AMERICA COMPAREDREADINGSBy Kasandra Bartels

History 141

Ch. 3 Indian Societies Under Siege

Between the 1960’s and the turn of the 20th Century, Americans were flocking West in America.

This expanding of land caused many conflictions with the Indians and their land.

To reduce the violence, the Federal Government decided to constrain the Indians into small reservations that were pieces of land that Americans didn’t want anyways.

Smaller Indian tribes appeased to this movement but larger, more powerful tribes fought back.

Ch. 3 Tribes such as the Sioux,

Pawnees, Cheyenne and Arapahos were a big part if the Indian resistance.

They believed they had a chance, having large numbers and unique skills with guns and horses.

After almost 100 years of relations and experience with Indians, This was the toughest time the U.S. had with them.

However, the U.S. Army over powered the Indians and ended their resistance in 1890 after the massacre at Wounded Knee.

Ch. 3 During the 1880s there were plenty of losses to the Indian

resistance. Many tribes were left with little to nothing to fight with and all

they could do was wait to see what would happen next. When encountered next, they were demanded by the

government to become sedimentary farmers. Bureaucrats decided that the best way to change the Indians customs to those of American and Canadian societies, was to have them live in reservations.

Canadian agencies decided to start schooling the Indians, and when America soon adopted this idea, both countries saw these schools as a means to erase Indian culture.

Yet Indians chose what they would and would not adopt from their new teachings.

By 1876, the countries made it harder by signing off the Indian Act. This Act made tribal Indians prove they had skills to live in the “white culture” to be assigned land.

The failure of the acculturative programs to help Indians were clearly big failures in America and Canada.

By the late 19th Century, the depression and stress Indians had to deal with was showing in all of their faces.

Ch. 13 Americans, Europeans and the Movies

The beginning of movies and mass commercial entertainment started with the creation of the silent feature film.

Between 1912 and 1929, more than ten thousand silent feature films were produced in the United States.

The filmmakers were mainly foreign born producers and their works (meant for entertainment) were mostly on crime or erotica.

This infuriated the high order men and women who believed these silent films to be the negative of true American values.

The most notorious of all movie makers was by far, Cecil B. DeMille. He began to earn this status in 1918 with the film, Old Wifes for New, which was an extremely salacious film, and just first of its series.

The films made by consummate sentimentalist DeMille, were popular with the middle-class however, infuriated moralists.

DeMille had a knack for tantalizing his audience with his films but still keeping their conventional standards.

Ch. 13 Silent films were booming in

Europe as well. Their films were very

different then those in America.

Average produced European films made DeMille look like a saint.

European filmmakers were able to do what they wanted in their films; and they did. Films in Europe went places that Americans wouldn’t dare.

Erich von Stroheim is an example of one who directed and starred in films that were controversial even in Europe.

Von Stroheim’s methods and ideals were much like DeMille.

Ch. 13 As the year of 1918 came to an end, World War I ended and

shortly after, comedic films and performances had a more open range to be discovered.

Comedic films before WWI (Keystone) were mainly just slapstick, but post-war comedy films (Bourgeois) were much more in-depth.

Bourgeois comedies were films based on separation and action rather than sexual relations.

Harold Lloyd and Keaton were two filmmakers who acted in, and made very famous comedy films.

Keaton emerged as a comedian in the 1920s whose comedic persona was an aloof and naïve version of Lloyd’s character in a previously made film about a man who got into funny physical/action scenes.

When Keaton started to make his own silent films, he took that character with him in many of his movies. However, his actions scenes were filled with scenes such as Lloyd’s but more extravagant.

Keaton became an idol to Europeans and European filmmakers.

Ch. 16 Roosevelt and Hitler

When the Great Depression was at its lowest point, the United States and Germany were affected the most.

Both countries’ citizens were drowning in poverty.

And so, when the elections came around the people cant help but want to vote for an extra confident candidate.

Ch. 16 Hitler was quite lazy as a child; doing poorly in school and

dropping out at the age of 14. He joined the army and fought in the Great War, and later

became very involved in politics. Eventually, Hitler formed his National Socialist Party which

was disdained by many people due to the violent, rowdy members in the party.

Hitler’s very enthusiastic personality made him the chancellor of Germany in 1933.

Roosevelt was born into wealth and attended the best of private schools while growing up.

As a candidate, Roosevelt’s charm inspired the hearts of all the Americans and promised them reformation and reconstruction of the countries dying economy.

The votes from raised spirits landed him in the white house also in 1933.

Ch. 16 Roosevelt’s first major move in office was presenting the New

Deal to try and fix the economy. Hitler saw this and soon after put his own version of

Roosevelt’s New Deal into action. Their policies were very similar in how they helped the economies of the two countries.

Many other similar policies each leader were created. This is because both leaders were dealing with an economies at their worst.

One big difference between New Deal and Nazi policies were how each leader dealt with their labor force.

While Roosevelt allowed the worker unions in America increase their member capacity, Hitler forced all workers out of their unions and placed them all into the German Labor Front.

Hitler covered up his confusion and doubts when seeing how his policies and decisions were not working as well as Roosevelt’s during his first year of being experimental and virtuous in public.

Sadly, neither country was able to rise above war during their reformations.

Ch. 19 America and Soviet Union

After World War II the Soviet empire was much more than the American.

Stalin had an authoritarian vision along with an imperial one and he oddly implemented that.

When Soviet Russia was at a weak point, Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, and Moldavians were allowed to depart. Others weren't so lucky.

Stalin even tried to incorporate the remaining nationalities into the Russian Republic, but this movement was overridden by Lenin.

The “Stalin Constitution” of 1936, specified the right of non-Russian nationalities to secede from the Soviet Union.

Ch. 19 (Continued)

The only thing that the United States worried about at first, was whether Moscow’s influence would expand past Soviet Union Borders.

The U.S. was bolstered for being the dominant country in the world, after WWI. But it wasn’t the same after WWII.

America had reason to believe that Stalin was planning something with his movements, but they didn’t give up hope in the Soviet Union just yet.

It wasn’t until after 1947 that the U.S. and its allies stopped believing that the Soviets would come around.

Ch. 19 (Continued)

When America started to intervene in Vietnam, Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, sparked the growing fear of Nuclear War in the early 1980s.

The interesting part is to see how the U.S. has been able to prosper without any plans of expanding its “empire.” While the Soviet could not.

Ch. 23 Imperial Denial

It was always the critics to foreign policy that referred to the “American Empire.” But many other countries have hopped onto the bandwagon. Countries such as the Soviet Union and China, along with some Western European, Middle Eastern, and Asian writers.

For some reason, the tone of this radical criticism continues to emanate and it seems it will never fade.

Most countries believe that America is an Imperial power in denial.

Ch. 23 Few Americans would ever believe this. According to the

Pew Global Attitudes Survey, 4 out of 5 Americans agreed that it was “good that Americans ideas and customs were being spread.”

None of those people had an answer when asked about American Imperialism.

Some believe that America is not an empire but a hegemony. The reality of this, is that most people believe an empire to mean a country that directly rules over other countries, when this is not true.

The U.S. could be an empire who, may provide public goods, intentionally or unintentionally. Yet America also has been considered a more effective “hegemon” than Great Britain.

A hegemon is used to describes something between leadership, but less than outright empire.

Ch. 23 (Continued) The U.S does however

control a good amount of small areas of territory, outside of the borders.

The U.S. military had 752 military installations in more than 130 countries.

So how can we really say that we are not an empire confidently?

After all, President Bush himself made it clear that one of his objectives was invading Iraq.