Tuesday, June 17, 2014

People, Places, and Power (The Powerful Few vs. The Many Powerless 4)

                For the past few days we have listened to other groups present on their topics that relate to the theme “People, Places, and Power”.  They have shared key terms, enduring understandings, and facts during a PowerPoint presentation.  They have also each shared one or two video journals composed of primary source images narrated and explained by them.  At the end of each group’s project everyone took a survey that the group created using SurveyMonkey.  After the survey, the group went over the results of the survey.  They shared what answers people chose, what were the correct answers, and our thoughts for the opinion questions.  After each presentation, we learned how their theme related to the overarching theme of “People, Places, and Power”.
             American Imperialism in the late 19th to early 20th century was a time when America asserted its power to annex Hawaii as well as invade Cuba for land, for naval bases, to revive patriotism, and to protect American citizens.  During this time, people who were pro-war and jingoists, that is people with aggressive national pride, needed a reason to get a war started so they used the power of yellow journalism and other propaganda to claim Spain had attacked America.  This gave America an excuse to invade and defeat parts of the Spanish empire including Cuba, allowing the United States to show that it was more powerful.
             European Imperialism in Africa during the late 19th to early 20th century was a time when Europe asserted its power over Africa and the African people.  According to social Darwinism, Europeans believed they were superior to Africans because of evolution which gave them an excuse to assert power over the Africans and control them.  King Leopold II of Belgium was a powerful European King who asserted power over the people living in the Congo, by keeping the Congo under his control and exploiting and killing millions of Congo people who had no power against the king and his soldiers.
             Native Americans were forced by the powerful American government and the military to go on “The Long Walk” and walk 300 miles to move from their homelands in the Great Plains to different places (reservations and camps) because Eastern settlers wanted to claim the land in the west.  The Navajo Native Americans who were forced to move to Borsque Redondo also experienced forced assimilation.  They were forced by white Americans (often military people who oversaw and forced the movement of Natives) who asserted power over the natives, to change their culture to “white culture”.      
             In the 19th century many immigrants came from Asia including Japan and China to California.  Americans used their power to oppress the immigrants and limit their opportunities.  White laborers felt threatened since the Chinese would take their jobs by accepting lower wages, so they used their power to get the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 created which prohibited further immigration from China.  The government had power over the Asian immigrants because if they decided there was anything wrong with the immigrants they had the power to send Asian immigrants back to their homelands.

             Many immigrants came from Europe to Ellis Island in New York in America often to escape religious persecution in their home countries.  They had to go through medical exams, written tests, and other exams, and the immigrants could be sent home or quarantined if they were found to not be healthy.  Other white Americans besides workers at Ellis Island also had power over the immigrants.  White Americans also had economical power over the immigrants and many of the immigrants were forced to work in sweatshops because they did not speak English even though many were well educated and had been doctors, engineers, etc in their home countries.  Immigrants lived in ghettos which were segregated communities in order to protect themselves from persecution.  

An Immigrant Receiving an Eye Exam to Check for an Eye Disease

Image: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY-ELLIS ISLAND FOUNDATION, INC./NATIONAL PARK.  http://teacher.scholastic.com/ACTIVITIES/immigration/tour/stop4.htm

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