The activities that most demonstrated Americans' belief in Manifest Destiny occurred during the 19th century, while thousands of settlers moved west and displaced thousands of natives.
People believe that conventions created specifically for the ratification of amendments form better representations of the people's will. State legislatures can oftentimes be biased for or against a certain amendment for their own wellbeing rather than that of the people they represent.
One major historical example of this can be seen in the use of ratification committees for the ratification of the American Constitution; the Founding Fathers believed that certain state legislatures would not ratify the Constitution even if the citizens of the states wanted to, so special conventions were created to more accurately portray the will of the people.
In general, the cargo. If there's a few boxes and barrels, then their trip would've been relatively short, as opposed to lots of boxes and barrels, which would indicate a longer trip.
Although, if the ship looks absolutely wrecked, the amount of cargo won't indicate the length of the trip, as extra cargo tends to be thrown off in a storm so as to lighten the boat.
Now, some specific things on the ship would show more details of the trip on that now-sunken ship would have been like.
For example, the amount of barrels containing gunpowder (not that it would've been
preserved; the water would've gotten in at some point) is indicative of their expectancy of pirates, or other ne'er-do-well's on the sea.
The crew's quarters (or lack thereof) would help to show how well (or not) they lived.
Another would be the things that wouldn't (or would) have been on the ship from their port of origin; treasure, etc. Maybe they have spices, or gold, or ceramics. This would show where the ship had been going (or coming from).
Many faced discrimination.
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By the time Rome was emerging as the great ancient Western power Babylon was practically in ruins.