The enduring vision of America is highly based on a strong American history. American history started almost more than ten thousand years even before the establishment of the first Columbus voyage.
Native Americans had a number of diverse cultures which was open to a number of different interactions especially with a number of groups. After almost 2500 B.C a number of Native Americans’ way of life was found to evolve all the way from the Archaich period .
The enduring vision of America has been based on the achievement of the American independent as well as a number of statements regarding the equality and the universal rights to justice, liberty and self-fulfillment.
A number of progresses have been made especially towards achieving all these things. Coming all the way from how the America came into being to how the individuals who occupy it interacted with each other as well as the resultant activities resulting from all these activities.
This essay will focus on the history of America from the first immigrants found in America. The essay will look at how different groups of people have interacted with each other as they settle in America. Various development activities involved. The American history has been embodied especially in the declaration of independence statements, the equality between different individuals found in America as well as the universal rights towards justice, liberty as well as self-fulfillment experienced by people whose rights were being denied like the slaves. A number of progresses have been made towards these ideals by the year 1860. The progress on these ideals has been clearly illustrated in the enduring vision of America as seen in the following history of America.
History of the Native Americans Most of the Indians people have a strong belief that their ancestors came from America. It has been widely believed that, the first immigrant to America came from the northeastern part of Asia especially during the last ice Age. The earliest Americans were believed to travel by use two different routes which were linked to Siberia and Alaska. As the ice age waned, and a rise in the global temperature was experienced, most of the Native American was seen to disperse especially throughout the hemisphere where they went to adopt the new environment .
Even though these individuals dispersed in two different groups which had been scattered widely, these two groups interacted through trade as well as they travelled from one area to another. Despise having a diverse background Indians have been seen to interact with each other and came up with ways of life which was seen to be very common despite having come from diverse backgrounds. A number of the archaeologists have agreed on the fact that human being in America arrived especially in the 13,000B.C.E. These groups of Native Americans came to America in small groups. They came travelling and in search of food and used watercraft to travel from one area to another while following the continuous coastline from Siberia to Alaska and then progressing all the way to southward especially along the pacific coast .
When American was discovered in the year 1492, most of the European thought that they were entering into a territory which was not inhabited by any individual. But instead of finding a wilderness of inhabited place, they found a place which has been already inhabited. American history initially was formed with the arrival of people during the ice age. These were especially during the time that Asia and North America were directly connected with each other. It was during this time when the climate had warned that the Paleo who were Indians exploited wider ranges of food sources that was capable of supporting a wide range of populations. These populations of Indians also learned from one another a number of things some of which were the inter-band exchanges which led to the development of new regional cultures which was referred to as Archaic .
For the years native Americans have migrated to places beyond the Archaic culture and end up forming clusters found in seasonal as well as permanent villages whereby they were involved in the production of food as well as surpluses through growing of crops, involving in fishing activities together with the processing of acorns. Some of these Native Americans built larger towns or even cities where they involved themselves in different economic activities. While a good a number of people who were found in the smallest band were deemed to be equal, most of the political leaders especially from a number of societies were selected from the prominent families .
In most of the societies, the hereditary chiefs and kings together with the emperors were involved in ruling people and hence were consulted in various capacities in the society. I respect to the diversities of these people, North American Indians had a lot in common. In most cases they identified themselves as one family and were all members of an extended family and hence did not consider themselves as merely individuals or even as political subjects. These people they recognized more the reciprocity rather than having hierarchical authority as one of the underlying principles especially for the relations within and also between the communities. These people also perceived the entire universe to be quite necessary for the survival of human kind putting the consideration of the nature as sacred while also regarding human beings to be the part of nature .
These core values were seen to come into being from the earliest Americans and further persisted beyond even before the Europeans came to invade the territory and contrast all their ideas. Throughout their history, the Native Americans have continued to have some reinforcement of their shared beliefs as well as customs especially through having exchanges of the materials goods and the new technologies together with a number of religious ideas. Even though the Native Americans had a lot in common, they never thought of themselves as being single people. It was only after the arrival of the Europeans that the differences between them were emphasized by the Europeans and hence the term ‘Indian’ came into being. This term had an origin of Columbus who had landed in Indies in the year 1492.
American Cultural Diversity After the year 2500 B.C. most of the Native Americans were seen to go beyond most of their ways especially the archaic bears. In most cases during the time, one of the greatest changes which took place among these individuals, occurred on the those individuals who had their environments enabled especially with an aim of producing surplus of food through the cultivation of crops as well as through a number of other factors. A number of these societies have had transformation of trade networks. These networks resulted into extensive religious as well as political systems which linked a number of communities which were found locally. Some of these groupings were found to originate and form confederacies as well as states .
In some cases especially the Mesoamerica and south America which had few sources of food scattered across many areas, there was evident of persistent mobile hunting as well as hunting-fishing and gathering. In an effort to satisfy their food supply, Mesoamericans farmers refined their practices as well as their methods of producing food. In order to achieve on high production they exercised a lot of practices for instance they would plant beans alongside maize. In this case the beans were aimed at releasing amino acids as well as lysine into the maize with an aim of improving nutritional value. The effort to improve on the nutritional status of the individual family encouraged the society encouraged the societies to engage their lives around farming.
After the 2000 B.C there was surplus production of the food by the Mesoamerican societies. These communities traded their farm produce with some of the less populous products from the non-farming neighbors. These communities expanded their trade contacts through establishing some of the formal exchange network which enabled theme to be in a position to enjoy more wealth as well as power which came from the interaction they had with their partners. Some of the communities of the Olmecs in Mesoamerica as well as chavin were seen to develop into very large urban centers through which they were able to subordinate those smaller s neighbors.
Unlike a number of the earlier societies these cities were seen to be highly unequal among themselves. Some of the few wealthy people were seen to dominate most of the residents as well as the hereditary rulers who had claimed kinship especially from the religious deities. A number of the laborers were seen to build temples as well as palaces for instance the American Pyramids as well as the statues of rulers and gods created by the artisans. Although a number of the earliest rulers had a lot of power as well as exercised those powers, their realms were composed of some of the few closely as well as clustered communities .
In these communities during this time a number of authority terms emerged. Some of these included political societies and chiefdoms. As opposed to the cases of most of the states, most of the rulers especially the government rulers, exercised direct authorities over a number of the communities. Apart from the Mesoamerican as well as the Andes chiefdoms, in other communities such as the Mississipi as well as Amazon valleys, chiefdom also emerged. This led to future development of few states from these places. These positions for the chiefdom were expected to be occupied by the men who were considered as having authorities especially among their communities.
In the northern part of America, there existed one of the largest States with the name, Teotihuacan which was located in the northeast of the today’s Mexico City. This city had a population which had almost hundred and thousands of people living in it.
This was between the second and the seventh century C.E. during this time there existed a number of complex pyramids and one of the largest was known by the name, the sun pyramid and occupied almost about 1 million of the cubic meters in the volume.
This largest city Teotihuacan dominated mostly the people who occupied the valley of Mexico together with all the activities which took place there. Some of these activities included trades network which were found to extend all over towards the present-day Mexico.
Although there was an enormous declined towards Teotihuacan in the eighth century, this city exercised a number of influences especially on the religion government as well as the cultural activities involving most of its neighbors.
One of the greatest influences of Teotihuacan was on Maya on whose kingdom or state flourished especially from the southern part of Mexico. It was Maya which was involved in the development of a numerical calendar including the concept of zero together with a number of phonetic system as well as hieroglyphic writing. A number of other states also flourished in both Mesoamerica as well as South America. This was until fifteen century when two might empires arose against each other. One of the empires was called Aztecs. This was known during that time as Mexica. It comprised of individual who had migrated from the northern part especially during the nineteenth century and later settled on the shore of the lake Texcoco as subjects of the local inhabitants.
In in the year 1428 the Aztecs overthrew their rulers and went further into conquering a number of other cities which were found around the lake and had an extension towards the gulf coast.
The expansion of the Aztec took a drastic turn especially in the year 1450s where a four year drought was experienced and Aztec ha d an interpretation that just like themselves, the gods were also hungry and their priest came up with a recommendation of serving the gods with both the human blood and heart in order to satisfy them.
From this moment the Aztec warriors went to look for captives who were to be offered as sacrifice so as to nourish gods. This empire built a very complex temple which was located in the capital of Tenochtitlan.
This was considered as very sacred place especially for the Aztec empire. These temples was composed of some two joined pyramids together with the native people of America and were surrounded by a number of smaller pyramids together with other buildings.
Most of the Aztecs more than almost two hundred deities which had been honored by the Aztecs had their origin especially with the earlier contemporary societies especially including those they had already taken over from and subjugated .
Immigrants Population and Slavery in America America has had a lot of immigrants who came to settle. Most of these immigrants came from European countries and settled to form colonies. The French as well as the Spanish colonies found in North America were seen to lag behind in regard to population growth and economic development when compared to the British.
By the year 1750 British who were occupying North America were found to have almost 1,170,000 which was a population of the no-Indian inhabitants when they were directly compared to the 60,000 in the French population as well as 19,000 in the Spanish population.
One of the things which contributed to this disparity was the fact that the British colonies allowed all people regardless of their religion while French and Spanish restricted the non-Catholics from accessing their colonies and had no effort of attracting settlers from other places apart from their own .
British population saw a rapid growth from both the natural increase as well as from the newcomers who were coming to occupy those places. In the eighteenth century a number of the immigrants were seen to come very little from England as well as more other people other places which included Africa especially due to the slave trades.
The Africans were usually brought byt he means of ships. Some of other immigrants included the Scots-Irish, and Germans who came since they were fleeing away from poverty. Most of these immigrants came as servants and mixed with other people.
The influx of immigrants especially in the British colony made it to be more racially as well as ethnically diverse in most of its activities. Since all these immigrants were very poor to purchase a piece of land especially in the already developed coastal areas, most of them went to piedmont region which was a region found to stretch all through the eastern slope of the Appalachians.
This area was settled by most of the people and by almost 1750 one third of all the colonial population was found to reside in this place . From the year 1713 to the year 1754, the importation of the slaves was found to be greatly increased.
As a result there was a tremendous increase in the black population by almost 11 percent to almost 20 percent. Most of the slaves were found to live in the southern region, but 15 percent of them were found in the colonies north of Maryland.
The population of the African-American was seen to multiply in tremendous percentage through the natural increase. In these places most of the families worked in the small farms and were found to highly depend on the labor from their sons the wives and daughters worked to supplement the production of clothing , vegetables as well as the poultry keeping.
Few people inherited much of their land from their parents due to the large families which were currently being formed. Most of the new couples had to toil a lot or even borrow money in order to purchase their own farms.
By almost 1700 there were about 25,00o slaves working in the American colonies. This was almost 10 percent of the total population. A few of the slaves originated from Africa but a good number of them came from West Indies.
The slaves were considered to be slaves for life and therefore it was the case of those children who were born from the slave mothers. The slaves were badly treated just like livestock’s and some even tried to run away.
The slave trade slowly introduced a free black population which was highly concentrated in the port cities especially along the Atlantic cast ranging from Charleston all the way to Boston. Those slaves who were found in the cities were more privileged, but a number of them live on the southern tobacco or the rice plantations.
They lived together and were in groups of 20 or even more. Most of the wealthy population could not do anything on their own but highly relied on slaves to execute their duties.
This led to an established institution involving slave trade in the south part of America and this divided American into two main forces which were opposing each other. Almost all the American colonies were involved in slave activities and treated it as a form of personal servant who were supposed to help on particular activities in the farm and plantations in the south .
Civil War in America In America, the civil war was influenced by a number of issues which were mainly influenced by the economic differences of the northern as well as the southern states.
Other factors which were associated with the civil war and were considered to be the main forces which influenced the outbreak of the civil war included the rights of various states, slavery experienced in different states, the election of Abraham Lincoln as the president as well as the succession of the southern part.
In the 19th century, all the southern as well as the northern states started developing a number of different industries which resulted to the rise of different class of individuals. During this time in the year 1793, Eli Whitney came up with a cotton gin.
As a result, the invention made the cotton industry to be more profitable and this made most of the southern planters to begin involving themselves in cotton farming instead of concentrating with other crops .
The production of cotton required high labor. Even though there was more labor in the southern slaves were considered to over cheap labor to most of the planters which led to acquisition of high profit. The wealth acquired from the production of cotton led to ore production in the south. The southern part became more focused on agriculture. The southern part was associated with a number of classes of individuals in that the planters were considered as the top, followed by the white men who were landless and then the slaves who were exploited and forced to work in farms .
In the northern part of American, the economic activities in these areas were mainly focused on the industry. The northern part mainly depended on making purchases of the raw goods both produced in the southern and northern part. These good purchased were to be used in the factories in order to produced finished goods. As a result of the increase in the number of factories, most of the people from different cultures as well as classes began to have an active interaction with each other. In this case different groups of individuals actively interacted with each other. These people ranged from immigrants, native whites as well as the blacks who worked in same industries. As a result of all this interaction, there was an increase in cultural as well as class molding which resulted to a decreased sense of the racial superiority .
During the consummation of the constitution of the United States, two groups of individuals opposed each other on whether to establish a strong federal government or not. During this time an articles of confederation were written which led to formation of a very weak central government.
At this particular point the United States was under the Britain colony. At this particular time almost 13 colonies detached themselves from Britain due to the fear of huge taxes being imposed unto them.
As a result of this most of the colonialist feared having a very powerful central government which would influence their operation. The effect of the articles of confederation resulted into weak federal government.
The weak federal government caused a lot of problems with within the administrative structures. As a resulted of these experiences, a drafting of the constitution was enacted this resulted into a stronger federal government.
Those who had advocated for a weak federal government had a strong believe that the constitution highly limited the states to conduct their work as well as act individually. In the southern part, they had a very high believe of nullification.
In this essence nullification was considered to an idea which held the fact that the states would particularly hold rights of overruling the action of the federal government if at any instance they were considered as unconstitutional .
Conclusion One of the most contributing factors towards the rise of civil war was slavery. With the expansion of America a number of discussion as well as debate arose on whether new states were to be formed and whether those states which were to be formed would be considered as slave free states or not. A number of legislation was developed with an aim of solving this conflict. Some of these included the Kansas-Missouri as well as the Missouri compromise .
Through the enduring vision for America, America has been able to have a very progressive history. America has evolved from its native to immigrates, change of cultural activities as well as the emergence of civil war in America. This essay has highlighted a number of factors which has been a threat to the equality of people, the rights of individuals, to justice, liberty as well as fulfillment of the people’s ideals. These ideals have been greatly threatened and by the year 1860 no much progress was made. The common man, immigrants as well as the Native American has been seen to live in difference circumstances.
Black American Catholics on the Path to Sainthood
Liturgical Leaders Black American Catholics on the Path to Sainthood There are several Black American Catholics who are in the early stages on the path to sainthood. We spoke briefly about some of these men and women in class, and some of you did a similar assignment last year in Liturgical Planning. This assignment is […]
