |title=John Adams |year=2008 |chapter=10 |author-link=David McCullough}}</ref>

===Increasing demand for slave labor===
{{Main|Slavery in the United States}}
[[File:Crowe-Slaves Waiting for Sale - Richmond, Virginia.jpg|thumb|''Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia'', an 1861 portrait by British painter [[Eyre Crowe (painter)|Eyre Crowe]]]]
During the first two decades after the Revolutionary War, there were dramatic changes in the status of slavery among the states and an increase in the number of [[free blacks]]. Inspired by revolutionary ideals of equality, and influenced by their reduced economic reliance on the use of slaves, the [[Northern United States|Northern states]] abolished slavery.

States of the [[Upper South]] made [[manumission]] easier, resulting in an increase in the proportion of free blacks in the Upper South (as a percentage of the total non-white population) from less than one percent in 1792 to more than ten percent by 1810. By that date, a total of 13.5&nbsp;percent of all blacks in the United States were free.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kolchin |first=Peter |title=American Slavery, 1619–1877 |url=https://archive.org/details/americanslavery10000kolc |year=1993 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanslavery10000kolc/page/79 79]–81 |author-link=Peter Kolchin}}</ref> In 1807, with four million slaves already in the United States, Congress severed U.S. involvement with the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref name="pbs">{{Cite web |date=January 25, 2007 |title=Interview: James Oliver Horton: Exhibit Reveals History of Slavery in New York City |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june07/divided_01-25.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131223050216/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june07/divided_01-25.html |archive-date=December 23, 2013 |access-date=February 11, 2012 |website=[[PBS Newshour]]}}</ref>

===Second Great Awakening===
{{Main|Second Great Awakening}}
[[File:Camp meeting.jpg|thumb|A drawing of a [[Protestant]] camp meeting, {{Circa|1829}}]]
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement that affected virtually all of society during the early 19th century and led to rapid church growth. It began around 1790 and was gaining momentum by 1800; its membership rose rapidly after 1820 among [[Baptists in the United States|Baptist]] and [[Methodist]] congregations, whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak by the 1840s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ahlstrom |first=Sydney |url=https://archive.org/details/religioushistory0000ahls_h4c4 |title=A Religious History of the American People |year=1972 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/religioushistory0000ahls_h4c4/page/415 415]–471}}</ref>

The movement enrolled millions of new members in existing evangelical denominations and led to the formation of new denominations. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements, including [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]] and [[Temperance movement|temperance]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Timothy L. |url=https://archive.org/details/revivalismandsoc012498mbp |title=Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War |year=1957 |publisher=Harper Torchbooks}}</ref>

===Louisiana and Jeffersonian republicanism===
{{Main|Presidency of Thomas Jefferson|Louisiana Purchase}}
[[File:U.S._Territorial_Acquisitions.png|thumb|Land acquired in the [[Louisiana Purchase]] in 1803, highlighted in white]]
Thomas Jefferson heavily defeated John Adams in the [[1800 United States presidential election|1800 presidential election]]. Jefferson's major achievement as president was the [[Louisiana Purchase]] in 1803, which provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion west of the Mississippi River.{{Sfn|Wood, Empire of Liberty |pages=368–374}} He supported expeditions to explore and map the new domain, most notably the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stephen E. |title=Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West |url=https://archive.org/details/undauntedcourag000ambr |year=1997 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9780684811079 |author-link=Stephen E. Ambrose}}</ref>

Jefferson believed deeply in [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]] and advocated that it should be based on the independent [[yeoman]] farmer and planter; he distrusted cities, factories and banks. He also distrusted the federal government and judges, and he tried to weaken the judiciary. Although the Constitution specified a [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]], its functions were vague until [[John Marshall]], the [[Chief Justice of the United States]] (1801{{nbnd}}1835), defined them – especially the power to overturn acts of Congress or states that violated the Constitution, first enunciated in 1803 in the ''[[Marbury v. Madison]]'' case.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Jean Edward |title=John Marshall: Definer of a Nation |url=https://archive.org/details/johnmarshalldefi00jean |year=1998 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/johnmarshalldefi00jean/page/309 309]–326 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9780805055108}}</ref>

===War of 1812===
{{Main|War of 1812}}
{{See also|History of the United States (1789–1815)}}

Americans were increasingly angered by the British violation of American ships' neutral rights to harm France, the [[Impressment|coercion]] of 10,000 American sailors needed by the [[Royal Navy]] to fight Napoleon, and British support for hostile Indians attacking American settlers in the [[American Midwest]] – with the goal of creating a pro-British [[Indian barrier state]] to block American expansion westward. Britain may also have wished to annex all or part of [[British North America]], although this is still heavily debated.{{Sfn|Stagg, Madison's War|page=4}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=Manifest Destiny and the Expansion of America |url=https://archive.org/details/turningpointsact00carl_912 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2007 |isbn=9781851098330 |editor-last=Carlisle |editor-first=Rodney P. |page=[https://archive.org/details/turningpointsact00carl_912/page/n64 44] |ref={{SfnRef|Carlisle and Golson}} |editor-last2=Golson |editor-first2=J. Geoffrey}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pratt |first=Julius W. |title=Expansionists of 1812 |year=1925 |page=}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2024}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Heidler |first1=David |title=The War of 1812 |last2=Heidler |first2=Jeanne T. |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer |title=The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 |page=236}}</ref> Despite strong opposition from the [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]], especially from Federalists who did not want to disrupt trade with Britain, Congress [[United States declaration of war on the United Kingdom|declared war on the United Kingdom]] on June 18, 1812.{{Sfn|Wood, Empire of Liberty|pages=660-672}}

[[File:Battle erie.jpg|thumb|After the [[Battle of Lake Erie]], [[Oliver Hazard Perry]]'s message to [[William Henry Harrison]] began with: "We have met the enemy and they are ours", depicted in a 1865 painting by [[William Henry Powell (artist)|William H. Powell]].<ref>{{Cite web |title="We have met the enemy and they are ours" |work=[[U.S. National Park Service]] |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/met-the-enemy-4.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818083855/https://www.nps.gov/articles/met-the-enemy-4.htm |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |access-date=August 18, 2018}}</ref>]]
Both sides tried to invade the other and were repelled. The American militia proved ineffective because the soldiers were reluctant to leave home, and efforts to invade Canada failed repeatedly. The British blockade ruined American commerce, bankrupted the Treasury, and further angered New Englanders who began smuggling supplies to Britain. Under General [[William Henry Harrison]], the Americans eventually [[Battle of Lake Erie|gained naval control of Lake Erie]] and defeated the Indians under [[Tecumseh]] in Canada,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smelser |first=Marshall |date=March 1969 |title=Tecumseh, Harrison, and the War of 1812 |url=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/imh/printable/VAA4025-065-1-a02 |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=25–44 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325223126/http://fedora.dlib.indiana.edu:8080/iudl-dissem/pdf?fullItemId=%2Fimh%2FVAA4025-065-1-a02 |archive-date=March 25, 2020}}</ref> while [[Andrew Jackson]] ended the Indian threat in the Southeast. The Indian threat to expansion into the Midwest was permanently ended. The British invaded and occupied much of Maine.

In 1814, the British [[Burning of Washington|raided and burned Washington]] but were [[Battle of Baltimore|pushed back at Baltimore]], where "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]" was written to celebrate the American success. In upstate New York, a major British invasion of New York State was repelled at the [[Battle of Plattsburgh]], and Andrew Jackson decisively defeated a major British invasion at the [[Battle of New Orleans]] in early 1815.{{Sfn|Stagg, War of 1812|pages=152–153}} The Americans claimed victory on February 18, as the news broke of Jackson's victory of New Orleans and the [[Treaty of Ghent|peace treaty]] that left the pre-war boundaries in place. This "second war of independence" contributed to an emerging American identity that cemented [[national pride]] over state pride.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Remini |first=Robert V. |title=A Short history of the United States |year=2008 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |isbn=978-0-06-083144-8 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=74–75 |oclc=167504400}}</ref> The War of 1812 also dispelled America's negative perception of a [[standing army]] as opposed to ill-equipped and poorly trained militias.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Langguth |first=A.J. |title=Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence |url=https://archive.org/details/union181200ajla |year=2006 |chapter=24: Afterward (1815–1861) |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9780743226189}}</ref>

===Era of Good Feelings===
{{Main|Era of Good Feelings}}
[[File:Election Day 1815 by John Lewis Krimmel.jpg|thumb|Depiction of election-day activities in [[Philadelphia]] by [[John Lewis Krimmel]] in 1815]]
National euphoria after the victory at [[New Orleans]] ruined the prestige of the Federalists, and they no longer played a significant role as a political party.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Banner |first=James |title=To the Hartford Convention: the Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1789–1815 |url=https://archive.org/details/tohartfordconven0000bann |year=1969}}</ref> President Madison and most of the Republicans realized they had been foolish to allow the [[First Bank of the United States]] to close down, for its absence had greatly hindered the financing of the war. With the assistance of foreign bankers, they chartered the [[Second Bank of the United States]] in 1816.{{Sfn|Dangerfield}}{{Sfn|Goodman|pp=56–89}}

The Republicans also imposed tariffs designed to protect the infant industries that had been created when Britain was blockading the U.S. With the collapse of the Federalists as a party, the adoption of many Federalist principles by the Republicans, and the systematic policy of President [[James Monroe]] in his two terms (1817{{nbnd}}1825) to downplay partisanship, society entered an [[Era of Good Feelings]] and closed out the First Party System.{{Sfn|Dangerfield}}{{Sfn|Goodman|pp=56–89}}

Expressed in 1823, the [[Monroe Doctrine]] proclaimed the idealistic standpoint of the United States that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas. This was a defining moment in [[U.S. foreign policy]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gilderhus |first=Mark T. |date=March 2006 |title=The Monroe Doctrine: Meanings and Implications |journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=5–16 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-5705.2006.00282.x}}</ref>

In 1832, President Andrew Jackson ran for a second term under the slogan "Jackson and no bank" and did not renew the Second Bank's charter, dissolving the bank in 1836.<ref name="North Carolina History" /> He was convinced that central banking was used by the elite to take advantage of the average American, and he opted instead to implement publicly owned banks in various U.S. states, popularly known as "pet banks".<ref name="North Carolina History">{{Cite web |title=Andrew Jackson |url=http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/769/entry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127032954/http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/769/entry |archive-date=January 27, 2016 |website=North Carolina History Project}}</ref>

==Expansion and reform (1830–1848)==
{{Main|History of the United States (1815–1849)}}

===Second Party System===
{{Main|Second Party System|Presidency of Andrew Jackson}}

The former Jeffersonian (Democratic-Republican) party split into factions over the choice of a successor to President [[James Monroe]], and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by [[Andrew Jackson]] and [[Martin Van Buren]], became the Democratic Party. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828:
{{Blockquote
|Jacksonians believed the people's will had finally prevailed. Through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president. The Democrats became the nation's first well-organized national party, and tight party organization became the hallmark of nineteenth-century American politics.{{Sfn|Norton et al.}}}}Opposing factions led by [[Henry Clay]] helped form the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]]. The Democratic Party had a small but decisive advantage over the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] until the 1850s, when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery.

===Westward expansion and manifest destiny===
{{Main|American frontier|Manifest destiny|Indian removal}}
[[File:Trails of Tears en.png|thumb|The Indian Removal Act resulted in the transplantation of several [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American tribes]] and the [[Trail of Tears]]]]
The country grew rapidly in population and area, as pioneers pushed the frontier of settlement west.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hine |first1=Robert V. |title=Frontiers: A Short History of the American West |last2=Faragher |first2=John Mack |year=2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The New Encyclopedia of the American West |year=1998 |editor-last=Lamar |editor-first=Howard R.}}</ref> Native American tribes in some places resisted militarily, but they were overwhelmed by settlers and the army, and after 1830, were relocated to reservations in the west.{{Sfn|Hine and Faragher, American West |page=10}} That year, Congress passed the [[Indian Removal Act]], which authorized the president to negotiate treaties that exchanged Native American tribal lands in the eastern states for lands west of the Mississippi River.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Heidler |first1=David |title=Indian Removal |last2=Heidler |first2=Jeanne T. |year=2006}}</ref> Its goal was primarily to remove Native Americans, including the [[Five Civilized Tribes]], from desirable lands in what's now [[Oklahoma]].<ref name="Remini-2002">{{Cite book |last=Remini |first=Robert Vincent |title=Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars |year=2002}}</ref> Thousands of deaths resulted from the relocations, as seen in the Cherokee [[Trail of Tears]],<ref name="Remini-2002" /> most infamously of which resulted in approximately 4,000 of the 16,000 relocated [[Cherokee]] dying along the way in 1838.{{Sfn|Stannard|1993 |p=124}}{{Sfn|Thornton|pages=75–93}} Many of the [[Seminole Indians]] in Florida refused to move west, and fought the Army for years in the [[Seminole Wars]].

[[File:1850 Woman and Men in California Gold Rush.jpg|thumb|During the [[California Gold Rush]], some 300,000 people relocated to [[California]] from the rest of the United States and abroad following the discovery of gold in the state.]][[Manifest destiny]] was the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across the continent.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=41–46}} Manifest destiny was rejected by modernizers, especially the Whigs like [[Henry Clay]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]] who wanted to build cities and factories – not more farms.{{Efn|[[Daniel Walker Howe|Howe]] argued that, "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity."{{Sfn|Howe|page=798}}}} [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] strongly favored expansion, and won the key [[1844 United States presidential election|election of 1844]]. After a bitter debate in Congress, the [[Texas annexation|Republic of Texas was annexed]] in 1845, leading to the [[Mexican–American War]].{{Sfn|Hine and Faragher, American West<!--chapter=6–7-->}} The U.S. Army invaded Mexico at several points, [[Battle for Mexico City|captured Mexico City]], and won the war decisively.{{Sfn|Howe|page=798}}

The [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] ended the war in 1848. In the treaty, the U.S. acquired much of the [[American Southwest]], including [[California]] and [[New Mexico]], with Mexico being paid $15 million in compensation. Many Democrats wanted to annex all of Mexico, but that idea was rejected by [[White Southerners]], who argued that incorporating millions of [[Mexican people]], mainly of mixed race, would undermine the U.S. as an exclusively white republic.{{Sfn|Howe|page=798}} Instead, the [[Texas annexation|U.S. took Texas]] and the lightly settled northern parts (California and New Mexico). Simultaneously, gold was discovered in California in 1848, and led to over 100,000 white settlers flocking to California in 1849, the [[California Gold Rush]] miners, known as '49ers. [[California]] grew rapidly, and by 1850,the non-native population went from 1,000 to over 125,000 people by 1850. However, many Indians were devastated by the rapid influx of the rush of white settlers in the 1850s, and to clear the state for white settlement, the U.S. government began a [[California genocide|policy of forcibly removing and exterminating the natives]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Madley |first=Benjamin |year=2016 |title=An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873}}</ref> The early 1830s to 1869, the [[Oregon Trail]] and its offshoots were used by over 300,000 settlers headed to California, [[Oregon]], and other points in the far west. [[Wagon train]]s took five or six months on foot.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Unruh |first=John David |title=[[The Plains Across|The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants on the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–1860]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-252-06360-2 |page=120 |publisher=University of Illinois Press}}</ref> 

A peaceful compromise with Britain gave the U.S. ownership of the [[Oregon Country]], which was renamed the [[Oregon Territory]].{{Sfn|Hine and Faragher, American West}} The demand for [[guano]], prized as an agricultural [[fertilizer]], led the U.S. to pass the [[Guano Islands Act]] in 1856, which enabled U.S. citizens to take possession, in the name of the country, of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. Under the act, the U.S. annexed nearly 100 islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. By 1903, 66 of these islands were recognized as U.S. territories.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vandermeer |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AFRQSuQGHiIC |title=The Ecology of Agroecosystems |year=2011 |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning |isbn=9780763771539 |page=149}}</ref>

The [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage movement]] began with the [[Seneca Falls Convention]] in 1848. It was organized by women's rights advocates and abolitionists, [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and [[Lucretia Mott]]. The convention began on July 19, 1848 in the town of [[Seneca Falls, New York]], with 300 people in attendance, and concluded the next day with signing the [[Declaration of Sentiments]] demanding equal rights for women, including the right to vote.{{Efn|The [[Seneca Falls Convention]] was preceded by the [[Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women]] in 1837 held in New York City, at which women's rights issues were debated, especially African-American women's rights.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Ann D. |title=African American women and the vote, 1837–1965 |last2=Collier-Thomas |first2=Bettye |year=1997 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |isbn=978-1-55849-059-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw0000unse_q4k8/page/2 2–9] |chapter=Introduction |author-link=Ann D. Gordon |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw0000unse_q4k8/page/2}}</ref>}} The women's rights campaign during [[first-wave feminism]] was led by [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], [[Lucy Stone]] and [[Susan B. Anthony]], among others. Stone and [[Paulina Wright Davis]] organized the prominent and influential [[National Women's Rights Convention]] in 1850.<ref name="Mead-2006">{{Cite book |last=Mead |first=Rebecca J. |title=How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868–1914 |year=2006}}</ref>

==Civil War and Reconstruction (1848–1877)==
{{Main|American Civil War|Reconstruction era|Greater Reconstruction}}

=== Divisions between North and South ===
{{Main|Origins of the American Civil War|History of the United States (1849–1865)|Abolitionism in the United States}}
{{See also|Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|Proslavery thought|Antebellum South}}[[File:US Secession map 1863 (BlankMap derived).png|thumb|upright=1.15|An 1863 map of the United States during the [[American Civil War]], showing the affiliation of states and territories
{{Legend|#002255| Union states}}
{{Legend|#6895c9| Union territories not permitting slavery}}
{{Legend|#ffff00| Border Union states, permitting slavery}}
{{Legend|#dd5500| Confederate states}}
{{Legend|#EDB360| Union territories permitting slavery (claimed by Confederacy)}}]]

The central issue after 1848 was the expansion of slavery, with the anti-slavery elements in the North pitted against the pro-slavery elements in the South.<ref name="Forret-2012" /> By 1860, there were four million slaves in the South. A small number of Northerners called abolitionists [[Abolitionism in the United States|sought the immediate abolition of slavery]], while much larger numbers in the North were opposed to the expansion of slavery and sought to put it on the path to extinction.<ref name="Forret-2012" /> 

There was resistance to slavery by both peaceful and violent means. [[Slave rebellion and resistance in the United States|Slave rebellions]] by [[Gabriel Prosser]] (1800), [[Denmark Vesey]] (1822) and [[Nat Turner's Rebellion|Nat Turner]] (1831), caused fear in the white South, where stricter oversight of slaves was imposed, and the rights of free Black people were reduced.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} [[Southern Democrats|Southern white Democrats]] insisted that slavery was of economic, social, and cultural benefit, even to the slaves themselves.<ref name="Forret-2012">{{Cite book |last=Forret |first=Jeff |title=Slavery in the United States |year=2012 |publisher=Facts on File}}</ref> Supporters of slavery argued that a sudden end to the slave economy would have a fatal economic impact in the South, causing widespread unemployment and chaos; slave labor was the foundation of their economy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Southern Argument for Slavery |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608013217/http://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp |archive-date=June 8, 2017 |access-date=June 3, 2017 |website=USHistory.org}}</ref> 

The [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]] were highly profitable because of the heavy European demand for raw cotton. Northern cities and regional industries were tied economically to slavery through banking, shipping, and manufacturing, including their [[textile mills]]. In addition, Southern states benefited from slavery by having an increased apportionment in Congress due to the partial counting of slaves in their populations.
[[File:Remember Your Weekly Pledge Massachusetts Anti-Slavey Society collection box.jpg|thumb|''Remember Your Weekly Pledge'', a collection box for the [[Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society]] in 1850]]

The issue of slavery in the new territories was seemingly settled by the [[Compromise of 1850]], which included the admission of California as a [[Slave states and free states|free state]] in exchange for no federal restrictions on slavery placed on Utah or New Mexico.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Compromise of 1850 |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170602064405/http://www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp |archive-date=June 2, 2017 |access-date=June 3, 2017 |website=USHistory.org}}</ref> A point of contention was the [[Fugitive Slave Act]], requiring free states to cooperate with slave owners when attempting to capture escaped slaves who defected via the [[Underground Railroad]], while punishing those who aided runaway slaves. The act garnered outrage in the North, as they were forced to play a role in Southern slavery.<ref name="Rotunda-1992">{{Cite book |last=Rotunda |first=Ronald D. |title=Treatise on constitutional law : substance and procedure |year=1992 |publisher=West Pub. Co |isbn=0-314-00805-5 |oclc=769785178}}</ref><ref name="APP-1860">{{Cite web |title=Republican Party Platform of 1860 |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1860 |access-date=September 22, 2022 |website=The American Presidency Project}}</ref><ref name="Bordewich-2012">{{Cite book |last=Bordewich |first=Fergus M. |title=America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union |year=2012}}</ref>

The Missouri Compromise was repealed in 1854 with the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]]; promoted by Stephen Douglas in the name of "[[Popular sovereignty in the United States|popular sovereignty]]" and democracy, this act of Congress permitted voters to decide on the legality of slavery in each territory, and repealed the [[Missouri Compromise of 1820]], which explicitly banned slavery in this territory. Anti-slavery forces rose in anger and alarm, forming the new [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] to oppose the expansion of slavery out west. Pro- and anti- slavery settlers rushed to Kansas to vote for or against slavery, resulting in years of bloodshed and violence called [[Bleeding Kansas]]. By the late 1850s, the young Republican Party dominated nearly all Northern states, and hence the electoral colleges. The party insisted that slavery would never be allowed to expand and would therefore slowly die out.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Etcheson |first=Nicole |title=Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era |year=2006}}</ref>

The Supreme Court's 1857 decision in ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]'' ruled that the Compromise was unconstitutional, and that free Black people were not U.S. citizens, and therefore unable to sue for their freedom. The decision enraged Northerners, and the Republicans worried that the decision could be used to expand slavery. The decision exacerbated tensions over slavery.<ref name="Rotunda-1992" /><ref name="APP-1860" /><ref name="Bordewich-2012" />

=== Civil War ===
{{Main|American Civil War|Confederate States of America|1860 United States presidential election}}
{{See also|Union Army|Confederate States Army|Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War|End of the American Civil War|End of slavery in the United States}}

After Republican [[Abraham Lincoln]] won the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 election]], seven Southern states [[seceded]] from the Union and formed the [[Confederate States of America]] (Confederacy) on February 8, 1861 in order to persevere the instituton of slavery.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 28, 2024 |title=Confederate States of America - History, President, Map, Facts, & Flag |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Confederate-States-of-America |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The [[American Civil War|Civil War]] began on April 12, 1861, when [[Battle of Fort Sumter|Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter]] in South Carolina. In response, Lincoln [[Proclamation 80|called on the states to send militiamen]] to recapture forts, protect Washington D.C., and "preserve the Union".{{Sfn|Guelzo, Fateful Lightning}} Lincoln's call led to four more states seceding and joining the Confederacy. A few of the (northernmost) slave states did not secede and became known as the [[Border states (American Civil War)|border states]]; these were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} During the war, the northwestern portion of Virginia seceded from the Confederacy, becoming the new Union state of [[West Virginia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stampp |first=Kenneth |title=The Causes of the Civil War |year=2008}}</ref>

The two armies' first major battle was the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], which the Confederate victory proved to both sides that the war would be much longer than anticipated.{{Sfn|Guelzo, Fateful Lightning}} In the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|western theater]], the [[Union Army]] was relatively successful, with major battles such as [[Battle of Perryville|Perryville]] and [[Battle of Shiloh|Shiloh]], along with [[Union Navy]] gunboat dominance of navigable rivers producing strategic Union victories and destroying major Confederate operations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodworth |first=Stephen E. |title=Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West |year=2011}}</ref> Warfare in the [[Eastern Theater of the American Civil War|eastern theater]] began poorly for the Union. U.S. General [[George B. McClellan]] failed to capture the Confederate capital of [[Richmond, Virginia]], in his [[Peninsula campaign]] and [[Seven Days Battles|retreated after attacks]] from Confederate General [[Robert E. Lee]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Catton |first=Bruce |title=The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln's Army |url=https://archive.org/details/brucecatton0000unse |year=1962}}</ref> 

Meanwhile, in 1861 and 1862, both sides concentrated on raising and training new armies. The Union successfully gained control of the border states, driving the Confederates out.<ref name="McPherson">{{Cite magazine |last=McPherson |first=James M. |title=To Conquer a Peace? |magazine=[[Civil War Times]] |volume=46 |pages=26–33 |author-link=James M. McPherson |issue=2 |orig-date=March–April 2007}}</ref> Lee's [[Army of Northern Virginia]] won battles in late 1862 and spring 1863, but he pushed too hard and ignored the Union threat in the west. He [[Gettysburg campaign|invaded Pennsylvania]] in search of supplies and to cause [[war-weariness]] in the North. In September 17, 1862, the [[Battle of Antietam]] was fought in [[Maryland]], which would result in over 23,000 casualties in bloodiest day of the Civil War.<ref name="Harris-1863">{{Cite web |title=The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html |access-date=September 24, 2022 |website=press.uchicago.edu}}</ref>
[[File:General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House 1865.jpg|thumb|A portrait of [[Robert E. Lee]] and the [[Confederate States Army]] surrendering to the [[Union Army]] following the [[Battle of Appomattox Court House]] in [[Appomattox County, Virginia]], on April 9, 1865]]

The [[Emancipation Proclamation]], issued by Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freed three million slaves in designated areas of the Confederacy in order to weaken the Confederate's troops and supplies.{{Sfn|Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation}} In perhaps the [[turning point of the American Civil War|turning point of the war]], Lee's army was badly beaten by the [[Army of the Potomac]], and in July 1863, the [[Union army|Union]]'s victory at the [[Battle of Gettysburg]] in [[Pennsylvania]], the [[List of battles with most United States military fatalities|deadliest battle in American military history]] with over 50,000 causualties, proved a [[Turning point of the American Civil War|turning point in the war]].<ref name="McPherson" /> Survivors of the battle were immediately redeployed to suppress the [[New York City draft riots]] by Irish Americans protesting [[Conscription in the United States|Civil War conscription]] and the city's free Black population.<ref name="Harris-1863" /> 

In July 1863, Union forces under General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] gained control of the Mississippi River at the [[Battle of Vicksburg]], splitting the Confederacy. In 1864, Union General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] marched south from [[Chattanooga]] to capture [[Atlanta]], a decisive victory that ended war jitters among Republicans in the North and helped Lincoln [[1864 United States presidential election|win re-election]]. [[Sherman's march to the sea]] was almost unopposed. Much of the South was destroyed, and could no longer provide desperately needed supplies to its armies. In spring 1864, Grant launched a [[war of attrition]] and pursued Lee to the final [[Appomattox campaign]], which resulted in Lee [[Battle of Appomattox Court House|surrendering]] in April 1865, ending the war after four years.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} By May 1865, the Union Army controlled all of the Confederacy and liberated all of the designated slaves.{{Sfn|Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation}}

The Civil War was the world's earliest [[Industrial warfare|industrial war]]. Railroads, the [[telegraph]], steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. Civilian factories, mines, shipyards, and were mobilized.<ref name="Huddleston-2002" /> Foreign trade increased, with the U.S. providing both food and cotton to Britain, and Britain sending in manufactured products and thousands of volunteers for the Union Army, and a few to the [[Confederate army]]. The Union blockade shut down Confederate ports. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of about 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of [[civilian casualties]].{{Efn|A new way of calculating casualties by looking at the deviation of the death rate of men of fighting age from the norm through analysis of census data found that at least 627,000 and at most 888,000 people, but most likely 761,000 people, died through the war.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hacker |first=J. David |date=September 20, 2011 |title=Recounting the Dead |work=[[New York Times]] |url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/recounting-the-dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220224039/https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/recounting-the-dead |archive-date=December 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hacker |first=J. David |year=2011 |title=A census-based count of the Civil War dead |journal=Civil War History |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=307–348 |doi=10.1353/cwh.2011.0061 |pmid=22512048 |s2cid=30195230}}</ref>}} About ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and thirty percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40 died.<ref name="Huddleston-2002">{{Cite book |last=Huddleston |first=John |title=Killing Ground: The Civil War and the Changing American Landscape |date=2002 |url=https://archive.org/details/killinggroundpho0000hudd |page=[https://archive.org/details/killinggroundpho0000hudd/page/3 3] |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=9780801867736}}</ref> Many Black people died after being dislocated during the war and Reconstruction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Downs |first=Jim |title=Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction |year=2015}}</ref>

=== Reconstruction ===
{{Main|Reconstruction era|History of the United States (1865–1918)}}
{{Further|Ku Klux Klan|Jim Crow laws|Nadir of American race relations}}
[[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] followed after the end of the war.{{Sfn|Guelzo, Fateful Lightning}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |title=A Short History of Reconstruction |url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofre00eric |year=1990 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=9780060964313 |author-link=Eric Foner}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Summers |first=Mark Wahlgren |title=The Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction |year=2014}}</ref> Days after the American Civil War ended with the Union victory and the surrender of the [[Surrender at Appomattox|Appatomox Court House]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 5, 2024 |title=Reconstruction - Definition, Summary, Timeline & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Lincoln was [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassinated]] at Ford's Theater in [[Washington D.C.]] in April 1865 by [[John Wilkes Booth]], and was succeeded by [[Andrew Johnson]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 28, 2024 |title=Assassination of Abraham Lincoln - Summary, Conspirators, Trial, Impact, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/assassination-of-Abraham-Lincoln |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:East and West Shaking hands at the laying of last rail Union Pacific Railroad - Restoration.jpg|thumb|A May 10, 1869 picture of the completion of the [[first transcontinental railroad]] in [[Promontory, Utah]]]]

After the war, the far west was developed and settled, first by wagon trains and riverboats, and then by the [[first transcontinental railroad]] in 1869. Many Northern European immigrants took up low-cost or free farms in the Prairie States. Mining for silver and copper encouraged development.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900–2000 |url=https://www.pbs.org/fmc/book/1population10.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815021759/http://www.pbs.org/fmc/book/1population10.htm |archive-date=August 15, 2017 |website=[[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS)}}</ref>
[[File:FreedmenVotingInNewOrleans1867.jpeg|thumb|An illustration of African-American [[Freedman|Freedmen]] voting in [[New Orleans]] in 1867]]

The severe threats of starvation and displacement of the unemployed [[Freedmen]] were met by the first major federal relief agency, the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], operated by the Army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cimbala |first=Paul A. |title=The Freedmen's Bureau: Reconstructing the American South after the Civil War |year=2005}}</ref> The bureau also took in freed slaves.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} Three "[[Reconstruction Amendments]]" expanded civil rights for black Americans: the 1865 [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] outlawed slavery;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thirteenth Amendment - Definition, Significance, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thirteenth-Amendment |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> the 1868 [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] guaranteed equal rights and citizenship for Black people;<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 8, 2024 |title=Fourteenth Amendment - Definition, Summary, Rights, Significance, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fourteenth-Amendment |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> the 1870 [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]] prevented race from being used to disenfranchise men.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 2, 2024 |title=Fifteenth Amendment - Definition, Significance, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fifteenth-Amendment |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> 

Ex-Confederates remained in control of most Southern states for over two years, until the [[Radical Republicans]] gained control of Congress in the [[1866 elections]]. Johnson, who sought good treatment for ex-Confederates, was virtually powerless in the face of Congress and vetoed many civil rights laws; [[Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|he was impeached]] in 1868, but the Senate's [[Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson|attempt to remove him]] from office failed by one vote. Congress enfranchised black men and temporarily banned many ex-Confederate leaders from holding office. New Republican governments came to power based on a coalition of Freedmen made up of [[Carpetbagger]]s (new arrivals from the North), and [[Scalawag]]s (native white Southerners), backed by the Army. Opponents said they were corrupt and violated the rights of whites.{{Sfn|Rable}} 

During Reconstruction, for a brief period, many freed blacks could vote, and even hold public office as the Republicans occupied the South. In response to Radical Reconstruction, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK) emerged in 1865 as a white-supremacist terrorist organization opposed to black civil rights and Republican rule. President Ulysses Grant's enforcement of the [[Ku Klux Klan Act]] of 1871 shut them down.{{Sfn|Rable}} Paramilitary groups, such as the [[White League]] and [[Red Shirts (United States)|Red Shirts]] emerging around 1874, openly intimidated and attacked Black people voting.{{Sfn|Rable}}

[[File:Kkk-carpetbagger-cartoon.jpg|thumb|A September 1, 1868 cartoon from [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]]'s ''Independent Monitor'', threatening that the [[First Klan|KKK]] will [[Lynching|lynch]] [[scalawag]]s (left) and [[carpetbagger]]s (right) the day [[President of the United States|President]] [[Ulysses S. Grant]] takes office in 1869]]

Reconstruction ended after the disputed [[1876 United States presidential election|1876 election]]. The [[Compromise of 1877]] gave Republican [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] the presidency in exchange for removing all remaining federal troops in the South, as the Democrats regained control of the Congress, and Reconstruction came to an end in 1877. As a result, the southern states passes harsh laws on African-Americans known as [[Jim Crow laws]], that effectively [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] Black and poor white voters by making voter registration more difficult through [[Poll taxes in the United States|poll taxes]] and [[literacy test]]s. Black people were segregated from whites in the violently enforced Jim Crow system, and lynchings and threats of violence against blacks were commonplace.{{Sfn|Vann Woodward}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jim Crow Laws - Causes and Effects |url=https://www.britannica.com/summary/Jim-Crow-Laws-Causes-and-Effects |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ayers |first=Edward L. |title=The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction |url=https://archive.org/details/promiseofnewso00ayer |year=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/promiseofnewso00ayer/page/3 3]–54 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-503756-2}}</ref> In 1882, the United States passed the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] (which barred all Chinese immigrants except for students and businessmen),<ref name="Anderson Diplomacy">{{cite journal |first=David L. |last=Anderson |title=The Diplomacy of Discrimination: Chinese Exclusion, 1876–1882 |journal=California History |volume=57 |issue=1 |year=1978 |pages=32–45 |doi=10.2307/25157814 |jstor=25157814}}</ref> and the [[Immigration Act of 1882]] (which barred all immigrants with mental health issues).<ref>Roger Daniels and Otis L. Graham, Debating American Immigration, 1882–present (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 14.</ref> 

==Gilded Age and the Progressive Era (1877–1914)==
{{Main|Gilded Age|Progressive Era|Second Industrial Revolution}}

=== After Reconstruction ===

The "[[Gilded Age]]" was a term that [[Mark Twain]] used to describe the period of the late 19th century with a dramatic expansion of American wealth and prosperity, underscored by mass corruption in government.<ref name="Trachtenberg-2007">{{Cite book |last=Trachtenberg |first=Alan |title=The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age |year=2007}}</ref> Some historians have argued that the United States was effectively [[plutocratic]] for at least part of the era.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pettigrew |first=Richard Franklin |title=Triumphant Plutocracy: The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920 |year=2010 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=978-1146542746}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Historical dictionary of the Gilded Age |year=2003 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0765603319 |editor-last=Schlup |editor-first=Leonard |publication-place=Armonk, N.Y. |page=145 |editor-last2=Ryan |editor-first2=James G.}}, (foreword by Vincent P. De Santis)</ref>{{Sfn|Beard}} As financiers and industrialists such as [[J.P. Morgan]] and [[John D. Rockefeller]] began to amass vast fortunes, many observers were concerned that the nation was losing its pioneering egalitarian spirit.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Piketty |first=Thomas |title=[[Capital in the Twenty-First Century]] |year=2014 |publisher=[[Belknap Press]] |isbn=978-0674430006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780674430006/page/348 348]–349 |author-link=Thomas Piketty}}</ref>

An unprecedented wave of [[Immigration to the United States|immigration]] from Europe served to both provide the labor for American industry and create diverse communities in previously undeveloped areas. From 1880 to 1914, peak years of immigration, more than 22 million people migrated to the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Growth of U.S. Population |url=http://www.theusaonline.com/people/growth.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123083235/http://www.theusaonline.com/people/growth.htm |archive-date=January 23, 2010 |url-status=usurped |website=TheUSAonline.com}}</ref> Most were unskilled workers who quickly found jobs in mines, mills, and factories. Many immigrants were craftsmen and farmers who purchased inexpensive land on the prairies. Poverty, growing inequality and dangerous working conditions, along with [[History of the socialist movement in the United States|socialist]] and [[Anarchism in the United States|anarchist]] ideas diffusing from European immigrants, led to the rise of the [[Labor history of the United States|labor movement]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Bacon |first=Katie |date=June 12, 2007 |title=The Dark Side of the Gilded Age |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-dark-side-of-the-gilded-age/306012 |access-date=March 24, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223114403/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-dark-side-of-the-gilded-age/306012 |archive-date=December 23, 2016}}</ref>{{Sfn|Zinn|pages=264–282}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Fraser |first=Steve |title=The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-316-18543-1 |page=66}}</ref>

Dissatisfaction on the part of the growing middle class with the corruption and inefficiency of politics, and the failure to deal with increasingly important urban and industrial problems, led to the dynamic [[progressive movement]] starting in the 1890s. Progressives called for the modernization and reform of decrepit institutions in the fields of politics, education, medicine, and industry.<ref name="digital history progressive" /> [[Muckraker|"Muckraking" journalists]] exposed corruption in business and government, and highlighted rampant inner-city poverty. Progressives implemented antitrust laws and regulated such industries of meatpacking, drugs, and railroads. Four new constitutional amendments – the [[Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Sixteenth]] through [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth]] – resulted from progressive activism, bringing the [[federal income tax]], direct election of Senators, prohibition, and female suffrage.<ref name="digital history progressive">{{Cite web |last=Mintz |first=Steven |year=2006 |title=Learn About the Progressive Era |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/progressivism/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012035636/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/progressivism/index.cfm |archive-date=October 12, 2007 |access-date=February 6, 2008 |website=Digital History |publisher=[[University of Houston]]}}</ref>

In 1881, President [[James A. Garfield]] was assassinated by [[Charles Guiteau]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=James A. Garfield - 20th President, Assassination, Civil War |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-A-Garfield/Presidency |access-date=June 9, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

====Unions and strikes====
{{Main|Labor history of the United States|Union violence in the United States}}
[[File:940721-remington-givingthemthebutt-harpersweekly.jpg|thumb|A ''[[Harpers Weekly]]'' illustration by [[Frederic Remington]] depicting hundreds of boxcars and coal cars looted and burned and state and federal troops violently attacked striking workers on July 7, 1894]]
Skilled workers banded together to control their crafts and raise wages by forming labor unions in industrial areas of the Northeast. [[Samuel Gompers]] led the [[American Federation of Labor]] (1886–1924), coordinating multiple unions. In response to heavy debts and decreasing farm prices, wheat and cotton farmers joined the [[People's Party (United States)|Populist Party]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mintz |first=Steven |date=June 5, 2008 |title=Learn About the Gilded Age |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/gilded_age/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516192932/http://digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/gilded_age/index.cfm |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |access-date=June 5, 2008 |website=Digital History |publisher=University of Houston}}</ref>

The [[Panic of 1893]] created a severe nationwide depression.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoffmann |first=Charles |year=1956 |title=The Depression of the Nineties |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=137–164 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700058629 |jstor=2114113 |s2cid=155082457}}</ref> Many railroads went bankrupt. Labor unrest involved numerous strikes, most notably the violent [[Pullman Strike]] of 1894, which was forcibly shut down by federal troops. One of the disillusioned leaders of the Pullman strike, [[Eugene V. Debs]], went on to become the leader of the [[Socialist Party of America]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sebakijje |first=Lena |title=Research Guides: Eugene Debs: Topics in Chronicling America: Introduction |url=https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-eugene-debs/introduction |access-date=September 24, 2023 |website=guides.loc.gov |language=en}}</ref>

==== Economic growth ====
Important legislation of the era included the 1883 [[Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act|Civil Service Act]], which mandated a competitive examination for applicants for government jobs, the 1887 [[Interstate Commerce Act]], which ended railroads' discrimination against small shippers, and the 1890 [[Sherman Antitrust Act]], which outlawed monopolies in business.<ref name="Trachtenberg-2007" />

After 1893, the Populist Party gained strength among farmers and coal miners, but was overtaken by the even more popular [[Free silver]] movement, which demanded using silver to enlarge the money supply and end the depression.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Worth Robert |year=1993 |title=A Centennial Historiography of American Populism |url=http://history.missouristate.edu/wrmiller/Populism/texts/historiography.htm |journal=Kansas History |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=54–69 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702202601/http://history.missouristate.edu/wrmiller/Populism/Texts/historiography.htm |archive-date=July 2, 2010}}</ref> Financial and railroad communities fought back hard, arguing that only the [[gold standard]] would save the economy. In the [[1896 United States presidential election|1896 presidential election]], conservative Republican [[William McKinley]] defeated silverite [[William Jennings Bryan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harpine |first=William D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LANgsuVoBwC |title=From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign |year=2006 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=9781585445592 |pages=176–186 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929001850/https://books.google.com/books?id=0LANgsuVoBwC |archive-date=September 29, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:McKinleyAssassination.jpg|thumb|The [[Assassination of William McKinley|assassination]] of [[William McKinley]] in [[Buffalo, New York]] on September 6, 1901, depicted in a portrait by [[Leon Czolgosz]]]]

Prosperity returned under McKinley. The gold standard was enacted, and the tariff was raised. By 1900, the U.S. had the strongest economy in the world.<ref name="Morgan-1966" /> McKinley was [[Assassination of William McKinley|assassinated]] by [[Leon Czolgosz]] in 1901, and was succeeded by [[Theodore Roosevelt]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 28, 2024 |title=William McKinley - Biography, Presidency, Assassination, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-McKinley |access-date=June 9, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

The period also saw a major transformation of the banking system, with the arrival of the first [[credit union]] in 1908 and the creation of the [[Federal Reserve System]] in 1913.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kazin |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWLGcZ7pyAC&pg=PA181 |title=The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political Turn up History |year=2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400839469 |page=181 |display-authors=etal |access-date=November 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519113935/https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWLGcZ7pyAC&pg=PA181 |archive-date=May 19, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Credit Union History |url=https://www.acumuseum.org/credit-union-history |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612184356/https://www.acumuseum.org/credit-union-history |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |access-date=November 29, 2018}}</ref> Apart from two short recessions in [[Panic of 1907|1907]] and [[Depression of 1920–1921|1920]], the economy remained prosperous and growing until 1929.<ref name="Morgan-1966">{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=H. Wayne |year=1966 |title=William McKinley as a Political Leader |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=417–432 |doi=10.1017/S0034670500013188 |jstor=1405280 |s2cid=145544412}}</ref>

==== Imperialism ====
{{Further|American imperialism|Spanish–American War}}
[[File:Victor Gillam A Thing Well Begun Is Half Done 1899 Cornell CUL PJM 1136 01.jpg|thumb|A cartoon reflecting [[Judge (magazine)|''Judge'' magazine]] view that the U.S. maintained imperial ambitions following its quick victory in the [[Spanish–American War]] in 1898<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Thing Well Begun Is Half Done |url=https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:3293822 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170726170633/https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:3293822 |archive-date=July 26, 2017 |access-date=July 22, 2017 |website=Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection |publisher=Cornell University}}</ref>|left]]

The [[United States Army]] continued to fight [[American Indian Wars|wars with Native Americans]] as settlers encroached on their traditional lands. Gradually the U.S. purchased tribal lands and extinguished their claims, forcing most tribes onto subsidized [[Indian reservation|reservations]]. According to the [[U.S. Census Bureau]] in 1894, from 1789 to 1894, the Indian Wars killed 19,000 white people and more than 30,000 Indians.<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[U.S. Bureau of the Census]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWkUAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA637 |title=Report on Indians taxed and Indians not taxed in the United States (except Alaska) |year=1894 |publisher=Norman Ross Pub. |isbn=9780883544624 |page=637 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518093120/https://books.google.com/books?id=KWkUAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA637 |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Spanish–American War]] began when Spain refused American demands to reform its oppressive policies in [[Cuba]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Paterson |first=Thomas G. |year=1996 |title=United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpretations of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War |journal=The History Teacher |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=341–361 |doi=10.2307/494551 |jstor=494551}}</ref> The war was a series of quick American victories on land and at sea. At the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of Paris]] peace conference the United States acquired the [[Philippines]], [[Puerto Rico]], and [[Guam]].<ref name="Harrington">{{Cite journal |last=Harrington |first=Fred H. |year=1935 |title=The Anti-Imperialist Movement in the United States, 1898–1900 |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=211–230 |doi=10.2307/1898467 |jstor=1898467}}</ref> Cuba became an independent country, under close American tutelage. [[William Jennings Bryan]] led his Democratic Party in opposition to control of the Philippines, which he denounced as [[American imperialism|imperialism]].<ref name="Harrington" /> After defeating an [[Philippine–American War|insurrection by Filipino nationalists]], the United States achieved little in the Philippines except in education. Infrastructural development lost much of its early vigor with the failure of the railroads.{{Sfn|Stanley|pages=269–272}}

By 1908, however, Americans lost interest in an empire and turned their international attention to the Caribbean, especially the building of the [[Panama Canal]]. The canal opened in 1914 and increased trade with Japan and the rest of the Far East. A key innovation was the [[Open Door Policy]], whereby the imperial powers were given equal access to Chinese business, with none of them allowed to take control of China.{{Sfn|Jensen et al.}}

==== Women's suffrage ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in the United States}}
[[File:Suffragists Parade Down Fifth Avenue, 1917.JPG|thumb|A [[Women's suffrage|Women's suffragists]] parade in [[New York City]] in October 1917, featuring placards with the signatures of more than a million women<ref>{{Cite news |year=1917 |title=Suffragists Parade Down Fifth Avenue – 1917 |url=http://www.nytstore.com/Suffragists-Parade-Down-Fifth-Avenue--1917_p_5258.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106222925/http://www.nytstore.com/Suffragists-Parade-Down-Fifth-Avenue--1917_p_5258.html |archive-date=January 6, 2015 |access-date=August 17, 2017 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>]]

The women's suffrage movement reorganized after the Civil War. By the end of the 19th century, a few Western states had granted women full voting rights,<ref name="Mead-2006" /> and women gained rights in areas such as property and child custody law.{{Sfn|Riley|2001|p=?}}

Around 1912, the [[feminist movement]] reawakened, putting an emphasis on its demands for equality and arguing that the corruption of American politics demanded purification by women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kraditor |first=Aileen S. |title=The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement: 1890–1920 |year=1967 |author-link=Aileen S. Kraditor}}</ref> [[Alice Paul]] split from the large, moderate [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]] (NAWSA), led by [[Carrie Chapman Catt]], and formed the more militant [[National Woman's Party]]. Suffragists were arrested during their "[[Silent Sentinels]]" pickets at the White House and taken as [[political prisoner]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Katherine H. |title=Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign |last2=Keene |first2=Michael L. |year=2007}}</ref>

The anti-suffragist argument that only men could fight in a war, therefore only men deserved the right to vote, was refuted by the participation of American women on the [[United States home front during World War I|home front in World War I]]. The success of women's suffrage was demonstrated by the politics of some U.S. states that were already allowing women to vote, including Montana, which elected the first woman to the House of Representatives, [[Jeannette Rankin]]. The main resistance came from the South, where white leaders were worried about the threat of black women being allowed to vote. Congress passed the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] in 1919, and women first voted in 1920.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Frost-Knappman |first1=Elizabeth |title=Women's Suffrage in America |last2=Cullen-Dupont |first2=Kathryn |year=2004}}</ref> Politicians responded to the new electorate by emphasizing issues of special interest to women, especially [[Prohibition in the United States|prohibition]], child health, and world peace.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dumenil |first=Lynn |title=The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s |url=https://archive.org/details/moderntemperamer00dume |year=1995 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moderntemperamer00dume/page/98 98]–144 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9780809069781}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Andersen |first=Kristi |title=After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics before the New Deal |url=https://archive.org/details/aftersuffragewom00ande |year=1996 |publisher=University of Chicago |isbn=9780226019574 |author-link=Kristi Andersen}}</ref>

==Modern America and World Wars (1914–1945)==

===World War I and the interwar years===
{{Main|History of the United States (1917–1945)}}
{{see also|American entry into World War I|United States home front during World War I|United States in World War I|Roaring Twenties}}
[[File:Cimetière américain de Romagne-sous-Montfaucon - 1918 - France.JPG|thumb|[[Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery]] in [[France]], a cemetery for [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. servicemen]] killed in [[Europe]] during their service in [[World War I]]]]
As [[World War I]] raged in Europe from 1914, President [[Woodrow Wilson]] declared neutrality, but warned Germany that resumption of [[unrestricted submarine warfare]] against American ships would mean war. Germany decided to take the risk, and try to win by cutting off supplies to Britain through the sinking of ships such as the [[Sinking of the RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania'']]. The U.S. [[United States declaration of war on Germany (1917)|declared war]] in April 1917.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Germany's Decision for Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and Its Impact on the U.S. Declaration of War |encyclopedia=World War I: Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&pg=PA482 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |last=McNabb |first=James B. |year=2005 |editor-last=Roberts |editor-first=Priscilla Mary |pages=482–483 |isbn=9781851094202 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007155500/https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&pg=PA482 |archive-date=October 7, 2015 |editor-first2=Spencer |editor-last2=Tucker |url-status=live}}</ref>

By the summer of 1918 soldiers in General [[John J. Pershing]]'s [[American Expeditionary Forces]] arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, while Germany was unable to replace its losses.{{Sfn|Coffman}} Dissent against the war was suppressed by the [[Sedition Act of 1918]] and [[Espionage Act of 1917]]. Over 2,000 were imprisoned for speaking out against the war.<ref name="Kohn-1996">{{Cite journal |date=March 1, 1996 |title=American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. By Stephen M. Kohn. (Westport: Praeger, 1994. xviii, ISBN 0-275-94415-8.) |journal=Journal of American History |volume=82 |issue=4 |page=1688 |doi=10.1093/jahist/82.4.1688-a |issn=0021-8723}}</ref>

The [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] won in November 1918. Wilson dominated the [[1919 Paris Peace Conference]], putting his geopolitical hopes in the new [[League of Nations]] as Germany was treated harshly in the [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919). Wilson refused to compromise with Senate Republicans over the issue of Congressional power to declare war, and the Senate rejected the Treaty and the League.{{Sfn|Cooper}} Instead, the United States chose to pursue [[unilateralism]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 29, 1991 |title=Feature: World War I and isolationism, 1913–33 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_n17_v2/ai_11173912 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090102113850/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_n17_v2/ai_11173912 |archive-date=January 2, 2009}}</ref> The aftershock of Russia's [[October Revolution]] resulted in fears of Communism in the United States, leading to a [[First Red Scare|Red Scare]] and the deportation of non-citizens considered subversive.

Despite the Progressive-era modernization of hospitals and medical schools,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carlisle |first=Rodney P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYwn0je9MfYC&pg=PT245 |title=Handbook to Life in America |year=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438119014 |page=245ff |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=dYwn0je9MfYC&pg=PT245 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> the country lost around 550,000 lives to the [[Spanish flu]] pandemic in 1918 and 1919.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/1918-pandemic-history.htm |title=History of 1918 Flu Pandemic |website=CDC |date=January 22, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=April 15, 2024 |title=Influenza pandemic of 1918–19 - Cause, Origin, & Spread |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/influenza-pandemic-of-1918-1919 |access-date=June 9, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> During the "[[Roaring Twenties|Roaring]]" 1920s, the economy expanded. African-Americans benefited from the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] and had more cultural power, an example being the [[Harlem Renaissance]] which spread [[jazz]] music. Meanwhile, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] had a resurgence, and the [[Immigration Act of 1924]] was passed to strictly limit the number of new entries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Roaring Twenties - Definition, Music, History, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roaring-Twenties |access-date=June 9, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

[[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] began in 1920, when the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol were prohibited by the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment]]. [[Rum-running|Bootlegged alcohol]] in the cities ended up under the control of gangs, who fought each other for territory. Italian bootleggers in New York City gradually formed the [[American Mafia|Mafia]] crime syndicate. In 1933, President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] [[Cullen-Harrison Act|repealed prohibition]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 10, 2024 |title=Prohibition - Definition, History, Eighteenth Amendment, & Repeal |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Prohibition-United-States-history-1920-1933 |access-date=June 9, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

===Great Depression and the New Deal===
{{Main|New Deal|Presidency of Herbert Hoover|Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt}}
[[File:Money supply during the great depression era.png|thumb|A depiction of the sharp decrease of the money supply between [[Black Tuesday]] and the [[Emergency Banking Act of 1933|Bank Holiday]] when massive [[bank run]]s commences across the United States in March 1933]]
The [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] (1929–1939) and the [[New Deal]] (1933–1936) were decisive moments in American political, economic, and social history.{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear}} A [[financial bubble]] was fueled by an inflated stock market, which led to the [[Wall Street crash]] on October 29, 1929.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Shlaes|2008|pp=85, 90}}</ref> This, along with [[Causes of the Great Depression|other economic factors]], triggered a worldwide [[economic depression|depression]]. The United States experienced [[deflation]] as prices fell, unemployment soared from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933, farm prices fell by half, and manufacturing output plunged by one-third.

The New Deal enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a series of permanent reform programs including [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]], [[Social Security Act|unemployment relief and insurance]], [[National Housing Act of 1934|public housing]], [[1933 Banking Act|bankruptcy insurance]], [[Agricultural Adjustment Act|farm subsidies]], and [[Securities Act of 1933|regulation of financial securities]].<ref name="Kennedy-2009">{{Cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=David M. |author-link=David M. Kennedy (historian) |date=Summer 2009 |title=What the New Deal Did |journal=Political Science Quarterly |volume=124 |issue=2 |pages=251–268 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-165X.2009.tb00648.x}}</ref> It also provided unemployment relief through the [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA) and for young men, the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]. Large-scale spending projects designed to rebuild infrastructure were under the purview of the [[Public Works Administration]].<ref name="Kennedy-2009" />

State governments introduced the sales tax to pay for new programs. Ideologically, the New Deal established [[modern liberalism in the United States]].<ref name="Kennedy-2009" /> The [[New Deal coalition]] won re-election for Roosevelt in [[1936 United States presidential election|1936]], [[1940 United States presidential election|1940]], and [[1944 United States presidential election|1944]].<ref name="Kennedy-2009" /> The [[Second New Deal]] in 1935 and 1936 brought the economy further left, building up labor unions through the [[Wagner Act]]. Roosevelt weakened his second term by a failed effort to pack the Supreme Court, which had been a center of conservative resistance to his programs.<ref name="Kennedy-2009" /> The economy essentially recovered by 1936, but long-term unemployment remained a problem until it was solved by wartime spending. Most of the relief programs were dropped in the 1940s, when the conservatives regained power in Congress through the [[Conservative coalition]].<ref name="Kennedy-2009" />

=== World War II ===
{{Main|World War II|United States in World War II|Military history of the United States during World War II}}
{{See also|Historiography of World War II|United States home front during World War II}}
[[File:The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - NARA 195617 - Edit.jpg|thumb|The [[USS Arizona|USS ''Arizona'']] burning after the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941]]
During the Depression, the United States remained focused on domestic concerns. U.S. legislation in the [[Neutrality Acts of the 1930s|Neutrality Acts]] sought to avoid foreign conflicts; however, policy clashed with increasing anti-[[Nazi]] feelings following the German [[invasion of Poland]] in September 1939 that started [[World War II]].<ref name="Black-2003">{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Conrad |title=Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom |url=https://archive.org/details/franklindelanoro00blac |year=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/franklindelanoro00blac/page/648 648]–682 |publisher=Public Affairs |isbn=9781586481841 |author-link=Conrad Black}}</ref> At first, Roosevelt positioned the U.S. as the "[[Arsenal of Democracy]]", pledging full-scale financial and munitions support for the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] and [[Lend-Lease]] agreements – but no military personnel.<ref name="Black-2003" />

Japan tried to neutralize America's power in the Pacific by [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|attacking Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941, but instead it catalyzed American support to enter the war.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Prange |first1=Gordon W. |title=At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor |url=https://archive.org/details/atdawnwesleptun00pran |last2=Goldstein |first2=Donald M. |last3=Dillon |first3=Katherine V. |year=1982 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=9780070506695}}</ref> Roosevelt's [[Executive Order 9066]] resulted in over 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent being [[Internment of Japanese Americans|removed from their homes and placed in internment camps]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Short History of Amache Japanese Internment Camp |url=https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Short%20History%20of%20Amache%20Japanese%20Internment%20Camp_0.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412042223/https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Short%20History%20of%20Amache%20Japanese%20Internment%20Camp_0.pdf |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |access-date=October 9, 2018}}</ref>{{Sfn|Ogawa and Fox|page=135}}<ref name="Richey2007">{{Cite news |last=Richey |first=Warren |date=December 5, 2007 |title=Key Guantánamo cases hit Supreme Court |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1205/p01s02-usju.html?page=2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627034530/https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1205/p01s02-usju.html?page=2 |archive-date=June 27, 2018 |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]}}</ref> The Allies fought against Germany in the [[European theater]] and Japan in the [[Pacific War]].<ref name="EB-1939">{{Cite web |title=World War II 1939–1945 |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II |access-date=June 7, 2024 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> The United States was one of the "[[Four Policemen|Allied Big Four]]", alongside the [[United Kingdom]], [[Soviet Union]], and [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Townsend |last1=Hoopes |author-link1=Townsend Hoopes |first2=Douglas |last2=Brinkley |author-link2=Douglas Brinkley |title=FDR and the Creation of the U.N. |url=https://archive.org/details/fdrcreationofun00hoop |url-access=registration |year=1997 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-08553-2 |page=100}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John Lewis |last=Gaddis |author-link=John Lewis Gaddis |title=The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947 |url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesorig0000gadd |url-access=registration |year=1972 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-12239-9 |page=25}}</ref>

The U.S. gave the Allied war effort money, food, [[petroleum]], technology, and military personnel. The U.S. focused on maximizing its national economic output, causing a dramatic increase in GDP, the end of unemployment, and a rise in civilian consumption, even as 40% of the GDP went to the war effort.{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear}} A [[Military production during World War II|wartime production boom]] led to the end of the Great Depression. Tens of millions of workers moved into the active labor force and to higher-productivity jobs. Labor shortages encouraged industries to look for new sources of workers, finding new roles for women and Black people. Economic mobilization was managed by the [[War Production Board]].{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear}} Most durable goods became unavailable or were tightly rationed, while housing for industrial jobs was in short supply. Prices and wages were controlled, and Americans saved a high portion of their incomes, which led to post-war growth.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vatter |first=Harold G. |title=The U.S. Economy in World War II |year=1988 |pages=27–31}}</ref>{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear|pages=615–668}}

The U.S. stopped Japanese expansion in the Pacific in 1942; after the loss of the [[Japanese occupation of the Philippines|Philippines to Japanese]] conquests, as well as a draw in the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]] in May, the American Navy then inflicted a decisive blow at [[Battle of Midway|Midway]] in June 1942. The Allied forces built up a garrison on [[Guadalcanal]] island, formerly held by the Japanese, after the successes of the [[Battle of the Eastern Solomons]] and the [[Battle of Guadalcanal]]. The Japanese then stopped advancing south, and the U.S. began taking [[New Guinea]]. Japan also lost [[Aleutian Islands campaign|their invasion]] of the Alaskan [[Aleutian Islands]], allowing the U.S. to begin attacking the Japanese-controlled [[Kuril Islands]].<ref name="EB-1939" />

American ground forces assisted in the [[North African campaign]] and the [[Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy|collapse of Fascist Italy]] in 1943. A more significant European front was opened on [[D-Day]], June 6, 1944, in which Allied forces invaded [[Nazi-occupied France]].<ref name="EB-1939" /> The Allies began pushing the Germans out of France in the [[Normandy campaign]]. After Allied forces landed at the [[French Riviera]] in [[Operation Dragoon]], Hitler allowed his army to retreat from Normandy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Normandy Invasion World War II |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Normandy-Invasion |access-date=June 7, 2024 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> Roosevelt [[Death of Franklin D. Roosevelt|died]] in 1945, and was succeeded by [[Harry Truman]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 23, 2024 |title=Franklin D. Roosevelt - Accomplishments, New Deal, Great Depression, World War II, & Death |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franklin-D-Roosevelt |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The western front stopped short of Berlin, leaving the Soviets to take it in the [[Battle of Berlin]]. The Nazi regime [[German Instrument of Surrender|formally capitulated]] in May 1945, [[End of World War II in Europe|ending the war in Europe]].<ref name="EB-1939" /> 
[[File:Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, larger - edit1.jpg|thumb|''[[Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima]]'', a photo of [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marines]] raising a U.S. flag atop [[Mount Suribachi]] during the [[Battle of Iwo Jima]] on February 23, 1945]]
In the Pacific, the U.S. implemented an [[Leapfrogging (strategy)|island hopping strategy]] toward Tokyo. The Philippines was eventually reconquered, after Japan and the United States fought in history's largest naval battle, the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Largest Naval Battles in Military History: A Closer Look at the Largest and Most Influential Naval Battles in World History |url=http://militaryhistory.norwich.edu/largest-naval-sea-battles-in-military-history |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150124033426/http://militaryhistory.norwich.edu/largest-naval-sea-battles-in-military-history/ |archive-date=January 24, 2015 |access-date=March 7, 2015 |website=Military History |publisher=Norwich University}}</ref> After the war, the U.S. [[Treaty of Manila (1946)|granted the Philippines independence]].<ref name="Gov.Ph">{{Citation |title=Philippine Republic Day |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/republic-day/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729160345/https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/republic-day/ |archive-date=July 29, 2021 |url-status=dead |publisher=[[Official Gazette (Philippines)]] |access-date=July 5, 2012}}</ref>

Military [[research and development]] increased during the war, leading to the [[Manhattan Project]], a secret effort to harness [[nuclear fission]] to produce [[atomic bombs]];<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Richard |title=The Making of the Atomic Bomb |year=1995}}</ref> the first nuclear device was [[Trinity (nuclear test)|detonated on July 16, 1945]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ralph Smith's eyewitness account of the Trinity trip to watch blast |url=http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/RalphSmithseyewitnessaccountoftheTrinitytriptowatchblast.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904084107/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/RalphSmithseyewitnessaccountoftheTrinitytriptowatchblast.aspx |archive-date=September 4, 2014 |access-date=August 24, 2014 |website=White Sands Missile Range, Public Affairs Office}}</ref> U.S. airfields in the [[Mariana Islands]] allowed for easier bombing of Japan and hard-fought U.S. victories at [[Battle of Iwo Jima|Iwo Jima]] and [[Battle of Okinawa|Okinawa]] in 1945.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spector |first=Ronald H. |title=Eagle Against the Sun |url=https://archive.org/details/eagleagainstsuna0000spec |year=1985 |chapter=12–18 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=9780394741017 |author-link=Ronald H. Spector}}</ref> The U.S. initially prepared to [[Operation Downfall|invade Japan's home islands]], but they [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|dropped atomic bombs]] on the Japanese cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]] in August 1945, killing at least 200,000 residents in both cities, compelling Japan to surrender and ending World War II.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Giangreco |first=D. M. |title=Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945–1947 |year=2009}}</ref> The U.S. [[occupied Japan]] (and [[American occupation zone in Germany|part of Germany]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Finn |first=Richard B. |title=Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan |url=https://archive.org/details/winnerspeacemaca00finn |year=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/winnerspeacemaca00finn/page/n64 43]–103 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520069091}}</ref> Throughout the 4 years of American involvement in World War II, 400,000 American military personnel and civilians were killed.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Leland |first1=Anne |last2=Oboroceanu |first2=Mari–Jana |date=February 26, 2010 |title=American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209111557/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |access-date=February 18, 2011 |publisher=Congressional Research Service |page=2}}</ref> Nuclear weapons have not been used since the war ended, and a "[[Long Peace|long peace]]" began between the global powers, but they still competed in the [[Cold War]].{{Sfn|Gaddis, Long Peace}}

== Cold War (1945–1991) ==
{{Main|Cold War|History of the United States (1945–1964)|History of the United States (1964–1980)|History of the United States (1980–1991)}}
[[File:NATO vs. Warsaw Pact (1949-1990).svg|thumb|The [[NATO]] (blue) and [[Warsaw Pact]] (red) alliances during the [[Cold War]] from 1949 to 1990]]

===Economic boom and the beginning of the Cold War===
==== Truman administration ====
{{Main|Presidency of Harry S. Truman|Cold War (1948–1953)}}
In the decades after [[World War II]], the United States became a global influence in economic, political, military, cultural, and technological affairs. Following World War II, the United States emerged as one of the two dominant superpowers, the [[Soviet Union]] being the other. The U.S. Senate approved U.S. participation in the [[United Nations]] (UN), which marked a turn away from traditional [[American isolationism]] and toward increased international involvement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Getchell |first=Michelle |date=October 26, 2017 |title=The United Nations and the United States |url=https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-497 |access-date=September 24, 2022 |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.497 |isbn=978-0-19-932917-5}}</ref> The United States and other major Allied powers became the foundation of the [[UN Security Council]].{{Sfn|Gaddis, Origins of the Cold War}} The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) was created in 1947.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 19, 2024 |title=Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) {{!}} History, Organization, Responsibilities, Activities, & Criticism {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Central-Intelligence-Agency |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Marshall Plan poster.JPG|alt=Marshall Plan poster|thumb|One of a number of posters created by the [[Economic Cooperation Administration]], an agency of the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]], to sell the [[Marshall Plan]] in Europe following the end of [[World War II]]]]

The U.S. wished to rescue Europe from the devastation of World War II, and to contain the expansion of [[communism]], represented by the Soviet Union. U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was built around the support of Western Europe and Japan along with the policy of [[containment]] (containing the spread of communism).<ref name="Blakeley-2009">{{Cite book |last=Blakeley |first=Ruth |url=https://www.routledge.com/State-Terrorism-and-Neoliberalism-The-North-in-the-South/Blakeley/p/book/9780415686174|title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South|year=2009 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0415686174 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA92&pg=PA85#v=onepage&q&f=false 85-96] |url-access=limited}}</ref> The [[Truman Doctrine]] in 1947 was the U.S.' attempt to secure trading partners in Europe, by providing military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to counteract the threat of communist expansion in the Balkans.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 23, 2022 |title=What was the Cold War—and are we headed to another one? |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/cold-war |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=Culture |language=en}}</ref>{{Sfn|Gaddis, Long Peace}} In 1948, the United States replaced piecemeal financial aid programs with a comprehensive [[Marshall Plan]], which pumped money into Western Europe, and removed trade barriers, while modernizing the managerial practices of businesses and governments.{{Sfn|Gaddis, Cold War}} Post-war American aid to Europe totaled $25 billion, out of the U.S. GDP of $258&nbsp;billion in 1948.{{Sfn|Gaddis, Cold War}}

In 1949, the United States, rejecting the long-standing policy of no military alliances in peacetime, formed the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO) alliance. In response, the Soviets formed the [[Warsaw Pact]] of communist states, leading to the "[[Iron Curtain]]".{{Sfn|Gaddis, Cold War}} In 1949, the Soviets performed their [[RDS-1|first nuclear weapon test]].{{Sfn|Gaddis, Long Peace}} This escalated the risk of nuclear warfare; the threat of [[mutually assured destruction]], however, prevented both powers from nuclear war, and resulted the proxy wars in which the two sides did not directly confront each other.{{Sfn|Gaddis, Long Peace}}

The U.S. fought against communists in the [[Korean War]] and [[Vietnam War]], and [[United States involvement in regime change#1945–1991: Cold War|toppled left-wing governments in the third world]] to try to stop its spread, such as [[1953 Iranian coup d'état|Iran in 1953]] and [[1954 Guatemalan coup d'état|Guatemala in 1954]].<ref name="Blakeley-2009" /> [[McCarthyism]] was a widespread government program led by Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] to expose communists in government and business. Hollywood was targeted by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=McCarthyism - Definition, History, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/McCarthyism |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Gay people were targeted under the McCarthyist [[Lavender Scare]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Haynes |first1=Suyin |last2=Aneja |first2=Arpita |date=December 22, 2020 |title=The Anti-Gay 'Lavender Scare' Is Rarely Taught in Schools |url=https://time.com/5922679/lavender-scare-history/ |access-date=August 14, 2024 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref>

==== Eisenhower administration ====
{{Main|Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Cold War (1953–1962)}}
[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] was [[1952 United States presidential election|elected president]] in 1952 in a landslide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hitchcock |first=William I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MImCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP16 |title=The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s |year=2018 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781451698428 |pages=xvi–xix}}</ref> He ended the Korean War, and avoided any other major conflict. He cut military spending by relying on advanced technology, such as nuclear weapons carried by [[long-range bomber]]s and [[intercontinental missile]]s.<ref name="Hitchcock-2018">{{Cite book |last=Hitchcock |first=William I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MImCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |title=The Age of Eisenhower |year=2018 |isbn=9781451698428 |page=109 |publisher=Simon & Schuster}}</ref> After [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|Stalin died in 1953]], Eisenhower worked to obtain friendlier relationships with the Soviet Union. At home, he ended McCarthyism, expanded the Social Security program, and presided over a decade of bipartisan cooperation.<ref name="Hitchcock-2018" />

Domestically, after 1948, America entered an [[Post–World War II economic expansion|economic boom]]: 60% of the American population had attained a "middle-class" standard of living by the mid-1950s, compared with only 31% in the 1928 and 1929. Between 1947 and 1960, the average real income for American workers increased by as much as it had in the previous half-century.<ref name="ReferenceC">The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II by William H. Chafe</ref> The economy allowed for an affordable lifestyle with large families; this created the [[baby boom]], in which millions of children were born at increased rates from 1945 to 1964.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 27, 2024 |title=Baby boomer - Definition, Age Range, & Societal and Economic Impact |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/baby-boomers |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Many Americans [[Suburbanization|moved into suburban neighborhoods]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Peters |first=Frederick |date=August 14, 2019 |title=The Rise And Fall Of The Suburbs |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/fredpeters/2019/08/14/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-suburbs/ |access-date=June 7, 2024 |website=Forbes}}</ref>

[[File:Operation Arkansas, Little Rock Nine.jpg|thumb|The [[101st Airborne Division]] escorting the [[Little Rock Nine]] into [[Little Rock Central High School]] in September 1957]]
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled on ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', finding public school segregation unconstitutional.<ref name="EB-2024b">{{Cite web |title=American civil rights movement - Montgomery Bus Boycott, Nonviolent Resistance, Voting Rights Act |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement/Montgomery-bus-boycott-to-the-Voting-Rights-Act |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> When [[Little Rock Nine|nine Black students]] were threatened over their admission into all-white [[Little Rock Central High School]], Eisenhower sent in a thousand National Guard troops to ensure peace.<ref name="Hitchcock-2018" /> Starting in the late 1950s, institutionalized [[Racism in the United States|racism across the United States]], but especially in the [[Southern United States|South]], was increasingly challenged by the growing [[civil rights movement]]. The activism of [[Rosa Parks]] and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] led to the [[Montgomery bus boycott|boycott of segregated public buses]] in [[Montgomery, Alabama|Montgomery]], Alabama in 1955, organized by King and the [[Montgomery Improvement Association]]. They faced multiple acts of violence, but continued the boycott for a year, until the Supreme Court ordered the city to desegregate the buses.<ref name="EB-2024b" />

The Soviets unexpectedly surpassed American technology in 1957 with [[Sputnik]], the first Earth satellite. The [[R-7 Semyorka|R-7 missile]] which launched Sputnik into space could have hypothetically dropped a nuclear bomb into U.S. air space [[High-altitude nuclear explosion|from above]]; new American fears regarding Soviet power began the [[Space Race]], a competition between the two countries to prove their technological superiority through space exploration. In 1958, Eisenhower created the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA) for this purpose. Angst about the weaknesses of American education led to large-scale federal support for [[Science education#United States|science education]] and research.{{Sfn|Patterson, Grand Expectations}}

===Civil unrest and social reforms===
{{Main|History of the United States (1964–1980)|Cold War (1962-1991)}}
{{further|Presidency of John F. Kennedy|Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson|Great Society}}

In 1960, [[John F. Kennedy]] was [[1960 United States presidential election|elected President]]. [[Presidency of John F. Kennedy|His administration]] saw the acceleration of the country's role in the Space Race, escalation of the American role in the [[Vietnam War]], the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], and the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]]. President Kennedy [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|was assassinated]] on November 22, 1963.<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Michael |title=John F. Kennedy: A Biography |year=2005}}</ref> [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] then became president.<ref name="Schneider-2009">{{Cite book |last=Schneider |first=Gregory |url=https://archive.org/details/conservativecent0000schn |title=The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution |year=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |chapter=5}}</ref> He secured congressional passage of his [[Great Society]] programs,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Alterman |first1=Eric |title=The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama |url=https://archive.org/details/causefightforame00alte_0 |last2=Mattson |first2=Kevin |year=2012 |publisher=Viking |isbn=9780670023431}}</ref> dealing with civil rights, the end of legal segregation, [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]], extension of welfare, federal aid to education at all levels, subsidies for the arts and humanities, [[Environmental movement in the United States|environmental activism]], and a [[War on poverty|series of programs designed to wipe out poverty]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dallek |first=Robert |title=Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President |year=2004 |author-link=Robert Dallek}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Irving |title=Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson |year=1994}}</ref>

==== Civil rights and counterculture movements ====
{{Main|Civil rights movement|Counterculture of the 1960s|Second-wave feminism}}
[[File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial) - NARA - 542010.jpg|thumb|Civil rights activists during the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] in August 1963]]
For years, [[nonviolent]] civil rights activists organized direct actions, such as the 1963 [[Birmingham campaign]], the 1965 [[Selma to Montgomery march]], and the 1966 [[Chicago open housing movement]], where they also became victims of violence. Along with Supreme Court decisions like ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'' and the 1963 [[March on Washington]], these movements achieved great steps toward equality with laws like the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], and the [[Fair Housing Act of 1968]]. These ended the [[Jim Crow laws]] that had legalized [[racial segregation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dierenfield |first=Bruce J. |title=The Civil Rights Movement |url=https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmovem0000dier |year=2004 |publisher=Pearson Longman |isbn=9780582357372}}</ref> Native Americans protested federal courts, highlighting the federal government's failure to honor treaties involving them. One of the most outspoken Native American groups was the [[American Indian Movement]] (AIM). In the 1960s, [[Cesar Chavez]] began organizing poorly paid [[Mexican-American]] farm workers in California, eventually forming the country's first successful union of farm workers, the [[United Farm Workers of America]] (UFW).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobs |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0nLwAihlibcC&pg=PA13 |title=Mexican American Literature: The Politics of Identity |year=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134218233 |page=13 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320203824/http://books.google.com/books?id=0nLwAihlibcC&pg=PA13 |archive-date=March 20, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Vietnam. As the second phase of operation "Thayer," the 1st Air Cavalry Division (airmobile) is having... - NARA - 530612.tif|thumb|U.S. soldiers searching a village for potential [[Viet Cong]] during the [[Vietnam War]] in October 1966]]
[[File:A female demonstrator offers a flower to military police on guard at the Pentagon during an anti-Vietnam demonstration. Arlington, Virginia, USA.jpg|thumb|An [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-Vietnam War demonstration]] outside [[the Pentagon]] in October 1967]]

Amid the Cold War, the United States entered the [[Vietnam War]], whose growing unpopularity fed already existing social movements. [[Feminism]] and the [[environmental movement]] became political forces, and progress continued toward [[civil rights]] for all Americans. A [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture revolution]] in the late sixties and early seventies further divided Americans in a "culture war" but also brought forth more liberated social views.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chapman |first=Roger |title=Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Voices, and Viewpoints |year=2009}}</ref> Frustrations with the seemingly slow progress of the integration movement led to the emergence of more radical politics, such as the [[Black Power]] movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Joseph |first=Peniel E. |year=2001 |title=Black Liberation without Apology: Reconceptualizing the Black Power Movement. |journal=The Black Scholar |volume=31 |issue=3–4 |pages=2–19 |doi=10.1080/00064246.2001.11431152 |s2cid=142923969}}</ref> The summer of 1967 saw opposing philosophies in two widespread movements, the more peaceful [[summer of love]] and the radical [[Long, hot summer of 1967|long, hot summer]], which included nationwide riots.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Riots of the Long, Hot Summer |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/the-riots-of-the-long-hot-summer |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Martin Luther King Jr. was [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|assassinated in 1968]].<ref name="Lupo-2010">{{Cite book |last=Lupo |first=Lindsey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pmeKBTPzj3gC&pg=PA123 |title=Flak-Catchers: One Hundred Years of Riot Commission Politics in America |year=2010 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739138120 |pages=123–124 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=pmeKBTPzj3gC&pg=PA123 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> The modern [[gay rights movement]] started after the [[Stonewall riots]] in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 1, 2023 |title=How the Stonewall uprising ignited the pride movement |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/stonewall-uprising-ignited-modern-lgbtq-rights-movement |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=History |language=en}}</ref>

A new consciousness of the inequality of American women began sweeping the nation, starting with the 1963 publication of [[Betty Friedan]]'s best-seller, ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'', which critiqued the American cultural idea that women could only find fulfillment through their roles as wives, mothers, and keepers of the home. In 1966, Friedan and others established the [[National Organization for Women]] (NOW) to advocate for women's rights.{{Sfn|Riley|2001|p=?}}{{Sfn|Zophy}} Protests began, and the new women's liberation movement grew in size and power, gaining much media attention.<ref name="Critchlow-2005">{{Cite book |last=Critchlow |first=Donald T. |url=https://archive.org/details/phyllis_cri_2005_00_7649 |title=Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade |year=2005}}</ref> The proposed [[Equal Rights Amendment]] to the Constitution, passed by Congress in 1972, was defeated by a conservative coalition mobilized by [[Phyllis Schlafly]].<ref name="Critchlow-2005" /><ref name="Mansbridge-1986">{{Cite book |last=Mansbridge |first=Jane J. |url=https://archive.org/details/whywelostera0000mans |title=Why We Lost the ERA |year=1986 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226503585}}</ref> However, many federal laws established women's equal status under the law, such as those [[Equal Pay Act of 1963|equalizing pay]], [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|employment]], [[Title IX|education]], [[Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972|employment opportunities]], and [[Equal Credit Opportunity Act|credit]] between genders, and [[Pregnancy Discrimination Act|ending pregnancy discrimination]]. State laws criminalized [[spousal abuse]] and [[marital rape]], and the Supreme Court ruled that the [[equal protection clause]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] applied to women. Social custom and consciousness began to change, accepting women's equality. Abortion, deemed by the Supreme Court as a [[fundamental right]] in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' (1973), is still a point of debate.

=== Détente ===
{{Main|Détente}}

==== Nixon and Ford administrations ====
{{Main|Presidency of Richard Nixon|Presidency of Gerald Ford}}
[[File:A Man on the Moon, AS11-40-5903 (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Buzz Aldrin]] (shown) and [[Neil Armstrong]] became the first humans to walk on the [[Moon]] during [[NASA]]'s [[Apollo 11]] mission in July 1969.]]
President [[Richard Nixon]] (1969&ndash;1974) largely continued the New Deal and Great Society programs he inherited.<ref name="Schneider-2009" />{{Sfn|John Greene}} Nixon created the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Rothman |first=Lily |date=March 22, 2017 |title=Here's Why the Environmental Protection Agency Was Created |url=https://time.com/4696104/environmental-protection-agency-1970-history/ |access-date=June 2, 2024 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> [[1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China|opened relations]] with China, and [[Vietnamization|attempted to gradually turn the Vietnam War effort over to]] the [[South Vietnam]]ese. He negotiated the [[Paris Peace Accords|peace treaty in 1973]] which secured the release of POWs and led to the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The war had cost the lives of 58,000 American troops. Nixon manipulated the fierce distrust between the Soviet Union and China to the advantage of the U.S., achieving ''[[détente]]'' with both parties.{{Sfn|John Greene}} He was also president during the U.S.' [[Apollo 11|landing on the Moon]] in 1969.

The [[Watergate scandal]], involving Nixon's cover-up of his operatives' break-in into the [[Democratic National Committee]] headquarters, destroyed his political base and forced his resignation on August 9, 1974.{{Sfn|John Greene}} He was succeeded by Vice President [[Gerald Ford]].{{Sfn|John Greene}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pardoning Nixon |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/pardoning-nixon |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=education.nationalgeographic.org |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Fall of Saigon]] on April 30, 1975, ended the Vietnam War.{{Sfn|John Greene}} In Central America, the U.S. government supported right-wing governments against left-wing groups, such as in [[Salvadoran civil war|El Salvador]] and [[Guatemalan civil war|Guatemala]]. In South America, they supported [[National Reorganization Process|Argentina]] and [[Military dictatorship of Chile|Chile]], who carried out [[Operation Condor]], a campaign of assassinations of exiled political opponents by [[Southern Cone]] governments, created at the behest of Chilean dictator [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1975.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tremlett |first=Giles |date=September 3, 2020 |title=Operation Condor: the cold war conspiracy that terrorised South America |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america |access-date=November 25, 2023 |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Good |first=Aaron |title=American Exception |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |year=2022 |isbn=978-1510769137 |location=New York |pages=231–232, 237}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bevins |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Bevins |title=[[The Jakarta Method]]: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World |year=2020 |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |isbn=978-1-5417-4240-6 |pages=200–206}}</ref>

The [[OPEC oil embargo]] marked a long-term economic transition: energy prices skyrocketed, and American factories faced serious competition from foreign automobiles, clothing, electronics, and consumer goods. By the late 1970s, the economy suffered an [[1970s Energy Crisis|energy crisis]], slow economic growth, high unemployment, very high inflation, and high interest rates ([[stagflation]]). Since economists agreed on [[deregulation]], many of the New Deal era regulations were ended.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Derthick |first=Martha |title=The Politics of Deregulation |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofderegu00dert |year=1985}}</ref> Meanwhile, the first mass-market [[personal computer]]s were being developed in California's [[Silicon Valley]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Computer - Home Use, Microprocessors, Software |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/computer/The-personal-computer-revolution |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

==== Carter administration ====
{{Main|Presidency of Jimmy Carter}}
[[Jimmy Carter]] was elected president in 1976.<ref>{{Cite web |title=People & Events: The Election of 1976 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_1976.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519045846/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_1976.html |archive-date=May 19, 2009 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |website=American Experience |publisher=PBS}}</ref> Carter brokered the [[Camp David Accords]] between Israel and Egypt. In 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in [[Tehran]] and [[Iran hostage crisis|took 66 Americans hostage]]. Carter lost the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 election]] to the Republican [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DBa6WQ5XCowC&pg=PA545 |title=The American Presidents |year=2000 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-2184-2 |page=545 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=DBa6WQ5XCowC&pg=PA545 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> On January 20, 1981, minutes after Carter's term ended, the remaining U.S. captives were released.

=== End of the Cold War ===
{{main|History of the United States (1980–1991)}}
{{see also|Cold War (1985-1991)}}

==== Reagan administration ====
{{Main|Presidency of Ronald Reagan}}
[[File:1981–1989 monthly unemployment, inflation, and interest rates.svg|thumb|Monthly unemployment, inflation, and interest rates from January 1981 to January 1989]]
President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s conservative policies produced a major [[political realignment]] with his [[1980 United States presidential election|1980]] and [[1984 United States presidential election|1984]] landslide elections.<ref name="Caplow-1994">{{Cite book |last1=Caplow |first1=Theodore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwBvm8aF2bsC&pg=PA337 |title=Recent Social Trends in the United States, 1960–1990 |last2=Bahr |first2=Howard M. |last3=Chadwick |first3=Bruce A. |last4=John Modell |year=1994 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |isbn=9780773512122 |page=337 |access-date=October 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102091400/https://books.google.com/books?id=gwBvm8aF2bsC&pg=PA337 |archive-date=January 2, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BEA-2007" /> Reagan's [[neoliberal]] economic policies (dubbed "[[Reaganomics]]") included the implementation of the [[Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981]].<ref name="BEA-2007">{{Cite web |date=July 10, 2007 |title=Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979–2001 |url=http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=5324&type=0&sequence=0 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070509233656/http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=5324&type=0&sequence=0 |archive-date=May 9, 2007 |access-date=April 2, 2012 |publisher=Bureau of Economic Analysis}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gerstle |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Gerstle |year=2022 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?cc=us&lang=en& |location= |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=121–128 |isbn=978-0197519646}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bartel |first=Fritz |year=2022 |title=The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976788 |location= |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |pages=18–19 |isbn=9780674976788}}</ref> Reagan continued to downsize government taxation and regulation;{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=140–141}} New Deal and Great Society programs were ended.<ref name="Schneider-2009" /> The U.S. experienced a [[Early 1980s recession|recession in 1982]], but after inflation decreased, unemployment then decreased, and the economic growth rate increased from 4.5% in 1982 to 7.2% in 1984.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 8, 2008 |title=The United States Unemployment Rate |url=http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920034354/http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp |archive-date=September 20, 2008 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |website=Miseryindex.us}}</ref>{{Sfn|Wilentz|page=170}} However, homelessness and economic inequality also rose.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Don |author-link=Don Mitchell (geographer) |year=2020 |title=Mean Streets: Homelessness, Public Space, and the Limits of Capital |url=https://ugapress.org/book/9780820356907/mean-streets/ |location= |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]] |page=62 |isbn=9-780-8203-5690-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Patterson |first=James T. |author-link=James T. Patterson (historian) |year=2005 |title=Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush V. Gore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=03s7DwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=166–167 |isbn=978-0-19-512216-9}}</ref>

The Reagan administration's expansion of the [[war on drugs]] led to an [[United States incarceration rate|increase in incarceration]], particularly among African Americans, with the number of people imprisoned for drug offences rising from 50,000 to 400,000 between 1980 and 1997.<ref name="EB-2024a">{{Cite web |date=May 27, 2024 |title=War on Drugs - History & Mass Incarceration |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/war-on-drugs |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=July 26, 2021 |title=50-year war on drugs imprisoned millions of Black Americans |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/50-year-war-on-drugs-imprisoned-millions-of-black-americans |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en-us}}</ref> Manufacturing industries moving out of inner cities increased poverty in those areas; poverty increased drug dealing and contributed to the [[crack epidemic]], which led to increased crime and incarceration.<ref name="EB-2024a" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=April 16, 2024 |title=Crack epidemic - US History, Causes & Effects |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/crack-epidemic |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The government also [[Ronald Reagan and AIDS|reacted slowly]] to the [[HIV/AIDS in the United States|AIDS crisis]], and banned reliable information on the disease, which led to higher infection rates.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lopez |first=German |date=December 1, 2015 |title=The Reagan administration's unbelievable response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=Vox |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lawson |first=Richard |date=December 1, 2015 |title=The Reagan Administration's Unearthed Response to the AIDS Crisis Is Chilling |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/reagan-administration-response-to-aids-crisis |access-date=June 1, 2024 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}</ref>

Reagan ordered a buildup of the U.S. military, incurring additional budget deficits.<ref name="Zelizer-2010a" /> The 1983 [[invasion of Grenada]] and 1986 [[1986 United States bombing of Libya|bombing of Libya]] were popular in the U.S., though Reagan's backing of the [[Contras|Contra]] rebels was mired in the controversy over the [[Iran–Contra affair]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ehrman |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNtNj1oJnXEC |title=Debating the Reagan Presidency |last2=Flamm |first2=Michael W. |year=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780742570573 |pages=101–182 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=CNtNj1oJnXEC |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Reagan also introduced a complicated missile defense system known as the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]]. The Soviets reacted harshly because they thought it violated the 1972 [[Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty]], and would give the U.S. a major military advantage, so they stopped negotiating [[disarmament]] deals until the late 1980s.<ref name="Zelizer-2010a">{{Cite book |last=Zelizer |first=Julian E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_gH5s4B2SEC&pg=PA350 |title=Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism |year=2010 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=9780465015078 |page=350 |author-link=Julian Zelizer |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=r_gH5s4B2SEC&pg=PA350 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:USAF F-16A F-15C F-15E Desert Storm edit2.jpg|thumb|[[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]] aircraft fly over oil fields destroyed by the retreating [[Iraqi Ground Forces]] during the [[Gulf War]] in 1991]]

Reagan met four times with Gorbachev, and their summit conferences led to the signing of the [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]].

==== George H. W. Bush administration ====
{{main|Presidency of George H. W. Bush|Post–Cold War era}}
International affairs drove the George H. W. Bush presidency, which navigated the end of the [[Cold War]] and a new era of [[Soviet Union–United States relations|U.S.–Soviet relations]]. In 1989 Bush directed a [[United States invasion of Panama|military invasion of Panama to overthrow]] [[Manuel Noriega]]. On December 3, 1989, Gorbachev and Bush declared the Cold War over at the [[Malta Summit]]. After the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]], Bush successfully pushed for the [[reunification of Germany]] in close cooperation with West German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]], overcoming the reluctance of [[Gorbachev]]. The [[Soviet Union collapse]]d in 1991, leaving the United States as the sole superpower.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 30, 2024 |title=Cold War - Summary, Causes, History, Years, Timeline, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

==Contemporary United States (1991–present)==
{{Main|History of the United States (1991–2016)|History of the United States (2016–present)}}

=== George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations ===
{{Main|Presidency of George H. W. Bush|Presidency of Bill Clinton|Third Way (United States)|Republican Revolution}}
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States continued to intervene in international affairs. [[George H. W. Bush]]'s administration led an [[Coalition of the Gulf War|international coalition]] against [[Iraq]] in the [[Gulf War]] after [[Iraqi invasion of Kuwait|Iraq invaded]] neighboring Kuwait in 1990. The war undid the Iraqi [[annexation]] of Kuwait.{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=400–401}} Under Bush, the U.S. also became involved in wars in [[United States invasion of Panama|Panama]], [[Operation Gothic Serpent|Somalia]], [[Bosnian War|Bosnia]], and [[Croatian War of Independence|Croatia]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Somalia intervention {{!}} UN Peacekeeping, US Military & Humanitarian Aid {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Somalia-intervention |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Operation Just Cause {{!}} Summary, Panama, Casualties, & Rock Music {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-States-invasion-of-Panama |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Decision to Intervene: How the War in Bosnia Ended |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/decision-to-intervene-how-the-war-in-bosnia-ended/ |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=Brookings |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1992, there were [[1992 Los Angeles riots|riots in Los Angeles]] over [[Police brutality in the United States|police brutality]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 24, 2024 |title=Los Angeles Riots of 1992 {{!}} Summary, Deaths, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Los-Angeles-Riots-of-1992 |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Oklahomacitybombing-DF-ST-98-01356.jpg|thumb|Ruins following the [[Oklahoma City bombing]] in April 1995]]
[[1992 United States presidential election|Elected in 1992]], President [[Bill Clinton]] oversaw economic expansion and passed the [[Economic policy of the Bill Clinton administration|first balanced federal budget]] in 30 years.{{Sfn|Wilentz|page=400}} Much of the economic boom was a side effect of the [[Digital Revolution]], and new business opportunities created by the [[Internet]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salus |first=Peter H. |title=Casting the net : from ARPANET to Internet and beyond |year=1995 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Pub. Co |isbn=0-201-87674-4 |oclc=31754973}}</ref> During the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]], the U.S. was involved in wars in [[Operation Uphold Democracy|Haiti]] and [[Kosovo War|Kosovo]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Bunyan |first=Rachael |date=September 20, 2019 |title=25 Years After 'Operation Uphold Democracy,' Experts Say the Oft-Forgotten U.S. Military Intervention Still Shapes Life in Haiti |url=https://time.com/5682135/haiti-military-anniversary/ |access-date=July 21, 2024 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kosovo conflict {{!}} Summary & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Kosovo-conflict |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

[[Conservatism in the United States|Conservative]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] heavily won the [[1994 midterm elections]] in a "[[Republican Revolution]]", which was built around the [[Contract with America]] policy agenda.<ref name="Glass-2007">{{Cite web |last=Glass |first=Andrew |date=November 8, 2007 |title=Congress runs into 'Republican Revolution' Nov. 8, 1994 |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2007/11/congress-runs-into-republican-revolution-nov-8-1994-006757 |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=Politico}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Completing the Revolution |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/n/novak-revolution.html?scp=3&sq=America%2527s%2520Political%2520Parties:%2520Power%2520and%2520Principle&st=Search |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref> [[Newt Gingrich]] was chosen as House Speaker,<ref name="Glass-2007" /> and he would heavily influence the Republican Party to engage in "confrontational" political speech.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 7, 2020 |title=How Newt Gingrich Shaped The Republican Party |url=https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/07/newt-gingrich-republican-party |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=wbur.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Zelizer |first=Julian E. |date=July 7, 2020 |title=How Newt Gingrich Laid the Groundwork for Trump's Republican Party |url=https://time.com/5863457/how-newt-gingrich-laid-the-groundwork-for-trumps-republican-party/ |access-date=June 2, 2024 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> Clinton's leadership after the [[Oklahoma City bombing]] increased his popularity,<ref>{{Cite news |last=DeVroy |first=Ann |title=Clinton's Move to Center hasn't Spurred Ratings |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/07/11/clintons-move-to-center-hasnt-spurred-ratings/323e0e45-c8f3-4022-8737-e33dbca78f86/ |access-date=June 1, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240602043111/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/07/11/clintons-move-to-center-hasnt-spurred-ratings/323e0e45-c8f3-4022-8737-e33dbca78f86/ |archive-date=June 2, 2024}}</ref> and he won in the [[1996 United States presidential election|1996 presidential elections]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 31, 2024 |title=United States presidential election of 1996 - Clinton vs. Dole, History, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1996 |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> In 1998, [[Impeachment of Bill Clinton|Clinton was impeached]] by the House of Representatives on charges of [[lying under oath]] about a sexual relationship with White House intern [[Monica Lewinsky]]. He was acquitted by the Senate.{{Sfn|Wilentz|page=400}}

In 2000, the [[dot-com bubble]], a widespread [[overvaluation]] of Internet company stocks, burst and hurt the U.S. economy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dot-com bubble - Definition, History, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/dot-com-bubble |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Geier |first=Ben |date=March 12, 2015 |title=What Did We Learn From the Dotcom Stock Bubble of 2000? |url=https://time.com/3741681/2000-dotcom-stock-bust/ |access-date=July 6, 2024 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> The [[2000 United States presidential election|presidential election in 2000]] between Governor [[George W. Bush]] and [[Al Gore]] was extremely close and produced a dramatic [[2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida|dispute over the counting of votes]].{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=420–427}} Bush ultimately won.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Election and voting information |url=https://www.fec.gov/introduction-campaign-finance/election-and-voting-information/ |access-date=September 24, 2022 |website=FEC.gov |language=en}}</ref>

=== George W. Bush administration ===
{{Main|Presidency of George W. Bush|September 11 attacks|War on terror}}
In the [[September 11 attacks]] on September 11, 2001, 19 [[al-Qaeda]] hijackers commandeered four commercial planes to be used in [[suicide attack]]s. Two were crashed intentionally into both Twin Towers of the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in [[New York City]], and a third into [[the Pentagon]] in [[Arlington County, Virginia]]. The [[United Airlines Flight 93|fourth plane]] was retaken by the passengers and crew and crashed into an [[Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania|empty field]] in [[Pennsylvania]]. Every building of the World Trade Center partially or completely [[Collapse of the World Trade Center|collapsed]], massively damaging the surrounding area and blanketing Lower Manhattan in [[Health effects arising from the September 11 attacks|toxic dust clouds]]. 2,977 victims died in the attacks, which proved the deadliest terrorist attack in world history.<ref name="statista.com">[https://www.statista.com/statistics/1330395/deadliest-terrorist-attacks-worldwide-fatalities/ "Deadliest terrorist attacks worldwide from 1970 to January 2024"], Statista, February 19, 2025</ref>

On September 20, Bush announced a "[[war on terror]]".<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 20, 2024 |title=September 11 attacks - History, Summary, Location, Timeline, Casualties, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=How many people were killed in the September 11 attacks? |url=https://www.britannica.com/question/How-many-people-were-killed-in-the-September-11-attacks |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> In October 2001, the U.S. and NATO [[United States invasion of Afghanistan|invaded Afghanistan]] and ousted the [[Taliban]] regime, which had harbored al-Qaeda and its leader [[Osama bin Laden]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sanger |first=David E. |title=Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power |url=https://archive.org/details/confrontconcealo00sang |year=2012 |chapter=1–5 |publisher=Crown Publishers |isbn=9780307718020 |author-link=David E. Sanger}}</ref> Bin Laden escaped to Pakistan, starting a [[Manhunt for Osama bin Laden|manhunt]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 21, 2011 |title=Bin Laden's Tora Bora escape, just months after 9/11 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-14190032 |access-date=June 12, 2024 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> The U.S. established new domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. The [[Patriot Act]] increased the power of government to monitor communications and removed legal restrictions on intelligence sharing between federal law enforcement agencies.<ref name="Zelizer-2010b">{{Cite book |title=The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment |year=2010 |editor-last=Zelizer |editor-first=Julian E. |editor-link=Julian Zelizer |pages=59–87}}</ref> The government's [[indefinite detention]] of terrorism suspects captured abroad at the [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp]] led to allegations of human rights abuses and violations of international law.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 18, 2008 |title=Report Details Alleged Abuse of Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib Detainees |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/military-jan-june08-detainees_06-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006082219/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/military-jan-june08-detainees_06-18 |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |access-date=October 1, 2014 |website=PBS NewsHour}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What We Do: Guantanamo |url=https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/issues/guantanamo |access-date=May 28, 2020 |website=Center for Constitutional Rights |quote=Since the prison opened in 2002, CCR has been at the forefront of the legal battle against indefinite detention and torture at Guantánamo, representing many current and former detainees.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 24, 2011 |title=US: Prolonged Indefinite Detention Violates International Law: Current Detention Practices at Guantanamo Unjustified and Arbitrary |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/01/24/us-prolonged-indefinite-detention-violates-international-law |website=Human Rights Watch}}</ref> The [[Department of Homeland Security]] was created to lead federal counter-terrorism activities.<ref name="Zelizer-2010b" />

In March 2003, the U.S. launched [[2003 invasion of Iraq|an invasion of Iraq]], claiming Iraqi dictator [[Saddam Hussein]] had [[weapons of mass destruction]] (WMDs). Intelligence backing WMDs were later found to be inaccurate. The war led to the collapse of the Iraqi government and the eventual [[Capture of Saddam Hussein|capture]] of Hussein.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 25, 2005 |title=CIA's final report: No WMD found in Iraq |website=NBC News |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7634313 |url-status=live |access-date=April 22, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130305122359/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7634313 |archive-date=March 5, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment |year=2010 |editor-last=Zelizer |editor-first=Julian |editor-link=Julian Zelizer |pages=88–113}}</ref> The [[Iraq War]] fueled [[protests against the Iraq War|international protests]] and gradually saw [[Public opinion in the United States on the invasion of Iraq|domestic support decline]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Clifton |first=Eli |date=November 7, 2011 |title=Poll: 62 Percent Say Iraq War Wasn't Worth Fighting |url=http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/11/07/362734/poll-62-percent-say-iraq-war-wasnt-worth-fighting |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305110015/http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/11/07/362734/poll-62-percent-say-iraq-war-wasnt-worth-fighting |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |access-date=February 24, 2012 |website=ThinkProgress}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Milbank |first1=Dana |last2=Deane |first2=Claudia |date=June 8, 2005 |title=Poll Finds Dimmer View of Iraq War |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700296.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221202536/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700296.html |archive-date=February 21, 2011}}</ref>

In 2005, [[Hurricane Katrina]] killed 1,800 people around New Orleans after the city's [[levee]]s broke.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 3, 2024 |title=Hurricane Katrina - Deaths, Damage, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Hurricane-Katrina |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> In 2007, after years of violence by the [[Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)|Iraqi insurgency]], Bush deployed more troops in a strategy dubbed "[[Iraq War troop surge of 2007|the surge]]". While the death toll decreased, the political stability of Iraq remained in doubt.{{Sfn|Wilentz|page=453}} In 2008, the U.S. entered the [[Great Recession in the United States|Great Recession]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Thomas |title=The Great Recession: What Happened |year=2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Jerry M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YSYIHuSX2oC |title=The Concise Encyclopedia of The Great Recession 2007–2012 |year=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810883406 |edition=2nd |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320012939/http://books.google.com/books?id=8YSYIHuSX2oC |archive-date=March 20, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Multiple overlapping crises were involved, especially the [[United States housing market correction|housing market crisis]], a [[subprime mortgage crisis]], [[2000s energy crisis|soaring oil prices]], an [[effects of the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis on the United States|automotive industry crisis]], rising unemployment, and the [[2008 financial crisis]], the worst [[financial crisis]] since the [[Great Depression]]. The [[bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers]] threatened the stability of the entire economy in September 2008.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kolb |first=Robert W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k15gTwOtMcwC&pg=PA96 |title=The Financial Crisis of Our Time |year=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199792788 |page=96ff |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=k15gTwOtMcwC&pg=PA96 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Starting in October, the federal government lent $245&nbsp;billion to financial institutions through the bipartisan [[Troubled Asset Relief Program]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Riley |first=Charles |date=February 3, 2011 |title=Treasury close to profit on TARP bank loans |work=CNN Money |url=https://money.cnn.com/2011/02/02/news/economy/tarp/index.htm |url-status=live |access-date=March 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309105159/http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/02/news/economy/tarp/index.htm |archive-date=March 9, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=November 5, 2010 |title='I'd Approve TARP Again': George W. Bush |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2010/11/05/id-approve-tarp-again-george-w-bush.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://www.cnbc.com/id/40028600/I_d_Approve_TARP_Again_George_W_Bush |archive-date=October 16, 2015}}</ref>

=== Obama administration ===
{{Main||Great Recession in the United States|Presidency of Barack Obama|Tea Party movement}}
[[File:Barack Obama inaugural address.ogv|thumb|[[Barack Obama]] delivering his [[First inauguration of Barack Obama|2009 inauguration]] speech]]
[[Barack Obama]], the first multiracial and African American<ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. --> |date=November 12, 2008 |title=Barack Obama: Face Of New Multiracial Movement? |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96916824 |access-date=October 4, 2014 |newspaper=NPR}}</ref> president, was [[2008 United States presidential election|elected in 2008]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crotty |first=William |year=2009 |title=Policy and Politics: The Bush Administration and the 2008 Presidential Election |journal=Polity |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=282–311 |doi=10.1057/pol.2009.3 |s2cid=154471046}}</ref> He signed the [[Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act]], which allowed people to serve in the military while openly gay.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 29, 2024 |title=Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Dont-Ask-Dont-Tell |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> To help the economy, he signed the [[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bernstein |first=Jared |date=February 18, 2019 |title=Lessons from the Recovery Act on its 10-year anniversary |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/18/lessons-recovery-act-its-year-anniversary/ |access-date=July 6, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> [[Car Allowance Rebate System|Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Economic Analysis of the Car Allowance Rebate System ("Cash for clunkers") |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/5397 |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=The White House |language=en}}</ref> the [[Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]], informally called "Obamacare",<ref>{{Cite web |last=Buttle |first=Rhett |title=14 Years Of The Affordable Care Act: What It Means For Entrepreneurs |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/rhettbuttle/2024/03/22/14-years-of-the-affordable-care-act-what-it-means-for-entrepreneurs/ |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> and the [[Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Appelbaum |first1=Binyamin |last2=Herszenhorn |first2=David M. |date=July 15, 2010 |title=Financial Overhaul Signals Shift on Deregulation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/business/16regulate.html |access-date=July 6, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cooper |first=Helene |date=July 21, 2010 |title=Obama Signs Overhaul of Financial System |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/business/22regulate.html |access-date=July 6, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The unemployment rate began falling as the economy and labor markets experienced a recovery.<ref name="MLR-2018">{{Cite journal |date=April 2018 |title=Great Recession, great recovery? Trends from the Current Population Survey |url=https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/great-recession-great-recovery.htm |journal=Monthly Labor Review |publisher=Bureau of Labor Statistics}}</ref>

These changes to the economic system created new political movements, such as the [[Occupy movement]] and the [[Tea Party movement]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 22, 2011 |title=Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party: United In Distrust |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/10/22/141619672/finding-common-ground-between-two-movements |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=NPR}}</ref> The recession officially ended in mid-2009.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kaiser |first=Emily |date=September 20, 2010 |title=Recession ended in June 2009: NBER |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68J2JJ20100920 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219121957/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68J2JJ20100920 |archive-date=December 19, 2010 |access-date=July 1, 2017 |work=Reuters}}</ref> Following the [[2010 midterm elections]], Congress was in [[Gridlock (politics)|gridlock]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 22, 2011 |title=Congress Ends 2011 Mired in Gridlock |url=http://www.investorplace.com/2011/12/congress-ends-2011-mired-in-gridlock |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104040658/http://www.investorplace.com/2011/12/congress-ends-2011-mired-in-gridlock |archive-date=January 4, 2012 |access-date=February 24, 2012 |website=InvestorPlace}}</ref> leading to the [[Budget Control Act of 2011]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Khimm |first=Suzy |date=September 14, 2012 |title=The sequester, explained |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/09/14/the-sequester-explained/ |access-date=June 1, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> The economic expansion that followed the Great Recession was the longest in U.S. history;<ref name="Rushe">{{Cite news |last=Rushe |first=Dominic |date=April 29, 2020 |title=US economy shrinks 4.8% as coronavirus ends longest expansion in history |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/29/us-economy-shrinks-coronavirus-ends-longest-expansion |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref name="Bayly">{{Cite news |last=Bayly |first=Lucy |date=April 29, 2020 |title=GDP falls by 4.8 percent, bringing longest economic expansion on record to abrupt halt |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/gdp-falls-4-8-percent-bringing-longest-economic-expansion-record-n1195106 |website=NBC News}}</ref> the unemployment rate reached a 50-year low in 2019.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Long |first=Heather |date=May 3, 2019 |title=U.S. unemployment fell to 3.6 percent, lowest since 1969 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/03/us-economy-added-jobs-april-unemployment-fell-percent-lowest-since |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> Despite the strong economy, increases in the cost of living surpassed increases in wages.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lowrey |first=Annie |date=February 7, 2020 |title=The Great Affordability Crisis Breaking America |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/great-affordability-crisis-breaking-america/606046 |work=The Atlantic}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Simon |first=Scott |date=February 15, 2020 |title=The U.S. Is In The Midst Of An Affordability Crisis, 'Atlantic' Writer Argues |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/02/15/806282714/the-u-s-is-in-the-midst-of-an-affordability-crisis-atlantic-writer-argues |website=Weekend Edition Saturday NPR}}</ref>

In 2009, Obama issued an [[Executive Order 13491|executive order banning the use of torture]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Baker |first=Peter |date=December 11, 2014 |title=Obama Catches Blame on Tactics of Torture That He Ended |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/us/politics/obama-effectiveness-cia-torture.html |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref name="Barela">{{Cite journal |last=Barela |first=Steven J. |date=February 12, 2016 |title=The New US Anti-Torture Law: A Genuine Step Forward |url=https://www.justsecurity.org/29273/anti-torture-law-genuine-step |journal=Just Security}}</ref> He ordered the closure of [[CIA black sites|secret CIA-run prisons]] overseas,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shane |first=Scott |date=January 22, 2009 |title=Obama Orders Secret Prisons and Detention Camps Closed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/us/politics/obama-effectiveness-cia-torture.html |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Savage |first=Charlie |date=January 25, 2017 |title=Trump Poised to Lift Ban on C.I.A. 'Black Site' Prisons |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/cia-detainee-prisons.html |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and [[Executive Order 13492|sought to close]] the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but his efforts were stymied by Congress.<ref name="Rath">{{Cite web |last=Rath |first=Arun |date=January 19, 2017 |title=Trump Inherits Guantanamo's Remaining Detainees |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/01/19/510448989/trump-inherits-guantanamos-remaining-detainees |website=Morning Edition}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 14, 2017 |title=Why Obama failed to close Guantanamo |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-failed-close-guantanamo |website=NewsHour |publisher=PBS}}</ref> American military personnel [[Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq (2007–2011)|left Iraq]] in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 18, 2011 |title='The war is over': Last US soldiers leave Iraq |url=http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/18/9528197-the-war-is-over-last-us-soldiers-leave-iraq?lite |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301044717/http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/18/9528197-the-war-is-over-last-us-soldiers-leave-iraq?lite |archive-date=March 1, 2016 |website=NBC News}}</ref> Meanwhile, Obama increased involvement in Afghanistan, adding 30,000 troops, while proposing to begin [[Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan (2011–2016)|withdrawal]] in 2014.<ref name="Barela" /> The U.S., with NATO, [[2011 military intervention in Libya|intervened]] in the [[Libyan civil war (2011)|Libyan Civil War]] in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dyke |first=Joe |date=May 16, 2024 |title=NATO Killed Civilians in Libya. It's Time to Admit It. |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/20/nato-killed-civilians-in-libya-its-time-to-admit-it/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US}}</ref> In May 2011, Osama bin Laden [[Killing of Osama bin Laden|was killed]] in Pakistan in a [[Navy SEALs]] raid ordered by Obama. While al-Qaeda was near collapse in Afghanistan, affiliated organizations continued to operate in Yemen and other remote areas, as the CIA used [[Unmanned combat aerial vehicle|drones]] to hunt down its leadership.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Baker |first1=Peter |last2=Cooper |first2=Helene |last3=Mazzetti |first3=Mark |date=May 1, 2011 |title=Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505195308/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html |archive-date=May 5, 2011 |access-date=February 27, 2017 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bergen |first=Peter L. |title=Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad |year=2012 |pages=250–261}}</ref> In October, Obama [[Operation Observant Compass|sent troops to Central Africa]] to fight the [[Lord's Resistance Army]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 6, 2017 |title=EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Green Berets' hunt for brutal warlord |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/inside-green-berets-hunt-warlord-joseph-kony-n726076 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref>

Following Obama's [[2012 United States presidential election|2012 re-election]], Congressional gridlock continued, resulting in the [[2013 United States federal government shutdown|first government shutdown since the Clinton administration]].<ref>{{Cite web |website=Gallup.com |title=Congress' Job Approval Falls to 11% Amid Gov't Shutdown |date=October 7, 2013 |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/165281/congress-job-approval-falls-amid-gov-shutdown.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006075722/http://www.gallup.com/poll/165281/congress-job-approval-falls-amid-gov-shutdown.aspx |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |access-date=October 1, 2014}}</ref> In 2012, the [[Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting]] in [[Newtown, Connecticut]], led to unsuccessful attempts from Obama to promote [[Gun politics in the United States|gun reform]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=4 Years After Sandy Hook, Obama Leaves a Legacy of Little Progress on Gun Laws |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/years-sandy-hook-obama-leaves-legacy-progress-gun/story?id=44163755 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> The [[Boston Marathon bombing]] of 2013 killed three people and injured more than 260.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 15, 2023 |title=10th anniversary of Boston Marathon bombing marked with somber ceremony |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/10th-anniversary-of-boston-marathon-bombing-marked-with-somber-ceremony |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en-us}}</ref> In 2013, the U.S. also started a [[US military intervention in Niger|counter-terrorist intervention]] in Niger,<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 14, 2023 |title=Blindsided: Hours before the coup in Niger, U.S. diplomats said the country was stable |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/blindsided-hours-coup-niger-us-diplomats-said-country-was-stable-rcna99708 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> and began a covert operation to [[Syrian Train and Equip Program|train rebels in Syria]] who were fighting against the terrorist group [[ISIS]]. The latter program was publicized and [[US intervention in the Syrian civil war|expanded]] in 2014.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 16, 2015 |title=US to send 400 troops to train Syrian rebels |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30847689 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> That year, ISIS grew in scope in the Middle East, and inspired many terrorist attacks in the United States, including the [[2015 San Bernardino attack]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The rise and fall of ISIL explained |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/6/20/the-rise-and-fall-of-isil-explained |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dale |first=Daniel |date=October 24, 2023 |title=Fact check: Trump falsely claims the US had no terrorist attacks during his presidency |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/23/politics/fact-check-trump-speech-new-hampshire/index.html |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=CNN Politics |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=San Bernardino Mass Shooting - What We Know |url=https://abc7.com/san-bernardino-regional-center-shooting-active-shooter/1107077/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=ABC7 Los Angeles |date=December 7, 2015 |language=en}}</ref> The U.S. and its allies began a significant [[US-led intervention in Iraq (2014–2021)|military offensive against ISIS]] in Iraq which lasted from 2014 to 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Baldor |first1=Lolita |last2=Burns |first2=Robert |date=December 10, 2021 |title=General says US troops to remain in Iraq |url=https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2021/12/09/general-says-us-troops-to-remain-in-iraq/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Military Times |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=March 17, 2023 |title=Timeline of events: 20 years since U.S.-led invasion of Iraq |url=https://apnews.com/article/iraq-invasion-war-timeline-saddam-hussein-50828061c98e410063753045179bdcfb |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> In December 2014, Obama officially ended the combat mission in Afghanistan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 29, 2014 |title=Statement by the President on the End of the Combat Mission in Afghanistan |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/28/statement-president-end-combat-mission-afghanistan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121015947/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/28/statement-president-end-combat-mission-afghanistan |archive-date=January 21, 2017 |access-date=January 18, 2015 |website=[[whitehouse.gov]] |via=[[NARA|National Archives]]}}</ref> [[File:White house Rainbow 20150626.png|thumb|The [[White House]] lit with rainbow colors in celebration of the [[Obergefell v. Hodges|legalization of gay marriage]] in June 2015]]

The [[Killing of Michael Brown|shooting]] of Black teen Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson, and a grand jury declining to charge Wilson with murder, led to the [[Ferguson unrest]] in Missouri in 2014 and 2015.<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 25, 2014 |title=Ferguson unrest: From shooting to nationwide protests |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30193354 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2012, President Obama became the first president to openly support same-sex marriage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gast |first=Phil |date=May 9, 2012 |title=Obama announces he supports same-sex marriage - CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/politics/obama-same-sex-marriage/index.html |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> The Supreme Court provided [[United States v. Windsor|federal recognition of same-sex marriages]] in 2013,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Robert |date=June 26, 2013 |title=Supreme Court strikes down key part of Defense of Marriage Act |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court/2013/06/26/f0039814-d9ab-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html |access-date=May 12, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> and then legalized gay marriage nationwide with ''[[Obergefell v. Hodges]]'' in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 26, 2015 |title=Supreme Court declares nationwide right to same-sex marriage |url=https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-courts-marriage-supreme-court-of-the-united-states-united-states-government-9e1933cd1e1a4e969ab45f5952bbb45f |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> Also in 2015, the U.S. joined the international [[Paris Agreement]] on [[climate change]].<ref name="Reuters-2020">{{Cite web |date=October 30, 2020 |title=Factbox: Donald Trump's legacy - six policy takeaways |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN27F1GH/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Reuters}}</ref>

=== First Trump administration ===
{{Main|First presidency of Donald Trump|COVID-19 pandemic in the United States}}
[[File:Thoughts and Prayers Don't Save Lives (40369207261) (cropped).jpg|thumb|A February 2018 demonstration following the [[Parkland high school shooting]] in [[Parkland, Florida]]]]
In November 2016, [[Donald Trump]] was elected president.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 9, 2016 |title=The Latest: Trump promises 'I will not let you down |url=http://elections.ap.org/content/latest-donald-trump-elected-president |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116163438/http://elections.ap.org/content/latest-donald-trump-elected-president |archive-date=November 16, 2016 |access-date=November 15, 2016 |website=Associated Press}}</ref> The election's legitimacy was disputed when [[Crossfire Hurricane (FBI investigation)|the FBI]] and [[Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election|Congress]] investigated if Russia [[Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections|interfered in the election]] to help Trump win. There were also [[Links between Trump associates and Russian officials|accusations of collusion]] between Trump's campaign and Russian officials. The [[Mueller report]] concluded that Russia attempted to help Trump's campaign, but there was no evidence of "explicit" collusion.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Greg |last2=Entous |first2=Adam |title=Declassified report says Putin 'ordered' effort to undermine faith in U.S. election and help Trump |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-chiefs-expected-in-new-york-to-brief-trump-on-russian-hacking/2017/01/06/5f591416-d41a-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html |url-status=live |access-date=May 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107010016/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-chiefs-expected-in-new-york-to-brief-trump-on-russian-hacking/2017/01/06/5f591416-d41a-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html |archive-date=January 7, 2017}}</ref><ref name="AP News-2023">{{Cite web |date=May 17, 2023 |title=Durham report takeaways: A 'seriously flawed' Russia investigation and its lasting impact on the FBI |url=https://apnews.com/article/durham-report-fbi-trump-clinton-2016-campaign-f3039e651eeb35a09091c363419e6766 |access-date=March 23, 2024 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=March 24, 2019 |title=Mueller Report Doesn't Find Russian Collusion, But Can't 'Exonerate' On Obstruction |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/03/24/706318191/trump-white-house-hasnt-seen-or-been-briefed-on-mueller-investigation-report |access-date=July 3, 2024 |website=NPR}}</ref>

During Trump's presidency, he espoused an "[[America First (policy)|America First]]" ideology, placing restrictions on asylum seekers, [[Mexico–United States border wall|expanding the wall]] on the U.S.-Mexico border, and [[Trump travel ban|banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries]]. Many of his actions were challenged in court.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Diamond |first=Jeremy |date=January 28, 2017 |title=Trump's latest executive order: Banning people from 7 countries and more |url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/27/politics/donald-trump-refugees-executive-order/index.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CNN Politics |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=These are the Trump administration policies courts have ruled against |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-overruled |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226022838/https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-overruled/ |archive-date=February 26, 2021 |access-date=March 8, 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 21, 2019 |title=Trump wall: How much has he actually built? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46824649 |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> He confirmed [[Donald Trump Supreme Court candidates|three new Supreme Court justices]] (cementing a conservative majority),<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 3, 2024 |title=Trump built the Supreme Court's conservative majority, but it doesn't always rule in his favor |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-built-supreme-court-conservative-majority-loses-rcna131956 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> started a [[China–United States trade war|trade war with China]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 16, 2020 |title=A quick guide to the US-China trade war |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45899310 |access-date=March 8, 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> signed the [[Tax Cuts and Jobs Act]], and removed the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.<ref name="Reuters-2020" /> In 2018, the administration [[Trump administration family separation policy|separated families]] which were illegally immigrating to the country. After public outcry, Trump rescinded the policy.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Gonzales |first1=Richard |date=June 20, 2018 |title=Trump's Executive Order On Family Separation: What It Does And Doesn't Do |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/06/20/622095441/trump-executive-order-on-family-separation-what-it-does-and-doesnt-do |access-date=March 8, 2021 |newspaper=NPR |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=June 29, 2018 |title=Trump admin ran 'pilot program' for zero tolerance at border in 2017 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/trump-admin-ran-pilot-program-separating-migrant-families-2017-n887616 |access-date=July 3, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> A whistleblower complaint alleged that Trump had [[Trump–Ukraine scandal|withheld foreign aid from Ukraine]] under the demand that they investigate the business dealings of [[Hunter Biden]]; Hunter's father, Democrat [[Joe Biden]], would be Trump's opponent in the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 presidential election]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Breuninger |first=Kevin |date=September 25, 2019 |title=Trump asked Ukraine president in phone call 'if you can look into' Biden and his son |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/25/trump-asked-ukraine-president-if-you-can-look-into-biden-and-his-son-in-phone-call.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CNBC |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Gilliland-2020" /> Trump was [[First impeachment of Donald Trump|impeached]] for abuse of power and obstruction of congress, but [[First impeachment trial of Donald Trump|was acquitted]] in 2020.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 5, 2020 |title=Trump impeachment: The short, medium and long story |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181 |access-date=March 8, 2021 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

In the 2010s and early 2020s, Americans became more [[Political polarization in the United States|politically polarized]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 15, 2023 |title=Here's what's driving America's increasing political polarization |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/s-s-driving-americas-increasing-political-polarization-rcna89559 |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=March 8, 2023 |title=Listening to a divided America |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/listening-to-a-divided-america |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Owens |first=Caitlin |date=August 7, 2023 |title=America's deepest partisan divides are getting deeper |url=https://www.axios.com/2023/08/07/americans-disagree-political-issues-divide-gallup-poll |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=Axios}}</ref> The [[Me Too movement|#MeToo]] movement exposed alleged sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 21, 2020 |title=Me Too founder Tarana Burke discusses where we go from here |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/me-too-founder-tarana-burke-discusses-where-we-go-from-here |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=Harvard Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref> Many celebrities were accused of misconduct or rape.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 6, 2020 |title=Stars accused of sexual harassment and assault |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/hollywood-stars-accused-sexual-harassment-assault-gallery-1.3547625 |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=nydailynews.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sancton |first=Julian |date=September 29, 2022 |title=#MeToo Five Years Later: A Timeline of Allegations, Accountability and Activism |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/metoo-five-years-timeline-allegations-accountability-activism-1235228661/ |access-date=July 3, 2024 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}</ref> The [[Black Lives Matter]] movement gained support after multiple police killings of African-Americans.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Capatosto |first=Victoria |title=A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States |url=https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/BLM |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=library.law.howard.edu |language=en}}</ref> White supremacy also grew.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 13, 2017 |title=White supremacy: Are US right-wing groups on the rise? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40915356 |website=BBC News |access-date=June 8, 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 25, 2021 |title='Throughline': The Rise Of The Modern White Power Movement |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/960253858/throughline-the-rise-of-the-modern-white-power-movement |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=NPR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Why is white supremacy growing in the United States? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-bottom-line/2021/10/28/why-is-white-supremacy-growing-in-the-united-states |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> The [[2017 Women's March]] against Trump's presidency was one of the largest protests in American history.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2018 |title=Largest Protests in American History |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-marches-us-history-2017-2#the-womens-march-on-washington-january-21-2017-11 |website=Business Insider}}</ref> Multiple mass shootings, including the 2016 [[Orlando nightclub shooting|Pulse Nightclub shooting]], 2017 [[Las Vegas shooting]], and 2018 [[Parkland shooting]], led to increased calls for gun reform, such as in the [[March for Our Lives]] student protest movement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andone |first=Dakin |date=March 21, 2018 |title=What you should know about the March for Our Lives |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/us/march-for-our-lives-explainer/index.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 24, 2018 |title=March for Our Lives Highlights: Students Protesting Guns Say 'Enough Is Enough' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

[[COVID-19]] started spreading in China in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 22, 2024 |title=Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous |url=https://apnews.com/article/china-covid-virus-origins-pandemic-lab-leak-bed5ab50dca8e318ab00f60b5911da0c |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> In March 2020, the [[WHO]] declared a [[COVID-19 pandemic|pandemic]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The WHO Just Declared Coronavirus COVID-19 a Pandemic |url=https://time.com/5791661/who-coronavirus-pandemic-declaration/ |access-date=March 4, 2022 |magazine=Time |language=en}}</ref> American state and local governments imposed [[stay-at-home order]]s to slow the virus' spread, [[Flattening the curve|reducing patient overload]] in hospitals. By April, the U.S. had the most cases of any country, at 100,000.<ref>{{cite news |last=McNeil |first=Donald G. Jr. |title=The U.S. Now Leads the World in Confirmed Coronavirus Cases |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/health/usa-coronavirus-cases.html |date=March 26, 2020 |work=The New York Times |access-date=March 26, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Chan |first1=Christine |last2=Shumaker |first2=Lisa |last3=Maler |first3=Sandra |title=Confirmed coronavirus cases in U.S. reach 100,000: Reuters tally |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-cases/confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-u-s-reach-100000-reuters-tally-idUSKBN21E3DA |date=March 28, 2020 |work=[[Reuters]] |access-date=March 28, 2020 |name-list-style=vanc}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Roberts |first=Siobhan |date=March 27, 2020 |title=Flattening the Coronavirus Curve |url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/flatten-curve-coronavirus.html |access-date=July 3, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> On April 11, the U.S. death toll became the highest in the world at 20,000,<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 11, 2020 |title=U.S. coronavirus deaths top 20,000, highest in world exceeding Italy: Reuters tally |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-casualties-idUSKCN21T0NA |access-date=May 1, 2020}}</ref> and by May 2022, one million had died.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Iorfida |first=Chris |date=May 12, 2022 |title=U.S. surpasses 1 million COVID-19 deaths: A look at the numbers |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-million-covid-deaths-1.6150574 |access-date=June 3, 2022}}</ref> Unemployment rates were the highest since the Great Depression.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 18, 2021 |first=Stephanie |last=Soucheray |title=Amid COVID-19, US life expectancy sees biggest drop since WWII |url=https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/02/amid-covid-19-us-life-expectancy-sees-biggest-drop-wwii |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CIDRAP |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McPhillips |first=Deidre |date=April 7, 2022 |title=US life expectancy continues historic decline with another drop in 2021, study finds |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/07/health/us-life-expectancy-drops-again-2021/index.html |access-date=June 3, 2022 |website=CNN}}</ref> The [[COVID-19 vaccination in the United States|biggest mass vaccination campaign in U.S. history]] started in December 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lopez |first=German |date=December 14, 2020 |title=The Covid-19 vaccine's 2 big challenges |url=https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22161047/covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-manufacturing-distribution-persuasion |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref>
The May 2020 [[murder of George Floyd]] caused mass [[George Floyd protests|protests and riots]] in many cities over police brutality.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mapping US cities where George Floyd protests have erupted |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2020/06/mapping-cities-george-floyd-protests-erupted-200601081654119.html |access-date=June 26, 2020 |website=aljazeera.com}}</ref> Many organizations attempted to rid themselves of institutionalized racism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gottbrath |first=Laurin-Whitney |title=In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement shook the world |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/31/2020-the-year-black-lives-matter-shook-the-world |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> 2020 was also marked by a rise in domestic terrorist threats and widespread [[conspiracy theories]] around [[Postal voting in the 2020 United States elections|mail-in voting]] and COVID-19.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brewster |first=Jack |title=Trump Renews Ballot 'Dump' Conspiracy Theory Claim—Here's Why Its Bogus |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/11/30/trump-renews-ballot-dump-conspiracy-theory-claim-heres-why-its-bogus |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=May 8, 2020 |title=Coronavirus: 'Plandemic' virus conspiracy video spreads across social media |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52588682 |access-date=March 8, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Piper |first=Jessica |date=September 4, 2023 |title=Anti-vaxxers are now a modern political force |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/24/anti-vaxxers-political-power-00116527 |access-date=May 12, 2024 |website=Politico}}</ref> The [[QAnon]] conspiracy theory gained publicity.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 25, 2020 |title=QAnon explained: the antisemitic conspiracy theory gaining traction around the world |url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/25/qanon-conspiracy-theory-explained-trump-what-is |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 14, 2020 |title=How QAnon rode the pandemic to new heights — and fueled the viral anti-mask phenomenon |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-qanon-rode-pandemic-new-heights-fueled-viral-anti-mask-n1236695 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> Multiple major cities were hit by rioting and fighting between far-left [[Antifa (United States)|anti-fascist groups]] and far-right groups like the [[Proud Boys]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shepherd |first=Katie |title=Portland police stand by as Proud Boys and far-right militias flash guns and brawl with antifa counterprotesters |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/22/portland-police-far-right-protest |access-date=March 8, 2021 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Minneapolis mayor calls in National Guard after unrest downtown |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/minneapolis-mayor-calls-national-guard-after-unrest-downtown-n1238366 |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=NBC News |date=August 27, 2020 |language=en}}</ref> 
[[File:2021 storming of the United States Capitol DSC09254-2 (50820534063) (retouched).jpg|thumb|Supporters of then-[[Donald Trump|President Trump]] attempting to stop the counting of [[electoral votes]] on January 6, 2021]]

Joe Biden defeated Trump in the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 presidential election]].<ref name="Gilliland-2020">{{Cite web |last=Gilliland |first=Donald |date=November 7, 2020 |title=Biden's defeat of Trump is the most important win since FDR |url=https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/524942-bidens-defeat-of-trump-is-the-most-important-win-since-fdr |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |language=en}}</ref> Trump repeatedly made [[Election denial movement in the United States|false claims]] of massive voter fraud and election rigging,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Trump Fundraising Surges After Election As He Makes False Claims It Was Rigged |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/12/04/942930782/trump-fundraising-surges-after-election-as-he-makes-false-claims-it-was-rigged |access-date=December 16, 2020 |newspaper=NPR |date=December 4, 2020 |language=en |last1=Keith |first1=Tamara}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Trump's false fraud claims are laying groundwork for new voting restrictions, experts warn |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/trump-s-false-fraud-claims-are-laying-groundwork-new-voting-n1250059 |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=NBC News |date=December 6, 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 3, 2020 |title=AP Fact Check: Trump's claims of vote rigging are all wrong |url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-ap-fact-check-joe-biden-donald-trump-technology-49a24edd6d10888dbad61689c24b05a5 |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=The Associated Press}}</ref> leading to the [[January 6 United States Capitol attack]] by supporters of Trump and right-wing militias.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 6, 2021 |title=Pro-Trump mob storm Capitol as lawmakers meet to certify Biden's win – video |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2021/jan/06/trump-supporters-storm-capitol-protest-senate-video |access-date=January 8, 2021 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |year=2021 |title=Jan. 6 insurrection |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/jan-6-insurrection-capitol/ |access-date=July 6, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> The attack was widely described as a [[coup d'état]].<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Eastman v Thompson, et al. |opinion=8:22-cv-00099-DOC-DFM Document 260 |pinpoint=44 |court=S.D. Cal. |date=May 28, 2022 |quote=Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower{{snd}}it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation's government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process... If Dr. Eastman and President Trump's plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself. |url=https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.260.0.pdf |access-date=December 16, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.brookings.edu/research/trump-on-trial/ |title=Trump on Trial: A Guide to the January 6 Hearings and the Question of Criminality |last1=Eisen |first1=Norman |last2=Ayer |first2=Donald |date=June 6, 2022 |publisher=Brookings Institution |language=en-US |quote=[Trump] tried to delegitimize the election results by disseminating a series of far fetched and evidence-free claims of fraud. Meanwhile, with a ring of close confidants, Trump conceived and implemented unprecedented schemes to{{snd}}in his own words{{snd}}"overturn" the election outcome. Among the results of this "Big Lie" campaign were the terrible events of January 6, 2021{{snd}}an inflection point in what we now understand was nothing less than an attempted coup. |last3=Perry |first3=Joshua |last4=Bookbinder |first4=Noah |last5=Perry |first5=E. Danya |access-date=December 16, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Multiple Sources">Multiple media sources:

* {{Cite web |last=Graham |first=David A. |date=January 6, 2021 |title=This Is a Coup |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/attempted-coup/617570/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106224049/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/attempted-coup/617570/ |archive-date=January 6, 2021 |access-date=December 16, 2023 |website=[[The Atlantic]]}}
* {{Cite web |last=Musgrave |first=Paul |date=January 6, 2021 |title=This Is a Coup. Why Were Experts So Reluctant to See It Coming? |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/coup-america-capitol-electoral-college-2020-election/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106235812/https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/coup-america-capitol-electoral-college-2020-election/ |archive-date=January 6, 2021 |access-date=December 16, 2023 |website=Foreign Policy}}
* {{Cite web |last=Solnit |first=Rebecca |date=January 6, 2021 |title=Call it what it was: a coup attempt |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/trump-mob-storm-capitol-washington-coup-attempt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107000436/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/trump-mob-storm-capitol-washington-coup-attempt |archive-date=January 7, 2021 |access-date=December 16, 2023 |website=The Guardian}}
* {{Cite web |last=Coleman |first=Justine |date=January 6, 2021 |title=GOP lawmaker on violence at Capitol: 'This is a coup attempt' |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/house/532944-gop-lawmaker-on-violence-at-capitol-this-is-a-coup-attempt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106212600/https://thehill.com/homenews/house/532944-gop-lawmaker-on-violence-at-capitol-this-is-a-coup-attempt |archive-date=January 6, 2021 |access-date=December 16, 2023 |website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]}}
* {{Cite web |last=Jacobson |first=Louis |date=January 6, 2021 |title=Is this a coup? Here's some history and context to help you decide |url=https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/jan/06/coup-heres-some-history-and-context-help-you-decid/ |access-date=January 7, 2021 |website=[[PolitiFact]] |quote=A good case can be made that the storming of the Capitol qualifies as a coup. It's especially so because the rioters entered at precisely the moment when the incumbent's loss was to be formally sealed, and they succeeded in stopping the count.}}
* {{Cite news |last1=Barry |first1=Dan |last2=Frenkel |first2=Sheera |date=January 7, 2021 |title='Be There. Will Be Wild!': Trump All but Circled the Date |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/capitol-mob-trump-supporters.html |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/capitol-mob-trump-supporters.html |archive-date=December 28, 2021 |access-date=December 16, 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=January 6 U.S. Capitol attack |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack |access-date=September 22, 2021 |last=Duignan |first=Brian |date=August 4, 2021 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117232629/https://www.britannica.com/event/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |quote=Because its object was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office, the attack was widely regarded as an insurrection or attempted coup d'état. |url-status=live}}</ref> It led to Trump's [[Second impeachment of Donald Trump|impeachment]] for incitement of insurrection, making him the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=DeBonis |first1=Mike |last2=Kim |first2=Seung Min |title=House impeaches Trump with 10 Republicans joining, but Senate plans unclear |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-impeachment-trump/2021/01/13/05fe731c-55c5-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html |access-date=January 14, 2021 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fink |first=Jenni |date=January 13, 2021 |title=Donald Trump becomes first president to get impeached twice, losing stranglehold on GOP |url=https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-becomes-first-president-get-impeached-twice-losing-stranglehold-gop-1561211 |access-date=January 14, 2021 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gambino |first=Lauren |date=January 13, 2021 |title=Donald Trump impeached a second time over mob attack on US Capitol |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/13/trump-impeached-again-president-history-capitol-attack |access-date=January 14, 2021 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The Senate later [[Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump|acquitted]] Trump, despite some fellow Republicans voting against him.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Herb |first1=Jeremy |last2=Raju |first2=Manu |last3=Barrett |first3=Ted |last4=Fox |first4=Lauren |title=Trump acquitted for second time following historic Senate impeachment trial |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/13/politics/senate-impeachment-trial-day-5-vote/index.html |access-date=February 17, 2021 |website=CNN |date=February 13, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress – 1st Session |url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=117&session=1&vote=00059 |access-date=February 17, 2021 |website=senate.gov}}</ref> [[Kamala Harris]] was [[Inauguration of Joe Biden|inaugurated]] as the first Black, Asian, and female vice president.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kamala Harris Makes History as First Woman and Woman of Color as Vice President |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/us/politics/kamala-harris.html |website=The New York Times |date=November 7, 2020 |access-date=July 15, 2022 |last1=Lerer |first1=Lisa |last2=Ember |first2=Sydney}}</ref>

=== Biden administration ===
{{Main|Presidency of Joe Biden}}
In 2021, Biden completed the [[2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan|withdrawal of American troops]] from Afghanistan which had started under the first Trump administration. After an [[2021 Kabul airlift|evacuation of over 120,000 American citizens]], Afghanistan [[Fall of Afghanistan|fell to the Taliban]] in August.<ref name="AP News-2022">{{Cite web |date=August 17, 2022 |title=EXPLAINER: Dueling views remain a year after Afghan pullout |url=https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-afghanistan-al-qaida-ayman-zawahri-f00d745cb7cf00e3ada60017401f6784 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Taliban marks two years since return to power in Afghanistan |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/15/taliban-marks-two-years-since-return-to-power-in-afghanistan |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Knutson |first=Jacob |date=August 20, 2021 |title=Trump officials back away from 2020 Taliban peace deal after withdrawal chaos |url=https://www.axios.com/2021/08/20/trump-taliban-agreement-doha-biden |access-date=May 12, 2024 |website=Axios}}</ref> Biden signed into law the [[American Rescue Plan Act of 2021]], a $1.9&nbsp;trillion stimulus bill.<ref>{{cite news |last=Segers |first=Grace |date=March 12, 2021 |title=Biden signs $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law |agency=CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-signs-covid-relief-bill-american-rescue-plan-into-law/ |access-date=July 5, 2021}}</ref> He also proposed a significant expansion of the social safety net through the [[Build Back Better Act]], but those efforts, along with [[Freedom to Vote Act|voting rights legislation]], failed in Congress.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 17, 2022 |title=Who lost Biden's agenda? Democrats offer competing theories for failure of 'Build Back Better' |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/lost-bidens-agenda-democrats-offer-competing-theories-failure-build-ba-rcna24552 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> He signed bills regarding [[Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act|infrastructure]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shalal |first1=Andrea |last2=Holland |first2=Steve |date=November 16, 2021 |title=Biden signs $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-needing-boost-sign-1-trillion-infrastructure-bill-2021-11-15/ |access-date=November 16, 2021}}</ref> [[Bipartisan Safer Communities Act|gun reform]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biden signs bipartisan gun safety package into law |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/biden-signs-bipartisan-gun-safety-package-law/story?id=85692952 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> [[Inflation Reduction Act|inflation reduction]],<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Judd |first1=Donald |first2=Maegan |last2=Vazquez |date=August 16, 2022 |title=Biden signs Inflation Reduction Act into law - CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/16/politics/biden-inflation-reduction-act-signing/index.html |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> and [[Honoring our PACT Act of 2022|healthcare for veterans]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 8, 2023 |title=Honoring our 'PACT' to veterans |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/honoring-pact-veterans-090000193.html |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=Yahoo News |language=en-US}}</ref> among other issues.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 2, 2024 |title=30 Things Joe Biden Did as President You Might Have Missed |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/02/joe-biden-30-policy-things-you-might-have-missed-00139046 |access-date=June 1, 2024 |website=Politico}}</ref> New preventative restrictions were put in place in reaction to the [[SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 4, 2021 |title=Schools grapple with thousands in isolation or quarantine as delta variant rages |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/schools-grapple-thousands-isolation-or-quarantine-delta-variant-rages-n1277882 |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Anthes |first=Emily |date=June 22, 2021 |title=The Delta Variant: What Scientists Know |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/health/delta-variant-covid.html |access-date=July 6, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tebor |first=Celina |date=July 2, 2021 |title=Delta variant causes new lockdowns and coronavirus restrictions across the globe |url=https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-01/delta-variant-worldwide-coronavirus-restrictions |access-date=July 6, 2024 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2022, following [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine]], the Biden administration provided extensive military and economic aid to Ukraine, approving tens of billions of dollars in assistance and coordinating sanctions against Russia with NATO allies.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barnes |first1=Julian E. |last2=Cooper |first2=Helene |title=U.S. Sends More Anti-Aircraft Systems, Drones and Weapons to Ukraine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/us-ukraine-military-aid.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 16, 2022}}</ref> The U.S. also supplied advanced weaponry, including artillery and missile defense systems, while reinforcing NATO's eastern flank in response to the conflict.<ref>{{cite news |last=Cooper |first=Helene |title=How the U.S. Is Arming Ukraine Against Russia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/us/politics/ukraine-weapons.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 8, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. Military Aid to Ukraine Tops $40 Billion |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66265444 |website=BBC News |date=July 20, 2023}}</ref>
[[File:-i---i- (52380995447).jpg|thumb|Protestors outside the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] following the ''[[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]]'' decision in June 2022]]
In the early 2020s, Republican-led states began [[2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States|rollbacks of LGBTQ rights]] as well as [[Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 United States presidential election|restrictions on voting rights]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Over 120 Bills Restricting LGBTQ Rights Introduced Nationwide in 2023 So Far |url=https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/over-120-bills-restricting-lgbtq-rights-introduced-nationwide-2023-so-far |access-date=March 7, 2023 |website=ACLU}}</ref> In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Dobbs v. Jackson]]'' that the right to have an abortion is not protected by the U.S. Constitution, overturning ''Roe v. Wade'' and ''[[Planned Parenthood v. Casey]]'' and sparking [[2022 abortion rights protests in the United States|nationwide protests]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Liptak |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Liptak |date=June 24, 2022 |title=In 6-to-3 Ruling, Supreme Court Ends Nearly 50 Years of Abortion Rights |work=[[The New York Times]] |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/roe-wade-overturned-supreme-court.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |access-date=June 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625032744/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/roe-wade-overturned-supreme-court.html |archive-date=June 25, 2022 |issn=1553-8095 |oclc=1645522}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Almasy |first=Steve |date=June 24, 2022 |title=Protests underway in cities from Washington to Los Angeles in wake of Supreme Court abortion decision |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-protests/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625065025/https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-protests/index.html |archive-date=June 25, 2022 |access-date=June 25, 2022 |website=[[CNN]]}}</ref> Biden appointed [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]] to become the first Black woman to serve on the court.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tapper |first1=Jake |last2=de Vogue |first2=Ariane |last3=Zeleny |first3=Jeff |last4=Klein |first4=Betsy |last5=Vazquez |first5=Maegan |date=February 25, 2022 |title=Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to be first Black woman to sit on Supreme Court |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228012241/https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/index.html |archive-date=February 28, 2022 |access-date=February 28, 2022 |website=CNN}}</ref> In 2023, Trump began appearing in court as a defendant in [[Indictments against Donald Trump|multiple notable criminal trials]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Graham |first=David A. |date=May 8, 2024 |title=The Cases Against Trump: A Guide |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/donald-trump-legal-cases-charges/675531/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Thomson-DeVeaux |first=Amelia |date=August 2, 2023 |title=All Of Trump's Indictments Could Seriously Bog Down His Campaign |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-indictments-trial-campaign-effects/ |access-date=June 8, 2024 |website=FiveThirtyEight |language=en-US}}</ref> Meanwhile, the U.S. began supporting Israel in the [[Gaza war]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Americans' views divided on US policy toward Israel-Hamas war: POLL |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/americans-views-divided-us-policy-israel-hamas-war/story?id=109879453 |access-date=July 25, 2024 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> and [[Operation Prosperity Guardian|protecting shipping]] in the Red Sea from attacks by the Yemeni [[Houthis]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 22, 2023 |title=What is U.S.-led Red Sea coalition and which countries are backing it? |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us-red-sea-taskforce-gets-limited-backing-some-allies-2023-12-20/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231225072733/https://www.reuters.com/world/us-red-sea-taskforce-gets-limited-backing-some-allies-2023-12-20/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 25, 2023 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Reuters}}</ref>

In May 2024, Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a crime, when found guilty of [[Prosecution of Donald Trump in New York|34 felony counts]] for falsifying business documents related to his [[Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal|paying off of Stormy Daniels]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jury finds former President Trump guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/jury-finds-former-president-trump-guilty-of-all-34-felony-counts-of-falsifying-business-records-211974213765 |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> In July, the Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Trump v. United States (2024)|Trump v. United States]]'' that presidents are somewhat [[Presidential immunity in the United States|immune from criminal prosecution]], aiding Trump prior to his planned [[Federal prosecution of Donald Trump (election obstruction case)|election subversion trial]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 1, 2024 |title=Justices rule Trump has some immunity from prosecution |url=https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/07/justices-rule-trump-has-some-immunity-from-prosecution/ |access-date=July 3, 2024 |website=SCOTUSblog |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf |first=Zachary B. |date=July 1, 2024 |title=Analysis: The Supreme Court just gave presidents a superpower. Here's its explanation - CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/presidents-immunity-supreme-court-what-matters/index.html |access-date=July 3, 2024 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=The meaning of Donald Trump's Supreme Court victory |url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/07/01/donald-trump-wins-a-big-victory-at-the-supreme-court |access-date=July 3, 2024 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> Later in July, Biden [[Withdrawal of Joe Biden from the 2024 United States presidential election|dropped out]] of the 2024 race and endorsed his running mate Kamala Harris for president.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stein |first=Chris |date=July 21, 2024 |title=Joe Biden endorses Kamala Harris to replace him as Democrats begin to throw support behind vice-president – live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/jul/21/biden-drops-out-presidential-election |access-date=July 21, 2024 |work=the Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> During the election season, there were [[List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots#Donald Trump|two assassination attempts]] on Trump.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lybrand |first=Holmes |date=September 30, 2024 |title=Man accused of second attempted Trump assassination pleads not guilty {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/30/politics/ryan-wesley-routh-trump-assassination-attempt-plea/index.html |access-date=November 26, 2024 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> Trump won the 2024 presidential election.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cochran |first=Lexi Lonas |date=November 8, 2024 |title=Trump joins Grover Cleveland with rarest presidential feat |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4979460-trump-election-grover-cleveland-white-house/ |access-date=November 21, 2024 |website=The Hill}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=November 8, 2024 |title=Trump is the oldest person to be elected president: U.S. presidents, by age |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/08/oldest-us-presidents-trump/ |access-date=November 21, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> Biden delivered [[Joe Biden's farewell address|his farewell address]] from the Oval Office on January 15, 2025. He opened by announcing that a [[Gaza war hostage crisis|hostage release deal]] had been reached between Israel and Hamas. Additionally, he advocated for continued renewable energy investment, strengthening [[checks and balances]] in government, and warned against the dangers of what he termed the '[[tech–industrial complex]]'.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Biden, in farewell address, warns about dangers of unchecked power in wealthy |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-set-give-farewell-address-after-securing-israel/story?id=117719108 |access-date=January 16, 2025 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref>

=== Second Trump administration ===
{{Main|Second presidency of Donald Trump}}
[[File:Donald Trump Signs One Big Beautiful Bill into Law.png|thumb|Trump enacts the [[One Big Beautiful Bill]] on July 4, 2025]]
In November 2024, Trump was elected president to a nonconsecutive second term. The election was certified by Congress on January 6, 2025, and Trump assumed office on January 20.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Mascaro |first1=Lisa |last2=Jalonick |first2=Mary Clare |last3=Amiri |first3=Farnoush |last4=Brown |first4=Matt |date=January 6, 2025 |title=Congress certifies Trump's 2024 win, without the Jan. 6 mob violence of four years ago |url=https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-trump-election-certification-capitol-b8284b9b6b22f78ab7f23f8c8b3c3da3 |access-date=January 13, 2025 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> On his first day, Trump [[Pardon of January 6 United States Capitol attack defendants|pardoned about 1,500 people]] convicted of offenses in the [[January 6 United States Capitol attack|January 6 Capitol attack]] of 2021. Within his first month, he signed approximately 70 [[List of executive orders in the second presidency of Donald Trump|executive orders]] (far more than any of his recent predecessors), some of which are being [[Court cases related to Donald Trump's second presidential term|challenged in court]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=February 20, 2025 |title=How many executive orders has Trump signed in 2025?: A look at the president's first month back in office |url=https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/how-many-executive-orders-has-trump-signed-2025-first-month/6157457/ |access-date=March 22, 2025 |website=NBC New York |language=en-US}}</ref> On immigration, he signed executive orders blocking asylum-seekers from entry to the U.S., reinstated [[National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States|the national emergency]] at the [[Mexico–United States border|Mexico–U.S. border]], designated drug cartels as terrorist organizations, and attempted to end [[Birthright citizenship in the United States|birthright citizenship]]. He signed the [[Laken Riley Act]] as the first legislation of his term. Trump established the [[Department of Government Efficiency]] (DOGE), led by the businessman [[Elon Musk]], which is tasked with cutting spending by [[Federal government of the United States|the federal government]], limiting bureaucracy, and which has overseen [[2025 United States federal mass layoffs|mass layoffs of civil servants]].

In international affairs, Trump withdrew the United States from the [[World Health Organization]] and the [[Paris Climate Accords]]. He started a [[Second Trump tariffs|trade war with Canada and Mexico]] and continued the ongoing [[China–United States trade war|trade war with China]]. He has repeatedly expressed interest in [[annexing]] Canada, [[Greenland]], and the [[Panama Canal]]. In response to the [[Gaza war|Gaza War]], he proposed [[Potential American ownership of the Gaza Strip|an American takeover of]] the [[Gaza Strip]], [[Forced displacement|forcibly relocating]] the [[Palestinian population]] to other [[Arab states]], and rebuilding Gaza into a tourist resort. Amid the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], the Trump administration temporarily suspended the provision of intelligence and [[United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine|military aid]] to [[Ukraine]], offered concessions to [[Russia]], requested half of Ukraine's oil and minerals as repayment for American support, and said that Ukraine bore partial responsibility for the invasion. The administration resumed the aid after Ukraine agreed to a potential ceasefire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Matthew |date=March 11, 2025 |title=US resumes military aid and intelligence sharing as Ukraine says it is open to a 30-day ceasefire |url=https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/us-resumes-military-aid-and-intelligence-sharing-as-ukraine-says-it-is-open-to-a-30-day-ceasefire/ |access-date=March 14, 2025 |website=The Associated Press |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|United States}}
{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Bibliography of American history]]
* [[History of North America]]
* [[History of the Southern United States]]
* [[List of historians by area of study#History of the United States|List of historians by area of study]]
* [[List of history journals#United States and Canada|List of history journals]]
* [[Outline of the history of the United States]]

===By period===
* [[An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States]]
* [[Colonial history of the United States|Colonial era]]
* [[United States factor]]

===By topic===
* [[History of agriculture in the United States|Agriculture]]
* [[American urban history|Cities]]
* [[Cultural history of the United States|Culture]]
* [[Economic history of the United States|Economy]]
* [[History of education in the United States|Education]]
* [[History of United States foreign policy|Foreign policy]]
* [[History of the United States government|Government]]
** [[List of presidents of the United States|Presidents]]
* [[History of immigration to the United States|Immigration]]
* [[Military history of the United States|Military]]
* [[History of religion in the United States|Religion]]
* [[History of sports in the United States|Sports]]
* [[Territorial evolution of the United States|Territorial evolution]]
* [[History of women in the United States|Women]]

===Other topics===
* [[Politics of the United States|Politics]]
* [[Racism in the United States|Racism]]
* [[Territories of the United States|Territories]]
}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
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* {{Cite web |title=Outline of American History – Chapter 1: Early America |url=https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/history/ch1.htm#europeans |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120021240/http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/history/ch1.htm#europeans |archive-date=November 20, 2016 |access-date=September 27, 2019 |website=usa.usembassy.de |ref={{SfnRef|Outline of American History}}}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Beard |first1=Charles A. |title=The Rise of American civilization |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofamericanci04bear |last2=Beard |first2=Mary Ritter |last3=Jones |first3=Wilfred |year=1927 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |ref={{SfnRef|Beard}} |author-link1=Charles A. Beard}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Chenault |first1=Mark |title=In the Shadow of South Mountain: The Pre-Classic Hohokam of 'La Ciudad de los Hornos', Part I and II |last2=Ahlstrom |first2=Rick |last3=Motsinger |first3=Tom |year=1993 |ref={{SfnRef|Chenault}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Coffman |first=Edward M. |title=The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I |url=https://archive.org/details/wartoendallwarsa0000coff |year=1998 |ref={{SfnRef|Coffman}}}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cogliano |first=Francis D. |url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionaryame0000cogl |title=Revolutionary America, 1763–1815: A Political History |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-415-96486-9 |edition=2nd}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=John Milton |title=Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations |url=https://archive.org/details/breakingheartofw00coop |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521807869 |ref={{SfnRef|Cooper}}}}
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* ''Catherine Locks, Sarah Mergel, Pamela Roseman, Tamara Spike & Marie Lasseter''. [https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/history-textbooks/1/ History in the Making: A History of the People of the United States of America to 1877] // Dahlonega, Georgia : The University Press of North Georgia — 2013. ISBN: 978-0-9882237-3-8

==External links==
{{Sister project links}}
* {{Cite web |title=''Encyclopedia of American Studies'' |url=http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu}}
* {{Cite web |title=US History map animation |url=http://www.houstonculture.org/kids/usmap.html |publisher=Houston Institute for Culture |access-date=July 24, 2011 |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117042507/http://www.houstonculture.org/kids/usmap.html |url-status=dead}}
* {{Cite web |title=Edsitement, History & Social Studies |url=http://edsitement.neh.gov/subject/history-social-studies |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826003047/http://edsitement.neh.gov/subject/history-social-studies |archive-date=August 26, 2013 |publisher=[[National Endowment for the Humanities]]}}
* {{Cite web |title=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |url=http://www.gilderlehrman.org}}
* {{Cite web |title=BackStory |url=http://backstoryradio.org}}, American history public radio show hosted by [[Edward L. Ayers|Ed Ayers]], Brian Balogh, and Peter Onuf

{{U.S. political divisions histories}}
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[[Category:History of the United States| ]]