Preparation for chapter 17

Your text spent three chapters interrupting the flow of the narrative. Notice that it is now picking up the story where it left off in chapters 13 and 14 after our sidetrips into economics, culture, and the slave system. Make sure you review what was going on with the British, with Texas, and with Oregon in previous chapters to help you understand chapter 17. The pages you will want to review are: pp 265-267 and pp. 295-298. Make sure you note treaties and agreements from that time period.

Also, you might want to brush up on what exactly the Whig party held as its core beliefs. Pages 290-292 and 298-301 will help explain some of the politics in chapter 17. For some reason, the book suddenly left off its discussion of the Whigs and William Henry Harrison at the end of chapter 13 and now picks it up again at pages 396-97.

Link to a 1-page history of the Barbary Wars

Go here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/barbary.htm

Review of American Imperialism and Star of the 20th Century

Mr. Wallace describes how we begin to really pay attention to our place in the world and getting our late start on imperialism in the Spanish-American War.

John Adams, the Declaration of Independence, and the “Model Treaty”

On p. 154 of Chapter 8, your book mentions a “Model Treaty” drafted by a committee of the 2nd Continental Congress that set the basis for early American diplomacy. John Adams was involved in the drafting of this document.

Click on this link (http://www.masshist.org/DIGITALADAMS/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=A1_24) to read John Adams’ own words about what the purpose of this treaty was.

There is also some great information on how Thomas Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence.

Read it and be prepared to discuss or explain this reading.