America declared independence on July 4th 1776, although America was not
             united when it begun, it soon became united through common hard-times and
             great leaders. America was discovered and settled by many different cultures
             and all of the cultures clashed from the start. After studying the colonies
             I have come to the conclusion that the "glue" that held them together was
             made up of: religious bonding, leadership abilities, their economic
             situations, the lack of communication with England, and philosophy.
             The colonies spread from New York to Georgia and had several ethnic groups
             that had nothing in common except the belief of freedom to, practice
             religious beliefs and political views. No one realized this until it was
             brought to the table by major events and leaders. Although there are
             hundreds of events that took place there are four major ones in particular:
             the Great Awakening, the Enlightenment, Revenue Acts, and the Albany Plan.
             There were also many great leaders such as John Locke, Thomas Paine and Ben
             In 1773 the emotional, spiritual, and evangelical movement labeled the
             Great Awakening was lead by George Witefield, Jonathan Edwards and Elija
             Weelock. These three leaders helped many colonist by preaching in traveling
             revivals spreading the word of God to the colonist. The word of god they
             preached was calvinism and predestination. People feared predestination and
             grew closer in fear of God and become more spiritual.
             The 18th century was an Age of Reason were the ideas of the Great Awakening
             were reversed. This Enlightenment was the result for the people's thirst for
             knowledge, the focus was the search for human knowledge, ideas, and
             inventions. Practical experimentation became the method of understanding.
             Ben Franklin was a father of the Enlightenment and a great leader because he
             promoted the spread of reason through out the colonies. He was...