<span>Toward mid-century the country experienced its first major religious revival. The Great Awakening swept the English-speaking world, as religious energy vibrated between England, Wales, Scotland and the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. In America, the Awakening signaled the advent of an encompassing evangelicalism--the belief that the essence of religious experience was the "new birth," inspired by the preaching of the Word. It invigorated even as it divided churches. The supporters of the Awakening and its evangelical thrust--Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists--became the largest American Protestant denominations by the first decades of the nineteenth century. Opponents of the Awakening or those split by it--Anglicans, Quakers, and Congregationalists--were left behind.</span>
The major physical feature that the pioneers crossing West had to contend with were the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains.
These mountain ranges were treacherous and many died trying to find passages to cross.
They kept people afraid for their lives and of that of their loved ones. SO if they were afraid they would not speak out against the government.
The decline of the Roman Empire allowed for the nations of England and France to develop.
The Anglo-Saxons took over after the fall to form England. The rise of the Franks was where Germanic kings led loosely united clans which eventually formed into France.
