Theme 1: A Difficult past, How The Americas Changed

PowerPoint by Ben Ely

Background Readings

• In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries:• (almost) All land in the western hemisphere had won their

independence from European colonial powers• American people quickly struggled to build a society based on

the age of independence• United states built most powerful region in the western

hemisphere and embarked on westward push• Dealt with the “Legacy of Enlightenment”, in other words the

effort to build societies based on: • Freedom, • equality, • Constitutional government

(cont.) Background Readings

• Age of independence pertained to not only the United States, but Canada and Latin America as well

• Characterized by• Mass Migration• “Explosive” economic growth.• Economic stagnation• Civil war• Ethnic voilence• Class conflict• Battles of Racial/sexual equality

“The Little Ice Age”

• Brought colder winters to parts of Europe and mainly North America.

• Canals/rivers frequently being frozen over in places like Great Britain and the Netherlands.

• Extreme weather eventually led to years of death and famine throughout Europpe, and general food shortages elsewhere in the northern hemisphere

• Frozen rivers gave way to the Netherlands French invasion, and freezing of harbors cutting off supplies and shipping drastically

The Louisiana Purchase

• Contained present day:• Arkansas• Iowa• Oklahoma• Kansas• Nebraska• Missouri• Minnesota• North/south Dakota• northeastern New Mexico• portions of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado pertaining

east of the “Continental Devide”• Lousiana west of the mississipi river• Contained small portions of land now claimed as provinces

of Alberta and Askatchewan located in Canada Now 23% of totally U.S. territory, and at the time DOUBLED

the size

(Cont.) The Louisiana purchase

• The acquisition by the U.S. of around 828,800 square miles of France’s claim to the Louisiana territory.

• Took a total sum of 15 million dollars, actually only equivalent to 219 million dollars in modern day 2010

• Opposed by the House of Representatives (deemed somewhat unconstitutional)

• The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, fearing the U.S. has just paid a large sum of money to declare war on Spain.

• Signed on Saturday, April 30th, 1803

Crossroads of Freedom: The Napoleonic wars

• A series of conflict declared against the French Empire from 1803 to

1815 sparked by the wars of the French Revolution

• Worked well for a while, incredibly expanding Napoleon’s empire

throughout Europe until the disastrous turning point marked by the

invasion of Russia in 1812

• Events preceding the Battle of Maloyaroslavets marked the end of

Napoleons grand army, as they got devoured by an extreme shortage of

food and supplies from the onset of the Russian Winter, mixed with

constant guerilla warfare by Russian peasants and irregular troops

• Ended in complete military defeat resulting in the restoration of the

Bourbon monarchy in France

Crossroads of Freedom: The Haitian Revolution

• The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the french colony of Saint-domingue beginning in 1791 resulting in the elimination of slavery and ultimately the founding of the Haitian Republic

• Started essentially with the French Revolutionary government to grant citizenship to free people of color (mainly rich) in May of 1791

This decision was strongly opposed by white plantation owners, whom refused to comply

The final battle which marked an end to it all was the battle of Vertieres on November 18th 1803, fought between haitian rebels led by Jea Jacques Dessalines, and the French colonial army

Ultimately Dessalines proved victorious and officially declared Haiti a free republic on the 1st of January 1804

Crossroads of Freedom: Indian Mutiny

• The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of Sepoys of the British East India Company’s army on 10 May 1857 in Meerut

• Soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions near the Upper Gangetic Plain (forests of Northern India), and central India

• Indian rebellion occurred as an accumulation of events• The rebellion led to the dissolution of the East India

Company in 1858, and forced the British to reorganize the army, the financial system, and the administration in India.

Crossroads of Freedom: The Crimean War

• A conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

• known for the logistical and tactical errors during the land campaign on both sides (the naval side saw a successful Allied campaign which eliminated most of the ships of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea). Nonetheless, it is sometimes considered to be one of the first "modern" wars as it "introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare," including the first tactical use of railways and the telegraph.

Peace negotiations didn’t commence until 1856 under Alexander II’s rule through the Congress of Paris

War on the Ottoman Empire ultimately was reinitiated on April 24th 1877 through nationalist unrest and the Balkin’s lost of prestige

within the Russian empire