Task One page 2
Themes in U.S. and World History
Task 1
A. Environmental/Geographic Factors Many environmental or geographic factors contribute to the expansion and the development of the United States, some more than others. For example the Gold Rush of 1849. Gold was discovered in the in California that was relatively easy to get. At first everyone thought that is was rumor but when President James Polk confirmed the rumors people from all over the U.S. made the journey(Idaho State University, Gold Rush: Fever ,N.D). This caused the poorly developed west to have a rush of people populate it from the east. Not only did people come and mine for gold but they opened businesses of all kinds from mining supplies to grocery stores. The gold that was naturally in California brought people from across the country and helped the U.S. expand and develop a low populated area(Idaho State University,2010, Gold Rush: Gold Country, N.D.). Another major factor that helped expand the U.S. is the south’s warm climate. People moved west for the natural gold there and some people moved were the climate is nice all year round. Trying to escape the cold people moved south. This allowed people to be able to work outside all year round on crops or animals. Also the warm climate attracted tourists which brought business opportunities. Some southern states are known as the Sunbelt and as the economy improved so did the populations in those southern states. In the 1970’s it was obvious that the population was growing. Not only did birthrates go up but so did the number of retirement homes. The warm weather is an environmental factor that drew people to the south (The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2007, pg 1).
B. Development or Diffusion of Societies
Task One page 3
The society of Egypt was helped by the river in which they lived by called the Nile. This environmental factor helped the society in a number of ways, one of them being any easy way to commute and transport things when there were no paved roads. The ability to move on the river not only helped in daily lives but it helped transport trades up and down the river. The Nile also provided another service of water irrigation. This helped not only the people for drinking water but also with their fields. They also used the Nile for a food source; they could catch animals like fish to eat. The yearly flooding the occurred at around the same time every year deposited rich soil on the ground that was used for crops once the flood had receded. This helped settled agriculture and stability in crop supply in Egypt (Gascoigne, 2001, History of Mesopotamia and Egypt).
B1. Diffusion between Societies Egypt was a monarchy, which is a form of government that is run by one individual who has all the political power and there is
