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