Here are some FREE and original Social Studies themed puns and illustrations that i have drawn and created for your enjoyment. You are welcome to print and frame any of the following with reckless abandon… I only ask that you direct other people to back to my website where you found them!
Click on the text link below each image to download the PDF.
(These are updated with a new print every Tues. and Thurs.)
Norman’sland
William the Conqueror sailed across the English Channel in 1066 and won the Battle of Hastings- forever uniting the languages and cultures of the mainland French and the English island. To commemorate the entire ordeal, an embroidery (“The Bayeux Tapestry”) was commissioned to retell of the events of the narrative. Consisting of 58 scenes and canvassing 230 feet in length it was essentially the world’s first graphic novel!
Ei- Ei- Oh!
The Olmec were the first massive Native American civilization as well as the forerunners and influencers of others like the Maya and the Aztec. They existed from about 1200 BC until around 200 AD. Although not much is known about them specifically, other than their penchant for constructing enormous stone heads, they were an agrarian civilization- and they were a-MAIZE-ing at cultivating (and genetically engineering!) corn
It’s funny to think that the Roman Empire lasted all the way up until about 40 years before Columbus “sailed the ocean blue,” but in the form of the “Eastern Roman Empire” (The “Byzantine Empire”) it continued on until 1453.
After having recently endured the Western Europeans looting and burning it, as well as the plague ravaging it, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to essentially one city: Constantinople. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire had been growing in strength and size next-door. Although an Islamic empire, the Ottomans were incredibly liberal by their contemporary standards and tried pleading with the Byzantine emperor to just let them take the city- but he held out until the end.
Sure enough, Mehmed II (“The Conqueror”) took the city of Constantinople on May 29 and renamed it “Istanbul”- and instead of razing it to the ground he actually re-built it into an even more beautiful and multi-cultural capital than it originally was!
Rome was an enormous and powerful empire, but in their later years they had begun to get sloppy and the cracks were beginning to show- namely that they had allowed large groups of Germanic tribes (the “Visigoths”) into their empire. They enslaved and treated these people like second-class citizens and had them do the jobs that they should have been managing- leaving Goths in all levels of society, from government to the military. In the late 4th and early 5th centuries the Goths had finally had enough of being treated as inferiors by these slobs and so they rose up against an empire that was living in a shadow of its former glory.
Shortly thereafter (455 AD), another Germanic group named the Vandals (where we get our word “vandalism” from) came and also carried out their grudges on the city of Rome and its aqueducts.
History is divided into two major categories: Ancient History and Modern History, with an awkward period known as the “Middle Ages” stuck in between.
Simply put, the Greeks and Romans had a certain way of living in which they asked questions and valued art and education, and then when the Germanic tribes overthrew the Romans they replaced those systems with a way of life that did not. These were known as the “Dark Ages” (because people weren’t very bright) or the “Middle Ages” (it’s the word “Medieval” in Latin). After exploration and discovery were reignited after the Crusades and scientific understanding was rekindled after the Black Death this led into an era where Greek and Roman ways were seen as being cool again.
This led to a “Renaissance” (or rebirth/revival) of those old values and a break from blindly following traditions and authority. Today, our lives are predicated on the values of this era and we are considered to be living in this period of time… or at least one that is related to it. Sometimes, modernity is referred to as a “Post-Modern” Era.
The Band is NOT Getting Back Together
Justinian was by far the most impressive emperor of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Along with legal reforms, architectural marvels and military might he seemingly had it all… all, that is, except for one thing: he wanted to reunited the (recently) fallen western half of the old Roman empire to his current 1/2. Like everything in his life, Justinian poured virtually all of his resources into accomplishing this dream.
And he nearly would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling plague. From 541-549 the same plague that would be known as “The Black Death” nearly a thousand years later ravaged the entire region. This pandemic was called “Justinian’s Plague” and 1/5 of the population died quick and horrific deaths. With the social and economic fallout of this, Justinian was forced to postpone his dreams to deal with the reality of more practical pressing issues at home…. and once the plague was over, he never again would be able to actualize his ambition.
Rome “borrowed” many of their brilliant ideas from the Greeks and then they built upon them with their own personal flair. Later in the history of Rome, the Eastern half of the empire (known as the Byzantines) would take all of the influence that the Romans had had and they would build upon them, adding their own unique contributions. When the western half of the empire fell apart, the Byzantines then went on to last for over 1000 years.
I like to refer to the Romans as “Greece version 2.0” and the Byzantines as “Greece 3.0” or “Rome 2.0.”
This is how cultures develop. While we might not be able to pick out which previous civilizations’ language, cultural taboos, standards of beauty, ethics or thousands of other aspects we draw from in our daily lives, they have still shaped us and our worldviews.
Once Christianity became a cultural force in the Roman Empire, gladiatorial combat was viewed with disdain. But, since people still wanted their sports, Chariot racing became all the rage. When the Western Roman Empire fell in the 5th century, the Eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantines) kept indulging in their sports craze. The Hippodrome was a massive arena in Constantinople (which could seat over 60,000 people!) where these races were held.
Essentially, there were only two teams in the chariot racing circuit: The Greens and The Blues. The sports rivalry was so intense between them that the two factions (known as “the demes”) basically ran the city and their racketeering and hooligan-ry were legendary. Sport was an essential part of Byzantine life and politics.
The fall of the Roman Empire and the destruction of their “Eternal City” occurred for a variety of reasons (famine, disease, social problems, poor leadership, economic crises, etc.), but to simplify it, the Romans essentially just started to get sloppy and they had stopped doing the things that had made them great from the beginning. Throughout the 5th century their empire got overrun by various Germanic tribes.
But, prior to the fall of Rome, the empire had been divided into 1/2- with one capital being in Rome itself and the other being in the east at Constantinople (formerly a Greek city named “Byzantium”). When we think of the fall of Rome, we often forget that actually the Roman empire lived on for another 1000 years (in fact up until about 50 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue!). In this period of time, the “Byzantine Empire” (as they would later come to be known) continued on in many of the same manners of the Romans, but with some very distinctive Christian and Greek tendencies.
One of the great tragedies in the development of Latin America in the 20th century were the meddlings of Communist and Capitalist countries. During the era of the Cold War, rich and powerful Capitalists and Communist countries both feared each other and so they tried to protect all developing countries from the threat of their perceived enemies. In what escalated into a new form of imperialism, these powerful countries would prop up a dictator or strongman whom they knew would run things THEIR way and keep their own personal enemies at bay… while almost entirely overlooking the practical harm that the average citizens would have to endure.
Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela all had bigger and more powerful countries interfering with their governments in the 20th century to politically influence them…. and while the leaders duked it out, the citizens of these places were the most likely to suffer. Aside from propping up dictators who ruled in their favor, other more clandestine techniques were also used- like In the CIA’s Operation Condor, where 60,000 citizens who were suspected of Socialist sympathies were tortured or killed.
The ancient Maya independently invented not only the world’s first ball game, but also arguably the world’s first team sport. In a game that went by many names (most commonly “pok-ta-pok”), the players would have a heavy rubber ball (about 7-9 lbs.) that they would keep in motion with their hips, elbows, knees and forearms and the other team would try and make that ball fall to the ground. The rules of the game varied from place to place, but the courts that were built for it included hoops that apparently were some type of a nearly impossible goal. The Maya endued it with a deep religious significance- and there sometimes was even a human sacrifice at the end.
Today, the closest version to it (called “Ulama”) is still played in Sinaloa (a state in Mexico), but it most likely was the ancient predecessor to modern day soccer. Just like other modern games, stadiums were build exclusively for it, it attracted large numbers of spectators and kids were taught to play it as well.
It’s a phenomenon of culture, but every civilization has a belief system that helps them to make sense of the world. Overwhelmingly, most ancient civilizations explained the the way that world worked by the interactions of gods who specialized in certain characteristics, skills or magic. Everything from the weather, to sicknesses to relationships all were explained by the interactions of divine beings.
The Egyptians had over 2,000 different gods, and many of these were borrowed from the civilizations of Mesopotamia. When you believe in LOTS of god, that’s called “polytheism.” In the ancient world, the belief in only one god (“monotheism”) was something unique to Judaism (and Zoroastrianism). Today, if still wanted to believe in the ancient Egyptian gods, there’s a religion for that: it’s called Kemetism… and you really have to ignore a lot of science.
When Christianity spread across the Roman empire (under Emperor Constantine), everyone in the major population centers understood that they were switching from lots of gods to just ONE God (… and lots of saints). But the people who were out-of-the-loop and lived out of touch with mainstream religion still believed in the myriad of deities. These people were mocked by being called “paganus” (where we get our word “pagan”)- which meant people who were yokels and lived in the sticks.
in 1519, Hernan Cortes landed in Central America with the express goal of conquering the Aztecs and taking their precious metals. How does a 500-man Spaniard army defeat an EMPIRE that has around 16 million citizens? While the guns and hubris didn’t hurt, the real weapon here was one that the Spaniards didn’t even consider: microscopic germs.
Europeans had been exposed to all sorts of diseases that people living on the American continents had been isolated from, namely smallpox, and so they inadvertently brought it with them when they bridged the Atlantic. Smallpox is an airborne virus that makes you gnarly sick and covers you with blisters- 1/3 of those who contract it die and another 1/3 go blind. As far as epidemics go, this one was especially egregious.
In 1796, a cure for this virus was the very first vaccine ever created. Since then, vaccinations have entirely removed the scourge from our cultural consciousness- and today the virus only exists in two laboratories (one in Atlanta and another in Russia). We often don’t think of the ways in which history and science are related, but without a proper understanding of virology, events like the European colonization of the Americas make little sense.
The distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific is only 50 miles across at the isthmus of Panama, and so building a canal there was a project many nations had attempted to undertake in order to shave off about 8,000 miles from the travel time. In the 1600s the Spanish had tried to build the canal and failed; Scotland tried and failed (being a financial cause for the Kingdom of Scotland to join Great Britain in 1707), and France tried in 1881 and gave up in 1889.
Moving enormous amounts of earth to build the canal was hard work and required a massive workforce as well as some brilliant engineering. However, these factors weren’t the causes for the project’s failure: it was Yellow Fever. Up until 1881, the leading theory of how germs spread was called the “Miasma Theory”- essentially “bad air” made people sick. Windows were left open all night in order to increase air-flow.
When you take a round world and try to turn it into a flat map, something has got to give. For instance, imagine peeling an orange and trying to make it fit flat on a rectangular textbook page… that’s the struggle that all cartographers face when making maps. It is impossible to create a map that accurately reflects both scale and distance at the same time in the way that a round globe does… and so lots of different map “projections” have been invented to try and show different things about the earth’s geography.
The most popular map projections that are used today are the Mercator and the Robinson- The Mercator (named after Gerardus Mercator in 1569) is a nice clean rectangular view of the the world and it really helped ships sail in efficient straight lines… but it also added WAY more land and water to the map as it gets further from the equator. Have you ever looked at Greenland and wondered why it’s not a continent when it appears to be the same size as Australia? That’s because it’s not… the map projection that you’re using only makes it seem to be that distorted size. If you wanted an ACCURATE scale on your map, it would have to look less like a rectangle and more like a basketball after you took a pair of scissors to it.
The very best (and easiest) way that I can explain this is by a quick visit to the website www.thetruesize.com. If you’re a teacher and you’ve never visited, it’s an essential stop.
In theory, the prospect of a death-match between the two most powerful warships that had ever been constructed seemed epic. Using the most advanced steam-powered naval technology, arming it with the most powerful cannons and armoring it in iron the United States had created the world’s first “iron-clad.” In the Civil war, the rebels in the south had gotten their hands on a scuppered steam-ship (called “The Merrimack”), designed it to look like a floating barn roof, and equipped it to match the Union’s model (“The Monitor”- which looked like a cheese box).
On March 9, 1862, these two ships faced off at Hampton Roads (a harbor in Virginia) and as they pounded each other with a salvo of cannonballs, it quickly became apparent that this battle was going to be a draw. Neither ship seemingly had a weakness, and so after 4.5 hours, they both sailed away- with both the Union and the Confederacy claiming victory.
While nobody actually won, this demonstration of American technological innovation ushered in a new era of naval warfare.
The Irony of Internet Democracy
A study of History and the Humanities shows us that when people encounter a broader world-view that the quality of their lives generally improves. The great irony that the internet presents us with is that never before in human history have we ever had access to an as exhaustively broad set of worldviews (a truly “democratic” system) and simultaneously had it filtered for us to be predicatively geared towards our predilections.
On social media this leads to something called “confirmation bias” where people with similar ideas are lumped together to affirm each other. While this makes the experience of navigating a world of possibilities far more enjoyable, it also robs us of being exposed to contrary arguments that can serve to either reinforce our beliefs or to make us question them… a process that we call “being educated.”
Outside of social media, think about this: we have access to music from all around the world and from multiple eras, but we only find ourselves being exposed to a fragment of what’s actually available… and from a handful of artists. Never have the possibilities been so broad and the options been so limited.
Roman Baths- an Allegory (P.1)
By the standards of the ancient world, the Romans were very sophisticated and decadent. Along with being the only civilization to conquer the entirety of Mediterranean Sea’s shoreline, they they also appreciated some of the finer things in life... such as saunas and hot tubs! The wealthy Roman citizens would gather at these bath houses and spend the day going from hot pools to cold pools to steam rooms to massage rooms- all while hobnobbing with the other elites.
The architecture that made this possible was incredible, even if its implications were inhumane. Slaves would work in the underbelly of the pools where they would stoke enormous fires that would heat the water and the air. The grueling conditions down there were dark, hot and smoky- literally hellish.
The unseen infrastructure that made the luxurious life possible for the wealthy relied on what was going on out of their view. Sure, the rich were aware of the fact that others were making enormous sacrifices for their personal ease, but as long as they were never confronted with these people face-to-face, then they could easily cognatively dissonate the unpleasant reality.
Roman Baths- An Allegory (p.2)
As discussed before, the bath houses in the ancient Roman world were luxurious and decadent for the wealthy, but their comfort and quality of life were only possible because of an unpleasant reality: that other humans were slaving away (literally!) to make their comfort possible.
This is an allegory of the relationship between the first world and the third world today. The way that those of us in the first world are able to experience the best is because others have to endure the worst. Chances are that the inexpensive clothes that we’re wearing or the fresh air that we’re breathing right now are only possible because somewhere, far removed from us, on the other side of the world there are people handling dangerous chemical dyes and producing the pollution that our modern standards of materialism demand. If nothing else, the cell phones in our pockets are most likely operating on (Congolese) coltan- a mineral that has been mined with enormous human rights abuses.
What should be done about the reality of this disparity in human experiences? Practically, it’s not feasibly to switch roles- and feeling guilty without actually doing anything is pointless. We can obviously try (to the best of our ability) to make purchasing decisions with the actual people who made the products in mind and we can all individually do our part not to waste, but statistically, if you want to help the third world out the MOST, you’ll never find any better bang for your buck than sponsoring a child in an impoverished country. The returns on that investment are statistically proven to be overwhelmingly effective for entire communities.
What we CANNOT do, however, is to blissfully ignore how the other half live (via cognitive dissonance) and live shallow, self-absorbed lives. This choice leads to a psychological inconsistency that feeds anxiety and depression… along with other moral complications.
Lenin: The leader of Communist Russia from the Bolshevik Revolution to the start of the Soviet Union.
Linen: A textile made from fibers of flax plants. Developed even before Mesopotamia, it’s one of the oldest fabrics in the world.
Lin’an: The name of the capital city of the Song Dynasty- where the current Chinese city of Hangzhou exists today. It was most famous for being the terminus of the Grand Canal (the world’s longest canal).
Our American Cousin: Making a killing in theaters
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated only five days after General Lee surrendered- an event that officially concluded the Civil War… but just because the war was over didn’t mean that the work was done. Quite the opposite: getting America beyond their open regional hostilities, their economic depression, their overt racism, class-discrimination and their disenchantment with a government that they apparently HAD to recognize, meant that most of the hard work still lay ahead.
The good news was that Lincoln was a brilliant president and he had plans to reconstruct America, the bad news was that in trying to be a good statesman he had brought Andrew Johnson (a Southern Democrat) on as his Vice President in order to make the office appear less biased. When Lincoln died, Johnson stepped into his role and absolutely botched the roll-out of his plans… leading to divisions and resentments that are still felt in America to this day.
The entirety of the Civil War was a self-inflicted wound, but when John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln he landed perhaps the greatest blow.
The main language that the ancient Romans communicated in was called “Latin.” Combined with the Greek language, about 60% of English today can trace its origins to some sort of Greek or Latin roots (… and that becomes 90% when using scientific vocabulary!). It’s direct influence can been seen on the “Roman-tic” languages today, such as Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese… and of course Pig Latin.
When the Spanish and Portuguese began colonizing Central and South America in the 1500s, their culture (and language) began dominating the regions… which is why, even though it’s on an entirely different continent, we still refer to these places as “Latin America.”
Mughal Muggle
The Mughal Empire covered most of the region today known as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh from around the 1600s to 1857. They were similar to the Ottoman empire in a lot of ways, but with a distinctly south-Asian flair. For instance, even though they were a Muslim Empire they governed a region where the majority of citizens were Hindus- and with a fairness not common by standards of their time.
Ever hear of the Taj Mahal? It was built by a Mughal emperor as a mausoleum for his (favorite) wife. (FUN FACT: The emperor’s OTHER wives got smaller mausoleums around the same complex)
John Brown: America’s First Batman
Arguably the most controversial character in American history, John Brown was an abolitionist vigilante in the mid 1800s. When Kansas first got its statehood, it was up to “Popular Sovereignty” on if it was to be a “Free State” or a “Slave State,” which led to a mess called “Bleeding Kansas”- essentially a mini Civil War within the state.
John Brown, who happened to have a broadsword laying around, went out and began killing pro-slavery Kansans. To people in the South, he was a terrorist murdering American citizens - to people in the North, he was a hero that fought for the things that they WISH the federal government would have the courage to stand up for. Just like Batman, he fought for justice that he knew “The System” wouldn’t be able to deliver- and by his own means.
Even today, historians have a hard time determining where to place the legacy of John Brown.
While every pandemic or disaster is unique in its own way, one of the valuable qualities of studying history is that it places everything in perspective. We don’t live in a vacuum and sometimes all that is needed for some proper guidance on how we should behave (or NOT behave, as the case may be) are all found in similar episodes from the past.
It doesn’t minimize the magnitude of a current crisis to look back at the medicine, science, and policies of the past to guide our energies today in a constructive direction. The way that we handle crises today will also someday be a point of reference for future historians.
In 1837, Horace Mann took the ideas from the Industrial Revolution and translated them into forming the educational system that our country would continue to use up until today. Operating like an efficient factory where you get placed into different departments, sit in rows, and all do the same work- the formula took its cues from the worst of the impersonal formula.
Despite the fact that education is the great equalizer of poverty and this system was incredible for children who had no access to learning, it also discouraged originality and creativity. If you are working on all accomplishing the same tasks then there’s no real room for independent thought… and this has been the struggle in public education ever since. How do you invoke the passions while ensuring baseline standards, especially if the latter is the objective criteria for a “good” teacher?
The history of Texas began with a bunch of American pioneers (led by a guy named Steve Austin) to start a colony in land outside of America… a region of Mexico called “Tejas.” These settlers were a bit too free-spirited for Mexico, not following many of the terms that Mexico had for their agreement, and so the Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Ann was sent to restore some order with them.
About 200 Texans holed themselves up in an old Spanish Mission (known as “the Alamo”) to resist Santa Ann’s 6,000 troops. Needless to say, Mexico crushed the rebellion- killing virtually all of the rebels (including Davy Crockett and the inventor of the Bowie knife!). While this seemed like a massive victory, it was exactly the thing needed to galvanize other Texans into forming a stronger formal army under Sam Houston. Because Santa Anna was merciless at the Alamo, it became the rallying cry for the opposition that eventually would defeat his entire army (in 18 minutes!).
I find it troubling when modern thinkers come across architecture and artifacts from the ancient world that their contemporary understanding can’t explain and they therefore presume that aliens, demons, dark magic, etc. MUST be the way that these people got their technology.
When people presume this they are essentially saying that just because we haven’t been able to figure it out today, then it must have been impossible for people in the past. The only explanation to fall back on would be some sort of supernatural or extraterrestrial assistance. While we today certainly have a leg up, with the advantages of electron microscopes and combustion engines, that doesn’t mean that people who didn’t understand these things were idiots.
Students are always asking me “Why is the country of Africa so poor?”
To which I reply that A) Africa is a continent and not a single country and B) you can’t understand anything about the countries of Africa until you understand one fundamental thing about their history: Colonialism.
500 years ago, the overwhelming majority of humanity was all living the same way- in small bands practicing their own forms of government, economics, religion, art, etc… and then a handful of European countries arrived to change all of that. About 50 years ago, most of those African countries got their independence and the power-vacuum that the Europeans left was filled with native strongmen… and this entire ordeal has left those countries far behind the West in terms of stability and economic prosperity.
The bad news is that Africa is trailing the developed world… the good news is that it’s not because the people aren’t innovative or due to the land being short on resources. Even though Africa had a rough start and is behind, they are catching up!
In the late 1800s gold was discovered up in north-western Canada and an estimated 100,000 prospectors attempted to stampede the area, setting up boom towns in their wake. The majority of gold-seekers had heard about the news in the papers of Seattle and San Francisco and from the way that the media spun it, it sounded like quick and easy money to the tender foot prospectors (“Just far enough away to be romantic, but just close enough to be accessible,” as historian Pierre Berton described it).
… but, as Jack London would make his own fortune articulating, the hostile realities of nature weren’t going to reward their optimism quite so easily…
California Gold Rush Infomercials
In 1848 gold was discovered in America’s newest state, California. This brought prospectors from all over the world to America’s (NEW!) west coast. The media of the day (newspapers) were largely blamed for overstating the ease of prospecting.
With the same energy that late-night infomercials channel today, people felt like getting rich would be incredibly easy- all they would have to do was show up and then basically the gold would come to them! 300,000 people arrived (establishing many “boomtowns”), though few people actually ever ended up getting enough gold to justify their efforts.
Moana 2: Captain Cook Ruins Everything
In 1778, the English captain James Cook made contact with the Hawaiian Islands (which he named the “Sandwich Islands”).
Not even Moana and Maui could stop the imperialism that was about to begin... I don’t expect Disney to make a movie about this one...
The Delicate Balance of a Democratic Republic
America is a Democratic Republic. From it’s inception, our country has always managed a steady and delicate balance between the threat of a strict Democracy (“mob rule”) and a the dangers of a Republic (an “aristocracy”). Maintaining this balance between the extremes has proven to be enormously advantageous, because leaning too far towards one extreme would hamstring us.
Everything that George Washington did as president set a new precedent for the executive branch of our government.
One of the first things that he did (since the Constitution didn’t say that he couldn’t) was to assemble a group of experts to advise him on doing his job. This small group was called his “cabinet,” and every president since has appointed their own cabinet of experts to advise them in doing the job.
Washington Lets Go
Part of being a parent is raising your kids to have a better life and more opportunities than you did… and that requires investing in them your family’s values, culture and history before launching them on their own independent trajectory… This is exactly what Washington did when he stepped down after two terms as president.
He showed America what the executive branch could look like, but he knew that it could never mature into its own independent thing if he kept holding on- and so once he felt like it was strong enough to make it on its own, he did the hardest thing and let go.
… But think how funny it would look if a grown-up lacked the self decency and just couldn’t let go! If they kept holding on to their teenager’s bike seats and handlebars when they rode to high school it would be laughable if not tragic… and so America would have been viewed if our founding father hadn’t had the courage to voluntarily resign himself!
The Irascible John Adams
When John Adams (America’s second president) replaced George Washington, the office of the president of the United States was still being defined- so no one really knew how much power the executive branch really had. When immigrants and his rival political party started criticizing him, though, he just couldn’t live with the thought. He pushed for immigrants to be deported and for newspaper editors to be jailed. One guy got locked up for saying that he “belonged in a madhouse.” Being a good leader in a democracy means that you understand people have the right to be wrong- and you don’t let their criticisms define you.
Fortunately, America’s government was built so that even though the president can steer the direction of the car, Congress prevents him for driving the nation off a cliff. The next president, Thomas Jefferson, corrected the course.
Columbus Day, Exactly as it occurred.
During the American Revolution, the 13 colonies got together and built an ad hoc government called "The Articles of Confederation." This government got us through the war, but it was certainly not sustainable once we got our independence. An event called "Shays' Rebellion" illustrated to the newly formed states why we would need a new Constitution.
Right after the Battle of Saratoga (the turning point of the American Revolution), Washington and about 12,000 troops spent the winter at a place called Valley Forge, outside Philadelphia.
Just like an actual “forge,” the hardships of this place refined the Continental Army into a legitimate fighting force. Although about 2,000 men died from hypothermia, malnutrition and disease, those who made it through went on to win the war. This is a real testament to the rewards of tenacity; sticking with challenges even when they are a grueling endurance race.
A Handy Guide to the U.S. Constitution
A handy way to remember the contents of the Constitution:
This is a summary of the entire US Constitution. The document starts by talking about the rights that our government has, and how it should act, before then talking about our rights as citizens.
It’s essentially broken into three articles (about the 3 branches), two articles about the balance between State and Fed (which I model as both sides of the hand- every state also has these three branches as well)… and then the Bill of Rights is tacked on for us as citizens.
“Manifest Destiny” on Halloween
As America expanded westward in the 1800s, there was a philosophy (coined by John O’Sullivan) called “Manifest Destiny” that essentially believed that America owning land all the way to the Pacific Ocean was not only inevitable but also justified.
The thinking was “Why would God have placed all of this land in front of us if He didn’t want us to take it?” As bullet-proof as that logic seemed to the settlers back then, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how it could be problematic when applied to pretty much anything else in life.
Disparity in America’s History
America is a great philosophical, social, political and economic experiment (whose results impact the rest of the world) and sometimes throughout our history we get things HORRIBLY wrong in attempting to "improve." These are the times when we seemingly forget the ideals of equality that our country was established on and these moments are where we can see dark spots of disparity in our proud history.
The good news is that, as an experiment, we continue to evolve and improve, but the bad news is that elements of disparity still exist today. In the spirit of the Great American Experiment, we need to continue to learn from our past mistakes as we improve.
Kaizen!
A Presidential Pardon
One of the rights of the Executive Branch, laid out in the Constitution, is the ability to pardon criminals… in the 1940’s, presidents began to sporadically apply this right to Thanksgiving turkeys as well.
If you think that this tradition is a mockery of the Office, you should have seen Gerald Ford in 1974.
Mammoth Professor
This print was made for a professor and archaeologist- but, since it’s related to Social Studies, here it is as well.
Gandhi’s Passive Resistance
A pioneer of passive resistance, Mahatma Gandhi undertook 17 (public) fasts in order to galvanize the rest of the world in his quest for Indian independence. The British Empire reacted predictably.
A Handy Guide to Africa’s Geography
Here’s a handy guide to remember the (very over-simplified) regions of Africa. In edu-speak, this mnemonic strategy is called “TPR.”
Sorry to the Sahel… it just didn’t make the cut.
Alexander the Great took Greek culture, ideas and values and spread them all the way to India in 323 BC.The independent, innovative and inquisitive philosophies of Greece were then merged with the other cultures that they bumped into. From the language that we speak today (a large percentage comes from Greek roots, let alone our alphabet), the way that we do education, our styles of entertainment, our standards of physical beauty to us wearing pants (a Persian thing that Alexander made “cool”), this event took the seeds of the “Western World” and began to make them global.
While they may have lost sight of the historical roots of Christmas, along with its heart of selfless charity, the Hessians DID sure know how to throw a holiday party.
The French Revolution: An American Paradox
In order to break away from its empire, America had to go to France- the enemy of England- in order to borrow money, troops, ships and weapons for winning the War of Independence. Once we got our freedom, the people of France thought that they would try to do the same thing with THEIR empire- although their definition of “Independence” looked a bit different than ours. Once they cut off the heads of the people that we owed money to, we had to ask ourselves: A) do we still owe “France” any money and B) do we support democracy even when we don’t like the outcome?
Not Entertained
Two of the best known film critics in the 90s were the duo Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who after reviewing the artistic merits of a film would then rank it based on the simple gesture of a thumb-up or a thumb-down.
One of the (many!) emperors of the Roman Empire in the first century was Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Nero is generally considered to be the cruelest Roman emperor (which, based on his competition, really is saying a lot!). In Lieu of cinema, Roman emperors also appeased the masses by hosting lavish gladiatorial spectacles for the masses who would gather from afar to enjoy the bloodsport. In a toss-up, the combatants would look up to the emperor’s box seat and he would be the ultimate arbiter on if a combatant would live- and he too would use a hand gesture of thumb-up or a thumb-down to convey his approval.
A Duke You Otto Know
After Charlemagne, the Frankish tribes that had ruled most of Western Europe split up. Soon they realized that they would be stronger if they were again united and so in 936 AD Duke Otto of Saxony was elected to be the king of Germany. As a reward for securing his kingdom against foreign threats (as well as helping him personally) the Pope decided to crown him as the “Emperor of the Romans” in 962.
His kingdom would go on to be known as the “Holy Roman” Empire, despite being neither of those things.
The Mongolians, who from the 13th-14th centuries amassed the largest contiguous land empire in world history, attributed much of their success to their warhorses. These Mongol horses weren’t the typical breeds that you picture when you think of faithful steeds in battle, though. They were more stocky and had shorter builds. Essentially, they were little ponies.
As a testament to how un-picturesque real history often plays out, these short stubby horses had incredible stamina, required little water, were self-sustaining and they were incredibly loyal (warriors could call them by whistling!). Although they weren’t the types of show-ponies that strike epic rearing poses in grand paintings, their functionality greatly outweighed their aesthetic.
In the 1950s, Cuba was a Capitalist country run by a dictator named Fulgencio Batista, who essentially was a puppet of the United States. Although he was a repressive dictator who seemingly cared little for the poor and he encouraged many human rights abuses, he WAS friendly to America and wasn’t going to let his country slip into Socialism.
In 1956, a revolutionary named Fidel Castro, along with a group of 19 rebels, launched a rebellion against the Cuban government and by 1959 they had gained public support and overthrown Batista. Castro, disgusted by the abuses of the dictator boldly proclaimed: “I am not a dictator, and I do not think I will become one. I will not maintain power with a machine gun.”
After disposing of the Capitalist dictator, he then went on to become a Communist dictator.
Compared to the civilizations that came before them, the Romans were master architects, partially because of their invention of cement, but mostly because they learned how to construct arches. Throughout the ruins of the Roman empire today, you still can find the ubiquitous structures that allowed for Roman buildings to be higher, roads longer and aqueducts more efficient.
A couple of thousand of years later, another empire would also see a golden opportunity to utilize the arch in expanding their influence…
At the start of the Civil War, the Union strategy (proposed by General Winfield Scott) was to divide and conquer the rebellion in the South. Slowly, the Union forces would wrap around the eastern and southern coasts (cutting off supply lines) and then divide the Confederate forces in 1/2 by taking the Mississippi River. This slow “squeeze” was likened to the way that an Anaconda incapacitates its victim and so the name stuck.
The rebels in the South, however, viewed themselves as a SECOND American Revolution- and this divide and conquer strategy was similar to the one used by the British in that war. In that war, the way that the smaller, less equipped, American forces defeated the Brits was by basically playing hide-and-seek with them until their adversary realized that the stamina and cost of pursuing were overwhelming… and so this is how the Confederates countered.
While this was the initial plan for the Civil War, it was haphazardly followed. For instance, the US didn’t have the Navy required to blockade a coastline and 3/4 of all Confederate ships made it through. The North wanted a quick and more aggressive approach, and this seemed like it would require too much time. Finally, this plan didn’t go after any strategic cities (like the rebellion’s capital, Richmond, VA) and so many other Union generals thought that a faster and more blunt strategy would be more effective.
With the exception of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman (“Uncle Billy”) was possibly the most controversial general to come from the Civil War.
Sherman was a pragmatist, who saw a quick end to the war as the most moral course of action and to this end his methods lacked a certain grace. He conducted something known as a “Scorched Earth policy” in which he burned and killed anything in his path. The idea was that if the people of the Southern rebellion really could understand how terrible war was, then they wouldn’t want to continue to engage in supporting it.
In his eponymous “March to the Sea” at the end of 1864, he set off from Atlanta (he swore that he didn’t start the fire that burned THAT city down!) and cut a 300 mile path all the way to Savannah leaving smoldering houses, fields, crops, railroad lines and livestock all in his wake. His vision was to bring the Southern states back into the Union, and so, distinguishing his actions from the “Total War” of later conflicts, he never massacred civilians.
The Mongolians had long lived in Northern Asia, but in 1206 AD Genghis Khan unified the Mongolian tribes and filled them with aspirations of becoming an empire. In an astonishingly short period of time the Mongolians had conquered all the way South to India and West to Austria… about 11 million square miles! They possessed the largest contiguous empire in world history (second in total size only to England’s empire).
Through the 13th and 14th Centuries, the Mongolian empire was one that was fierce, fast and efficient. Their troops (“hordes”) would race in to attack on horseback and they would employ weapons and tactics that simply overwhelmed their enemies. This strategy clearly took enormous planning and coordination, which the Mongolians were especially keen at administering. The Silk Road flourished under their “Pax Mongolica” and they ruled China as the Yuan Dynasty.
Herodotus (c. 484- 425BC) was an ancient Greek writer best known for his records of the Greco-Persian Wars. He is known as “The Father of History” because of the way that he not only records events, but also interprets them for both their meaning and application. If you are looking for ancient primary sources (outside of the Bible itself), his book The Histories is as far back as the discipline of History (as we know it today) goes.
Marco Polo (1254- 1324 AD) was an Italian merchant who traveled the Silk Road to the land of Cathay (China) and explored the culture and geography of the Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan. He recorded the experiences of his travels in his book The Travels of Marco Polo (Written while he was in prison!). For most Europeans, including Christopher Columbus, this book was used as an introduction to the exciting lands that lay to the East.
Both Herodotus and Marco Polo have come under heavy scrutiny over the centuries for embellishing events and fudging on their numbers. Some of the headcounts of Herodotus seem untenable and Polo’s accounts of pygmies who were less than a foot tall and wild men without joints in their legs are laughable. Nevertheless, these works of history and geography were enormously influential in the ways that shaped world development. Since no one else was recording these events, especially in the case of Herodotus, the only grounds that modern historians have to dispute these primary sources with are intuitions… a murky task indeed.
Ibn Battuta could have been in the same boat too, but I thought of him after I had drawn this.
After World War II, America began to grow suspicious of foreign countries who may be trying to influence and subvert our way of life. Of particular concern was a genuine fear (with some substantiated examples) that the Soviets were attempting to “alter the form of [US] government by unconstitutional means.” From 1950-54 this was known as the (second) “Red Scare”- and US Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figure-head of these witch-hunts that were aimed at identifying those influential individuals within the country whom he could accuse of subversion or treason on behalf of the Soviets.
The hallmark of these hearings was the utter disregard of evidence. Suspicions led government employees, those in the entertainment industry, people in academics and labor-union activists to be accused of being Communists or Communist sympathizers- and subject to aggressive investigations from congress and private agencies. With questionable or inconclusive evidence hundreds of Americans had their careers ruined or lost their jobs because of these accusations. Fortunately, many of these verdicts were later overturned once actual evidence was considered, but unfortunately not before it ruined reputations and sowed exaggerated anxieties nationally.
The irony here was that in attempting to protect the Constitution, the rights in the Constitution was utterly discarded.
In the early 1820s, many countries in North and South America were controlled by Spain and Portugal. Inspired by America’s revolution about 50 years prior, these countries started to also aspire to be independent of their oppressive empires. Under president James Madison, a policy which came to be known as the “Monroe Doctrine” was penned- essentially saying that America would come to the aid of other like-minded countries and would defend our hemisphere from foreign (European) imperialism.
While this does seem very noble and philanthropic of our country, throwing our support behind Mexican independence from Spain, it also would greatly simplify our military’s efforts in the Mexican-American War a few decades later. Serendipitously, America could easily snatch up the land that we wanted from a new and developing country and not have to worry about battling a foreign superpower.
Although this policy has been been sporadically enforced over the past 200 years (when convenient!), it has also largely served as a guide to shaping our country’s non-interventionism and multilateral interests. FUN FACT: Initially, England enforced it more than America- because their Navy was stronger than America’s and also since it was in their interest to curtail European competition. Since the War of 1812, though, this would never be pitched as a bilateral effort.
(For a good time, google “The Ukase of 1821.”)
The Oregon Trail was a 2,170 mile route that was the embodiment of the American idea of “Manifest Destiny.” Since their early colonial days, Americans had always been interested in spreading further west and after the Louisiana Purchase, eventually spreading from coast-to-coast across the continent seemed like our national destiny… regardless of who currently was living in those lands.
Starting in the 1830s, having used intel passed on from fur-trappers and Mountain Men, around 400,000 Americans set out on the trail which started in Independence, Missouri and ended at the Willamette Valley in the Oregon Territory. As any Millennial who played the game on their elementary school’s Macintosh computer could tell you, it was an arduous journey. Estimates hold that around 3-10 percent of those who set off on the journey never made it. The Oregon Trail came to symbolize the rugged individualism that has long been a hallmark of our mein.
My favorite quote about the promised land of Oregon comes from Peter Hardeman Burnett: “… Out in Oregon the pigs are running about under the great acorn trees, round and fat, and already cooked, with knives and forks sticking in them so that you can cut off a slice whenever you’re hungry.” Having lived in the state for virtually my entire life, I can that affirm this is not accurate.
When James K. Polk was running for president, he was up against Henry Clay- a far more popular candidate. In order to clench his victory, though, he tapped into a real hot-button current issue of the 1840s: Manifest Destiny.
At this time, the land that would be present day Oregon, Idaho, Washington and eastern Canada (all the way up to Russian Alaska!) was simply known as the “Oregon Territory”- which both England and America claimed. Polk ran on the campaign promise that America was going to take ALL of this land (as designated by the line of latitude)- or fight England for it. However, once he was elected, he quickly compromised with England and went halfsies making America’s northern border where it is today… and then he turned his attention to his REAL interest- the land that Mexico owned and that he wanted.
Large sections of the land Mexico owned also were below the Missouri Compromise line… which meant that he had the potential to spread slavery farther west…
John Brown (“America’s First Batman”) decided that abolitionists had spent enough time TALKING about freeing slaves and that now it was time for action. He figured that the only things slaves would need in order to revolt was leadership and weapons… two things that he felt like he could provide. In 1859 he planned to raid the federal armory at Harpers Ferry (present day West Virginia) and distribute the 100,000 rifles and muskets stored there to all of the slaves who arrived.
Everyone told him that this was a bad idea, especially when only about 20 people of his planned 4,500 gathered before the raid. Since the armory only had one watchman on duty, getting in was the easy part… but as the hours dragged on, and no one arrived to join his rebellion, he probably started to re-think his plans. Sure enough, the US military eventually arrived, captured his men and hanged him… but, yet again, his actions would lead Americans to be divided on his legacy: was this guy a hero or a terrorist?
Thanks to the efforts of revolutionaries like Mahatma Gandhi (and Vinayak Savarkar!), England finally took a hint and decided to end their imperialism of India. But, true to form, when Britain pulled out, they left a mess in their wake.
They partitioned the region into a few countries, with India being a place for Hindus to live and making Pakistan and “East Pakistan” (Bangladesh) for Muslims. With these new borders, around 10 million people were displaced and hundreds of thousands were killed in ethnic violence. If this type of segregation doesn’t sound like the type of formula to stoke tensions, the borders that they left between the countries surely would. For instance, the border up in the Kashmir mountains was entirely unintelligible- leading to heated conflicts that continue to this day.
…Oh, and both countries also have nukes.
Coming immediately after the Industrial Revolution in America, the Civil War is largely considered to be the first “Modern War”- with weapons and technology being designed, manufactured and deployed on an industrial scale.
It was the first war to use the telegraph (for instant communication), railroads (for efficient transportation of weapons and troops), aerial reconnaissance (hot air balloons), long range rifles (with interchangeable parts, complete with “rifling”), minnie bullets (produced on an industrial scale) and the Gatling gun. The Civil War also introduced the first iron-clad battleships, the first naval mines and the first military ambulance units.Though the technology that was considered “modern” back then was pretty petty compared to what is used today, it laid the foundation for the evolution of modern military staples around the world.
Unlike most of my illustrations, this one is intentionally NOT historically accurate. While Edmund Hillary WAS the first person on the summit of Everest, his guide, Tenzing Norgay was only a step behind. In history, most people remember Hillary, but completely forget about Tenzing, who was equally as notable.
In all honesty, when the expedition to summit Everest began in 1953 it involved 362 porters and 20 Sherpa guides (“Sherpa” is an ethnicity of people who live in that region of Nepal), Norgay and Hilary were very close (With Norgay even saving Hilary’s life on the climb) and after their expedition to the top the two would become lifelong friends and Hilary would go on to establish the Himalayan Trust, a non-profit for the Sherpa people of Nepal.
Many countries have dynasties (or “monarchies” in the West), but in China specifically one leader who seemed like he could look out for the safety and happiness of the people was given the title of “emperor.” The people would believe that he had been given the “Mandate of Heaven”- placing him at the very tip-top of the social structure and he would rule with absolute power. Then he would pass the role down to his kids and they would pass it on to their kids, etc., etc., etc.
Inevitably, one of those leaders in the family line would become weak or corrupt and then a NEW leading family would emerge. China had 12 dynastic cycles in their country’s (essentially) 4,000 year history and when talking about different periods in China people normally refer to the era by the dynasty that was ruling.
The Ottoman Empire (which, yes, did lend its name to the furniture piece) was one of the largest empires in world history, covering most of the Middle East and Northern Africa. They also were one of the longest lasting (from 1300 AD- 1923). Part of the reason for their stability was their uncanny tolerance for the diversity within their empire.
Though it was predominately remembered for being a Muslim empire, it was far more accepting and secular than other places during the same time (namely in Europe). Unfortunately, they aligned with the losing side during WWI and got divided up into many fractious states by the French and British, retaining only a sliver of their splendor in the modern country of Turkey.
After WWI, the Ottoman Empire essentially got divided into about two dozen Arab countries and while the leaders of those countries were normally pretty friendly to America, they were essentially dictatorial jerks to their own citizens. Unless you had a connection to the right people in these places, getting a good job (or even justice) could be really difficult.
Around the Arab countries people were growing more and more disenchanted with their governments, especially when they used social media to see how well other people were living. Eventually, this frustration came to a tipping point when a Tunisian street vendor lit himself on fire in protest. This act sparked revolts and protests across the rest of the Arab countries from disaffected citizens who also wanted change. These protests (an “awakening”- like in springtime) swept from one Arab country to another like dominoes.
America developed into three regions: the Northeast, the South and the West. In the early 1800s, the West asked for America’s government to lower land prices in their region to encourage settlers; the Northeast and the West asked for thousands of miles of canals and train lines to connect their regional resources; the North asked for tariffs on imports, which benefited them but came at the expense of the South’s economy. Uncle Sam granted it all.
In all of this, despite its claims that it equally loved each of its regions, the US govt. certainly made it seem like they were playing favorites with two of the three. Initially, the South understood that being on a team or part of a family meant that sometimes you have to sacrifice for the welfare of everyone. But after constantly being overlooked, the South would eventually get fed up with feeling like the rest of the family didn’t really care about them and they then decided to break away and try to form their own country: the Confederate States of America.
Make no mistake, the issue of slavery would be THE factor that would force the actual division, but during the early 1800s this seeming economic favoritism began to plant the seeds in the minds of Southern leaders that they could be justified in wanting to leave.
Along with being the inventor of the lighting rod and bifocals (as well as an improved urinary catheter!), Ben Franklin is also attributed as the first inventor of the American political cartoon, with his famous “Join, or Die” illustration appearing in continental print on May 9, 1754.
The metaphor of the British colonies needing to unite together, aside from their differences, in order to really thrive and function to their fullest was based on the faulty biological assumption that a snake which was cut into pieces could fuse back together again and live. While the metaphor was flawed, the message and the medium weren’t.
Across America there is almost universal disdain for the system that we use to elect our president; it’s called the “Electoral College.” Instead of a purely democratic (“popular”) vote, where whichever candidate has the most votes wins the contest, the Electoral College is a system where every state is given a certain number of votes (based on that state’s number of representatives) and the candidate for whom MOST of the people in that state vote ends up taking all of that state’s points.
Wyoming and North Dakota are worth only 3 points… while California is worth 55! The reason that this system DOES work is because about 1/2 of America’s population live in a few major cities, meaning that the other 1/2 live out less populous places. The Electoral College ensures that a presidential candidate can’t just ignore the “small ticket” states in their quest for the White House, because if you get enough of them then they can add up to more than even the biggest states.
America's second president, John Adams, had a tendency of being irascible and made a lot of poor choices... fortunately, his brilliant wife, Abigail, reigned him in most of the time.
Although the social mores of the day kept her from ever having nearly as much credit or appreciation as she deserved, we do have volumes of her letters that she wrote to her husband talking him down... and guiding future historians to the real brains of his administration.
Andrew Jackson came in like a wrecking ball
The first 6 presidents of America were all cut from the same cloth; that is, they were all well-educated and from wealthy elite families... and then Andrew Jackson came along, challenging the assumptions about what it meant to be the president.
Under "Jacksonian Democracy," he felt like the president should be a "Man of the People" and steer the country in the direction that the will of the common people pointed. Instead of giving America what they NEEDED, he gave America what he thought they WANTED- and for this reason the common people loved him... and the well-educated loathed him.
At the end of his second term, he had bankrupted America, displaced thousands of Natives (the "Trail of Tears") and ratcheted up the regional divides that would drive us to a Civil War.
The first 6 American presidents had come from wealthy and well-educated families and their vision of “Democracy” was one where only the most informed (white males) were allowed to vote. Andrew Jackson rolled out something called “Jacksonian Democracy” where far more people (… again, white males) would be able to have a voice that contributed to the direction our country went. Regardless of if they were farmers or factory workers, their voice counted for as much as the well-connected.
We still see the same conflicting views playing out in America today. Some Americans think that those who are not informed or engaged should not cast a vote and interfere with those who are invested, while others insist that no matter what your background, EVERYONE should be able to have a contributing voice in our country, because regardless of their background they live here too.
Before the “Great Depression” America had had a prior one, ingeniously named “The Depression of 1837.” Andrew Jackson felt like the federal bank of America was a monopoly (like the DMV of currency) and so during his second term as president he was bent on destroying the federal bank and making “state banks.” He succeeded in doing this and WAY more money was then printed- making Americans feel rich and happy… but there was no value behind all this money and as he stepped out of office, handing the presidency over to his VP, hyperinflation kicked in and the bubble burst. *Ironically, Jackson’s face wound up on the $20 bill.
America was financially in the dumps. 90% of the factories in the north shut down, and this drove people to where they could start all over again- fueling Westward Expansion!
At the end of World War II Europe was a mess. There was a lot of hostility and diplomatic bridges seemed to be burned- so how did the continent rebound and not ostracize their neighbors who had treated them awfully? By becoming dependent on one another!
It originally began with the “European Coal and Steel Community” and the “European Economic Community” and this foundation of economic dependency on each other eventually morphed into the “European Union.”
Imagine that you hate someone and they hate you. If you have all of their food and they have all of your water, you have to see past each others’ faults in order to survive… over time those hostilities will naturally die down.
Cogs of the Industrial Revolution
Between the late 1700s and the early 1800s people realized that machines (powered by steam or water wheels) could do work faster and more efficiently than people.
This was a major turning point in humanity, as Capitalism became virtue-less in its pursuit of the bottom-line, people’s view of their own self-worth morphed and humans came to be viewed as nothing more than just one more interchangeable cog in a larger machine... but because of the pay and stability, people flocked into cities from their traditional farms.
Along with the growth of cities, this era also led to the use of clocks, the views of modern gender-roles and the formula for our public education system.
300 years after the Western Roman Empire collapsed, a barbarian king named Charles the Great (“Charles” + “Magnificent” = “Charlemagne”) who was the king of a group called “the Franks” (where the “French” would later come from) unified the people within present day France and Germany.
He was quite literally the RULER of the land, as his foot was used as the system of measurement for his kingdom (the “Carolingian System”).
This system would be the arbitrary system of measurement until the French Revolution came up with a more exact measuring system (1 meter= 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the North Pole).
Having a measuring system based off of a ruler? What a feat!
The War of 1812 is the single most under-rated event in US History.
Most people know that the White House got burned down during it and that it’s where our national anthem comes from (everyone AT LEAST knows what year the war started in) but I argue that it’s one of the most important parts of our country’s past. Although no one ever talks about it, the effects from the war shaped the course of the way that America would develop even to this day.
Without it, our national reputation would have remained as “Europe Jr,” slavery probably would have fizzled out, relations with Natives would probably look different and American heroes would have stayed confined to just our founding fathers.
Essentially, a summary of the War of 1812 is that England and France were fighting each other and this inconvenienced Americans, so our 30-year-old nation figured that we should declare war on England, a superpower, and maybe even add Canada to our country. After the first two years of England mostly ignoring us so that they could shut down Napoleon (who was trying to take over Europe), they turned their full attention to us. We certainly didn’t win the war, but we didn’t get obliterated either... which was impressive in its own right. Because of it, America would never be the same.
The Roman Empire (at its height) was around 1.7 million square miles… which is roughly about 1/2 the size of the United States today. Having only one dictator managing it all by himself was understandably difficult, so in AD 284 Diocletian decided to split the empire into two halves: The Western half (which fell apart about 120 years later) and the Eastern half- which was re-branded “Byzantium” and lasted up until 1453 (like 40 years before Columbus sailed the “ocean blue!”).
Lewis and Clark Make an Important Announcement (cont. below)
Lewis and Clark Make an Important Announcement (part 2)
Essentially, when Jefferson sent the “Corps of Discovery” into the Louisiana Territory to map out the land and find the Northwest Passage, he instructed them to peacefully reach out to the native tribes that they came into contact with, informing them that their land had been purchased by a larger nation and that more settlers would be coming soon.
… Oh- and Lewis and Clark also handed out these resplendent medallions to really seal the deal.
The Most Sincere Form of Flattery
If you ever look at the Greek and Roman civilizations side-by-side, you’ll see a striking resemblance. Rome, like any little brother who copies everything that their older sibling does, would insist that the imitation was only because they were so impressed with them. Greece, like any older sibling, would say that this relationship was obnoxious and taxing.
Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
When Washington stepped down as being America’s first president, he opened up the nation to its first real taste of political divisions- our first two political parties: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Federalists (like John Adams and Alexander Hamilton) believed that America should grow up to have a strong national government and that we should have an economy based on manufacturing and shipping. Democratic-Republicans (like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) believed that we should be a limited national government (where individual states had more power) and that we should have an economy based on farming and simple living.
Both parties loved America and wanted what they believed was in its best interest, but both of their visions were at odds with one another. This is like a couple trying to raise a child with two very different parental visions.
Mrs. Ethington’s Handy Way to Remember the Bill of Rights.
As it says in the footnote, this illustration is shamelessly lifted from one of the best educational videos on youtube. These hand signals (“TPR”) are the BEST way that I know to get kids to remember the rights that we are given in the Constitution.
In my experience, this is the BEST way that I know to memorize the Bill of Rights.
The Cold War was a proxy war- just like a Pokémon battle.
At the end of World War 2, the winning countries got to tell the losing countries how to live their lives- but they were divided over how the world should go about rebuilding itself after the conflict.
Communism gave a lot of structure but Capitalism, while allowing more freedom, seemed a bit more risky. If the Communist and Capitalist superpowers decided to fight it out, it would have been WW3- with nukes- so instead they found surrogates to support.
This led to both the Korean War, the Vietnam War and tensions in Afghanistan.
Martin Van Buren- the making of a statesman
Now you can’t un-see it.
The Dark Ages in Europe came to an end for many reasons, but one of them was the rise of the middle class. Instead of rich nobles and poor peasants, craftsmen and traders began to surface and provide a new economic course. The guild system was a way that untrained and unskilled laborers were able to enter into this new workforce.
The guild system was a bit like if the mafia’s main goal was quality control.
Copyright © 2019. Timothy Love | Zeke’s Guide to History and the Humanities | All rights reserved.