Political Institutions after Independence in America - Essay Example

US History Introduction During and after independence period in United s, many changes have taken place in different angles of life. This was the period in which people struggled to establish their economy by participating in farming and building of industries. There was massive immigration ad slavery as in America as people struggled to acquire labor for their newly established industries. Different organizations and associations wee established to address the issues of different categories of people such as women and physically challenged. This period was marked by rapid transformations in different sectors of the economy. Impact of Farming in Central America Population Agricultural is a significant economic activities especially in the middle and low income communities. In Central America, agricultural has been the main source of earning for the population in living in that area (Hammil, 2005). This is because many people are employed directly or indirectly in agriculture. There are those who earn income by working in the farms, the owners of the farm enterprises get profits from the farms and others work as processors of the agricultural commodities while others are working as distributors and marketers of agricultural commodities. In the supply chain, some people work indirectly as policy makers or as suppliers of farm inputs and so on. In addition, agriculture has been the source of food for the communities living in Central America (Stem, 2001). Therefore, many people in that region rely on agriculture as a source of food for their families. This has resulted to improved dietary for the community of living around Central America. However, agricultural practices in Central America have negative consequences as well. Because of commercialization of this activity, many people use chemicals such as pesticides and fungicides in farming (Lindenmayer, et.al, 2012). This has caused the immense attrition of the biodiversity and global warming due to green house gas, hence causing a lot of human sufferings due to erratic weather variations and direct effects of chemicals from farming activities. Colonization of America by Spanish, French, and English According to Brading (1993), Spanish ruled in Central America for about four hundred years, since 1492-1898. Their target was to establish Christianity (Catholic) religion and trade with the America by recruiting local citizens. Spanish replaced Indians leaders with their own pioneers. Spain used their military men to spread trade and religion in America. The Spanish colonizers intermarried with local Americans resulting to a community of Latin Americans which grew into the commercial venture. According to French approached Central America as Dutch with trade motives. The French group was mainly composed of men as traders and armed forces. This resulted to French intermarriages with Indians. They also established plantations and later on they started to impart their culture on the indigenous people into their own culture. According to MacMillan (2010), British colonizers settled in America with motive of establishing a settlement and acquire wealth. Unlike the French and Spain colonizers who relied of traders and military men to establish their colony in Central America, British established their own families and never recognized the indigenous people. Consequently, there were little intermarriages between British settlers and Americans. As a result of this, British colonizers had little impact on Americans ways of life. Indented Servants versus African Slaves in America According to Johnston (2012) during the early days of American civilization, employers found it hard to hire workers because most of the people were able to start their own businesses or establish farms. As a result, workers obtained indented servants or African slaves as a source of labor. According to Marrin (2009) indentured servants were young boys and girls under the age of 21 years who were transported from either Germany or Britain to go and work in America either willingly or kidnapped and shipped to America. They were not charged any travel fee but they worked for free for a specified time to pay for the travel cost. During indenture period indented servants were provided with basic requirements such as food, clothing and accommodation. However, after the indenture period, they would set free to start their own businesses or seek for paid employment of their own choice. African Slaves were forcefully acquired from Africa and shipped to America among other nations where they were sold just like trade commodities to provide permanent source of free labor to their master. They worked for as long as they lived and according to the will of the master (Johnston, 2012). Unlike indentured servants who worked for a fixed period of time African slaves had no option, but were left at the mercy of the master. Therefore, most American employers preferred African slaves to indented servants because slaves provided permanent source of labour to their masters while indented servants were contracted workers. Mercantilist System According to Endres & Fleming (2002) mercantile system refers to strategies which were applied by developing nations to promote the growth of their economies by accumulating wealth from export of their commodities and reducing their expenditures through import reduction. Economist valued the wealth of nations in terms of gold, silver and other precious commodities they held. In order for nations to increase their exports earning s and reduce import expenditures they had to acquire more colonies, which they converted into sources of raw materials for their industries. They also had to convert the colonies into market for their processed goods. The colonies were also required to pay levies or tributes to heir master for the effective administration of colonies (Hoekman & Kostecki, 2001). For example, Britain required colonies such as America to pay taxes to the British Government administration of the colonies. British nation had established numerous colonies in order to increase their wealth by establishing many sources of materials and cheap labour. However, the British colonial government incurred great expenses for administering the colonies. Therefore, they demanded the colonies to pay for administration cost of which Americans did not take kindly. This made Americans to start pursuing their freedom. Great Awakening According to Leighton (2001) great awakening is a period which was characterized by influence of religious ideologies in England and their colonies. During this period, many beliefs, faiths and religions came into existence and influence the existing religions. During this period, different groups of people acquired different faiths and this resulted to quest for liberty of the colonies. This was partly because some sects emphasized on the equality of all people regardless of their economic, social or political origins. Also, these religions taught different doctrines hence making people to acquire different faith according to their desires. This changed the way of thinking of the people as they become more enlightened with religion matters (Goen, 1962). Some people wanted freedom in the way they did their own things. There was no single religion which fully influenced the way people behaved or their way of thinking. Many of the British colonies developed a new way of thinking whereby they no longer believed that the power of God trickled down through the political leaders to their subjects. They realized that the will of God was for people to live an equal life since they were all equal before God. Therefore, these made the colonies to revolt against their colonizers and seek for their liberty. England and French Alliance with their Natives According to Crawford (2001) when England conquered Americans they started mistreating the natives and interfered with their system of governance. They also influenced their economic and social ways of life by breaking the solidarity which existed among the natives. For example, they attacked the American ships hence making the natives to dislike them. British was more focused on power and trade hence they did not carry out much farming to support their people with food. Therefore, they had to rely on natives for food and other essentials. However, they exercised force to acquire what they wanted in case natives were not willing to give it out to them. According to Denys (1995) French did not settle in large number in America. They were much interested in trade and they relied on natives as middle men in their trade missions. This enabled even the natives to draw wealth from trading activities. Consequently, the native leaders were able to strengthen their leadership since they were responsible for disbursing wealth from trade among their communities (Greer, 2000). Therefore, French community enjoyed a cordial relationship with the natives because they incorporated the natives in their trade activities rather than exercising force to humiliate them like what British did. Disagreements at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 According to Urofsky & Finkelman (2002) between the years 1781-1787, the States of America used to have a single representative from each state in the congress. During revision of the constitution two suggestions were brought forth regarding how the states would be represented in the congress. The first one was “Virginia plan” which suggested that the congress should be characterized by the number of representatives according to the number of people from each state. Therefore, the higher the number of people in each states the more the members they will have in the congress. A contrary opinion was a suggested by “New Jersey Plan” which required each state to produce equal members of the congress regardless of their total population (Jillson, 2002). These two antagonistic suggestions brought a lot of controversies that requires an amicable solution that would incorporate both ideas. In order to satisfy both sides of the opinions, conciliation was arrived at by having a contribution from each side of the plans. This resulted to an establishment two assemblies of congress to incorporate both ideas. These were representatives and senates houses. The new requirements were that the senate chamber should have uniform members from each state while the House of Representatives should be formed by members from the state according to each state’s residents on (Tulis & Macedo, 2010). Wartime Experiences of the Revolution and the Effects on Women, Slaves, and Natives American independence war took place between the year of 1775 to 1783 involved the Great Britain Kingdom and her thirteen colonies including United States (John, 2006). At the onset of war, the colonies were unprepared since they did not have experience or arms. Each of the states involved in war supported its own army. However, the British army was adequately armed but was inadequate in number. This was contributed by lack means to transport British soldiers the battle fields. They resulted into hiring armies from African slaves and promised them employment. Americans also reacted by allowing African slaves o join their armed force. As a consequence of revolution in America, many of the slaves were set free and even got an opportunity to work for payment as opposed to offering free labour they used to offer before the revolution. Some slaves died of diseases or were killed by British (Bullock, 2003). The American natives were separated as some supported British soldiers with others remained either on the side of Americans or undecided on who to trust. Women were also seriously affected as they lost their husbands and children to the fighters. Some were mistreated and others kidnapped by the British soldiers. The revolution resulted to autonomy of United States. Family and Religion on Institution of Slavery When Christianity was first introduced in America, the role of missionaries was to convert both slave and their masters. They emphasized that slaves should remain obedient to their masters just as they would remain loyal to their God. Missionaries encouraged masters to allow their slaves to join the church while exercising full authority over them. They also insisted that a master had a duty to punish his slave for disobedience. As time progressed and as more slave joined Christianity, they started demanding for their freedom as a pre-requisite of showing love to one another. They also gain support from some missionaries especially from Methodist community who advocated for the freedom of slaves. Initially, religion advocated for slavery, but with time it became an avenue for freedom of the slaves. Slavery separated families after one or more of the family members were sold into slavery. Slaves were considered as property by their owners and worked for them for free. However, the rich men who owned slaves encouraged them to marry so that they could continue working for them. Therefore, married slaves were unlikely to escape since they felt bound by their families hence this encouraged slavery. Marbury V. Madison According to Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 1 Cranch 137, 2 L. Ed. 60 (1803)., President John Adams had appointed” forty two peace justices and sixteen new circuit court justices” to serve Columbia district in accordance to the Organic Act (Naden & Blue, 2005). However, the appointees were not inaugurated in their positions before the expiry of the term of President John Adams. Later the acting secretary of State John Marshall sealed the orders, but Thomas Jefferson failed to credit them by claiming that they were invalid. One of the appointees Mr. William Marbury applied to the Supreme Court requiring the court to force Jefferson’s secretary of state to honor the orders under the writ of Mandamus. The court failed to grant Mr. Marbury the writ of Mandamus because the Supreme Court did not have powers to issue writ of Mandamus hence Marbury failed in his court petition. This ruling limited the effort of federal states to exercise full power over federal judiciary hence this was a great victory for the democratic government (Mountjoy, 2009). This is because lack of the federal states to have full authority over the federal judiciary would give democrats a share in the federal judiciary. The legislation for the evacuation of inhabitant of North America from their area of residence was introduced by the President Andrew Jackson in collaboration with his deputy president Calhoun (Buchanan, 2001). The purpose of the law was to give the president authority to bargain with Native Americans who were living in the Southern United States for their dislocation to West territories in exchange for their homelands. Jackson intended to have the Native Americans moved near the river where they could practice their farming. The policy experienced criticism since some people like missionaries and some senators felt that it was unfair to dislocate Native Americans from the land they were occupying. Andrew Jackson Policy on Quest for Indian Removal The legislation for the evacuation of inhabitant of North America from their area of residence was introduced by the President Andrew Jackson in collaboration with his deputy president Calhoun (Buchanan, 2001). The purpose of the law was to give the president authority to bargain with Native Americans who were living in the Southern United States for their dislocation to West territories in exchange for their homelands. Jackson intended to have the Native Americans moved near the river where they could practice their farming. The policy experienced criticism since some people like missionaries and some senators felt that it was unfair to dislocate Native Americans from the land they were occupying. The residents of the South strongly encouraged this legislation so that they could have a chance to occupy the vacated lands (Cox, Ikenberry & Inoguchi, 2000). Following the enforcement of the legislation, some natives had to be transferred by power and this resulted to death of several natives. However, many people were moved successfully near the river whether they could practice farming. The resident of the North where Native Americans had been evacuated took the opportunity and occupied the land which was left vacant. Middle Class Middle class refers to people who live ahead of the poverty status but are below the status o those who own the resources (Hammil, 2005). In United States, capitalism encouraged some people who were in states authority to formulate regulations in their own favor. However, this resulted to another group of people between those in authority and the poor. Those who owned businesses offered jobs to educated people o run their businesses. These workers were paid according to roles and duties bestowed on them. However, these people were given better pay than the working class p this setup incorporated both male and female. However, due to the needs by firm owners to cut down the cost of running businesses, most of the operations in the firm were automated hence rendering many people jobless (Hoekman, 2001). This distorted the family structures in the sense that the wives of the middle class people had to start working in order to supplement the meager income their husbands obtained after losing their “white collar jobs.” American Immigrants in 1840s and 1850s After independence in America, people started to establish themselves economically by opening up new businesses and farms (Fehrenbacher & Mcafee, 2002). Most of these firms required a lot of labour whether skilled or unskilled. As a result, Americans sought for cheap labour from across the world. This resulted to massive immigration of people from different parts of the world to America. During the period between 1840s and 1850s, there were a large number of Irish immigrants especially following the outbreak of famine in their country. This particular group of immigrants was composed of extremely poor and inexperienced people (Formisano, 2008). They were also accompanied by fraudsters to the points of entry to United States. These fraudsters started misleading newcomers who wanted to move to America. This forced the natives to establish people to give direction to the newcomers on how to connect with their friends and relatives. Native Americans felt uncomfortable with the huge number of Irish immigrants and feared they might overpower the Native Americans (Reimers, 2005). This created hostility between the Natives American and Irish immigrants until after the civil war in which Irish became actively involved hence making Irish Americans as part of their members. Reform Movements Temperance is the charitable communal associations established in different parts of the world to enlighten people on the consequences of excessive consumption of alcohol (Blocker, Fahey & Tyrrell, 2003). They encourage people to take alcohol in small quantities or stop taking it all together. In United States, this association was brought into existence in 1789 by farmers in support of Dr. Benjamin Rush article of 1784 on effects of excessive consumption of alcohol. Public education is the state funded learning for all its citizens in different parts of the world (Glazek & Sarason, 2007). The aim of this association was to promote education for all people irrespective of their backgrounds. This was pioneered by business people and teachers to support education for the bright and needy students. Asylums are the associations which are sponsored by the state or by the charitable organizations to offer security for the vulnerable groups in the society (Dowbiggin, 1997). These include the needy people such as mentally handicapped, HIV/Aids victims and the drug addicts. In United States of America, asylum was introduced following the agreement between Quaker and the United States government. The association was headed by a group of physiatrists such as Ian Robert among others. The aim of this movement was to provide safe and caring environment for the people with challenges. Feminism is a global association which aims to protect the right of women and promote gender equity among the world nations (Maggie, 1992). This was headed women activists such as Josephine St. Pierre, Mary Church Terrell and so on. Roles of Female Nurses During civil wars and world wars the number of wounded soldiers intensified and many died as a result of injuries (Tomblin, 2003). However, there was need to recruit female nurses since most men were required in the war field. Women nurses helped to save the lives of men soldiers because they gave them motherly care, which made the soldiers feel as if they were at their homes. Hiring of female nurses helped to provide employment and a source of income for the women. This also released more men who were working as nurses to take part in the war (Monahan & Neidel-Greenlee, 2007).This hiring of female nurses had no advantage on one region over the other because all women were recruited on equal terms hence there was no region which was disadvantaged than the other. Outlook of Douglas and Lincolns on Slavery Both Douglas and Lincoln were futurist leaders who struggled for favor from their people by transforming the lives of people and the way they intermingle with others (Browning, 1997). During their time, the issue of slavery and inequity was of great concern since some groups had come up to fight for the deliverance and justice for all people irrespective of their status. On the other hand, wealth people were unwilling to support the abolition slavery because this would shortage of labour for their firms (Hajnal, 2007). However, Lincoln advocated the liberty of all people and announced it amid criticism of the supporters of slavery. Lincoln portrayed his political boldness and moral ethics required of a leader. He stood by his principles and not by the opinion of majority. Douglas was more focused on making wealth and acquiring power hence he ventured more in real estate’s where he could make huge gains. Though Douglas was considered as well positioned politically, he was always swayed by the opinion of the majority (Jaffa, 2009). He partly advocated slavery and assumed that if it was beneficial, then there was nothing wrong for the wealth people to continue keeping slaves. This issue resulted to loss of vote by Douglas as he lost his popularity while Lincoln who was infamous gained affection of the people. Conclusion There were many changes which took place both during and after independence in America. Slavery intensified as Native Americans struggled to obtain workers for their rapidly growing firms. There was also prejudice against the black people in favor of the whites. Consequently, many organizations were formed to fight for the rights of the oppressed. As a result the organizations, there was an improvement in education and the liberalization of women. In addition, political institutions were formed to address various issues affecting citizens. References Blocker, J., Fahey, D. & Tyrrell, I. (eds) (2003). Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia 2 Vol. Brading, D. A. (1993).The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, I492-1867 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Browning, R. P. (1997). Racial Politics in American Cities. Longman, Bullock, S. (2003). The American Revolution: A History in Documents. 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