Josh Hill HIST 1700 038

What is American Civilization #2

American civilization is mostly the study of people in North America. It focuses on the start and growth of the United States. It mostly starts with the pilgrimage of European people coming from England, France, Spain, and several other smaller countries. The expansion starts with various wars with the Native Americans who were protecting their homelands from the invasion of the Europeans. Eventually the Europeans had pushed them back with their superior firepower and military tactics. This allowed the settlers to build cities and a new civilization in North America. The English had been makings the lives of those settlers in the New England area very hard and were placing tons of taxes on them. This sparked a group of people to begin to cause issues for the English and to get them to remove the taxes that were set. After years of this happening, there was a meeting where this group of men had decided to create the Declaration of Independence, which started a revolution from England. The war was won by the revolutionists and the United States of America began. American civilization can now grow and expand past the Appellation Mountains and westward toward the Pacific. This begins the idea of manifest destiny, where it is believed that it is Gods plan to have the United States span across the North American continent from sea to sea. Americans continued to move west and began to build railways that would connect the entire country and make travel much faster.

The civilization of America has grown out of many different issues and their outcomes. Nothing would be the same if the Civil War was lost by the Union, or if people like Martin Luther King Jr. or George Washington had stepped up to actually do something to better the lives and living conditions of those who surrounded them. Many people around the world love America because of the culture that is created here. Everything is so different in the United States because there are so many different cultures and civilizations that have migrated here and fused together. Music is a really good example of this fusion. You have music that has the beats from Africa and the words about living away from your homeland in Europe. There is no real definition to American civilization without also defining the civilization of the world with it, because every culture has a say in what America really is.