Category: American history

In the American Constitution, the foundation of the country, it states that a person has the right to believe what they choose. The essence of the constitution was to protect those who chose to believe something different than the minorities. So, for Americans to impose their way of life onto people who were on their own land is unconstitutional. I feel that the American Expansion was unjustified both domestically and internationally because Americans forced their religion and culture on the Native Americans who were stripped of their own land. In addition, the natives were peaceful and did not deserve the hardships that were given to them by the Americans.

In one of the Americans first encounters with the Natives, Lewis and Clark met Sacajawea. She helped them guide through the ‘new world’ and wanted no harm to her people or the Americans. Sacajawea is most famous for her knowledge that she contributed to helping with American expansion. She once said, “Everything I do is for my people” (Thaxton). This quote from Sacajawea supports my claim as it shows that she only wanted to help the Americans and her being a leader of her people means that her people shared this feeling. She had an idea of living in peace and harmony, but when the culture of the Americans was forced upon the natives, this idea was shattered. Sacajawea was key in domestic American expansion, yet because of some poor decisions, this expansion was still unfair and unjust.

When American Expansion was first set into way, one of the main goals was to better control the continent of North America and to have a greater military. These were good goals because it would help the US become a better country in all aspects. The intent was not exactly what we know today. Thomas Jefferson wanted to make the US a better country, as one should, but while attempting to do this, he hurt others that were on the land: the natives. This idea supports my claim because while expanding the territory, the US unrightfully took land and forced their culture upon free people. Although the ideas behind the expansion were not all that immoral, the actions they used to execute this plan were. However, these ideas contribute to our life today and are key to the US we know today.

As you can see, this expansion was an overall fail, but it was essential for the future of this country. The present day US would be drastically different if the explorers of the expansion had made the ̈right and proper ‘decisions’. Just as previously stated, I feel that American Expansion was unjustified both domestically and internationally because the land was unrightfully taken and the American culture was forced upon them. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if the people of the American Expansion had not been so unfair. I wonder if we would have all of these problems, this discrimination or the social contructs that we do. But what can we do but focus on now and do what we can for the future and the future generations.

There have been many civil wars throughout the world illustrated under different names, such as revolutions, uprisings, rebellions, revolts, and mutinies. These have all had similar causes, whether it be political, social, or economic which have all resulted in the country or nation going to war within itself in order to get the result that at least one side was in favor of. Examples of these are the civil war between 1642-1651, The Russian Revolution between 1919-1923, and the French Revolution in 1789.

There have been many different ideas and theories as to why the American civil war occurred from 1861 to 1865. They all paint a different idea for the main reasons and even sub-reasons for the beginning of the American Civil War. Myths have also been created as to why the Civil War had begun in the 1860s, many of them having some root of truth to them though other parts may just be thoughts and beliefs created from facts they have read from books or articles. However, many of these theories, myths, and ideas all lead back to one main cause, Slavery, demonstrating that it was one of the strongest contributing factors to the American Civil War.

I will be splitting my literature review into two main sections: slavery and other causes. The other causes may be split into numerous, smaller sections. Each will demonstrate why these were believed to be the main cause of the civil war, both showing reasons for and against these beliefs against one.

Slavery

Scott Michael Rank ( n.d ), put forth the belief that, due to the South`s refusal to abolish slavery, the slavery found within America during and before 1861 was one of the leading factors of causing the American Civil War. With the abolishment of slavery in many of the northern states and the South’s belief that slavery benefited both master and slave, it would have been made obvious that these conflicting views would have caused tensions between the North and South of America. This was proven in the 1830’s abolitionists were known to attack slavery, with the South trying to justify their means for keeping slavery around by calling masters benevolent patriarchs as well as this, 1853 the Georgian Robert Toombs explained that whenever the two races co-exist a state of slavery is best for [the African] and society. And under it in our country, he is a better condition than he has ever attained in any other age and country, they’re In bondage or freedom ‘ These were both means for the South to justify their reasoning for not abolishing slavery, unlike their northern counterparts. However, it is also known that these opposing views of slavery were said to begin in 1856 with Kenneth Stampp’s The Peculiar Institutions. Slavery in the Ante – Belum South was a book highlighting and analyzing multiple facts about slavery, but overall demonstrated the point that slavery was not as good as the South was making it out to be, and was made possible by including the North’s reactions and abolitionist responses to slavery. Rank dispels all myths surrounding these through the use of many different accounts from books about the time to first-person recounts and newspaper articles for the time of the Civil War, explaining which facts are true and which are exaggerations and myths. This overall creates a belief that I agree with when saying that the slavery found within America did in fact contribute a large amount to the beginnings of the American Civil War. These descriptions and beliefs written are mostly reliable, coming from prominent journalists and editors at the time as well as from books written about the Chill War, all of which have come together in a way that showed slavery to be a most prominent cause of the Amer can Civil War.

Marten (2011) states that most historians agree that the causes of the American civil war were split into two different categories; one being the underlying causes of the Civil War and the other being the personal reasons for the Civil War, however, all parties can agree on the fact that it is all led back to Slavery found in both the North and the South as the primary cause of the civil war, but it is not the only cause of it. James M. McPherson ( 2000 ) also agrees with this, stating his agreement with Lincoln’s ‘ slavery was, somehow, the cause of the War ‘. This comes from the fact that the South was known to protect their slave rights using their State rights, which worked successfully until 1860. This protection of their interests was shown through the fact that Congress imposed a gag rule to prevent any anti-slavery protests and petitions in the South along with the post offices banning any anti-slavery literature being sent through the mail. Another way that they protected their interests was through the Fugitive Slave Law which was imposed in 1850 but was nullified in 1855. Both these acts caused the North to have greater opposition to the acts of slavery, which caused more uprising and force from the North in order to abolish slavery, causing the Civil War. This information given has a high possibility of being reliable as Marten specializes in the history of the American Civil War, meaning that this is a topic that is well-known to him and suggests that it is most likely correct and collected from a legitimate source of information. As well as this, James M. McPherson is a well-known American Civil War historian, meaning that this area of history is his specialty, which suggests that the facts he presents within his argument are most likely correct. Because of this, it means that this suggests that all facts related to the topic would have been well read over before being used, ensuring that their argument was sound before usage.

Gerald Gunderson ( December 1974 ) states that there were three important findings to the American Civil War, each of them related to slavery. One was that slaves were profitable investments to the Southern States in America, another was that slavery was viable and the final one was that slavery was an attractive employment of capital. This all meant that slavery was a property right, meaning that the slave owner had the right to own, sell, lease, rent, compel, direct, and expropriate the returns of another individual’s labor. However, over time this became seen as an abnormal arrangement that was not accepted in the structure of the workings of society. This soon led to slavery becoming an all-or-nothing decision, with Northern elements believing it to be wrong and eventually eradicating it, while also advocating for the prohibition of slavery in the Western territories. This in turn would have led to many conflicts due to the South’s hesitance to release slaves from their slavery due to their reliance on them, which would have caused much tension between both parts of America. This would have been a starting point for the conflicts between the North and South that would enable the start of the Civil War when the tensions became too much. The reason that this is trustworthy information is due to the fact that Gunderson is a Professor of American Business and Economic Enterprise, which is what slavery in America is linked to in terms of the South, making it more realistic to work with.

An article by Team Planet Mag ( n.d. ) states that through research, the main reason for the Civil War in America had been, yet again, traced back to slavery being the cause. It was linked to the divide between the North and South, with the North being against the issue of slavery while the South supported it. The reasoning for this is due to the fact that the North’s economy was based on free labor and industrialization while the South’s economy was reliant on agriculture, or more accurately they put dependence on slave-based agricultural crops, which resulted in the South being heavily dependent on their allowance to have slaves in their states. This became worst with issues and incidents such as the works of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Fugitive Slave Laws, and John Brown calling for general slave rebellion which helped to further the divide between the Northern and Southern states. Some of these were pieces of work written to make people aware of the unfairness of society and the lives of the slaves, whereas others were events that were used in order to promote and justify the reasons to keep slavery within America. However, due to this source being taken from a magazine website, it is possible that this is not all accurate or is missing out some vital piece of information about the rest of the causes of the American Civil War with the fact that this could not have just furthered the divide between the North and South states, there must have been some other factors that were caused by slavery that helped to start the Civil War. But this still does support the idea that the source is correct in the fact that the main cause of the civil war was slavery.

Peter Fitzgerald ( Aug 15, 2011) also agrees that Slavery was the main cause of the American Civil War. It was said that, while slavery was slowly being abolished, it was still causing issues within the USA. These issues included the fact that many of the states were joining the Union, but there were still many that carried on with slavery, resulting in tensions between the slave states and the free states. A solution to this was to try and mitigate the states, having an equal number of slave and free states, however, this did not work out well. Another issue that rose was with the Slave states themselves, which were mostly directed at the treatment they were receiving as they believed it was unfair. The slave states in the South wanted laws to be put in place for them that protected their interests after California joined the Union as a free state, nonetheless, this did not happen, and the number of free states continued to rise. This added fuel to the obvious divide between the Northern and Southern States, while also causing unease to the slave states as they perceived there to be an uneven number of states leading to free states having a majority. This makes it obvious that the slavery found within America did have a major role in the American Civil War, whether it be due to the other issues it led to through slavery itself. This article, however, was written in order to give the reader an idea of how the American Civil War came about which means that the focus of it makes it a reliable source. As well as this, Fitzgerald has written many other articles all on topics based around other wars that all appear to be factually correct which demonstrates the fact that this is a reliable source. The only downside to this source is that it is unclear where all the facts to support this opinion came from, meaning that while all the facts may seem correct, it is unclear if they actually are and if they came from another reliable source, meaning that all facts would need to be double checked before being deemed useful. On the other hand, this source can also be deemed useful as the argument used to state that slavery was a main cause is clear and backed by facts and reasons as to why this is the case, even if the facts may be slightly off in some cases.

Rebecca Beatrice Brooks ( March 15, 2017 ) argues that it was the states leaving the Union over the matter of slavery that caused the Civil War. This is shown by the fact that between late 1860 and early 1861, several states seceded from the Union. Four of the states that seceded, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina, were only four of the 11 states that seceded from the Union, but they issued documents that gave the reasons as to why they left. Two of the major themes that were seen in these documents were slavery and state rights. Each of these documents included at least one line that was claiming they wanted to keep their slaves, for example, ‘ We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. ‘ Taken from Mississippi’s declaration to leave the Union on January 9, 1861. This demonstrated that the issue of slavery was the main cause of the civil war as it was the reason for so many of the governmental and state divisions that were occurring throughout America. This source may be seen as less reliable due to it being written by a freelance journalist and blogger, however, the use of faces that are easy to check, such as the quotations from the declarations, makes the source reliable in the given argument. As well as this, being a freelance journalist would mean that she is used to having to double and triple-check the facts given before using them, suggesting that the facts used are most likely correct

Governmental Issues

Arun ( 2018 ) highlights many different factors that would have played a part at the beginning of the Civil War in America, as mentioned earlier on. These causes can be split into several different categories, though the main one, other than slavery, issues in the Government played an important role. For example, State Rights was a cause of the Civil War. There had been many different political debates over what power belonged to the Federal government, which were the northern states and free of slavery, and what belonged to the Sovereign States, which were in the south and were known as slave states. This became a power struggle between the two political parties created, one for each power, The Democratic-Republican Party representing the South and favoring State Rights, and the Federalists which represented the North and believed in a centralized national government with strong fiscal roots. On the other hand, it is believed that one of the main root causes of these power struggles was Slavery as the South believed that slavery was a State issue and therefore it should be up to the states that slavery was in to deal with it, making them extremely unwilling to accept any outside influences intervention, especially from the Federal Government. This example shows that while there were other causes of the civil war in America, most of these smaller causes had, in some shape or form, a link to the slavery arguments that were running through the whole of America. However, while this source seems to be reliable, Arun is not only an educationist but also a fantasy writer and so, from the information found about him, he isn’t a well-known or well-regarded writer, which makes his assumptions and his writings questionable.

Moreover, whilst Slavery was a major issue in the Civil War, it was not the only issue that pushed the county into conflict with itself, is Trumann (23 March 2015). He states that while Slavery was a major issue, it became intertwined with other issues, such as state rights, the power of the federal government, and the South’s ‘way of life’. The South heavily relied on its agriculture and, as a result of this, many of the plantation owners relied on having slaves in order to run. This meant that the South’s economy heavily relied on having its slaves and the run-up to the civil war was a threat to their way of life. On the other hand, the North was filled with industries and welcomed entrepreneurs. There was a mixture of nationalities and religions with no slaves, though the low-paid workers lived lives like the slaves in the South. The conflict between the two in terms of power became worst when the North tried to intervene in how the South ran itself, an example being when South Carolina passed a bill that prevented the Federal tariff legislation of 1823 and 1832 to be enforced on their states and, after February 1833 making it so that the tariffs would not be recognized. This, as a result, brought both South Carolina and the Federal government into direct conflict before Congress pushed the Force Bill through that allowed the president to use the Military to force the state of South Carolina into line. This resulted in South Carolina promising it would be the last time that this worked. This piece of information is most likely reliable as this was written for a history learning website, but it is unknown where this information has come from, which means that it may not be as correct in terms of the facts. However, what remains clear and reliable is the idea that it was not just Slavery that resulted in the American civil war breaking out, but also the tensions between the North and the South.

As previously mentioned, Martin Kelly also puts forward the argument that it was also the problems caused within the government of the Americas that caused the American Civil War which allowed it to become a war due to the divided desires on both sides. Governments have tried to create an equal number of both states, but this has become increasingly difficult. As a result of these new states, things like the Fugitive Slave Act were created in order to protect the best interests of both the North and the South, but problems continued to occur, one in the form of a violent race in Lawrence, Kansas into something that became known as Kansas’ Bleeding. This has also led to struggles within the Senate. Kelly also raises the point that America’s federal and state rights also played an important role in causing the civil war. As pointed out, there have always been two sides to America, the independent states and the federal states. Although attempts had been made to alleviate the animosity between the two, such as the Constitution, problems were still encountered that led to the creation of the United States Constitution. This ignored the rights of states, which should have had a choice, but instead, it led to even greater problems. One such problem was the idea of annulment which would have granted states the right to declare federal acts unconstitutional, meaning that they should not have followed them and could eventually have them removed. However, this was rejected, with the result that the southern states felt like they were no longer respected and had very little power and leaving them to contemplate succession thoughts. Other reasons Kelly raised as main causes were The Abolitionist Movement and The Election of Abraham Lincoln, both of which fall under the

causes of the government due to their political side of the argument. Kelly’s argument about there being more than just one reason for the beginning of the American Civil War is a compelling one, with all of the problems in America showing some form of leading factor to the Civil War, however, they all have one common factor, Slavery. This could mean that even though there could be other major causes, they are all connected to one major cause, or it could mean that while these causes do have a similar start they are all separate from one another in terms of reasons for the War to start. Kelly’s works by Lui are majorly reliable due to his occupation by Lui as a history teacher that specializes in America History, which means that he does in fact know what he is talking about as it is what he has mostly learned about in great depth.

Resilience and adaptation are terms that can certainly be applied a ship that started an eventful timeline as a Battleship, and ultimately morphed into the one of the first training drones used by the US Navy, as is in the case of the USS Utah. Understanding the history of the USS Utah will give senior enlisted leaders a sense of understanding of adapting to the needs of mission, and putting the needs of others above self. This essay will discuss the background of the ship as a Battleship, the continuation of service as a target drone, and the sinking of the ship during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Background

The USS Utah (BB 31) was constructed as a Florida class battleship, and commissioned in August of 1911. She was the sixth battleship commissioned be the United States Navy. Her armaments were ten twelve-inch guns, and could make a top speed of twenty-one knots on steam-based turbines (Farley, 2019). In the beginning of service to the fleet, the USS Utah made voyage to the Mediterranean in 1913, and participated in the Vera Cruz incident the following year (Utah, BB 31) in April 1914. The Vera Cruz incident was the first combat action seen by the ship. (Klobuchar, 2017). With ensuing chaos of the Mexican Revolution, President Wilson determined that seizing Vera Cruz would be instrumental in increasing American influence, while decreasing the influence that the Germans possessed in the region (Farley, 2019). Due to the success of the operation, American forces successfully gained and held control of Vera Cruz, and marked the beginning of a distinguished career for both ship and crew.

When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, the USS Utah was not initially activated to go off to war, but was later tasked in 1918 to conduct convoy escort operations in 1918. Successful in her assignments, the USS Utah was tapped to become the flag ship of the Sixth Battle Squadron, ferried President Wilson to France for participating in the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles, and continued as a flag ship until 1922 (Farley, 2019).

With continued demand for her services, the USS Utah was tasked with a good will tour of South America from 1924-1925, hosting General John Pershing, after which she returned home for modernizations (Utah, BB 31). The USS Utah received upgrades of anti-aircraft weapons, an aircraft catapult, and oil fired boilers, before embarking on a second good will tour of South America with President Elect Herbert Hoover onboard for the cruise (Farley, 2019). At this point, having discussed the USS Utah in her time as a battleship, transition can occur to the conversion that took her from designation BB, and moved her to AG.

Continuation of Service

In 1930, the London Naval Treaty was introduced, which required both the United States and the United Kingdom to reduce their total amount of battleships to fifteen each. The USS Utah was identified as one of the battleships to be eliminated (Farley, 2019). However, the treaty allowed for ships to remain in service for experiments and training, but only after they had been stripped of weaponry. The USS Utah was recalled to the shipyard in 1931, had her guns removed, and was fitted with radio control gear that allowed for the ship to be steered and make adjustments for speed using radio signals (Farley, 2019). This essentially made the USS Utah, one of the first drones ever used by the United States Navy. The ship was re-designated AG 16, marking her as an Auxiliary General (AG) ship, and changing her mission to be used as a floating target for other ships to shoot at, a significant example of utilizing an evolving mission set to fit with current naval requirements, and staying relevant when other battleships were decommissioned and scrapped. With the new mission, the USS Utah received additional retrofits to protect the crew that remained onboard. Armored plates were installed to protect sailors from projectiles that were being fired at her (Dorr, 2011). She continued to serve in this capacity until December 1941. Now that the continuation of service has been discussed, transition can occur to the sinking of the ship during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Sinking of the Ship

On the morning of December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Although the Japanese wing commander identified that the USS Utah was in a state of demilitarization and issued the order to attack other targets, six of the Japanese aircraft initiated targeting runs on the ship, hitting her with two torpedoes (Farley, 2019). Through the chaos that ensued onboard the ship, several members of the crew demonstrated exemplary courage during the attack. Of fame within the chief petty officer community, chief watertender Peter Tomich disregarded personal safety, ordered his sailors to escape the engine room and abandon ship while he shut down the boilers that could have exploded when submerged. His selfless act saved his sailors but cost him his life (Isquith, 2016). In another act of selflessness, master-at-arms chief petty officer Terrance operated a small boat in the water surrounding the capsized USS Utah while under enemy fire, picking up sailors who were being cut free from the ship, and ferrying them to the shoreline before returning (Isquith, 2016). Fireman second class John Vaessen operated an electrical switchboard maintaining the lighting on the ship while under attack and held station in disregard to his own safety. The act of keeping the lighting onboard made escape possible for Sailors who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to find their way (Isquith, 2016). Although the ship was ultimately lost, only fifty eight out of a crew of four hundred and seventy one, died in the attack (Farley, 2019).

Conlusion

This essay has discussed the background of the USS Utah as a battleship, the continuation of service as a target drone, and the sinking of the ship during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Senior enlisted leaders should use the example set by the USS Utah to continue to evolve their capabilities as mission sets evolve, and also to take example from the crew members who risked and lost their lives in putting the needs of others above self. In pause to reflect, remember, and learn, we can let those who have gone before, continue to be inspirations to adaptability and service with honor.

References

1. Dorr, R. (2011, December). Utah Was the ‘Not So Famous’ Battleship Sunk During the Pearl Harbor Attack. Retrieved from https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/utah-was-the-not-so-famous-battleship-sunk-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/.
2. Farley, R. (2019, July). RIP: How the Radio-Controlled Battleship USS Utah Sunk. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/rip-how-radio-controlled-battleship-uss-utah-sunk-65446.
3. Isquith , S. (2016). Japanese Attack on USS Utah at Pearl Harbor – December 7,1941. Retrieved from http://www.ussutah1941.org/japanese-attack-on-utah.html Klobuchar, R. (2017, June).
4. Navy Senior Enlisted Academy. (2016). Three-part communications. Newport, RI: U.S. Navy Senior Enlisted Academy.
5. Utah (BB 31). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/battleships/utah-bb-31.html.

The Articles of Confederation were a direct response to the long list of grievances against King George III, the king who held all power over the colonies. While the colonizers were under King George III. The Articles of Confederation established the first governmental structure that unified the 13 colonies that had fought in the American Revolution. This document created the structure for the confederation of these 13 newly minted states. After many attempts by various delegates to the Continental Congress, a draft by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania became the basis for the final document. The Articles went into effect on March 1, 1781, after each of the 13 states ratified them.

The Articles of Confederation lasted until March 4, 1789, when they were superseded by the United States Constitution. They had only lasted eight years. the problem was that there were that not all the states had the same rule, each state was as independent as possible within the central government of the United States, which was only responsible for the common defense. Adding to these problems was the Shays Rebellion, an event in which Massachusetts farmers rebelled in local courthouses to prevent the government from taking their farms. The Massachusetts government threatened to take the land from those farmers because they had not paid their taxes during the Revolutionary War, despite the fact that the government had previously told them that they did not have to pay those taxes. Shays’ Rebellion succeeded in getting national government leaders to revise the Articles of Confederacy. In February 1787, five states sent representatives to Maryland to meet to discuss the crisis. They called a meeting with the representatives of the 13 states in Philadelphia to decide what to do with the Articles of Confederation. this meeting is known in the future as the Constitutional Convention, in which the United States Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation.

Articles of Confederation: The First Constitution of the United States Confederation: a system of government where power is concentrated in the independent states and there is a small power in the central government; also known as the confederal system Constitutional Convention a meeting in Philadelphia, in 1787, where the delegates decided to nullify the Articles of the Constitution Confederation and writing the Constitution Amendment: a constitutional change, for example, Articles of Confederation, US Constitution;)Tax: Imposes a tax, which is money charged for specific services or facilities. Enforce to apply effectively to rebel against the regulatory authority or the government. Shays Rebellion was an event where Massachusetts farmers rioted against foreclosures of land and debts from the Revolutionary War regulating control, and government according to law.

During the era of world war II many Asian communities, especially the Japanese, were unfairly treated and placed into camps, in large part of their ancestry. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Navy spiked an already negative view of Asian Americans and immigrants. This led the U.S. Government to force a mass relocation of the Asian population into internment camps that were along the Pacific coast. The rationale that was used to implement the relocation of thousands of Japanese-American citizens was that they were all at security risk of spying (Dudley 13). Yet was that the only reason they had for placing citizens in isolated camps for a long time? Given the previous history that the U.S. has had with other Asian communities, let alone Japanese, that have migrated over it is quite possible that the main factor which led to the internment camps, was caused by a nasty and racist view that has grown even long before Pearl Harbor. America has had a long and nasty history when comes to the treatment of non-white ethnic groups and when we were at war with a country that was made up of a particular ethnic group that was being discriminatory treated in west coast states for taking ‘jobs and land’ many saw in the opportunity to put them a situation that would have traumatic effects later on.

Japanese citizens began migrating to the U.S. in the 1880s in large part of the shortage of jobs in agriculture it was experiencing thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was enacted to stop the flow of immigrants from China (Ivey and Kaatz 18). Although most of the employment was in Hawaii, many Japanese started to head to the West Coast upon hearing stories that gold was found (Ivey and Kaatz 18). Thinking that they could get a quick cash grab, anti-Chinese movements started to take notice of the increase of Japanese coming over and decided to move their attention to the Japanese since most of the Chinese were kicked out (Ivey and Kaatz 18). Many organizations were starting to form to specifically pressure California to pass anti-Japanese laws as they did with the Chinese (Ivey and Kaatz 20). In 1906, there was an uproar when news broke that Japanese children were sitting in the same classroom as white children in San Francisco (Ivey and Kaatz 20). The Board of Education move all Asian students to a single public school because of the outrage (Foner 751). The Japanese Government protested upon hearing what the board did (Foner 751). President Theodore Roosevelt managed to convince the board to rescind the order and negotiated the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with the Japanese Government to stop people from Japan from coming over, except wives and children of men already here (Foner 751). California would continue passing undermining laws on Japanese people by passing the Alien Land Act, which prevented people that couldn’t naturally become a citizen from owning or leasing land (Foner 751).

All of these issues started way before Japan militarized and was capable of launching on the United States. The hostility the Japanese inherited from the Chinese led to many racial conflicts and though it wasn’t as vicious as the treatment of Afriacan-Americans. The Japanese struggled pretty badly and were very valuable to segregation and lacrimatory laws thanks to the Naturalization Act that prevented them from becoming U.S. citizens and receiving some forms of protection (Foner 792).

By 1941, The Japanese-American population in the U.S. was around 125,000, The majority of whom resided in west coast states like California, Oregon, and Washington (Dudley 13). An additional 150,000 live in Hawaii, which was just considered a U.S. territory instead of a state at that time (Dudley 13). The Majority of Japanese-Americans, that was on the West Coast, lived in California (Foner 877). The Japanese Community had two generational groups, the nisei, and the issei. The Nisei were the older generation that Immigrated to the U.S. The issei were larger and younger generations that were born in the U.S. and become citizens (Foner 877).

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans started to wonder how the strike on the Navy base was so successful. Accusations of espionage and sabotage quickly sprouted out toward Japanese Americans and immigrants (Dudley 14). Soon afterward federal agencies, like the FBI and Department of Justices, started doing raids and round-ups of “enemy aliens” that were Japanese, as well as German and Italian (Dudley 14). Political leaders like California’s Governor Culbert Olson began calling for the removal of all Japanese from the west coast (Dudley 14). Anti-Japanese settlement began to rise up more after an investigation, led by Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts, allegedly found that Japanese-Americans spied for the Japanese Government in Hawaii (Dudley 14). A month later, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which allowed the removal of Japanese descent from the west coast.

The reason why FDA signed order 9066 still doesn’t remain all that clear. It’s true that there was a great distrust and suspicion that Americans had towards Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, but there have been other speculations that the origin of the internment camps first started in the military on the West Coast. Before FDA sign the order, there were many unverifiable rumors about espionage going around in California that were making a lot of military leaders become paranoid that another attack like pearl harbor could happen very soon (Murray 30). Lieutenant General DeWitt, who was Chief of the Army’s Western Defense Command, was convinced by rumors and army personnel that Japan did indeed have spies among the Japanese community on the west coast and wrote a memo to the Secretary of War Henry Stimson that recommend the removal of all Japanese-Americans citizens and Aliens from the west coast (Dudley 14). Soon, most of the military leaders began to lean towards mass evacuation and internment of Japanese-Americans. Surprisingly FDR didn’t exactly care much about the topic of moving Japanese-Americans and pretty much left the issue to the military leadership to decide on what to do (Robinson 120).

General DeWitt was appointed to oversee the relocation of Japanese-Americans to internment camps and was also given permission from Congress to move ones that were also citizens (Robinson 126). Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii however, couldn’t relocate their Japanese population since most of the economy depend on them to work in agricultural jobs (Robinson 120). Families in the states, however, were given about a week to report to assembly centers or face penalties (Ivey and Kaatz). Much of the housing for the assembly centers consisted of former horse stables, Makeshift shacks, and barracks that were surrounded by barbed wire (Foner 877). The construction of the camps was handled by a new division of the Department of Interior, called the War Relocation Authority (Ng 37). The camps were mostly put into isolated areas on federal land and were supposed to have put the camps in places where it would be suitable for large-scale farming since most of the Japanese-Americans were well experienced in agricultural Development, but it wasn’t (Ng 37). The assembly centers were eventually changed to relocation centers that were in or next to military bases for the purpose of being more suitable for long-term stays (Ng 39).

Life in the camps wasn’t exactly heavenly in the views of the Japanese-Americans. There were 6:45 roll calls each morning, armed guards would patrol the camps regularly, and privacy and medical facilities weren’t even a possibility anymore (Foner 877). They were at least allowed to be governed by themselves and had at least some control over how to live in the camps (Ng 44). The Japanese-American community tried to make the best of a bad situation. They tried their best to make the camps as homely as possible by decorating their living quarters with flowers, curtains, and pictures planting gardens, and setting up activities of sports and art (Foner 877). Though most of the residents tried to put some positivity to their prediction there would still be a sense of imprisonment in the camps.

Before they came to the camps, many Japanese-Americans had their own businesses or farms which they made money off of. Now that they were taking a long eve of absence from work, residents of the camps suddenly found themselves with a lot of free time on their hands. The WRA administration thought that providing the residents with a work or employment program was an important priority to meet (Ng 43). However, there were a couple of issues that made achieving this task rather complicated. One, the Japanese-American residents couldn’t leave the camps without the WRA approval, most of the areas of camps were in isolated areas, and there was very little incentive for residents to work for people that were holding them against their will. The WRA sought to make employment programs anyway and in Camp just south of Sacramento, called Manzanar, created a program for the residents to make camouflage nets for war production but floundered thanks to few signs ups, and also of the issue non-citizen residents being able to enter the facility (Ng 43).

One of the most prominent figures in the Harlem Renaissance was by the name of Duke Ellington. The Harlem Renaissance was an extraordinary expansion in social, intellectual, and artistic aspects in the 1920s for the African-American community. The Harlem Renaissance was very significant because it marked a moment when white America started recognizing the intellectual contributions of African Americans. Duke Ellington apart from many others rose against the whites’ and made history for all African Americans, not only in the music industry but rather the sociological and racial atmosphere as well.

Duke Ellington was born on April 29, 1988, in Washington D.C. He grew up in a middle-class family that showcased a strong case of racial pride. His family encouraged him to further pursue his interest in fine arts, especially taking into consideration that his mother also played the piano, and thus he began studying piano at the young age of seven, under the supervision of his mother. Ellington attended Armstrong Technical High School where he studied art. He grew fond of studying art during his high-school years, and he was awarded a scholarship to the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, but he did not accept it. Instead, through the inspiration of other ragtime performers, he began playing professionally at the age of 17.

Duke Ellington’s music career took off and he became very popular. He began playing at the widely known Cotton Club. Cotton Club was prominently a “whites only” club, so the fact that he performed there was progress in breaking down racial barriers. Ellington toured Europe in 1933 and 1939 and appeared in many films and radio shows. But his life was not quite as easy as it sounded. Other than the racial issues, he had other problems. His band wasn’t easy to assemble. He went through a lot of trouble, obstacles, and hard work to assemble his band. Still, Ellington won many awards, such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Best Original Jazz Compilation, and many Grammy awards.

Ellington’s passion for creating music and his players’ interesting capacities and his assortment of temperaments were rare. His specific tune and his order of tactile structures, rhythms, and compositional structures changed over his regularly unpretentious, frequently complex recognitions into an assemblage of music unrivaled in jazz history. He diverted jazz music from being a type of excitement for the ‘whites’ to an advancement that brought about new workmanship developments crosswise over America. Customarily, Ellington spoke to the truth of the cruel and crude African American living in America through explicit jazz sounds, for example, the ‘wilderness sound’. In addition to the fact that Ellington made advancements in melodic improvement amid the Harlem Renaissance, he additionally gained adequate ground in racial improvement using his music.

Duke Ellington, like many other artists during the Harlem Renaissance, embodied the raw energy and idealism of the movement, interpreting them into many different musical sounds representing his artistic expression. Ellington did not believe in the fact that his band was made up of different instruments, but rather it was made up of different individuals. Contradicting other artists who combined the different instruments into one voice, Ellington wrote music that allowed for the unique style and skills of his band members to shine through and play against each other.

For the youth, Ellington embodied the transcendence of the traditional approaches of jazz music. He built the foundation for jazz music and basically became the epitome of the entire movement. He changed music into a form of expression that allowed for the representation of African Americans to rise through. He was essential in breaking the stigma that viewed jazz as only being a form of entertainment for whites. Ellington allowed his music to connect the different relationships in society as well as create a combined society of whites and African Americans who both were able to enjoy this dominant musical style.

Ellington is considered one of the main artists that allowed for the rise and growth of the success of jazz in society. His efforts have led to him receiving the respect of other leading musicians and allowed him to be recognized for his efforts through his receiving many awards and magazine covers.

Have you ever been held back? Held back from doing what you strive for or something you love to do? Well, that’s exactly what happened to the American Colonists. They wanted to declare themselves independent from Great Britain and they did. But with the founding of a new country comes social and economic challenges. This new-found country had a somewhat rocky start but over time with the right leadership would set off to become the greatest country in the history of mankind. The United States has a unique history of its own. But really, how did this new and soon-to-be powerful country get a start?

The United States was different in its founding. It was primarily pioneered by a set of individuals that demanded change. It all started when 13 colonies wanted to declare independence from the tyrant that is Great Britain. This resulted in a seven-year war which is a long story of its own. Long story short, the Americans win bringing them independence along with it. But one problem stood, how were they to govern themselves? That’s where the founding fathers come in. These individuals include Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, Samuel Adams, and of course a number of others. The first necessity was to make a constitution. This document listed the basic rights every citizen of the United States had, and then some. This stated that along with citizens having rights, this document could be expanded if needed. There were a couple of hiccups along the way. One is the eighteenth amendment. In layman’s terms, all this amendment stated was that alcohol could be consumed anywhere for any reason in the United States. The United States was a country that emerged from compromise. The soon-to-be states had to meet in the middle on a lot of controversial topics. One notable issue is the topic of slavery. These states had to come together and decide whether African slaves were to be considered citizens. After everything was set aside, they had to decide what form of government they would choose to follow. In the end, they chose to go with James Madison’s Virginia Plan. This stated that there were to be three branches of government, each balancing each other. These three branches consisted of the Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, and the Legislative Branch. Lastly, they needed to get the vote of the colonies. Most colonies said that they wouldn’t join unless a Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. This basically stated the bare minimum of rights each citizen had. Once that was added, everyone was on board with the idea and the United States was on its way to getting its own government. The United States has since come a long way from its original concept in terms of the government. From our judicial system to Congress, everything is for sure better. It is somewhat awesome to watch our country grow. What we have today all started from the thought that Britain was abusing their power. The United States is a beautiful country and is unique in every way. This will always remain as this is the United States of America.

Overall, the United States for sure emerged from humble beginnings. It is quite astounding that this country has sought to remain unified for more than 200 years. No doubt about it, there is no other country in the world that stands firm like the United States. From the judicial branch to the executive branch, the United States has a government like no other. It is well-formed and runs smoothly. And this was all made possible because a group of individuals had a vision. A vision for the future. A vision that would change the course of mankind and history itself. It is amazing that we were able to overcome major obstacles and stepping stones, but it paid off. And look, we are still standing today. Who am I to say that? Of course, we are because we stand as the United States of America.

A political ideology is a set of ethical principles, beliefs, doctrines, traditions, or symbols held by a social movement, institution, class, or a sizeable amount of people that explains how society should function and provides a political and cultural blueprint for a particular social order. In this paper, I will be focusing on four different types of political ideologies. Those four political ideologies are Liberalism, Conservatism, Marxism, and Neo-Conservatism.

Beginning with Liberalism, the way I drew my drawing is to correlate it to private property. John Locke, in the Two Treatises of Government, defended the idea that men are naturally free and equal, as opposed to the claim that God made everyone naturally subservient to a king (or the person at the head of a monarchy). He asserted that individuals have rights, including the right to life, liberty, and property, that are based on principles that are independent of any given society. However, my drawing focuses on the right to property. Locke stated,

“As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. He by his labor does, as it were, inclose it from the common. . .God, when he gave the world in common to all mankind, commanded man also to labor, and the penury of his condition required it of him. God and his reason commanded him to subdue the earth, i.e. improve it for the benefit of life and therein lay out something upon it that was his own, his labor. He that in obedience to this command of God, subdued, tilled and sowed any part of it, thereby annexed to it something that was his property, which another had no title to, nor could without injury take from him.” (Locke 16901980, 21).

Locke was implying that every man owns himself and his labor. He also claims that every individual has the right to private ownership of the property he has worked so hard to improve. To describe my drawing, it’s simple. The king comes to a common person, and before the king is allowed to say anything, the commoner states, “You can’t have my property. Leave now!”, then the king says, “Hmm…I hate that Locke guy”. The reason I drew this political cartoon this way was to array how Locke was influential, and most of his books were extraordinarily controversial. He was not liked by the monarch, even though he believed that a constitutional monarchy was the best type of government. He urged that their power should be severely curtailed. He argued that the monarchy had constitutional obligations to ensure that its citizens were treated fairly and equally. That’s like telling Jeff Bezos he can only spend a million dollars per year when he probably spends a million dollars every other day. The point is that the kings and queens had a huge amount of power, but Locke wanted their power to be controlled under constitutional obligations. The monarchy wasn’t ready to hear that, so it made Locke’s papers about government controversial. He was also so influential, that many believe his philosophies and political theories were ascendancies of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson purloined Locke’s ideas. These were never Jefferson’s ideas (he never claimed they were his either), but rather the convictions of the American people. Jefferson implied that all of the ideas he included in the United States Declaration of Independence were the people’s views (Class discussion, 2022).

The American Revolution is regarded as one of the first steps in the still unfinished process of demolishing the imperial structures present in the early modern era. The so-called ‘English Identity’ that had brought the colonists together was fading by the eve of the Revolution. Undergoing decades of domestic strife and facing neglect by the British compelled the colonists to develop strategies for self-government. The three-thousand-mile distance and the absence of communications between the colonies also gave rise to the growth of distinct identities. Inspired by the striking uniqueness of the American lands motivated the rise of an independent spirit – there was a united feeling, a desire to be free from the controls and restraints of the British. The arrival of German, Scottish, Dutch, and Irish settlers only helped to lessen the influence of the English before the war. Political rhetorics of that time show the slow formation of a uniquely American identity. In a piece written by Jefferson in a “Summary View of the Rights of British America”, he quite convincingly makes a distinction, arguing that the colonists were different from the British.

The spark that ignited the revolution was the various acts, namely sugar, stamp, and Townshend Act that imposed heavier taxes on various items, which the colonists thought were highly exploitative and there was also a disconnect in terms of identity between the colonists and the British, hence the revolution was inevitable, however, some commentators argue that more than an actual revolution, the revolution was more of the mind and how various concepts were perceived. This is said mainly because of the great impact Enlightenment ideals have had on the Declaration of independence and the bill of Rights.

The Enlightenment introduced new firm beliefs about the nature of authority and the role of an individual in the government. Locke’s ideas regarding life, liberty, and property as natural rights, something that could never be withdrawn or given up by people, and that it was the government’s duty to protect and defend these inalienable rights formed the social contract. He concluded by saying that if the government abuses its authority, the people have the right to overthrow it and create a new political system. Jefferson derived the ideals stated in the Declaration from Locke. Locke’s conception of natural rights was adopted by Jefferson to give a reason for revolt. The protection granted to individual rights is established by the Bill of Rights which was again derived from Locke’s conception of natural rights

Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Voltaire were strong advocates for a limited government. Deriving from these enlightenment ideals, these limited governments became representative democracies where citizens chose leaders to represent them at a national level. A constitution based on popular sovereignty was to create a limited government where a clear-cut relationship between the citizens and the government was established. It embodied Locke’s conception of the social contract. They gave the basis for the working of legislative, executive, and judicial organs – this idea again originated from Montesquieu’s. He was against the idea of one large government institution being in charge of the enforcement of every aspect of law and so he proposed the idea of separation of powers. Through a system of checks and balances, the possibility of one branch gaining absolute power over the others was minimized.

Rousseau strongly advocated the promotion of the common good or the common will – doing the best for the majority of the population and ruling by virtue of a general will. This concept was termed popular sovereignty.

The Declaration of Independence asserted that “all men are created equal”, and “that all people have inalienable rights “ of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness“

it was more of an ideological revolution, and though ideas from the Enlightenment are greatly reflected in the Declaration of independence and the bill of Rights, they weren’t fully implemented, for instance, equality, liberty, and freedom were only granted to a privileged few, not to women, native Americans or people of color.

To conclude the Enlightenment provided the necessary ideas for the philosophical basis of the American Revolution. It was not just a revolt against the authority of the British but also gave a foundation for the establishment of a democratic society.

Today I will be talking about the time period when the world was the closest to nuclear war even with all of today’s political problems, the Cold War was still worse. The Cold War was a time when the United States and the former Soviet Union, which is now Russia were neck to neck in a series of espionage, arms races, and proxy wars that could have ended in World War 3. You might have been wondering, how did this happen in the first place?

Well, the Cold War all started after the end of World War Two. The tensions between the Americans and Russians were mainly caused because Britain and the United States were worried about communist states being set up in Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union. The US and Britain wanted democratic states in Europe but the Soviet Union was keen on setting up communist nations. This system of putting communist nations across Eastern Europe was called the iron curtain, a sort of defense system, to keep the United States and other democratic nations from reaching Russia in a war as easily.

This escalated when the Truman Doctrine was passed. This policy was basically supposed to stop the spread of communism across the world. This policy allowed the creation of NATO, an alliance with several major Western nations like Canada, the US, Britain, Western Germany, and France. This alliance was going to be kinda like an emergency plan, just in case the Soviet Union and the US were at war.

The US and Russia were racing to help their sides in Europe economically and the US was doing a pretty good job under the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan gave Western Europe $12 billion dollars to recover after World War 2. Since the Americans were doing better at helping Europe, the Russians made Comecon rival the Marshall Plan.

After NATO was created, the Soviet Union developed its first nuclear bomb, codenamed “First Lightning”, which was very alarming for NATO

During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union fought many proxy wars. A proxy war basically two sides fighting but not in their lands, but instead supporting civil wars in different countries. The first major proxy war is the Korean War. The Korean War started when Soviet-backed North Korea declared war on the pro-democracy South Koreans. After the declaration, the US and the United Nations set up an emergency team to push the North Koreans out of South Korea, which did work but technically has never ended to this day since a peace treaty was never signed. So the most major proxy war during the Cold War probably had to be the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War started in 1955 and ended in 1975. During the war, millions of US men were drafted into the war and the damage was especially severe because fighting in the jungle, where the enemy lives, knows their way around and could easily hide and jump you by surprise, are not very good circumstances for war. Over time the Americans pulled out of the war because it seemed way too unwinnable and the American people were getting outraged with a popular slogan “Make love, not war!”. Over the Cold War, many other proxy wars were fought like the Afghanistan War and many wars in Africa and South America. Personally, my family was affected greatly during and after the Vietnam War, and in that fact thousands of families, during the proxy wars, were either killed or suffered.

The US and Russia also had arms races in weapons technologies and space. You may have heard that the Americans landed on the Moon in 1969, but that was all caused because the Americans wanted to show dominance against Russia in the space race after they sent the first man into orbit. They also had more passive-aggressive arms races like expanding their nuclear arsenals in numbers and strength. The time the world was the closest to nuclear war was when the Cubans received Soviet nuclear missiles, which were in the range of hitting most of the United States. The United States was obviously very alarmed that nuclear missiles that could kill millions of people were in their backyard, so they planned to blockade Cuba, so no Soviet ships carrying nukes could come to Cuba. During this crisis, a Soviet submarine thought that an invasion had started, so 2 officers voted to launch a nuclear torpedo at Miami, but one officer did not want to launch the missile, so knowing that one man prevented World War 3 is very frightening how easily the world can go to mayhem. This crisis ended when Russia proposed a peace agreement to remove the missiles from Cuba, if they remove the missiles placed in Turkey, a day before the US planned to invade Cuba.

All of this started ending when the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in 1985. He made major changes to the law, by starting to allow freedom of speech and slowly allowing revolutions in Eastern Europe. A major moment in the Cold War was when the Berlin Wall fell. The Berlin Wall was the divider between Western Berlin and Eastern Berlin, made by the Russians. The Wall fell after Eastern Berlin allowed East Berliners to cross into Western Berlin, and during the mass migration, the Berlin Wall fell after a series of riots. This was a major moment in the fall of the Soviet Union. Many revolutions were happening in the iron curtain and slowly it would affect Russia itself. Many underground leaders in the Soviet Union were proposing overthrowing the government and splitting it into 15 countries, the largest being the Russian Federation. The people agreed that they wanted to end the Soviet Union, so the Communist Party of Russia stepped down from power after almost a hundred years.

This conflict was probably the most major time in human history with major human innovation, in both good and evil. The World is still affected by the Cold War to this day, with Communist Nations set up by the Soviet Union, like China and North Korea, still being major problems with NATO and many other nations. I hope you had a good day and thank you for listening.