To the Victor, Goes the Spoils

This week our lessons topic was based on the presidency of Andrew Jackson. For this unit, the essential question was, "Is Andrew Jackson's long-standing reputation as "the people's president" deserved?" To answer this question, we were split into 7 groups by card, and given one of Jacksons key policies to examine. Our group was given the spoils system.

The first problem discussed was Andrew Jackson's policy on banks. As the first national banks expiration date was coming up, the government decided to create the second national bank to replace the first one. Jackson however, vetoed the charter for the bank because he believed that the bank would have too much power over the nations economy, and only help the rich. This eventually backfired, and caused the crash of 48'. The second issue discussed was, the spoils system. This was the system in which the winning party of an election, gives it's voters political positions. Though it did help Jackson get voters, it put incompetent people in important offices, which lead to large scale scandals. The last and most infamous policy of the Jackson administration, was the Indian Removal Act. This law, forced many native off their land and made them force march half way along the nation, for resettlement. Though most of Jackson's policies had ephemeral benefits, Jackson tried (and failed) to be a people's president, which is better than not trying. In my opinion, Jackson Does deserve his reputation.      

Floo powder ---> 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w43s7fLCuJE&list=UUuc7-QIEhHZEFC6O4JEyqbw

The Rite Kind Of Freedom?

Our Poster. The early american voting system was judged with a one to five star rating. Also just to clarify, I know the title has the wrong form of right in it, but the title of the poster had Rite in it, so I had to put it in the title.

This week, our lesson was based on the early American democracy. For this lesson, we incorporated the essential question, "How should we define democracy? How democratic was the United States in the early 1800s?" The definition that our group came up with was, A government system in which the power is distributed among the law abiding citizens, of said country, by the system of voting, in which they have the opportunity to choose their political leaders and representatives. For our poster we analyzed several sources about voting rights in the early 1800's. Our sources were a painting created by George Caleb Bingham about voting, a quote about voting by Benjamin Franklin and Norton Townsworth, two charts about the percentage of people with the right to vote, and a excerpt from the Dorr War. All of the evidence seemed to support the state of democracy in 1800's except for the except from the Dorr war, and the two quotes.

The Triple Threat from Latin America

This week in class, we learned about the latin revolutions in Brazil, Gran Colombia, and Mexico. the essential question for this unit was, “Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the

TO CLARIFY: Peninsulares were people of  European descent born in Europe, Creoles were people of European descent born in the Americas, Mestizos were natives with a position of power, Mulattoes were people of European and American descent, the rest is self explanatory    

events in the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?” The essential question was very critical,when talking about the latin revolutions, because almost all of them started from prejudice distribution of power among the citizens. at the start of the lesson we were split into 3 groups, and each group was given a revolution to cover. In those groups, we had to make a timeline of our assigned timeline. After we finished we shared them with the other groups.

All of the revolutions in Latin America had different reasons and outcomes. While Gran Colombia became a republic once it had declare independance, Mexico and brazil both became constitutional monarchies with their own royal families and that such. The leaders of the each individual  revolutions, also had different characteristics too. Brazils revolutionary leader was a peninsulare born in portugal, while the leaders of the Mexican and Colombian revolutions were creoles, born in their respective countries.

Timeline for Revolutions in Brazil

Though very different the revolutions were also very similar in many ways. For one, they all of the revolution were fought against a country located on the Iberian peninsula. Brazil fought for independence against the portuguese, while mexico and Gran Colombia fought against the nation of spain. The other reason that the revolutions were similar, was that they all had one figurehead to lead the revolution. King Pedro lead Brazil to independence, Simón Bolívar piloted Gran Colombia to freedom, and Antonio José de Sucre was the vanguard for the Mexican Revolution.

While the race problem in 1800's latin america does not seem relevant to modern society, it really is. The major issue of race/religion is present in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, a feud that has been going on for centuries. In the Israeli, many muslims cannot visit any of their holy sites, because of the actions set  radical muslim groups like Hamas or Isis.  Incidents like this are gestures that we as a society, have the same maturity as the spanish/portugese in the 1800's.