{"id":12312,"date":"2018-05-17t11:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-05-17t18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/?p=12312"},"modified":"2018-03-12t19:33:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13t02:33:54","slug":"apush-themes-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/ap\/apush-themes-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"themes across apush: expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

the purpose of these “themes across apush” blog posts is for you to practice the historical thinking skills<\/a> required for the apush exam. today, you’ll practice the skill of examining patterns of change and continuity over time by looking at one apush theme: territorial expansion throughout u.s. history.<\/strong><\/p>\n

as you are reading, you should be thinking about:<\/p>\n

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  1. what patterns of continuity and change to you recognize over time?<\/li>\n
  2. how can you connect this theme to other themes across u.s. history?<\/li>\n
  3. what argument would you make about this theme on the apush exam?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    the goal for these blogs is not to give you an exhaustive view of this topic; believe me, people much smarter than i am have written books and books on the subject. instead, we want you to be able to think about patterns in u.s. history so that you can organize your own studying efficiently. ready? let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

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    \n    source<\/a>: government map created in mid-20th century<\/center><\/p>\n

    a brief overview: expansion in u.s. history<\/h3>\n

    the story of u.s. history generally goes east to west; that is, some people (a mix of europeans and africans) arrived in the east and headed, slowly but surely, west. the people these europeans—history textbooks tend to leave out the africans at this point—encountered as they marched west were generally indigenous people, sometimes different europeans, but were always considered \u201cothers\u201d that had to be integrated into the america that existed back east. <\/p>\n

    with this blog post, i hope to disrupt that \u201ceast to west\u201d narrative. in order to do that, i will go in depth about one particular type of expansion: that of the original colonies. in this section, i will make connections between the \u201cmainland\u201d colonies and the west indies\/caribbean colonies and argue that the framework of \u201cmiddle grounds\u201d or \u201cnative grounds\u201d between settlers and indigenous populations can help you make sense of changes and continuities over time. <\/p>\n

    at the end of the post, i will give you three sample documents to help you make sense of other aspects of territorial expansion in united states history (and one of these is likely to come up in the apush exam!). i will highlight some potential ways you could make sense of these documents if you were to write an essay that had to attend to changes as well as continuities over time.<\/p>\n

    of course, this story i am presenting leaves out quite a bit. but think, as you continue to read, how the story might change if you added, say, the annexation of texas or the floridas to this story. in essence, by leaving out some types of territorial expansion, i am hoping that you will continue the process of thinking about change and continuity over time in u.s. history. <\/p>\n

    apush themes: expansion and the original colonies<\/h3>\n

    at this point, it\u2019s not news to you that the thirteen \u201coriginal\u201d colonies had disparate ideologies and charters. many wonderful historians have done the work of demonstrating how improbable a \u201cunited\u201d anything was at the eve of revolution. this is not the argument i will take up here. instead, i want you to think about the connections between the west indies\/caribbean and the \u201coriginal\u201d colonies in order to ask the question: <\/p>\n

    in what ways was the success of the original colonies dependent upon expansion elsewhere?<\/em> <\/p>\n

    in the groundbreaking work titled new england bound<\/em>, historian wendy warren<\/a> makes the provocative argument that it was only through the expansion of the slave trade in places like barbados that the colonists in new england were able to create a successful new world settlement. although new england is often thought of as separate from the horrors of slavery, professor warren shows how the colonies were intimately connected. <\/p>\n

    you can listen to her explanation of this relationship in more detail here:
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