APUSH- Colonial Life, Settling the Colonies, Clash of Culture
Conclusion
- When Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, 111 years had passed since Columbus had made his monumental discovery. In that time, the Native tribes to the South had been conquered and nearly destroyed by the Spanish. A massive empire had been created that supplied great wealth to Spain and made it the dominant power in Europe for almost 100 years. The protestant Reformation had energized the Northern European nations and they began to struggle with Spain. With the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the way was clear for the English to make their move. Still, by 15603 there were not permanent English colonies, but the time was ripe.
Conclusion
-Unlike the Spanish, the English remained in a compact area. They were confined by the mountains but took advantage of the coastal areas and the 100 miles or so of piedmont. Compared to the Spanish colonies, the English settlements had been haphazard and uncontrolled. This allowed the English to adjust more rapidly and completely to the local conditions. It also meant a more even distribution of wealth; even poor emigrant eventually got land. This meant that there was a stronger emphasis on building strong religious communities with strong families. These thriving dynamic communities are the subject of our next topic: Colonial Life.
A. Where did they come from? What is the accepted theory? Why is it only a theory? What other theories are there? B. What was the most important moment in human history? C. What does Balkanized mean? How does this apply to North America above Mexico? D. What were the 3 major civilization that developed?
A) - Referred to as Indigenous. They didn't originate from the continents North and South America. They came from Asia and there are theories of how they got from Asia to the Americas. They came in small boats but is unlikely since it's so far. Viking Transplant-- Vikings came a long time ago and left Asian slaves. Then, they spread across the continent. The most believed theory is that they came across the Bering Straits about 16,000 years ago. There was an ice age, and the water froze, and the natives walked across the land. The ice age came to an end and the water melted. From there, they dispersed throughout all of the Americas. B) -Once they got here, they went through cultural evolution. The agricultural revolution-- they're not hunter gathers anymore and stop being nomadic, and they settle down. it frees up people to do specialized trade, architecture, business, etc. Once you settle down, you don't need all of the population to do the hunting and gathering. the Plains Indians, however, were still hunter-gatherers in the 1800s. seems to be because there were buffalo and bison-- they were in huge numbers. About 1500 BC, cities began to develop, but the northern part of North America, above Mexico, didn't have big cities. Mexico had Tenochtitlan. C) -That's the Balkanized North, it didn't have many cities. Balkanized means broken up into tribal groupings. before the English showed up, there were about 1000 tribes speaking about 500 languages. there were also many subtribes within the tribes. the 3 main tribal groupings were: Adena- Hopewell traders, they were in the midwest around Ohio. and there were many mounds. they were a mound-building civilization and in the mounds, they had dead people. When digging, it was found that they were buried with personal items. from that, we are able to tell what kind of items they produced and traded. they traded with people across the country, or through various means. the major area called Cahokia. Mississippi farmers, grew a lot of maize and were very prosperous. their land had fertile cropland. one of the only tribes that practiced human sacrifice. southwestern tribes- west texas where it doesn't get much rain. notable for irrigation techniques. SW tribes were quite peaceful. D) -The southern empires. Mayas Aztecs Incas were the 3 main tribal groups. The Mayans were here before the Aztecs and centered in the yucatan area. The Golden Age was 300-900 AD. they were a confederation, that had city-states, and temples where they worshipped their gods. they traded among themselves and were ruled by a king. they had some human sacrifice. they were very advanced in math and science. They had a solar calendar as well as a ritual calendar with gods on each day. every 50 years the solar calendar and the ritual calendar would coincide and they called this the one reed day and believed that earth would be destroyed unless the gods came to stop it. They also came up with the concept 0 in math. they had the closest thing that came to a written language. some of the early Spaniards destroyed them, however. they abandoned their cities and went back to the jungle. >The Aztecs were from 1300-Cortez(the 1500s). they were very brutal. they were like the Romans who were the warriors. they dominated and conquered most of the tribes and cities around Mexico. they were most famous for their human sacrifice (about 100 a day). they had oral traditions and pictographs. they were very clean they built a city on an island, and they had a colorful city. >Mayans are greeks bc they are scientific, city-states, and confederacy. Aztecs are Romans because they are warriors and ruthless. >The Indian cultures were not prepared to deal with the dynamic European cultures that invaded. They had no wheel, no written language, and iron wasn't used.
I. Demographic Views
A) A wide-ranging assortment of demographic snapshots of early American colonial life.
A. What was feudalism? Describe it. What were the Crusades? Why are they important for our discussion? B. What was it? When did it begin? What did it lead to? C. What is a Nation-State? What did the merchant class have to do with the growth of the nation-state? Give specific policies they were looking for.
A) Feudalism is a plantation-type system. it's an agricultural system. three different types of people living in the manor. the lords ran it and lived in the manor house. the serfs/peasants were the ones with duties and did all the work. they had their own village. they grew the crops and lived very poor lives. the knights- they can only become knights if they were good at fighting-- the only way to go from serf to knight. if you were a knight and were a good fighter, they got some land- kind of got a promotion. they also had priests. B)-It started to change around 1100 because of the crusades. they brought changes. they brought jealousy toward Islam. there were groups of Christian soldiers, and they went to the holy land and fought the Islamic people to take it back. when they got there, they discovered that the Islamic people were more advance in knowledge, math, science, philosophy, etc. this then inspired them to make something like this. so, they created a merchant class that was trying to find cheaper and safer methods of transportation because there were many cases of robberies on trade routes. this meant that they were going to look for ocean routes to Asia, leading to the renaissance. the renaissance began in Italy around the 1300s with the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman knowledge. the new thirst for knowledge led men to look for better methods of navigation- better trade routes to Asia. C)- The Nation-State: The renaissance and the growth of the merchant merged in the Nation. trade aspects are a bit more important bc a merchant class began to grow as more trade began to develop. they began to get more wealthy. they needed a much more powerful nation to protect their caravans. they got uniform trade policies, larger armies to protect trade caravans and they made more money to fund exploration for new water trade routes >Henry the Navigator is the prince of Portugal and he set up a school of navigations, they began to build tools to help them figure out where they were, bc many didn't sail out of the shoreline because they thought they would get lost, they don't know what's on the other side. Portugal is at the center of development along with France, England, and Spain. they were by the Atlantic coast.
II. The Chesapeake
A) Jamestown B) Importance of 1619 C) Maryland
IV. The Middle Colonies
A) New York B) Pennsylvania
III. New England
A) Plymouth B) Massachusetts Bay C) Williams and Rhode Island
II. Society and Economy in the South
A) Staple Crops B) Land and Gentry C) Labor
V. The Lower South
A) The Carolinas B) Georgia
A. What was his background? What is meant by dead reckoning? B. List some of the items/words which were new to the old and new worlds. C. How large was their empire?
A)- Columbus was ethnically Italian. He gets the idea to sail to Asia by sailing across the world. He had the ability of dead reckoning- someone can tell where N, S, E, & W are. He had to go to 4 different nations looking to get sponsored to sail across the world. Finally, Spain had sponsored him. The rumor was that Queen Isabella of Spain had a crush on him and gave him the money. It wasn't an easy trip. His crew rebelled against him many times. His big mistake was that he had a map of the world that was almost 2 times smaller than the real map. He was trying to reach the Indies, but he miscalculated the distance. His legacy was mixed because he treated the Natives well, but his men didn't treat them very well. B)-The New World had turkeys, bison, armadillo, possums, hummingbirds. The Old World had horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, etc. new words adopted by the Europeans included canoe, lacrosse, succotash, tobacco, moose, skunk, hickory, etc. The Europeans got the better side of the exchange because they got staples like corn, beans, and potatoes which greatly improved the European diet. The Natives got diseases like smallpox, typhoid, and measles which killed tens of millions. Europeans got syphilis. C)-With their head start, the Spaniards came to dominate the new world in the largest empire in the world. The Spanish desire for gold brought about a ruthless exploitation of the Natives. They wanted to try to do the feudalistic system in the Americas. Cortes is the outstanding example of a conquistador: he came in 1519 with 600 men, horses, armor, and guns. he burned his ships because he was an outlaw-- he came in contradiction of orders from the governor of Cuba. he didn't want any of his men to go back and tell the governor where he was. He conquered an empire that might have had 25 million. Dona Marina helped Cortes. she was a slave girl to one of the chiefs. she was smart and spoke many of the languages and dialects of Mexico. she understood that most if the tribes in Mexico hated the Aztecs because they took some of their people from them and other things. many of Cortes's lieutenants followed his example and by the 1550s, the Spanish were in firm control and began to conquer most of central and south America. The Encomienda system combined with the diseases killed off about 90% of all natives by the middle 1600s. The Spanish distributed land to follow Spaniards, natives became the serfs. Spain was able to extract gold and wealth from the new world and it allowed them to be the superpower of the 1500s.
A. List of important statistics. How are class distinctions made in America? What's rigged individualism?
A)- Most of the people that came were very young, most under 25 years old. About half were indentured servants or slaves. About 50,000 were convicts with petty crimes. 2/3rds came without their family, and most were not married and didn't have a family. There were a few instances of married men in the colonies. Immigrant groups included: 20,000 Puritans, came to New England and settled most of New England; English Aristocrats, those who weren't given inheritance, most settle in Virginia; 23,000 Quakers in Penn. and Delaware, and later spread to the west like Iowa; Scots-Irish, they are poor, they are fighters; 500,000 African slaves (1619-1808), the 500,00 slaves that came were 5% of the total people that came to the Americas. In New England, they cut downs some trees to build towns. and some scholars believe that it got colder after cutting the trees. Population growth in the colonies: 2,000 (1625); 250,000 (1700); 1 million (1750); 2.5 million (1775). One of the reason why they were having a population growth was because thy married young (26-20 years old) and they were having many children. Gender equalization didn't occur until about 1700. they were having an equal number of men and women. Seasoning time was when people were saying if you lived in America for a year, your body would have developed immunity. Life expectancy was middles 40s in the south and about 70 in the north. there were different views of class in America- you have to earn everything; you're not born with it. there were fewer class distinctions. the growth of rugged individualism was the idea that someone can take care of themselves without the help of others of the community. women's role was that they couldn't vote, preach, hold office, attend schools, etc. still, life was better here for women than in the old world because hitting your spouse was made illegal.
A. Who settled the Carolinas at first? What type of colony was this? What did the Feudalism have to do with the Carolinas? B. What was the purpose for Georgia? What was the first town settled? When? What unusual type of people came to Georgia? Why was this?
A)- The Carolinas were originally just one colony and it was given to 8 Lords who supported Charles II in the Restoration. It was a proprietary colony. they originally planned to recreate feudalism; but it didn't work because no one wanted to come to become a servant/serf. people came and settled, but they refused to go along with the lords. South Carolina had most of the fertile soil and natural resources. Charlestown was founded in 1670 and people that went to South Carolina were from Jamaica and places where they grew sugar plantations, but it didn't work ins South Carolina, so they turned to rice. it was good to plant in s. Carolina because they had tidal rivers, a river that rises with the tide. they could grow rice in large amounts. slaves did all the work. Continuing strife between the lords and the settlers led to a royal takeover, first in S. Carolina becomes a royal colony and then N. Carolina became a royal colony. North Carolina land isn't very fertile. People from Virginia settled in N. Carolina. B)- Georgia was the last colony to be founded. the idea was to create a buffer zone between Florida and S. Carolina and there are many attacks from Natives, Spanish. Savannah was founded in 1733 by a group of 120 settlers that included a few convicts. England was trying to get rid of petty criminals, so they start sending them off to various places in Georgia. The governor, James Oglethorpe, tied to create a Utopian community, but having prisoners, it wasn't very helpful. He wanted no alcohol and no slavery (which slavery doesn't work) and the settlers rebelled, and he went home disappointed. it's a royal colony.
A. Who wrote this pamphlet? What did he mean by "planting?" B. Describe each of the following attempts: Humphrey Gilbert, Greenville Colony, Lost Colony of Roanoke. What role does Walter Raleigh play in these?
A)-A Discourse on Western Planting was written by Richard Hakluyt in 1584. he gave 4 reasons for English exploration/colonization: to extend the reformed religion, Spain had already introduced Christianity into many places; Raw materials: nations of Europe were engaged in mercantilism, to do good, you have to get a lot of raw materials outside your country; military bases: in order to compete w Spanish, you need to have military bases to get your people out; getting rid of excess males: aristocrats who don't inherit anything get sent to the New World to get land. primogeniture is when only the oldest son inherits everything. B)-There were early attempts at colonization: Humphrey Gilbert was lost at sea in 1578 and was partly sponsored by Walter Raleigh. they get drive out by the natives, return, but on their way back, one of their ships gets lost; the Grenville colony in 1585-6, they go to the N. Carolina area, but they aren't satisfied and go back; they go back about a year later, they set up, but the governor decided to leave and left a few people in the new world. he gets supplies and when he is on his way to the new world, he's held up by the Spanish armada for 2 years, when he gets back, the colony is no longer there (Croaton).
A. What is a critical difference between the English and the U.S Constitution? B. James I, Charles I, Cromwell (the interregnum), Charles II (the Restoration), James II (glorious Revolution)
A)-English background: The Constitution (a contract between the people and the government) was unwritten, based on tradition and changed slowly over time. US Constitution had changed interpretations and it's all written down in one place. The idea of Common Law was law that applied equally to all citizens. All US states now have their own version of the Common law. power of the purse- who controls the money, taxation - who gets to decide what taxes are legit, who gets to decide where the collected money is spent. tradition is that the people get to choose where taht money is spent. the government can't spend money if it hasn't been approved by its people. Judicial authority needed for arrest- to put limits on the king and gov, to make it fair. it has to be agreed upon by more than one person and bring the person before the judge and bring evidence taht he has committed a crime. In America we have habeaus corpus- you have to bring the person in front of a judge within 3 days of an arrest. trial by jury of your peers: they cant convict you of a crime and you have to convince the jurors whether you're guilty or not. idea of a joint stock company: idea of taking/spreading the risk. a company can be set up and shares of the company can be bought. they can raise money and it spreads the risk. B)-Elizabeth died in 1603 and didnt have any heirs (virginia is named after her). James I, her cousin, was a smart politician who tried to regain lost power to the throne, but he knew his limitations, he was followed by his son. he was the king of Scotland. he died in 1625. James worked hard to regain the lost power and things started to pick up. >Charles didn't know his limitations and decided that he was going to rule without parliament. this worked because parliament came together when the king called them. he continued to collect taxes that had already been approved. He did fine for 12 years, but in 1638, the Scots rose in revolt, and he needed money, thus parliament was called. upon convening in 1640, they tried to limit the power of the king, so Charles fought them which began a civil war. The Cavaliers- the king's army was made up of anglicans. parliament army- new model army or roundheads. >Charles lost the war and his head and England was ruled by the Cromwells until 1660 when Parliament voted to bring back the old monarchy. he is a puritan, and he implements and ruled based on puritan religion. gambling was outlawed, Christmas was outlawed. Stuards replaced Elizabeth and that line >the restored king was Charles II who was a wise politician. he restored gambling and drinking and everything that was outlawed. He decided not to go against Parliament. (James I and his son Charles I, and his son Charles II, and Charles II's brother James II) > James II took over in 1685 and tried to regain lost power. he was openly converted Christian and baptizes his son. the parliament disagrees and led to the glorious revolution when he is overthrown and kicked out of power, bloodlessly. He had no support and fled to France. This is important because the justification for why it was ok to overthrow a king, was the same justification that the colonies are going to use for why it's ok to overthrow someone. in those 85 years, the American colonies were being settled during that time of turmoil. the English weren't really able to control their colonies like the Spanish did. Americans got used to governing themselves. they set up their own legislature.
A. Who originally settled the area known as New York? How did they settle this area? B. How did WIlliam Penn get Pennsylvania?
A)-Sometimes called the middle Atlantic. New York, originally New Netherlands settled by the Dutch. the Dutch were interested in fur trading and did not bring family members; thus, a small population. presidents: martin van Burin, Franklin Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt. in 1664, the duke of New York came with an expeditionary force and took NY without bloodshed. they arrested the governor and the Dutch surrendered. New York and New Jersey were the two colonies that came out of the surrendered Dutch colony. B)- Pennsylvania was set up and organized by Quakers. William Penn's father had lent the king money, but Penn's father dies and the debt the king paid was a big chunk of land. Quakers: The Society of Friends and formed during the civil war by George Fox. they don't believe in violence and were pacifists. if there's a war, then Quakers are exempt. They also don't believe in having ministers, so they would schedule church services, but there was no minister, so they would sit there and wait for the holy spirit to speak to man, woman, or child. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681. he had sympathy for persecuted groups and brought groups like the Amish, anabaptists, and many other religions. there was a compromise border because there was no definitive line/border. it was then called the Mason-Dixon Line. Delaware was also given to Penn but in 1701, it became a separate colony.
A. Explain the 3 types of colonies B. List and explain all the important things that happened this year. C. What type of colony was Maryland? Who was the key family in its settling?
A)-The 3 types of colonies: proprietary: someone owns it, or a group owns it, sometimes their name is on it, ex. Pennsylvania; royal: under the control of the crown; company (charter): colony started for profitable purposes, ex. Virginia. Jamestown was a charter colony, a for profit colony. planted in Virginia on may 6, 1607. It failed to make money, but it was a success to bring English people into the colony. there were no women, and they built a fort near a swampy area and they immediately began to look for gold, so they didn't have any more food, so people began to die of malaria. the colony survived because the founders had seen what had happened toother colonies and were sending waves of colonists every six months or so. as a result of the wave, it survived. eventually, smith created a dictatorship and had a martial law. he kept their colony going and forced them to start growing food. they limped along until they discovered their first cash crop: tobacco by 1616, tobacco had become the gold of Virginia. john Rolfe had brought the tobacco seeds. B)-In 1619, it was the end of martial law since they've become successful, they didn't have to wake up early in the morning to work. The headright policy was to try to lure more workers in Virginia. if you paid your way to Virginia, you'd be given 50 acres of land. it was the beginning of the House of Burgesses, the first local legislature in the English colonies. a ship of 90 women arrived (they were all single) it was the first European women, but they were poor. they agreed to come to be auctioned off as brides. women had 1 right of refusal. she could refuse the first man who auctioned for her, so the second time, she had to marry the man. the first ship of Africans arrives. they came in a Portuguese ship. it was likely the beginning of slavery. they were now having Indian problems with the Powhatan Indians continued and the colony failed to make money. Thus, it became a royal colony in 1624. C)-Maryland was the first proprietary colony. it was given to George Calvert as a payment for debt from the king. Calvert was a catholic, so he decided to set up a colony as a refuge for Catholics, but there weren't enough Catholics, so it began to fill up with protestants. not enough Catholics came. some vicious fights occurred between the two groups but eventually they came to an agreement and tolerated one another. Act of Toleration. their economy was tobacco, just like Virginia
A. Why is this important in relation to settling the Americas? B. Which nation was the first to really attack the Spanish fleet? C. Who were the national leaders when this Spanish attack occurred? What year?
A)-The protestant reformation: martin Luther, john Calvin, henry vii. Martin Luther was a German monk who had some disagreements with the church he wanted the church to change. he posts his 95 thesis and had a disagreement with indulgences. Indulgence- by paying money to get out of purgatory more quickly. but they used the money to pay for the building of st peter's basilica. he began to teach that you can get into heaven with salvation alone, you don't need good works. his teachings split the church into Lutheranism. once the church was split, other splits began to happen. John Calvin believed in predestination. you are predestined to go to heaven or hell. Calvinists have the idea that they are constantly trying to prove that they are one of the people who are predestined to go to heaven. Henry VIII wanted his divorce from his wife because he didn't have a male heir to the throne. The Pope refused to do so because of political reasons. he broke off from the church and called it the Anglican, he became the archbishop, he remarried many times, and executed a couple of his wives for being unfaithful. His daughter, Elizabeth I became the queen and established the Anglican Chruch as a compromise between Lutheranism and Catholicism. B)-The reformation energized the struggle between Northern and Southern Europe. it gave the justification for attacks on the Spanish empire. The Netherlands were a part of Spain for a while and they led the attack on the Spanish Empire in the 1560s. The English then take over. Sir Francis Drake and the Sea Dogs attacks the Spanish whenever he can, wherever he can. He raids Spanish ships and gains a profit of 4600% in raids on Spanish Shipping in 1577, he is a privateer, he does it licensed by a country, hired by the country. pirate is an independent contractor who does it for themselves. C)-The defeat of the Spanish Armada. the Spanish was tired of the attacks and Phillip II decided to invade England. They assembled a great armada. When the Spanish tried their attack on ENgland, their ships were destroyed by a hurricane (The "Protestant Wind") in 1558. The defeat of the armada was not the end of Spanish power, but it was the beginning of the end.
A. What's a staple crop? What staple crops were extant in the South? What problem came with relying on staple crops? B. What is a headright grant? What did plantation develop? Who were the gentry? What problems did they have? C. What was an indentured servant? How did people get into this state? What were freedom dues?
A)-staple crops which is the dominating crop. Tobacco was the staple in Virginia and Maryland. in 1619, 20,000lbs of tobacco was exported and in 1688, 18 million were sold. the problem is that they produce more supply, and if the demand doesn't keep up with the production, the price goes down. led to very large farms. they understood that tobacco was bad for you. James I also understood that it was bad, harmful to the brain, bad for the lungs. it's like a foretaste of hell. In S. Carolina, rice was the staple crop made the plantation owners very rich. in 1699, 366 tons of rice was exported. B)- there was a lot of land, but they needed more workers. so, they encouraged people to come over and give them a headright grant. whoever got the contract of the indetured servants, you would receive the 50 acres of land. tobacco exacerbated this trend. thus, the plantation system and the gentry. Gentry were people who owned a lot of land but weren't aristocrats. they didn't need God since they're so rich in land and they got caught up on gambling horse races. C) Labor was intensive farming of staple crops that led to indentured servants. indenture means contract. people who got their voyage paid for but had to work at the farm of their sponsors. they served 4-7 years. they got freedom dues- clothes, tobacco seeds, some tools, maybe some piece of land. many people who served would later become wealthy because they knoew how to run farms. when african slaves came, there were no laws regarding slavery. slowly, laws developed so that by 1670s, slavery was an entrenched system. if a woman slave gave birth, that child would be born a slave. S. Carolina had slavery right from the beginning.
A. When did they arrive? Where were they supposed to be going? B. Were these people separatists? Why did they come? Who was their leader? C. Describe Roger WIlliams? Why did he form Rhode Island? What was unique about Rhode Island? Could you be an atheist in Rhode Island?
A)-the first people that came were the Plymouth Pilgrims in November 1620. they were separatist puritans and felt they couldn't get along with the Anglicans and tried to live in Holland, but they didn't get along with them. they ended up in Massachusetts, but they were supposed to arrive in southern Virginia. they said that they strayed off course. when they got there, they didn't have a government that was set up, so they came up with the mayflower compact. the first permanent governor was William Bradford who was also a pastor. they had a theocracy and they struggled in the beginning and about half died the firs =t winter, but the next year, they prospered after getting help from the Natives. B)-Massachusetts Bay- 1630. these people came with the ideology that they were going to build a puritan colony-- a shining city on a hill. led by jonathan winthrop. he set it up so that all the major stockholders and the charter had to come to the colonies, so they didn't have to wait a long time to wait a long time for help on decisions. This allowed the colony to adapt more quickly: by 1634, all freemen could vote and pass laws (adult, white, male, church members). by 1644 there was a 2-house legislature and Massachusetts was essentially a representative commonwealth. C)- Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams. he was "different." he preached about things that weren't liked by the puritans. the government had plans to kick him out and deport him, and he was warned by one of his friends, so he ran away. Rhode Island was the first place to have religious freedom. you probably couldn't be an atheist. Catholics, protestants, jews were free. Other colonial offshoots then developed like Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine were Puritan areas.
V. Early English Explorations
A. A Disclosure on Western Planting B. Early Attempts at Colonization
III. Discovery and Empire
A. Columbus B. Biological Exchange C. Spanish Empire
Settling the Colonies I. The English Background
A. Legal Precedents B. Brief History of the Monarchy
II. Dynamic Europe
A. The Crusades B. The Renaissance C. The Nation-State
IV. Reformation and Challenge
A. The Reformation B. Challenge to Spain C. The Spanish Armada
Clash of Cultures I) Native Americans
A. Where did they come from? B. Cultural Evolution C. The Balkanized North D. The Southern Empires
Conclusion
By the end of the colonial period, AMericans had developed their own unique culture that was growing apart from the mother country. There were three distinct regions: South, Middle, and New England which each had their own economy and social development. The Backcountry could be considered a fourth region. Significant also was the growth of the port cities which became the center of trade, knowledge, culture, and ideas. The Enlightenment and Great Awakening showed that America was a nation where ideas were of prime importance. Given the diversity of her people and religions, it is the great ideas that have held the nation together over the centuries.