Before taking American history, i had a very few knowledge about the American past. I had some poor ideas learnt from cartoons such as Pocahontas but the further i go in this class, the more exact informations i acquire since i have always been passionate in learning the starting point of civilization. Although i knew about Christopher Columbus and Vasco De Gama, many other people and concepts were remained unknown to me until now. If i was to define history, I would say, it is the art of learning the past of previous generations in order to correct errors, learn from them and shape a brighter future.
Many colonies of indigenous groups have existed before the arrival of the colonists.
The northwestern part, composed of Washington and Oregon had the Chinook who were basically salmon fisher and hunters of small animals. Their interest in being fishermen and hunters played an imperial role in their economy (Fagan). Besides their agility on survival activities, the Chinook had developed distinctive artistic and social customs.
The Californian coast was the home of one of the largest Californian tribe living near the present-day Santa Barbara. This group was famous for elaborate and highly effective hunting. They recognized the fact that they could not be self-sufficient, they traded with other tribes and possessed an advanced astronomical knowledge.
The southwest side regrouped the Cahokia who were farming population, traders; political diplomacy and welfare were their point of concentration.
Many reasons and events were justification to the American revolution but the most rebelling happened when the Britain were trying to impose certain laws and taxes to the colonists in order for them to pay off the debts they had accumulated after wars with the French and the indigenous native groups of the new world, for example the ‘Stamp Act’ which imposed a tax on a wide range of colonial documents. Another reason was the presence of troops in Boston, who after several provocations, opened fire on American people protesting (The Boston Massacre). Other reasons were the tea Act; the Coercive Act, all, captured the attention of Americans, nourishing their envy of freedom and liberty. I truly believe that the French and Indians War took a major turn in triggering the American revolution in such way that the Britain empire was so in debt because of going war after wars that it started taxing the colonists to pay off their debts which led to the revolution.
The Articles of Confederation and the U.S Constitution were significant in such way that they established laws possessing rights and duties that the population should follow in order to set up certain kind of tidiness in the way the country should be led. As similarities, both the Articles and the Constitution wanted the central government in charge of the currency; every single state had of course to respect the document. Differently, the articles of confederation was relying on the states to carry out national policy meanwhile the constitution instated a national government that was able to enact, execute and adjudicate its own laws (Ranove). The phenomenon of check and balance was established to assure that none of the branches of the government would have more power than the other.
