American History Themes

I am not extremely keen on picking out major themes in nonfiction, but if I had to say anything, it would be all about morals. This is not exclusive to American history though. With that said, the reason I believe that is because, as an example, the Civil War, a conflict that had one of the highest death tolls in American History, was started mainly due to the divide on a moral grounds. The answer to the question, "Is slavery wrong?" is what divided this country and eventually led to secession, and in turn, led to the Civil War. Also, to go back to the birth of this country, The United States of America, it was spawned out of an arguably moral principle. The natural rights of man were explicitly mentioned in the United States Constitution. The rights "given by god" is what the foundation of this country is. Another theme that is also prevalent in other events throughout history is land. Land is what every leader wants to control; the more land you control, the more powerful you are. The Americas was the last large mass of land that had yet to be conquered, and if a conflict did not have to do with morals, it had to do with land. Someone might say that conflicts are started by money. After all money is the root of all evil, but if you have land, you have wealth and vice versa. Those two themes, morals and land, are what I believe to be the most major themes of American history.