How Did The Second Great Awakening Influence American Culture

1317 Words3 Pages

The Second Great Awakening falls under the AP theme: Culture and Society. The Second Great Awakening was meant as a way to restore religious values and practices in the country. Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians most prominently emphasized the revival and held large gatherings to gain new converts and followers. Followers of the new awakening accepted god back into their daily lives and dismiss rationalities of the new scientific changing word that clashed with traditional religious beliefs. To engulf a large majority of the population in religion, a great number of sects and denominations formed, with the idea that the more religious people were in general, the more devoted their own followers would be. The awakening included women and …show more content…

Napoleon 's offer of central land for $15 million shocked the diplomats, Livingston and Monroe, but they considered it to be a deal to good to wait on and agreed to it without permission from anyone back home. The United States’ lack of the money and no explicit statement allowing the President to make such a deal embarrassed Jefferson, but he was convinced by his advisors that it was acceptable for such a tremendous deal. Once purchased from the French, who in 1803 assumed control of the territory from Spain and made the sale to America, the land was set up to be the recipient of new settlers to found new states, expanding the country westward. The cause for the Louisiana Purchase was Napoleon 's realization that he did not have the resources for such an ambitious American colonization by the French because of his renewed conflicts with Great Britain. Spain had gone back on the Pinckney Treaty and was then blocking shipping on the French controlled Mississippi. Jefferson bought the land to reopen ports along the river satisfying merchants. The effect of the Louisiana Purchase was need for explanation such a large expanse of new territory for mapping and colonization. The new territory was meant to be used for colonization of new states, firstly Louisiana in 1812. Similarly, in 1867 the US made a purchase from Russia of Alaska for $7.2 million, not for the same amount of land, but a tremendously large …show more content…

The problem was a conflict between William Henry Harrison and the Native American Tecumseh. Harrison had previously fought Native Americans and had helped to promote the Harrison Ford Law, which helped Americans to acquire land much more easily. He was appointed by Jefferson to solve the “Indian Problem” by assimilating them into American society. Harrison tried to either assimilate the tribes or have them begin war between each other, eventually causing them to realize the superiority of the Unites States’ power. The cause of the “Indian problem” was the spread of the Americans westward and their assumed superiority over the Native Americans. They were willing to do anything, even brutally murdering and torturing Natives, and so Natives resisted American interaction into their life and were seen to be unwilling to accept “superior” American ways. The effect was the starting of the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, by increasing the unrest among the Native Americans with their white American oppressors. Similarly, the French and Indian war starting in 1754 involved a European power, France, taking sides with the Native Americans and thus fighting against the British Americans. In doing this, France and later Britain were taking a losing side in fighting against the Americans, leading to a direct conflict between their countries. The “Indian problem” was important because it involved the British in an

More about How Did The Second Great Awakening Influence American Culture

Open Document