Western Expansion 1860-1890

Western Expansion 1860-1890 The narrative of America has always been associated with Western Expansion using bounds and leaps starting from the East Coast until the Pacific. The acquisition of Alaska and Hawaii, though not included in the historical literature, signified the expansion of Americans westward maintaining the ideology of the Manifest Destiny. The Western expansion during the 19th century was aided by various factors such as purchases, treaties, and wars with the native. This essay develops the chronological events associated with the Western expansion that took place between 1860 and 1890. According to Kinnahan (407), the 19th century in America was marked by the continuous and tremendous expansion of agriculture and industry as well as settlement throughout the continent. The country’s population more than doubled by the 1890 census. Most of the financial progress was concentrated in the plains, Midwest, and Northwest states. Particularly, the northwest became the industrial periphery of the nation controlling more than 85 percent of the United States’ processing and manufacturing of raw materials in the West and Midwest. The South thrived as an agricultural state with minimal industrial activities. For many years prior to the Civil War, the Northern states were forced to conform to the wayward policies instituted by the South. The South held most of the Senate but as soon as their power began to dwindle, their unscrupulous laws were reformed. Some of the policies that allowed national and state development include the Homestead and the Morrill Land Grant Act. The Senate also decided to fund three continental railroads in accordance with the Transcontinental Railroad regulation. The Civil War proceeded to devastate the Southern states. Most of the fighting took place in the South destroying the essential infrastructure in the cities (Kinnahan, 410). The confederate currency and bonds became useless depriving the South of a considerable portion of their money. The emancipation of the bonded men and women also took away the South’s human resource and capital introducing the need to formulate a new labor system. The South did not have adequate funds to facilitate the reconstruction of its states. The sharecrop framework that took the place of slavery had minimal incentives for creativity and innovation. The Southern cities thus remained financially poor and experienced slow population growth (Kinnahan, 411). The South did not attract many individuals particularly the immigrants because of the lack of opportunities. Also, because of the low population growth, there were no incentives expand industrial growth and infrastructure. Hence, the South did not obtain rapid expansion like the former confederate states. The Southern cities continued to rely on agriculture with the exception of the establishment of the steel and iron factory in Birmingham. The Northern States controlled congress after the Civil War all through to the 20th century resulting in higher tariffs and rates that promote industrial growth and agriculture (Kinnahan, 417). The Midwest and North cities’ population grew at a faster rate than the South. However, the states in the United States remained interconnected by the road and railway systems. Most of the economic growth in the region arose due to innovation and natural resources. The number of business patents recorded by the Patent Office increased from 1815 until 1897. America also contained large reserves of copper, iron ore, coal as well as water energy, timber, metals, petroleum, and tracts of fertile land for farming. All the required raw materials were abundant in the United States propelling industrial progress (Kinnahan, 417). With an expanding economy came the need for more workers. Many immigrants moved to America to fill in the vacancies in the factories and other viable job opportunities. In the years between 1860 and 1890, a modern industrial economy sprouted in the United States. The country rose as one of the major economies in the globe. Its stable political structure, vast natural resources, and growth rate positioned it appropriately for continuous development. The rise of the modern economy affected the native tribes that lived in the West. The US government launched projects of industrialization and modernization that affected the native Indian communities (Reedy-Maschner and Maschner, 710). The land policies instituted by the leaders disrupted the non-Indians and Indians. They faced irreversible environmental deterioration and the deprivation of natural resources. The natives resorted to violent reactions, protests, sharecropper rebellions, and land invasions to counteract the territorial aggression. Furthermore, the natives were dehumanized using stereotypes and disparagement to conform to the socialization patterns and the dominant culture in the United States. Slowly, the land they once owned became national land sold to the highest bidder and the native communities were assimilated into the Western culture (Reedy-Maschner and Maschner, 721). Much of the land claimed by settlers in the Western region belonged Native American communities that had utilized it for centuries. The indigenous people were not only forced out of their land, but they also lost their traditions. Between 1868 and 1877, over 200 battles were fought between the Indians and the US Army in a bid to preserve their land. By the end of the 18th century, the American farmers were enriching themselves and feeding the planet. The ethos enacted by the European ancestry justified the motives of the US leadership to confiscate the Indian terrorist for economic development (Reedy-Maschner and Maschner, 740). True to that, the United States experienced tremendous progress at the expense of the loss of land and culture of the Native Americans. The traditional analogy of the Wild West captures the alienation of the Native Americans and the events that took place.

Pyramus And Thisbe Vs. Romeo And Juliet - 1220 Words

Kevin Lord Josue Prof. Elizabeth Fogle CAMS 045 Final Paper/Final Draft August 15, 2014 Pyramus Thisbe vs. Romeo Juliet Tragic love stories have always been appealing to the literary world. This would be seen in Ovid s Pyramus and Thisbe and William Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet. Ovid, one of Rome’s greatest poets, was famous for The Metamorphoses. His love stories were deeply emotional, yet very tragic. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is the most emotional story in The Metamorphoses and the most referenced in love tragedy. William Shakespeare s best plays were his tragedies, starting with Hamlet all the way through to Macbeth. No one knows exactly which source Shakespeare directly drew from to create the well-known tragic romance, Romeo and Juliet, but it s pretty clear that somewhere along the way there was some major influence from â€Å"Pyramus and Thisbe.† Both stories, although written in different era share one key theme: love and tragedy. We fall in love and when once we do something rare and beautiful is created. Unfortunately not all love stories have happy endings. The lesso n learned in both Pyramus and Thisbe and Romeo and Juliet stories will be the focus of this essay. Pyramus and Thisbe were lovers whose houses side by side to each other. They were considered so beautiful that â€Å"If you searched all the East, you’d find no girl with greater charm than Thisbe; and no boy in Babylon was handsomer than Pyramus† (Ovid 111). Overtime from livingShow MoreRelatedOvid’s Pyramus and Thisbe Influence on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet816 Words   |  3 Pagestragic plays, Romeo and Juliet. Although Shakespeare may have extremely embellished the story, the plot of Romeo and Juliet is extremely parallel to the one in Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe. The two stories share a common theme. And the stories’ conclusion is essentially identical. It is clear to see, apart from Shakespeare’s extra ornate details, that the stories of Romeo and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe are extremely related to each other. In Ovid’s story, the parents of Thisbe and Pyramus forbids the

Feminism in Jane Eyre free essay sample

Feminism in Jane Eyre After reading Jane Eyre, I think Jane Eyre is a great woman. Jane is disadvantaged in many ways as she has no wealth, family, social position or beauty. Jane does have intelligence though, and her disposition is such to make Rochester fall in love with her. Through a serious of troublesome situations between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, the author set up a great female image before us: insisting on maintaining an independent personality, pursuing individual freedom, advocating equality of life and being confident in hard conditions. And the most observably thing she shows us is the feminism. In the beginning of Jane Eyre, Jane struggles against Bessie, the nurse at Gateshead Hall, and says, I resisted all the way: a new thing for me. (Chapter 2). This sentence foreshadows what will be an important theme of the rest of the book, that of female independence or rebelliousness. We will write a custom essay sample on Feminism in Jane Eyre or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Jane is here resisting her unfair punishment, but throughout the novel she expresses her opinions on the state of women. Tied to this theme is another of class and the resistance of the terms of ones class. Spiritual and supernatural themes can also be traced throughout the novel. Soon after Jane is settled at Lowood Institution she finds the enjoyment of expanding her own mind and talents. She forgets the hardships of living at the school and focuses on the work of her own hands. She is not willing to give this up when she is engaged to Rochester. She resists becoming dependent on him and his money. She does not want to be like his mistresses, with their fancy gowns and jewels, but even after she and Rochester are married, she wants to remain as Adeles governess. She is not willing to give up her independence to Rochester, and tries to seek her own fortune by writing to her uncle. In the end, when she does have her own money, she states, I am my own mistress (Chapter 37). Jane not only shows me her beliefs on female independence through her actions, but also through her thoughts. Jane desires to see more of the world and have more interaction with its people. While she appreciates her simple life at Thornfield, she regrets that she does not have the means to travel. She relates her feelings to all women, not just those of her class, saying: Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts s much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags (Chapter 12). It is also important here to talk about Bertha, for she is a female character who is often seen resisting. It may be wondered why Jane seems to have little sympathy for her, and part of the reason for this may be seen with how Bertha is portrayed. While Bertha is a woman, she is not presented as such. She is described in animal-like terms, and is called it, not even she in the beginning. Jane describes her meeting with Bertha as such: In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell: it groveled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing; and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face (Chapter 26). There is an ample amount of evidence to suggest that the tone of Jane Eyre is in fact a very feminist one and may well be thought as relevant to the women of today who feel they have been discriminated against because of their gender. At the beginning of the 19th century, little opportunity existed for women, and thus many of them felt uncomfortable when attempting to enter many parts of society. The absence of advanced educational opportunities for women and their alienation from almost all fields of work gave them little option in life: either becomes a house wife or a governess. Although today a tutor may be considered a fairly high class and intellectual job, during the Victorian, a governess was little more than a servant who was paid to share her scarce amount of knowledge in limited fields to a child. With little respect, security, or class one may certainly feel that an intelligent, passionate and opinionated young woman such as Jane Eyre should deserve and be capable of so much more. In the mid-nineteenth century, a woman would have carried the burden of staying in her place. In other words, she was subject to the generally accepted standards and roles that society had placed upon her, which did not necessarily provide her with liberty, dignity or independence. Yet if Charlotte Brontes character Jane Eyre had truly existed in that time period, she would have defied most of these cultural standards and proved herself a paradigm for aspiring feminists of her day. Janes commitment to dignity, independence, freedom of choice, unwillingness to submit to a m ans emotional power and willingness to speak her mind were fostered by some female characters in the novel. Yet these traits also contrast sharply with some of Brontes other female characters Jane Eyre can be labeled as a feminist role model due to her relationships with men that defied the generally accepted role. While Jane is often inspired by women who share her views, two women contrast sharply with Jane, which emphasizes both her free-thinking tendencies and her role as a woman unconstrained by societal demands. Blanch Ingram and Bessie are two female characters in the novel who have given in to those demands. Blanche Ingram is probably the best example of a woman who does not fall under the category of feminist, due to her misplaced self-worth. Blanche is not deeply in love with Rochester, yet she wishes to marry him because of his wealth. As Jane attests, Blanche cannot truly like him, or not like him with true affection. If she did, she need not coin her smiles so lavishly, flash her glances so unremittingly, manufacture airs so elaborate, graces so multitudinous (Chapter 15). These actions, along with her fancy garments and constant obsession with her appearance, show that Blanche places her self-worth on two components of marriage ability: her physical beauty and the social status that she has the potential to obtain. This stands in sharp contrast to Jane, who prides herself on being independent from a man and not defining herself by the riches Mr. Rochester offers her. Jane also contrasts, but in a different way, with her former maid Bessie Lee. Jane has the ability to finish her schooling and the opportunity to marry outside of her social class despite the challenge. Bessie marries Robert Leaven, a coachman who would be considered in the same social class, and is therefore confined to that class through the end of the novel. Though Bessie is happily married, her marriage contrasts with Janes, which will lift Jane into a new social class and therefore a new life. The heroine of the novel Jane Eyre has undoubtedly succeeded in building up the image of a woman who has the courage to fight against the unfair reality and pursue the equality in life. She calls for women to struggle for and be the mastery of their own lives. During the whole story, Jane serves as a

Intro Essays - File Sharing Networks, Virtual Communities

Intro I can still picture those long lines and high prices of the latest CD. This has now become just another one of my childhood memories. No more lines or handing someone else my twenty-dollar bill. We can get our music for free now. This has been called one of the best inventions of the century. Many people including myself spend hours on top of hours downloading all those hard to get songs. Finally the consumers are the ones in control. Summary Shawn fanning a nineteen-year-old multi million dollar dropout had the same dream as many Americans had. One day he awoke and didn't go back to sleep until his task was completed. What was his task? To create a software program where people could share their music for free. This technology is called peer-to-peer file sharing and it's the biggest thing to hit the Internet since the Internet. Money and lawsuits are now rolling into Shawn's pockets like water. Record companies have been working feverishly day and night to try and put a stop to this fad. Companies realized how much this would affect their profits. Buyers could pay $18.99 plus tax for a CD or just spend twenty minutes online for free. As of yet, no one has been able to stop Napster. Even though some court cases are still in judgment it doesn't look to good for the record companies. This has knocked record companies on their feet. Napster is going to stay running for now. Response Napster. One word that is known by people of middle class, lower class, old, young, black, white nearly any classification. What would a car be like without a stereo? Can you imagine? Music is very important to people just like their money. So why waste your money when you don't have to. Napster, while being praised by buyers, hated by artists, and loved by Internet geeks, has done wonders to the music and Internet industry. Many artists have tried to stop this worldwide trend by filling lawsuits and starting groups against Napster. Metallica filed a lawsuit and won yet their music is still being download. On the other hand Limp Bizkit recently did a concert with Napster as the sole advertiser. Still, artists seem to think this software is legal theft. Companies have stilled failed to look at the hard facts. The music industry has had a 6.4% increase for this year alone (SpeakOut). Records are being broken with groups like N'Sync selling 2.4 million CD's the first week of sales (SpeakOut). So why are record companies and artists still angry? Greed!!! Napster is good for publicity. I'm sure a new group wouldn't mind having their music downloaded by 800 million people. That's as good as it gets. What is music made for? Last I heard it was for people. If this is true why don't we have a say in this matter? This is looked over by companies. Since Napster's debut people have been able to download that song they haven't heard since they were sixteen. Many people support Napster and resent the fact that it's called stealing. Prices have increased about five dollars a CD (SpeakOut). Napster gives hard working people a chance to sit by the fire and listen to their favorite jazz piece. Besides all this is, is another hobby. I don't care how cheap you are no one is going to download and burn a CD as a Christmas gift. People are still going to go to the store and reach for the plastic wrapped case. If the courts decide to ban Napster there is always going to be some kind of loop whole, I mean c'mon it's the Internet. So why waste more of your money with expensive lawsuits? Shawn fanning's invention of the P2P system is one of the biggest talked about subjects in technology. People can use it to download whole movies off the Internet and even the Centers for Disease Control are using it. Our own government!!! This is only the beginning to a whole new e-era. Hundreds of services are going to branch off from Napster. So why try to ban Napster when your going to have to do the same thing with hundreds of other categories. Obviously P2P