Bigotry of the Spanish American War

In the late 1890s, the United States was a very imperialistic nation.  It had already annexed Hawaii and purchased Alaska, and its next interests laid in the island of Cuba.  However, they had one problem; the Spanish owned that territory, and refused to sell it to the United States.  Therefore, there was only one option to feed the still-young nation's hunger for more land; fight the Spanish.  The war did not affect the economy at all, nor did the revolt going on in Cuba in the first place, and the United States fought a bloody battle for both sides, with their own troops being killed in large numbers.  The entire war was also to gain popularity on the President's side, making it more of a political statement than a righteous battle, and the government did very little to even try for peace or any rational diplomatic communications.  The United States was defnintely unjustified in going to war against Spain.

There were little to no economic reasons to fight the Spanish War in the first place.  Cuba was simply a financial interest for the United Stated government, as was the philosophy of Manifest Destiny which they now sought to complete.  Even the Cuban revolution against the Spanish didn't effect anything in the United States, despite its proximity to the country.  As far as economy, it probably would have done a lot better had we not gone to war, for not as many resources and materials would have been wasted.  Economically, there was no reson to go to war with Spain.

Morally, the war was horrendous.  Troops were being sacrificed for the sole purpose of imerialism, when the United States was already a very large nation in to global picture.  Had there been some wrong that the Spanish did to the country, then there would hae been reason to sacrifice American soldiers, but for the sheer interest of land and nothing more, aside from global pride, it was a very poor cause.  On top of that, the war was being fought for political reasons as well.  The Spanish were seen as an enemy for refusing to sell land, and now the government wanted to show its people that it could be strong, and raise support in coming elections.  In this way, the government was merely throwing away American lives so that it could win popularity, and maybe even a bit of land as well.  A terrible moral cause to fight a bloody war.

The United Stades also did very little to negociate with the Spanish, aside from offering to buy a large island that happened to be next to it.  The Spanish refusal to sell it to America should have been enough, and even if they did need to get more land, they could have searched elsewhere instead of jumping to war.  It was the most undiplomatic war fought, aside from possibly the Iraq War.  This shows how hot headed and single minded the government must hae been in 1898.

The United States had absolutely no reason to fight the Spanish, aside from fulfilling an upshot and overblown thought that the United States "deserved" all the land it wanted.  It was a political statement as well as an unnegociated and barbaric fight, and had no effect on the economy in the first place.  In the end, the United States didn't even win Cuba, as it fought the war with the Cuban revolution.  Instead it settled for the next best thing: three islands previously belonging to the Spanish.  And if the spanish didn't own those territories, the United States probably would have annexed part of Spain itself.  An unmoral, unorganized and bigotic war, for the sole purpose of raising praise and pride.

"What they Fought For" Book Review

The American civil War that ravaged the nation during most of the 1860s demonstrated something extrordinay - the dedication of soldiers from the same nation to fight against one another.  The Confederacy, fed up with the Federal Government's claims that it was superior to State laws and rights, was formed by seven states that Seceded from the American Union.  When they fought the Civil War, they felt that they had been betrayed by the government that the original thirteen states had created, and were now fighting once again for their independence from a tyranic government, much like a second Revolutionary War.  The Confederate soldiers weren't just fighting to war because they felt differently than the North, but they fought because they truely believed that they were the second wave of revolutionaries that would go down in the history books.  They looked up to idols such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other American forefathers as role models for their cause.  In their eyes, the war was for a just cause, which is much of the reason that it's still commonly known as the War of Northern Aggression.

The North, meanwhile, fought for a completely different cause.  The Union was fighting the Civil War primarily because it had to, because to lose it would bring humiliation and even loss of freedom to the United States.  Soldiers in the Union Army argued to stay in battle because of their patriotism to the United States, and fought the rebelling Confederacy to protect the nation that their forefathers had established; Washington, Jefferson and the other forefathers.  The same heroes who the Confederates looked up to.  However, the Union army didn't completely feel this way.  While a vast majority of the Confederate Soldiers fought avidly for patriotic purposes, only a little more than half of the Union Army fought genuinely because they believed in this war.  Yet all in all, the Union Army's goal was to protect the very foundation that the nation was based on, and to prevent the Confederates from destroying it.

All in all, most public officials on both sides of the divided America agreed on one thing.  The very issue of slavery itself was the primary reason that the nation stood divided.  While not the ultimate issue in the war and why it was fought, Slavery was thought of very differently depending on what end of America you stood on.  The South saw the North's view on slavery as a way to annihilate thousands, even millions of dollars woth in property.  However, the Northern soldiers didn't see things very differently for the most part.  Some Union units even used captured former slaves to do the dirty work for them.  However, Lincoln realized that the war would only be won if the slaves were freed, once and for all.  This alone would cause chaos in the Confederacy, with slaves legally fleeing and even fighting the soldiers.  After the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union was on its way to a sweeping victory.

Grassroots Movements

From the early 1800s to around 1850, there were a series of changes and realizations sweeping across the United States, now that it wasn't so much of a brand new nation.  These events were very similar to the Great Awakening that occured in Colonial America, and hence people have called this period the Second Great Awakening.  In this second Awakening, there were changes in the ways people viewed several major issues, including treatment of the imprisoned, education and women's rights.  These grassroots movements in the Age of Reform were incredibly successful because of the Seneca Falls Convention for Women's Rights, Horace Mann's support of Education Reform, and Dorothea Dix's reforms for the Treatment of the Insane.

The Seneca Falls convention in 1848 was the first organization for Women's Rights in America.  It was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady stanton, after being seated in a "women's only" section during a convention for Abolition in London.  Fed up by this and other prejudices of women they saw through their lifetimes, they talked about organizing a convention of their own to call to attetion the inequality women suffered, socially and by law.  Women could not vote or do many other things that the constitution allowed men to do, and by tradition were treated as the property of a man - their father or husband.  The Convention drew around 300 people, 40 of which were men, and addressed these issues and called for people to stand up for their rights as american citizens.  This was the start of the large-scale Women's Rights movement, and in 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed, granting Women the right to vote in national and state elections.

Horace Mann was apointed Secretary of Education in Massachusetts in 1837, and from there he strongly pushed for reform in education.  He took the old public school system, one that was underfunded, independent from other schools in the same system and taught with little to no enthusiasm, and converted it through legislation and policies into the public school system that almost all states have adopted today.  Public education is funded by the state because of his work, school systems for different areas are more closely knit and regulated by a central department, and the teachers do teach children.  Before Mann, none of this applied.

Dorothea Dix was a major reform fighter in the 1840s and 50s as well.  She fought for the humane treatment of the mentally instable and insane.  Treatment for these peple was often brutal and humiliating; mentally ill patients weren's cared for by any stable institution, instead at home and other "institutions" where they were beaten into obedience and not cared for in the least.  State by state, Dix filed a series of reports on the treatment of these patients, published them, and pushed for new legislation in each state until such things as mental institutions and hospitals were manditory in each state.

These reforms were all brought about during the early 19th century, when the country was becoming stable and more independent, and had room to expand its new ideas and land.  These reforms were also detrimental to the well-being of the United States and from there, the civilized world.  Without any of these reform movements in the 19th century, the country would have little dfference in its social standing than it did in the early 1800s.

Radicalism: Getting Rid of the Oppressors

   In the late 1700s, especially after the French and Indian War, the British established a much firmer grip on their colonies in the New World.  Even before the French and Indian war, they passed several acts that severely limited what colonists could and could not produce on their own land.  Following the War, they passed the 'Intolerable Acts,' thoroughly enraging Colonies all across the New World.  The colonists met twice in the mid 1770s, in conventions that would later be known as the First and Second Continental Congresses.  Here, the colonists were split into three groups of people; Radicals, Moderates and Conservatives, each with their own opinions of how the Colonies should respond to English oppression.  The Moderates believed that relations with the colonies' mother country could still be repaired, and that the recent events did not call for a revolution.  The Conservatives wanted to establish a plan with the English that would restore their relations exactly as they were before the French and Indian War, including the Intolerable Acts.  The Radicals, heavily outnumbered, held that the Colonies should act immediately against the English, whether by force or strong diplomacy.  The Radicals eventually had the right idea in history, and did prove to be the right choice in the end.  While severely outnumbered in the Continental Congresses, the Radicals were the most persuasive in their ideas through events that happened in history.
   The Moderates in the Continental Congress, including important figures such as George Washington, believed that the oppression of the English on the Colonists had not yet necessitated a forceful American revolution.  They still retained hope in their mother country, and still thought that they would listen to their subjects halfway across the globe.  They didn't believe that the Intolerable Acts and other Acts of oppression were permanent, so long as they argued and complained to the government that effectively gave the colonists the food on their plates.  Moderates were also opposed and possibly even fearful of a revolution by force to the English Empire, as they were at the time the largest and strongest military power in Europe.  To any logical mind, an assault against the British from their own colonies would be effective suicide.  However, the Moderates did not take into consideration the fact that the colonists were being crushed by all the oppression and pressure that the English were enforcing, nor the fact that they could align with the French and/or Spanish in a revolution against England.  The Moderates had a flawed argument in the end.
   The Conservatives perhaps held an even more absurd opinion of what could happen between the Colonies and the British; they believed that relations could be restored to the way they were prior to the French and Indian War.  Even before that war, the English imposed Acts that limited what the colonists could and could not do with the resources that they extracted and harvested.  Even before the War, the English already had plans to fully utilize the colonists to do their bidding, effectively practicing mercantilism to its highest extent.  The War itself was a great catalyst in enforcing English prosperity on the colonists even more, as they practically depended on the English for all their necessary supplies.  After the War, the English fully expected the colonists to be eternally grateful for their 'savior.'  However, they saw right through their tactics, and it became clear that relations could not be repaired, no matter how hard certain people such as the Conservatives argued for it.
   The Radicals were the only ones in the Continental Congresses who really saw that the tactics of the British Empire were only harming the colonists.  They held that relations could not be repaired, certainly could not be brought back to the state they were in more than 30 years ago, and were doomed to consume and crush the colonists.  The Radicals believed, rightly so, that force, violent or nonviolent, should be used to push back the English oppressors.  They called for an immediate, strong and forceful response, or else the colonies would surely be swallowed up completely by the taxes, the polices and the moderation of the iron English hand.  And a Revolution is exactly what started rolling less than 2 years after the Second Continental Congress was dismissed.
   The British rule over their colonies was simply intolerable by 1774, and all the colonies knew it.  However, most of them were too driven by fear to even suggest a revolution, or any sort of opposition to their mother country, save the Radicals.  After all, such ideas as a revolution would surely be severely punished by the ones who ruled the colonies, despite the fact that British rule was already being resisted by colonists across America.  Outnumbered by 2 to 1, the Radicals held their ideas, and eventually got the ball rolling for the American Revolution, which was in the end a complete success.  The 'dangerous' idea of full revolution against an oppressor turned was proven by history to be the exact right decision.

Religious Colonies: The shining examples of colonial America

The English settlers all came to the New World with a purpose.  Be it for economic, political or religious reasons, it could be said that all colonies enjoyed much more independence than in England, especially those seeking religious freedom.  With the persecution of the new English Church, all religions save the Protestants were under severe persecution.  Of course, with the New World looking as promising as it did, many fled there.  From Catholics to Quakers to Puritans, they all made their own colonies and carried out their own ways of life.  Some tolderated religious freedom in their own colonies, while others simply wanted their colony to be strictly under their own religion.  This of course caused several small conflicts between the religious colonies.  There have also been several conflicts between the religious and the Crown-Chartered royal colonies seeking nothing but profit.  However, religion did play a very significant role in the establishment of all the English colonies.  Those that sought religious freedom each became shining examples of how colonies should run.

Massacusetts Bay was established as a Calvinist, Protestant colony, which existed as a haven to those following John Calvin from England.  They tolerated no other religion other than Calvinism, and openly exiled and rejected all others.  Years later, Pennsylvania was established as a Quaker colony, open to all religions and backgrounds, even the local Native American tribes.  They saw themselves as all one race, and acted as a haven from the English crown, seeing that they were all exiles.  Both were very successful colonies, and were major role models for colonies to come in later years.

They were not without their conflicts, however.  Massachusetts, tolerating no other idealism other than Calvinism, was host to many uprisings and exiles of open-minded people.  Roger Williams established Rhode Island after he was banished from Massacusetts for promoting seperation of Church and State, with Anne Hutchinson following him shortly after.  She had the audacity to accuse the clergy of being too bound to one view of the Bible, and said that any faithful person can interperet the bible for themselves.

Conflicts also happened between other colonies and the religious ones.  The Carolinas were established by Charles II after retaking the crown, and gave that land to those who fought for him.  The people who came were unruly, and openly slaughtered any Indians on their land.  Their religion was that of the english Church, and sought only a rich economic opporitunity.  Even after Pennsylvania declared its tolerance to Native Amerians, the Carolinians chased them all the way into Pennsylvania to kill them.  William Penn was certainly not pleased, yet chose not to confront them.

While some were hated by their neighbors, the religious olonies were arguably the most well-organized and most stable of the English colonies.  Massachusetts becoming one of the largest colonies, and Plymouth the most famous, our bill of Rights is based off of some of their ideals.  Freedom of religion was brought by Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.  Colonies like the Carolinas and Georgia quickly fell to be some of the least popular colonies, simply because they were drones of the Monarchy.  The colonies seeking religious freedom were in fact, the first revolutionaries.

English Colonies

- Explain how the English colonies in the New World were different from one another in terms of government, population and origin.


     The English colonies in the New World were all started for different reasons; some were started as grants from the King or Queen of the time, others for religious freedom, others still as economic projects, and in the case of Georgia, as a penal colony.  The 13 colonies each had their own goals, their own ways of doing things, and had almost no correlation to one another.  It seemed to be a separate world for each English colony in the New World.

     In 1606, the Virginia Company set its foundations in Virginia.  There, they planted and cultivated tobacco, primarily using slave labor, for the settlers, and Englishmen back at home.  The profits from this were innumerable, and the colony prospered.  Meanwhile, Catholics fled from England with, hoping to escape prosecution from the now-protestant government.  They were also a plantation colony, but had no interest in trading with their motherland.  Instead, they became a self-sustaining, independent colony.  Years later, Georgia was founded with the goal of defending the Carolinas from the Spanish, who were bent on re-obtaining their land.  In return, it became the least popular of the now 13 colonies.  

     While all these colonies were inhabited by (former) Englishmen and women, their goals were vastly different.  Virginia and Maryland were right next to each other, and had completely different goals.  One was a colony intended purely for profit, making its money from friendly England, while the other was bent on escaping persecution based on their religion from menacing England.  The Carolinas were founded with blessing from King Charles II, and had its roots in slavery and the expulsion of the Native Americans.  A few miles away, William Penn, who founded another colony based on religious freedom from England, promised friendly relations between them and the Natives, yet the Carolinians still had their bloody massacres of the "savages."  It could easily be said that not all of the colonies were "Friendly Neighbors"

     By 1775, the differences between these colonies were fairly clear, based only on their statuses.  All the colonies serving England, be it by selling their goods to them, protecting their most valuable money-makers, or simply to prove a political point.  Of course, all the colonies escaping English persecution for not being Protestant were given no such status, and remained independent.  The colonies that sought religious freedom were generally friendly to the natives, taking into regard their land needs, culture, and openly traded with them.  As seen with Carolina, the "royal" colonies took little to no consideration, and wanted nothing more than for the Indians to leave or die.

     There was a clear distinction between the English colonies; they all had different goals and ideals, and some of them clearly didn't get along.  Georgia was founded to protect the rest of them, and later became the slowest-growing and most hated colony.  But the difference wasn't only in their goals and social statuses, but in the way they behaved in this New World.  All the colonies founded under or by the British Government tended to be much more cruel to people unlike them; they dealt in slavery and "hunted" Indians, while the religious freedom colonies had no slaves, and treated the Native Americans with respect to their culture.  Colonial America was most definitely a mixed, sperate world from itself.

So, a little about me.

If I had to be in another class, it'd probably be Graphic Design III. I'm part of the Mock Trial club, Drama StarZ, Tech Crew (kind of), and President and founder of the Anime Club here at Kenwood. I'm also one of the co-presidents of my Youth Group.. I've got a lot of responsibility this year. I'm taking two other AP classes this year; AP Biology and AP Literature. I plan on going to Columbia College in Chicago after graduating this year, and getting into the new Game Design major. I can't really think of anything else, so.. ending this paragraph o_o.