Responses+to+Essential+Questions-TJ

England in the 16th century was in a state of incredible turmoil. A depression had hit hard in the wool business and thousands became unemployed. Meanwhile in Spain, lots of profit was coming in from Spanish settlements in Central America. England, being a sworn enemy of Spain, had nothing to lose by setting up its own colony and they needed to do so if they were to keep up. So the Virginia joint stock company sent many wealthy men to modern day Virginia to colonize and, more importantly, search for gold. England chose to go to the new world due to its competition with Spain, but it continued the venture because of the opportunity of land and freedom. The first English colony of Roanoke failed miserably when it disappeared completely off the map and is now a historical mystery. However, England pressed on and set up the colony of Jamestown, on a swamp. Life was hard in the colony and by 1624; the people were a fraction of what they had been. With a death rate of 82% people still streamed in from England. Even when the people of Jamestown had turned to cannibalism, new colonists streamed in. An English colonist once wrote that there was nothing wrong with the land or the country itself, but the people and the leadership had no idea how to live. Many of them were wealthy businessmen who refused to work and were unused to hunting. Their search for gold also became fruitless even though they kept at it every day. Life in Jamestown was so horrible that it begs the question: Why did they stay? The colonists may have gone to the new world in competition with the Spanish but they stayed there because they believed in the idea of freedom. The colonists may not have had an easy life but it was theirs. They lived in an untouched countryside that was full of opportunity if only someone knew how to work it. This rationale was proved when John Rolfe became the “father of modern tobacco”. When he rocketed into fortune, it proved that the opportunity in the New World was vast and it was not to be wasted. America was not to be wasted.

9/6/09 The thirteen American colonies in the seventeenth century were all founded for different reasons. Jamestown was founded for profit while Massachusetts was founded to escape persecution. Of the thirteen colonies though, the one I would most like to live in is the Pennsylvania colony that was founded by William Penn in 1681 as a gift from the king for services paid by Penn’s father. I choose this colony because it was a place that encouraged tolerance and open minded thought. When Charles II was restored to power in England, he played many favorites and he was good to those who were good to him. Penn’s father had given the king a great deal of money while in exile, and so the king repaid him by giving the territory of modern day Pennsylvania to his son William Penn. Penn was a loyal pacifist and Quaker, believing that people should quake before god. Penn founded the colony in 1681 and quickly set up good relations with the Native Americans who lived on that land. Penn was well educated at Oxford University, but was often criticized for his free thinking and open minded ways. However, this served to make Pennsylvania a prosperous and peaceful colony. Pennsylvania’s religious toleration and openness allowed trade between multiple different peoples who would never have originally traded with each other. Also, William Penn simply gave fifty acres of free land to any immigrants who came to the colony. The Pennsylvania religious ceremonies were very open and were not presided over by a clergyman. So I would choose the Pennsylvania colony to live because of their open mindedness which increased financial stability and trade. Also they had a peaceful coexistence with their Native American neighbors because they bought the land from them. I choose Pennsylvania because it had financial stability, religious tolerance, peace and ample opportunity to be successful in the New World.

9/16/09 The French and Indian war was the final world war before the year 1800. It took place in the French territories of the New World from 1763 to 1774. This war was fought between the French and the British with Native Americans allied on both sides. The French were eventually defeated by the British at the Battle of Quebec when the French General Montcalm was killed. This war did quite a bit of damage to Great Britain though. The war left them in tremendous debt, it gave them land that they were unable to control and it showed the colonists that the British no longer considered them Englishmen. These effects of the war were a turning point in British and Colonial relations that contributed greatly to the start of the American Revolution. The French and Indian war was won by the British, but it cost them dearly. The War left Britain in a mountain of debt simply because of the cost it took to send troops over to North America and also to buy supplies such as food and water from the colonists and natives. Also, the colonists were promised by General Pitt that they would be reimbursed tenfold in exchange for supplies and the loyalty of the local militias. This was an empty promise though as the British government was unable to even break even with what they owed to the colonists. This increased frustration with the government was not helped when the British Parliament imposed the Stamp Act, a direct tax, on the colonists. This was quite a step down from the salutary neglect policy that had been in place for the past 150 years. When the colonists came to North America on the Virginia Charter, they were promised the same rights as Englishmen and this was a huge selling point in populating the Jamestown colony. However, when the militias were placed under the control of the British generals, it showed them that Britain had changed and the Englishmen that came to North America was not what they thought. The colonists had been forced to live off the land and work for a living. The British commanders were used to luxury and afternoon tea on the battle field. This showed the colonists that they were no longer Englishmen as they once thought and they were separated even further from England. When the British won the war they pushed France out of their lands and acquired more land than they ever had before. This was good for them at the time, but with so much land it became difficult to control. It took many colonists to populate a region and Britain did not have the money to control the land. This led to Pontiac’s Revolution that truly helped to spark frustration towards Britain. So the French and Indian War was a turning point in colonial and British relations due to Britain’s debt, the British stopped viewing the colonists as Englishmen and also the British ended up with more land than they could control and it caused them to lose control of their colonies.

9/23/09 __ Essential Question __ In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by delegates from all thirteen American Colonies. This document officially broke off all connections with Britain and declared America as an independent country. This document also officially started the American Revolutionary War. The United States entered this war because they were justified in doing so. Britain had oppressed the colonies by granting them freedom and then taking it away, Britain forced unjust taxes on the colonists and did not treat them as equals. Early in British colonization, Parliament adopted a policy of Salutary Neglect towards the colonies. Britain simply let the colonists govern themselves as long as the colonies continued to make money for Britain. The colonists enjoyed this rare independence and they began to get used to it. Then after 150 years of this policy, Britain began to take control of the colonies after the French and Indian War. They began to tell the colonists where they could or couldn’t settle. Then they passed acts and laws that gave Britain complete power over the colonies. British soldiers stayed in the colonies and began to abuse the colonists. When Britain instituted a martial law over Boston, it truly showed the colonists that war was inevitable and that Britain was starting it. Before the Coercive Acts, there was the Stamp Act. The French and Indian War left Britain with huge debt and so they decided to tax the colonies as a way to alleviate it. The colonists already taxed themselves but Britain imposed the Stamp Act which was the first direct tax on the colonists. All of a sudden colonists began to get angry with Britain and they rebelled heavily against the Stamp Act. Britain repealed the act but the same day they passed the Declaratory Act which gave Parliament the right to pass any laws they saw fit. It was as if Britain had learned nothing about taxation without representation. This was followed by the Townshend Acts and then by the Intolerable Acts which ended up to be the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. When colonial militias were placed under the command of British officers, they began to see that modern day Brits no longer viewed them as Englishmen themselves. The colonists fought with guerilla warfare while the British drank tea on the battle field. These growing differences between the two escalated when the British began to pass acts on the colonies without representation. This was not something that would have happened in Britain. Even the poor people in Britain had the House of Commons as a way to represent themselves. The British no longer treated them as equals and this angered the colonists most of all because it led to the unjust treatment of their homes. So the colonists were completely justified when they signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. They were justified because the British took away freedoms they’d grown used to. The British passed unjust acts without representation of the colonies and the British did not treat the colonists as equals.

10/11/09 The U.S Constitution was adopted in 1787. The Constitution was the second attempt at a successful government after the failed Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were weak because they gave no power to the government and the U.S federal government was unable to tax its constituents. **The new constitution left America with an enduring debate of Federalists and Anti-Federalists that can still be heard today because of the circumstances in which it came about, the format of the Constitution itself and also because the Constitution was much more strict and strong than the Articles of Confederation.** The U.s Constitution was drafted after the Constitutional Congress convened to debate the Articles of Confederation. It was expected that the Congress would simply amend the Articles of Confederation, not that they would draft an entirely new Constitution. This surprise move angered many people and was met by a wave of opposition called Anti-Federalists. Anti-Federalists supported power to the states and a weak central government. The Constitution debate was split even further since the two of the last states to ratify it were New York and Virginia, the two most powerful states in the U.S. The main argument of the Anti-Federalists was that the Constitution took power from the states and from the people and put it in a strong central government. They argued that this was written in the very format of the Constitution. In order to appease this argument, the Bill of Rights was added in 1791. The Bill of Rights was meant to guarantee the individual rights of American citizens and it also left power to the states that was not given to the federal government. This created a blend of ideas into the Constitution which appeased some but gave others even more to debate about. This blend of ideas has strengthened the Constitution but it has also opened it up to even more debate. This new strengthened Constitution was quite a change from the Articles of Confederation, which were very weak and simply leftmost power to the states and did very little to affect the common man. When a new Constitution was drafted and was shown to be much stronger, it angered the people, many of whom were still frightened of a monarchial government like the one they had just escaped. A strong central government frightened these people which made them fight it all the harder. This avoidance of a monarchy greatly shaped the Constitution and has made it a topic of debate since its ratification. So the enduring debate of the U.S Constitution and Federalists versus Anti-Federalists can still be heard today because of the circumstances in which it came about, the format of the Constitution itself and also a fear of a strong central government that was reminiscent of England.

10/25/09 The Revolution of 1800 took place after the 3rd American presidential election. The election signified a shift in power from the federalists who had previously run the government to the Democratic Republicans. This Revolution was marked by the election of Thomas Jefferson, who was a Democratic Republican and was adamantly opposed to the federalists. The “Revolution” of 1800, however was not truly a revolution. A revolution is defined by an overthrow, usually violent, of the commanding power by the people, to be replaced by a new regime. While the Election of 1800 was a shift in power it was not a revolution because it was done within the confines of the law, it was not run by the people and it was not a true revolution because the federalists had only been in power for one presidency before the Democratic Republicans came to power. The election of 1800 was not a revolution, but it was strange. Thomas Jefferson ran against Aaron Burr, also a Democratic Republican, and when the Electoral College votes came in, there was a dead tie between the two men at 73 votes each. According to the Constitution of the United States of America, the vote went to the House of Representatives. The vote in the house was close, but Jefferson emerged as the winner, thanks to his enemy Alexander Hamilton, who tipped the scales towards Jefferson when he publicly announced his support for Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were enemies and had argued over many things in the past, but Hamilton regarded him as the “lesser of two evils” due to the fact that he despised Burr. So the so called “Revolution” took place within the confines of the law and the American Constitution. When Jefferson was elected, it was not yet part of the constitution that the people would vote directly for the president. It was up to the representatives of the people to vote for the president. A revolution must be carried out by the people, not by the government itself. The people and representatives did not storm the White House and write a new constitution and neither did the Democratic Republicans. Thomas Jefferson ran as a Democratic Republican, but his policies and actions of neutrality made more of a mix between Democratic Republican and Federalist. Since there was no change in the method of government and the people did not overthrow the current regime by themselves, there was no “revolution”. The word Revolution sparks thoughts of battles against oppression, similar to that of the American Revolution. However the election of 1800 was simply a change in power between two parties. Also, the Federalists had only been in power for one presidency, John Adams. It is important to remember that George Washington was neither a Democratic Republican nor a Federalist as he was not part of any party. The Federalists had not been in control of the government for long especially since John Adams served only one term. So it is clear to see that the “Revolution of 1800” is a misnomer and is a bit too dramatic. It was not a true revolution, but more of a shift in power. The policies of the government stayed basically the same; it was a power change that was completely in the confines of the law. The people did not run the “Revolution” and the Federalists had not been in power long enough to be overthrown. The Election of 1800 was a historic moment, but it was not a revolution.