The Bank War

The Bank War

In class, our topic was Andrew Jackson. We learned many things about him, some good, and some bad. Specifically, our group had to talk about the bank war. We had two primary sources. One was Andrew Jackson's Bank Veto Message. In this, he explains He explains that most of the power of the bank is in the hands of few people, and those are the upper class people. He does not like this, and that is why he vetoed it. The other primary source was Daniel Webster's reply to Jackson's veto message. Webster explains that he is doing this out of fear and that he is not a very good leader. I think Andrew Jackson's legacy as the people's president is deserved because he did more good things for the country than bad, and good results came of that.

The Spark that Lit the Fire

      The essential question for this unit was "Essential Question: Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?" This is important to think about because no matter what, all humans should be treated the same. In the past, the white people treated those of another race as slaves. These people received terrible pay and countless hours of work. They were treated poorly as well. No one should have to live like this. It is ridiculous and unfair. In class, we started out with a map, that should the dates of independence of Latin American countries. Most of them took place between 1815 and 1825. We looked at class structure and population. One thing that surprised me was that the majority of people were Indians and not African slaves, because it would be typical of European settlers to bring many slaves with them. The main project for this lesson was to create a timeline of events in a particular revolution. 


        My group was in charge of making a timeline for the Mexican Revolution. You can see it below. 

Early 1800's: Napoleons occupation of Spain led to the outbreak of revolts across Spanish America.

Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, a catholic priest, launches the Mexican War of Independence with the "Cry of Dolores."

January 1811: He was defeated at Calderon, and fled north. He was eventually captured and executed.

1820: Liberals took power in Spain, and the new government promised reforms to appease the Mexican revolutionaries.

Early 1821: Agustin de Iturbide, the leader of royalist forces, negotiated the Plan of Iguala with Vincent Guerrero, which would eventually end up establishing the Mexican Monarchy.

August 24, 1821: Spanish Viceroy Juan de O'Donoju signed the treaty of Cordoba, which approves a plan to make Mexico an independent constitutional monarchy.

1822: Iturbide was proclaimed as emperor of Mexico

1823: Republican leaders Santa Anna and Guadalupe Victoria deposed Iturbide and set up a republic, with Guadalupe Victoria as its first president.

There were many similarities between these revolutions (Gran Columbia, Mexico, and Brazil.) They were all fighting against their leaders in Europe in the war against independence. They were also well organized. The leaders of these revolts created powerful armies to go against these European rulers. There were also many differences between these revolutions. Brazil had help from Spain and Portugal, while Columbia and Mexico did not. In the Columbian revolution, Simon Bolivar conquered many other Latin American cities during his lead in the revolt.  Race was the spark that lit the fire of these revolutions. Without any unfair treatment or slavery, none of these revolutions would have happened. 

Unfortunately, race is still an issue in our lives today. Recently, the nation was shocked when the cop that shot Michael Brown was not convicted of murder; see here. Whether people say it or not, they will make choices based on the race of a person. Many banks are reluctant to lend to non whites because they fear that they will not get any money back. I think that it is still important to not judge someone based on their race because they may be the same as you. Maybe they like all of the same things that you do and have similar friends to you. But if you put them off because of race, you won't know what kind of an awful person they may be. 

                              Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, A Leader of the Mexican Revolution

Revolutions of 1830 and 1848

         In class, we learned about the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, that swept across Europe. We analyzed a saying "When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold." When there was a revolution in France, many other countries across Europe and into Russia revolted themselves. We also created a timeline on successes and failures, and how they relate to a revolution. Our main task for this lesson was to create a survey. We had many primary source excerpts, and we used the information from those to create surveys. I enjoyed this assignment because we were able to analyze which was the most important information to put into our survey.

      In 1825, there was a revolt in Russia called the Decembrists revolt. Nearing the end of his reign, an unpopular king named Alexander was prepared to hand the throne to his son, Constantine. The people of Russia loved Constantine, but not Alexander. Many people even plotted an assassination on Alexander. But their plan was not carried out, as he died of illness in 1825. The people were happy.
They were ready to have Constantine as their leader and make improvements to their country. But that's not how it went. Constantine didn't want the throne. It was pushed on to the lap of his brother, Nicholas. This enraged the people, and this was the start of the revolt. The people that were revolting were called the Decembrists because the revolt happened in December, which seemed to be the most sensible name for them. Nicholas used his new power to simmer down all of the people who were revolting. At the end, while they were given a new king, the people ultimately didn't get what they wanted because Constantine was not in the throne. A war veteran, named Yakushki, says “Seeing the insipid life in St. Petersburg and listening to the babbling of old men praising the past and depreciating every progressive step was unbearable. We were a hundred years from them.” He has been in war, and he knows how a proper government is run. The older people that he sees don't know any different, so they talk about their great past that they have had as a country. He thinks it is foolish that they think this way because of his experiences with new and improved government. A Decembrist named Dmitry Zavalishin, said “Russians were offended at the granting of a constitution to defeated and conquered Poland before one was given to Russia, which had vanquished it.” The people of Russia want a democracy with a constitutional monarchy, so this upsets them. A small country that they have defeated has made a constitution, but they had not. This made the people even more angry because Constantine was a democratic person that would likely have made a constitution, but they can't have this. Below are some results from our survey questions.







The revolt in France in 1848 was neither success nor failure. While some people got what they wanted, the majority did not. A new king was chosen, Louis Napoleon, and the people were excited that he would lead a powerful country. He gave the people the right to vote. They voted for him to create the second empire, the first being the one that Napoleon I had set up previously. Unfortunately, he used this power to try and imitate what Napoleon the first did; but Louis Napoleon was not as successful.
The revolt in Frankfurt in 1848 was unsuccessful. An assembly was held, where they talked about important things that would be on the new constitution. When they were deciding a leader, they chose Frederick William IV from Prussia. He declined because the request came from the people and not the German prices, and he described the offer "from the gutter." Outside of the assembly, many middle class and peasant families rioted. Some were killed, some went to prison, and some went to the United States because of their Democracy and economic opportunity.
The revolt is Hungary is 1848 was a partial failure. The revolution that emerged in Vienna took Metternich by surprise. He tried to silence the revolt, but was unsuccessful. He abdicated the throne fled away in disguise. This led the Hungarians to a revolt. They wanted the end to serfdom and a constitution to protect their rights. Overwhelmed by the revolts, the Austrians granted the people what they wanted. These gains were only temporary. Austrian troops regained control of Prague and Vienna. Many people were killed or exiled.

I don't think that these revolutions were failures because some good came out of most of them. They were able to use that as building blocks for what they wanted their country to be like. Even though these things may not have taken affect for a while, they were meaningful in the end.

Democracy

In class we divided into group and we researched the sources. We found the important information and how they answered the essential question, "How should we define democracy? How democratic was the united states in the early 1800's? The next day, we took all of that information and put it into the Prezi, found below.

Prezi

Nationalsim

The essential question is: What were the major political ideologies of the 19th century and how did they influence social and political action? There were 3 ideologies; Liberalism, Conservatism, and Nationalism. They influenced political and social action by using old and new tactics to create a better society, in both the political and social sense. In class were were told to define what we thought that the 3 ideologies meant, and then we were told more in depth about what they were and who believed in them.

Our presentation helps to define nationalism because it defines what the people live for. They want to have a unified country with no foreign rulers, and they wanted to share culture, language, and history with the other people of their country. It influenced social action in the 19th century, because it was for the well being of the people and people as a whole. For political action, they wanted to make sure that they kicked out all foreign rulers, and created national unification. Under Napoleon’s rule, they realized that their own disunity was a weakness.

Liberalism is about preserving the rights of the people. It is the government’s job to make sure that all of the people get the rights that they deserve. They both agree in the invisible hand which is a way of controlling the economy by letting vendors choose their own prices, thus creating competition.  Liberals believe that everyone is born with natural rights. Conservatism is different. Conservatives think that tradition is the only political and social guide. They were opposed to innovation and reform. Aristocrats liked this because they were able to keep their rank, as they had in the past. Unfortunately, shifts in the people;s beliefs could cause bloodshed. One example of this is the French Revolution.

Museum Curator Blog Post

The most important part of curating an object or objects is getting the point across. As a curator, you want the one thing that you want people to know displayed in the biggest and brightest way possible. Our exhibit was comprised of 4 pictures a graph and an article. The pictures showed the evolution of the loom, from the house to the mill. The graph showed London's growth from 1800 to 1914, which grew by more than 8 times the size as it was. The article was about a man who was very much opposed to the mills and why the people are being treated unfairly. We came up with our title "Just Keep Spinning" because we were displaying spinning wheels and we wanted to add a creative and happy touch to it. We hope that our viewers can understand the immense changes that came about during this time period and how the evolution of the spinning wheels contributed to this. 

Group B presented about transportation. From their poster, I was able to infer that many vast changes occurred in the world of transportation. One thing that I was able to learn from this group is that in less than 50 years, the people of the United States were able to create hundreds of railroads linking up much of New York, but were also constructed in places like Ohio and Maryland as well.

Group C created their project on living conditions in England. From just a few pictures on their poster, you could tell that they did not live right. In an article on their poster, a man said that "I have seen tens of thousands of old, young, and middle-aged of both sexes . . .earning abundant food and domestic accommodation without perspiring at a single pore." I liked this quote because that is what much of England was like, and it really contrasts with the hard workers who are being paid next to nothing. 

Group D presented about child labor. This poster made me feel sad, from the pictures of children pulling mine carts to statistics about child work ages. The one picture that really got to me was the one with the one child pushing the cart and another pulling, because they were sending young children to do the work of a grown man so that he can sit around all day and do nothing. 

Group E talked about cotton trade and slavery. They had a map, a drawing, a graph, and more to explain their exhibit, and they did a great job. The on piece on their exhibit that really struck me was the US slavery statistics from 1770 to 1860, shown here. In 1820, the Industrial Revolution happened, which is why the statistics for slaves skyrocketed in this time period. 

Napolean

 Napoleon made many social changes to create a better Europe. He first abolished serfdom and took away power from the nobility. This made the rich nobility mad, because they were now put on the same terms as the lower class. This was a smart move because he is now making everyone equal, so there are many less people that will become upset. Madame de Stael, the daughter of Bonaparte's financial adviser, is upset because the leveling of classes is only pushing her down. She thinks it is ridiculous and unfair that she is losing her rights for nothing.   Also, Napoleon gave more citizens rights to property and access to education, which were not available before his rule.


He also made economic changes. First, when he went to Europe, he took money and art from Italy, because he had power. Eventually, after his reign, the items were given back. While Napoleon may not have seemed very greedy, he still had his eye on the valuables.  He also did many good things. He controlled prices, and created more business opportunities for the common person. He encouraged new industry which was another large source of new jobs for the people. Lastly, he also built railroads and canals for the people. This made way for easier, cheaper and faster transportation. While Napoleon may have been capturing these places and holding them under french rule, he was still doing good for them.


    Lastly, he made an political impact. To begin, he was one of the, if not the most successful general of all time. His major contribution was that he gave his knowledge of politics to all of the countries that he conquered, including Austria, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and many more. One of these was was called meritocracy. This means that a leader was chosen on his skill and accomplishments, or merits, and not based on divine right or through family. This lead to a brighter and more successful future for many of these countries.

While Napoleon may be seen by many as a ruthless ruler and immense military threat, he did do many great things for the continent of Europe.

Napolean

Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism

       In class, we did an experiment. Each student in the class was given 3 Hershey kisses, in a class of about 25 people. 2 students were given 10 kisses to start the game. These 2 students represented thee rich, while the represented the general population. We were told that we had to play rock, paper, scissors, and the winner of each game would earn a Hershey from another player. As you might have guessed, most of the people ended up sitting down, besides for a few people who luckily built their numbers up. The two students with 10 ended up with the most at the end of the game. Every aspect of this game represent what capitalism is like in real life. The freedom of competition is like that we were able to choose how much we played and who we played with. The workers' revolt was like the "broke" students at the end of the game who wanted back into the game. Then, our teacher took all of the candy and gave each student 3 Hershey kisses. This is just like the government owning the industry, bringing economic equality, and finally aiming for a classless society. At the end of the game, no one wanted to play, in fear of losing out on chocolate. As a result, the teacher would not regulate the amount of candy that we had. This parallels to the goal of classless society being achieved, and the government not being needed. These are the three economic structure that were invented, and used in the 1800's. They are Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism.



              Karl Marx created the theories of Socialism and Communism to help the greater good. The bourgeoisie, also known as the rich folk, oftentimes did not have to work for their money. The proletariat, or the lower class, worked hard every day for a fraction of the money. Karl Marx did not like this system of Capitalism, so he came up with socialism. Socialism was the idea that all industry was owned by the government, so that there would be economic equality among all citizens. It also meant that there was a classless society. This was important to Marx because it was fair, and it gave the poor people a happier and more comfortable life. This evolved into communism. Communism has no classes, which is what the goal of socialism was. There was no government needed because everyone had the same things and they were all given equal pay. Adam Smith was another pioneer at this time. He created the theory of the invisible hand. It let commerce be untouched by the government; they set the prices, the items sold, etc. If one man is making 2 dollars selling candles, then another might come along and sell them for $1. The effect of an "invisible hand" touches your back and says "Hey, come to this store, they sell candles cheaper!" Then, the first person would lower their price to $1, and the competition would rise again. This more free way of running a business lead to an economy boost and less unemployment.


           There are good sides to every argument, but I think that capitalism works best in a modern society. This is because the harder you work, the more you get paid. The lazy people are thus rewarded with nothing, and the hard workers earn what they make. In a society like the ones in the 1800's, I think socialism is the best because it equals out all people and makes things fair. No one person can start with any more than another, creating a perfect society.

Video Links
The Invisible Hand
Karl Marx Mini Bio
What Motivated Adam Smith??



               

The Life of a Lady

There were a lot of reasons that girls would have wanted to work at a mill in Lowell. It all started with a recruitment process, in which recruiters would go to houses all around the New England area. They would tell the fathers of these girls how good life is, and all of the reasons that these girls should come and work at the factories. The benefit for the girls were that they could earn their own money, and buy their own clothes. This would also give them independence that they had never had before. For the families, they can have money sent home from the girls working at the factories. It is also one less mouth to feed, and for a financially struggling family, the less they have to spend on a child, the better. For the corporation, they had girls that were generally more obedient than boys. Most boys worked on farms anyways, so it was harder to recruit them. Lastly, they didn't have to pay the girls as much as they would have had to pay the boys. Because of this large increase in the speed and ability to manufacture goods, especially fabric,  spinning wheels in the house became obsolete. This made most girls have to work in these mills because it was the only way for them to make money. Over time, many women eventually ended up protesting this because of their unfair conditions. In the 1830's many women quit work at the mills because of a new idea called "separate spheres" which means that the men should do commerce and the women should stay at home.

MOSI Google Hangout

            In class, we planned out a day to have a live hangout with a man that worked at a museum from Manchester, England. Part of the museum is a replica of an old fashioned textile mill, like the ones we have been learning about in class.  To prepare for his visit, we did many things. We first went on the MOSI website to learn a few things about the mills. On cool thing that I learned was that the original creator of the water powered textile machines was named Richard Arkwright, and he was worth 28 million dollars (in today's economy) at the time of his death. We then watched a video that Jamie, our guide, put together about the museum and what we would be seeing. In the video, there were 8 vocab words that we had to look up and define, so that we would understand what he was talking about. Lastly, we came up with questions based on our knowledge at that point so that we could ask them during the Google Hangout.


            I think that the hangout was very beneficial. In class, we are able to learn about what these things were and what they looked like as a picture. Seeing all of these machines in real life was really interesting because you saw the kind of conditions that these people had to live with. We also got a more in depth account about how life was like at home before the mills came about. Jamie said that families whose spinning wheel broke ended up living in poverty for the rest of their lives because it was their only source of income.  During the time when the mills went up, families were no longer to use their spinning wheels to make fabric anymore because it was no longer efficient. This resulted in families sending their children to work at mills and a large loss of income for the families.

This machine took the threads and spooled them up into rolls, which were then made into fabric. The spools were moving at an extremely high velocity, but the children were still forced to clean out any of the cotton fibers that jammed. This resulted in hands being torn up and hair being completely torn out. When there was an accident in the mill, even one that could have been fatal, the workers were expected to carry on.


       I liked the discussion with the outside expert because he really was able to explain in detail what happened, and he was able to show us how it may have happened. I like that he was able to take time out of his day for this tour, and that he did a great job explaining things in a simple, yet meaningful way. I think that doing this again would be great because you are able to talk to someone with firsthand knowledge.

The Building Blocks of Today: The Industrial Revolution

              The world changed drastically during the industrial revolution. In class we took notes on 4 of the things that were improved as a result of the industrial revolution. There are many things that are affected (in a good way) as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Two of these are people and resources.


              Many aspects of human life improved. A man named Roy Charles Townsend urged people to grow turnips, which restored exhausted soil. Also, a device called the seed drill was invented to help farmers. Everybody needed food, so improvements in food really helped the quality and production rates of food. Rich landowners pushed ahead with enclosure, which meant taking fenced off land shared by peasants. As a result of this, peasants moved into the cities to get jobs in factories. Lastly, the death rates declined. The increase in food meant a less likely chance of famine. It also meant the women were healthier, which meant healthier babies.

 Crops


                 There were 4 resources that were affected mostly by the Industrial Revolution. First, iron was made better by Abraham Darby. He found that there were impurities in the iron from when it was smelting, so he found a way to take it out. The improved iron was used to make steam engines and railroad tracks. Coal was used as fuel, which is why it became so important. It was used to smelt the iron and power steam engines. Capital was also improved as many people made more and bigger investments in the industrial revolution, because companies were doing better. Lastly, cotton was manufactured to make clothing, which was now being done in mills. Later an item called a shuttle was introduced to make clothes faster. All 4 of these things were able to be improved because of the fast paced growth of the industrial revolution.

Iron

               

So you're Telling me Octopi Live in Trees?

               All you want is the right information. Some people have it. Others don't. The internet has true and false information, and as a student it is our jobs to help figure out which information is true or false. Our class participated in A Google a Day and researched the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus website to help us understand web literacy.

     

               A Google a Day, which you can access here, is an online tool that is run by Google which helps someone with web literacy. It gives you three questions, which you have to answer using the special search engine, which won't give you blatant answers. You have to enter the keywords and really read into the articles to find the piece of information that you are looking for. This is helpful for when you don't have a lot of information and you need to find more, because it teaches you to use keywords and to find trustworthy information. I thought it was fun because we got to work together to try and solve the answers, which was not easy.



           The most important thing while on the internet is making sure that the information that you are seeing is real. Accuracy, Authenticity, and Reliability can help you with that. Accuracy checks to make sure the information is true, or seems true. Authenticity checks to see who wrote the information; is it a Joe Schmoe or a professor? Lastly, reliability checks to see if the author is from a trustful organization. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, which at first seems to be legit from the perspective of a normal person, is not. The author  works at Kelvinic University, which seems legit. When you look into it, he is just someone who is good with computers, and the Kelvinic University is even made up. This website is a prime example of showing you that not everything on the internet is true.

Think About School... It's not so Bad!!

             As we settle in to the 21st century, the world has improved by leaps and bounds. What you could only do with rooms an rooms of technology in the past can be done in the palm of your hands. Writing on paper has switched to typing blogs like I am doing today. I am a student at Reading Memorial High School, and my goal is to put interesting information on my blog so I ca inform the world around me. The purpose of this blog is about the people in the school community striving to be the best they can be.  


               A teacher is a leader who not only teaches kids about the facts, but encourages a student to have fun and enjoy the experience. If a student is bored or upset about the work that they have to put in, then they can not learn to the best of their ability. A good teacher will try and help the student with their troubles. A great teacher will have a conversation with the student to understand what the issues are and then make a plan to try and fix them. As I reflect on some of my best teachers in the past, I think of someone who can teach an effective class while at the same time being able to have fun with the kids and make the experience as enjoying as possible for the students. These teachers are ones you remember because of the way that they taught you, motivated you, and made you a better student. When a teacher can convey and idea in more than one way or if they demonstrate how a process works, a student will understand most what the teacher is trying to explain to you.


          I agree with John Green because he has experienced more than I have. He knows who educated and uneducated people are, and he knows what it is like to work with them. Also as a student, we do not have our minds crammed with information to forget it all; they are crammed so that we can apply that information later in life. I plan on keeping a solid GPA. At the end of last year, my grades started to slip, so I want to start and finish strong this year. I hope on participating in the track and baseball programs, as well as looking into Spanish Club. As always I enjoy meeting new people, because I am a happy, social person and I like to make new acquaintances. I will reach my goals by staying on task and keeping organized, and I think that using evernote this year will be hugely helpful in doing this. I hope to have an excellent school year this year.

John Green Motivational Speech