Emilie

(Informal Essay) || Emilie Horstmann   Mr. Dunbar   Period 5   ** INFORMAL ESSAY **  **How would the geographic space that we know as the United States of America today be different if it had been colonized from West to East rather than East to West?** If the United States of America were colonized from West to East rather than East to West, our country would have been influenced by the Asian culture, which would have changed the government, culture and education that we practice today. First of all, the culture of America would be altered from the way it is now. The majority of our customs are based off of European traditions. The first explorers and immigrants of the United States have European nationalities, which have been carried on to us through ancestry and are still most commonly seen in our country today. If we were to be colonized from west to east, most of our backgrounds would be Asian. That would cause there to be a changed overall environment, filled with different foods, different clothes and different general lifestyles. The set-up of our government would be much different than it is now if the west of America was founded before the east. The founding fathers of America put their ideas together to form a democracy for our country. We are able to pride ourselves because we are granted with many freedoms and rights. We have rules to follow, which are stated in the Constitution. These Amendments are set and to be followed to ensure our country some order. However, the Asian culture is communist, which means that they believe that everything should be equal. Because of the geographical setup, the founders of the West would most likely have been from Asia. Therefore, The United States would presumably have been formed by those same ideas of communism. Our history would be altered in so many ways if that were to be the case. In 9th Grade Honors Western Civilization, we have spent the entire year learning about the life of Europeans starting from way back when. It is quite visible that there are many connections between the traditions and customs of people who existed so far back. For example, we have focused a lot on the religion and government of those early Europeans. Today, Catholicism and Lutheranism are two strongly practiced religions that started to become prime during the Middle Ages and even before than. If things had gone differently and the west was discovered before the east, the past of the people in Europe would be irrelevant to us and we would be learning about the history of the Asian culture in school. Our education would be changed completely. One simple discovery really does alter everything- our world would be unrecognizable to what we are accustomed to if those brave European explorers had not discovered the east coast of the United States when they did. ||  || 10/23/2012 Mexican Drug War: PowerPoint
 * **Date** ||  **Assignment**  ||  **File**  ||  **Comments**  ||
 * 12/23 || Renaissance Podcast || media type="file" key="Podcast.mp3" width="240" height="20" ||  ||
 * 1/31 || Dissent Photostory || [|West Civ Dissent Photostory] ||  ||
 * 2/8 || Age of Exploration Map || media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=215997493214464286979.0004b87c9d0443ca5d275&ie=UTF8&ll=6.78299,21.533207&spn=135.426845,225.175774&t=m&output=embed" width="425" height="350" ||  ||
 * 2/9/ || Western Colonization of America
 * 3/15 || Timeline || http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/29235/Absolutism-and-Constitutionalism/ ||  ||