This graphic shows the overlap of generations for one line of my ancestry and descendants in America. It suggests a number of key insights about our America and American conflicts.
The Y-axis is a rough approximation of the generations – shown in blue bars – for my male Bowden line. The first one is John Bowden where we know his dates of birth and death for certain. We don’t know where he was born.
I’m the 8th in line from the first John Bowden in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. If more of my People had had children in the teens, I could easily be the 11th generation since the mid-1700s.
The X-axis is years from 1700 to 2100. This includes the full span of the United States of America. The states would go back to the original colonies starting with Virginia in 1607. There could be up to five generations before the early 1700s.
The vertical lines and stars going up from the X-axis are America’s wars and conflicts.
Look at what changes at the orange line at 1890. At the same time as the Closing of the Frontier, the U.S. grew in population, wealth, and potential power to become a world power.
The U.S. was on the world stage. Like it or not. Regardless of Washington’s sage warnings about overseas entanglements
See how many wars and conflicts were fought overseas vs those fought in our homeland.
The light red lines and yellow-starred conflicts all happened for us in North America – except for the 3 naval conflicts early in U.S. history with an aggressive Revolutionary France and the Muslim Barbary Pirates.
There were 29 Indian Wars through that period. There were plenty of preceding Indian Wars since their start in 1608.
Those conflicts here on our soil included our worst – the War Between the States. When our population was less than one-tenth what it is today, we suffered more casualties than all the wars and conflicts we have ever fought put together.
That is a national calamity. And, for the South devastation and complete economic destruction.
Furthermore, the war changed the trajectory of the Nation when the two Northern Regional Sub-Cultures utterly defeated the two Southern Regional Sub-Cultures. The National Consensus Culture was anchored by an Absolutist New England and expansionary Capitalist Middle Atlantic. The Agrarian South became a more unified, Bible-Belt South in the 100 years following the “War of Northern Aggression”.
Notice how many more wars and conflicts there are in 126 years since 1900 compared to the 200 years before 1900.
The U.S. became a Super-Power after World War II and an sole Uber Super Power following the end of the Soviet Empire in 1991. The global Pax Americana came at a cost in conflicts.
Also, see how long our two failed attempts at Counter-Insurgency coupled to Nation- Building became our longest separate wars – if you count the three Seminole Wars separately and not as one fight over 40 years.
The U.S. won other counter-insurgencies, but our failures stand out for their folly in hubris, ignorance, and waste. Not to mention the moral failing of spending American lives for nothing.
Now, consider how this chart makes it all personal.
Look at the overlap of generations.
As one generation carries arms, another is too young and another is too old.
Many memories of a grandfather can be carried his grandchildren and passed to their grandchildren as oral history. Family oral history carries a personal weight history taught in schools never can equate.
The worst war in our history was the war my GG-Grandparents and G-Grandparents generations actually fought. I have their oral history and records in letters.
A key distinction between me and Americans who arrived to the right of the 1890 line is that their families never fought here in America. They are no less American. They may have fought courageously as Americans – overseas.
But, is the prospect of war here in our Homeland real to them? It is to me.
Looking ahead, the red vertical lines are likely to return. Armed conflict is coming to America. Whether it is CCP’s nukes or our Muslims’ October 7th – significant violence will come here someday.
It’s the way of the world and has been except for the bubble of domestic peace the U.S. has enjoyed since 1890. Riots and crime which always touched us – don’t compare to the awful evil of war.
My personal freedoms as well as my family’s safety and opportunities are a bubble in the South in a bubble that is American Civilization that is in a bubble of the Anglo-Sphere that is in the bubble of Western Civilization.
It’s worth fighting for here and abroad.
Read James Atticus Bowden at https://jatticus.wordpress.com/ and https://substack.com/@jamesatticusbowden and https://x.com/jatticusbowden
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