American History I

Posted: October 17th, 2013

American History I

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American History I

Unit 1-Columbian Exchange; People

Historians have often suggested that Colombian exchange was one sided, where Europeans were favored in the exchange of goods, ideas, diseases and products. In my opinion, I think that it was not one-sided. Despite the Europeans gaining more benefits than the natives do, the natives also had their benefits from the exchange. In terms of diseases, the Europeans spread the killer diseases such as small pox, measles, typhus, and malaria, while they took back home syphilis from America. When it came to the exchange of food, the Europeans had their crops such as tomatoes and chili pepper, which they exchanged with the natives for other foods such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and maize. Another example is the improvement of agriculture in America from the exchange. Although the Europeans benefited more, the natives had their benefits as well.

Unit 2 Discussion

            Among the people that we meet in this unit, King Charles I is among the people that made history in England. Charles brother died, leaving him as the heir to the throne of the three kingdoms, England, Ireland and Scotland. Charles I had a strong belief that kings were divinely appointed, thus believed he had the power to rule the people according to his own ideas. He went ahead to dissolve a whole parliament in 1629, and decided to rule alone, which caused a lot of controversy. He also had disagreements with various religious denominations such as the puritans and catholic. Finally, he caused a civil war that led to his execution in 1649. Thus, lack of cooperation with other leaders and his believing in the self as a divine king led to the civil war and his final demise.

Unit 3 Discussion

            There have always been different gender roles and believes across the whole world with each community having its own beliefs about gender. Puritans too had their beliefs on gender, the first one being that despite both gender carrying the original sin, it carried more weight for women. They believed women had the corruption of Eve. The puritans believed that men, as god meant it to be, were superior to women. Thus, in a puritan view, women were supposed to be helpers of men.

Unit 4 Discussion-French and Indian War

            The French and Indian war was one of the many wars that are recorded in the history books. The war, just like any other, had several consequences upon its ending. The war was between the French with its allies the Indians, against British colonizers from 1756-1763. It was one of the few bloodiest wars. It resulted in death of many people within this period. In addition, considering the Americans were allied to the British, the effect was an enhanced relationship.

Unit 5 Discussion

Despite the articles of confederation failing, they are among the most important documents of United States designed to found a united nation. The articles were an agreement among 13 of the states with an aim of establishing the United States of America as one country. One of the main reasons the article of confederation failed was lack of establishing a strong central government. Instead, the state government were stronger than the central government, thus, each state could have its own law that central government could not influence.

Unit 6 Discussion-The Constitutional Convention

            The United States constitution was a result of many compromises and factions that forced the delegates to come up with ways of solving the issue to come up with the constitution. One of the compromises was the great compromise, where changes were made to articles of confederation, one compromise suggesting representation according to population, while the other suggested equal representation. This was solved in the Connecticut compromise where it was decided there should be two chambers, one based on population while the other would be equal representation. The other compromise was representation of slaves where southern wanted them represented since they had more while northern felt this would favor southern. It was solved by representing five slaves as three. This was called the three-fifths compromise.

Unit 7 Discussion Interpretation of the Constitution

            Before the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson was a strong advocate of strict interpretation of the constitution, suggesting that if power of the national government was not explicitly stated in the constitution, it was then delegated to the state. In the interpretation during this purchase, strict or explicit interpretation suggested that constitution did not have any power to expansion of the territory. On the other hand, the other view held that article 4 section 3 implied this where it stated that congress was in a position to disposing and making of any needful rules as well as regulations concerning the territory of the nation. Thomas Jefferson took advantage of this for the Louisiana Purchase.

Unit 8 Discussion – The Monroe Doctrine

            This was a document by President James Monroe in 1823, with an aim of preventing the European countries from interfering with United States in any way of colonization. The doctrine stated that any efforts by the Europeans to colonize any of the United States region would amount to an act of aggression that would call for the intervention of the United States. The doctrine managed to establish a distance of respect between the European colonizers and America, as it stated that America would not interfere with its activities in other colonies.

Unit 9 Discussion – Jacksonian Democracy

            The Trail of Tears was one of the removal of American natives, the Cherokee Indians from their land. It was through a long struggle by the Jacksonian regime to relocate them to Oklahoma. The Indians tried to fight for their right as a sovereign state, to some extent succeeded but still ended up being removed after it was passed by the congress. The reason for their removal was that gold had been discovered around the area. This was very humiliating, as many of them died en-route to Oklahoma.

Unit 10 Changes Discussion Board

            Peter Cooper was one of the industrialist, inventors, a philanthropist and once a presidential candidate of United States, born in 1791 and died in 1893. he was credited for building the first locomotive using steam engine, thus revolutionalizing America and impacting on the development of America as well as changes in family set up where men would be employed in his Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In addition, he operated an iron rolling meal in New York, which was among the few companies then industrializing America. He played a crucial role in development of America both economically and socially.

Unit 11 Slavery and the South Discussion Board

            The southerners of United States before the civil war based their economy and development on slavery, which was the source of labor. The were many impacts both positive and negative of slavery on the slaves them selves. On of the impacts was the destruction of their culture from being removed from their homes and being separated from their families and society. The African Americans also hardly had time to engage in their cultural practices since they were constantly in the fields working for their slave masters. This had a tremendous impact on their culture, in a destructive way.

Unit 12 Discussion Board Literature and Reform Movement

            There have been several abolitions in America, one of the major ones being abolition of slave trade as well as slavery. In addition, there are several abolitionists credited to the abolition of slavery in United States, one of then being John Brown, who advocated for an armed struggle to abolish slavery in 1850. Another abolitionists of slavery was Sojourner Truth who was born to slave parents and sold three time. However, she was helped by a group of Quakers to keep her son and daughter safe, but went on to travel to Massachusetts where she met more abolitionists.

Unit 13 Discussion

            The difference between the south and north in America before civil war was the development routes taken. In north, focus was mainly on technology, where it included transport technology that they offered to the south as well as using technological equipments for their work. On the other hand, the south pursued agriculture with the use of slaves as the main source of labor, especially in the cotton fields during a tome when cotton demand in the world was high.

Unit 14 the Coming of the Civil War

            Abraham Lincoln was the 16^th president of the united states, elected to the white house. He was the president who took America through its most devastating as well as the most important determinant of American states as one nation. Being a northerner, he advocated for the abolition of slavery, which southerners did not want. After his election to presidency, seven of the slave states left the union and formed the confederate states of America. Later, four more slave states joined the confederacy. As he wanted to maintain the union, a war, which went down as the most bloody war in America engulfed, which we know today as the civil war.

Unit 15 Discussion the War to Save the Union

            There have been several debates over what was the cause of the civil war where around 600,000 people died. Many of the historians and scholars have sought the answer, but still it is not very definite what caused the war. However, two causes have been cited throughout, one being the slave issue, while the other one is on slavery, and the other being states right. Further, the debate says the answer is enshrined in which came first, or what caused the other. For instance, did the confederate have a right to leave the union, or did they leave because they could not let go the slaves who provided cheap labor.

Unit 16 Discussion Reconstruction and the South

            One of the most disputed elections of America was the 1876 election, where the two candidates were Samuel J. Tilden from New York and Rutherford B. Hayes from Ohio. Tilden had outpolled Hayes I the popular vote with 184 votes while Hayes had 165. However, the controversy was in the states of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina where both parties claimed to have won. After a hot legal tarsal, the presidency was awarded to Hayes. This came to the compromise of 1877, where it was agreed that Hayes win should be accepted on conditions that northern troops would be removed, and marked end of reconstruction.