The Goals of the Declaration of Independence Essay -- Essays Papers

The Goals of the Declaration of Independence The American Revolution was not only a battle between the British and the colonists; it was a historical movement that brought about new ways of thinking. The ideas of liberty and equality began to be seen as essential to the growth of the new nation. The separation of the American colonies from the British Empire occurred for a number of reasons. These reasons are illustrated in the Declaration of Independence. Although Thomas Jefferson wrote the document, it expressed the desire of the heart of each colonist to be free of British rule. British rule over the colonies became unbearable in the early months of 1776, making it clear to the colonists that it was time to either give in to British power or declare their independence. This idea of independence divided the colonies, but it was not long before a revolutionary committee met in Philadelphia and drew up the document that would change American history. The Declaration of Independence was written to separate the American colonies from Britain, but there were many underlying goals. It was written to state the grievances that the colonists held against the British, particularly the king. The colonists wanted a better economy, a new republican government, but perhaps most of all, they simply wanted their misery to end. This is what they set out to explain in the document. John Adams described it as â€Å"a Declaration setting forth the causes which have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons which will justify it in the sight of God and man† (Friedenwald 182). The forceful wording used in the introduction of the document was used for a reason. Jefferson writes, â€Å"When in the course of h... ... clear that government is subject to the people that it governs. The British realized that they could not write a document that would meet the demands of the colonists (Thomas 334). It was time for the colonists to write their own document. This document, the Declaration of Independence, was not only a stand against Britain; it was a stand for freedom. Works Cited Friedenwald, Herbert. The Declaration of Independence: An Interpretation and an Analysis. New York: Da Capo Press, 1974. Pleasants, Samuel A., III. The Declaration of Independence. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Books, 1996. Thomas, Peter D. G. Tea Party of Independence: The Third Phase of the American Revolution 1773-1776. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., 1978.

Euro Ap Ch. 22 Study Guide

Euro Ch. 22 Study Guide Italian Unification * Victor Emmanuel II (VERDI): First King of United Italy, King of Italia * Cavour: Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1852 until his death, had a realpolitiker’s vision, promoted economic development, to unify Italy he had to confront Austria so he got help from Napoleon who feared growth of Piedmont and gave them Lombardy but not Venetia to Piedmont and left the rest of Italy disunited, helped achieve a strong economy, modern army, liberal political climate provoked Austria to invade Northern Italy Garribaldi: a committed republican, dedicated guerilla fighter, set sail from Genoa with a thousand red shirted volunteers to liberate Sicily, where peasants were rebelling against their landlords and the corrupt gov. in anticipation of Risorgimento. Victor’s victorious forces and Garilbaldi’s met in Naples. Garibaldi threw his support to the king. In 1861 the kingdom of Italy had Victor as their head. Originally wanted to liberate sicily * Piedmont Sardinia: * Role of Napoleon: * France promises to help out Italy with the war against Austria, but switches sids in the middle and makes a treaty with Austria * gave Lombardy to Piedmont, but not Venetia, took Rome for France * left Italy disunited * Role of Francis Joseph: Austrian Emperor who signed peace treaty with Napolean 2nd French Empire Napoleon III: called himself â€Å"A man of Destiny†, modernizer, promoted strong economy -conservative control with democratic reforms -wanted to economically modernize and reform France -disrupted the concert of Europe by establishing French domination   * Italian Unification: napoleon pitted France against Austria * Crimean War: started with conflict between Russian and Ottoman empires. Russia had been expanding into Asia and the Middle East. Tsar Nicholas I wanted to absorb much of the Ottoman Empire so Napoleon encouraged him to be more aggressive in his expansion which provoked a war between Ottomans and Russians. Brits started to support Ottomans and so did french. Nicholas died and his son Alexander II took over and asked for peace. * Maximillian & Mexico: was the brother of Habsburg emperor Francis Joseph, installed as ruler of Mexico by napoleon but Mexico revolted and executed him * Collapse after Franco Prussian War: end of 2nd empire Policies- free-trade agreement with Britain, backed the establishment of innovative investment banks, (late 1850s) allowed working class organizations to form, introduced democratic features into his governing methods Crimean War * Russia vs Turkey, Britain, France * Good weapons, bad tactics * Florence Nightingale: British women who read about how Britain wasn’t taking care of their soldiers and so she decides to help * Efforts to reform Russia * End to serfdom * Mir communi ties prevent reform German Unification Wilhelm I: king of Prussia who appointed Bismarck as prime minister in hopes that he would quash the growing power of the liberals in the Prussian parliament * Otto Van Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor * Vs. Liberalism * Vs. Denmark 1864 * Vs. Austria 1866, tricked Austria into declaring war on Prussia which Austria lost * Schleswig & Holstein * Austria’s Dual Monarchy: Hungarians could rule over themselves too * Vs. France 1870 * Kulturekampf: culture war against religion by Birmarck. German gov. xpelled the Jesuits from Germany in 1872, increased state power over the clergy in Prussia in 1873, introduced obligatory civil marriage in 1875 * Working Class Suffrage: upper class votes counted more than those from lower * Iron & Blood Progress * Haussmanization: process of urban change, rebuilding of Paris, clean (water, neighborhood), wider pathways * Pasteur: came up with germ theory, suggested that certain organisms like bacteria and parasi tes might be responsible for human and animal diseases * Lister: Education Reform: middle classes argued that civil service jobs should be awarded according to talent and skill rather than automatically go to those of aristocratic birth or political connections. In Britain a civil service law passed in 1870 requiring competitive examinations to assure competency in government posts * Darwin: nature is a constant struggle for survival (natural selection), human development came about through evolution * Religious conflicts Herbert Spencer & social Darwinism Imperialism * Indian Mutiny * Government of India Act: established direct Britain control over india * Suez Canal: connects Mediterranean sea to Red sea, shortcut to asia * Panama Canal Scandal: * Taiping rebellion * Meiji restoration: Japan’s attempts to modernize itself Intellectual Movements * Bakunin & Anarchism: anarchism maintained that the existence of the state was the root of social injustice. According to Bakunin, the slightest infringement on freedom, especially by the central state and its law, was unacceptable * Realism in the arts & Literature: rejection of emotionalism & romanticism * Positivism: theory claiming that careful study of facts would generate accurate and useful laws of society * The Rise of Marxism: opposed both mutualism and anarchism * Das Kapital: adopted the liberal idea that human existence was defined by the necessity to work to fulfill basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. * The Commune of Paris:

My Journey to America

My journey to America is one unforgettable experience. I say this not because I was able to travel to the land of my dreams but mainly because the journey had improved my outlook in life through the many lessons and insights it had taught. My country of origin is Kenya, located in Eastern Africa. Separating these two countries is the Pacific Ocean,  Ã‚   a large body of water that seemed to signify the impossibility of my coming here (Crofton, 1994, p. 434). But fortunately, this huge obstacle was overcome, and now I am enjoying the fun and opportunities offered by a country that had only once been a dream. You just cannot imagine the excitement I had felt when I learned that I will travel to America. For the majority of Africans, America is a land of golden opportunity, a place that one can better himself. It offers a rare experience in advancement in technology, an essential factor to a person’s twentieth century learning. And above all, America had many fun, exciting and historical places to visit. Armed with such lofty thoughts in mind, going through the hassle of filing for travel papers at the US Embassy meant nothing to me. I  Ã‚   bade goodbye to Kenya last __________. My itinerary was from Nairobi, Kenya to ______, USA. It would take approximately ______ hours to reach the US.   On the plane I tried to contain my excitement although flying above the wide Pacific Ocean was both thrilling and nerve-wracking. Looking down below from the window of the plane, I can see a wide expanse of blue water, stretching miles and miles beyond as if it would never end. Although the sight was beautiful to behold, I cannot wait to see land for by then I suddenly felt an awesome fear of being in a place totally unknown, as if I was lost in the middle of nowhere. I realized then that uprooting oneself from familiar places is not that easy, after all. As the plane made its way across the earth,   my mind was filled with thoughts of what I will going to do in America, the friends that I will meet, the places I will visit and the things that I will have. The thoughts all came to me at once, both thrilling and enchanting me at the same time. Amidst   these thoughts, my mind   raced back to the place I just left behind, the loved ones that I will not see   for sometime and   the places that surprisingly I will miss, and then out of nowhere I felt nostalgic and if I was not strong   enough tears would have fallen from my eyes. It was painful to realize that for me to experience something new, I had to let go of something that I hold dear. But I am glad to think that someday I will be back. Finally, after some time I approached the place that for more than a century had drawn all kinds of races and nationalities to its shores like a magnet. I expected the view from above to be so much different from the aerial view of the country and continent I just left behind. True enough it was way, way different. Whereas the place I had just left was dominated by forest and desert that was spotted with human dwellings and buildings, the view of America from the air was just breathtaking to me. A vast array of buildings endlessly crowded themselves below, tall skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty seemed to reach out to me in welcome. I could not believe that the famous  Ã‚   America was right in front of me!   Ã‚  I felt an awesome sense of self-fulfillment then, perhaps because America had this magical way of making a person think that finally he had seen the real world. Naturally I could not wait to set my feet in the America soil.   For the first time in my life I was surrounded with people who look different from me. In the airport were white people, brown skinned people and dark ones like me. I was fascinated with the presence of different nationalities that were busy talking to one another in a language I do not understand and hurrying past me to places God knows where. I realized later that I will often come across these different types of people in just any street in America. I wonder much about them, the places that they came from and the loved ones that they left behind in a country far away. I know that most of them come to America to earn more money, and I wonder if they fulfilled that goal. Settling here for _________ (months or years) now, I can say with authority that foreigners here oftentimes experienced physical, emotional and mental suffering. Many of them are homesick.   There is no place, after all, that man will be untouched by the negative experiences of life. Such realization had developed in   me a deeper respect for people who   left their homeland to find jobs in other shores. For the many successful people who pass my way daily, I can say that indeed America is a land of golden opportunity, but only for the people who work hard. In life no matter where we are we just cannot expect a golden egg to fall on our lap. Here there are also many poor people. I do not know why they lived that way but one thing America taught me is that if you want something good to happen in your life then you must be willing to sacrifice, to let many sweats fall from your forehead.   Ã‚  A person should not wait for opportunity, he must look for it and when he found that opportunity he must grab it with both hands. The list of beautiful places to visit and exciting things to do in America is endless. There are many big parks decorated with beautiful flowers and housed different kinds of animals (many of these animals are native to my homeland like tigers and elephants).   When I look a these caged animals I cannot help but compare them to their relatives back home who roamed   freely in the African wild. America is not a place of freedom for them but on the contrary, America is a trap, a prison. I felt sad but these are the prices that need to be paid if people of America are to see a live African wildlife. Furthermore, America had many large shopping centers filled with all sorts of stuff. They are very inviting to touch, look and if I have the money, to buy. There are just many things to choose from, all of them beautiful. It is true that America has lots of things to offer especially for a Kenyan like me. Being surrounded by all these beautiful things make me look at life more positively. I do have negative experiences in America but I would cite only one that I know is experienced by most foreign people like me and it is the ugly face of racial discrimination. I know that racial discrimination is present when the people of other races I associate with treat me with distrust without reason. I know some of them did not actually wanted the feeling to come but it involuntarily sprung up somewhere. Racial discrimination is a big problem here.   This just shows that great America, like any other country in the world, had its own issues to solve. Obviously, there are many differences between America and my home country but there is one difference that I would like to share here. It seemed to me that the people who live in America are always in a hurry. It seemed that they have so many things to do but do not have the time to do it. That is why most Americans (including those who are not but lived here) are always in a perpetual state of stress. They are busy chasing â€Å"something† so that they do not have the time â€Å"to smell the flowers†. This is so much unlike Kenya. There it seemed we have plenty of time to rest, to reflect. Perhaps because our lives are less complicated, our dreams are simpler. For most Kenyan families providing daily food on the table is a big accomplishment. My journey to America is an adventure of a lifetime. I will never forget the many new   experiences that came along     and the lessons it had taught me. Indeed I can say that my journey to America had opened doors in my life that were once closed. Reference Crofton, Ian (editor). (1994). The Guinness Compact Encyclopedia. London: Guinness Publishing Limited.