Andrew Jackson

To further our studies about Democracy in America, we learned about Andrew Jackson, one of the first presidents to lead the new Democratic nation. There are many conflicting views on whether or not he was a good president, and our essential question is "Is Andrew Jackson's long-standing reputation as "the people's president" deserved?" Personally, I do not think Andrew Jackson should be remembered as the people's president because he made some really bad decisions. The worst decision he made was to force the Native Americans to abide by the United States laws and not even giving the basic rights as U.S. citizens causing them to lose their land and go on a forced march to relocate called "the Trail of Tears". By doing this, Jackson violated the definition of democracy,  a form of government in which eligible citizens may participate equally – either directly by voting for the passing/ rejecting of laws. To learn in-depth about Andrew Jackson, we looked at three of his defining points as a president, the Bank War, the Spoils System, and the Indian Removal. We split into groups to analyse the primary sources about each topic and then each group made a presentation about a particular aspect. My group performed a skit about the Indian Removal and unfortunately I don't have the script. Overall, it was fun to use the knowledge we learned from the documents and turn it into our own presentations and everyone learned a lot.

Andrew Jackson

L.A. Revolutions

         Transitioning from The Haitian and the Revolutions of 1830/1848, we learned about the Latin American Revolutions. Our essential question for the unit was, why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social
imperative? This is important because the Latin American Revolutions were based completely off of race. For our lesson, our class split into different groups and each analysed one of the various Revolutions. Then, each group created a timeline of events for their particular revolution and shared it with the class so we could figure out the essential question.

          The group I was in studied the Mexican revolution. We came up with the timeline shown below:

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

2. Miguel hidalgo y costilla launched the Mexican rebellion with the "cry of Delores"

3. He was defeated at Calderon and fled north but was captured and defeated.

4. 1820 liberals took power of Spain and the new government promised reforms to appease the Mexican revolutionaries.

5. In 1821, Agustin de iturbide negotiated that Mexico would be an independent constitutional monarchy

6. August 24, 1821 Spanish viceroy Juan O'Donojú signed treaty of Córdoba which makes Mexico an independent constitutional monarchy.

7. 1822 iturbide becomes emperor of Mexico

8. 1823 Santa Anna and Guadalupe Victoria set up a republic, with Guadalupe Victoria as first president.

This shows how the Mexican revolution changed the government from a monarchy to a republic and it eliminated the racial advantages of the Spanish-born peninsulaires. By comparing all of the revolutions, we discovered that they were against the establish monarchies and they all fought to instate a new government system. They wanted to change the government so that the various races could be more equal. Some differences we noticed were that the Brazilian Revolution was mostly peaceful, the Gran Colombian was very violent and the Mexican was between the two. Also, their social climate made them act out in different ways. Race played its part in all three revolutions by the following: 

Mexico: the mestizos and Indians revolted against the Spanish rule and wanted redistribution of land and race equality.

Brazil: the ruler after independence would only let Portugal born people in his office and became very unpopular. Everyone but the peninsulaires felt wronged and revolted against the corrupt system. 

Gran Columbia: the South Americans didn't want to be opposed by the Spanish. Bolivar wanted to get rid of Spanish rule and the race system.

       Similar to the Spanish American societies, race is still an issue today. A clear example of this is in the Ferguson Missouri case where people are violently protesting that the victim was shot because he was black and the white police officer was not punished. I find it sad that race is still an issue in our country because it has been a very long time since slavery and we are all human beings. I think we need to treat people the same regardless of race, much like the ideals of the Latin American Revolutions.

Democracy in america

To demonstrate how democratic America was in the early 1800s, our group created a poster. We showed how the three source documents supported our argument that the united states slowly became more democratic over the years.

Toussaint Louverture DBQ

Mark Porter

11/17/14

How should Toussaint Louverture be remembered

Good leaders have traits that make them great.  Looking at great leaders during history, we can determine these qualities.  Abraham Lincoln is one of the best examples of a good leader, his three most important qualities were toughness, moral leadership and honesty. Lincoln displayed these traits by granting slaves freedom in the U.S. and maintaining the country during a bloody civil war. Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution, possessed these qualities and used them in similar situations as Lincoln which is why he is considered a great leader. He should be remembered as a liberator of slaves, however he was a great military commander and ruler too.

Toussaint committed most of his free life to liberating the slaves of the French colony Saint Domingue. He knew what it was like being a slave having grown up in servitude and he did not want any of his country-men to suffer that fate. When news of the french revolution reached the island and fighting broke out, Toussaint worked as a doctor to the troops (Doc. A) and convinced slaves to fight for their freedom. By 1793, he led an army of 4000 slaves. Then, when the new revolutionary French government abolished slavery, Toussaint ordered his troops to stop fighting and support the french, showing his dedication to eradicate slavery. (Doc. A) After that, in 1797, Toussaint wrote a letter to the French Directory (the government which replaced the one that abolished slavery) saying that it was impossible for saint domingue to institute slavery again. Toussaint backs up his argument by saying “They bore their chains when they knew no condition of life better than slavery.” (Doc. B) meaning that the slaves were only slaves because they didn't know what it was like to be free and they would rather fight than go back into slavery. Finally, Title II, Article 3 of the Saint Domingue Constitution Toussaint wrote, there cannot be be slavery and all men are born, live and die free and French. (Doc. C) Toussaint was dedicated to freeing his country from slavery, putting that before all of his other goals.

Before he was a liberator of slaves, Toussaint was a strong military commander who led the revolution to free his people to claim Saint Domingue. His best strengths as a leader were his ability to recruit people to join his cause, make tough but necessary decisions and maintain an organized army. Toussaint was a natural born leader, earning his freedom from slavery, owning a plantation himself and later gathering men to join in the revolution. An example of a hard decision he made was killing one of his high ranking commanders, Hyacinthe Moyse. Moyse oversaw the Northern Department of Saint Domingue and did not like Toussaint’s labour laws, nor his friendliness with white planters. (Doc. E) This dislike grew to a state of hatred and Moyse along with many of his men went on a rampage, killing any white man they came across in the Northern department. To mend this, Toussaint stopped the massacre, made Moyse’s men kill themselves and had Moyse put to death. This sounds cruel however it was necessary to ensure that people remained loyal to Toussaint and that peace was kept. Finally, Toussaint kept his army ready for anything the European oppressors threw at them by teaching them  European style and guerilla style fighting. (Doc. A) Toussaint was a great military commander which helped him to liberate the slaves of Saint Domingue.

As ruler of Saint Domingue, Toussaint worked to ensure the prosperity and success of the country. To maintain order and keep up the production of coffee and sugar flowing out of Saint Domingue without slave labour, he helped to create the Saint Domingue constitution in July, 1801. The constitution abolished slavery and put in a new system that stated each plantation will represent a family and the owner of the land was the father. Also, the father must share the revenue with his family to ensure everyone is treated equally. (Doc. C) Then just 4 months after the constitution was put into action, Toussaint issued a new proclamation that contained rules about plantation farming. The basis for this proclamation was to enforce and make clear the laws that were detailed by the constitution. For example,one part of the proclamation is: “Vagabond Cultivators arrested...shall be taken to the commander of the quarter, who will have them sent to the gendarmerie [local police] on their plantation.” (Doc. D) This rule backed up the family based model of the plantations, also making it clear that it was not acceptable to wander to different plantations. By putting the proclamation into effect, Toussaint did become less popular, however, he did it to maintain order and function as ruler of Saint Domingue.

Although Toussaint was a formidable military commander and a great ruler, he should be remembered for his greatest work, liberating the slaves of Saint Domingue. He used the power and influence gained by being a leader to accomplish this. Also, all of his actions were done for the sake of ending slavery. Great leaders are remembered for their most important contributions to society, so there is no doubt Toussaint Louverture should be remembered for liberating the slaves of Saint Domingue.

Revolutions of 1830 an 1848

Recently in class, we learned about the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. The overarching question we were trying to answer was, "were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded?" To gather the information we did a lot of things. First, we looked at a map of the revolutions to see how they developed. Next, we created a scale to judge what is considered a success or failure and in between. Our scale looked like this: failure/revolution was crushed and many died, partial failure/revolution failed however some new ideas took root, neutral/revolution didn't fail or succeed, partial success/many of the revolutions goals are met but there are a lot that weren't, success/all of the revolution's goals are met and the government is changed. Then, we observed the quote by Klemens Von Metternich "When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold." We concluded that this quote meant that the ideas that come out of France and specifically the French Revolution spread across Europe and create revolutions. After that, we analyzed key documents to find out everything about our assigned revolution. then we fit the primary sources into three different categories based on what they are about: Goals, opponents, outcome. Finally, we placed our revolution on the scale of success we made earlier to answer the essential question.

The revolution my group was assigned is the French Revolution of 1848. Obviously the setting was France, 1848. The goal of the revolution was to end the monarchy and stop Louis Philippe's corrupt government. The lower class was fighting against the upper and middle classes as well as Louis Philipe. The rebels wanted to end the recession caused by Louis Philipe and put in place a republic. They eventually got rid of Louis Philipe and voted in Louis Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew into power. This success for the revolution was short-lived, in 1852, Louis Napoleon took absolute control over France and became an emperor. During this time of turmoil, many primary sources were formed. From the documents of the Revolution of 1848 in France, "Citizens:royalty under whatever form , is abolished; no more legitism, no more Bonapartism, no regency." This quote describes the goals of the revolution saying how they wanted a republic and to get rid of the old ways. Also, another primary source, the Proclamation of 14 January 1852, is Louis Napoleon describing how he made France great again. To teach the rest of the class about the Revolution of 1848, we created a survey monkey. Our survey monkey was a test of all aspects of the revolution and our class did well on it.

 

A screenshot of our results, most people got this question right.

The Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were as much failures as historians say they are. first, in 1848, the Frankfurt Assembly was brought together to make a constitution for the German states. They could not make one and the assembly was dissolved under threat of the Austrian military. Hundreds were killed and many imprisoned and thousands fled their homes to get away from Germany. Next in Hungary, 1848, the revolution got rid of their emperor Metternich and caused the Austrian government to make some reforms, but, no long after, the resistance was crushed and thousands of revolutionaries were killed, imprisoned or forced to leave. Finally, the Decembrist revolt of 1825 was a disaster. When the people tried to rise up against Tsar Nicholas, he fired upon them and beat his own people to the ground. These three revolutions were horrible failures. I think the answer to the essential question is accurate however, there was some success in the revolutions, they made people think differently than ever before and stood up for their beliefs.

Congress of Vienna

To start off this unit we paired up to read and explain the background essay on the Congress of Vienna. After, we watched a video about Napoleon and Klemens Von Metternich. The video described Napoleon's reaction to Metternich's changes and the Congress of Vienna. Also, we watched a clip that showed how the map of Europe changed from the changes imposed by the Congress of Vienna. Our essential question, What should people in power do when their power is threatened, relates to this because the members of the Congress of Vienna needed to protect their power from angry revolutionists. There are four principles which the European powers used to protect their power, Balance of Power, Principle of Legitimacy, Holy Alliance and Principle of Intervention.

Tzar Alexander spearheaded the idea of making a Holy Alliance within The Congress of Vienna. A Holy Alliance prevents revolt by saying that Monarchs had the divine right to rule and any revolution was treason against God. This principle worked fairly well because it was going back to the old ways before Napoleon when things were mostly stable. Also, the people in power had the support of the church making it not such a good idea to revolt. Overall, The Congress of Vienna mostly undid the physical aspects of Napoleon's conquest however, Napoleonic ideas spread throughout Europe, sparking some revolutions that could not be contained. One of these revolutions even pushed Metternich out of power. Also, there was no fighting between the five nations of the Congress of Vienna up to 1853.

I think the members of The Congress of Vienna could have made better choices. They mostly thought about themselves and expanding their already large countries. Instead, they could have accommodated the smaller countries and listened to their people. They could have given the people more say in the governments which would have been more effective at stopping revolts. The people in power should have given up some of their power so that everyone was satisfied.

Napoleon's Influence

Many historians agree that napoleon was among the greatest rulers in Europe and perhaps of all time. To find out his impact on the social, economic and political systems of Europe, I read the accounts of Madame de Stael and Michel Ney and an article called The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians. Madame de Stael did not think napoleon was all that great while Michel Ney thought he was a fantastic general and a great ruler. The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians tells the story of all the men and women who have written books about Napoleon, some of which were negative and many which were positive.

Napoleon had a huge impact on Europe as a whole. He conquered many countries and one time controlled nearly 75% of Europe. Political speaking, napoleon had a positive impact for the general people, and a negative impact for the royalty. He established a meritocracy, a system where your position in society is based on your skills and abilities, not because you were royal. Also, when he conquered an area of land, he would let the current ruler continue to govern, something that was not normally done. Napoleon was a master at creating tending to the needs of the economy. Napoleon added massive improvements to the infrastructure of Europe by creating public works projects such as building roads and bridges. As well as helping with public works, Napoleon encouraged the arts and industrialized parts of Europe. Finally, Napoleon helped with the social aspects of Europe. He increased the availability of education and allowed his citizens to have more property rights. After invading Egypt, Napoleon reorganized their government and established the University of Egypt.

In my opinion, napoleon was a huge positive influence to all of Europe. His skills as a military commander were unparalleled and he was an outstanding leader. He cared about the future of our world by emphasizing education and optimizing the outdated governments of Europe. This being said, some of what Napoleon did was wrong, such as killing thousands of people to conquer their country. Overall, Napoleon was a great leader and brought about many necessary changes to Europe.

capitalism, socialism, communism oh my!

To demonstrate Marxism we played a game. In the game, Mrs. G distributed Hersey kisses to all of us to represent wealth Most kids got 3 but a few got more than that. Then, we played rock, paper, scissors, shoot with each other and the loser had to give one piece of candy to the winner. After we totaled our candy, Mrs. G took it back and redistributed it, showing how capitalism eventually leads to communism. This activity was both fun and frustrating, we got to eat candy but it was annoying that the government could just take all of your hard earned wealth.

Karl Marx and Adam Smith both had very different ideas for a government system. Marx believed that everybody should have equal wealth controlled by the government, a classless society. While Smith believed that there should  free trade among the people, not controlled by the government. Marx's system helps the poor because they have just as much as everyone else. Smith's idea benefits the poor because competition between traders creates low enough prices for everyone to afford.

In my opinion, Smith's theory is better than Marx's. I like the idea of having a loose government to step in when things go badly, not an over controlling or no government. This being said, I think the best system is to have a combination of the two. Let people buy, sell and trade what they want, but have them pay taxes in return for things like healthcare, very much like our system in the U.S.

Working Conditions in the Mills, U.S. vs. England

The working conditions in both England and Lowell were bad. However, it was worse in England due to many reasons. First, England came into the Industrial Revolution before Lowell thus having more time for the factories to start heading into squalor. Another reason is that the men who created the Lowell mills observed the English mills and tried to correct their mistakes. The Lowell experiment as it was called did not succeed as well as the creators had hoped, the workers were still treated badly and received low wages. Also, the Lowell mills had boarding houses nearby for the workers to live in, while in England most of the workers were living in squalor in the streets. In England, the workers had to wake up earlier, work later and didn't have designated eating times, as opposed to the breakfast lunch and dinner breaks the workers in the Lowell mills got. Finally, when the Lowell mill worker's wages got cut, they protested against it and it eventually paid off. To find out more about the Lowell Mills you can check it out here

MOSI Google hangout

    We did a very cool and fun activity in history class. We did a Google hangout with a couple of guys from the MOSI museum in Manchester England. This was really incredible because we were talking to people hundreds of miles away from us and we were learning at the same time. Before we Hung out with Jamie and his coworkers, we had to prepare. To do this we checked out MOSI's website to get an idea of what they had at the museum. Also, to prepare, we watched a video where our explainer Jamie showed us some of the machines and explained them. Along with that, we used keywords that we discovered from the site to find out more info on some of the machines and come up with educated questions for Jamie.

    The Hangout ended up being a great success, I learned a lot. in particular, I discovered that the textile making process is somewhat long, dangerous and complex. there are many different machines involved in this process such as the Draw frame , a shuttle loom and a speed frame. Most of the machines worked at high speeds and had many parts, thus making them dangerous to be around. The dangers of the machines included deafness, oil that caused cancer, hair getting caught in the machines and disease could spread quickly. Although these machines were so dangerous, they did increase the production speed of textile production magnificently. The workforce in the factories was almost completely girls raised on rural farms that were looking to support their families or change their lifestyle. Because all the girls moved into the big cities, the farms suffered and many died out, not being able to compete with the mills or the large, company owned farms. There were major pros and cons the mills had and it was very interesting to learn all about them and the infrastructure of the mills from Jamie.

This is Jamie showing us the Shuttle Loom

I thought this activity was fun and engaging while still being school related. It did not feel like I was learning, more like I was having a conversation with an expert. I find it incredible that we are able to talk to these people from across an entire ocean. I would really like to do this type of thing again for a different topic, it is a very good way to learn information. I had a great time with this Google hangout, and it would be great to do another.

My experience as a museum curator

Our group's museum exhibit

       The first step in creating a museum exhibit is to analyze your sources. This is done by reading each of the sources and pulling out the necessary information. Also, we organized the documents so they would make sense when you looked at it. This is the most important part of creating the exhibit because it is where you create the basis of what you are going to share.  Our exhibit is showing how the cotton mills, although very prosperous were working because of slaves and child laborers. Our first picture shows the basis of the cotton industry, the water frame, a machine that was the most efficient to process cotton. our second station shows how the cotton industry was global, by illustrating where it was imported and exported to. Then our third part was a picture of the Boott mill in Lowell, showing the infrastructure of the cotton industry. Next we had a graph showing how many slaves there were in certain Southern states between 1770-1860. After is a propaganda picture showing how the slaves did all the work and the rich got richer. Finally, is a chart showing the cotton production in Lowell and the U.S. slave population. Our title describes how the industrial revolution brought about amazing technological advances but on the backs of slave labor and child workers. I hope people will realize that the Industrial revolution has a dark side that cant be ignored.

Looking at group A's exhibit I saw a lot of pictures about the technical part of the cotton mills. They showed mainly the machines that evolved to become what was in the mills, the spinning wheel, the Spinning  Jenny and the mechanized loom.

Group B's poster displayed how the steam engine changed our whole transportation system. The steam engine was used to create the train, which was instrumental in creating connections in industrialized countries.

Group C's exhibit showed how the Revolution was very good and very bad. They showed peoples views and observations on the revolution and showed what it did to cities such as London.

Finally, at group D's station, I witnessed how child labor powered the revolution. They showed the awful, overcrowded factories they worked in and their long work hours.

Google is more than just a search engine

        In class we checked out Google a day and the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus websites to enhance our media literacy. Google a day is a cool part of Google that has you search for the answers for obscure questions using a limited search engine. This means you are required to think about the keywords and things you search for. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus website helped us determine what a good source was and showed us how some sites can be unreliable.

        While playing around with Google a day i discovered it was fun. Its very rewarding to see all your hard work searching for the answers pay off. However, it is frustrating at times when you've tried a million different answers and none work. I learned that you need to search a lot of different things until you find what you're looking for. Also, you can't be too specific in what you're searching for or else you won't find anything. Finally, it is important to use a variety of sources so you can be sure the information is correct.

        The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus website is a joke site for an endangered fictional creature called the (you guessed it) Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. The site's focus is to protect this "endangered" creature and it is very good at promoting its cause. three terms are used when you are trying to determine if a site is good for you to use. These are accuracy, authenticity, and reliability. Accuracy is testing whether the site's information is correct or not. Authenticity refers to if the site is actually what it claims to be. Reliability is used to determine if you could actually use the information for research. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus website is only authentic because it is what it claims to be, a site to protect the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. However, this information is not real and could not be used for research so it is not relevant in a classroom situation.

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/sightings.html

Revolutionizing the world

     

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/287086/Industrial-Revolution

       What made the Industrial Revolution, revolutionary? We decided to answer this in class by reading an article about the "Ingredients for Industrial Revolution". Each group in class focused on one of the four areas of the article, Technology, People, Resources and Transportation. We then collaborated and shared our notes on each section. I decided the sections people and technology best answered the main question. 

       People made the Industrial Revolution revolutionary, by changing how food was produced, decreasing death rates and the enclosure movement. First, farmers used their land more efficiently, combining smaller fields into large ones. Also, they used improved fertilization and crop rotation methods. the last way farming was revolutionary, was a new machine called the seed drill which evenly deposited seeds in the best way possible. All these tactics improved the amount and quality of food farmers could produce. Death rates decreased mainly because of the great advancements in agriculture. There was less of a risk of famine and people ate healthier, leading to healthier posterity. Finally, death rates decreased during the Industrial Revolution because of improved medical treatments, better hygiene and sanitation.Enclosure is "the process of taking over and fencing off land formerly shared by peasant farmers." Enclosure increased the efficiency of farms and put money in the pockets of their owners, but at a cost. Peasants who formally tended the land were kicked out and forced to migrate to the cities. There they found work in the factories the Industrial Revolution is famous for. For these reasons, people were very important in revolutionizing how they lived and worked.

     During the revolution, people built machines and discovered new technology to make their lives better. For most of history, energy was provided from the muscle power of animals and humans, during the revolution, wind and water power were harnessed. Great water wheels and windmills were used to provide energy for the machines inside the factories. those machines revolutionized the clothing industry by weaving clothing faster than ever before. The Flying Shuttle worked much faster than any human could. Also, iron was improved, allowing production of machines to increase. Technology made the Industrial Revolution so revolutionary because things could be done on a huge scale and many new things were being created. 

What's the point of school?

Hello and welcome to my history blog. My name is Mark Porter and I am a sophomore at Reading Memorial High School. I will be using this blog to show the internet my experience in history class.

http://ballardhs.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessionid=&pageid=174430

I consider a teacher great if they truly care about helping their students succeed at becoming what they want to be. Also, when teachers teach in unorthodox and interesting ways. My fourth grade teacher was great because she was very nice and she helped us if we were struggling. Great teachers help students individually and genuinely care about them. This year I would like to be able to try new things and expand my horizons.

        In this video, popular author John Green tells us student why we have to go to school. He explains that its our duty to use our education to do great things. John tells us that it is important to focus our energy into school. I agree with him, we don't go to school just because we must, we go because it shapes our future. This year I want to do well in the sports I play, soccer and Track, and I also want to maintain good grades. I am going to accomplish these goals by working hard and paying attention in school. I like this video because it let me see a new perspective on school.