Common Themes In US History

I've learned a lot this semester about history, and in this post I'm going to attempt to summarize some common themes in US history.

Exploration and Discovery

One of the most common themes in US history is the theme of exploration. Our country was founded because of the European's thirst to know more. Our country expanded and added new states to the union because of exploration. We continued to explore, to push limits, to know what was not known, to push the boundaries. In this case, curiosity didn't kill the cat.

Diverse Opinions

The US for a long time has been home to a wide range of diverse opinions and practices. Since our founding, these opinions have sparked new laws, riots, and wars. Slavery, one of the most diverse out of these, deeply divided our nation, caused the Civil War, and still has repercussions today. Many different people had lots of opinions about the founding of our nation. 

Loyalty to our Country

We've had a history of being loyal to our country. From the many different wars that we've had to the tons of political debates, all have been in what we thought the best interest of our country was.

Democracy and Freedom

Our nation was founded on a system of democracy and freedom. Ever since the Declaration of Independence, we've had a system of democracy in our government and had a Bill of Rights to protect our freedoms.

Five Of The Causes Of The Civil War

1. North wanted to end slavery, South wanted to keep it.
2. Abraham Lincoln was elected, which was not who the South wanted elected.
3. Tensions rose, and multiple skirmishes/battles occurred.
4. Missouri Compromise worked until we wanted California admitted to the Union.
5. The North wanted to take away the South's main economic staple by taking away slavery, which was the thing that the Southern economy was built on.

Both of those posts that were due.

5 things that led to the civil war
1. State's rights and slavery
2. The precedent set by nullification that led to secessionism
3.  Slavery's role as an inseparable part of the South's economy
4. Influence from England on the Southern market
5. The election of Abraham Lincoln leading to a feeling that the south was being betrayed

It is said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it and America has had a history of repetition. The biggest themes to have come from the period between 1607 and 1861 are expansion, enslavement, and hypocrisy. The first European settlers to come to America and successfully set up shop came here with the intention of expanding their homeland's range of power. The multiple groups of people now settled fought each other for control of the most land while also fighting the natives who had already been living there. Ultimately, the drive to rule all of North America continued until America controlled all of the land it currently does (with the exception of Hawaii and Alaska). We had been using forced labor to fuel this endeavor. First it was failed attempts to force the natives to work for us and indentured servitude by those wishing to come here. Later, it would be the crushing institution of slavery using Africans. This is also where the hypocrisy plays in. Many settlers moved to America to escape tyrannical rule either under a ruler or religion or whatever else. We then preceded to become oppressive puritans who split off into new states to escape those tyrants. Our land of freedom did this multiple times over, creating new states to escape form the old, previously free ones. To fuel our freedom, we forced people across the world to work for us, to build or new world and expand into lands we had no reason to assume was ours except that out god willed it.

5 Things That Caused The Civil War

• 1831 | Nat Turner's Rebellion.
• 1846 - 1850 | The Wilmot Provison.
• 1854 - 1861 | Bleeding Kansas.
• 1859 | John Brown's Raid.
• 1860 | Abraham Lincoln's Election.

Reoccurring Themes

From the year 1607 to the year 1861 there were several different themes that reoccurred in our nations's history. Slavery and exploration are two of the main themes in out history. During this time period Slavery was going on throughout the world and had just got introduced to America at the time. I also learned that Africans were not the first spaces in America, but it was the Native Americans. Slavery also led to some huge events in our nations history. For example it was a huge factor of the Civil War due to the fact that the South relied on them for agriculture but the North did not. And during this war some of the slaves fought for the North to help win their freedom. Another big event was Nat Turner's rebellion. Nat Turner's rebellion was where slaves rebelled against their owners. At least 55 slaves were killed. The revolt was not effective and was easy to stop. It made the slave owners worry because they saw what the slaves could do. Another theme during this time period is exploration. One of the most famous expeditions was the Lewis and Clark expedition. Once the United States bought the Louisiana Purchase Lewis and Clark were given the task of exploring it. At this time the Louisiana Purchase doubled our country's size. Not only did they explore the land but they explored ways to run and maintain this country. And during this time people in the United States explored different types of crops to see what will grow and be profitable.

Main Themes of American History

The main themes of American history from 1607 to 1861 are conflict and exploration and expansion. The first of the main themes is exploration and expansion. This theme is prominent throughout all American history. The theme of exploration and expansion is shown best shown with Manifest Destiny and how American people want a place to call their own. With the expansion of land comes conflict, such as fighting other countries or natives to the land. Along with expansion, conflict makes up a large part of American history. It started when colonists came from Great Britain to colonize the new world. The original colonists had conflicts with the Native Americans. After the colonists settled down they wanted to be free so they had conflicts with Great Britain, and so on. Conflict and exploration and expansion are a large part of all American history including recent history. Recent American history has also been rife with conflict, mainly in the Middle East. In conclusion, the main themes of American history can be applied to all American history.

Important themes in American history

This term I have learned a lot on American history, from signing the Declaration of Independence to the beginning of the Civil War. I've seen how the American culture has changed in over 250 years. I think a highly important theme in the American history was slavery. I learned about how it was a major role in the south, and that slavery used to be thought of as as way of life. It was the way things had to be in order to thrive with an agricultural society. This is why it was defended so avidly by the confederate states. I learned that it was tied in with the wealth of the south. It was at such large amounts of influence that the southern states would be almost worthless without slavery. Without it the south's economy and wealth would fall drastically. Even with the fact that only one percent of whites owned large amounts of slaves. I also learned that they were transported across the Atlantic in the most obscene ways just so that more money could be made. Slaves had no rights and no say in anything that effected the way they lived. Not only were slaves used to toil in the fields, but the were also used to gain influence in politics. Thanks to the two-thirds compromise the south gained thousands more votes to be used in the election against the more populated northern states. In the end, I think that the most important theme was slavery and the impact it had on our culture.

Things that caused the Civil War

-States rights v. Federal rights
-Slavery
-Missouri Compromise
-Opposing viewpoints of pro-slavery and anti-slavery people
-Election of Abraham Lincoln

Main themes of America up to 1861

There are many, many themes of the United States of American up until the year 1861. But in my mind there are two dominant themes that describe and relate to America. The first of the two, is exploration, literal (expanding borders and annexing new states) and figuratively (finding and discovering better and newer ways to run the country). America's beginnings originated from people exploring and discovery, and exploring is even present in the early 1800s, when western territories are found. Discovering better ways to run our government have always been present in America, even today. Technological advances are another example of discovery and exploration, In American society. I also feel like in this period (1607 - 1861) America was in a phase of finding itself, of how to treat its citizens (or slaves in this time), how to make its government function, and how to handle crises (secession and some of civil war).
Confliction is my second dominant theme. This seems to be one of the most hateful periods in American history., and half the people didn't even realize it. An almost literal genocide of African slaves is going on, and no one, up until the mid 1800s, does anything about it.

Dominant Themes of American History

I think exploration and colonization are the most dominant themes in American history between 1607 and 1861. Throughout this semester, much of the topics seem to have been related to exploration or colonization. It started with Europeans exploring west.   John Smith and others explored the east coast when explorers first reached America. They created the Jamestown colony in 1607. More and more colonies were settled after this. The amount of colonies grew bigger and bigger. Soon, they began to grow less dependent on Great Britain. The colonies revolted and became independent from Great Britain. While the themes of exploration and colonization became less relevant as history continued, it never completely disappeared.even after the United States developed into a country, People started to expand west. Exploration was still required to explore the unfamiliar land. President Thomas jefferson gave the job of exploring the land recently bought from France in the Louisiana Purchase to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Their exploration lasted two years. After their exploration the U.S. Population slowly expanded west. They colonized the new western lands. After around 1850s, exploration seems to end (not entirely). Colonization doesn't entirely end though. New towns were being built regularly. Although it is not quite colonization, it is the same idea of making a new community. To me, these themes are the most dominant through this time in American history because they never cease to exist. They might not be a major theme at some points, but they never completely go away.

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.

5 Causes of the Civil War

- Slavery
- States' Rights
- North & South Rivalry
- Secession
- The Election of Abraham Lincoln

Civil War Causes

1. The Dred Scott Case
2. Slavery
3. Fugitive Slave Act
4. Abraham Lincoln's Election
5. The Battle of Fort Sumter

5 causes of the Civil War

Slavery
States' rights
Secession
Abraham Lincoln
Differences between North and South societies

Dominant Theme in History

    In American history from 1607 to 1850, there are many events that shaped the country that we live in today. Slavery, war, conquest, and even more historic themes all changed how America developed and shaped. Although these themes are the main focus of early American history, I do not believe that any of them are the most important. The most important theme of early American history is compromise. Many events in early American history are compromises made between two or more sides or nations. Some compromises can be direct, or written, agreed upon, etc., and some compromises are indirect, for example the results of a finished war.

    One example of a direct compromise situation is the “rivalry,” or contrasting beliefs and practices of the north and south in America. The north and south repeatedly reached compromises in order to quench the thirst of hate and war. Over the course of many years in America, the north and south had many disagreements on certain matters. One of the largest matters that the north and south disagreed upon was slavery. For the most part, people in northern states hated slavery, and people in southern states embraced slavery. A countermeasure in lowering in tensions between the north and south was the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The most effective statement in this written and recorded compromise was that for each slave state added to the U.S., a non-slave state, or free state also had to be added. Although this compromise did its job in keeping Americans together, it did not last very long.

Dominant themes

    Out of every thing we have learned from the 1600s to the 1800s the most important themes that we is slavery and the civil war. Slavery made a huge impact on America's economy but also tore out country apart. It was also one of the most brutal events that has ever happened on American soil. Americans treated slaves like property, beat them, and mistreated them. This caused major disagreement in the America which lead to the Missouri compromise that said for every slave state, there would be a free state. Slavery was the Souths main source of income so it was major part of economy because the south was mostly agriculture. The north had much less slaves and wasn't a major source of income for them because they mostly had industry. This caused the south to strongly disagree with the abolishment of slavery and eventually succeed from the North and start the civil war. Slavery was a major reason for the civil war starting. The north was at an advantage in the war because they had more industry, this more weapons and they had many more soldiers than the south did. The civil war was won by the north and caused slavery to end. This great for the slaves but because all they ever knew and ever did work as a slave, so most didn't know what to do and some even stayed and worked for their former owner.

Causes of Civil War

Expansion
Slavery
Secession
election of Abe Lincoln for president
Moving away from farming into industry

Causes of the Civil War

5 Causes of the Civil War:

1. Economic policies and practices
2. Cultural differences
3. the extent and reach of the Federal government
4. Slavery
5. expansion of the U.S.

5 issues/events/actions that contributed to the civil war

Slavery
State's rights
Abraham Lincoln becoming president
The Missouri compromise
Abolitionist movement

Themes and Reasons

Slavery- Slavery was established almost everywhere and led to the Civil War.

Abolitionist Movement- people started striving higher law from the Constitution

The Missouri Compromise- this was when slavery started to spread into territories no one had claimed so people against slavery rushed into the new territories to claim it.

Nat Turner's Rebellion- started a rebellion that killed around sixty white men that led to him and fifty-five others to be tried and executed.

Lincoln's Election - the south hated him because of his stance on slavery

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There are countless numbers of themes exhibited in American History from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. One of the largest and most known is would be slavery. Slavery was used to strengthen early America. It was the main source of income, however not everyone agreed with this idea of slavery. These disagreements led to a huge compromise. It is now known as the Missouri Compromise. This required that for every slave state there had to be a free state. This worked great until the U.S. ran out of land to make separate and equal states. This led to the free and slave states fighting over Kansas. This disagreement among slavery would lead to another important theme in American history, war. The Civil war began after President Abraham Lincoln came into office. Lincoln was known and hated (by the south) for his views on slavery. This cause a huge disagreement. The Civil War essentially split the States, but they soon united again. Finally, Manifest Destiny was a movement among the American people that involved Americans moving and claiming new land. It was said that it was God's plan for them to take new lands. The reason this is significant, is because that it gained the land that makes up half of the U.S today.