American History critical thinking questions an der Universität Bielefeld

• central aspects of the industrialization were water power mills and a new transport system (railways)
• the centre was the Northeast
• created a new strong bond between England and the US
• this led to an “import” of coin money (species)
• advantages of the industrialization:
  • creation of new jobs (before mainly farmers)
  • increase in production of different goods as well as consumption
  • goods that were regarded as luxury became available to more people

• disadvantages:
  • downskill of workers: workers hadn´t to develop more skills than necessary for their restricted filed of labor
  • thus workers were replacable, always in fear of losing their jobs, and developed low quality skills only
  • living and working conditions for the workers decreased in terms of accommodation and payment (paid partly in e.g. naturals)
  • working conditions were partly dangerous (because of unknown machinery – point added after meeting) 

• overly production of paper money; people lost trust in paper money
• overproduction of crops/ devaluation
• first, there was an economic boom, because of an increasing need for crops and raw materials; farmers bought land and borrowed money from banks; when the prices decreased they weren´t able to pay their debts, and the banks seized their land
• this opened the field for speculators
• measures that could have prevented that were, for example: suspension of specie, regulation of costs for farming products, regulation of money printing

Probably not because :

- Britain wanted to keep American colonies as part of their Empire

- Britain tried to "use" colonies as a source of money after making debts in French-Indian-War (taxation)

- Colonists in America felt treated unfairly (e.g. Stamp act, coercive acts)

- "No taxation without representation"

- Boston Tea Party as protest

Attitude: coverture -> all the power women had, including property and fortune went into the hands of her husband the second she married. But husbands weren´t allowed to sell their wives property without her agreement.

A.A. were owned, as well as their children. They still were property but it slowly changed. Manumissions were sometimes given to slaves, allowing them to be free and act on their own. Anyway they´ve still been seen as inferior to whites.

Indians were not included in the treaty of paris and they were deprived of their ancestral grounds. After the war the U.S. ignored all Indian claims. 

In some parts laws enforced these roles upon all three groups, e.g. the coverture. White men heavily profited from slavery, not having to pay for labor and creating their social status like that. Indians couldn´t be given rights because their grounds were used for white peoples benefits, such as farms.

The roles did change over time, slowly become more equal for all. Labor had to be payed, women and Indians gained rights etc.

- British acts fueled colonists' desire to free themselves of the British power

- Formation of Sons and Daughters of Liberty shows colonists' wish to become free and autonomous 

- Colonies started their own production of goods to become independent from British trade and goods

- British overestimated their power

An economic crisis (the high debt after the revolutionary war and extreme inflation) led to shay´s rebellion. The Farmers had to pay the most debt/taxes but also felt they suffered the most under the crisis and thus started the rebellion. The army of Shay walked into the supreme court to achieve change but a lot of them died/were hung. In the long run it led to another constitutional convention, it led the groundwork for actual government work, they realized they needed a strong centralized government. 

The economic crisis led to Shays’ Rebellion by residents of western Massachusetts, and to the decision to revise the Confederation government.

- The Report on Public Credit: Create a good image of the United States; federal government sells bonds - federal interest bearing notes – to the public; bonds have backing of the government + yield interest payments -> bonds would begin to yield interest payments in 1792.
-> most critique/ controversial: Creditors couldn’t be sure that they would get their money back later; fairness of the plan was questioned -> states with less dept questioned it (North Carolina); states with more dept supported it (South Carolina)
- The Report on a National Bank: establishing a national bank ; previous state bank notes changed into gold, so that a unified currency can be introduced
-> Critique: the Constitution did not permit the creation of a national bank by Jefferson
- The Report on Manufactures (raising revenue): Promote domestic manufactures; tax on American-made whiskey, tariffs on all foreign imports to stimulate the production of American-made goods
-> beginning of American capitalism

- Stamp act had more influence on colonists' daily lives

- Stamp act affected both the powerful and the less prestigious people

- Stamp act added to the anger already present after the Sugar act

- Stamp act left smuggling as the only option

- Money gained by taxing colonists used for British military presence in the colonies

- Stamp act= direct tax

- Quasi War -> undeclared war between US and France ; undermine Federalist power
-> increase national security
- Alien: deport new arrivals who appeared to be a threat to national security -> aimed at French immigrants
- Sedition: arrest and punish anyone who talked or wrote badly about the American government
-> wanted to lower the risk of a revolution
- controversial: acts were illegal and unconstitutional

- Generated a feeling of pride among the entire nation; start of Industrialisation; discredited the Federalist party forever

• “All men are created equal” except, they weren´t treated like that. Two faced /double faced; enforcing the opposite of what its stating.
• The three fifths compromise shows the dehumanization of slaves, Indians weren´t mentioned at all and women didn´t get relevant rights.

• The industrial Revolution would have been possible but at a different pace, slower
• the dimension of the production especially of cotton required slavery
• slaves were not able to protest about the working conditions, and their workforce could be expoited excessively
• states with slaves had a strong impact on the government due to the population based representative system; if there were no slaves, there would have been a different government
• what contributes to the idea of an industrial revolution without slaves is the large number of poor farmers (Panic of 1819) and immigrants, mainly from Germany and Ireland