"The Doughboys" notes

To start off with, the American soldiers during WW1 were the ones called "Doughboys" because of the big buttons on their coats they wore to the trenches in Europe. Initially, they were called "Samies" from the europeans, but the Americans almost immediately didn't like the nickname, so thats why instead they were called "Doughboys". However, even before the name calling for the Americans soldiers in Europe and before the U.S. even deployed their units in Europe, American had to train their soldiers. The declaration of war between the U.S. and the Central Powers had just started and America still doesn't have many trained soldiers, so they start drafting people into the war. Once the Americans attend to sign up to go to war, they taken to be checked in physicals, to see if certain Americans are eligibly to fight in the war. Then the training comes in. There were at least some months of training for each solider and multiple training sessions for each one. From the opinion of the Americans soldiers, they said the training there was great. They would have to learn how to move with wooden guns, learn how to march with them, how to do MMA, how to use bayonet, etc. Now after the months of training, the Americans are ready to go to war. Now before they land or deploy to Europe, every solider knew they had to adapt to the reality of death in warfare. A lot of them know that and most of them joined in the first place to protect their country and American people. And when they start fighting, they have to get over the fact that they are killing somebody's father. Once the Americans got to Europe and they were given the nickname, they started to fight in the war. They were actually eventually given a new nickname, like "new dogs". Eventually, the war was drawing to a near end and soldiers started being very conservative because they knew they could have the possibility of staying alive through the war. Then the war ended. However, even thought the U.S. did win the war with the others like France and Great Britain, the American generals thought joining the war was stupid and hell.

Ending of World War 1 Notes

The Road to War, 1917

-Wilson believed that this war should be the war that ends all wars.

-Their should be “peace among equals” as well as “peace without victory”

-Americans were definitely not at war however they probably weren’t neutral

-The Germans thought that if they wanted to win the war, they would have to start sinking ships with their submarines regardless of whose ship it was.

-Early in 1917 Germans declared any ship entering Great Britain territory they would be subject to sinkage.

American Involvement

-April 6, 1917 America has officially declared war.

-Wilson: “the world must be made safe for democracy.”

The Military Situation

-By the end of 1917 both sides had lost a multitude of men.

-In terms of manpower the British and French are desolate

-Whether America could disrupt the Germans plan of having one more offensive outburst

Financing the War

-Complete cost for the 1 and a half years between 1917-18 it costed the Americans $32 Billion

-Few ways to raise money, was the liberty bond as well as taxing the people.

-War Boards: a corporation to manage the production of war materials

American Propaganda

-The Committee that was in charge of these war posters was cold The Committee on Public Information

-People were encouraged to report slackers in their community who weren’t helping the cause to win the war

-If you were associated with Germany you were somehow disloyal.

Legal Repression

-Espionage Act of 1917

-Sabotage Act of 1918

-Sedition Act of 1918

-These acts allowed the government to arrest anyone who opposed the ideas of wars.

-The groups that were most highly targeted from these laws were the anti capitalist groups

The End of the War

-Germans launched massive offensive in spring of 1918 advancing over 40 miles

-Germans ultimately wear themselves out so they're tired

-November 11th Germans sign armistice with allies

World War 1 notes (American Version)

At the start of the Great War, what drove countries into this war had to do with nationalism, imperialism, militarism. We already know about the assassination of the Archduke and that the war starts in 1914, where America is yet to be involved into this catastrophic european war. America stays as neutral simply because there was no point really for the U.S. to join the war. Even though the U.S. king of supports the British and French more, because they were democratic, they still wanted neutrality. While the war was happening in Europe, the U.S. has been lucky enough to make some money off of it, or boost their economy. They would sell weaponry, food, and other supplies to the British and French during the war. Eventaully, the U.S. economy went from $824 million dollars in 1914 to $3.2 billion dollars in 1916, just from trading with the British and the French. Then after a while, the British threw a blockade on the Germans so that the majority of trade went to Allies. Skipping a bit forward, there was disagreement with the Germans of whether or not to destroy ships (British or American) that might have the possibility of having Americans on board, so one time they decide to blow up The Lusitania. The Lusitania was sunk with the loss of 1,198 people (128 were Americans) in May 7th, 1915. Even though the ship was British the Americans citizens killed caused an uproar in the U.S. Then finally, President Wilson issued an angry telegram demanding that the Germans followed the rules of submarine warfare or risk war. However, the Germans believed that the Americans were not at war but they were not neutral. Also, they believed Unrestricted Submarine Warfare could be a war winner, so on February 1, 1917 they announced they would sink any and all ships around GB. Soon the Zimmerman Note that was intercepted by British tell the U.S. after (Lusitania) ship sinks. Finally in April 6th, 1917 America was at war with the Central Powers

World War 1 Notes

American Neutrality

-They weren’t anywhere close to Europe

President Wilson explained to the Americans that they should be impartial in thought as well as deed.

- Culturally: The Americans were more inclined to help the allies, because of their discrete connections.

-Economically: Americans were able to trade with Great Britain and France

The British essentially stopped any ships going towards Germany and searched them for anything that would enhance the German War exclusion.

-Politically: American allies had the same type of government (democratic) and the other central powers were more dictator like.

Neutral Rights

-Americans believed that because of their neutrality they were able to operate in whatever fashion they wanted to.

-The American government failed to challenge the British Blockade, which ultimately made the Germans suspicious of whether they really were neutral.

-Then the Americans did challenge the fact that the Germans used submarines.

The Lusitania and USW

-Essentially the Germans are putting out a notice to the Americans, that they shouldn’t go onto British ships because they would be attacking British ships.

-The passenger ship sank in about 22 minutes.

-Americans were angry about the American citizens being attacked on the Lusitania.

- President Wilson proclaimed that if the Germans continued to disobey the rules they would have to declare war on them.

The Election of 1916

-Most of America was in favor of Neutrality.

-President Wilson decided that the country should definitely prepare for a war but not actually fully dive into complete war yet.

-Wilson won reelection by over 600,000 votes

Security simulation

When I started the simulation, I thought the game was going to be much easier to win than expected, but I was wrong. It was all about having balance to try not to have a war or maybe have a war to eliminate threats. Even though this simulation was about security, I believe in our simulation it was more about competition. I believe this because every would raise their army so people were forced to raise theirs too. For example, I was in group 4 for this simulation and we had the advantage for maximizing our troops and artillery but could barely get anything for ships and planes and since everyone else was trying to get many troops we were king of forced to make more troops to even up with them. I mean if the groups in our simulation focused more on security and make it our goal, we all could've just send each other economic units to even up with each other on troops, artillery, ships, and planes. That way everyone wins. However, I do think its much more fun to have competition because with security, all groups could've easily won, if everyone was being reasonable. I think it went out this way since it was simply going to be fun that way, and nobody really wanted an easy, boring way to way the game.

"God in America 4" notes

Pretty much after the Great First World War it took awhile for the religious people to get their religions ignored by most. This big problematic era would start to initiate a little bit right before WW1. It s starts off with Briggs learning new stuff in Europe, after a longtime not being in America. When he returns, he finds America to be the same, as if nothing at all has changed. Briggs with new ideals of how religion should be thought as, he is given the opportunity to share his thought in a speech. So he thought he was in luck. However, when he gives his speech to the people, only his students applaud. Most of the people didn't like his idea differing their religions, so he was charged for brief e of giving false information to the public. Briggs then loses his job. And then on skipping forward, WW1 started and Darwinism was brought into people consideration of their belief. Due to the great Darwinism, the fundamentalist were formed, who had brought a guide into their group later in 1921. His name is William Jenner Brian and he was a radical religious politician who strongly supported religion. Brian main goal at this time in history was obviously to defeat Darwinism once and for all. Then the fundamentalists were brought into court by Darrell, who supports scientific reasoning. After court, because of no proof for religion speaking truth out of the bible directly, Darrell won and the fundamentalists went downhill from there. Finally, the fundamentalists were thought as stupidity to many, they were done when Brian died.

Security Simulation 10-9-15

10/19/15
Today in class we started a simulation. The simulation consisted of many different parts. Groups of 5-6 were given a country. That country starts off with a certain amount of troops, fire power, ships, boats, planes and economic utilities. From all of that each country is given a certain power level, and obviously the higher your countries resources and people, the higher your power level will be. The goal of this simulations is to maintain security. To maintain security (in the simulation) was that the civilians in your country had to be happy, and Mr. Stewart would be the one to determine if your people were happy. Within the simulation you make alliances, pacts, trades with other countries if you so please, you can do any to gain stability and security. If I were to take a shot at what makes the people happy, i think it would have something to do with how much defense and offense you have in your country compared to others.

President Wilson notes

Wilson before he was president already believed in progressiveness. Because Sugar Jim actually helped Woodrow Wilson to be president, he was betrayed since Wilson didn't want to be controlled by someone else when being president. The kind of funny thing about Wilson when being president, from looking at his history of being an intelligent-humble looking guy, he was actually a player by being romantic with other woman even though he was married. One person actually found one of his love letter to other woman, by it never got to be publicized. But when Wilson comes to progressiveness, he was far more progressive on helping out the small businesses. He also was a big help to America by stabilizing systems within. For example, he set big business to become harder to obtain and an amazing thing he did was addressing Congress in person, something that has never been done yet. One bi thing Wilson didn't do was keep his promise to the blacks. He promised to give same and equal right for American: Whites and Blacks. Instead, he signed the law of not allowing different racial people to get married and he even believed that the Blacks were fine as they were. Another thing is Wilson didn’t much of foreign affairs and would mostly pay attention to inside of America, not other countries. But overall, Wilson wasn't that bad of a President, especially to the American people.

October 13, Study for the Test!

Today in class we had a large block of time to study for the Chapter 1-7 test.

A majority of the test will be taken straight from the practice tests posted on Edmodo under the "Practice Tests" folder.  Completing the tests thoroughly and with care will result in mastery of the subject, making about half of the test a breeze.  We should complete the chapters we covered, consisting of chapters 1-7.  The questions on the 7-8 chapters dealing with World War 1 and/or the 1920's should be ignored for this test.

The other half of the test will be analyzing political cartoons for what the artist was intending to reveal about the subject.  Paying attention in class on the discussions and slideshows as well as doing the readings assigned will ensure the best chance of doing well on this test.

This period was very helpful in the sense that confusions regarding the content that would be on the test were cleared up.

John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 to a very poor family.  His father was a con man, and did not earn very much, or even any, money.  Rockefeller was very embarrassed of his father and vowed to never be like him.  In 1853 he moved from New York to Cleveland to start a business.  He decided to focus his business on refining oil, and he opened his first refinery in 1853.  This refinery soon became the largest and most efficient in the country, which he called Standard Oil.  By the 1890s Standard oil was making millions from kerosene, a product of refining oil.  The invention of cars, planes, and ships also helped his business because they all ran on oil.  Rockefeller had so much power that when other refineries tried to compete with him, he would either force them to join with him, or run them out of business.  He wanted to be the only refinery, and at the peak of his power, he controlled 1/3 of the oil cells in the U.S.  Rockefeller did use some of his power to help people, by giving his money back to society, especially schools.  Rockefeller even established the Rockefeller institute.  His power did not last forever, though, because Roosevelt eventually broke up standard oil into 32 different companies to get rid of his monopoly on the market.

"Last Stand at Little Bighorn" notes / Cristian Flores

The last stand at little big horn was a standoff for Custer and his American calvary.  Custer before this was just a young German who was actually born in America. He told as little kid that Prussians don't get very far in life in America and that Germans should join the military to at least earn a living. Custer takes the Germans advice. After joining the military school, graduated last. As thought his young life was rough he did eventually gain popularity in the American Civil War. Ever since then, Custer was view as a heroic person. He was even a genius at incredible Calvary charges in Civil War. He mostly was famous for his Calvary charge at Gettysburg. Then when Custer is told to take out the Indians, things do change. There were already settlers going west and stealing Native lands. The Indians would view them as ants taking Indians more rapidly after another. Then after many many more settled to westward, it was trouble for all Native tribes, one being the Lokota. The Americans, however, let the Lokota got some territory for keep, but for a temporary time only. After the time was really up for the American settlers to settle more west, General Sherman urged the Indians to live life as an American or else leave their land and have the possibility of being found by an American soldier. It was the ultimate end that the Native Americans were going to lose their land. Even after that, the Panic of 1873 encouraged more to go. Business men were losing money and they kick Indians for people to gain land. They wanted this because they wanted to build more railroads to make a profit. Then finally Custer comes into play. Custer now has to wipe out all of the Natives for the American people, so he had a plan. Custer was basically going to surround the Indians by three Calvary groups. Custer stupidly lost. However, in the newspapers he was portrayed as he was a victim as well as his army. The Indians were made as bad people to the incident. In reality Custer was a fool that lead to his failure and death. The last stand was suppose to be thought as a heroic ending to get the American spirt up. No American wanted to hear that they were losing to Indians so the “Last Stand” was thought as a massacre.