America in the first half of the XX c.
Theodore Roosevelt became President in 1901, one of the most popular Presidents in American History. To show America’s naval power, he sent sixteen battleships on a trip around the world. He sometimes sent warships and marines to small countries to Latin America to protect American property according to the Monroe Doctrine, which had been issued by President Monroe in1823 as a warning to Europe not to start any new colonies in Latin America.
One idea Theodore Roosevelt had for expanding American power was to build a canal through the narrow land that connects North and South Americas in order the United States Navy could move more easily between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1914 the work was complete, and the Panama Canal was open to ship traffic.
In the 1920’s America became a nation on wheels. The most popular car was Model T, made by Henry Ford. More people due to so called plan “buying on time” were able to buy expensive goods. Electric ovens were new in the 1920’s.The first radio stations began broadcasting.
In 1929, American business ran into trouble – the stock market crashed, banks and companies went out of business, industries cut down production, jobs were hard to find, wages lowered considerably, farm families lost their land. The situation was so bad and lasted so long that the 1930’s are called the Great Depression.
In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President. He promised Americans a New Deal – new plans to end the Depression. By 1936 there had been started dozens of programs to create new jobs and help people make a new start. So, Roosevelt easily won election to a second term as President. In 1940 he was elected to a third term, which broke the old tradition that limited a President to two terms in office.
On December 7, 1941 Japanese airplanes attacked an American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This was the largest single-day loss in U.S. Navy History. This attack brought the United States into World War II, and Congress declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy.
After the victory of the Soviet Union over Hitler’s troops in Europe (the Nazi Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945), the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People was finished. But Japan did not surrender and in the summer of 1945 American airplanes dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It led to Hirohito’s formal surrender on 2 September 1945.
A cold war started between the U.S. and the USSR almost as soon as WW II ended because of disagreement over what should happen to the countries of Eastern Europe. New types of weapons and new forms of using them were invented, and both the United States and the Soviet Union built up a tremendous supply of powerful armaments. This contest became known as the arms race. In April 1949the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created because of fear of Communism as one of the reasons.
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Answer the questions:
1. Who were the presidents of America in the first half of the XX c.?
2. What main events took place in this period of time?
UNIT 4. RELIGIONS IN THE USA
Religious Movements in the U.S.
One of the reasons for which many of the first immigrants left England and Germany was to escape religious persecution (such as the Puritans and the Mennonites – a protestant sect named after Simons Menno (1492 – 1559)). The variety of religions increased at the end of the 19th c. and the beginning of the 20th c. with the massive influx of immigrants from central and southern Europe.
The majority of the population belongs to one of the 1,000 or so Protestant Churches. Protestants include Baptists, Methodists and Lutherans and each of these groups is divided into smaller ones. Nearly a quarter of the present population is Catholic. Catholics are the single largest religious group. To sum up, more than 90 % of the Americans are Christians.
Judaists are the largest non-Christian group, then Moslems, and smaller numbers are Buddhists, and Hindus. Native Americans often preserve their tribal religions.
Answer the questions:
1. What was one of the reasons for the first immigrants to leave England and Germany?
2. What are the largest single Christian and non-Christian groups in the U.S.?
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