Alexis de Tocqueville and the battle of New Orleans
Alexis de Tocqueville was a French political theorist and a sociologist. He is known for his travel to the United States to study the organization of prison in 1831. During this trip to the American penitentiaries, Alexis de Tocqueville called Andrew Jackson, the American president. In the call, they discussed in-depth about the removal of the Indians from their homeland new land that was doomed essential to their living and civilization.
Through his speech to the Congress on December 6th, 1830, President Jackson had called for the removal of the Indians from their land and moved to the western region where they could develop economically and be exposed to civilization. Alexis termed the incidence of removal of Indians from their land as ironic. This is because the United States had one of the most established democracies, yet the government forced people to move out of their land.
Alexis believed in equality for all, which was part of President Jackson’s idea when advocating for the removal of Indians to New Orleans. Jackson termed the occupancy of the Indians in their homeland as primitive and could not allow the development of individual states. It was this sense of individualism that moved Alexis on the idea of democracy. Though he accepted the concept of individualism, he noted that a society dominated by individualism could easily lack its social structures when people are being assimilated to the larger crowd.
The battle of New Orleans was the last war fought between the American troops and the British Empire. On January 8th, 1812, the British forces aimed at capturing the New Orleans states. The battle was fought roughly 5milles southwest of New Orleans. It is termed as the most significant war to be fought on American soil that the Americans won. The American troops, led by Major General Andrew Jackson, who later became the United States president, defeated the British troops and increased American national identity and gained more respect from the neighboring nations and across the world. This was following a treaty signed to end the war, popularly known as the treaty of Ghent, two weeks before the occurrence of the war. The battle was important as it brought major general Andrew Jackson to national fame. Also, it was important as the war involve jean Lafitte, a great French pirate.