...Question 1: Describe the nature of the American economy in the last decade of the 18th century and the attempts by Americans, both citizens and leaders, to develop it. The creation and establishment of the American economy in the late 18th century would be crucial to the longevity, survival, and transition from colonies into a united country. They would have to obtain trade routes, markets, merchants, tax systems, jobs, and trade laws. The idea of what economy was first for the colonies under British rule had to be altered but in measures that lead for growth in the present of the future. The question was not what goods would be traded, consumed, brought or sold rather how in fact they would be regulated and functioned. These would be the period of time in US history were many of the concepts and ideas that we see present in economics, labor, tax, imports, and exports stem from the systems that were established in the late...
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...throughout the 18th century. The Americans achieved independence from the most powerful empire in the world at that time, Great Britain. American society and government changed radically as a result of the American Revolution. Colonists were seeking wealth, involvement in politics, and exploration of freedom and North American land. However, one of the most important developments of this time period was in the economy. The colonial economy in the 18th century experienced a dramatic shift due to the notion of the “American Dream” which was explained by Ben Franklin in his work Way to Wealth. Franklin’s idea was prevented by the oppressive taxes imposed by Britain and caused unrest in...
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...half of 18th century and had an everlasting effect on Europe, and the rest of the world. It caused major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport and technology. Eventually, socioeconomic and cultural conditions began to change in Britain, which then spread throughout Europe, then eventually the world. These changes made Europe and the rest of the world more modern. Proof of this can be seen in more efficient trade & transport and mass production that were a product of Industrial Revolution. This essay will seek to demonstrate the most significant effect these two components had on modernity and how they shaped Europe, and the rest of the world. The time period covered by the Industrial Revolution varies according to Historians, but according to Eric Hobsbawm, it started in Britain in the 1780s and fulfilled its potential in the 1830s or 1840. Some important effects of these two components comprise of, but are not limited to include: technological and chemical innovations, improved trade, transportation and increase in wealth etc. Almost all aspects of daily life were influenced in some way by the Industrial Revolution; hence it marks a major turning point in human history. Industrial Revolution was an achievement of sustained economic growth that began the industrialization of the European economy. Growth did not reach a plateau in Britain as it did in other countries in Europe. Depressions and recessions were temporary and the economy still grew...
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...To this day the Civil War is the single most deadly war that American soldiers have been involved in. In fact, it is estimated that the military loss of the Civil War is nearly greater than all of America’s involvement in all conflicts since its foundation in 1776. The Civil War has been tied to numerous events dating from the 18th century all the way to nearly the end of the 20th century in America. American society in the 18th and 19th century was slowly deteriorating and would eventually lead to the North and the South becoming conflicting societies by the 1830s-1850s. The 18th century was a very much important time for the 13 colonies and the newly formed United States. They had broken away from England, with the use of the Declaration...
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... Midterm The difference is that, Atlantic slave trade was very important for 18 century World Economy, because it was one of the three elements of so-called Triangular trade, a three-way exchange between America, Europe, and Africa. European traders would ship textiles, muskets, and manufactured merchandize to Africa and exchange it for slaves. Then they would take slaves to the West to Americas and exchange them for cotton and tobacco, and sail home. On each side of the triangular trade ships made huge profits plus they carried different valuable merchandize from both African continent and the New World. Thus, Atlantic slave trade was vitally important for 18th century sailors . The origin of Atlantic slave trade – and slave trade in general – is mainly associated with the shortage of labor in the developing New World. Contemporary European population in the Americas was not sufficient to support the plans of development. Even criminals that were sentenced to labor ran away, and could easily blend into white masses forever. Native Americans were not efficient as slaves either, because they were not that numerous and did not have immunity for diseases brought to the New World by Europeans . In addition, native Americans could easily escape because they knew the land well, their home were close, and they knew how to survive in the adjacent territories . But labor requirements kept growing with the expansion of mining, harvesting...
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...According to Allen, the first industrial revolution took place in Britain instead of the Low Countries primarily because of Britain’s abundant and cheap coal resources, combined with the central government’s ability to use mercantilist policies and naval power to reap the greatest benefits from an expanding European and world trade. Once it had taken the lead from the Dutch, and defeated the French, Britain used its comparative advantage to consolidate its dominant position through free trade until the late Victorian period when its technological innovations spread to its competitors. While he agrees that the political, cultural and scientific context of British industrialization was important to its primacy, his approach does not claim, as many interpretations have, that British, and later European and American,...
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...Between the lush geography, the improved economy and the slaves themselves, the wealth of the South depended on the efficiency of the plantations. The spread of slavery created lots of impacting factors. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of a ‘slave’ is someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay. Slaves were typically from a variety of different tribes, who spoke all different languages, but the most retained were those of the black race. Slaves lived a rough life and if you got lucky, your plantation was beautiful and your master was kind. Plantations varied within their location, size and geography type and because of this, they were all unique in their own way, creating a structured and impactful time in America....
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...As Americans started to spread throughout the Atlantic coast during the 17th and 18th centuries, geography greatly influenced the economic development and overall success of the colonies that began to form. The Atlantic Ocean connected the colonial world to the old world, which helped colonists obtain goods like tea, steel, and manufactured products. When England creates its first permanent colonies in North America, an essential difference arose between the southern colonies, whose economy was dedicated to production of staple crops, and the more diverse economies of the northern colonies. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the New England colonies and the southern colonies in America were significantly impacted by their environment and surrounding natural resources, which is a primary factor of growth for lifestyle and production. The England colonies up in the north had a colder climate than the other two regions of America and greatly benefited because the weather prevented the spread of life threatening diseases. This climate had some drawbacks however. A negative aspect was that there were many harsh winters, which was horrible to early settlements and killed a lot of people. This cold climate also didn’t allow many cash crops to be grown. Many Puritans lived in Plymouth in 1620. They wanted religious freedom from England, did not tolerate other religions, and went to set up their first settlement. Their first years were terrible with lots of starvation and diseases killed...
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...Mercantilism is an economic theory practice, commonly used in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century that promoted governmental regulation of a nation’s economy for the purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. It was the economic counterpart of political absolutism.[1] It includes a national economic policy aimed at accumulating monetary reserves through a positive balance of trade, especially of finished goods. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from the 16th to late-18th centuries.[2] Mercantilism was a cause of frequent European wars and also motivated colonial expansion. Mercantilist theory varied in sophistication from one writer to another and evolved over time. High tariffs, especially on manufactured goods, are an almost universal feature of mercantilist policy. Other policies have included: Building overseas colonies; Forbidding colonies to trade with other nations; Monopolizing markets with staple ports; Banning the export of gold and silver, even for payments; Forbidding trade to be carried in foreign ships; Export subsidies; Promoting manufacturing with research or direct subsidies; Limiting wages; Maximizing the use of domestic resources; Restricting domestic consumption with non-tariff barriers to trade. Mercantilism in its simplest form was bullionism, but mercantilist writers emphasized the circulation of money and rejected hoarding. Their emphasis on monetary metals accords with...
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...The Great Awakening: A wave of revivals During the 18th century, the life of the colonists had improved a lot. They had a choice between multitudes of religions, had a growing economy, and were inspired by the movement of Enlightenment in Europe. But with this revival happening in the American colonies, the true Christians got concerned. According to many historians, this wave of revivals was entitled ‘The Great Awakening’. This event revealed many social and economical trends in the colonies. Joseph Tracy, past minister and historian also saw this event as one of the precursor of the American Revolution. With the newly choice of religions, the colonists became little by little less affected by being part of one. In fact, a large number of them were either indifferent about it, deist, or not concerned by being religious. In the leading colonial cities, only 10 to 15% of eligible adults were members of a church (American Promise, p.134). When more religious people realized how few they were, they started to preach people to reconvert them to a more religious lifestyle. This was called the Great Awakening. Ministers were using different ways to lead the revival. The fact that ministers had to make the population go to Church shows an expanding social trend of the population refusing to attend church probably to express their recent ability to be free of choosing and make their own decision concerning religious views. But after many well-known ministers such as Jonathan Edwards...
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...Submitted to Ms. Roseliza Binti Mohd Ramly (HIS 251) Date of Submission 12 November 2014 INTRODUCTION Massachusetts which is officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region. Massachusetts has played a major role in historical, cultural, and mercantile role in American history. Plymouth, which was a colony located in Massachusetts, was founded by the Pilgrims (travelled on Mayflower) in 1620. Harvard College, which is currently known as Harvard University, is the oldest higher learning institution in the United States. John Harvard contributed in the early progress of the college....
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...The American Industrial Revolution The American Industrial Revolution took place from the 18th to 19th century and was a period of movement towards industrialization and urbanization. According to the article Industrial Revolution, Britain was the birth place of this new revolution due to the invention of the spinning jenny, or “Jenny” for short, by the Englishman James Hargreaves. Samuel Slater, an English-American industrialist, is known as the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution.” Slater brought a version of the Jenny to the United States from Great Britain, effectively creating the first textile mills. By the time of his death, Slater owned thirteen spinning mills, which shows how successful industrialization of a new country was. The Manufacturer and Builder was a 26-part New York Journal that was first hand account of what was happening on the industry side of the revolution, meant for the citizens of the country explaining the importance of textiles and steam power. Before the Industrial Revolution, spinning and weaving were done at home for the family itself. The Jenny, after upgrades from countless inventors, changed the course of the economy. In the southern states the surplus of cotton proved beneficial; however, the seeds could not be removed from the cotton quickly enough for the Jenny. Inventor Eli Whitney created the cotton gin that made it possible to remove seeds from cotton about 60 times faster. This invention further boosted the boom in industry...
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...anthropologists, where did the first human beings live? Why did they leave that place? How did they get to North America? According to anthropologists the first human beings lived in Ethiopia, Africa around 2 million years ago for example: Lucy known as the oldest human found there. The most probable reason why the first human left Africa is because of the Ice Age. The cold made life so difficult to survive and somehow reduced in their population. They went through a land bridge, which existed to connect North America and Asia during the Ice Age. * What was the Columbian Exchange? How did the Columbian Exchange affect Europe? How did it affect North America? The Columbian Exchange is basically understand as the exchange in foods, animals, plants as well as diseases between the New World (North America) and the Old World (Europe) followed after the discovery of America by Columbus. The Columbian Exchange affected both world in many ways. For Europe, it brings avocado, potato, tomato, corn, beans, tobacco, turkeys as positive effects and the negative effect are diseases like tuberculosis and syphilis. For North America, positive effects: coffee beans, olive, banana, sugar cane, grape, sheep, pig, horse. And the negative effects impact North America are: smallpox, chickenpox, measles etc… * Name four groups of people who migrated to British North America in the 17th century. Why did each of those groups migrate? Virginia Settlement – these settlers known...
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...Introduction Mercantilism is the main economic system used during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The main goal was to increase a nation’s wealth by imposing government regulation concerning all of the nation’s commercial interests. It was believed that national strength could be maximized by limiting imports via tariffs and maximizing exports. Mercantilism dominated the major European trading nations. This “mercantile system” based on the premise that national wealth and power was best served by increasing exports and collecting precious metals in return. It superseded the medieval feudal organization in Western Europe; especially in the Netherlands, France and England. Domestically, this led to some of the first instances of significant government intervention and control over the economy and it was during this period that much of the modern capitalist system was established. Internationally, mercantilism encouraged the many European wars of the period and fueled European imperialism. Historical Background of Mercantilism: Mercantilist held that a nation’s wealth consisted primarily in the amount of gold and silver in its treasury. Accordingly Mercantilist government imposed extensive restriction on their economics to ensure a surplus of exports over imports. That system thinks that if one country had more gold than another, it was necessarily better off. Such ideas were attractive to some government, such as Britain, French. There are some amusing stories of mercantilism...
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...United States. The 18th Amendment started the law which mentioned all intoxicating liquors whether it be sale, transportation, or any other related alcohol usage is prohibited. The Volstead Act also helped in enforcing prohibition for the amendment. During this time there was a lack of support in trying to ban alcohol amongst many individuals and groups but the ban still continued on thanks to the help of the Anti-Saloon League. This organization enabled legislation for the enforcement of national prohibition beginning in 1920. Although it was passed and did reduce the availability of alcohol, it failed to do what is was meant to do. Prohibition directly led to the increase in crime and corruption during the twenties, the public health problems associated with bootleg liquor, alcohol substitutes, the irritated tensions between religious, racial, social groups, and political disturbance. A nation of drunkards was persistent in the U.S. Neil Dowe gathered thousands of signatures demanding the ban of sale of alcohol. It was passed in Maine but sooner decayed over years. Temperant walked the streets and drunkenness of was no more. People found loopholes around the law such as liquor sellers hiding it underneath their pantlegs called bootleggers. Men were more occupied on drinking rather than supporting their own families. Prior to the 20th century, there had never been national attempt to restrict alcohol production in the America. However, by the end of that century, various groups...
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