Homework One Answers - Student Seventeen

1. Which time period or periods in American History do you expect to enjoy studying the most? Why? I will enjoy studying the Roaring Twenties because it is an often overlooked period of history that connects the industrial revolution with the World War II and the Cold war, or put more broadly it connects modern times with the 19th century. 2. When do you think Native Americans came here, and was it right for Europeans to settle here afterward? Historical evidence shows that they have been here at since at least 25,000 B.C. but any discussion of this topic without more precise scientific instruments to discover the beginning of their settlement of America is purely speculative. In reference to whether the Europeans had a right to settle here, the Europeans had a right to explore North America and come into contact with the Native cultures, but I do not think they had a right to settle in Native territory without the consent of the Native Americans(something that can be obtained frequently by a few beads or trinkets.) 3.Christopher Columbus: overrated, or not given enough credit? Explain. Christopher Columbus is in some circles overrated and in others overrated. Some disregard his atrocities that he committed as governor pointing out only his deepfound moral conviction and effective leadership in his voyage in 1492, others however commit the greater error of not giving him enough credit and painting a caricature of him as a corrupt leader of the inquisition. Both analyses are incorrect and overall he is just like any of us having certain major flaws, but other admirable attributes. 4. True or false: the Puritans came to America in order to separate church from state (government). Explain. False, the puritans came to America as a religious group to form a religious colony and expelled and rejected nonpuritans. Granted they did come to America as victims of religious persecution but their emigration was not an endorsement of separation of Church from State but rather a rejection of England's religious beliefs. 5. In what ways did the colonies help build the economic strength of England? England was able to have access to many products found or cultivated in the United States such as tobacco, and other crops. The way that England's outsourcing of goods to us bolstered their economy is analogous to our outsourcing of manufacturing to China and India. 6. Spain settled America before England did. So why is the United States an English-speaking nation, rather than a Spanish speaking one? Firstly the areas that Spain settled are in fact Spanish speaking(central and south America) Also England was able to settle more effectively in North America because they settled in families instead of like Spain's sending soldiers to subdue the Natives and then settle. H1. Learning from the experience of the early settlements and colonies, how might our homeschooling community improve today? The main focus of early settlements and colonies were frequently to be freed from religious persecution and to not compromise religious values, but the other theme of these colonies was simply survival, so this could be applied to the homeschooling community by saying that our focus should be on survival and expanding of our community but without compromising our values. H2. Was it expensive to establish a colony? If so, who paid for it? It was certainly expensive to establish a colony because they would have to pay for ships to transport the colonists, and other materials to bargain with indians and even further materials to needed for survival. The English government, English companies and English Aristocrats were the main funders of these ventures. H3.Discuss any of the debate or discussion topics from the lecture. I will discuss whether the european settlers had a right to explore america. I believe they did, because contact between our two very different cultures could not always live in passive separation and contact between our cultures is not beneficial but commendable. What I am not so sure about is the Europeans invasion of Native American territory. The question is, did the aztec country that the europeans invaded have a legitimate government. If so the europeans had no right to invade it unless they wanted the value of sovereignty for their own countries to be discarded, if the aztecs, however, did not have a legitimate government than the question becomes a quite simple yes. I believe the aztec culture, although it did have human sacrifice and other abuses, was a developed enough culture to have a government that can be considered legitimate, and so the Europeans were wrong in invading the Aztecs.

Paul R.