USA As I Found It

By S Saleem

Which is the second most visited country in the world? The answer is, The United States of America . This is the first book that opens the door to the American culture, behaviour and practice; enlightens travelers about the United States and empowers readers to travel with confidence to their dream land. As a reader, you will learn some useful tips about travelling in the United States. You will also acquire knowledge and learn interesting facts from across the Atlantic.

This book concludes by providing a commentary from famous Indian personalities like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Mr. AR Rahman, Mr. K. VijayKumar IPS, Justice Markandey Katju and many others on What to learn and What not to from a super powerhouse like the United States. In short, this book will be the best companion for each and every traveler longing to visit the world s oldest democracy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: May 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9789352060290

Book preview

IPS

Preface

It was another usual day; I was walking down the busy Indian streets when my phone rang. The call was rather unusual! An officer from the United States Consulate in Chennai invited me for a cup of coffee. In the meeting, I was asked about my previous years and ambitions in life. I spoke my mind. A year later, I received an invitation from the United States government to visit the world’s oldest democracy. A rarest of the rare opportunity for an active journalist. I was 29 years old, and I had 10 years of experience in journalism, but somehow I knew that my journey had just begun. I owe a huge thanks to Mr. P. Elayaperumal, Editor, Public Affairs Section, American Consulate General, Chennai for providing excellent support and advice.

The American government scheduled the International Visitor Leadership Program for three weeks in 5 different cities in the United States. Washington D.C, Phoenix (Arizona), Madison (Wisconsin), Cincinnati (Ohio) and New York City. I extended my stay and visited Pennsylvania, US-Canada border (Niagara Falls), Germany and Switzerland before returning to India.

Before embarking on this journey, I had so many questions in my mind. Why is America a developed country? How do citizens behave in a developed country? What makes them the way they are? Politics and Politicians in America? Crime and 911? Education in America? Love and Marriage? In short, how is life in America? What should I learn from them? These were some questions that popped up in my mind.

The whirlwind tour in the United States helped me find the answers. I am sharing the findings with you after cross-checking it with credible people. As someone has rightly remarked, knowledge is strength.

1

America, the Land of Migrants

The Old World

The Old World consists of Afro-Eurasia (that is, Africa, Europe, and Asia), regarded collectively as the part of the world known to the Europeans before their contact with the Americas.

The New World

The New World consists of North America, South America, some Pacific Islands and Oceania. The term originated in the early 16th century after the Europeans landed on a new island which would later be called the Americas in the age of discovery.

The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States of America.

The Discovery of America

Until the end of 15th Century, the Europeans did not know that a continent called Americas (North & South America) exists. For them, the world consisted of ‘Europe, Asia and Africa’, which was connected by land.

Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarch of Spain, an Italian sailor named ‘Christopher Columbus’ started his voyage to the west of Europe across the Atlantic Ocean. Upon reaching the new continent, Christopher Columbus thought that he had landed on the eastern edges of Asia because he, along with the other Europeans, was unaware that such a big landmass exists between Europe and Asia.

Not realising that he had reached a new continent previously unknown to Europeans, Columbus called the inhabitants of the land he visited as ‘Indios’, Spanish for Indians.

Another Italian sea explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, four years younger to Columbus, was aboard a ship that discovered that the South American landmass which extended much further down south than previously thought. He then established that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia’s eastern outskirts as initially conjectured by Columbus, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass unknown to the Europeans. The new continent came to be known as America, deriving its name from Americus, the Latin version of Vespucci’s first name.

Amerigo Vespucci’s voyage led to the general European awareness of the American continents.

Between 1492 and 1503, Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the Americas, all of them under the sponsorship of the Crown of Castile. These voyages marked the beginning of the European exploration and colonization of the American continents

In 1507, a year after Columbus’ death, a German cartographer, Waldseemüller published a world map calling the new continent America from Amerigo Vespucci’s Latinized name Americus.

Conflict between Native people and Europeans

Some indigenous population were already living in the North and South America long before the Europeans arrived.

Tribal customs dictated hospitality to visitors. The Native Americans never anticipated that the white men would steal their lands and their liberty. When they learned their mistake, they fought fiercely. However, the Europeans were bound to triumph in the struggle. Bows and arrows were of little use against the European guns.

In addition, the Native Americans had never been exposed to diseases such as smallpox, and therefore had no immunity to them. The germs travelled westward with the explorers, and Native Americans fell sick and died by the thousands. Some historians estimate that about 85 percent of the North American population died between 1500 and 1550, as a direct result of the European conquest.

When the Europeans began to establish colonies, more clashes arose. Native Americans and Europeans fought for possession of land. Despite the tenacity of their struggles, the tribes gradually began giving way to the superior weapons and organization of the Europeans. They were slowly but surely driven away from their ancestral lands.

In the 2010 census 0.9 percent of the U.S. population identified themselves as being Native American. No conclusive evidence exists to determine how many native people lived in North America before the arrival of Columbus.

Many Native Americans lived as hunter-gatherer societies and preserved their histories in the oral tradition. The Europeans therefore created almost all of the surviving historical record concerning the conflict.

Conflict between British Settlers and British Kingdom

By the 18th Century, the British managed to establish thirteen colonies in America and were ruled by King George III, the King of England. Each of the thirteen colonies developed its own system of self-governance, based largely on independent farmers who owned their own land, voted for their local and provincial government, and served on local juries. These colonies were tired of having a king 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. The colonies were not directly represented in British Parliament. In such case, the issue of Parliament’s authority on the colonies became questionable. The colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them and revolted against the kingdom.

The Formation of the ‘United States of America’

The Individual colonies began collaborating to demand more rights and set up a ‘Continental Congress’. The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from all the thirteen colonies which then became the governing body during the Revolution. The British were meanwhile mustering large forces to put down the revolt.

The Declaration of Independence

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress declared independence from the British kingdom. That date is now celebrated annually as America’s Independence Day.

The Declaration of Independence was written and the document was sent to a printer to make copies. Copies were sent to all the colonies where the declaration was read aloud in public and published in newspapers. A copy was also sent to the British government.

The Declaration of Independence did more than just say that the colonies wanted their freedom; it explained why they wanted their freedom. It listed all the bad things that the king had done to the colonies and that the colonies had rights which they felt they should fight for.

Recognition of Independence

The Revolutionary War ended in 1783 with the recognition of independence of the United States from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and was the first successful war of independence against the European colonial empire. The current Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. George Washington, who had led the revolutionary army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution.

Expansion of the United States

The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century. This involved displacing native tribes, acquiring new territories, and gradually admitting new states. The American Civil War ended legal slavery in the country. By the end of the 19th century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy was the world’s largest.

America’s Rise as a Superpower

The Spanish – American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country with nuclear weapons, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower.

America’s gross domestic product accounts for close to a quarter of the world total, and its military budget is reckoned to be almost as much as the rest of the world’s defence spending put together.

The country is also a major source of entertainment: American TV, Hollywood films, jazz, blues, rock and rap music are primary ingredients in global popular culture.

America’s Status-Quo

Despite relative prosperity in recent years, the gap between rich and poor remains a major challenge. More than 30 million Americans live below the official poverty line, with a disproportionate percentage of those being African-Americans and Hispanics.

Given America’s leading role on the international stage,