American Creation

Overall summary:

There are six chapters wirtten for the purpose of answering how the American founding occurred and how it was both good and bad

There were five key achievments-

  1. The Revolutionary War was the first successful modern war for independence.
  2. The first nation-sized republic came to be
  3. The US was the first wholly secular state
  4. There was overlapping authority between federal and state jurisdictions
  5. The country was organized to have ongoing debates in order to constantly improve

The Consitution and D of I were key moments in the founding

The founders failed to solve the issue of slavery in the country, leaving permanent stain on the country

The increase of people in the country was caused by the vast ideals that drove people to move

The founding will always be credited to a group, because it was a group effort

The Year:

The first chapter spans the time between April 1775 (Lexington and Concord) and July 1776 (Declaration of Independence)

It was an “evolutionary revultion” in that it was purposefully slow in order to prevent more blood from being shed

The reason for the revultion was that Britain did not put effort into the colonies but did not let them govern themselves either.

George Washington became the General of the Continental Army

The Continental Congress both worked on peace and war

John Adam wrote /Thoughts on Government/ and argued for shared powr and a bicmeral legislature

Thomas Jefferson wrote the D of I and inspired the American people

The Winter:

The colonists had the vast continent to their advantage and needed to get support and dodge the enemy enough to keep fighting

The winter at Valley Forge was a pivotal moment in the war and is forever enshrined in US History

Washingotn realized time and space was on his side, and he needed to use it to win the war

The conditions were horrible, diseases were spread along with food shortages, and the aristocracy the army was at the time led the troops to suffer

The supply failures highlighted the need for a central government and regulation

The custom of holding off from attacking during winer saved the Continental Army

The Agrument:

The agrument between Federalists and Anti-Federalists made the United States plural instead of singular

A central government was needed but it defied the ideals the country had just fought for

The federal plan that won was the argment without end created by the Constituion

James Madison pointed out failures in th Articles of Confederation and institued the 3 branch government including a bicameral legislature

Madison argued against reason that larger areas are better for republics

“The Great Comprosmise” was made to make legislature proportionate to population and state

The Federalist papers were written in advocation of a central government

The Treaty:

A failure that could have been like the failure of slavery, leaders tried to figure out how to deal with the Native population that led to a treaty with Alexander McGivallry and the Creeks

The Conspiracy:

The conspiracies and agruments over the two-party system

Jefferson fought to create two parties all while claiming he wanted the opposite and Madison converted from federalist to Republican.

M+J hated Hamilton and his plan for a federal banking system, one of the main reasons for the split of parties.

The Republicans lost the banking battle and Jeff went back home to think things over

the Election of 1796 solidified the two-parties, Federlist Adams as president and Republican Jeff as VP

The Purchase:

The Louisiana Purchase

An executive decision that made a hypocrite out of Jefferson, as he thought he shouldn’t have power as president to do so.

The expansion brought up the question of slavery that was later answered by the Civil War

In the French-owned Louisiana, many slaves defeated French soldiers, causing Napoleon to sell the area

In expansion had the opportunity to solve how to coexist with Natives and free slaves, but did neither

The failures of history are mainly pointed out by hindsight, the present one-upping the past, but also improving on what was once thought the peak.