U.S. investment immigration community listens to stories that took place in America: Ever since Europeans discovered the American continent and its neighboring islands at the end of the 15th century, North America has been a new continent full of opportunities for Europeans, where countless immense fortunes awaited discovery. Today, the once-wild new continent has become the world's most powerful nation—the United States.
The United States, a country with a history of only over 200 years, has left a deep impression on people with its rapid development from nothing to something, and from weakness to strength. So, how did the United States originate and develop?
Pioneering the New Continent
In the early 17th century, North America successively welcomed explorers from England. They established Jamestown on the land of the local indigenous people, intending to start a new life on this new continent of North America. Although they brought many food supplies and tools from England across the vast ocean, the unfamiliar living environment meant they did not have enough harvests to sustain their lives, and many eventually died of cold and hunger.
It was not until a farmer named John Rolfe arrived that this difficult situation changed. John brought tobacco seeds to Jamestown, which at the time could only be grown in Spain. Tobacco was very expensive then, and the successful tobacco harvest not only brought wealth to the people there but also allowed John to successfully marry Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan. In 1616, England invested a large amount of capital into Jamestown for tobacco cultivation, and within just two years, tobacco transformed Jamestown from a living hell into the first emerging city in the Americas.
In 1619, more than 1,000 settlers arrived in Jamestown, including 20 Angolans who were enslaved. In the 12 years since Jamestown was built, Africans played a very important role in the construction of the colony. Thirty years later, Virginia already had more than 20,000 settlers. The United States was built on tobacco, and the next 150 years would be the golden era of American exports.
The Origin of Thanksgiving
Seven years after John Rolfe arrived in Jamestown, another group of English settlers reached North America. Their ship, the "Mayflower," docked on a deserted beach 700 kilometers north of the coast. Based on the port they departed from in England, they named this new place Plymouth. After the "Mayflower" returned to England, the new settlers began to head toward the Hudson River, eventually arriving at a place 300 kilometers north of Plymouth, where they began their lives. However, their new home was not uninhabited.
Europeans had arrived there five years earlier, but due to a plague, 90% of the local people had died. The surviving Wampanoag people only wanted peace; they taught the English how to use fish as fertilizer and how to grow crops in the sandy soil. In return, however, they asked the English to help them eliminate another indigenous tribe. On August 14, 1621, the English and the local people launched a surprise attack on the enemy together and achieved victory. This successful raid forged a deep friendship between the two allied groups. Afterward, they held a banquet to celebrate the harvest and their success, and later, this day gradually evolved into a famous American holiday: Thanksgiving.
The Process of Colonization
Initially, the purpose of the English in developing the Americas was to find a place where they could live their own lives and practice their own faith. Later, however, people continuously colonized the area.
From Jamestown to Plymouth, the descendants of the settlers pioneered the Atlantic coastal region. Their territorial expansion was rapid, and they lived prosperous lives. During this period, millions more Europeans followed in their footsteps across the Atlantic to arrive here. In just a century and a half, they established 13 independent colonies. The Irish, Germans, and Swedes expanded the frontiers, while the Dutch developed trade on a small island at the mouth of the Hudson River, and this city, originally named New Amsterdam, later developed into what is now New York. After several generations, although many still considered themselves subjects of England, in reality, conflicts were gradually intensifying invisibly...
The Outbreak of the War of Independence
In October 1786, the success and wealth gained by the people of the North American colonies eventually aroused the jealousy and dissatisfaction of England. The British Empire wanted to impose taxes by force, but this was met with firm resistance from the people, which led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.
On March 5, 1770, a group of angry American settlers were marching on the streets of Boston when they clashed with the Redcoat soldiers sent by the British government, and four settlers died in this battle. Political radicals in Boston seized this opportunity, and silversmith and engraver Paul Revere turned this massacre into powerful anti-British propaganda material, distributing the engraved work to all 13 colonies.
On September 5, 1774, the settlers were completely enraged. 56 representatives from various colonies gathered in Philadelphia to hold the First Continental Congress, which was the first step taken by the United States on the road to independence. After this meeting, the settlers reached a consensus: they would become a whole and unite to resist British oppression!
Initially, the first batch of settlers who traveled thousands of miles from all over Europe to the new continent did so in pursuit of wealth and freedom, but a century and a half later, their descendants were engaged in a difficult struggle for their own independent sovereignty...