#History/American #2022/1 *January 22, 2022* ![[AmericanNations Cover.png|400]] [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cultures/dp/0143122029) ### Summary The USA and nearby regions of other countries can be split into regions of **American Nations** that aren't reflected in the political boundaries of the states. Analyzing the USA in this way and understanding how its history contributed to the formation of these cultures is enlightening when considering cultural and political behavior in the USA today. The first of the nations was settled by Spain in “**El Norte**” all the way back in the 16th century. Spain was a bit of a superpower at the time, so they had lots of resources for their excursions. They overextended themselves, so they ended up relying on their American colonies primarily as a means of resource extraction. These difficult conditions brought out the worst in many settlements who mistreated native populations under the guise of religious righteousness. **New France** was settled by the French in the area where you now find Quebec. The French settlers initially intended to form an amicable but distinct population from the natives, but many of the French preferred native life, resulting in extensive mixing of cultures. Puritan refugees from England settled the New England area, establishing **Yankeedom**. They prioritized education because they believed it was crucial for people to read the Bible in order to experience divinity. This planted the seed of the public school system. They prioritized equality in their society, but also conformity. **Tidewater** takes up Virginia and Maryland and began with the Jamestown settlement. At first, the colonies here experienced very difficult conditions, but eventually successful settlers founded massive plantations that enabled them to live a highbrow lifestyle supported by the work of indentured servants first and slaves later. These settlers wanted to establish an aristocratic society in the classical sense, so they tended to be conservative and supportive of the King (Royalists). Speaking of Royalists, learning about the tumult in England and Europe that encouraged the settlers to leave for the new world also shed light for me on the political conditions that inspired the writing of Hobbes, Locke, and other political philosophy that was developing at the time. **New Netherland** was an especially unique colony because it was founded by the Dutch, who favored tolerance, individual freedom, and commerce. It was a small colony but had a strong culture that developed the foundation of NYC. In fact, many neighborhood names are slightly distorted versions of the original Dutch names. New Netherland was invaded by surprise from the English. The English Lord who invaded New Netherland had been given rights to the land by the King of England. The English took the colony and renamed it New York, but the New Netherlanders secured an agreement that allowed them to retain the key features of their culture. The invasion of New Netherland was an example of the authoritarian streak of King James II, who instituted harsher laws in the colonies, intending to rule them according to his will. The stringent policies along with his relationship with the Catholic Church put him on the bad side of pretty much all the colonies. The colonies weren't organized enough to rebel together, but they did start rebellions individually, and in the 1680s ended up installing a new royal family. The colonies mostly welcomed the new King, but he didn't make all the changes they were hoping for, so they weren't completely pleased. **The Deep South** was founded by the descendants of plantation masters in the West Indy islands. Masters in that area had organized their colonies in a brutally exploitative fashion, importing slaves upon slaves so that they could work slaves to the death in the fields. They had a reputation throughout the English society of being brutal beyond anyone else, and they needed a place for their sons to colonize, so they began settling in South Carolina. This is where slavery began in the brutal form it’s known for today. 25% of the white people were extremely rich, but 90% of the population were Black slaves. Owners feared slave rebellion, a fear that wasn't unprecedented due to regular mishaps. This contributed to the encoding of laws with brutal punishments for insubordinate slaves. The Deep South is where the American tradition of forming laws that benefit the owner/master class really began. **The Midlands** form a thin band of territory throughout the Midwest. The settlers there valued more of an equal, middle class culture, so they tend to select policies that keep the political atmosphere balanced. The Midlands began with the colonization of Philadelphia by William Penn and the Quakers. Penn was an eccentric man and the Quakers were a sect that valued mystical experience and individual spirituality, so they were viewed as socially destabilizing. They proved economically competent, so the economy of Pennsylvania flourished, but they were not capable of governing. They would barely do anything, not even support settlers against attacks from Native Americans. Eventually, Penn simply installed governors that weren't Quakers. In **Greater Appalachia**, settlers from Scotland and Ireland began to move in in huge waves. They came from war-torn regions and thus behaved erratically and dangerously in the view of other settlers. They ended up settling Appalachia; Many of these settlers adapted to native life. Others made their own settlements and battled the natives. Yet others became more or less outlaws, stealing and raiding from others in order to live. As a whole, this nation buffered the more civilized colonies from the Native Americans (earning the moniker "Borderlanders"), weren’t afraid to fight for their freedom and representation, and generally took whichever side of a geopolitical conflict that would support their freedom. The American Revolution wasn't a unanimous effort to cast off the British yoke, although we often think of it that way. The only American nation that was for the revolution from the beginning were the Yankees, beginning with the Boston Tea Party. They were able to quickly push the British out, and most of the American Revolution there onward had to do with getting the British out of the other colonies. Some of the colonies were in support of Britain outright, such as New York, which served as the HQ of British operations. Georgia also didn't consider revolution to be a desirable plan and didn't contribute to the effort. The Midlands weren't interested in the revolution at first, but greater Appalachia counteracted this and served to fight in the revolution for the colonies. The Tidewater region initially didn't support the revolution because Yankees were seeking a fight for equality. However, once the British began arming Tidewater's slaves and freeing them, they became decisively in favor of the revolution, and the Deep South followed for similar reasons. The American Revolution was a much more disjointed effort than we are generally led to believe, but nevertheless, it was a success because it pushed the British out of the American colonies. Major cultural divides between the North and South still existed, and the future of the nation wasn't clear. Without the British rule to stop them, many settlers moved into the Midwest. This created a blend of Yankee, Midwestern, and Appalachian populations. Chicago became a nexus of trade for the area. Deep Southern slavelords spread out through Alabama, Missouri, and all the other subtropical land in order to produce more cotton. Many Yankees and some Borderlanders moved to California and Oregon. They generally settled in a pattern throughout these areas, with Yankees establishing the towns and Borderlanders settling the countryside. As settlers began to reach the limits of the continent, Deep Southern slavelords realized that their future was in jeopardy because they had nowhere else to go. This is when secessionist movements began. Other nations would ultimately be able to control the federal government, which meant the southern way of life supported by slavery was at risk. Secessionists had support (or at least ambivalence) from other nations, barring the Yankees, until they attacked federal land at Fort Sumter. At that point, basically everyone who wasn't a southerner rose against the South, resulting in the South losing the Civil War and the slaves being emancipated. At this point in reading the book, I felt that the American Nations model was a great explanatory device for the dynamics of American history. It made sense to read about the different nations of settlers and how they interacted with each other, but I had doubts about how well the model would explain current events. The reason I was skeptical of how well the model would apply to the modern day is because now the nations generally must ally with each other in order to affect change. So what you end up seeing is that some nations behave in conjunction politically, and most of the time the major groups are led by the most extreme nations: Yankeedom and the Deep South, with the other nations supporting one or the other politically depending on how they would be affected. The book finished off with some discussions on the present-day status of the American nations and what the future may hold for North America. The book was published in 2011, so it feels to me like what the author was saying was general enough to not be wrong, but the current state of the USA might have given the author more reason to be pessimistic about the country’s future. The author was already pretty pessimistic too; the divide between “Red” and “Blue” is at least as big as it has always been, and frankly some of the technological developments we've seen seem to have only made political discourse more volatile. Ultimately, what I really gained from this book was time spent revisiting American history. The last time I really looked at U.S. history was in AP U.S. history in high school, so it was engaging to revisit the stories of the country with more life experience. It was also useful to have an analysis of how the USA behaves to think about while revisiting historical events. The American Nations model is a lens that helps place the dynamics of the country's history in perspective while also giving us a sense-making device for the present political issues.