On May 31, 1993 the 42nd President of The United States, Bill Clinton, stood before a crowd of just about 4000 onlookers and millions more viewing from home. For those in attendance, and around the country, this was a extraordinary day. Memorial Day brings out many emotions for millions of people every year, emotions such as pride, fear, anger, sadness or anxiety. Memories of loved ones gone, a parent one may not have met because he was killed in battle while they were yet to be born, a fellow brother or sister of the United States Armed Services who they spent many years beside: training, sleeping outdoors, consoling forming a strong bond as if they were family, and possibly the most horrible event one could ever witness, watching their fellow solider die in battle defending the freedoms and rights of Americans and humanity around the world. To be more specific the Vietnam War. This war is the cause why when President Clinton sauntered to the podium to address the crowd, after being introduced by the well-respected Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell, there was no doubt that participants of the gathering did not agree he was the appropriate individual to give this speech, regardless of his stature as The President of The United States of America. In fact, many were disrespected, hostile and irritated with him and presented no fear in communicating their disapproval publicly. The onlookers that assembled at the Vietnam Memorial to observer President Clinton’s
A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.
Abraham Lincoln once stated “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln is a hero for the citizens of America because his determination and courage to ending slavery even if it meant war caused peace in this nation. Slavery was the vital cause of the American Civil War. The north and the south both had their differences on how to run the country. People in the North believed in unity and that slavery should not exist because “all men are created equally.” On the other hand, the South believed in continuing slavery. People tried to talk it out and come to a middle ground after both sides compromising, however that didn’t work and caused war. Ideological differences were a vital role to making the American Civil War an inevitable event.
When the American Civil War began in the spring of 1861, those flocking to enlistment stations in states both north and south chiefly defined their cause as one of preservation. From Maine to Minnesota, young men joined up to preserve the Union. From Virginia to Texas, their future foes on the battlefield enlisted to preserve a social order, a social order at its core built on the institution of slavery and racial superiority . Secession had not been framed by prominent Southerners like Robert Toombs as a defensive measure to retain the fruits of the revolution against King George, a fight against those who sought to “intrique insurrection with all its nameless horrors.” (Toombs Speech) On January 1, 1863, when Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect the war became a revolution. The Union, the soldiers in blue fought to preserve could no longer exist. On every mile of soil, they would return to the Stars and Stripes from that moment on, the fabric of society would be irrevocably changed. In May of 1865, with the abolition of slavery engrained into the Constitution with the passage of the 13th Amendment, the Confederate armies of Lee and Johnston disbanded, and Lincoln dead of an assassin’s bullet; this change was the only certainty the torn fabric of the newly reunited states was left to be resown. Andrew Johnson and Southern Democrats believed the revolution of 1863 had gone far enough. Radical Republicans and African-Americans sought instead to bring it to
In the beginning when America was uniting and trying to form its official government the northern states and the southern states had already different greatly from each other. The North was industrializing and working on expanding west and the South was booming with farming and its famous cash crop. The North wanted to abolish slavery and the South did not. Since the North and South had so many differences and could not keep a steady compromise, heavy tensions arose between the North and the South which then caused the Southern states of America to decide to leave the American Union and create their own Southern Confederacy. This tore our nation apart. The American Civil War had begun and the very people that were once neighbors had each
Prior to the First World War, the USA was a flourishing power in terms of having one of the largest economies and military strength, however America had few foreign policy ambitions during this period. Despite purchasing Alaska from Russia in 1867, there was no real interest in expanding America. Before The Great War, it seemed unlikely that America would become involved in war over the conflicts of other western powers. They considered themselves a ‘City on the Hill’, an example to the rest of the world of stability and democracy. The large Navy ensured security of the North American continent and the small professional army, points to the overwhelmingly defensive front they put on. Washington adopted an isolationist policy with regards
In the year 1864 the American Civil War was drawing to an end. The Confederate States of America was slowly running out of able bodied men and supplies to supply the army needed to ward off the Union’s invasion of the South. At this point in time the leader of the Union Army was Ulysses S. Grant. He devised a plan to escalate the process in which the Confederate Army was running out of supplies. Grant’s plan was to send Union troops to the West of the main conflict for them to loop around and cut off railroad lines, and burn farm lands. The greatest of these was the Army that burned thousands of acres in Georgia, yet another army led by General David Hunter might have been more decisive if it had not been stopped at the Battle of Lynchburg. General David Hunter was ordered by General Grant to make his way down the Shenandoah Valley and destroy as much farm land as possible along the way. On top of this General Hunter terrorized towns by pillaging stores and homes. The Southerners knew that a similar fate would become Lynchburg if they did not do anything to prevent Hunter’s advance. The people of Lynchburg worked hard at building up defenses protecting Lynchburg. They had to resort to using mostly young boys and elderly men since most able bodies men had already died in the War or were still fighting under General E. Lee. The boys and elderly men that maned the defenses did not have a good chance of warding of the large army led by General David Hunter; as a result, General
America is the home of the free because of the brave. Most Americans know this to be true because of our current armed forces but more importantly our past. Our past militiamen and soldiers have gained us freedoms and homestead of our own religions, families, and the power to make our own decisions. Over the past few weeks I have read many different articles and a narrative by Fred Anderson, “The war that made America.”. Through all these things I’ve come to see how big of an impact our armies have made past and present. The thing people don’t take into consideration is that from the founding of Jamestown until 1785 the American colonial society was in a constant state of conflict.
More than 100 years ago Canada had been a small child, progressing through life trying to find its place in this vast world. During the time periods of 1914-1945, 1950-1970, and 1971- 1990, there have been many factors that have helped induce its growth including: recognition due to military achievements, its international relationship with the United States, and uniting as one country. Through these times of hardship and glory Canada has succeeded in finding its autonomous identity in the world, as a “middle power”.
The events that led up to the American Revolution war were not big events but a series of small events when compounded together each created the catalyst to launch the colonists into revolt. The first of the events to create the spiral effect was the seven year war or the French and Indian War. That war was fought by British soldiers on several different continents. The biggest location was fought in the British colonies of North America. The British government wanted to expand their territory. They wanted to continue to grow the colonies from the original thirteen by conquering more land further west. The British government felt as if they were fighting this war against the Indians and the French to expand the land specifically for the
The American Civil War was arguably the most important war in the history of the country. The War of Independence may have allowed American to become its’ own country, but the Civil War resulted in something even more important than that, the end of slavery in the southern states. All of the issues that caused the Civil war were based around slavery, such as states’ rights that involved how slavery would be handled in each state, and trying to preserve the Union since the south seceded from the north due to their lust for slavery. The war ended up being the deadliest in the history of the country with over 700,000 people being killed as a result of battle or from diseases that were obtained during the war. The north was better prepared for the war than the south due to various reasons. One was the fact that the north was industrialized, while the south largely relied on agriculture. Being so heavily industrialized, the north was better equipped to fight the war since they could construct better guns, cannons or even ships to create blockades to prevent the south from getting help from other countries and not everyone in the south was supportive of the war. The north also had a much larger population than the south, and since African Americans were allowed to fight for the Union, their army was larger. Arguably the most important aspect of the northern victory was that it had superior leadership in the form of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is widely held as one of the greatest
Slavery may have been established as the catalyst of the American Civil War, but the beginning of the dispute began in the time of the Revolution with a weak decentralized government under the Articles of Confederation. Later gained momentum as territorial expansion set Americans against each other on debating whether the new states should be slave states or free states, it questioned the power of the Federal government regarding state rights, and brought about instability in the unity of the United States as a nation. The conflict of the American Civil War began with states’ rights being taken away and flourished with the decision on whether slavery should spread westward, or be equally distributed not only in the Louisiana Purchase territory, but in the rest of the westward territory.
No conflict in American history is as well-known then the American Revolutionary war. War between the colonies and Great Britain began in April of 1775 and, in a years’ time, the conflict will grow into one of the most arduous wars ever fought. After eight years of a hard-fought war, the colonists eventually won their independence over the British. Rooted in the conflict are countless causes and events that ultimately shaped the country into how it is today. The American Revolution also influenced Contemporary American society and even on Pluralism.
War is unpredictable and each case found in American history consists of unique variables, making it nearly impossible for an individual to know precisely what actions will results in the best outcomes. Despite the fact that there may be similarities and comparison between a few cases of war, and that there are lessons learned from past mistakes and triumphs, the United States, or any country, does not have a foolproof guideline on how to handle wars when they appear. To be Commander-in-Chief of the United States military is a massive task in and of itself, without adding all the additional issues the President has upon his plate throughout his presidency. To be a president as war, is always a possibility for those who hold the office, however no president has a true way to prepare himself for what precisely to do when such a time comes. All wars have different factors and varying solutions, all presidents have diverse personalities and methods of handling a situation, thus there is no way to predict how much power a president needs in order to fulfill his main priority under the role of president as commander-in-chief: To take the actions best suited for keeping the American public safe. This debate of how much power a president should be allotted under the crisis of war, is very important, because give the president too little and they may not have enough power to effectively control the situation, but give him too much and the president may exploit their power gained
The American Revolutionary War began in the middle1700s and ended with the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783. When looking at both sides of the argument I still believe the British were to blame for igniting the flames of revolution. A lot of people will argue that the British were fair in the treatment of the early American Colonists and provided for them as they did for their countrymen remaining in England. In my opinion the colonists were regarded as nothing more than a slave. By this, I mean that the colonists were basically used to work the land to provide crops which were normally imported from other countries to England. Since they were considered Englishmen and their lands considered property of the crown, the British could pass laws taking from them their basic rights as men. Three contributing factors for the outbreak of the American Revolution were the king’s taxes, neglect of the 13 colonies and England’s mercantilism policy (Strum, 44). The British thought of the colonists as their primary asset in their practice of mercantilism, which at times may have been profitable for the colonists. Ultimately it became a primary reason for the beginning of social unrest among the early Americans. While when it became convenient the British came in and started putting restrictions on them. As many in their position, the colonists rebelled against the new found interest in the societies they labored to build, that for so long went unnoticed. British taxation was one of the
The United States of America under president Woodrow Wilson was aiming to remain neutral in the war. Instead of directly being involved in the war, they instead found a way to make a profit off the war, by supplying ammunition to the British Army. Wilson was opposed to the war due to being raised up by an anti-violence minister and didn’t want American progress to halt by joining the war. America’s economic power was greatly increasing during the war due to the ability to trade with all sides and was recovering from the era of “false gold” or the “Gilded Age.” As the war progressed the United States were increasingly pressured to enter into the war by Winston Churchill and England. In addition to this the German hierarchy made multiple moves that led the United States to opposing them and feeling like they should enter the war effort against them and the communist government. Yet the reason that the United States entered the war is unclear, did they enter the war because they were focused on American benefits or did they join to make the world safe for democracy.