Massive Upheaval: The Napoleanic Era in Review

I was asked to evaluate the statement "The Napoleanic era was a time of great upheaval in the world". I personally would agree with this statement. During and after the time Napoleon was in power, there was a great deal of shifting and agitation not only in the countries of Europe, but both Americas as well. In Europe there was the Congress of Vienna, where many important decisions were made involving not only how to keep the now-dormant France in check, but also about distributing the land from nations toppled or destroyed by Napoleon's conquests. This Congress redrew the map of Europe, redefining the true powers on the continent. In South America, Simon Bolivar, believing that his country should be independent like the United States, began a great conquest, eventually uniting a great deal of the continent as nation independent from the Spanish: "Gran Columbia". America, in light of the unrest in Europe, and wishing to be immune from further interference by Europeans, put forth the Monroe Doctrine, which declared that the American land was no longer open to colonization by other nations, and was owned by the American people. The shockwave that was Napoleon had created ripples across the globe, and the world was being slowly being pulled into the modern era.

North and South: The Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Today I was asked to contrast the effects of the Industrial Revolution on both the south and north. The Industrial Revolution, with it's innovation, turned the north into a manufacturing region which enabled America to be dependent on itself, and not Britain, for manufactured goods. Ease of production in multiple industries continued to increase with each new invention. In the south there were different results. The dependence mentality of the south was so deeply entrenched that the people in it simply switched from importing goods from Britain to importing goods from the north. They didn't take advantage of the opportunity to manufacture, and the south remained a majorly agricultural society. The inventions in the south all revolved around production of cotton and the like (the gin is one example), and the slavery/cotton system remained a crucial part of the southern economy. While manufacturing cities grew in the north, the old plantations sat in the south. These two very different lifestyles clashed frequently on capital hill, notably in the event known as "the missouri question", and eventually the conflict escalated into the civil war.