The open door policy was designed to open Japan to American trade and influence (The US was hungry for an imperial puppet).
Building a house was a big challenge for settlers because there was not much wood available. So many families used bricks of sod that were cut out of the ground to build their houses and the houses were often uncomfortable to live in but it provided the shelter they needed.
Two European empires were dismantled.
It was the Enlightenment principles of "A. John Locke" that Thomas Jefferson build upon when he drafted the Declaration of Independence. He had read these works at a very young age.
Farmers plant crops and some even live at there farms hunters kill animals,