Беликова Е.К., Саратовская Л.Б. - The United Kingdom and United States of America in Past and Present (1268141), страница 21
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The political rights of Black people were not81secured either. Under the free interpretation of the 15P thP amendment thefreedmen were actually denied suffrage on the grounds that they lackededucation and property.At the same time the white opposition to the Reconstruction in theSouthern states was growing. In 1869 the racist organization Ku-KluxKlan (K.K.K) added violence to the whites’ resistance.
Despite federalefforts to protect black people, they were intimidated at the polls, robbedof their earnings, beaten, or murdered. The Klan’s purpose was not onlyeconomic (to keep the slavery) but also openly political and social, asKlansmen also attacked white philanthropists and schoolteachers whoopenly showed their support of the Black people. None who helped toraise the status of the blacks was safe.The K.K.K’s actions moved Congress in 1871 to pass two Force actsdirected against its violence.
These acts permitted the use of martial lawagainst the Klansmen, but for a long time proved unsuccessful incombating the Klan’s activities. In 1870s the failure of the Reconstructionbecame apparent. American reform movements achieved only partialsuccess.When in 1872 the Amnesty Act was adopted which amnestied the whiterebels terrorism against blacks even widened. Between 1874 and 1876 aseries of “race riots” swept across the South. Nighttime visits; whippings,and murder became common phenomena. After that thousands of blacksstarted migrating to the North, first to Kansas City and then farther North.Thus the nation ended over 16 years of bloody war without establishingreal freedom for Black Americans.The Indian Policy. The plight of the Indian population was evenworse.
The land-hungry American pioneers stopped at nothing in theirdrive to the West. In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was passed. Theterrible implementation of this Act produced one of the darkest chaptersin American history. The story of treaties and broken agreements, raidsand massacres, was repeated in the settlement of the trans-MississippiWest and the Northwest.
The period after the Civil War was the period ofthe reservation policy. The blocks of land where Indians were forced tolive were usually the poorest barren places where nobody else wanted tolive. Extermination of the buffalo herds eventually led to destruction ofthe traditional Indian life as they had always lived on the buffalo hunt,and their ritual and worship had been dedicated to its success. Thedisappearance of the buffalo left the Indians starving and hopeless.
By the8220-th century poverty, perpetual hunger, European diseases and hostilitieshad reduced the Indian population in reservations to only 250000.TheIndian civilization was facing extinction. Indians were not allowed tokeep their traditional culture, dances, religion and language.1. Answer the questions: 1. What was the situation with Indians and blackslaves in the USA after the Revolution? 2. Were Indians and Blacks grantedCivil rights? 3. Why did the abolition issue become particularly stressful in the1850? 4. How did the southerners regard slavery? 5. How did the secessionprocess develop? 6. What was Abraham Lincoln attitude to slavery? 7. How didthe Civil War actually start? 8. How long did the war last? 9.
Were the blackslaves liberated immediately after the Civil War? I0. What instruments weredesigned by Southern whites to terrorize blacks? 11. What were the activitiesof the K. K. K.? 12.Why did black Americans fail to achieve real equality duringthe term of reconstruction?2. Render the texts in English: A) Завоевание независимости было лишьпервым шагом, облегчавшим путь к модернизации. Прошло лишьнесколько десятилетий после американской революции, как появиласьновая проблема, грозившая стране разрушением государственногоединства или отходом от завоеваний демократии.
Эту проблему создавалорастущеепротиворечие между индустриальным, демократическимСевером и Югом, который по-прежнему оставался рабовладельческим исельскохозяйственным. После революции многие политические деятели, втом числе и Дж. Вашингтон, думали, что рабство, запрещенное в северныхштатах, постепенно, само собой будет исчезать и на Юге. Однако ходсобытий был совсем иным.Выращивание хлопка, сахарного тростника и табака на рынок требовалиорганизованного труда большого количества людей. По мере того, какСША расширяли свои границы, присоединяя или осваивая новыетерритории, Юг поднимал вопрос о распространении рабства на вновьобразовавшиеся штаты. Между Севером и Югом вспыхивали острыеконфликты из-за штатов Миссури, Канзас, Нью-Мексико.
Постепенно всеболее реальной становилась возможность политического отделения южныхштатов. В апреле 1861 г. южные рабовладельческие штаты подняли мятеж(апрель 1861 г.) с целью сохранения рабства и распространения его по всейстране.Б) Приход к власти А.
Линкольна – непримиримого противника рабства итем более его распространения на новые территории – ознаменовал началодавно назревавшей гражданской войны. Военные действия длились с 1861по 1865 г. и нанесли стране огромный урон. Помимо людских потерь былии потери экономические. Некоторые города (Колумбия, Ричмонд, Атланта)были сожжены до основания, многие заводы и железные дорогиразрушены. На первом этапе (1861-1862 гг.) война со стороны Севера83велась нерешительно, что привело к ряду военных поражений северян.Второй этап характеризуется революционными методами ведениявойны с участием широких народных масс.
В 1864-1865 гг. былиразгромлены основные силы южан и в апреле 1865 г. взят город Ричмонд –столица рабовладельческих штатов. Победа Севера сохранила страну какединое государство. Она уничтожила господство плантаторов и рабство(официально отменено 1 января 1863 г.) и создала условия длякапиталистической индустриализации и освоения западных земель.
Набольшой части территории США победил фермерский (так называемыйамериканский) путь развития капитализма в сельском хозяйстве. Однаковзаимная ненависть на долгие годы разъединяла южан и северян.Гражданская война не принесла действительной свободы черным рабам,освобожденным без земли. По стране бродили тысячи бывшихневольников, потерявших хозяев и привычное место работы.3.
Discussion Points: I. The main reasons of the Civil War .2. The abolitionof slavery. 3. Abraham Lincoln and his contribution to American history.CHAPTER II. YEARS OF GROWTHRead the words and word combinations:Backwater - тихая заводьslums - трущобыA slaughter house - бойняto streamline -направлениеObliterate - уничтожатьinstallment plan- рассрочкаTo plague - мучить,thugs- головорезы, бандитыTo succumb – уступать military conscription act - закон о призыве в армиюAt full swing - в полном разгареto clang - цеплятьсяTo pay the way - проложить путьdesegregation - десегрегацияUnscrupulous - беспринципныйincipient - появляющийсяTo put down the riot - подавлять бунт dismal - мрачный, гнетущийAfter the end of the Civil War the United States continued theacquisition of the new territories.
The United States acted like an imperialnation, gathering and settling new territories, pushing aside those whostood in its path. In 1867 the United States bought Alaska from Russia,later Spain gave most of its oversea empire to the USA – Cuba, thePhilippines, Puerto Rico and a small Pacific island Guam. At the sametime the USA also annexed Hawaii - a group of islands in the middle ofthe Pacific Ocean. Having started as a colonial country, the USA quicklybecame a colonial power herself.In the early 1900s the American government wanted to build a canalacross the Isthmus of Panama to join North and South America andseparate the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean.
As the Columbian84government was slow to give the Americans permission to build thecanal, in 1903 president Theodore Roosevelt sent warships to Panama.The warships helped a small group of Panamanian businessmen to rebelagainst the Columbian government and to give the Americans Controlover a ten-and-a-half-mile wide strip of land called the Canal Zone.Parallel to the acquisition of the oversea lands the USA continued thesettlements of North American territories. After the “Gold Rush» inCalifornia gold and silver were also discovered in Colorado, Nevada andArizona, Wyoming and Dakota. Some former mining settlements grewinto permanent communities. New towns sprang up throughout the goldand silver regions.Within twenty-five years after the end of the Civil War the Great Plainswere divided into States and territories of the USA.
Ranchers werefeeding large herds of cattle on the “sea of grass”; farmers were using thelatest harvesting technology on the large irrigated fields of “GreatAmerican Desert” to grow wheat. By 1890 the separate areas ofsettlement on the Pacific Coast and along the Mississippi River hadmoved together and the wilderness had been largely conquered.
In the1880s great Mesabi deposits of iron were found near Lake Superior. Soonthe Mesabi became one of the largest producers of iron ore in the world.Besides iron at that time a great amount of coal was being extracted in theUSA. Iron and coal were used to make steel for the railroads, locomotive,freight wagons and passenger cars.
The first railroad was finished in 1869and was quickly joined by others. By 1884 four more majortranscontinental lines had crossed the continent to link the Atlantic withthe Pacific Coasts. New towns appeared along the railroads. By 1890 theindustries of USA were earning the country more than its farmlands.Within a few decades after the civil war the USA transformed from anundeveloped backwater into a primary world power.By 1913 more than one third of the whole world’s industrial productionhad been originated from the mines and factories of the USA. The growthof American industry was organized and controlled by the number ofpowerful businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, the owner of the giantCarnegie Steel Corporation and D.
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