Final Exam Essays

Essay #4
What if George Washington had died at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights? During that battle the British surrounded Washington, who was on a peninsula. The British had surrounded Washington and were waiting for him to come out and "be a gentleman". Washington escaped through the morning fog and got away.

If Washington had died at that battle America's army would have fallen because of lack of leadership, and if the army had fallen then we would have lost the war, which results in the U.S. still being under British control. Also, another minor effect would be that George Washington never would have become the first president. Altogether, if Washington had died at Brooklyn Heights, then America would still be a British country.

This event is important in history because it showed that Washington could keep winning, even if it were small victories, and that the colonies had hope to win the war. If Washington had not made it out of Brooklyn Heights the war would have had a completely different outcome. Such examples as America would be British, and we wouldn't have had a lot of the wars after America's Independence.

Essay #2
War is an unnecessary for our progress. Each day, past and present, we lost our fellow country men each day. All of this could have been avoided by simple negotiations. If each country would get along and work together then we would have a successful, war-free world. War is caused by two major factors, greed and nationalism.

If we had negotiated with the native Americans over land rights and trade, then we wouldn't have had the French and Indian war. We (America) wanted land and gold, so we killed hundreds of Indians and sacrificed thousands of our men to get them. During the Revolution, if we had negotiated with Britain about becoming a country, rather than fighting, we would not be in debt, and we would also not have lost so many of our soldiers. Today we see our greed extending into the middle East with the war in Iraq. We want "liquid gold" (oil) for our country. We should try to negotiate with them and trade with them rather than kill thousands of our troops and theirs.

War is completely avoidable if we take the time to negotiate and talk about what we want. Instead, we decide to take over or bomb countries to get oil or other natural resources. War, even for conquest, is an unecassary thing as we have seen in our history.