Europe’s influence

Europe’s influence in the United States from 1800 to 1850 has many faces and attitudes. As the people of the United States began to grow their own identity, Europe’s influence began to fade.

People in the United States formed new religious groups, businesses, and philosophies that broke ties to much of Europe’s influence. But Europe’s influence in the United States from 1800 to 1850 was still evident with the massive immigration taking place from European settlers coming to the United States.

Industrial Revolution

The biggest European influence in the United States in the early portion of the 19^th was the arrival of the Industrial Revolution from Europe. The industrial revolution began in Europe during the 1760s and within a number of years the United States began to be filled with manufacturing plants and small factories.

Workers were needed to produce goods at these facilities. Immigrants from Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, and France began to arrive in the United States. Each set of immigrants brought with them the values, culture, and traditions from their home land. The mixing of these ideas had an impact on the United States from 1800 to 1850.

Philosophies

European philosophies were carried from Europe to the United States since the discovery of North America. In the early 19^th century this trend continued. Philosophies like German Romanticism were eventually replaced in the United States by a new form of Romanticism which was distinctly American.

Other philosophies like Transcendentalism contrasted rigid understandings of God than those of European countries and churches. The two philosophies also tried to form a new American identity to pull away from traditional European influences.

Religion

Religion in the United States had been influenced by European religious from the start. The arrival of new religions or the spread of new religions in the United States from 1800 to 1850 broke from traditional European religions and services.

Congregationalists such as Puritans and Catholics as well as Anglicans like Lutherans were rapidly begin replaced with different religions such as Methodist and Baptists.

The Second Great Awakening in the 1830s in the United States brought about significant changes to the European influence over religion in the United States.

The Frontier Lands

One of the areas that had European influence was along the frontier, even as Americans had formed a new identity that was self-reliant and individualistic. The Louisiana Purchase from France and the acquisition of Florida from Spain countered the predominant culture of England.

As the frontier lands opened to settlement, European influence was still evident in numerous communities. Fur trappers from France dominated the interior section of the United States and Louisiana, mainly New Orleans.

Spanish was the common language in Florida and much of the western United States. English fur traders influenced settlements in the New Northwest as well.

Communities along the expanding frontier lands tended to group into European enclaves. For instance, German immigrants tended to open farming communities together.

Similar communities were formed by settlers from Scotland, England, and the newly acquired territories from Spain. Each of these communities continued to speak their native language and practice their European based religions.

Architecture and the arts

One area where Europe’s influence in the United States from 1800 to 1850 remained the same was in architecture and the arts. Artists continued to paint in various genres of European movements such as Romanticism. Buildings were constructed using Greek Revival Style and English Gothic Style.

Important facts about Europe’s Influence in the United States from 1800 to 1850

• Europe’s influence in the United States was evident from the formation of the United States.
• Language, religions, and cultures of European countries were transported to the United States through immigrants.
• Europe’s influence in the United States was strong during the industrialization of the United States in the early 1800s.
• Europe’s influence over religion began to change in the United States with the Second Great Awakening.
• European philosophies were present in the United States but also changed over time in the United States as they formed their own versions such as German Romanticism to American Romanticism.
• Art and architecture were influenced by Europeans in American. As the country grew architecture styles were used in building homes, cities, and communities.
• The opening of frontier lands for settlement was influenced by Europeans. As the United States expanded communities with similar European cultures were formed.
• The acquisition of new lands from France and Spain spread European influence through language, culture, and traditions.

Questions

What movement in the United States from 1800 to 1850 decreased Europe’s influence on religion in the United States?
The Second Great Awakening

What European philosophy was transformed in the United States from 1800 to 1850?
German Romanticism

How did Europe’s influence over culture, traditions, and language increase in the United States from 1800 to 1850?
Acquisition of new lands from Spain and France

Europe’s influence in the United States from 1800 to 1850 can be seen in what items today?
Architecture and art

How was European influence transferred to the United States from 1800 to 1850?
Immigration