Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The Past Remains in the Present #4

After my group presented out project to the class about Labor v. Big Business, five other groups went up and presented. Each group talked about the significance of People, Places, and Power. The other topics were, Immigration Europe, Imperialism in Europe and Africa, Native Americans, Asian Immigration, and American Imperialism. Each group used a background presentation, a video essay, and then ended with a Survey Monkey. The back ground presentation gave us an over view of the key terms and the topic itself. The video essay discussed three enduring understandings that gave us further insight into the theme, People, Places, and Power. Finally the Survey Monkey quizzed us on what we had just learned with some objective questions and some interpretation questions. Overall I learned a lot about the other topics from these presentations.

The first group that presented was Immigration Europe; people often tried to escape overbearing power to a place where they have more power. As a result, many Jews in Europe moved to America in order to do just that. When a lot of people come to one place at once there was to be a system in place to process them. This location was Ellis Island, everyone who wanted to enter the country from the east coast had to go through this place. With so many people coming from different places, they brought diseases and other conditions from their homeland, especially if they came from a poor place. Many of these people that came were discriminated against, mostly the Western European Jews. Many Jews came in order to escape religious persecution from wherever they were from.

The next group that presented was Imperialism in Europe and Africa. Imperialism mean that one country has domination of political, economical, and cultural life in another place or country. Western European countries expanded into Africa, anyone could claim land for their country in Africa. Merchant or soldiers from a Western European country could go into Africa and claim land. King Leopold had lots of power over the Congo people. He was a harsh and ruthless leader, he would cut people's hands off if they didn't produce enough rubber or ivory fast enough. King Leopold II of Belgium sent Henry Stanley to go to Congo to exploit the people there and make them work for nothing. As a result, the Congo people lost their culture to King Leopold.

The third group that presented was Native Americans. They talked about Kit Carson, he was a western pioneer and fur trapper, he was in charge of leading the attacks against the Navajos. The Navajos were a tribe that had to leave their homes and move to another place that was a 400 mile walk. The Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs was suppose to bring the tribe supplies at the new reservation but they never did. This 400 mile walk was called "The Great Walk". The Indian Reservation Act was a law passed that put Native American tribes in the reservation lands. As a result there was a lot of violence and fighting. America assimilated the Natives by making them live like Westerners. The Navajos were the biggest tribe set in the south west, and they all had to move away from their home. Many died on the walk to the new reservation.

The fourth group to go up was Asian Immigration. This group talked about Angel Island which was located on the west coast, similar to Ellis Island. Everyone who was immigrated to the West Coast had to pass through Angel Island first. America passed the "Exclusion Act" which prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country unless they had already established their residency. Many Chinese used fake IDs to show that they are already residence in the country. Also there were many Chinese picture bride, they were women who married American men so that way they had established relations in America. There was a lot of discrimination and racism against immigrants. Sometimes they couldn't own or buy land or become real citizens.  Many whites didn't hire them because they were racist, and if they were hired they would have to work for low wages and were treated unfairly.

The fifth and last group to present was American Imperialism. The Monroe Doctrine, the Spanish American War, and the Treaty of Paris, allowed America to take Spanish land and expand their power. America had a feeling of nationalism, meaning that people were devoted to their country. As a result a Senator decided that they should try to push out Native American tribes and continue to expand their power. Also Western European countries expanded into Africa, so America must have felt some pressure to compete. They were working to become a major world power, so in order to be seen as one they would have to follow the path of the other European countries.

Overall I learned a lot about the theme People, Places, and Power from the other five presentation and from my own research on the topic Labor v. Big Business. We were able to see the different perspectives from people on the same topic. For example in Labor v. Big Business we learned about both the people who owned these big businesses and the people who worked for them. This gave me a better understanding of how things were back them, and how people were treated. I think every group did a good job on getting the main idea of their topic across and relating them to the theme People, Places, and Power.

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