Letter Home

Dear Family,

I am alive still. I have survived many battles and bombings. I have a gunshot wound in my left shoulder. This wound came from stepping in front of a bullet for my friend. I was put in the hospital for 2 weeks until I was stable enough to get back out on the battle field. My wound has healed completely and now I have a nice scar to remember this event. Life out here is rough. I usually work in the trenches.The trenches are a lot safer than out on the battlefield, but they are also very dirty and disgusting. Disease carries fast through the trenches and there are so many mice. I live and sleep with mice. The food out here is usually pretty bland and dry. I take whatever I can get because I'm working hard out here and am alway hungry. I rarely get to shower and am always smelling like a pig. I have made some great friends out here. I am also engaged! Captain Sir John Adams and I have been getting to know each other better and better. We really love each other and when we both make it home we will start planning our wedding. I do hope you are happy for me. Living out here is rough and hard, but has taught me how to survive on my own and really appreciate what I have back home.

I love you guys and hope to be home soon

Until next time,

Katherine Smith

WWI Causes

The first main cause of WWI was nationalism. Nationalism is feeling loyal to your country. Being very patriotic. The killing of the archduke was a good example of nationalism because it showed that the man was being loyal to his country. The second cause of WWI was the alliance system. The alliance system is an agreement to support another country and be on there side in case of an attack. There was conflict between two countries, but both countries had alliances so that meant many more countries were involved in this conflict than just those original two. The third cause of WWI was imperialism. Imperialism was using colonies to show power. All the countries at war were trying to prove they are the stronger country by getting the most colonies. The fourth main cause of WWI was militarism. Militarism was striving to have the most powerful military out of all the countries. This created conflict because it meant that the countries were getting angry if another country had created a stronger/larger military.

The start of WWI was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Austria-Hungry was in Serbia controlling them and Serbia wanted them out of their country. So they sent an assassin to kill Ferdinand. This angered Austria-Hungry, so they decided to invade Serbia, which started the war. This was the spark of the war. It wasn't the only thing that lead to the war because there were already conflict and heated tension between most countries at this time.


-Unrestricted sub warfare: (1915-1918) A type of naval attacking in which submarines can sink ships without warning. Didn't give the men onboard to leave the ship and then let the people sink it. Just killed people for no good reason. Germany got out of hand with this so the US entered the war.
-Lusitania: (May 7, 1915) A ferry boat that transported goods and people from Great Britain and the US. The ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. This created a big conflict and angered the US. It made them want to enter the war even more than ever.
-Sussex Pledge: (May 4, 1916) A pledge Germany made promising they would sink any ships with their u-boats unless there was known that that ships was carrying weapons. Three days after this pledge was made, a Germany u-boat sunk the Lusitania killing many innocent civilians. This was another reason why the US should join the war.
-Zimmerman note: (1917)A telegram from Germany that was inviting Mexico to join the Central powers. The United States intercepted the note and became angered by it because they were on the side of the Entente Powers. They decided they should join the war.

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare was a way of fighting that became popular during World War I. Trench warfare was in some cases useful, and in other cases it just caused constant death. Many people who weren't used to trench warfare would die their first day on the job because of a sniper's bullet that they weren't aware of. Trench warfare was a start to new ways of fighting that made World War I a more violent war.

Out of all the allied casualties, one third of those happened in the trenches. Disease carried so well throughout the trenches because of the amount of people and tight quarters. Another reason diseases carried fast through the trenches was because of the rat infestation. There were millions of rats that would rome the ground of the trenches, eating parts of the dead people on the ground. The rats would climb all over the soldier's supplies and food which would contaminate it and bring disease to the the people so fast. Rats are a type of rodent that reproduce so fast, making the controlling of rats so hard. Soldiers tried shooting the rats, beating them to death and using knives to stab them. But no matter how hard they tried, the rats just kept reappearing.

Trench Warfare was fought in groups. There would be a set group of soldiers that would go in and fight for a little while, then they would be rotated out and a new fresh group would come in and take their turn. It was a very good system which gave soldiers a break and kept strong soldiers out on the battlefield at all times. Despite the smell and diseases of the trenches, the trenches were a somewhat safe place that soldiers could fight without being exposed on the battlefield.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm

Progressive Era- The Jungle

1) What qualities did Sinclair believe a person must have to succeed in Packingtown?Sinclair thought that people spy on his fellows and tell tales, which is also known as knave.

2)According to the passage, what is the plant owner's main goal.His main goal is to become as rich as possible, without caring if he gained money by cheating or being unfair. Not caring where or how he got it.

3) What does Sinclair mean when he says, "...there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar....?"The workers meant nothing to the owners, they were just using them for their labor to get as much money as they could get. Then when the owners got tired of the workers and they weren't working as hard, they would kick them out, leaving them tired and worn out and being mistreated.

When it was published, The Jungle was so shocking that it launched a government investigation of the meatpacking industry.  The investigation eventually led to the establishment of laws regulating the industry.  Using the internet, research an area that our government regulates now (meat packing, environment, pharmaceuticals) and report how this is enforced today.The government regulates pharmaceutical products because now days there are so many things that could go wrong in the making of these products. If there was one little mistake in making them then there could be a huge lawsuit and someone could potentially die. Pharmaceutical products have to be regulated very closely so not complications happen. A really interesting way they are regulated are by clinical trials. Clinical trials test the new medicines and treatments before they are released so they know for sure the effects of it. Obamacare gives the pharmaceutical area millions of dollars to keep their products up to date and working. Regulating the pharmaceutical products helps saves lives and keep everyone healthy.

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/03/government_regulation_destroying_pharmaceutical_industry.html

Industrialization

Industrialism is a system of developing industries that make large production of manufactured goods. There was usually manual labor in the industries. Industries were what helped America move in a positive way economically. They gave jobs to the lesser fortunate, helped produce goods faster and were great for making guns and weapons for the war. Industries had some great positive affects as well as negative affects. A couple positive effects were that they economically boosted the country by brining in a lot of money and gave the unemployed a job so they wouldn’t be living on the streets anymore. A negative effect for industries is that the working conditions were awful. Many people died in the factories. The working hours were long and hard for the laborers and the factories were very dangerous. There were so many machines that people could easily get hurt on. Also, the owners didn’t allow the people to leave during working hours so they were locked in.
This lead to many dangerous situations such as fires and workers not being able to escape. Later on in American history, there were machine inventions that took the place of human labor. Instead of having humans in the factories doing the work, there were machines. These machines took the jobs of the lower class, leaving him or her back to where they started with no job or money. In the end, industrialism was a huge downfall for the lower class.

A man named Henry George wrote source 1. His views on industrialism are that American had good ideas to begin with. We thought that making factories and giving the poor a job would be a great thing for the future of America. But George goes on to say that since the working conditions were just so bad that it really didn’t make much of a change. He says that even though the country may have looked like it was striving in wealth and machinery production, if anyone was to look deeper into the lower classes and how they were doing they would see that things aren’t as great as they seem, “and the machinery of production and exchange most highly developed- we find the deepest poverty…”.

David A. was the author of source number 2. David’s view on industrialism is that when people are hired to work in factories they are taught to do one simple task over and over and over again. That’s all they do. It pretty much becomes second nature to these people. They are taught not to say or do anything other than their one task. So when the machines came in and took over the jobs of these people, they were left useless. David shares, “and when there is no more of that kind of work to do, they are in a measure helpless” to show that the workers didn’t know how to do anything and were left without a job when the machines took over. He believes that the people should have had variety in their work so when they were ran out of their job they would have some other options of work choices, not left helpless.          

The author of source 3 is Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie saw mostly all the positives in industrialism. He noticed that the railroads helped transport goods and items across the country. He saw that the inventions of farming machines helped lessen the workload for farmers. Carnegie thought that all these inventions really benefited the citizens of the United States. Andrew Carnegie states, “Markets for his produce are easy of access and transportation swift and cheap” to show us that all the industrializing helped farmers greatly by making it easier for them to sell their goods.                     

The life of an industrial worker would have been hard. They would work long hard hours and not even get paid very much. Their life would revolve around their jobs and they wouldn’t have much time for family. The jobs of these workers would be very dangerous and life risking; their lives would be in their own hands. Workers were treated very poorly with their long working hours and hard labor. I feel as though these workers should have been treated better because they are humans as well. They were treated less for their social class and that is just not right. Everyone should be treated equally. No exception.   

              

US History articles

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1762443/assassination-of-Abraham-Lincoln

The Civil War:
http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war

The American Revolution:
http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution

John F. Kennedy Assassination:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-f-kennedy-assassinated

Louisiana Purchase:
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/louisiana-purchase

Tenement

A tenement is an apartment that was lived in by many families at once. It was usually very cramped for space and not very well lighted. Tenements were built as block shaped buildings that had no lawn and only had windows on the front and back. Later on though, people realized that tuberculosis was being spread faster because of lack of light and fresh air. The newer models of tenements were starting to have lightwells in the center of the buildings to accommodate the inner rooms. Tenements are so small and lacking space that sometimes there will be a bathtub found in the kitchen. The main percentage of people who lived in these tenements were immigrants. The reason being, because they are giving all the money they make back home to their families in their home countries. People with small businesses and not a lot of money choose to live in these tenements to save money and not spend too much money on their rent. Tenements were very useful in the 1800s and offered places for immigrants to live without ripping them of all their money.

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-tenement.htm

http://www.artblogny.com/2012-10/architecture/life-in-a-tenement-in-the-late-1800s-have-things-changed-much#.Umfq0hbU5Ed