the american dream

[sanane11]

The American Dream 

Nearly hundred years before a lot of people immigrated to the United States in search of the American Dream; freedom, equality and  the opportunity to achieve personal goals as happiness or wealth that they could not achieve in their homeland
 .People first immigrated into the US after the Napoleonic wars in Europe. In this time  a lot of minorities had to suffer political and religious persecution. Moreover the population was dependant on crops and and suffered unemployment
and starvation after failed crops and drough
t.At the same time the Great Famine took place Ireland  and millions of irish people died because of  a potato blight that caused nearly 70 percent of the habitants's , who were farmers, death.

These realities were the reasons of emigration into America. But what happened with the people after their arrival in America ? First of all they had to build their own homes, there were no homes, building and no markets. The newly arrived people had to built America. They were the first people there and started a new life; they set their own rules, charta and at the same time they decided to follow the principles of freedom, equality and justice. Therefore they were capable of the so called American Dream. 

Their relatives  and all other people who stood in their homeland heard of this success and wanted to dream this dream, too. The habitants of America got role model's for them and their reputation spread all over the world.

[tiorthan]

At the same time the Great Famine took place Ireland  and millions of irish people died because of  a potato blight that caused nearly 70 percent of the habitants's , who were farmers, death.

I don't have time for a text correction right now, but your 70 per cent number of death cannot be correct. Ireland had about 8.5 million people in 1841. The famine years are usually given as 1847-1850. A census in 1851 reported a population of about 6.5 million. Even if we optimistically assume a population of 9 million in 1847, which is not likely, ireland then only lost about 2.5 million inhabitants in the famine years. Those numbers include deaths and emigration.

[sanane11]

Oh , yes i made a mistake . I wanted to say that in that time  70 percent of the population work on the field and therefore a lot of them died. 

[Schuyler]

The American Dream 

For hundreds of years, people have been immigrating to the United States in search of the American Dream: freedom, equality and the opportunity to achieve personal goals, such as happiness or wealth that they could not achieve in their homeland. People first immigrated to the US after the Napoleonic wars in Europe. During this time, a lot of minorities had to suffer political and religious persecution. Moreover, the population was dependent on crops and and suffered unemployment and starvation after failed crops and drought. At the same time, the Great Famine took place in Ireland because of a potato blight that caused millions of deaths in the country's inhabitants, nearly 70 percent of whom worked in the fields.

These realities were the reasons for immigration* into America. But what happened to the people after their arrival in America? First of all, they had to build their own homes: there were no houses, buildings or markets. The newly arrived people had to build America. They were the first people there and had to start a new life; they made their own rules and charters and decided at the same time to follow the principles of freedom, equality and justice. Therefore, they were capable of the so-called American Dream.**

Their relatives and all other people who lived in their homeland heard of this success and wanted to dream this dream, too. The inhabitants of America became role models for others, and their reputation spread all over the world.

*"To emigrate" means to move out of your own country; "to immigrate" means to move into another country. So, you would emigrate from Ireland and immigrate to America.

**This sounds like you are saying the Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine were the first people in America, since that is what you were talking about in the previous paragraph. The first Europeans to colonize the land that became the United States were immigrants from England in the early 17th century (the first permanent settlement, Jamestown, was established in 1607.) By the time the Great Famine happened in the mid-19th century and forced Irish citizens to emigrate, America had not only been its own independent country for over half a century but also extended all the way from the Atlantic Ocean in the East to the Pacific in the West.

Your statement that people first immigrated to the US after the Napoleonic Wars is also inaccurate for the same reasons: even if you do not consider the native people who had settled here hundreds of years earlier, people had already been coming to the US from Europe for approximately two centuries before the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Wars might have led to the most significant wave of US immigrants since the US became independent -- that I'm not sure about -- but that's probably the most accurate statement of this kind you could make.

[sanane11]

The last thing that you said was what I wanted to say. I know that Jamestown was the first english colony in America and before was Plymouth 

I am learning for my classtest and  i have found some notes about this topic and i wanted to look how to express this hystorical events

And i have got a question: how many people were living in America before this emigration in the 19.century? Is it wrong to say that there were not many people which is the immigrats had to build up the cities in their own or have the first emigraters ( Plymouth and Jamestown ) spred all over America and built it up wherefore the newly immigrated nerd not to make great efforts? 

Another question is : when we speak about the American Dream; about which immigration do we speak or which of them were the representers of the American Dream? It is right that the idea of the American Dream came up with the second settlement , with the puritans? Or had Plymouth also something to do with it ? 

[tiorthan]

And i have got a question: how many people were living in America before this emigration in the 19.century? Is it wrong to say that there were not many people which is the immigrats had to build up the cities in their own or have the first emigraters ( Plymouth and Jamestown ) spred all over America and built it up wherefore the newly immigrated nerd not to make great efforts?

The US population in 1800 was about 5.3 million people but historians estimate fewer than 1 million immigrants between the years 1600 and 1799. Immigration rates were below 8,000 people a year up until 1820 and the Napoleonic wars (ended in 1815) did not result in a significant increase. From 1820 immigration rates increased. The 10-year average increased almost linearly up until the 1900-1910 period. In 1907, the peak year of that period, almost 1.3 million people immigrated to the US. By 1910 the US population had reached 92.2 million.

Those numbers alone can tell you a lot. A population growth like that in the 19th century cannot be accomodated by any infrastructure present in 1800. Also by 1800 only the easternmost third of the territory of todays USA belonged to the newly independent nation. The regions in the west were either French and Spanish colonies or unclaimed territory. By 1900 the US spanned pretty much the region it has today.

The 19th century with the continuous westward growth of the US was the century of Wild West and the American frontier. Founding new settlements in the West was the most popular pastime of that time

Another question is : when we speak about the American Dream; about which immigration do we speak or which of them were the representers of the American Dream? It is right that the idea of the American Dream came up with the second settlement , with the puritans? Or had Plymouth also something to do with it ?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

If you put that in context with the established social and economical structures in Europe, there is something fundamentally different. Europe had grown out of Feudal structures. In the 18th century, when this line of the Declaration of Independence was written, the people in Europe lived in societies where social class was something you were born into. In that climate, the US created a nation with incredibly high social dynamics. It wasn't for everyone and it didn't apply everywhere, but it was more freedom than you could find anywhere in Europe. That is the American Dream.

The immigration is just an effect of that offer of freedom and that's why you cannot pin the American Dream to any phase of immigration to the US.

[tiorthan]

Oh and one other thing, the whole Mayflower story and the settlement of Plymouth, Massachusetts has nothing to do with the American Dream. The story has become a bit warped in folklore. The common "wisdom" is that the Puritan settlers fled Britain to escape religious persecution.

Well, the Puritans wanted to create a "model society" and they weren't allowed to do that in Britain. So, if you consider not being allowed to force your religious views on others as being persecuted.

Luckily, neither the Puritans nor any other particular religious group was allowed to write their beliefs into the Constitution. The closest the Constitution comes to anything religious is the mention of a Creator (not even God, as many other Constitutions of that and later times would do).

[sanane11]

Thank you very very much. 
I have learned a lot by what you wrote ( sagt man das so?  )
My question now if  it is right to say that the American Dream has lost its speciality because the feudal structure do not exist any more in Europe? 

And did the puritans not made their own constitution because i thought that the idea of the "Manifest Destiny" is created by them and written in a charter?

[tiorthan]

I have learned a lot by what you wrote ( sagt man das so?  )

Interesting question. I don't think that's correct. "By" is used to mark the tool or the means of doing something but my writing is more like a source, so I would use "from" here.

My question now if  it is right to say that the American Dream has lost its speciality because the feudal structure do not exist any more in Europe? 

Well, the US haven't been the most free country for a while now. It is among the countries that grant the most civil liberties and political rights but having certain rights and being able to exercise them are not the same thing. Also, among western countries with democratic votes the relative politcal influence of an individual is among the lowest in the US. There isn't a single democracy in the world but the US aren't even close. To this day, America uses a voting system that was originally designed to accomodate a large country where the majority of people is uneducated and has no frickin idea what happens in politics. That education and access to news has changed, obviously, but US citizens are still treated as if it hadn't.

And did the puritans not make their own constitution because I thought that the idea of the "Manifest Destiny" was created by them and written in a charter?

The puritans were allowed to make their own laws but they never had a constitution of their own because the only ran a colony and not an independent nation.

I'm not sure what charter you mean. To my knowlegde Manifest Destiny was rather more political, although driven by religious ideas of superiority.

[sanane11]

Okey , 

Thank you  . I thought that the US has the same voting system we have in Germany   is there a different?  

Okey, now i read that there is a parlament that decides about the winners pf the voting? But what is about the people who voted, are their votes not important?

[tiorthan]

The president of the US is elected through a process called the Electoral College every four years. The members of Congress every are elected in a direct vote every six years (1/3 of the senate every two years) for the Senate and every two years for the House of Representatives.

On the face of it, the system seems OK. But if you look at the re-election rates of Congress members and compare that to the general political satisfaction there is a huge discrepancy. Statistically speaking, the US system has a serious problem there. A part of that is cultural, but there are things like systematic gerrymandering and more.

Germany is not free of problems either. But the biggest difference to the US is that our voting system is not as vulnerable to gerrymandering as the US system and it shows in elections so a low approval rate leads significant changes in the composition of the Bundestag.

From a mathematical point of view though, neither system is really fundamentally a democracy, in that the composition of the legislative does not represent the composition of the political views of the people of the country. Germany is a bit closer, but not by much (anymore).