1. A DIFFICULT PAST –
HOW THE AMERICAS
CHANGE
Jackie Mougel

2. The Americas in the 19th
Century
 Many young Chinese men left China for California
after hearing stories of mountains made of gold
 Chinese government tried to prevent its citizens
from leaving
 In America most immigrants stayed together
according to their origins
 Some made a small fortune and returned to China
 Age of independence= continuous mass
migration, explosive economic growth, followed by
deep economic stagnation, civil war, ethnic
violence, class conflict, battle for racial & sexual
quality

3. The Americas in the 19th
Century
 After attaining independence Americans
expanded west
 US= unstable society composed of varied region
with diverse economic & social structures
 Differences in slavery & rights of individual states=
Civil War 1860s
 Canada= weak federal government
 Latin America politically fragmented region with
many individual stated
 After civil war= United States forged a strong
central government to supervised westward
expansion

4. Little Ice Age
 300 years
 16th to the 19th centuries
 Europe
 America
 Low average temperatures
 Used to predict climatic changes
 Earth’s climate is still recovering
 Current climate warming
 "It appears that the human impact on the
environment started much earlier than the industrial
revolution," said Dr. Van Hoof.

5. Frontiers of the Americas
 Symbolic violence -arbitrates
a man’s place in a social
group
 cultural boundary between
rural borderlanders and
townsmen= two styles of
conflict
 gaucho= a man with a horse
and a knife
 Class and race differences
 Killing always defined as a
crime
 Attacker trying to show
something about himself
rather than to kill
 Honor is not the only
determinant : class, race

6. Frontiers of the Americas
 Power and Politics in
Northeast Brazil
 1824: Emperor Pedro I
allowed upper
Brazilians to have
political infuence
 Centered around family
 Father and older sons
preserve family’s
integrity
 Women to marry up to
strengthen family ties
 Carlota Lucia de Brito :
mistress of a powerful
Paraiban politician

7. The Pendulum of War
 1861-1862
 Most civil wars the entering army might fight for land or
government
 But Confederacy established a government- Richmond
 750,000 square miles
 President Lincoln must destroy Confederacy’s government by
evading
 Union defeat at Bull Run 1861
 Union General George B. McClellen
 “The young Napoleon”
 July Mclellen secured West Virginia
 Suspicions of Mclellen’s loyality

8. Taking Off the Kid Gloves
continued
 Lincoln- General John
Pope commander of Army
of Virginia
 Pope disliked McClellan
openly
 More then could be
equipped union soldiers
 Militia act July 17- call
state militia into feral
service for 9 months and
draft them
 Frederick Douglass- black
leader- the war was
grounded on slavery
 1861 Congress seized all
property in aid of rebellion

9. “The Federals Got a Very Complete
Smashing” Continued
 The Battle of Second Manassas (Bull Run)-Union
lost
 August 29 -McClellan finally helped Poe’s army
against Jackson
 September 4-5, 1862-Confederate cavalry lead
army of Northern Virginia across Potomac into
Maryland
 Lee’s victory at Manassas
 Lee’s successful invasion of Maryland
 Election of Peace Democrats to U.S. Congress
 Saw the civil war becoming a war to destroy the
South and slavery instead of restoring the Union as
it was.

10. The Beginning of the End
 Army of Northern Virginia
was not destroyed at
Antietam
 Confederate commander
did not give up easily
 Northern press pessimism:
dark war
 Surrender of Harpers Ferry:
Union humiliation
 Union triumphs at Antietam,
Corinth and Perryville
 Proclamation: symbolic
power
 December 1: Lincoln
“Without slavery the
rebellion could never have
existed; without slavery it
could no continue.”