21.04.2009
The American Revolutuion. War of Independence. 1775-1783
The Early Republic (1783)
Republicanism from wikipedia
On the west of Appalachian mountains, there is place named Vandalia. King George III thought that it was a suitable name for that place. For more information please click here
For Thomas Paine`s Common Sense please click here
and for wikipedia link click here
First Continental Congress from wikipedia click here please. 12 of the 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Only Georgia did not attend, because Georgia was still a royalist colony.
The Second Continental Congress from wikipedia click here please. 13 of the colonies attended this congress.
After the second continental congress, the confederation congress gathered, which
opened in the last stages of the American Revolution. Congress becomes the congress of the confederation in March 1st 1781. For more information from Wikipedia please click over Congress of Confederation.
So, the result is: The Decleration of Independence is the result of the second continental congress.
Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the United States. Congress met illegally and secretly at night in Philedelphia to sign the declaration. Colonists were dissatisfied, because they had to hause English soldiers in their homes. English soldiers at the American houses. This was also one of the reasons why they gathered in Philedelphia.
King George III brought 30 thousand German soldiers to colonies, because he was a German King. King promissed them Vandalia across the Appalachian Mountains. These soldiers were used in the American Revolutionary War by the British king George III whose origins comes from Germany. This was a common practice at the time. Petty crimainals and debtors were often included in the ranks and the units were rented out from one country to another. About thirty thousand so called Hessians were used by the British during the American Revolutionary War.
Thomas Jefferson blamed the king
for slave trade. However, it was strange, because Thomas Jefferson himself had a lot of slaves. Professor talked about Benjamin Franklin as well. Benjamin Franklin is one of the writers of
theDeclaration of Independence. He is one of the Founding Fathers.
Some authors draw a distinction between the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or participated in the Revolution, and the Framers, who drafted the United States Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation, in 1787. George Washington was the dominant figure in both groups. He was joined by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and after that, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay.
Founding Fathers with their pictures click here
The 13 colonies whose delegates signed the Declaration of Independence were:
Delaware
Pennsylvania
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
New York
Georgia
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
New Jersey
Connecticut
Maryland
The document was prepared, and on July 1. Nine delegations voted for separation, despite warm opposition on the part of Dickinson. On the following day at the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, with the New York delegation abstaining only because it lacked permission to act, the Lee resolution was voted on and endorsed. (The convention of New York gave its consent on July 9, and the New York delegates voted affirmatively on July 15.) On July 19 the Congress ordered the document to be engrossed as “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America.” It was accordingly put on parchment, probably by Timothy Matlack of Philadelphia. Members of the Congress present on August 2 affixed their signatures to this parchment copy on that day, and others later. The last signer was Thomas McKean of Delaware, whose name was not placed on the document before 1777. internet link
Names of the delegates who signed the Decleration of Independence: click here
For a very useful internet link about the Declaration of Independence: click here
The first paragraph indicates what the declaration is for. There is no reference to the christian God. Separation of religion and politics. Second paragraph reveals
the ideas of Thomas Paine or John Locke which is, people give
power and elect their governments. Everything written on the Declaration of Indepence is from the American point view.
Symbol of the militia of Massachusetts was a rattlesnake. JOIN or DIE. For the meaning of rattlesnake from cambridge click here
American unity
Benjamin Franklin is famous for his sense of humor. In 1751, he wrote a satirical commentary in his Pennsylvania Gazette suggesting that as a way to thank the Brits for their policy of sending convicted felons to America, American colonists should send rattlesnakes to England.
This is taken from internet, and it is a useful link please click here
The Gadsden Flag : DONT TREAD ON ME
Where the Gadsden Flag first appears in recorded history: at the first mustering of the U.S. Marine Corps and the first mission of the Continental Navy.
Facts About Founding Fathers on Federal Reserve Notes:Many denominations of today’s Federal Reserve Notes feature portraits of men regarded as Founding Fathers of the country because of their roles in creating and developing the new nation of the United States of America. Some of the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers that appear on U.S. paper money are listed below. click here
1787 Fugio Cents , in the reader it is Franklin`s Fugio copper coin. Explanation from internet click here and also click here which is very very useful.
We see on the Fugio Copper Coins the protestant work ethic and the reflection of protestant New Engalnd. Mind your business reflects the central puritan way of life.
For another very useful explanation from internet please click here.
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Explanations of the Professor: Eagle: The eagle is the American national eagle. On the right hand it holds an olive branch which represents peace. On the left hand it has 13 arrows of war. Pyramid of the republic: Pyramid is not finished, so it means work is in progress and U.S. is growing. Eye of providence is watching. U.S. is building itself. Annuit Coeptis means he favours our endeavours. endeavour from oxford from cambridge. Oxford has another explanations, but I put that explanation on purpose to indicate the puritan effect behind these icons.
Novus Ordo Seclorum : New Wold Order. |
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General George Washington was the first president of the U.S.
Marquis de Lafayette - General of the French troops- helped George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. Without French tropps, George Washington would lose.
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to Austrian Habsburg Queen Maria Theresia. He wanted to visit Austria,but Maria Theresia said that he was not welcome. However, if he recommends American animals for Palace Schönbrunn, then she would invite him.
The U.K. does not have a written constitution. There is a system of Common low in the United Kingdom. If somebody wants to divorce or demand something else, then the British judges look at the previous cases. How were the same cases verdicted in the former times - you know bla bla bla- and then the judges give their decisions.
The constitution defines the three main branches of the
government :
The executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch.
The Executive Branch clik here and click here
The Legislative Branch click here and click here
The Judicial Branch click here and click here
The legislative branch of the federal government consists of the Congress, which is divided into two chambers -- the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each member of Congress is elected by the people of his or her state. The House of Representatives, with membership based on state populations, has 435 seats, while the Senate, with two members from each state, has 100 seats. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms, and Senators are elected for six-year terms.
In the lesson, professor talked about the low giving branch and the legislative branch. He did not talk about the executive branch. President is the head of the
executive branch. According to the professor, president is in the legislative branch, because he did not mention the executive branch. The information I wrote above is taken from the official
homepage of the whitehouse. I will try to discuss this matter with the professor. If I cannot discuss before the exam, I will write in the exam as the whitehouse homepage writes. Maybe during the
lesson I missed the point where he talked about the executive branch. Also wikipedia gives the same information as the official website gives. Click here please.
President of the U.S. cannot dissolve the congress, but Queen can dissolve the parliament. Supreme Court cheks the power of president and congress.
British Parliament consists of Sovereign, House of Commons and House of Lords.
The U.S. Congress consists of House of Representatives - members elected for 2 years- and the Senate - members elected for 6 years-. The 100 Senators serve staggered six-year terms. Each state has two senators, regardless of population. Every two years, approximately one-third of the Senate is elected at a time.
As it can be seen in this link, the Queen is the third component of the
U.K. Parliament. However, the President is not the third component of the U.S. Congress. President is the head of the executive branch.However if we look at the early stages of the U.S. history we
see that the president was chosen among the congress. For some interesting piece of information you may click here.
In 1783==> There were large states and small states in terms of population, not in terms of size.
Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania were big states.
Maryland, Rhode Island, etc were small states.
Large states wanted more representation in congress while small states wanted the representation to be equal throughout the states.
Small states wanted representation in Congress to be equal for all states regardless of their size or population, because they felt each state was an equal partner in the new nation and feared that they would be outvoted in Congress by larger states if representation were based on population alone.
As a result of the Great Compromise of 1787, the Constitution provided for fundamentally different types of representation in the House and Senate. Membership in the
House is proportional to the population of the state. The number of representatives to which each state is entitled is determined every 10 years after a national census, or head count, has been taken. In the 1st Congress
each member of the House represented about 30,000 constituents. By the 103rd Congress the average House member represented nearly 600,000 constituents. At first the number of representatives grew
with each census, from 105 after the 1790 census to 435 after the 1910 census. Then Congress froze the
number at 435 to keep the House at a manageable size.
The membership of the Senate grows by two each time a new state joins the Union. Every state is entitled to two senators, regardless of the size of its population. Before the ratification of the 17th
Amendment in 1913, when senators were still elected by state legislatures, senators were compared to ambassadors, representing their state's political establishment in the national legislature. With
direct election of senators, however, senators see themselves as representing the people of their state, who voted them into office. Taken from this link
Benjamin Franklin was the official printer of Pennsylvania.
Iroquois: They were 6 tribes. These tribes had meeting places and they had peace trees. Each tribe
would send a war chief, and the war chiefs would talk it out at the peace tree. 6 chiefs and
the more powerful had the more soldiers behind. Peace Queen(woman) puts the crown on the head of the chief and then he starts to talk. There was such a system among these 6 tribes.
Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora are the names of these tribes.
During the American Revolution, many Tuscarora and the Oneida sided with the Americans, while the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga remained loyal to Great Britain. This marked the first major split among the Six Nations. Many Indians supported Britain in the American Revolution, because they didn't want the Colonists to take over their land and were hoping a defeat might send them all back to where they came from.
Proclamation of 1763:
In the fall of 1763, a royal decree was issued that prohibited the North American colonists from establishing or maintaining settlements west of an imaginary line
running down the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation acknowledged that Native Americans owned the lands on which they were then residing and white settlers in the area were to be
removed.
However, provision was made to allow specially licensed individuals and entities to operate fur trading ventures in the proscribed area. There were two motivations for this policy: click here
Rhode Island did not want to join the states. However, it joined the states because of the trade.
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (that is the official name) was technically admitted into the Union on May 29, 1790. However, it was one of the
original thirteen colonies that broke from Britain. After replacing the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union with the Constitution. It appears that the original thirteen colonies were admitted into the union upon ratification of the Constitution. There was probably not controversy in admitting them into the union, but as Rhode Island was the last original state to ratify the
Constitution, there might have been controversy in Rhode Island, but no one knows. Taken from here. Because of the trade they joined the states. This is what the professor said.
Flags above are:
1. Washington`s Flag
2. Stars and Stripes 1777
3. Star-Spangled Banner at Ford McHenry, 1814 There are 15 stripes and 15 stars. Two states joined.
4. 48 Stars until 1959
5. The present plag.
For the flags please clik here. You will find all of the flags. Above I used the definitions of the reader. In the internet link, the definitions are sometimes different. 15 stripes and 15 stars were
used only on the 1814 Star- Spamgled Banner Flag. The same flag is introduced in the homepage as 1795-1818 15 Star USA Flag. On the following flag of 1818-1819 20 Star USA Flag, there are 20 stars
but 13 stripes. The convention never changed from then on. No matter how many states joined, they were represented by only stars not stripes from 1818 onwards.
These two states joined the states on these dates:
Alaska - 3 January 1959
Hawaii - 21 August 1959
THE END