2. The Revolution and the Westward Expansion Flashcards
Manifest destiny
Ideological backing thorugh manifest destiny
* Further basis for American exceptionalism (combines with City on a Hill ideal)
* Term introduced by John O’Sullivan 1845
* = the destiny of the US is to become a leader among nations, that destiny is not just something they’re dreaming up for themselves, it’s manifested in reality
* = Idea that the US has a divinely ordained mission
To claim lands
- To remake the West into the East
- To spread civilisation, democracy, liberty
- To bring progress, order and redemption (to what was previously wild)
* US are inherently good and virtuous and are tasked with remaking the world into its own image
* Native populations: removed as not properly a part of the divine plan
Civic religion
= idea of being focused on institutions/documents/people and holding these up as extraordinary ideals/things to be admired, nearly to be worshipped
- framers and founding fathers
Boston Tea Party
1773
- Considered to be the start of the American revolution
- 3 vessels from East India Company arrive in Boston Harbour bearing tea but Americans refuse to pay tax, so they dump the tea into Boston Harbour
- Some participants of the demonstration dressed as Mohawk Indians – maybe to show they consider themselves to have a separate identity
States’ rights
the idea that individual states in a country have certain rights and powers of their own
» 2 senators for each senate
Federalists vs Anti-federalists
Debate between federalists and anti-federalists (the ones for states’ rights)
Federalists believed that the United States should form a strong central government to unite the states, while antifederalists believed that the states should maintain the same level of power and authority with only a weak central government.
- Debate between conservatives (= in favour of big gov, a big and powerful federal state) and progressives (= in favour of limiting state power)
- Jefferson (progressive anti-federalist) versus Hamilton (conservative federalist)
Declaration of Independence
- Written during Second Continental Congress
- Presented by 5 people
- A British document
- An international document
- Influences French Revolution and many others - An Enlightenment document
- Refers to reason»_space; reasonable government
- Demand for rational government - Representative and measured: no one can have too nuch power, no monarch
- Invocation of Deist principles
- Acceptance that there must be a God but there’s no reason to worship him
- God often mentioned in historical documents however, America was not founded as a religious nation but as an Enlightenment nation > God as a general frame to explain things - Public-facing document
- Intended for an external audience: to explain to other nations why these colonies have become independent, give reasons why this is necessary - Articulation of principles and promises
Checks and Balances
- Rejects tyranny through checks and balances »_space; everything balances itself out (e.g. the House is balanced out by the Senate)
- Seperation of powers – Congress, Presidency, Judiciary»_space; the 3 branches of government can constantly check/block off one another = suspicious system, not designed to make gov powerful
- State’s rights vs federal rights - Problem: debate between conservatives and progressives
- Individuals vs the idea of society/community/commonality»_space; stress individual liberty as being uppermost
> > US Constitution = liberal document
George Washington
- One of the founding fathers
- First president of the United States
Bill of Rights
Resolved some of the Constitution’s problems
1791: Bill of Rights—first 10 amendments (17 more to follow in the next hundreds of years)
- Grants personal freedoms and rights
e.g. freedom of religion (not mentioned in the Constitution)
»_space; the Constitution is more an idealistic vision which has lots of things implied in it, it’s open for interpretation because it’s propaganda
e.g. 2nd amendment = right to bear arms
- Limitations on governmental power
Louisiana Purchase
One of the moves for the Westward Expansion
Louisiana Purchase from France, 1803
- Land was controlled by France; Jefferson negotiates purchase of that land with Napoleon
- Doubles the size of the US, mostly farmland
- Vast territory that is subsequently divided into MT, WY, CO, KA, OK, AK, LA, MI, IO, MN, NE
> > immigration explodes bc of it
Great experiment
= “a country like this has never existed before”
»_space; secular ideal (= rational) not religious !! — many people ignore the difference and say that the constitution is a godly document
Deism
the acceptance that there must be a god, however god having created the world has left it, so he’s no longer important; belief in god to explain things such as ‘why are we here’, but there’s no reason to worship him
> > the Declaration of Independence was an invocation of Deist principles
Founding Fathers
= generation of the revolution
- sign Declaration, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution…
- fight war and lead war effort
- retroactively invoked as guiding figures for the nation, their work is often combined with other documents to interpret constitutional law
- once regarded as heroes, now more nuanced
- they left many key issues as problems as they created the nation e.g. Jefferson had slaves and had children with them - upon his dead he didn’t free them, didn’t know how as the system was built on the backs of slaves
Framers
signatories of the Constitution
Three-Fifths Compromise
> between North and South
= a black person counts for 3/5 of a white person, you need 5 black people to get the same representation as 3 white people > they organize censuses
representation for slaves, who had no votes
