American History 2008 Homework One Answers - Model

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2. What do you find most inspiring about Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus exhibited an inspiring picture of faith and confidence in his journey across the Atlantic Ocean. He had faith in two ideas—the generally-accepted idea that the world was round and his own personal belief that Asia was close enough to reach by sailing west. Contrary to popular belief, the former was generally accepted in his time, but the latter was unproven. Despite the fact that he could not see irrefutable proof for either idea, his faith in them was so firm that he decided to gamble his career, his reputation, even his very life upon them. I find this very inspiring. In our day of “relative truth” and tolerance for all beliefs it is easy to be passive in our ideas and believe only in opinions, not in truth. Yet this is so wrong. Like Columbus, we should let our beliefs define our lives. (Rachel N.)

7. Briefly discuss (in a few sentences) any of the debate or discussion topics from the lecture. Were the Puritans right to be strict and to expel people of other religions?

It is difficult to judge a people who lived in such a different world than we do today. It is easy now to point our fingers and call the Puritans “hypocrites” for denying others exactly what they themselves had wanted so desperately and “ignorant” for ignoring many of the teachings of their own Bible. Yet while their failure to allow religious freedom was wrong, both Biblically and ethically, they were justified. Religious freedom is a very new concept. Up until the past few centuries, almost all civilizations have been built upon a common religion. The Puritans did not have any reason to believe that it was even possible for people of different religions to live in peace, side-by-side. To the best of my knowledge, it had never been done before, and if it had, it’s unlikely that the Puritans would have known of or given much thought to such a phenomenon. Considering the world they lived in, the Puritans were justified. (Rachel N.)

H4. Mercantilism can be briefly described as a system in which a mother country restricts imports and maximizes exports. The mother country would import raw materials from its colony, and would then produce finished products at minimal cost. Then they would sell the products to other countries it traded with, and even back to the original colony. My view of mercantilism is that it was essentially a very good idea, created by someone who had a head for good business and knew how to make money. However, to me the mother country is exploiting the colony by taking the raw materials for so little and then selling the finished product for a good percentage more. (Katie B.)

H4. Mercantilism is an economic system which limits imports from other countries and maximizes exports to other countries. This would guarantee that more money would would come in than would go out. Another aspect of Mercantilism is to use colonies to supply raw materials at a very low cost to the Mother Country who, in turn could use the materials to produce products to sell to the world. In theory, Mercantilism is a good idea. However, obvious problems occur. Sometimes items from other countries are cheaper. Also, the colonies might want more of the money being made by the Mother Country. (Nick DeJ.)