Letter to an Extraterrestrial Alien - Essay Example

7th December Dear (Alien’s Hey! How are you? I hope you are doing okay. The last time we met you had asked me about my planet and this planet’s history. Well, I am from the planet Earth, as you know, and it has many countries and other places. I will probably send you a book if I write about all of that now. LOL! (This means to “Laugh Out Loud”.) So, for this letter, I will first tell you about my country, the United States. Ready? First, I’ll tell you about Columbus, Cortez and the natives. Columbus was a Portuguese explorer who wanted to sail to Asia using a different route but he didn’t get any support from his king. So, he asked help from the king and queen of Spain who eventually agreed to support him. During his search, he accidentally found land which he thought was Asia but was really the Caribbean islands as they are called now. Columbus eventually made three more trips to the “New World” and established a settlement on one of the islands. He was made Governor but his abusive rule caused the loss of his reputation, title and wealth. Hernando Cortes or Cortes also came from Spain but his expedition brought him to Mexico. Here, Cortes built a settlement and made friends with the inhabitants, people called the Aztecs. The natives thought that Cortes was part of a prophecy and so they accepted him warmly. Later on, the two groups disagreed with each other. While Cortes was away to fight another Spanish group who was trying to capture him, the Aztec revolted in the capital, Tenochtitlan and eventually the Spanish left the city. In 1521, Cortes and his men returned to Tenochtitlan, conquered the Aztecs and established a new settlement which is now known as Mexico. As you may have noticed when Columbus and Cortez came to the “New World” there were already people living on the islands. It is believed that groups of people called the Paleo-Indians were already inhabitants of the “New World” before the Europeans came. The Paleo-Indians were hunters. There are two theories of how they came to America. One is that they supposedly followed mammoths, their source of food, using a land bridge when the sea level was very low. Another theory is that they came using very primitive boats. Either way, this theory is the most commonly used explanation now for the discovery of America. So, people from Europe started to come and live here in America with the natives. Among these was a group supported by the Virginia Company of London. The group arrived at Cape Henry and explored the area of Chesapeake Bay. Part of the people who arrived and settled here was Captain John Smith. This is a long shot but have you heard of the story of Pocahontas? If you have, then you would know Captain John Smith. If not, then he led the explorations in Jamestown and made the settlement somehow productive with his iron will. This group was the first permanent English settlement in America. They became successful when they discovered that money could be made from tobacco. Another group was called the pilgrims. The pilgrims arrived in Plymouth Harbor, as they named it, 1620 on a ship called the Mayflower. With their interactions with the natives, the pilgrims learned to plant corn, fish and hunt. They celebrated their harvest with a feast in 1621. This is why we have a Thanksgiving holiday now. All in all the people who came to live in the “New World” could be grouped into thirteen colonies. These were a mixture of Puritans, Quakers, Catholics and more and they built their settlements on different parts of the New World. I am embarrassed to admit that from the first people to now, we could not settle matters among ourselves without some sort of fighting. Do you fight in your place, too? I am happy to say though that wars have been fewer. Nevertheless, I think our ancestors, a general name we use for all the people from long ago, should have found a way to solve their problems without fighting. There had been several major problems in the history of America which caused fights. I do not want you to read very, very long letter so I will just tell you about the important wars that made America what it is now. Remember, we weren’t called the United States of America a long time ago. I told you about the first English colony in Jamestown earlier right? Well, they had a conflict with one of the Indian chiefs and the natives killed a lot of the English settlers. Another war with the natives was the King Philip’s War. Actually, “King Philip” was the English people’s name for the head of the natives, Metacomet. Supposedly, Metacomet did not like how the colonists kept buying land and making settlements. As a response to the executions of native Americans made by the Plymouth Colony, a group of natives started attacking the colonies. The English settlers attacked back and the fighting spread with the colonies working together. The Virginia Colony with Nathaniel Bacon was one of those colonies trying to drive away the natives. In addition, they were rebelling against their Governor William Berkeley, who did not want to get back at the natives. Consequently, the English won, Metcomet died and Britain started to become interested in the settlers. The next significant fighting was between Britain and the colonies. Important events led to this fight. After England won over the French in America, King George III and the Royal Proclamation of 1763 happened. The monarch wanted to create a new empire in North America and protect the native Indians from colonial expansion. Then, the Stamp Act of 1765 was made, taxing the colonies. Of course, the colonies became angry. In another incident, some soldiers in the British army killed five civilian men and injured six when an act of harassment towards a British soldier escalated. This was called the Boston Massacre and further angered the settlers. The colonists of Massachusetts headed by the Sons of Liberty showed their discontent with England rule by getting on British ships and dumping boxes of tea into Boston Harbor. Samuel Adams, a member of the group, helped in the making of the Declaration of Independence. Patrick Henry, another member, helped make the Bill of Rights. Angry after the Boston Tea Party, the British wanted to become stricter with the colonies and began making laws and enforcing these on the colony in Massachusetts. These made all the colonies hate Britain even more because the laws, called the Intolerable Acts, did not consider each colony’s rights. As a result, the thirteen colonies were now more eager to fight Britain. The American Revolutionary War is the significant fight I was telling you about. This resulted to the United States of America. If you notice, I had been mentioning colonies. There were thirteen colonies in the “New World” which were all ruled by the British. In the paragraph before this, I mentioned that they were starting not to like how the British were managing them. So, they fought to have independence. George Washington headed the troops and on July 4, 1776 the United States of America became independent. Washington also became the first president of the country. You would think that since the thirteen colonies united to fight the British they would continue to work together. Sadly, this was not so. When the states (the new name for the colonies) in the south argued that slaves were an important part of their economy, the states in the north disagreed. This was the cause of the American Civil War, the fight between the Union (northern states) and the Confederacy (southern states). I am also embarrassed to say that many people had experienced injustice in the course of American history. The Salem Witch trials were one instance where people were falsely accused and killed. This happened in Massachusetts, particularly in Salem. Women, mostly, were accused of practicing the Devil’s magic and were put to trial and executed. Later on, the officials admitted their mistakes but the people were already scared of being blamed, put in jail and hanged. Slavery was another aspect of early America that we are not proud of. As early as the time of Christopher Columbus, slaves were a part of civilization. Returning to France, Spain or England, the Europeans brought back a number of natives who were bought from their chiefs or forcibly put in ships. When the Europeans came to establish colonies in the America, they brought with them slaves to help harvest crops. Eventually, Africans, black-skinned people, became the most common slaves in colonial America. When the cotton industry became successful, more Africans were acquired and brought to America to work in the plantations. Slave trade became popular in the south. Slave life was hard. Slaves were not taught to read or write so they would be dependent on their owners. They were also abused, physically and sexually. Slave revolts were common. One that made a mark in history was that of Nat Turner’s. In 2 days, Turner and his group killed almost 60 white people before the authorities stopped them. Anti-slavery movements became stronger with members like Frederick Douglass, a black person who was a free man and white people like Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, a novel about anti-slavery. Consequently, after the Civil War, laws against slavery was made and enforced, making slavery illegal in the United States. There are still many more events and people involved I could talk about, but if I did, I’d probably be writing you a book and not a letter. If you still want to know more, tell me and I will write some more about American history next time. Hope to hear from you. Sincerely, (student’s name) Works Cited: Blumberg, Jess. “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials.” History & Archeology. Smithsonian.com. 24 Oct. 2007. Web. “Christopher Columbus.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, LLC. 1996-2012 Web. Deans, Bob. “Captain John Smith.” TIME Magazine. 26 April 2007. Web. “Death in Early America.” Digital History. 8 December 2012. Web. “Hernando Cortes (1485-1547).” History. BBC. 2012. Web. Giersbach, Walter. “Philip’s War: America’s Most Devastating Conflict.” 17 July 2004. Web. Kelly, Martin. “Bacon’s Rebellion.” About.com. 2012. Web. “Paleoindian.” Museumlink Illinois. Illinois State Museum. 2000. Web. “Samuel Adams.” Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Independence Hall Association. 1999-2012. Web “Slavery in America.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, LLC. 1996-2012 Web. “Smith’s Map.” Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historical Trail. National Park Service. 2008-2012. Web. “The Intolerable Acts.” Taking Action. Oracle Think Quest Education Foundation. n.d. Web. “The Pilgrims.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, LLC. 1996-2012 Web. Read More