Dear Journal,
I have been studying about America becoming an Empire. It is crazy to think that America was created by someone finding land, and deciding to move there. Even though some of our founding ideals has been broken in the past, we still have most of them today. Also we still abide by the same Constitution we had hundreds of years ago! I have defiantly learned a lot about America, including how strong it is to be able to survive all it has gone through.
There are a lot of positives and negatives about becoming an Empire. The positive, is we are now the world biggest super power. Businesses are growing and our economy is doing better than most. Living in a country that is a world power has its benefits because I am able to keep my freedom, and live the way i want to live. If America was a small country and did not have as strong as a military as we do now, we may not have those rights, and ideals as we have now. it is also nice to have a country where you cannot be stepped on, like some other countries always has someone over their heads bossing them around, and America is defiantly not one of those countries. We also have the ability to create and make new inventions, and tools, and medicine. We are always continually creating and thinking of new things to help us in our everyday lives.
The negative, is some people did not agree with how we got here. We did not really stick to our founding ideals sometimes, and we went to war several times when sometimes we probably did not need to. Another bad thing is since we are such a big country, many people do rely on us. There are so many countries that rely on our resources, or on our military. We are always the ones to come to the rescue. Sometimes it is a good thing, but sometimes we should probably listen to Washington and stay out of some country's affairs especially when they have nothing to do with us. Another bad thing is when we were expanding and believing in manifest destiny, we got it into our mind set that we would do anything, including force, to achieve that. And we did, some countries, races were wronged by us because we believed in it whole heatedly.
I do however, think it was a good idea for America to become and Empire. I am a strong beliver when I say that things would be a whole lot different if we did not have the socail status that we have today. This project did open my eye to the bad that America has done in the past, but also taught me the good of what came out of it.
Kami Mahoney
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Ch. 9 - World War I
Dear Journal,
The war has lasted for a while now. I don't know how much more I can take. When the war started, America was neutral as the war started, we thought the two countries would come to a compromise, but none came up. Even though we were neutral, we were still big suppliers to the Allied Powers. We are big trading partners with Europe, we would send ships caring supplies, and grain, and other weapons, ships started to get shot down by Germans. They apologized, but it was a risk now to take a boat in the war zone. A few other ships had went down, but America still stayed neutral. Until the Lusitania was sank. It was caring more than a hundred Americans, and the Germans just shrugged it off. We then took notice, and we went to Congress to declare war. Congress passed the notion, and then we went to war on Germany. When we entered the war, we were late getting involved, so it was a huge mental help for the Allied Powers as we had more food, water, ammo, and other supplies that they did not have or were running low. We also brough along fresh, ready to fight men that most saw the front lines of the battle fields.
Wilson made several attempts to make peace, even sending both countries questions, like what would need to be done for both sides to end the war. Britain would send back actual answers with detailed things to be done, and Germany would send back a vague answer. Wilson Windrow's fourteen points was a peace treaty for all nations to abide by. It was to gain peace throughout the world as the war was getting worse. The nations that depended on America, and the countries that may have needed financial help after the war agreed to stay on Wilson's good side. French and British agreed with most of the fourteen points, but they wanted to take out point two- which was freedom of seas, and they wanted to take out eight- which was to evacuate the German to allow for repairs. After both countries agreed, they sent it off the Germany.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Royal_Irish_Rifles_ration_party_Somme_July_1916.jpg
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/enemy-ww1/german-soldiers4.jpg
http://marsfigures.com/cataloge/461376082_06.jpg
http://avihorwitz.weebly.com/uploads/8/8/1/1/8811319/394821883.jpg
The war has lasted for a while now. I don't know how much more I can take. When the war started, America was neutral as the war started, we thought the two countries would come to a compromise, but none came up. Even though we were neutral, we were still big suppliers to the Allied Powers. We are big trading partners with Europe, we would send ships caring supplies, and grain, and other weapons, ships started to get shot down by Germans. They apologized, but it was a risk now to take a boat in the war zone. A few other ships had went down, but America still stayed neutral. Until the Lusitania was sank. It was caring more than a hundred Americans, and the Germans just shrugged it off. We then took notice, and we went to Congress to declare war. Congress passed the notion, and then we went to war on Germany. When we entered the war, we were late getting involved, so it was a huge mental help for the Allied Powers as we had more food, water, ammo, and other supplies that they did not have or were running low. We also brough along fresh, ready to fight men that most saw the front lines of the battle fields.
Wilson made several attempts to make peace, even sending both countries questions, like what would need to be done for both sides to end the war. Britain would send back actual answers with detailed things to be done, and Germany would send back a vague answer. Wilson Windrow's fourteen points was a peace treaty for all nations to abide by. It was to gain peace throughout the world as the war was getting worse. The nations that depended on America, and the countries that may have needed financial help after the war agreed to stay on Wilson's good side. French and British agreed with most of the fourteen points, but they wanted to take out point two- which was freedom of seas, and they wanted to take out eight- which was to evacuate the German to allow for repairs. After both countries agreed, they sent it off the Germany.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Royal_Irish_Rifles_ration_party_Somme_July_1916.jpg
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/enemy-ww1/german-soldiers4.jpg
http://marsfigures.com/cataloge/461376082_06.jpg
http://avihorwitz.weebly.com/uploads/8/8/1/1/8811319/394821883.jpg
ch. 8 - Foreign Policies of U.S. Presidents
Dear Diary,
I am writing about the three main presidents during this time period. Even though we have had many greats before, I will talk about Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Starting off with Theodore Roosevelt, or the Big Stick Diplomacy. One of his big ideas was to enforce the Monroe Doctrine by force if necessary. Roosevelt was very invested in the Latin America countries. He would always worry that they could not pay their loans off to the Europeans so we paid them off, and then took control over their finances. He also created the Roosevelt Corollary to reinforce the Monroe Doctrine. He also would support this by military enforcement if needed. So in all, Roosevelt's way of handeling foreign affairs was to make peace and try to come to an understanding, but always be able to back it up with force if needed.
Next, William Taft, uses the Dollar Diplomacy. This means that they would use the interest of economics and money to build up the power of America. The goal of this is to create the best promotion for America to other nations, also have a stable financial businesses, and also he wanted to make sure that businesses would still invest in other countries. The Dollar diplomacy was used in Nicaragua, when loans were guaranteed with the support of overthrowing Jose Santos Zelaya. Another times this was used is when he used it in Haiti. He made American investment influx, but later this made the Haitians upset. Lastly, he used it in China, to stregnthen the Open Door Policy along with decreasing the Japanese and Russian power over China.
Lastly, Woodrow Wilson wanted to use Moral Diplomacy. He would only support other countries that supported America. An example is in Mexico, he didn't acknowledge a general who gained his title illegally. He sent troops in when there were attacks on Americans. He also wanted to put an end to Imperialism, and expand our territory if we have to take over foreign territories. In Mexico, Carranzo, did not follow the American guildelines that they needed to form a new governmen, and he disapproved.
So there you go, the three Presidents of this time.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://content.artofmanliness.com/uploads/2008/02/theodore-roosevelt.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/William_Howard_Taft_1909.jpg
https://artfulhatter.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/president_woodrow_wilson_po.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1656182/thumbs/o-AMERICAN-FLAG-facebook.jpg
I am writing about the three main presidents during this time period. Even though we have had many greats before, I will talk about Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Starting off with Theodore Roosevelt, or the Big Stick Diplomacy. One of his big ideas was to enforce the Monroe Doctrine by force if necessary. Roosevelt was very invested in the Latin America countries. He would always worry that they could not pay their loans off to the Europeans so we paid them off, and then took control over their finances. He also created the Roosevelt Corollary to reinforce the Monroe Doctrine. He also would support this by military enforcement if needed. So in all, Roosevelt's way of handeling foreign affairs was to make peace and try to come to an understanding, but always be able to back it up with force if needed.
Next, William Taft, uses the Dollar Diplomacy. This means that they would use the interest of economics and money to build up the power of America. The goal of this is to create the best promotion for America to other nations, also have a stable financial businesses, and also he wanted to make sure that businesses would still invest in other countries. The Dollar diplomacy was used in Nicaragua, when loans were guaranteed with the support of overthrowing Jose Santos Zelaya. Another times this was used is when he used it in Haiti. He made American investment influx, but later this made the Haitians upset. Lastly, he used it in China, to stregnthen the Open Door Policy along with decreasing the Japanese and Russian power over China.
Lastly, Woodrow Wilson wanted to use Moral Diplomacy. He would only support other countries that supported America. An example is in Mexico, he didn't acknowledge a general who gained his title illegally. He sent troops in when there were attacks on Americans. He also wanted to put an end to Imperialism, and expand our territory if we have to take over foreign territories. In Mexico, Carranzo, did not follow the American guildelines that they needed to form a new governmen, and he disapproved.
So there you go, the three Presidents of this time.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://content.artofmanliness.com/uploads/2008/02/theodore-roosevelt.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/William_Howard_Taft_1909.jpg
https://artfulhatter.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/president_woodrow_wilson_po.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1656182/thumbs/o-AMERICAN-FLAG-facebook.jpg
Ch. 7- Latin America
Dear Journal,
As America Empire is getting bigger, there is a new urgency for transportation between the two oceans. Theodore Roosevelt became president because McKinley was shot by an assassin named Leon Czolgosz. Soon after, President Roosevelt decided to build a canal. The best place to built this canal was across Panama, but the problem was that Panama was in Columbia. Roosevelt offered $10 million dollars to the Colombians for that part of the land, but they refused. Roosevelt stated that "But I deemed it likely that there would be a revolution in Panama soon." And in turn he was right. Roosevelt sent over a battleship along with U.S. marines to support the new government. Once the rebels were in control, they gladly accepted the $10 million dollar offer. The construction of the Panama Canal was rough for the ones who were building it. The mosquitoes were so horrible and they carried yellow fever, also the weather was harsh condition to work physically in, so lots died from disease.
The U.S. sent many troops in to Latin America. Since the Roosevelt Corollary stated that we can stop any country from doing something that we felt was wrongdoing, we used this to protect our investments and businesses in Nicaragua and Latin America. Since America had been using Nicaragua's natural resources, Japan started to want to take over Nicaragua. A small quarrel broke out where the rebels and a group lead by a man named Walker, took over. America did not want to take over since we did not want to interfere with the slave and non slave territories. Walker died, and the involvement with America still continued until a new government kicked in under Adolfo Diaz. He threatened the agreement, and William Taft, called for the Corollary, and our troops suppressed the revolt. We handled most of their international money, and helped were their main police.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://www.operationworld.org/files/ow/maps/lgmap/pana-MMAP-md.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Mckinley.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/FDR_in_1933.jpg
http://i.infoplease.com/images/mnicarag.gif
As America Empire is getting bigger, there is a new urgency for transportation between the two oceans. Theodore Roosevelt became president because McKinley was shot by an assassin named Leon Czolgosz. Soon after, President Roosevelt decided to build a canal. The best place to built this canal was across Panama, but the problem was that Panama was in Columbia. Roosevelt offered $10 million dollars to the Colombians for that part of the land, but they refused. Roosevelt stated that "But I deemed it likely that there would be a revolution in Panama soon." And in turn he was right. Roosevelt sent over a battleship along with U.S. marines to support the new government. Once the rebels were in control, they gladly accepted the $10 million dollar offer. The construction of the Panama Canal was rough for the ones who were building it. The mosquitoes were so horrible and they carried yellow fever, also the weather was harsh condition to work physically in, so lots died from disease.
The U.S. sent many troops in to Latin America. Since the Roosevelt Corollary stated that we can stop any country from doing something that we felt was wrongdoing, we used this to protect our investments and businesses in Nicaragua and Latin America. Since America had been using Nicaragua's natural resources, Japan started to want to take over Nicaragua. A small quarrel broke out where the rebels and a group lead by a man named Walker, took over. America did not want to take over since we did not want to interfere with the slave and non slave territories. Walker died, and the involvement with America still continued until a new government kicked in under Adolfo Diaz. He threatened the agreement, and William Taft, called for the Corollary, and our troops suppressed the revolt. We handled most of their international money, and helped were their main police.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://www.operationworld.org/files/ow/maps/lgmap/pana-MMAP-md.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Mckinley.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/FDR_in_1933.jpg
http://i.infoplease.com/images/mnicarag.gif
Ch. 6- Anti- Imperialist League
Dear Journal,
The days seem to be getting longer. America is not the same since the Spanish American War, even though the war is over, I feel we are in a worse war now- with ourselves. America has a decision to make, we can either leave the Philippines to Spain, or we can fight a brutal war for it. Therefore, America is splitting, we are splitting into either the anti- imperial or imperialists. We are at this crossroad because we have gotten ourselves into a mess with the Philippines. The imperialists wants to keep the Philippines. The anti-imperialists believe that it would be a immoral war and would end up with the Filipinos not having any constitutional rights. This would mean the Constitution would not work if you are not of the white race and did not live on the American continent. It is also a time when they think that America should not join with other races, as we are already having problems with the African- Americans. The anti- imperialists saw McKinley and Roosevelt as people to make anew of the country, but they cannot do this without corrupting the society in use.
Many, like Mark Twain, thought that America was trying to get the Philippines from Spain to help them, to let them create their own government, not trying to use them to our advantage. Now we are in a mess, America is split into two and I have no idea what we are going to do.Now the Anti-imperialists have Andrew Carnegie as there sponsor. I heard that he tried to buy Philippines for $20 million dollars, and McKinley turned him down, now he is starting to support the anti-imperialists.
Even with all the anti- imperialists, it still was not enough to stop what we are doing because there are so many more imperialists than there are not. The anti- imperialists barely made a problem for the imperialists. Even with all the horrible things we are doing in the Philippines, imperialist stick together and support it 100%.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://a4.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fill,dpr_1.0,g_face,h_300,q_80,w_300/MTE5NDg0MDU1MTUzNTA5OTAz.jpg
http://greatimmigrants.carnegie.org/images/1835_ac.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Bridge_of_Binondoc_in_Manila,_early_1800s.jpg
http://www.solpass.org/7ss/Images/war.gif
The days seem to be getting longer. America is not the same since the Spanish American War, even though the war is over, I feel we are in a worse war now- with ourselves. America has a decision to make, we can either leave the Philippines to Spain, or we can fight a brutal war for it. Therefore, America is splitting, we are splitting into either the anti- imperial or imperialists. We are at this crossroad because we have gotten ourselves into a mess with the Philippines. The imperialists wants to keep the Philippines. The anti-imperialists believe that it would be a immoral war and would end up with the Filipinos not having any constitutional rights. This would mean the Constitution would not work if you are not of the white race and did not live on the American continent. It is also a time when they think that America should not join with other races, as we are already having problems with the African- Americans. The anti- imperialists saw McKinley and Roosevelt as people to make anew of the country, but they cannot do this without corrupting the society in use.
Many, like Mark Twain, thought that America was trying to get the Philippines from Spain to help them, to let them create their own government, not trying to use them to our advantage. Now we are in a mess, America is split into two and I have no idea what we are going to do.Now the Anti-imperialists have Andrew Carnegie as there sponsor. I heard that he tried to buy Philippines for $20 million dollars, and McKinley turned him down, now he is starting to support the anti-imperialists.
Even with all the anti- imperialists, it still was not enough to stop what we are doing because there are so many more imperialists than there are not. The anti- imperialists barely made a problem for the imperialists. Even with all the horrible things we are doing in the Philippines, imperialist stick together and support it 100%.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://a4.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fill,dpr_1.0,g_face,h_300,q_80,w_300/MTE5NDg0MDU1MTUzNTA5OTAz.jpg
http://greatimmigrants.carnegie.org/images/1835_ac.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Bridge_of_Binondoc_in_Manila,_early_1800s.jpg
http://www.solpass.org/7ss/Images/war.gif
Ch. 5- China
Dear Journal,
It is the late 1800, and for so many years, China did not trade, in fact it was prohibited to trade with foreigners. As a result China had many wars internally and with other countries. Once China was defeated in the war between them and Japan, many countries came to establish trading with China. We, as America also sees China as a prospective trading market for the U.S. This leads me to the point of what I will be talking about- the Open Door Policy. Because America depended on exports, China is a really big market for us. We feel that we have the right to trade with any country, hence having an 'Open-Door policy' and we have every intention of keeping it that way, even if force was necessary. The countries that were consulted agreed, but China was not one.
China then was dominated by Europeans, who took over their major cities. This is when a group who we call the Boxers came in. They were a really bad group. There mission at first was to overthrown the Ch'ing government. They started killing people through missionaries, and were moving toward the cities, killing many people. The foreign diplomats made a small army and they withstood many attacks by the Boxers for two months, but they were surrounded and could not send for help. With everything almost gone, the U.S. had stepped in and saved the day. They fought off the Boxers all they way to Beijing. The empress escaped the city. And an open door policy was extended throughout all of China.
Later.
Cites:
http://www.worldartmuseum.cn/content_images/20090312/145707.jpg
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/asstd/boxer3.jpg
http://corvallistoday.com/asia_pacific/china/usboxerl.jpg
http://colororigin.com/images/img2/chinas-open-door-policy-design-ideas-1.png
It is the late 1800, and for so many years, China did not trade, in fact it was prohibited to trade with foreigners. As a result China had many wars internally and with other countries. Once China was defeated in the war between them and Japan, many countries came to establish trading with China. We, as America also sees China as a prospective trading market for the U.S. This leads me to the point of what I will be talking about- the Open Door Policy. Because America depended on exports, China is a really big market for us. We feel that we have the right to trade with any country, hence having an 'Open-Door policy' and we have every intention of keeping it that way, even if force was necessary. The countries that were consulted agreed, but China was not one.
China then was dominated by Europeans, who took over their major cities. This is when a group who we call the Boxers came in. They were a really bad group. There mission at first was to overthrown the Ch'ing government. They started killing people through missionaries, and were moving toward the cities, killing many people. The foreign diplomats made a small army and they withstood many attacks by the Boxers for two months, but they were surrounded and could not send for help. With everything almost gone, the U.S. had stepped in and saved the day. They fought off the Boxers all they way to Beijing. The empress escaped the city. And an open door policy was extended throughout all of China.
Later.
Cites:
http://www.worldartmuseum.cn/content_images/20090312/145707.jpg
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/asstd/boxer3.jpg
http://corvallistoday.com/asia_pacific/china/usboxerl.jpg
http://colororigin.com/images/img2/chinas-open-door-policy-design-ideas-1.png
ch. 4- Spanish American War
Dear Journal,
Today we are going to war with Spain. Years before, a great man named James Monroe made something called the Monroe Doctrine- if you are not familiar with this, it was basically a document telling the British and pretty much the whole world that they cannot colonize our territory, which was then from sea to shining sea. But now America has got in there heads to start expanding even more. Many Americans think this is a good idea like businessmen who are overproducing and want to start selling to other countries. Also it is a chance to spread our culture even more, also expand our territory. Even though there are some people who want to spread, others think it is going again the Constitution, and the morals America was built on.
Cuba just went through a Reform, and now we want Cuba. But Spain has become a problem. They are not abiding to the Monroe Doctrine. So America has started using a form of advertisement called Yellow Journalism. This is when America is using something that happened in America and blaming the Spanish for it. It seems to be working because most Americans are getting all fired up about wanting to help Cuba get independence- but that is not what America wants. America wants Cuba as a port for trading, more land, and more resources; but many people are buying what journalists are selling. I only thought this would work for a little while until the Maine blew up unexpectedly. America obviously blamed the Spanish for that and this got Americans fired up more than you can imagine.Yellow Journalism blew up, and it was not soon after that newspapers and journals were filled with how bad the Spanish treat Cubans.
On April 19, Congress wanted to have a joint resolution, meaning that the House, Legislature and Congress all agree on something and takes it to the President. This joint resolution stated if Spain did not let Cuba gain its independence, then America would use as much force as necessary to help them. President McKinley signed it, and on the April 21, America built a blockage of Cuba. Spain declared war on the April 23, and America said the war was started on the 21. There has only been a few times America has declared war, and I hope for our sake, we are making the right move.
Until next time...
Cites:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413cahDDoML.jpg
http://users.humboldt.edu/jcbaker/image6.gif
http://historiana.eu/assets/uploads/Americans_landing_in_Cuba.jpg
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ussmaine-nara01.gif
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