EWGSI

  The time: during the period between the Revolution and the Civil War.   Cruise-history-presenter, Aaron, shared his insights on this part of American history. What was the political reality of the world at that time? Only a handful of men ruled the entire of Europe. These kings had the absolute right to claim entire continents in their name…. or explorers would claim it in their name. This is hard to comprehend today.   France claimed and owned the entire Mississippi River basin. England had the entire of New England. Spain claimed and owned most of the southwest and Florida. Men could not just legally settle anywhere they wanted (squatters exempted). The stage was set for a civil war when Plymouth and Jamestown were first settled, due to the inherent differences in the men. (The book Albion’s Seed explains this beautifully.)   It took the settlers of Jamestown a long while to realize that they needed to focus on staying alive; forget about finding gold; they ha...