Could the United States continue as one nation What values resided at Essay

Could the United States continue as one nation What values resided at the core of the nations identity And What did they believe it meant to be an American - Essay Example The first example of this is when the colonists moved the Native Americans off their own land. This caused a lot of fighting such as the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, where 3,000 U.S. soldiers fought and beat 2,000 Native Americans. Other Indians were forced to move from their land and live on reservations. Another terrible event with the Native Americans was the Trail of Tears in 1838. About 15,000 Cherokees were forced to leave their possessions and homes in Georgia and go to Oklahoma. About 4,000 of the Indians died on the trail. Another race that was discriminated by Americans was the Africans. Americans thought they were superior and they enslaved the Africans. They thought that Africans were racially inferior. Africans were taken from their homes, crammed on to ships, and then sold as slaves. They were treated bad and did not have rights. Finally after the Civil War, slavery was abolished. Even though there was still racism, this was viewed as a good change. Change is generally thought of as a good thing to Americans. Change is thought of as improvement, progress, and advancement in the American society. Nevertheless, in older and more traditional cultures, change is thought to be disparaging and troublesome. New technology is always being introduced and welcomed in the U.S. This could be because many inventors lived in America and introduced these new inventions. One of the first great inventors in America was Benjamin Franklin. In the mid 1700s, Franklin did many activities to help the technology in the U.S. get better, including experiments with lightning. Thomas Edison invented many things to fuel this characteristic of Americans, such as the incandescent light bulb. Between 1867 and 1931, Edison had patented over 1,000 inventions. Another great inventor was Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone in 1876. Before 1860, the U.S. Patent Office had only issued 36,000 patents, but