vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Confederate States of America
When the Confederacy was formed and its seceding states broke from the Union , it was at once confronted with the arduous task of providing its citizens with a mail delivery system , and , in the midst of the American Civil War , the newly formed Confederacy created and established the Confederate Post Office . One of the first undertakings in establishing the Post Office was the appointment of John H. Reagan to the position of Postmaster General , by Jefferson Davis in 1861 , making him the first Postmaster General of the Confederate Post Office as well as a member of Davis ' presidential cabinet . Through Reagan 's resourcefulness and remarkable industry , he had his department assembled , organized and in operation before the other Presidential cabinet members had their departments fully operational .
Causes of the French Revolution
France sent Rochambeau , Lafayette and de Grasse , along with large land and naval forces , to help the Americans . French aid proved decisive in forcing the main British army to surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 . The Americans gained their independence , and the war ministry rebuilt the French army . However , the British sank the main French fleet in 1782 , and France gained little , except for the colonies of Tobago and Senegal , from the Treaty of Paris ( 1783 ) that concluded the war . The war cost 1.066 million French livres , a huge sum , that was financed by new loans at high interest rates , but no new taxes were imposed . Necker concealed the crisis from the public by explaining only that ordinary revenues exceeded ordinary expenses , and by not mentioning the loans at all .
War of 1812
David and Jeanne Heidler argue that `` Most historians agree that the War of 1812 was not caused by expansionism but instead reflected a real concern of American patriots to defend United States ' neutral rights from the overbearing tyranny of the British Navy . That is not to say that expansionist aims would not potentially result from the war . ''
American Civil War
These states agreed to form a new federal government , the Confederate States of America , on February 4 , 1861 . They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries with little resistance from outgoing President James Buchanan , whose term ended on March 4 , 1861 . Buchanan said that the Dred Scott decision was proof that the South had no reason for secession , and that the Union `` was intended to be perpetual '' , but that `` The power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union '' was not among the `` enumerated powers granted to Congress '' . One quarter of the U.S. Army -- the entire garrison in Texas -- was surrendered in February 1861 to state forces by its commanding general , David E. Twiggs , who then joined the Confederacy .
Battle of Hampton Roads
When the Civil War broke out in 1861 , Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory was an early enthusiast for the advantages of armor . As he looked upon it , the Confederacy could not match the industrial North in numbers of ships at sea , so they would have to compete by building vessels that individually outclassed those of the Union . Armor would provide the edge . Mallory gathered about himself a group of men who could put his vision into practice , among them John M. Brooke , John L. Porter , and William P. Williamson .
Conclusion of the American Civil War
General Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia , while Major General John Brown Gordon commanded its Second Corps . Early in the morning of April 9 , Gordon attacked , aiming to break through Federal lines at the Battle of Appomattox Court House , but failed , and the Confederate Army was then surrounded . At 8 : 30 A.M. that morning , Lee requested a meeting with Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant to discuss surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia . Shortly after twelve o'clock , Grant 's reply reached Lee , and in it Grant said he would accept the surrender of the Confederate Army under certain conditions . Lee then rode into the little hamlet of Appomattox Court House , where the Appomattox county court house stood , and waited for Grant 's arrival to surrender his army . Panoramic
Confederate States of America
Despite political differences within the Confederacy , no national political parties were formed because they were seen as illegitimate . `` Anti-partyism became an article of political faith . '' Without a two - party system building alternative sets of national leaders , electoral protests tended to be narrowly state - based , `` negative , carping and petty '' . The 1863 mid-term elections became mere expressions of futile and frustrated dissatisfaction . According to historian David M. Potter , this lack of a functioning two - party system caused `` real and direct damage '' to the Confederate war effort since it prevented the formulation of any effective alternatives to the conduct of the war by the Davis administration . ``
History of the United States Merchant Marine
The years leading up to the Civil War were characterized by extremely rapid production in ship building . The 538,136 tons registered in foreign trade in 1831 had increased to 1,047,454 in 1847 and to 2,496,894 in 1862 , a figure which represented the culmination of our ship - building tonnage until surpassed in WW I. From 1848 to 1858 ship building had been maintained at an average of 400,000 tons a year . This construction was caused by two conditions , the development of the clipper ship after 1845 and the increased demand for shipping .
Spanish–American War
The war lasted ten weeks . John Hay ( the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom ) , writing from London to his friend Theodore Roosevelt , declared that it had been `` a splendid little war '' . The press showed Northerners and Southerners , blacks and whites fighting against a common foe , helping to ease the scars left from the American Civil War . Exemplary of this was the fact that four former Confederate States Army generals had served in the war , now in the US Army and all of them again carrying similar ranks . These officers included Matthew Butler , Fitzhugh Lee , Thomas L. Rosser and Joseph Wheeler , though only the latter had seen action . Still , in an exciting moment during the Battle of Las Guasimas , Wheeler apparently forgot for a moment which war he was fighting , having supposedly called out `` Let 's go , boys ! We 've got the damn Yankees on the run again ! ''
Gilded Age
American society experienced significant changes in the period following the Civil War , most notably the rapid urbanization of the North . Due to the increasing demand for unskilled workers , most European immigrants went to mill towns , mining camps , and industrial cities . New York , Philadelphia , and especially Chicago saw rapid growth . Louis Sullivan became a noted architect using steel frames to construct skyscrapers for the first time while pioneering the idea of `` form follows function '' . Chicago became the center of the skyscraper craze , starting with the ten - story Home Insurance Building in 1884 -- 1885 by William Le Baron Jenney .
American Civil War
In the first year of the war , both sides had far more volunteers than they could effectively train and equip . After the initial enthusiasm faded , reliance on the cohort of young men who came of age every year and wanted to join was not enough . Both sides used a draft law -- conscription -- as a device to encourage or force volunteering ; relatively few were actually drafted and served . The Confederacy passed a draft law in April 1862 for young men aged 18 to 35 ; overseers of slaves , government officials , and clergymen were exempt . The U.S. Congress followed in July , authorizing a militia draft within a state when it could not meet its quota with volunteers . European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers , including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 born in Ireland . Union
Technological and industrial history of the United States
American colonies gained independence in 1783 just as profound changes in industrial production and coordination were beginning to shift production from artisans to factories . Growth of the nation 's transportation infrastructure with internal improvements and a confluence of technological innovations before the Civil War facilitated an expansion in organization , coordination , and scale of industrial production . Around the turn of the 20th century , American industry had superseded its European counterparts economically and the nation began to assert its military power . Although the Great Depression challenged its technological momentum , America emerged from it and World War II as one of two global superpowers . In the second half of the 20th century , as the United States was drawn into competition with the Soviet Union for political , economic , and military primacy , the government invested heavily in scientific research and technological development which spawned advances in spaceflight , computing , and biotechnology .
Border states (American Civil War)
Fighting ensued between Union forces and a combined army of General Price 's Missouri State Guard and Confederate troops from Arkansas and Texas , under General Ben McCulloch . After winning victories at the Battle of Wilson 's Creek in August and the siege of Lexington in September , the secessionist forces retreated to southwestern Missouri , as they were under pressure from Union reinforcements . On October 30 , 1861 , in the town of Neosho , Jackson called the supporting parts of the exiled state legislature into session , where they enacted a secession ordinance . It was recognized by the Confederate Congress , and Missouri was admitted into the Confederacy on November 28 .
Confederate States of America
Civil War historian E. Merton Coulter noted that for those who would secure its independence , `` The Confederacy was unfortunate in its failure to work out a general strategy for the whole war '' . Aggressive strategy called for offensive force concentration . Defensive strategy sought dispersal to meet demands of locally minded governors . The controlling philosophy evolved into a combination `` dispersal with a defensive concentration around Richmond '' . The Davis administration considered the war purely defensive , a `` simple demand that the people of the United States would cease to war upon us '' . Historian James M. McPherson is a critic of Lee 's Offensive Strategy : `` Lee pursued a faulty military strategy that ensured Confederate defeat '' .
Thirteen Colonies
In London beginning in 1660 , all colonies were governed through a state department known as the Southern Department , and a committee of the Privy Council called the Board of Trade and Plantations . In 1768 , a specific state department was created for America , but it was disbanded in 1782 when the Home Office took responsibility .
Jay Treaty
The British were occupying forts on U.S. territory in the Great Lakes region , at Detroit and Mackinac in modern - day Michigan , Niagara and Oswego in New York , and Maumee ( also Miamis ) in modern - day Ohio . Britain said it was in response to American refusals to pay debts that had been agreed upon . The British were continuing to impress American sailors into the Royal Navy to fight against France . American merchants wanted compensation for 250 merchant ships which the British had confiscated in 1793 and 1794 . Southern interests wanted monetary compensation for slaves owned by Loyalists who were taken away to the West Indies along with their masters in 1781 -- 83 . American merchants wanted the British West Indies to be reopened to American trade . The boundary with Canada was vague in many places , and needed to be more sharply delineated . The British were providing munitions to First Nations peoples in armed conflict with settlers in the Northwest ( Ohio and Michigan ) .
Jay Treaty
The Treaty was negotiated by John Jay and gained many of the primary American goals . This included the withdrawal of British Army units from forts in the Northwest Territory it had refused to relinquish under the Paris Peace Treaty . The British were retaliating for the United States reneging on Articles 4 and 6 of the 1783 treaty ; American state courts impeded the collection of debts owed the British creditors and upheld the continued confiscation of Loyalist estates in spite of an explicit undertaking that the prosecutions would be immediately discontinued . The parties agreed that disputes over wartime debts and the American -- Canadian boundary were to be sent to arbitration -- one of the first major uses of arbitration in modern diplomatic history , which set the precedent used by other nations . The Americans were granted limited rights to trade with British colonies in the Caribbean in exchange for some limits on the American export of cotton .
Thirteen Colonies
In the West Indies the elected assemblies of Jamaica , Grenada , and Barbados formally declared their sympathies for the American cause and called for mediation , but the others were quite loyal . Britain carefully avoided antagonizing the rich owners of sugar plantations ( many of whom lived in London ) ; in turn the planters ' greater dependence on slavery made them recognize the need for British military protection from possible slave revolts . The possibilities for overt action were sharply limited by the overwhelming power of Royal Navy in the islands . During the war there was some opportunistic trading with American ships .
Colonial history of the United States
The Church of England ( Anglican ) was officially established in five Southern colonies , which meant that local taxes paid the salary of the clergy . The parish had civic responsibilities such as poor relief . The local gentry controlled the budget , rather than the clergy . The Crown never appointed a bishop in the American colonies because of resistance from other churches . Anglicans in America were under the authority of the Bishop of London . He sent out missionaries from England and ordained men from the Colonies to minister there in parishes .
Allies of World War II
Southern Rhodesia was a self - governing colony , having received responsible government in 1923 . It was not a sovereign dominion . It governed itself internally and controlled its own armed forces , but had no diplomatic autonomy , and , therefore , was officially at war as soon as Britain was at war . The Southern Rhodesian colonial government issued a symbolic declaration of war nevertheless on 3 September 1939 , which made no difference diplomatically , but preceded the declarations of war made by all other British dominions and colonies . In
British Empire
The Dutch East India Company had founded the Cape Colony on the southern tip of Africa in 1652 as a way station for its ships travelling to and from its colonies in the East Indies . Britain formally acquired the colony , and its large Afrikaner ( or Boer ) population in 1806 , having occupied it in 1795 to prevent its falling into French hands during the Flanders Campaign . British immigration began to rise after 1820 , and pushed thousands of Boers , resentful of British rule , northwards to found their own -- mostly short - lived -- independent republics , during the Great Trek of the late 1830s and early 1840s . In the process the Voortrekkers clashed repeatedly with the British , who had their own agenda with regard to colonial expansion in South Africa and to the various native African polities , including those of the Sotho and the Zulu nations . Eventually the Boers established two republics which had a longer lifespan : the South African Republic or Transvaal Republic ( 1852 -- 77 ; 1881 -- 1902 ) and the Orange Free State ( 1854 -- 1902 ) . In 1902 Britain occupied both republics , concluding a treaty with the two Boer Republics following the Second Boer War ( 1899 -- 1902 ) .
Southern Ocean
The United Kingdom 's South Australia Act 1834 described the waters forming the southern limit of the new colony of South Australia as `` the Southern Ocean '' . The Colony of Victoria 's Legislative Council Act of 1881 delimited part of the division of Bairnsdale as `` along the New South Wales boundary to the Southern ocean '' .
France–United Kingdom relations
One brief but dangerous dispute occurred during the Fashoda Incident when French troops tried to claim an area in the Southern Sudan , and a British force purporting to be acting in the interests of the Khedive of Egypt arrived . Under heavy pressure the French withdrew and Britain took control over the area . France had failed in its main goals . P.M.H. Bell says :
British Empire
The war to the south influenced British policy in Canada , where between 40,000 and 100,000 defeated Loyalists had migrated from the new United States following independence . The 14,000 Loyalists who went to the Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys , then part of Nova Scotia , felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax , so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784 . The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada ( mainly English - speaking ) and Lower Canada ( mainly French - speaking ) to defuse tensions between the French and British communities , and implemented governmental systems similar to those employed in Britain , with the intention of asserting imperial authority and not allowing the sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to the American Revolution .
United Kingdom
The British dependencies use a varied assortment of currencies . These include the British pound , US dollar , New Zealand dollar , euro or their own currencies , which may be pegged to either . Locations
United Kingdom
After the end of the Second World War in 1945 , the UK was one of the Big Four powers ( the Soviet Union , the United Kingdom , the US and China ) who met to plan the post-war world ; it was an original signatory to the Declaration of the United Nations . The UK became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council . However , the war left the UK severely weakened and depending financially on the Marshall Plan . In the immediate post-war years , the Labour government initiated a radical programme of reforms , which had a significant effect on British society in the following decades . Major industries and public utilities were nationalised , a welfare state was established , and a comprehensive , publicly funded healthcare system , the National Health Service , was created . The rise of nationalism in the colonies coincided with Britain 's now much - diminished economic position , so that a policy of decolonisation was unavoidable . Independence was granted to India and Pakistan in 1947 . Over the next three decades , most colonies of the British Empire gained their independence . Many became members of the Commonwealth of Nations .
British Empire
British gains in Southern and East Africa prompted Cecil Rhodes , pioneer of British expansion in Southern Africa , to urge a `` Cape to Cairo '' railway linking the strategically important Suez Canal to the mineral - rich south of the continent . During the 1880s and 1890s , Rhodes , with his privately owned British South Africa Company , occupied and annexed territories subsequently named after him , Rhodesia .
United Kingdom
After the defeat of France at the end of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars ( 1792 -- 1815 ) , Great Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century ( with London the largest city in the world from about 1830 ) . Unchallenged at sea , British dominance was later described as Pax Britannica ( `` British Peace '' ) , a period of relative peace in Europe and the world ( 1815 -- 1914 ) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon and adopted the role of global policeman . By the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851 , Britain was described as the `` workshop of the world '' . The British Empire was expanded to include India , large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world . Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies , British dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many regions , such as Asia and Latin America . Domestically , political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez - faire policies and a gradual widening of the voting franchise . During the century , the population increased at a dramatic rate , accompanied by rapid urbanisation , causing significant social and economic stresses . To seek new markets and sources of raw materials , the Conservative Party under Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt , South Africa , and elsewhere . Canada , Australia , and New Zealand became self - governing dominions . After the turn of the century , Britain 's industrial dominance was challenged by the United States and Germany .
Southern Colonies
By 1680 , the colony had a large export industry of tobacco , lumber , and pitch .
History of Antarctica
The United Kingdom reasserted sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the far South Atlantic in 1833 and maintained a continuous presence there . In 1908 , the British government extended its territorial claim by declaring sovereignty over `` South Georgia , the South Orkneys , the South Shetlands , and the Sandwich Islands , and Graham 's Land , situated in the South Atlantic Ocean and on the Antarctic continent to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude , and lying between the 20th and the 80th degrees of west longitude '' . All these territories were administered as Falkland Islands Dependencies from Stanley by the Governor of the Falkland Islands . The motivation for this declaration lay in the need for regulating and taxing the whaling industry effectively . Commercial operators would hunt whales in areas outside of the official boundaries of the Falkland Islands and its dependencies and there was a need to close this loophole .
American Revolutionary War
However , the Americans had multiple advantages that in the long run outweighed the initial disadvantages they faced . The Americans had a large prosperous population that depended not on imports but on local production for food and most supplies , while the British were mostly shipped in from across the ocean . The British faced a vast territory far larger than Britain or France , located at a far distance from home ports . Most of the Americans lived on farms distant from the seaports -- the British could capture any port but that did not give them control over the hinterland . They were on their home ground , had a smoothly functioning , well organized system of local and state governments , newspapers and printers , and internal lines of communications . They had a long - established system of local militia , previously used to combat the French and Native Americans , with companies and an officer corps that could form the basis of local militias , and provide a training ground for the national army created by Congress .
British Empire
Between 1815 and 1914 , a period referred to as Britain 's `` imperial century '' by some historians , around 10,000,000 square miles ( 26,000,000 km ) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire . Victory over Napoleon left Britain without any serious international rival , other than Russia in Central Asia . Unchallenged at sea , Britain adopted the role of global policeman , a state of affairs later known as the Pax Britannica , and a foreign policy of `` splendid isolation '' . Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies , Britain 's dominant position in world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many countries , such as China , Argentina and Siam , which has been described by some historians as an `` Informal Empire '' .