Most historians separate the history of the United States of America into the Colonial Era, the American Confederation, and the four American Republics. The Colonial Era of course speaks about the time under British Rule, which ended with the Revolution against the Crown. The Confederation was the first formation of Free Colonial Rule, before the adoption of our current Constitution. The First American Republic started with the passage of the new Constitution and was generally characterized as a mutual assemblage of Sovereign States. The Civil War, or the Second American Revolution as some name it, transformed America into the Second Republic, with a far more powerful Federal government. The Second Republic ended with the First Great Depression and the New Deal. This Third Republic grew up in World War II to become the new guarantor of peace in the world. Some call it the First American Democracy. Whether a Democracy or a Constitutional Republic, many Americans alive today were born and grew up in this time. They lived through the Second Great Depression in living, bleeding color.