2.3 The United States

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 3

Chapter 2

2.3 The United States

At the end of this lesson...

• You can explain why migration has been very important for the history of the United States.
• You can name the key features of American democracy.
• You can explain what a free-market economy is. 

Today

• Discuss the communist countries (+- 10 min)
• Explanation (+- 25 min)
• Working on the booklet (+- 10 min) 

The first European settlers

• Columbus arrived in America in 1492.
• After him, large groups of Spaniards came to Central and South America to live there.
• Colonization of North America from 1562: Spanish and French in Florida.
• The Dutch settled in Manhattan (New York) from 1624

Columbus 'ontdekt' Amerika. Columbus is nooit in Noord-Amerika geweest. In zijn vier reizen bezocht hij alleen Midden- en Zuid-Amerika.

English settlers

• It was not until the 17th century that the English founded colonies in eastern North America: John Smith in the colony of Virginia (1607)

• The colonists had left for America for various reasons.

De Mayflower, het schip dat de Pilgrim Fathers in 1620 naar Amerika bracht

Solidarity and nationalism

• Start of solidarity and nationalism because of wars against the French and Indians (French and Indian War, 1754-1763)
• The English colonists increasingly opposed the behavior of  England.


• The colonies  broke away in 1776 and founded the United States. 

Tijdens de oorlog tussen de Engelsen en de Fransen, besloten stammen Native Americans zich aan te sluiten bij de Fransen. Ze zagen in hen een minder groot gevaar dan de Engelsen.

More migrants

• The numbers of migrants from Europe grew strongly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

1. Irish
2. Dutch
3. British 
4. Germans
5. Italians
6. Eastern Europeans

American democracy

• the government must interfere with people’s lives as little as possible
• Freedom of religion and freedom of speech were very important
• parliamentary democracy with a president.

An economy in which there is competition and in which supply and demand determine what the manufacturers produce, what consumers buy and what the prices of the products are.

Free-market economy

What are the differences between a free-market economy and a planned economy?