English Colonization Essay Example for Free

English Colonization Essay There is no other country than England that is so associated with colonization. Even though other countries like France, Spain, and even the United States have colonized countries, it is England who stands out because of the longevity of their practice of it. According to Merriam Webster, colonization means to make a colony which is a body of people living in a new territory but retaining ties with the parent state b: the territory inhabited by such a body. (Merriam Webster) The three most prominent acts of colonization of Great Britain are America, India, and Australia. During its peak, the British Empire was the largest in the world. There were many reasons for colonization and many of them were monetary reasons, but there were spiritual ones as well. One thing is certain and that is the effects of England on the countries she colonized will always be there. The effects run from the language spoken to the reproduction of the government. The reasons that England colonized the United States, Australia, and India were different for each country. The United States was referred to as America when England first colonized it. The main reason for the colonization was to obtain riches that would help England fight the Spanish Navy. The riches were not in abundance as the British hoped, but the natural resources that the â€Å"new world† offered would bring financial gain. Tobacco, indigo, rice, and cotton were the most prominent cash crops that were produced in the fertile ground of America. The only reason that the British colonized India was for trade. Raw materials and spices could be obtained in India and were a huge asset for the empire. The British dominated trade through protectionist measures that required Indian exports to be transported on British ships. The British focused on consolidating their sovereignty, acquiring lands by military conquest and by exploiting divisions among Indian states and religious groups. (The Story of India) The settlement of Australia was for trade and riches, but it was also for control and to have a base in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific. Initially, relations between the explorers and the Aboriginal inhabitants were generally hospitable and based on understanding the terms of trading for food, water, axes, cloth and artifacts, a relationship encouraged by Governor Phillip. These relations became hostile as Aborigines realized that the land and resources upon which they depended and the order of their life were seriously disrupted by the on-going presence of the colonizers. ( European Discovery and Colonization of Australia) The effects of England’s colonization of the United States are still seen today. America desired independence from Great Britain, but still modeled her society on the mother country. The predominant language spoken is English and the predominant religion is Christianity as it is in Great Britain. At one time England was the most capitalistic country in the world and now the title belongs to the United States. In fact the economic system in the US is a mirror image of that in Great Britain. The US does not have a monarchy, yet Congress and Parliament are quite similar and the Prime Minister is similar to the position of president. The court system is also quite like that of the one in America. There is also a since of kinship between the United States and Great Britain. During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, they have been the closest ally of the other. From fashion, movies, and music, these two countries mirror and rely on the other to compliment the endeavors of the other. The United States might have separated from Great Britain after the Revolution as far as the formation of a new government, but they have remained joined in all other aspects. The continent of Australia is now a dominion of Great Britain. They too share the same type of government and language as England. Besides these two effects, Australia has also been negatively affected by colonization. When the major cities were developed by the British, much of the surrounding native wilderness was destroyed by those who desired to clear the land for building and agricultural purposes. This clearing, destroyed the natural habitat of many plants and animals that were indigenous to the continent. So because of the British colonization, Australia’s natural resources are now different. The major effect of colonization of England on India was the modernization of the country. Great Britain brought many technological advances to the country and was instrumental in the transportation system of India. British spread new technologies such as the telegraph, railroad, and steam transportation throughout the region. This transportation network continues to flourish and grow to this day. (The Story of India) India is also affected by the language of Great Britain. Religion was a secondary reason for colonization in Australia and America. America was sparsely populated with different tribes of Native Americans. The Church of England felt that it should be its mission to make Christian out of these â€Å"savages† who lived in the new world. Since the tribes were not united, it was easier to infiltrate and push the religion on the natives. The same was true in Australia. The continent was thinly populated and the Aborigines were the only true natives of the island. This also made it easier for the Church of England to do the mission work that it intended to do. However, India was quite a different story. It was a country that was densely populated and the people were not as diversified as the tribes in America. Hinduism was an established religion that was difficult to penetrate the ideas of Christianity. The native Indians had such an established culture that the British made the least impression on them than the other two countries. Some ideas of modern society have infiltrated the Indian culture, but the majority of the culture is the same. The Native Americans were mistreated by the English colonist and this thought carried through the next few generations to the point that they were pushed back by the British settlers. They were eventually stripped of their land and now the majority of the Native Americans live on reservations. The Aborigines, the native Australians, are presently in a transformation of acceptance by the English settler’s decedents. For years they were extremely prejudiced against and even had their children stolen from them in the mid twentieth century. The children were taken to orphanages and then farmed out to white families in an attempt to allow them to mingle and eventually breed the native Aborigines bloodline out of them. The effect of British colonization was not kind to the original inhabitants of any of the countries that were the target of this empire. The sun finally sets on the British Empire because Great Britain is no longer the largest empire in the world. When it was, they affected many nations and cultures. In the world we live in today and with the help of the United Nations, it is unlikely that there will ever be an empire as that of the British ever again. References Anglican Timeline. Retrieved December 27, 2008 from http://justus. anglican. org/resources/timeline/09america. html â€Å"British Education in India. † South Asian History. Retrieved December 27, 2008 from http://india_resource. tripod. com/britishedu. htm â€Å"Colonization. † Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved December 28, 2008, from http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/colonization â€Å"Elizabeth’s Adventures: Colonizing America. † NMM. UK. Retrieved December 27, 2008 from http://www. nmm. ac. uk/explore/sea-and-ships/in-depth/elizabeth/elizabeths-adventurers/colonizing-america â€Å"European Discovery and the Colonization of Australia. † Australian Government. Retrieved December 27, 2008 from http://www. cultureandrecreation. gov. au/articles/australianhistory/ Robinson, Simon. â€Å"How India Colonized Britain. † Time. Retrieved December 27, 2008 from http://www. time. com/time/world/article/0,8599,1730172,00. html â€Å"The Story of India. † PBS. Retrieved December 27, 2008 from http://www. pbs. org/thestoryofindia/gallery/photos/21. html

How Has Religion Affected History And Literature? :: essays research papers

â€Å"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.† With these words, penned by the eminent political scientist Thomas Jefferson, the struggling colonies known as the United States proclaimed their independence from Great Britain and began an adventure that would develop this small nation into a world superpower. With this â€Å"firm reliance†, her people embraced the unknown future and set out to advance their country politically, economically, and socially. Now, over two centuries later, many would argue that this â€Å"Divine Providence† has been almost completely eradicated from society. Yet, despite these many claims, the fact remains that religion has played a vital role in American public life and, despite the â€Å"demoralization† of the United States that so many individuals cry out against, religion continues to be a basic cornerstone of American societal life. Over and over again, both the history and the literature of the United States of America have taught her people and the world that religion has and always will have an incalculable effect upon the society of the United States. Historically, many see the United States as a â€Å"Christian nation† founded on Christian principles by Christian men with Christian motives. Therefore, they will argue that this heritage should be continued in the U.S. today by allowing prayer in public schools, outlawing abortion, or giving religious organizations special privileges. However, a closer examination of American history reveals that although the United States was founded with many religious guidelines, America is not a specifically Christian nation. This having been said, it is important to recognize how religion has historically affected American society. A chief example of religion’s impact is found in the landmark Supreme Court ruling of 1962 in the case of Engel vs. Vitale in which organized prayer in the public school system was declared unconstitutional. Steven Engel, a Jewish man in New York, had visited his son’s classroom in the fall of 1958 and was offended when he observed the entire cl ass, including his son, with their hands clasped together and their heads bowed. Along with four other parents, Engel challenged the school board and its president, William Vitale, and, on June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that organized prayer in public schools, regardless of whether they are a requirement or not, were unconstitutional and therefore must cease immediately.

The Glaze Storms of 1998

Ice storms, also referred to as glaze storms, cause considerable damage every year to trees in urban and natural areas. They vary considerably in their severity and frequency. Ice storms are result of the ice formation process, which is influenced by general weather patterns. Ice accumulates when super cooled rain freezes on contact with surfaces, such as tree branches, that are at or below the freezing point (0'C). This generally occurs when a winter warm front passes through an area after the ground-level temperature reaches or falls below freezing. Rain falls through layers of cooler air without freezing, becoming super cooled. Periodically, other climatic events, including stationary, occluded, and cold fronts, also result in ice storms. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the1998 ice storm. This paper features three main section: An introduction, the main body (damage to woodland), and finally, a conclusion. In the main body of this paper, the effect of fire and pest/disease is discussed in detail. In the conclusion, comparison is made between fire and pests/disease versus ice storm. By the end of this paper, one should gain a better understanding of the severity of the 1998 ice storm as well as other damaging agents that affect the woodland in eastern North America Ice storms are often winter's worst hazard. More slippery than snow, freezing rain or glaze is tough and tenacious, clinging to every object it touches. A little can be dangerous, a lot can be catastrophic. Ice storm in Northeastern America has been common but the 1998 ice storm was exceptional. Ice storms are a major hazard in all parts of Canada except the North, but are especially common from Ontario to Newfoundland. The severity of ice storms depends largely on the accumulation of ice, the duration of the event, and the location and extent of the area affected. Based on these criteria, Ice Storm'98 was the worst ever to hit Canada in recent memory. From January 5-10, 1998 the total water equivalent of precipitation, comprising mostly freezing rain and ice pellets and a bit of snow, exceeded 85 mm in Ottawa, 73 mm in Kingston, 108 in Cornwall and 100 mm in Montreal (Environmental Canada, Jan 12/1998). Previous major ice storms in the region, notably December 1986 in Ottawa and February 1961 in Montreal, deposited between 30 and 40 mm of ice – about half the thickness from the 1998 storm event! (Environmental Canada, Jan 12/1998). The extent of the area affected by the ice was enormous. Freezing precipitation is often described as â€Å"a line of† or â€Å"spotty occurrences of†. At the peak of the storm, the area of freezing precipitation extended from Muskoka and Kitchener in Ontario through eastern Ontario, western Quebec and the Eastern Townships to the Fundy coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. What made the ice storm so unusual, though, was that it went on for so long. On average, Ottawa and Montreal receive freezing precipitation on 12 to 17 days a year. Each episode generally lasts for only a few hours at a time, for an annual average total between 45 to 65 hours. During Ice Storm'98, it did not rain continuously, however, the number of hours of freezing rain and drizzle was in excess of 80 – again nearly double the normal annual total. One of the most appealing features of Eastern Ontario is the extensive forest cover. This is made up of woodlands of varying structure. These woodlands, as well as natural fencerows, windbreaks, and plantations of pine and poplar, dominate the landscape. Icing impacts may best be understood by treating spatially larger scales, starting with individual trees, proceeding to stands, and finally to forest landscapes. Ice damage to trees can range from mere breakage of a few twigs, to bending stems to the ground, to moderate crown loss, to outright breakage of the trunk. In the 1998 Northeastern ice storm, icing lasted long enough that many trees which were bent over had their crowns glued to the snow surface by the ice in many instances for as long as 3 weeks. Some of those trees actually erect posture after release from the snow, while many others remain bent over after 2 years. The severity of damage is generally believed to be closely related to the severity of winds following the heaviest ice accumulations. Damage varies across a range of severity and subtlety: minor branch breakage; major branch loss; bending over of crowns; root damages; breakage of trunks and in some hardwoods, trunks can be split. Depending on the stand composition, the amount of ice accumulation, and the stand history, damage to stands can range from light and patchy to the total breakage of all mature stems. Complete flattening of stands occurred locally in the Northeaster 1998 storm. In response to more moderate damage, effects on stands could include: shifts in over story composition in favor of the most resistant trees; loss of stand growth until leaf area is restored; and loss of value of the growth due to staining or damage to stem form. The term landscape refers to a ‘group† or a ‘family† of trees. I use the term vaguely because the size and composition of landscapes differ from region to region. The degree of damage is typically highly skewed by area. For example, in the January 1998 Northeaster storm, 1,800,000 ha of damage in Quebec was assessed by the Ministry of Natural Resource: very severe 4.2%, severe 32.0%, moderate 29.9%, and slight/trace 33.9% (The Science of the Total Environment, Volume: 262, Issue: 3, November 15, 2000, pp. 231-242 ). The effects on entire forest landscapes are highly patchy and variable. They also depend significantly on how landowners respond to the damage. Disturbance caused by diseases, by themselves or in conjunction with disturbance by insects, abiotic factors such as drought, fire and wind, and, increasingly, human activities, has played a critical role in the dynamics of many forest ecosystems in North America. In the predominantly coniferous forests in western North America there are considerable areas undisturbed directly by human activities. In these areas, diseases kill trees or predispose them to other agents of disturbance, resulting in gradual change in stand composition and structure. In areas disturbed by forest management practices of harvesting or exclusion of fire, increased disease incidence and severity has increased the damage caused by disease, and consequently, the rate of change. In the absence of introduced diseases in the predominantly deciduous forests of the Appalachian region of eastern North America, forests are relatively healthy. Here, forests are disturbed significantly by disease only after they are disturbed or stressed by other agents, predominantly defoliating insects and drought. In the eastern montane coniferous forest, chronic wind damage is a major predisposing factor to disease. Past harvesting practices, introduced diseases and insects, and fire exclusion have in some instances resulted in large areas of similar species and relatively similar ages that exacerbate the magnitude and severity of disturbance by disease. Fire is predominantly a natural phenomenon that burns the forest vegetation, polluting the ozone and wiping out the biodiversity. One major distinction between ice storm and forest fire is the way disaster are caused. The majority of forest fire could arguably be a result of human action and ice storm as an ‘act of god,† an act that is out of human control. Foresters usually distinguish three types of forest fires: ground fires, which burn the humus layer of the forest floor but do not burn appreciably above the surface; surface fires, which burn forest undergrowth and surface litter; and crown fires, which advance through the tops of trees or shrubs. It is not uncommon for two or three types of fires to occur simultaneously. Forest management has been able to reduce the occurrence of this event but many forest fires are out of arm†s length. Humans cause the majority of forest fires. Campers that do not put out their bond fire or campers littering lit cigarette bud are responsible for such an action. Natural occurrence such as lightning could spark a forest fire but the probability is small compared to human action. The convention way of putting out or reducing the spread of forest fire has been airliners. These airliners are filled with gallons and galloons of water. With limited capacity, these airliners fly above the flame and deposit galloons of water. For the purpose of this paper, deforestation simply means the lost of trees where the lost of trees exceeds the level of sustainable development. One of the major effects of forest fire is the burning of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. This eventually creates a greenhouse affect and global warming. The effect damages our ecosystem as well as reduces one of Canada†s precious natural resource. Many projects, both from government funding and corporate sponsors, have done a good job increasing the awareness and risk related to deforestation. Pests directly affect the quantity and quality of forest nursery seedlings and can indirectly cause losses by disrupting reforestation plans or reducing survival of out planted stock. The movement of infested stock can disseminate pests to new areas. Since control of nursery pests may be based on pesticide usage, pest outbreaks may lead to environmental contamination. Woodland damage caused by livestock is a well-documented, yet persistent, forest health problem. Soil compaction, root disturbance and trunk/root collar damage caused by livestock reduce the vigor of trees. This paves the way for armillaria root rot, borers and other opportunistic organisms. Livestock also destroy the forest under story (reproduction), which hastens soil erosion and limits the future productivity of the site. The resulting forest decline reduces the quality, value and longevity of current and future trees on the site. Eliminating livestock from woodlands is the first step toward a healthier, more productive forest. As mentioned earlier in this paper, ice storm is a natural phenomenon caused by nature whereas forest fire are a result of human actions and preventable. One of the major differences between fire and ice storm is the rate of damage. Forest fire has a direct impact on the woodlands by changing the diversity of the landscape. Forest fire wipes out an entire landscape of trees causing a release of carbon dioxide. This ‘in lieu† effect results in global warming as well as greenhouse effect. The release of carbon dioxide has a long-term effect to our ecosystem. Carbon dioxide is trapped in our ozone layer making airways less preamble. This trapping effect eventually radiates heat causing global warming. The long-term effect is hazardous and changes our biodiversity. Ice storm has very little affect to our ozone layer. Damage to woodlands as a result of ice storm is concentrated within that area. Ice storm does not spread like fire does so areas that have been hit by an ice sto rm affect woodlands Pests and disease slowly eroded the quantity as well as quality of woodland. Infected woodland slows the development of growth by eroding the soil limiting the production of trees. Pest control and good forest management could improve the quality and well as productivity in these areas. Pests and diseases cause a slow change in biodiversity. As the woodland become infested, animals feeding from leafs and branch find it less desirable, eventually leaving the area in search of more suitable woodland. Similarly, forest fire, pests and disease spread but at a much slower rate. These agents infect the trees, eventually penetrating the roots and moving on to the next host. As mentioned previous, ice storm does not spread, rather the effect stays within the area. To conclude, fire and pests/disease are similar in the way these agents spread and infect their host. The preceding sentence can be best thought of as a virus infected it†s host as an analogy. Fire spreads at a much faster rate than pests/disease and the impact are instant. Both of these agents have long-term effect, which does not work in our favor. Ice storm affects the area it hits and will not spread. Furthermore, ice storms are predictable whereas fire is not since the cause of fire is human mistake and is hard to predict. Ice storms are not preventable but human actions can be prevented. The potential of damage from fire is far more severe than that of ice storm. We must increase the awareness to ensure that our woodland remains healthy and protect our ecosystem.

The Mythology of Star Wars Essay - 494 Words

The Mythology of Star Wars This essay is dedicated to the idea of displaying the true epic of Star Wars. From the heros journey in the unknown forests, to the goddess and spirtual revelations, this site will show Star Wars in a way many have not seen--a great mythological tale of sorrow and amazements that has lived through our history as long as the human race has lived on Earth. Even as George Lucas has explained as the reason why he created Star Wars, I wanted to make a kids film that would strengthen contemporary mythology and introduce a kind of basic morality (Pollock I44). Introduction: Science Fiction Vs. Myth In 1977, George Lucas created a film that so inspired the public, its name is commonplace to, not just†¦show more content†¦With alien races, wild space rides, diverse planets, and a power known as the Force, Lucas not only made a movie...he made a new civilization with everything science fiction has to offer. Or, did he? Take another look at Star Wars. Its people, its setting--the struggles, the culture. To the unseeing eye, this story is pure science fiction, but in actuality, its a very traditional story of myth that dates back thousands of years before science fiction was even created. The story itself begins with the adventures of a group of people, fighting a corrupt society from totally conquering the galaxy. Nonetheless, there is one person that joins them, young and naive, who soon becomes the savior of the group and is responsible for the destruction of the evil society and the start of a better one. No wonder George Lucas subtitled it, From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. This basic tale of a hero, who is willing to martyr himself to stop an evil society, is one that goes back thounsands of years in everyday myths. From stories in the Bible, and The Epic of Gilgamesh, to modern ideas such as, The Matrix and even comics like Batman, the myth is of a boy, who after losing everything of value in his life, changes into a man willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. There should be no surprise that Star Wars wouldnt serve up anything less than thousands of years of goodShow MoreRelatedStar Trek And Star Wars1101 Words   |  5 Pagesscience fiction phenomena—Star Trek and Star Wars— appear to have the same basic creative foundations; both were designed to speak to Americans in need of social and moral guidance. 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