America, a global superpower, was only colonies. To become the free nation of the USA, the Revolutionary war was won. This war directly influenced the conception of the United States, so one might wonder: DRAMATIC PAUSE What if America had lost the Revolutionary War? There are four key consequences within the US. America would be geographically smaller Throughout America’s history, its current size was reached mainly due to the fact that as a new country it had its focus on reaching the status of a solitary nation -- owned by no one. One of the ‘keys to the nations health’ was stemmed from land ownership. ‘Those who labor in the earth, are the chosen people of God,’ Thomas Jefferson once wrote. These were the exact motives behind Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 added approximately 828,000 square miles of new land, doubling the size of the young republic. …show more content…
The significant law within the British Empire is The outlawing of slavery in the British Empire in 1833 As you all know, slavery was eliminated from the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Slavery was eliminated in the British Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 30 years earlier. Slave trade was abolished in 1807, so slavery within the colonies might have become extinct even sooner. My final point regards the Industrial Revolution… It would have never happened One of the main goals behind a colony in North America was raw materials. The job of the colonies is to harvest raw materials found naturally and to focus on agriculture. Raw materials would be shipped back to the UK and manufactured there to be sold to the world, as well as back to people of the colonies. The surge of factories and manufacturing in the North would not be permitted. Britain would continue to emphasize agriculture and raw materials for the life of the
A Nation built on the backs of farmers is what he truly believed in and he believed the Louisiana Purchase would ultimately meet this goal, Jefferson stated that “If we can settle happily the difficulties of the Mississippi, I think we may promise ourselves smooth seas during our time.” (Carnes, Garraty p.g 181). Another great moral dilemma Thomas Jefferson faced was the great opposition towards the Louisiana Purchase among the people and congressmen. For Northerners the idea of spending fifteen million dollars on what one Federalist described as a “Gallo-Hispano-Indian” collection of “savages and adventures” (Carnes, Garraty p.g. 181) would not only be unconstitutional due to the lack of power assigned to do so, but would only really benefit the southern and western people due to most of the land being in that region. These ideas of who would be benefiting most lead to the idea of whether this land would become one mass state or several groups of states. People were also concerned because of the possible upsetting of the balance between slave states and non-slave states. This vast land scared and excited most Americans and Senators alike and posed another potential problem for if Americans were to migrate to these lands so distant and
There are many reasons why the Revolutionary War could not have been avoided.The Revolutionary War could not have been avoided because the colonists were very angry with the British because they were being taxed by them. Even though there was conflict the colonists tried but did not succeed at avoiding the war. Therefore there was no way that the war could not have occurred.
The Louisiana Purchase, also known as the greatest real estate deal in history, occurred during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. He was a visionary and always imagined that one day the United States would span from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. However, in the beginning of his term as president, the U.S.’s territory only reached as far as the Mississippi River. Beyond this, there was vast land known as the Louisiana Territory. This land included all of what is now present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, parts of the Mississippi that were west of the Mississippi river, most of North Dakota, most of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, northern Texas, portions of Montana, Colorado east of the continental divide, Louisiana east of the Mississippi river, and small pieces of land that later became parts of Canada. Acquiring this land would strengthen America and solidify it as a place as a growing power and challenge to the British. It would also double the size of the existing U.S. territory. This purchase is known as one of the biggest achievements of Jefferson’s presidency.
Though the means at which the United States was able to obtain such a territory came at the price of President Thomas Jefferson’s morals, in the long run it is easily one of the biggest achievements in American history. Upon hearing the secret agreement of Spain returning the Louisiana Purchase to
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. It doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, exemplary citizenry for its survival, and that independence and honor lead to land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. American Westward Expansion primarily strengthened the nation because it added new resources, railroad tracks and land, and the increase in population was huge during these times, which could make up a strong nation that has a virtuous government, with all the diversity of opinions and ideas.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was a large expansion to the United States. With the country nearly doubled in size, the Louisiana Purchase brought up many debates on constitutionality, questions of what was in the new land, as well as questions about the existence of slavery within the newly acquired land. The look of the United States changed forever with this large amount of land, both geographically and politically.
In 1803 the United States would make the largest and possibly most controversial land purchases in American history, the Louisiana Purchase. During the years leading up to this event the United States was still trying to solidify a national identity. There were two subjects that were causing for division of the new national identity, one being westward expansion. The Northern states and Federalists opposed the idea of westward expansion while the Southern States and the Jeffersonians backed this purchase. Although there was a struggle for a single national identity and this controversial purchase did not aid in finding that single identity, it was still the right decision for the United States. By purchasing this land from the French the United States would not share a colonial boundary with the French who were continuing to gain power under Napoleon. Purchasing the Louisiana Territory would prove to be beneficial for the United States for more reason than one.
Jefferson believed that the best way to guarantee the long-term integrity of the republic was to cultivate a nation of independent yeoman farmers. Jefferson's idealized farmer, owning his own plot of land and dependent upon no one else for his sustenance, would fight corruption and maintain liberty. But Jefferson's yeoman republic could not survive a shortage in free land; once a country was full, men without land would be required to work for others, and their loss of economic independence would lead to a loss of political independence as well. So Jefferson hoped that the Louisiana Purchase, by doubling the size of the United States, would provide generations' worth of free land to extend the yeoman republic's "empire of liberty" toward the western
As you know, the United States government is debating whether or not to buy the Louisiana Territory. If we did, it would greatly increase our land and allow people access to settle in new places. By purchasing the land, it would more than double the size of the United States, leaving room for growth. Then people could go and settle the territory. We would have new states in the future to join our union, and make the United States stronger.
Before Thomas Jefferson ever entered the presidency, he believed in the “Empire of Liberty.” He wrote in a letter to a friend that “Our confederacy must be viewed as the nest from which all America, North or South, is to be peopled.” His motives for the intense eye on American expansion were greatness for his country, as well as for himself. He was disgusted with the idea of North America being divided into nation-states like Europe. His goal was for the ideals of the American Revolution to spread over the whole continent. He passed and helped pass some of the legislation that helped early America expand. He co-authored the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which allowed for states to be made from the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio River. Jefferson’s desire for exploring the lands west of the Mississippi had been around for fifty years. Jefferson’s father was a member of the Loyal Land Company. After American Independence, there were four plans to explore the west; Jefferson was behind three of those plans. The Louisiana Purchase divided the political country, before and after the actual purchase. I intend to show these sides by examining documents from Jefferson, his colleagues, and the opposition to the Purchase, as well as international deterrents to the Purchase.
Thomas Jefferson believed that the fate of the republic depended on having an independent, virtuous, landowning citizenry. In order to provide enough land to sustain his preferred citizens, yeoman farmers, Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory from the French for fifteen million dollars. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States allowing plenty of land for farming. However, westward expansion was not limited to farmers as Jefferson hoped. The West attracted individuals for a variety of reasons including miners who sought to get rich off gold and Mormons driven by violence to an area where they could practice their religion thousands of miles away from disapproving neighbors. The West is synonymous with the concept of Manifest Density which is portrayed and supported in John Gast’s American Progress.
Slavery was abolished in 1865, just twenty years after Frederick Douglass released “The Desire for Freedom”. Douglass said in his source, “I have often wished myself a beast. I
The United States of America is the first nation in history to successfully declare and obtain independence from colonial rule. Obtaining independence from the British Monarchy resulted in being only half the battle for the new republic. It would take decades before the new nation could proudly say they are “One nation under God.”
The Revolutionary War was one of America’s earliest battles and one of many. Although, many came to America to gain independence from Great Britain many still had loyalty for the King and their laws. Others believed that America needs to be separated from Great Britain and control their own fate and government. I will analyze the arguments of Thomas Paine and James Chalmers. Should America be sustained by Great Britain or find their own passage?
When North America was first being colonised in the early 17th century, the settlers made their home along the coasts of the ocean and the shores of the nearby rivers. Nevertheless, as the population kept growing, adventurers, trappers and many mores, started to move west, farther from waterways and from the Atlantic coast. Early westward expansion began… However, it is in the first half of the 19th century that the United Sates gained most of its lands, sometimes buying them to their original owners, sometimes simply stealing them (There were actually 13 cases of land annexation during this century). We can thus wonder why the USA needed to enlarge its country so dramatically and will therefore analyse the reasons of this territorial expansion. Though it is clear that a large number of political reasons actually led to the annexation of a few western territories, we will rather concentrate on other main points. First of all, territorial expansion can be explained starting from two main reasons: the explosive population growth and the "restless individual energy of the people" (D.E. Fehrenbacher, The Era of Expansion, 1800-1848,(1969),p2). (Indeed, the rag-to-riches myth was very present in the settlers' mind…). On the other hand, I believe that the desire of expansion was connected with military security, commercial reasons and with the growing sense of anxiety that Americans felt towards Great Britain. Finally, we have to bear in mind that...