Chapter 8 History Review

Why did the War of 1812 and the events leading up to it split the nation? Based on events in the early 1800s, did Madison make the right decision?

First, a series of trade restrictions introduced by Britain to impede American trade with France, a country with which Britain was at war. Second, the imprisonment of U.S. citizens into the Royal Navy. Third, the British military support for American Indians who were offering armed resistance to the expansion of the American frontier to the Northwest. an unstated but powerful motivation for the Americans was the need to uphold national honor in the face of what they considered to be British insults.

What are the most significant differences between the United States in 1800 and the United States in 1823? Why are these differences more important than others?

In 1800 Jefferson was elected president. When he decided to run for president, Thomas Jefferson possessed impressive political credentials and was well-suited to the presidency. In addition to drafting the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had served in two Continental Congresses, as minister to France, as secretary of state under George Washington and as John Adams' vice president. The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy regarding domination of the American continent in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention.

How does this trend towards religious freedom epitomize the republican values of the Jefferson administration?

Indeed, Jefferson's laws to establish religious freedom and abolish entails and primogeniture in the late 1770s had overthrown Virginia's "Pseudo-aristocracy." Jefferson probably learned later, to his chagrin, that the state convention, while extending the vote to all taxpaying adult males, had resoundingly rejected Adams's proposal for religious freedom.

How did the outcome of the War of 1812 allow the U.S. government to pursue its expansionist goals and issue the Monroe Doctrine?

The British general Sir Isaac Brock, together with Tecumseh and the Shawnee, Delaware, and other northwestern Indians who had their own complaints about American territorial expansion, captured Detroit in August 1812. And though the United States failed to obtain any Canadian territory, the campaigns of the war destroyed Indian opposition to U.S. expansion on the northwestern and southwestern frontiers.

Jefferson called his election the "Revolution of 1800." Considering the changes in the government during his administration, do you agree with him? Why or why not?

The Election of 1800 might also be called the Revolution of 1800 because in 1793, the inflammatory activities of "Citizen" Edmond Genet threatened to spread French revolutionary fervor to American shores, prompting even Francophone Republicans to abandon his cause. In 1794, when western Pennsylvania farmers refused to pay a national whiskey tax, President George Washington called an armed force of 15,000 soldiers to the field.

What key aspects of the Louisiana Purchase were of particular importance to the United States, and how would they change life for different groups of Americans?

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, the Louisiana Purchase was important because of this gain of land and thereby doubling the size of the young republic.