Jose Orozco

Per 2
Unit Theme Summaries
Each Unit or unit you will be expected to print and turn in this theme summary. Select any 3 themes from the front side
of this sheet and write a complete summary of how the content in the unit reflects you selected theme.
Theme: Ideas, Beliefs, & Culture: Events like the enlightenment, great awakening influenced the thoughts
and beliefs many in the colonies held and lead to the revolution. The first set of settlers that arrived in North
america were puritans and protestants who fled precaution on europe. A series of protestant uprisings in
france, germany, and england meant many were looking for more prosperous lives in america. Puritan work
ethic helped build the colonies but many lost faith after a couple of generations. Catholics who moved to the
americas were generally persecuted except in quebec and for a while in maryland. Once many of the younger
people had not been part of church, the church leaders decide to open up and show more religious freedom
towards christians of different sects. Rhode island was one of the first to have these policies. The
enlightenment and great awaking both influenced american politics. Some held more strongly onto
rationalism and the belief of natural rights, some followed the great awakenings expressionism. Before the
great awaking many puritans believed in predestination but the great awaking promoted the idea that we
control whether or not we go to heaven. When the framers were writing the constitution, they used the ideas
of natural laws to make the bill of rights.

Theme: Politics & Power: Due to the rights they had held in England, colonists general felt they were entitled
to representative government. They founded the house of burgesses in virginia and many other local
governments followed. They made it so white male landowners could vote for and participate in their local
governments. This is why colonists were angry when the british parliament stated implementing taxes that the
colonists had no say in making. They wanted to be represented so they could determine if the taxes were fair
or not. After the revolution the colonists had to decide how to set up their new government and where to put
the power. The acts of the british parliament and king George made them wary of a strong central government
so with the articles of confederation they made state governments hold most of the power. This lead to many
problems however because when rebellions popped up or debts needed to be payed, the congress could do
nothing. So they decided to create a new document that created a judicial, executive and legislative branch of
government and would set the rules that applied to every state including a bill of rights that all citizen held.
Through this document two groups formed, the federalists and the anti-federalists. One side favoured a strong
central government while the other thought most power still should be held by the states. Once the
constitution was ratified and a president was elected, many still questioned how much power he should be
given. Presidents like thomas jefferson thought he could only do what the constitution said he could.

Theme: Environment & Geography: both Physical and Human :Because of the soil in the south, settlers there
generally either worked on plantations or were independent farmers. They tended to believe in a strong state
government because they lived farther aways from the big cities and the state legislature generally more all
lined with their opinion. Huge cotton fields in the south and invention of the cottin gin ment slaves provided
cheap, unskilled labour. Need for slaves meant they generally did not want equality for African Americans.
In the North, fishing and shipbuilding became dominant due to its role as a trading port. Poor soil in the north
lead to people there tended not to be cash crop farmers. No need for slaves on farms so people their generally
thought there should not be slaves. Tended to live in the big cities with high populations. More want for
strong central government because they live in the hubs of the nation where more decisions are made.