Latin American Revoultions

During the time we were studying the Latin American revolutions the essential questions were,  "Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race?  How are the events of the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?"  It is important to have the essential question because it helps us to have a deeper understanding of what we are learning as we learn it and so we don’t veer too far from the main idea and main focus. it is important to think about this particular essential question because even today we still have people that make judgments, decisions, and opinions based on race. Even though we have come so far from where they were during the Latin American revolutions it is still a current problem. In class we made a pie chart showing the percentages of the population of each race in Latin America. We found that there was 50% Indian people, 23% Creoles, which are white Europeans born in the New World, 11% black slaves, 8% Mulattoes, and free blacks which are half white European and half black, 7% Mestizos which is people who descend from a white parent with Indian decent, and lastly only 1% of the whole population were white Europeans, also know as Peninsulares during the time. Even though there was only 1% Peninsulares they were still the most important and highest up on the social scale. anyone else was thought of as below them or little. The only reason why anyone was where they were on the social scale was by the color of their skin. The only reason why someone was thought of as more was because they had light skin.

Gran Colombia Timeline-

• April 19, 1810- a junta expels Spanish governor of the province of Venezuela and takes control
• July, 1811- National Assembly in Caracas formally declares Venezuela's independence
• July, 1812- Spanish authorities rally and recover a military initiative, regaining control of the entire province
• 1813- Simón Bolívar returned to Venezuela and won 6 successive engagements against Spanish forces
• August 6, 1813- entered Caracas and took dictatorial control and power
• July, 1814- Bolívar lost Caracas again, then headed to Bogotá and recaptures it from Spain temporarily
• 1817- back in Venezuela, built an army on Orinoco River, deciding there that he will strike the capital city of New Granada
• 1819- Bolívar's small force of 2500 men crossed a succession of flooded tributaries of the Orinoco, followed by a mountain crossing where a significant number of his men died
• August 7, 1819- the Spanish army surrenders in an engagement at Boyocá
• December 17, 1819- the republic of Colombia is proclaimed, covering the region of modern Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela
• June 24, 1821- "The Liberator" wins a battle at Carabobo in Venezuela, giving him Caracas.  
• May 24, 1822- Bolívar's favorite general, Antonio José de Sucre, wins a battle at Pinchicha, Ecuador, bringing the patriots into Quito.  
• May, 1830- Bolívar resigns and later dies of tuberculosis
• September, 1830- Ecuador and Venezuela formally secede from Gran Colombia

The group I was a part of was assigned to create a timeline for all the events that took place during the revolution in Gran Colombia. After we did the jigsaw, which was unscrambling the events and putting them in a chronological order, we were to figure two commonalities/ similarities and one difference between the revolution in Gran Colombia and any of the other revolutions. Our difference was that every battle was fought in a different country. Our two similarities with Brazil and Mexico were that there were wars and battles fought during all of the revolutions. We also found out that and that all of revolution were being fought against European powers at the time.  Even though all three revolutions were taking different routes, race was still an issue in all of them. In Gran Colombia it was an issue because the Spanish governor of Venezuela that was overthrown because he was bringing Spanish ideas about racial inequality to Venezuela along with him. Because of the control Spain had people were being treated differently so they wanted to be free of that and be independent so they tried to break free of the unjust form and treatment by the government. Race was a problem in Brazil because of the mine-workers. All the people of color were working exhausting jobs without rest that none of them wanted to do. This made them extremely aggravated because they had these jobs only because of the shade of their skin. In Mexico Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla fought against the racist royals who were taking land from the Indians and Mestizos because they were dark.

Race is still a problem in modern day. Recently a Ferguson, Missouri police man, Darren Wilson, shot a black man, Michael Brown who was supposedly unarmed. When I was watching the news the television anchor asked the officer “Mr. Wilson, if Brown was a white man coming at you, would the situation have gone down differently? Or, would you still you have shot him?” This question caught me quite off guard because that is a very racist thing to ask. this shows that even though the anchor probably didn’t mean it to be racist, it shows that they are not thought of as equals because they are being contrasted not compared. Most music and rap people listen to these days is quite racist if you listen to the lyrics or watch the music videos. in the the song Hello Kitty by Avril Lavigne, she uses all Asian back up dancers in her music video and that is thought of a racist because that is saying that all Asians love hello kitty and that only Asians can like it. So, I believe that race is still a very relevent thing to consider.

Revolutions of 1840-1848

During class this week we learned about the Revolutions of 1840-1848. The activity we did to help us learn in a fun and effective way was that the class was split up five groups and each group was assigned a revolt. Each group made a Survey Monkey about their assigned revolution. A Survey Monkey is a way to make an online 10-12 question test. Once all the surveys were done the class took all of each others survey after reading about the revolts. after all the people had submitted their answers we looked over the correct answers and saw the percentages of the answers that people chose. We mostly focused on the last question of each survey, “Would you rate this revolution on a scale from a success, minor success, neutral, minor failure, to complete failure?" the question at the end was there to help us answer the essential question which was, “Would you rate this revolution as a success, minor success, neutral, minor failure, or complete failure?"

My group was assigned to the Hungarian Revolution. The Hungarian Revolution was in 1848, in Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The revolution began in Austria. Metternich fled right when the revolution started. Louis Kossuth led the Hungarian Nationalist Movement. This movement was about them wanting an independent government, end to serfdom, and a they wanted a written constitution. It wasn't just the Austrians that felt this way. The Czech people  wanted similar things that the Hungarian nationalists in Prague did. The Austrians were in over their heads so they agreed to the reforms. But then the Austrians and the Russians teamed up and put the rebels that were in Budapest in jail, exiled them, and even executed them. Kossuth fled. We used a lot of these facts and others from the other information provided to create our survey monkey. This is a link to our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TDY99M2

We said that our revolution was neutral. It didn’t really make anything better or worse it just happened and nothing came from it. Some of the other groups had slightly more successful revolutions, but there were no real successes. For example, The French revolution was a partial success. First of all the biggest reason why it was not a great success was because their President Louis Napoleon I was an awful leader. The people of France made a great decision by letting all adult men vote and that they elected Louis Phillipe to be the new leader. “It created a strong president and a one-house legislature.” (French Revolution of 1848 document) There were even some revolutions that were more of a failure, like the Decembrist Revolt. This was a complete and utter failure, many people were killed in very harsh and cruel ways. The people that were killed were mostly the leaders and instigators of the conspiracy. All this revolution did was cause a commotion and all of Russia was taught a lesson because of it. Even though most of the revolutions weren’t complete successes there was more revolutions that ended in a neutral or positive way than there was negative outcomes. So all in all the revolutions of 1840-1848 were more neutral and successful than they were failures.

Rise of Democracy

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   In class we learned about democracy. What is democracy? Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives

   . We talked about what it took to have a good nation. How democratic was the U.S in the early 1800's? We looked at charts, quotes and painting that depicted democracies over time, well functioning democracies as well as a corrupt democracy. In the painting of the corrupt democracy the men were drunk so obviously they were not all there or taking any of it seriously. All people did not have a fair opportunity to vote so a man by the name of Dorr tried to fix that we discussed this and put his in out final project as well as the other documents. After we talked and took notes we made posters showing what we learned.

Tossaint Louverture DBQ

George Washington is by far one of the best military commanders and rulers of all time he was also one of the all time biggest slave owners. Even though he seems like the best men in history he was only the best in some aspects. But, if you look at him in others ways he can be seen as one of the worst. Toussaint Louverture was three main things in his life. Most importantly, Louverture should be remembered as a liberator of slaves. Secondly, he was a military commander. Lastly, Louverture was the ruler of Saint Domingue, a French colony, known as Haiti today. Back in 1789, when it was still called Saint Domingue, there were about 500,000 slaves spread across approximately 8,000 plantations which were owned by 32,000 rich, white planters. Louverture spent most of his adult life focused on freeing the slaves.

            Toussaint Louverture is known as a liberator of salves. This means he helped to free the slaves and abolish slavery in Saint Domingue. Document A, A Timeline of abolition in Saint Domingue created by various sources, states that in 1791, a slave revolt broke out in the north part of Saint Domingue. Louverture joined the revolution by servings as a doctor. Not only was he serving as a doctor but he was helping to command a small group of slave soldiers. Then in 1794, the French ruler at the time, Robespierre, abolished slavery in France and all it colonies so “Toussaint and his troops stop their revolt and now support the French.” This quote from Document A, shows that all Louverture wanted was for the slaves to be free and once he got that he was content. But, in 1802, Napoleon, the new French ruler, sent in 21,000 of his soldiers to reinstate slavery in Saint Domingue as well as all the French colonies. Since the slaves now had a taste of what freedom was like there is no way that they are going down without a fight and that is exactly what Louverture told the French. “Could men who have once enjoyed the benefits of liberty look on calmly while it is taken away from them!” Toussaint Louverture said to the French Directory in Document B, Toussaint Louverture, “Letter to the French Directory, November 1797.” Louverture tells the French that “… if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than be subjected again to slavery.” This quote from Document B is implying that Louverture and the formally freed slaves of Saint Domingue will die trying before they will surrender to slavery. Toussaint Louverture will do anything even risk his own life all in the pursuit of giving all the black men women and children of Saint Domingue a happy and free life.  Document C, the Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801. Signed by Toussaint Louverture in July 1801, states in the third article of the constitution “There cannot exist slaves in this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished.” This quote is showing that Toussaint’s life work was accomplished. All people of Saint Domingue with be born and die free.

            Toussaint Louverture was an excellent military commander. In Document F, William Wells Brown, “A Description of Toussaint Louverture,” from The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, 2^nd edition, 1863. Engraving of Toussaint Louverture, 1802 “Toussaint, with an experienced wing of the army…” Toussaint always had his soldiers alongside him ready for anything. He always had soldiers by his side because “Toussaint, by his superior knowledge of the character of his race, his humanity, generosity, and courage, had gained the confidence of all whom he had under his command.” (Document F) All of these traits were what made him such an exceptional military commander because it made the soldiers feel good about serving for him because he was a genuine man. Document E, Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, 2007, tells us that even though Louverture was a really great guy he also had his moments where he seemed like a not so great guy. For instance Louverture once “…summoned certain men to step out of the ranks and blow their own brains out.” (Document E) Louverture did this not because he wanted to but because he felt as though he had to. This shows his military side, which is not always pretty but, in order to be a good military commander you have to do what is right for the army and safety of the people and Louverture was good at making sure everything stayed in line. Document E tells us about the revolt that broke out on the Northern Plain October 29^th 1801. The revolt was because even though the slaves were free they still felt like slaves. The freed slaves were forced to work at the same plantations under the supervision of the same white planter for the same long hours as before so they felt like nothing has changed except they were now getting paid and they themselves could not be sold. Louverture knew that if he gave the freed slaves too much freedom they would abuse it, do nothing and be bums or run wild so he had to keep them under some set of rules. But the slaves did not like the way they were living so they set into action. Louverture would not stand for this so, he ordered the leader of the revolt, who also happened to be his nephew, to be executed.

            Lastly, Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as the ruler of Saint Domingue. In Document C, Louverture signs the Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801. This shows that the people of Saint Domingue trust him to be their highest form of power and to make an official set of laws. Document D, Toussaint Louverture, “Proclamation, 25 November 1801.” is stating clear rules about who is working and where they work. “As soon as a child can walk, he should be employed on the plantation according to his strength in some useful work…” This shows that everyone has to work even toddlers. Louverture also states what will happen if people break the rules. “Any manager or driver of a plantation upon which a foreign cultivator [field worker from another plantation] shall have taken refuge shall denounce him to the captain or commander of the section within 24 hours under penalty of one week in prison” The jail time shows how serious all the crimes are and that the people need to know the laws. The laws are quite specific so if they get in trouble by doing something illegal there is a specific punishment for that crime. As a ruler Toussaint Louverture has to set rules and be a role model for the people of Saint Domingue.

            Although Toussaint Louverture can be remembered as the ruler of Saint Domingue and as a military commander his most identifiable characteristic is that he was a liberator of slaves. He always put freeing the slaves first and he would die trying before he would let them live their whole lives as slaves, and he would do anything to protect their freedom.

Ideologies 101

In class we discussed three main ideas. The question we were mainly focusing on was, What were the major political ideologies of the 19th century and how did they influence social and political action? This question is asking what the major political affiliations. TO answer this question we had six groups of four to five kids make videos skits or anything really to help explain their assigned ideologie. There were two groups for each Ideologie.

My group was explaining conservatism. We made a video explaining how a conservative is a person who are interested in protecting the people they care about, and standing up for the ability to have free choice and free speech and being able to control their future stands up for proposes rights, and they also like to keep things the same or traditional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pyWBlOjdF0&list=UUv2iJbEB8so8y7_ooEB64MA

During the 19th century there were three major ideologies. Liberal, Conservative and Nationalist. A liberal believes in what is fair or what is right. They are open mixed and willing to work and make sacrifices for the greater good. They are okay with whatever, and will try anything whether it has been done in the past or if it is a whole new concept. A conservative is a person who are interested in protecting the people they care about, and standing up for the ability to have free choice and free speech and being able to control their future stands up for proposes rights, and they also like to keep things the same or traditional. A nationalist is always on the look out for a successful and effective way to control a nation. Nationalists have great pride in their nation.

Napoleon

During class we did many things to broaden our knowledge of Napoleon Bonaparte's over all impact during and after his rule. We annotated a documents that had to do with two peoples feelings towards Napoleon and his rule. We talked about him and took notes. We also looked at a map of the Americas. All these activities helped us to understand and begin to answer the essential question. What was Napoleon's impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe? This question is simply asking what did Napoleon do to the social, economic, and political systems during his rule that lasted even after his time of rule was over. What were the impacts he left? Were they negative or positive? Did they last well after his rule or did they die off when his power did?


The document we read and annotated was titled Two Views of Napoleon solely because it was two separate points of view on Napoleon. The views were from Madame Germaine Necker de Staël, a bitter writer exiled from France, and Marshal Michel Ney, one of Napoleon's officers returning from Paris in 1815. The first view of Napoleon was written by Madame de Staël. She had a negative outlook on Napoleon and his way of ruling. Madame de Staël did not like how Napoleon thought of people's virtue, dignity, religion, and enthusiasm as "the eternal enemies of the continent." Staël wrote that Napoleon was very cunning and persuaded men by force. She tells us that Napoleon thought of this as the only effective way of ruling and that all other ways were “stupid and folly.” Staël believed that Napoleon did not come into rule looking for universal monarchy. But over time Napoleon did seem to achieve this. That was how he left his political impact. The other view of Napoleon in this document was from Marshal Michel Ney. Ney wrote that Napoleon was their sovereign, meaning he had complete and absolute power of the country of France. Ney says that Napoleon has every right to rule over their country and that he is their best option. This is the social and economic impact that most of everybody was well off and that people loved him. In the article "The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Histories" it was common knowledge that most people like napoleon in the early times of his rule. Over time is when he started to go down hill and down in the eyes of the people. this shows that his impact could have been good but ended up being bad in most aspects.

The Helping Hand

During class we played a game of rock paper scissors with Hershey Kisses as the winning prize and the losing cost. Mostly everyone started with three kisses but two students stared with ten. Talk about an unfair advantage! The game was supposed to simulate us working for our money and at the end some people ended up with none and some people ended up with a whole lot more than what they started with. what we didn't know was that none of that mattered because Ms. Gallagher a.k.a. the government came over and took everyone's kisses and gave each person three again. This was her way of showing us what communism is. The next round we were able to choose if we wanted to take a chance and play so this was showing the invisible hand theory. I thought this lesson was aggravating because you could be really doing well and all that hard work was for nothing because all you can have is three. But, I also liked it because it was fun to get up and play a game and chocolate at seven a.m. is always nice.




Marx theory was that there should be no social classless society and they shall have no government. They should all have equal pay and shelter and everything should be even. Marx was trying to help the poor stay afloat but he was also taking away the hard earned money of the rich. Smiths theory was called the invisible hand. The invisible hand is the idea that the government will not control everything and they will let people choose what they want to buy and sell and the market will naturally flourish as if guided by an invisible hand. This way of living gives the industrialists a chance to control their own prices and to make their own business decisions. When Smith developed his theory he was thinking about the poor because this can give the poor more options on how to spend the little money they have how they want and on what they need.




In my opinion Smith's theory the Invisible Hand is the better option. I think this because it gives the poor, the rich and the in between a chance to spend their own money how they want it. It is more a independent way of living than being forced to be equal. This way you have a choice in how to live your life.


*cant import pictures or videos and I don't know why*

Behind the Walls of Mills

To prepare for our chat with Jamie in class we watched a video he had previously made. It taught us about how the Mills really worked and what went on inside. We read things about the process of how cotton turns to thread, then thread to cloth. In small groups we use Google keywords to find the definitions of commonly used words that might come up in our chat with Jamie. We also took time to make questions prior to chat so so that when Jamie asked if there were any questions we would have questions to ask.

During the chat I learned that the textile process is very complicated but if you have the proper system that it can run smoothly. There are many people involved in the process. This is because there are many jobs to be done. The abundance of jobs comes from the abundance of steps it takes to get cotton to cloth. After talking to Jamie with the class I came to realize that the text to process has changed so much over the years. At first it was just at home process that could take 2 to 3 weeks to make one nice piece of cloth. Then it was taken into the factories and much more cloth could be made in a shorter time period. Now a days it is a speedy process that take no time at all. Not to mention a million times safer. Less people are involved it is all more mechanic so there are less opportunities to get hurt. Like no one needs to risk their life to go under the machines an clean the floor anymore. I learned that it helped and hurt families because the cloth was more accessible and more job opportunities, but it hurt families because now they didn't have to money coming in from when they would sell the cloth they made because people just got it from the factories. When Jamie was showing us how all the machines worked I had never really thought of how much time and thought he had to put into remember all the facts and details. Also it struck me that he probably knew more about the machines then the actual workers did.

Living in a Curators World

Curating is the process of organizing information documents and pictures into one cohesive exhibit. The group decided on the name "Living in Filth" because all of of our scores lead back to pollution and bad living conditions. To start we put a map that pointed out the growth in coal and factories so people would understand where all the "filth" was coming from. One of our scores was a picture of a river in Manchester. the river was polluted from all the coal and smoke and also had turned into a dumping ground. Another document was describing a river not much different than the conditions of the river in Manchester the only difference was that it was The River Thames. Both of those documents were focused more on the pollution of rivers so we put those near each other because they went well together. The other image was showing more of the poverty. It showed the people living and sleeping on the streets. All of the people were in tattered and old clothing. With that image we put the chart document that showed the nominal earnings, cost of living, and real earnings which further illustrated the poverty. TO close off the exhibit we put a document of text describing the different opinion in England of the industrialization. On top of all that we needed to make it visually appealing so we used a bunch of puffs of smoke and a smokestack to fill in empty space and to make it more creative. When visiting our exhibit i hope people will learn that even though the industrial revolution brought so many good advances that it also brought poverty and pollution with it.

Life as we Know it is Because of the Steam Engine

During class we found that Idusrtrialization was revolutionary in many ways by having each group dig deeper into one of the four ingredients of industrialization. For instance my group researched technology. We discovered that the invention of the steam engine opened windows to trading so people could own stuff from other places other than their own community because of trains and planes and other locomotives making transportation easier and quicker. This made it possible to have fruit that's not locality in season because it can be imported from somewhere where it is in season. The steam engine also helped with mass production of things like well made clothing which made it more available to all class levels. Formal schooling made it possible for people to have occupations other than being a farmer. Since everyone was no longer a farmer people could live in non farm locations. Since people could pursue any occupation, we gained better medicine, better weapons and people could work on creating our modern day technology. Also more people could be coal miners so there was more coal which created more energy.


The steam engine could arguably be one of the most important pieces of technology yet. It made so may things possible. Without the steam engine our lives as we know it would be completely different. We wouldn't have cars, school, trains, planes, people living in cities, blueberries in winter, half the medicine advances we have now, nothing would be as advanced as it is now with out the steam engine. Other technology that came about during the industrial revolution was improved iron. Abraham Darby used coal to smelt iron which is basically separating the iron from its ore, a way to remove impurity from the coal. This process produced better quality and less expensive iron. Improved iron is used for building rail roads and many other iron things. The iron was good for the economy because it was cheaper and easier to get a hold of.


Transpiration came a long way during the Industrial Revolution. For example the Steam Locomotive, this is a steam powered train that transports carriages full of goods across tracks. This contraption made moving things from a factory to places that could not be reached by a boat. because of the steam locomotive more railroads were made in Europe and North America. Another form of transportation that came from the industrial revolution  is the Steam Boat. The steam boat was faster than the average boat and could hold 10 to 20 times more cargo than a wooden ship so this made it faster to transport more goods to places that had to be traveled by water.

Picture of steam boat from Industrial Revolution. Digital image. IR-Newspaper. N.p., n.d. Web.

How A Steam Engine Works


How A Steam Engine Works. How a Steam Engine Works. Dan Izzo, 17 Sept. 2011. Web. 11 Sept. 2014.

a Google a Day Keeps the False Information Away!

          

      

   

 

          During the first couple days of school we didn't talk much about History. We did activities to teach us more about web literacy, how to use online tools, and how to properly search things on the internet. We had to check if the authors of the websites we were looking at were reliable to make sure that the information we were trusting and using was accurate. These days were meant to help us to responsibly use the internet and all it has to offer.

          One day we used a website called "a Google a Day" http://agoogleaday.com/#game=started.  This is a website designed to help you learn and test your skills of properly using the popular search engine Google. They test your search skills with a set of three questions and you have to find the answer by using Google's tools or any other method you would like just don't search for spoilers. The website wants you to try and get the answers yourself not read it off some ones post spoiling the answers, so they have it programmed to have the game only use what was on the internet before the game started. That way there is no risk that you can accidently come across the answers. I enjoyed the a Google a Day challenge because it was fun and interactive. I loved that it timed you because it makes you want to find the answer that much quicker I got to learn that I am good at finding important but small clues that will help me get the answer quicker in the end.

        Another activity we did one day in class was visit a website about an octopus that lived in a tree. http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/media.html.  We had to test the Accuracy, correct in all details, Authenticity, genuine and is what it says it is, and Reliability, able to depend on and able to be trusted. The website seemed pretty convincing. When we went out of that website and cross checked the author and information all that came up was that the author and the info were completely unreliable. In the end we found that this website is all made up and every part of it is inaccurate. This would not be able to be used as a reliable source for information in a school project. 

A Google a Day. Digital image. Ms Dunn Online. N.p., 06 June 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2014.

Read About Me, Natalie B!

John Greens Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x78PnPd-V-A&feature=youtu.be














      Hello, I am Natalie Bloom, a sophomore in honors history 10 at RMHS. My first task in this class is to write this post. This post is about what I think makes a great teacher. So, in my opinion a great teacher is a person that is understanding, a good listener, helpful, strict but yet lenient at times. When I think back to past years and past teachers I always think of my first grade teacher Mrs. Lynch. She was always so empathetic to all of the students feelings. But, at the same time she had no goofing around. Something I think Mrs. Gallagher could do to make this class a good learning environment is not have it be all serious all the time. For instance, if there is a long speech or lecture we should do something a little more laid back for the other part of class. From the few days I've been in her class I can tell she is good at making the class fun but still getting stuff done.


























      In John Green's video he talks about our duty as students to do great things with our education. I agree with almost everything he says. I do believe that even though school sometimes isn't that fun because it is hard or boring, it is a great privilege and gift that not everyone has. School gives us so many opportunities for career paths and much more so I think we should take advantage of that. My academic goals for the year are to maintain a B-' to A+ range for all quarters and get no C's for final grades. In sports I hope to get pulled up to play with the varsity team at least once through the season. As for artistic I hope to just make some pretty and well made basics of art projects. Lastly, my social goals are to keep all my current friends an hopefully make some new. I will achieve these goals by hard work, staying positive and practice/studying.

















Citation: A and B pink report card. Digital image. Ajc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/09/24/new-rubrics-based-report-cards-more-clarity-or-more-confusion/>.