World History Discussion

American Revolution

Why did it Happen?

• Taxation without represensation
• America's desire to rule itself, as it had ruled itself for a long time before Britain put its foot down.
• America was paranoid of Britain taking control of what they had built. They left where they came from and worked hard to find a new land. They don't want Britain to take their land. 

Daniel J Boorstin

Thesis: What Made America Unique

• Its Dogged Individuals
• Innovation
• Standardization

What Resulted From America's Lack of Labor?

• New Innovations
• The American System of Manufacturing (Standardization)
• There are many individuals in which each individual builds a single piece of a product, and then each piece is assembled into a single product.
• Slavery

What was Manufacturing Like Before the American System of Manufacturing?

Each individual built an entire product themself, rather than many individuals each building each individual piece and then putting all the pieces together.

What was the Early American Government Like?

There was territorial government, but other than that, any government ruling was ambigious.

Who were the Regulators?

A group of vigilantes who stood against the Sheriff who was in the pocket of the wealthy, and patrolled their area.

What is Statistically the Most Dangerous Area in American?

The South, because per capata America has some of the most violent cities in America.

Southern towns are more likely, to be more violent due to their strong sense of code, a sense of honor, and rugged/dogged individualism.

American Government Sucked

America came out of the Revolution with a government, but a government in debt, they had the Articles of Confederation, but with those articles they couldn't take taxes.

The Constitutional Convention was lead by George Washington, and the Constitution was written by mainly James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John J.

They wanted to make a government that was fair to the big and small states, they did that via the three branches of government, the upper house, the lower house, and the three fifths compromise.

The Federalists believed in a central government.

The Anti-Federalists believed in a decentralized government, a state government.

In order to defuse the Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights were made in order to preserve the rights of the people.

The Bill of Rights presented the rights of the people as the people's God given rights.

The Constitution is ratified and adopted after it introduced the Bill of Rights.

The Principles of the Enlightenment

• Progress
• Improvement of Humanity
• Developing Knowledge of the Natural World
• Manipulating the Natural World with Technology
• Overcoming Superstitions

Enlightenment Thinkers

• Denis Diderot 
• Wrote a Compendium of Essays by over 100 scientists, philosophers and thinkers.
• Focused on overcoming superstitions and to make learning secularized.
• He made an effort to master the natural world through technology and science.
• Voltaire
• He hated the social structure of England
• He did not like the Catholic church at all, he hated it.
• He thought England, was the best example of a modern society.
• Because of the parliament and its working with the monarchy
• Because of its focus on Constitutionalism
• Montesquieu
• Wrote about the nature of law, and published the book Spirit of Laws.
• He reasoned that the English Constitution was the best form of government.
• He believed in branches of government and checks and balances.
• Adam Smith
• Becomes the father of Capitalism
• It is a freedom loving system, in which if something is needed by society, and one is to provide it, then if there is a demand for the provision, then that one who provided it can make wealth.
• He reasoned that Mercantalism is stupid, because wealth is unlimited.
• He was an economist.
• He predicted that new markets would come into the world, that the world had not yet seen.
• Edward Gibbon
• The first true historian
• He believed Rome fell because of Christianity
• Because Enlightenment thinkers don't like the Church, and he had a bias against the church
• Jean Jacques Rousseau
• He was the first hippy
• He was the first romantic
• Romantics believe in emotion over reason, and denies science.
• To a Romantic, men do not control the world, the power of science is an illusion.
• Nature is sublime, and nature is all powerful.
• Romantics believe in emotion, living to the fullest, carpe diem.
• He was very bizzare.
• He never had a true job, his whole life.
• He never really produced anything his own life.
• He gave all his children, all by different women, to orphanages.
• He would charm rich women from town to town, he would use them to get into the upper-crust of society.
• He loved flashing people in the middle of the night.
• He was a great writer
• He had an innovative way of looking at society
• He came to the realization that the Government of Europe was corrupt.
• He then from this belief, believed that a world without government is the best world.
• The more laws there are, the less freedom there is, the less freedom there is, the less happy people are.
• He believed that technology and civilization restricted man's freedom, as it simply made life more complicated.
• The happiest existence, is the simplest, most free existence.
• From this comes from the concept of the     Pastoral Ideal

• Patoral Ideal is based on ideas of being in nature, and to escape the hussle and bussle of everyday life. 

Laissez Faire

This means that the government will not touch the economy, and that the invisible hand of the market will control the economy.

The opposite of Laissez Faire is Socialism, which is full governmental control of the economy.

The dangers of Laissez Faire

• There is no safety in work, or workers compensation
• The market is incredibly volatile
• The inevitable existence of monopolies
• Examples of Monopolies That Existed in the US
• Steel
• Rail Roads
• Tobacco
• Standard Oil
• Utilities

Examples of Romantics

• John Keats
• Mary Shelly
• Jean Jacques Rousseau