Random Maps That Tell Entire History Of United States (25 items)

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  (#21) Cold War Alliances 1959

  WWII had made for strange bedfellows, uniting the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, among others, against Germany and the Axis Powers. With the end of WWII, those alliances broke down, essentially dividing the world into two camps. Best represented by the newly divided Germany, lines between an expanding Soviet empire and the Western world took clear ideological and physical form. 

  In 1949, former WWII allies Great Britain, France, and the United States were the driving forces behind the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Tasked with preventing Soviet expansion and promoting political cooperation among members, NATO was defensive in nature, as well. "By this treaty, we are not only seeking to establish freedom from aggression and from the use of force in the North Atlantic community, but we are also actively striving to promote and preserve peace throughout the world," claimed President Harry S. Truman.

  The initial 12 members of NATO (Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, Canada, and the United States) were joined by Greece, Turkey, West Germany by the mid-1950s.

  In 1955, the Soviet Union formed its own military cooperative, the Warsaw Pact, also called the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance. A comparable mutual defense agreement to NATO, the Warsaw Pact included Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria.

  Colonial territories and countries dependent upon foreign aid aligned with one side or the other, although parts of the world, namely India, did their best to maintain what has come to be known as nonalignment.
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  (#17) States Affected By The Emancipation Proclamation

  When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, he stated that "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." 

  He omitted parts of the Confederacy already under Union control and left the some 4 million slaves in the Northern or border states in servitude. 

  What the document did in the North and border regions, however, was galvanize the war effort, articulating the end of slavery as a goal for maintaining the Union. 
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  (#11) Western Exploration

  As the United States expanded, it similarly explored its newly acquired territory. Under the auspices of President Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led their Corps of Discovery through the Louisiana Territory for two years. They reported back their findings, with information about flora, fauna, people, and potential resources for settlement. 

  The government established military installations throughout the West, notably along the Columbia River in the Oregon Territory. In 1824, President James Monroe asked Congress to provide "an adequate sum to authorize the employment of a frigate... to explore the mouth of the Columbia River and the coast contiguous thereto."

  Settlers moved west alongside explorers, traversing paths like the famed Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon. The California Trail opened opportunities for gold prospectors and farmers alike, tracing its way over 5,000 miles. 
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  (#3) The Age Of Discovery

  The Age of Discovery, or Age of Exploration, as it's sometimes known, began during the 15th century and extended through the 1600s. Kicking off with Henry the Navigator and the Portuguese venturing into the Atlantic and landing at locations along the African coast, the Age of Discovery also led to Spanish, English, Dutch, and French-supported ventures to the New World.

  Spain dominated activity in North, Central, and South America, claiming large portions of land as its own. With the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, lands outside of Europe were divided between Portugal and Spain, giving the latter control of people, land, and resources west of a line "three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands."
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  (#6) The Transatlantic Slave Trade

  European countries tapped into resources throughout the Americas, notably establishing sugar plantations throughout the Caribbean and South America. With massive numbers of indigenous people wiped out by disease and conflict, the colonial powers began to bring in slaves from Africa to work the land.

  While slavery was a long-established institution in Africa, Europeans redefined the scope of the practice. First the Portuguese, then the Spanish, and later the Dutch, English, and French, sent a total of 10 to 12 million enslaved Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries. The trip, known as the Middle Passage, was so brutal that roughly 2 million Africans perished in transit.

  Europeans established the so-called triangle trade, in which slaves from Africa were sent to New World plantations where they produced raw materials, which were transported to Europe to produce manufactured goods, which were then taken to Africa and exchanged for slaves. In the process, the economic and demographic dynamics of the African continent were forever altered. In North America, a relatively small number of slaves - estimated at about 388,000 -  were used to work on cotton and tobacco plantations. 
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  (#20) 1941 Alliances

  By the end of 1941, WWII alliances were formally realized. As early as 1936, Germany, Italy, and Japan had entered into agreements with one another, ultimately leading to the establishment of the so-called Axis alliance with the Tripartite Pact of 1940. Adolf Hitler and the Germans systematically invaded countries like Poland and France, extending their dominance through Europe during the late 1930s and early 1940s.

  In contrast to the Axis Powers, the Allies, headed by Great Britain, leaned heavily on imperial possessions and help from the United States. Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States was technically neutral, lending money and leasing military bases to the Allies. The US officially entered the conflict before the close of 1941, joining Great Britain and the Soviet Union in their efforts against Axis entities.

  The Soviet Union, however, presented a unique diplomatic challenge. While the Soviet Union remained insular, standoffish, and resistant to entering the conflict, leader Joseph Stalin had no choice but to enter into the Anglo-Soviet Alliance in June 1941 after Germany invaded the Soviet Union's borders. 

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