American Parly See Know-Nothing Party
American Protective Association (APA) Secret anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant society formed in Iowa in 1887. Its membership, consist¬ ing mainly of farmers who feared the growth and political power of immigrant-populated cities, rose to more than two million in the 1890s. Membership dwindled after the election of 1896 and the return of agri¬ cultural prosperity in the Midwest. By 1911 the society had disappeared.
American Renaissance or New England Renaissance Period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which U.S. literature came of age as an expression of a national spirit. The lit¬ erary scene was dominated by New England Brahmin writers, notably Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell. Also influential were the Transcendentalists (see Transcendental¬ ism), including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, as well as the great imaginative writers Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe.
American Revolution or United States War of Indepen¬ dence (1775 -83) War that won political independence for 13 of Brit¬ ain’s North American colonies, which formed the United States of America. After the end of the costly French and Indian War (1763), Brit¬ ain imposed new taxes (see Stamp Act; Sugar Act) and trade restrictions on the colonies, fueling growing resentment and strengthening the colo¬ nists’ objection to their lack of representation in the British Parliament. Determined to achieve independence, the colonies formed the Continen¬ tal Army, composed chiefly of minutemen, to challenge Britain’s large, organized militia. The war began when Britain sent a force to destroy rebel military stores at Concord, Mass. After fighting broke out on April 19, 1775 (see Battles of Lexington and Concord), rebel forces began a siege of Boston that ended when American forces under Henry Knox forced out the British troops under William Howe on March 17, 1776 (see Battle of Bunker Hill). Britain’s offer of pardon in exchange for surrender was refused by the Americans, who declared themselves independent on July 4, 1776 (see Declaration of Independence). British forces retaliated by driv-
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60 I American Saddlebred ► Amhara
ing the army of George Washington from New York to New Jersey. On December 25, Washington crossed the Delaware River and won the battles of Trenton and Princeton. The British army split to cover more territory, a fatal error. In engaging the Americans in Pennsylvania, notably in the Battle of the Brandywine, they left the troops in the north vulnerable. Despite a victory in the Battle of Ticonderoga, British troops under John Burgoyne were defeated by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold in the Battle of Saratoga (Oct. 17, 1777). Washington quartered his 11,000 troops through a bleak winter at Valley Forge, where they received training from Frederick Steuben that gave them victory in Monmouth, N.J., on June 28, 1778. British forces in the north thenceforth chiefly concentrated near New York. France, which had been secretly furnishing aid to the Ameri¬ cans since 1776, finally declared war on Britain in June 1778. French troops assisted American troops in the south, culminating in the success¬ ful Siege of Yorktown, where Charles Cornwallis surrendered his forces on Oct. 19, 1781, bringing an end to the war on land. War continued at sea, fought chiefly between Britain and the U.S.’s European allies. The navies of Spain and the Netherlands contained most of Britain’s navy near Europe and away from the fighting in America. The last battle of the war was won by the American navy under John Barry in March 1783 in the Straits of Florida. With the Treaty of Paris (Sept. 3, 1783), Britain rec¬ ognized the independence of the U.S. east of the Mississippi River and ceded Florida to Spain.
American Saddlebred or American Saddle Horse Breed of light horse that originated in the U.S. The breed was developed by cross¬ ing Thoroughbreds, Morgans, and Standardbreds on native mares having an easy gait. It stands 15-16 hands (5-5.3 ft [1.5-1.6 m]) high, and its colours are bay, brown, black, gray, and chestnut. Two show categories are for three-gaited and five-gaited horses. The three natural gaits are walk, trot, and canter; the five-gaited horse also has two trained gaits, the rack and the slow gait, or running walk. The American Saddlebred is also well known as a fine harness horse for show.
American Samoa officially Territory of American Samoa
Unincorporated U.S. territory (pop., 2000: 57,291), southwest-central Pacific Ocean. It includes the islands of Tutuila (the largest, with over two-thirds of the territory’s land area and almost all of the population), Aunuu, Rose, Swains, and the Manua group. Area: 77 sq mi (199 sq km). Capitaclass="underline" Fagatogo (Pago Pago; on Tutuila). Languages: Samoan, English (both official). Religion: Christianity (mostly Protestant; also Roman Catholic, other Christians). Currency: U.S. dollar. Most of the islands are rocky, formed from extinct volcanoes, and are surrounded by coral reefs. Tutuila and the islands of Manua are dominated by central mountain ranges. Fishing and tourism are major industries, but the U.S. adminis¬ tration is the main employer. The majority of the population is of Samoan ancestry. The islands were probably inhabited by Polynesians 3,000 years ago. Dutch explorers became the first Europeans to visit the islands in 1722. Missionaries began arriving in the islands in the 1830s. The U.S. gained the right to establish a naval station at Pago Pago in 1878, and the U.S., Britain, and Germany administered a tripartite protectorate in 1889— 99. The high chiefs ceded the eastern islands to the U.S. in 1904. Ameri¬ can Samoa was administered by the U.S. Department of the Navy until 1951 and afterward by the Department of the Interior. Its current consti¬ tution was approved in 1967, and in 1978 the territory’s first elected gov¬ ernor took office.
American Stock Exchange (AMEX) Stock exchange in the U.S. Originally known as “the Curb,” it began as an outdoor marketplace in New York City c. 1850. It moved indoors to its present location in the Wall Street area in 1921. Once a marketplace for securities not reputable enough for the New York Stock Exchange, it became equally respectable, with its own listing admissions requirements. In 1998 it merged with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), then-owner of the NASDAQ exchange, to form the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group. After NASD sold its interest in the NASDAQ in 2000, AMEX remained a NASD subsidiary.
American System of manufacture Production of many identical parts and their assembly into finished products. Though Eli Whitney has been credited with this development, the ideas had appeared earlier in Europe and were being practiced in arms factories in the U.S. (see armoury practice). Marc Brunel, while working for the British Admiralty (1802-08), devised a process for producing wooden pulley blocks by sequential machine operations, whereby 10 men (rather than the 110 needed previ¬ ously) could make 160,000 pulley blocks per year. Not until London’s
Crystal Palace exhibition (1851) did British engineers, viewing exhibits of machines used in the U.S. to produce interchangeable parts, begin to apply the system. Within 25 years, the American System was being widely used in making a host of industrial products. See also assembly line; factory.
American Telephone and Telegraph Co. See AT&T
America's Cup Most prestigious trophy in international yachting com¬ petition. First offered under another name in Britain in 1851, the cup was won easily by the America from New York and subsequently became known as the America’s Cup. The America’s Cup race, held about every four years, is between one defending vessel and one challenging vessel; each must be designed and built in the country it represents. The 22.6-mi (36.4-km) racecourse is divided into eight legs. The U.S. completely dominated the competition until 1983, when it was defeated by Austra¬ lia. New Zealand won the Cup in 1995 and retained it in 2000 by defeat¬ ing a challenger from Italy in the first competition without a U.S. participant.