Origins of America's Global Power

1. Identify five important changes that transformed America in the nineteenth century. 
A. One important change was the growth of immigration.  Because of all of the new people joining our country, we had more than enough working hands to progress the nation.

B.  Another important  change that was good for America was, because of all the immigrants, the growth of urban population, and all of the new cities that where growing.


C.  Yet another change that brought america forward was how we became very involved in trade.  We started trading in many counties, who got concerned about how our power was growing quite rapidly.  


D.  I also believe that the depression of 1893 was important to our growth.  This depression brought to the attention of many that our government was fragile, and that they needed to strengthen it and the foundation the businesses where growing on.


E.  And just how everyone thought they saw how they looked at America.  They needed to believe that it was ment to grow and become a world power.  The brave, patriotic America everyone saw helped them push themselves to gain more.

2. How did the economic depression that began in 1893 deepen the divisions in American society? Which groups suffered the most during the depression? 

The depression affected workers, causing them to loose their jobs and soon hundreds of thousands were unemployed and business owners, for loosing their prophets.  Because of their unemployment, they started strikes that frightened people and brought instability to city dwellers.  Though, farmers were probably the group that suffered the most, because it had worsened the already low income they were receiving.

3. What were the values many Americans attached to the frontier? Why did many Americans fear that the closing of the frontier would harm America's national character? 

American's thought that the western front brought with its name successfulness, bravery, ingenuity, individualism, patriotism, ... Some thought that just because that the west was almost fully settled, they would loose all of those meanings, and would just be as weak as they were in the beginning.

4. Why did some Americans suggest greater involvement overseas? 
They wanted to make sure that Britain and England in general did not take over half the world.  They wanted to go overseas so that they could regulate them and make sure that they didn't go overboard with all of their colonies.  They also wanted to make sure that Britain didn't stop their overseas trades with other countries that didn't have tariffs on them.

5. How did the theories of social Darwinism and scientific racism lend support to the cause of American imperialism? 

Some people thought that because of scientific racism and social darwinism, citizens of the US where suposed to help other lesser countries by sending missionaries.  They thought that they had to civilize the rest of the world.  They thought that it was God's will.  

6. Summarize why the United States became involved in Samoa, Hawaii, and several Latin American nations.
   The US primarily wanted Hawaii because they thought that the Japanese would somehow take over and then stop the US from accessing their military base, Pearl Harbor.  The US also intervened in some other latin american nations because they wanted to stop some fighting in Nicaragua so that they could build a cannel safely.  

Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal

1. 1902 COAL STRIKE
a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 
Roosevelt decided, that after the coal strike had gone on for a while, and the coal reserves were running low, intervened and settled things by taking a third party (other than the workers or the employer) and made a decision so that the workers would get lower work hours and a 10% raise, but they must belong to a union and could no longer close shops.

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?
None

2. TRUSTS
a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 
Roosevelt didnt think that all trusts were harmful, but he did want to lower the unfairness that some businesses had over others, like the standard oil company.  He became known as a trustbuster, when he made many clames to through the Sherman Antitrust Act, and some did succede, he was unable to slow the creating of trusts.

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?
The legislation helped in the 1890's, when they had created the Sherman Antitrust Act, but did not really help Roosevelt when he was trying to bust the trust-making movements.

3. UNREGULATED BIG BUSINESS
a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 
Big Businesses like the Railroad companies needed to be put into their places.  Roosevelt wanted to stop business owners from fixing high prices by breaking into smaller businesses in a given area.

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?
The Interstate Commerce Act
Elkines Act
The Hepburn Act

4. DANGEROUS FOODS AND MEDICINES
 a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 
Because he read "The Jungle", Roosevelt took action and appointed a commission of experts to investigate meatpacking industries.  The reports he got back were quite close to Sinclare's, and so he pushed the authorization of the Meat Inspection Act.

Also, industries used to lie/stretch the truth about what their products did/what was in them, and Congress felt that the public needed to know the truth of what kind if products they were getting.

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?
Meat Inspection Act
Pure Food and Drug Act


5. SHRINKING WILDERNESS AND NATURAL RESOURCES
a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 
He made many conservations, and put aside a lot of land for wildlife reservations and national parks and the like.  He knew that America's natural resources wouldn't last forever, and he wanted to make sure that we still had forests and clean rivers for a long time.

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?
None?

6. RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
a. What steps did Roosevelt take to solve the problem? 
None really,
Although he did appoint an African American the head of the Charleston, SC customhouse.

b. Which legislation helped solve the problem?
None

Explain the importance of each of the following:

7. Square Deal: A square deal is a term that is used to describe carious progressive reforms sponsored by the Roosevelt administration.  This term is used for all of the reforms that roosevelt felt he needed to suport.

8. The Jungle: The book, the Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, was very important, because it showed people, including the president Roosevelt, what was actually happening in meat processing plants, and the horrid conditions that they worked in and how the food was actually made.  It was brought to President Roosevelts attention and it made him take action and do something to make the food for the populace safer to eat.

9. Upton Sinclair: Upton Sinclair was the author of the book, The Jungle, and brought to everyones attention the sickening conditions fo the meatpacking industry.

10. NAACP: The NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and was a group that aimed to have full equality among all races.  They had over 6,000 members by 1914 and was created in New York.

11. Meat Inspection Act: The meat inspection act was put into place for the safety of the populace.  It was required for strict cleanliness from meatpacking plants.  They changed it a little because there were better techniques.

12. Pure Food & Drug Act: This halted the sale of contaminated foods and medicines and businesses were required to label truthfully.  This was also for the safety of the populace and also so that perhaps people would act more wisely.  


13. Significance of the 1902 Coal Miners’ Strike: Because of President Roosevelt, when a strike threatened the public, the federal government was supposedly in charge of stepping in and solving the problem.

The Jungle - Exposing the Meatpacking Industry

1. In your opinion, which specific details in this excerpt most convincingly highlight problems in the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s? Why? Use specific passages and quote. Analyze at least five details. 

A.     When the author describes the emotions of the people touring the building of the slaughter house.  They are shocked by what the workers are doing to the pigs.  "the visitors started in alarm, the women turned pale and shrank back...the men would look at each other ...and the women would stand with hands clenched, and the blood rushing to their faces, and the tears starting in their eyes."  They are clearly terrified of what these workers are doing and are not very happy either.

B.     The author also describes how the workers work, to kill the pigs.  They are like robots, that only do one thing and keep doing it over and over again.   "the men upon the floor were going about their work. Neither squeals of hogs nor tears of visitors made any difference to them..."  The men did not seem to have feelings for the animals or for the people watching them do their jobs.  

C.     How he tells the readers how the pigs are killed and gutted.  "One by one they hooked up the hogs, and one by one with a swift stroke they slit their throats. There was a long line of hogs, with squeals and lifeblood ebbing away together; until at last each started again, and vanished with a splash into a huge vat of boiling water..."  He goes on to talking about some of the details about what they actually do to the pigs.

D.     The author also talks about what they do with the spoiled meat.  That's just so gross.   I really hope they dont do that anymore, because that would make me want to become a vegetarian.  

E.  The way he tells about the dead rats and all the different meat they put into the sausages is interesting, in a sick way.  They just used a bunch of different meat and didnt even care about what kind it was or if it had gone bad or not.  "Cut up by the two-thousand-revolutions-a-minute flyers, and mixed with half a ton of other meat, no odor that ever was in a ham could make any difference."

2. What is the overall tone of the story?

     I think that the tone of this story is that the author wanted to show you the way that they processed meat back then, but also just to entertain people who wanted to read about what they did in 1900 meat packing plants.  This was mainly to inform and entertain people.  The top of the article tells you that the author wanted to show you his shocking portrayal of Chicago slaughterhouses in the early 1900s. He wanted to raise the publics awareness and promote congress to pass the meat inspection act and a pure food and drug act.

3. Based on your reading of this excerpt, why do you think Sinclair titled his novel The Jungle?

     I think that, after reading this story, he named the book The Jungle, because he wanted to portray how wild and crazy it was in these businesses.  "It was a jungle out there" meaning that it was an ungoverned business road where the employers or employees didnt care about the health or well being of their customers/citizens.  They just didnt care at all about health or safety and probably most of them just cared about getting payed at the end of the week or something...

Challenges of Urbanization

The Challenges of Urbanization

The People: why were the three groups below drawn to cities in the Northeast and Midwest? 
1. Immigrants - Immigrants were drawn to the city for the low cost in housing/place to live and they offered low wage jobs for unskilled workers.

2. Farmers - Farmers, more farm hands than farmers, had to move into cities so that they could find a living.  The new inventions made farming easier, but needed less workers to work on the farms. 

3. African-Americans - African Americans had moved more into the cities because they had lost their jobs working on farms in the south.  They also were trying to escape racial violence, but it was not much better in the north, where there was segregation.   Whites also feared loosing their jobs to Blacks and there was social conflict.

The Problems: What was done in response to the following five problems? 

4. Lack of safe and efficient transportation
     Because there was not sufficient transportation, many cities made new ways of transportation.  In many cities, there were electric subways and bus roots that helped people get places faster.

5. Unsafe drinking water
     Because a lot of cites didn't install proper water systems and pipes, people had to get water from faucets on the street.  The cities then made it mandatory that any new buildings had water systems and were installed properly.

6. Lack of sanitation 
     Sanitation was a major problem in growing cities.  People just threw their trash on the streets and the garbage disposal workers were not effective.  Because of these problems, cities started creating sewer lines and creating sanitation departments.

7. Fire Hazards
     Because most of the old buildings that were standing and being made as the cities expanded were made of wood, there was a ver high risk of buildings catching fire.  Back then, people used kerosine lamps and candles to light their homes, but because of the risk in starting fires, cities started building buildings with bricks, cement, and stone.

8. Crime
     Also with the growing cities and populations, pit-pockets and thieves flourished.  Because of this, cities started creating law enforcement groups.  But usually, they were to small to deal with the problem.