Comparing the Republic of Rome and the Republic of America

A comparative look at the Roman Struggle of the Orders and the Civil Rights Movement in America

It has been recorded that the Struggle for the Orders in Rome happened from 494 BC to 287 BC. The struggle reflected the conflict between Patricians and the Plebeians over the what each was eligible for in terms of stakes in Rome. Members of the Patrician community were regarded as the noble people who were also aristocrats. On the contrary, the Plebeians were largely lower class people. This group is what constituted the farmers and workers, in general. The Plebeians pressed for exceptions to the notion. Therefore, they constituted a raft of demands that they presented to their Patrician counterparts. Their petition demanded for recourse on wrongs that had been committed against their own. Since the Patricians were not willing to compromise, and the plebeians were serious about their demands, a struggle ensued. It would last for nearly 200 years. The struggle started with attempts to create laws that would suppress the leaders of the plebeian people and the leaders that were fighting for their rights. The struggle ended with an alliance between the two groups. However, the alliance was more of a formal arrangement that had little impact in the attitudes of the two groups. The struggles continued internally until they triggered the end of the Ronan Republic. The Plebeians had made a strong case in the struggle. They finally began to witness the realization of the change they had yearned for (Rome Divided: Struggle of the Orders para 1-3).

In Comparison, the Civil Rights Movement in the US is responsible for restoring universal suffrage in the political life of the Southern states. It helped to bring racial segregation to an end. The US Civil rights movement involved several strategies to pile pressure on the white majority leadership to change the laws. The Movement used mass media, litigation, boycotts and demonstrations to drive their point home. Non...

The initial decades of the 19th C saw America undergo various dramatic changes under the Republican leadership. The new Republic was faced with a myriad of challenges including conflict with nations of the East and Great Britain following its expansion to the west. It is such conflicts that triggered the war in 1812. The war marked an important point in the life of the new America. It also got into a war with its former colonial master and survived. These conflicts helped to unite Americans in solidarity. America defined its own identity and way of running its affairs after the 1812 War (U.S. History para2-4). The period between the end of the War of Revolution in 1783 and The Second War for American Independence in 1815 marked dramatic political changes that also triggered great innovations in the state and federal constitutions. There was increased settlement of westerners; one of the signs that the country was…