Unit 2: Communities Change

Early communities included Cahokia, Powatan's villages, and Jamestown. After people in Europe learned about the success of Jamestown, more people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Soon there were 13 colonies stretched along the east coast of North America. People had to pay taxes on things shipped from Great Britain that they used daily. This made the colonists angry. It later resulted in the Boston Tea Party and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The British did not like this and started the American Revolution, which the Patriots won after seven years of fighting. This formed a new country-the United States of America. The United States Constitution-or written plan of government-was approved in 1788.

As the country grew, people started to move west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States in 1803. Lewis and Clark were hired to explore this new land. They met and wrote about the Native Americans they met and the plants and animals they saw. As more people moved to find jobs, small towns grew into cities. Immigrants-people from other countries-helped the cities grow. African Americans in the South decided to move to the North and the Midwest to find work in the factories. Inventions also made people migrate. The transcontinental railroad, telegraph, skyscraper, and automobile helped people move from the crowded east to the open west.