What year was america founded
What year was america founded
How old is America on July 4th 2022 and what was its population when founded?
With 4th of July celebrations taking place around the country and further afield, we take a look back at the history of the United States.
As Americans around the world celebrate their Independence Day on 4 July 2022, many are asking just how old the country is. So we got out our history books and delved into what must surely be a simple answer. We were mistaken.
How old is America?
Let’s start with the simplest answer, and the one that most people are looking for when they ask the question. That is the age since independence was achieved from Great Britain following the Revolutionary War of the nineteenth century. The founding fathers sealed the declaration on 4 July 1776 and that makes the country 246 years old as of today.
Alternative answers, however, could lie in the long, long before the idea of barbecues, flags and fireworks were ever considered. Indigenous people settled in America by at least 15,000 BCE although this could have happened as far back as 30,000 years. From the earliest known tribes the Native Americans continued to spread and develop until the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the 15th century saw European influence begin. The Brits then started to settle a couple of centuries later and from Jamestown (now Virginia) to Georgia, the 13 colonies were created by 1733.
What was the US population in 1776?
These days the population of the United States sits at just over 330 million people. But 244 years ago, according to the government Census Bureau, the population was 2.5 million.
In two and a half centuries the US has grown to 130 times its size and now stands as the third most populous country, behind only China (1.40 billion) and India (1.36 billion).
How does America compare to the oldest countries?
Other examples of countries that have not changed significantly since their early roots include: France (CE 843), Austria (CE 976), Portugal (CE 1143) and Thailand (CE 1238). Out of interest, going back to the US claiming independence from Great Britain, the history and age of those colonial rulers is a rather more complicated story to tell. Here is a neatly worked attempt though so that you can impress anyone you’re talking to at the July 4th celebrations.
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. We don’t know much about the man. He was born in Italy but lived in Spain for a long time. He was a seaman and made many sea voyages.
Most people in Columbus’ days thought that the earth was flat and they did not believe that beyond the Atlantic Ocean lay India. In 1492 the King and the Queen of Spain gave him money to go to India. He decided to sail west as he was sure that our planet was round. There were 3 caravels: the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta. After sailing 4000 miles he reached some land.
European people came to the New World for many reasons. Some hoped to find gold and silver. Priests and missionaries came to bring the Christian religion to the Indians. Among those who came for freedom was a small group of English people called Pilgrims. They wanted to start a new life and to have no religious problems they had in England.
In 1620 on the ship “Mayflower” they landed in the north-east of America. They set up a colony and called that part of the country “New England”.
Pilgrims
Answer the questions:
1. Who discovered America and when?
2. Who sent Columbus to India?
3. What do you know about his man?
4. Why did he decide to go west?
5. What was the name of the new land?
Pilgrim [’pilgrim] – первый колонист
Mayflower – “ Мейфлауэр ” (к орабль, на котором первые
поселенцы Новой Англии пересекли Атлантический океан )
Can you find the following Columbus Day words?
Two words in each line are merged together. Find the original.
A t l O c n t e i a c n
N o r w l e d W
N A o m r e h r i c a
S M a n r t i a a
S n Q p o u i e e a f n
True or False?
1. Christopher Columbus was Spanish.
2. Columbus was a sailor.
3. Columbus wanted to travel to Asia.
4. The King and the Queen of Spain helped him with his trip.
5. Columbus discovered America in 1498.
6. Columbus didn’t know he was in America.
Match the following phrases from the video.
a) American Indians.
2. He thought that the Earth
3. He sailed west
4. After two months he
5. Native Americans were called
500 years ago there were people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean but neither knew about the other. On the western side, our side, the people had reddish brown skins and lived in the huts, or wigwams. On the eastern side, in Europe, the people were white skinned. They had learned how to build houses and large sailing ships but they still didn’t know much about the rest of the world. In fact, most of them believed the earth was flat. Then one day, a mapmaker named Christopher Columbus had an idea.
Do you know what?
I think the world isn’t flat at all, I think it’s round, like a ball.
Did you hear what he said? Did you hear what he said?
He said that the world is round! He is crazy! He is mad! He is insane!
I think the world isn’t flat at all, I think it is round, like a ball.
The world is flat as the brim of your hat and that is very plain.
I know that I’m right.
Oh, I know that I’m right when I say that the world is round. Oh, I’m right.
I’m right. My thinking is sound, and I’ll prove the world’s round, it won’t take very long!
But it did take long. Seven long years before Columbus could convince a King or a Queen to let him try out his idea. Then, Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to supply the ships and men for his trip.
I will discover a shortcut to India and bring back some of the great wealth I find there. And I can do it, for I know the world is round. And instead of going east to India, I shall sail west and reach India around the other way. It will be a shorter and cheaper way, for I’ll do it all by sea.
Queen Isabella provided Columbus with three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. And on August 3rd, 1492, they set sail across the unknown Atlantic.
High on the foaming tide over the ocean
Onward our ships will ride onward my sailors.
The ships sailed onward, but two long months after they started there was still no sign of land ahead.
Turn back, Columbus! Turn back, Columbus!
We’ll not turn back until we find India. Onward, men!
By October 10th, the sailors and the crew were ready to take matters into their own hands.
If Columbus won’t do as we ask, we’ll put him in chains. And we’ll turn the ships around ourselves.
Wait! Have you heard? One of our men has just seen a branch in the ocean.
It had fresh berries on it. That means we’re near land! Hurray!
Two days later, the ships reached land and Columbus and his crew saw the people with reddish brown skins, who lived there.
Oh, I think it is rather surprising
That they should have reddish brown skins.
But now since we have landed in India
Then these people must be Indians.
We’ll call this part of India San Salvador, and I take possession in the name of the King or Queen of Spain.
The people Columbus called Indians were very friendly, and they gave Columbus and his men many gifts, but not the rich jewels and gold for which they had come. For Columbus really wasn’t in India at all. He was on one of the islands off the coast of America. But because of Columbus’ mistake, the natives of America have been called Indians, ever since. Columbus visited other islands near San Salvador, looking for the great wealth of India. And then he, and some of his men, returned to Spain.
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray for Admiral Christopher Columbus! Hurray! Hurray!
Columbus had no trouble getting ships and men for his second voyage, but he still hadn’t the slightest idea that he was headed for the vast continent of America, and that he would have had to cross it and sail over the Pacific Ocean, before he could reach India by travelling west. The men of Europe were no longer afraid of the ocean. Columbus made two more voyages, and other explorers followed.
But each year on October 12th, we celebrate Columbus Day, the anniversary of that day in 1492, when Columbus first sighted the land of the new world, America.
Say if they are true or false. Correct the false sentences.
100 American History Trivia Questions and Answers
Posted by Sarah Pryor
The United States of America has packed quite a lot of action into the past 245+ years.
Although the first Indigenous tribes arrived in North America thousands of years before, the United States officially started with a bang in 1776 and has gone through decades of turmoil, triumphs and transitions.
Here are 100 American history trivia questions and answers for your next trivia night, patriotic party or any other occasion to learn more about the nation under the stars and stripes.
1600s (and earlier)
Invite friends to a virtual trivia night with an online sign up. View an Example
1700s
1800s
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1900s
Request food items for your BBQ with an online sign up. View an Example
2000s
America is filled with fascinating people and places that are making history even as we speak. What are your favorite American history trivia facts?
Sarah Pryor is a journalist, wife, mom and Auburn football fan living in Charlotte, NC.
Who Discovered The Americas And When?
Discovering the Americas is less straightforward than we might be led to think. Christopher Columbus is celebrated as having discovered the New World in 1492, schoolchildren are taught a rhyme to remember, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” What isn’t commonly taught, is that 500 years before Columbus was born, there was a Norwegian explorer by the name of Leif Eriksson, who set out to find a new world from the shores of Greenland and was likely the first European to set foot on the soil of the ‘New World’.
The Columbus Story
Columbus before the Queen, as imagined Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1843.
Christopher Columbus was born the son of an Italian wool merchant in 1451, in Genoa, Italy. Columbus spent most of his adult life working as a sailor, eventually studying mathematics and cartography, all while percolating the idea that he could find the new world.
Columbus sailed with the intention of discovering a revolutionary path from Europe to Asia by water. Overland travel at the time was extremely treacherous and time-consuming, and the current route of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa was a long path through dangerous waters. Columbus set out to find a safer, more direct route.
In Columbus’s time, European countries were entrenched in a colonization mindset. Monarchies in England, Portugal, and Spain were set on expanding their states’ land, and therefore sphere of influence. It was not unusual for explorers to be engaged by a leader that was not theirs by citizenship. Columbus was Italian but eventually would sail his first exploratory voyage for the Spanish.
Landing of Columbus (12 October 1492), painting by John Vanderlyn. Image credit: Wikimedia.org
After landing first in what we now know as the Bahamas, Columbus then went on to Cuba, thinking it was China, and further into present-day Venezuela. Along his exploration routes, Columbus established trade with the people he and his crew encountered in the new lands and built settlements for the Spanish Crown. These interactions with the native populations of the area were fraught with issues, and that, along with the conflict this caused with Spanish settlers, caused complaints about Columbus’ management of the land he had been named governor of.
Eventually, Spain would send an agent to arrest Columbus and bring him back to face charges. He maneuvered his way out of these charges and avoided severe punishment, but much of the gold, gems, spices, and profits from his exploits across the sea were lost to him.
Columbus Day is celebrated in America on October 12 in celebration of the day that Columbus first stepped foot onto the soil of his discovered land.
The Leif Eriksson Story
Leif Eriksson Discovers America by Christian Krohg (1893)
Norse culture and mythology captures our imaginations with tales of wild adventure, bawdy celebrations, and rugged landscapes. The saga of Leif Eriksson doesn’t disappoint. Despite the more popularized history of Christopher Columbus. this ancient Norseman was most likely the first European to set foot on the Americas.
Leif Eriksson was born in Iceland around 970 CE and spent much of his adult life in Greenland, where his father had been banished after murdering a neighbor in his homeland of Iceland. In true Norse fashion, Leif Erikssons’ father was named Erik the Red, and his tumultuous manner of barrelling through life shaped his sons’ adventurous spirit. Erik the Red established the first settlement on the island of Greenland, where his son would later from on his voyage to discover new land.
Leif Eriksson Statue by Anne Whitney, erected in 1887 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Image credit: Jonathunder/Wikimedia.org
They continued on to present-day Labrador, where they found a trove of timber that caused them to name the land “Forestland”. Nothing if not intrepid, Erikssons’ band continued south where they are believed to have spent a winter on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland. This new land held wines that grew the wine grapes they were seeking, and many were harvested and brought back to Greenland.
Leif Eriksson returned the following year to the island of Greenland, and he would not venture back to North America. Speculation is that this could be because both of his brothers were killed in battled with the Indigenous people over the invasion of their land, but whatever the cause, Eriksson never returned.
Leif Eriksson Day, while much less commonly known than Columbus Day, is celebrated on October 9th each year.
Other Contenders
The Voyage of Saint Brendan by Edward Reginald Frampton, 1908
Christopher Columbus and Leif Eriksson are the most credible candidates to have been the first people to sail and land in the Americas, there are other myths that pose contenders to that title.
Most of these stories are unsubstantiated and likely created to bolster the mythology around a monarchy or a religious figure, one of the more entertaining of the tales is an Irish myth of St. Brendan and his seach for the Garden of Eden. Upon hearing stories of Paradise from St. Barinthian, St. Brendan meditated and prayed for 40 days until he was granted direction to the island. St. Brendan voyaged to the lush halcyon and stayed also for 40 days, whereupon he was directed by a higher power to return to Ireland.
Cartographers and explorers, including Columbus and the Vikings, noted St. Brendan’s tale and endeavored to find the mythical island. When they could not, it was theorized that the island may have in fact been North America and that St. Brendan was in fact, the first European to set foot on its shores.
Step Back Into History: When was the United States Founded?
The United States of America was founded on July 4, 1776. ‘Founded’ means that it was declared independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain. The British colonies became independent states. July 4, 1776 is the date present on the handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence signed by Congress. For more on this, read on.
The United States of America was founded on July 4, 1776. ‘Founded’ means that it was declared independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain. The British colonies became independent states. July 4, 1776 is the date present on the handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence signed by Congress. For more on this, read on.
An Italian sailor/explorer/trader, Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the Americas when he was on a spree to find a westward route to India, as he wanted to indulge in the profitable spice trade. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas in 1492. The discovery of a new habitation led to subsequent colonization, the aftermath of which was the famous American Revolution or the American War of Independence, as it is popularly termed.
Declaration of Independence
The United States of America was formed or founded on March 1, 1781 under The Articles of Confederation. John Hanson became the first President of the United States under the Articles of Confederation. However, George Washington became the first President of the United States after the formation of the Constitution of America, in the year 1789.
In the 19th century, the US expanded its territory westwards by acquiring land from France, Spain, Russia, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. Some modernizers, however, wanted to strengthen the economy rather than expanding the geographical boundaries of the country. At the time of annexation of the states to the Union, the American Civil War broke out in the 1860s between the southern agricultural states and the northern industrial states. The result of this was the end of slavery, especially in the northern states, which is credited to Abraham Lincoln, a slaveholder himself, who later went on to become the 16th President of the United states. Today, fifty states, along with one federal district, form the United States of America.
The formation of the United States witnessed many twists and turns over a long period of time. No particular date can be assigned to the day when the United States was actually founded. The founding of the United States is the collective result of a series of events that took place over a period of time – those events which were responsible for shaping one of the most powerful economies of all time – The United States of America.