Well, once the Americas were discovered and the colonist found that the soil was agreeable to grow different crops such as tobacco and cotton the colonists realized that they needed people to pick the crops. Originally indentured servants did the hard labor but then when they found that they could get labor by trading goods with African tribal leaders they resorted to importing Africans to the Americas as labor. The tribes in Africa were constantly fighting and whichever side won the losers became the slaves of the winning tribe. However, as Europeans brought valuable things to the continent of Africa such as weapons, salt, gold, and other things the leaders of the winning tribe would give their slaves to the Europeans. There were cases when Blacks captured other Blacks in Africa for the sole purpose of giving them to the European traders. Hopefully this helps. If you haven't see the movie La Amistad, it will explain in more detail what I have written. I learned a lot from that movie. I must warn you the first 5 to 10 minutes are a bit gory. I had a hard time watching that part.
They knew the Greek idea of direct democracy. While they didn't necessarily apply the idea in their political system directly, they did apply some ideas that were shared with the Greeks that made the Roman political system more stable and better in the end.
It was located on the Red Sea, close to the Arabian Peninsula.
The US gained its independence on the 4th of July of 1776. During this time the world's economic system was based on commerce. Hence the author choosing to portray Minerva, the goddess of commerce, for a painting about America's independence. Commerce was key to a country's economy and in order to succeed in being an independent country. Also, one can see the ship that is painted in the picture's background.
On the other hand, wisdom was key to the formation and success of an independent nation. Minerva was also the goddess of wisdom. The country needed the wisdom to decide how to run themselves, make their own laws, and create a government.
Minerva was also the goddess of crafts. Crafts represented tradable goods that could impulse the country's economy. A successful country was one that was able to produce elaborate goods that had added value to them: instead of just exporting primary goods. Therefore, crafts were key for a successful and strong economy.
