Latin American Revolutions Assignment

In the comparative history essay concerning racial imbalance, it can be proved that the United States was more prepared for independence than those of Latin America. One reason for this was the ratio of slaves to whites in the Latin American colonies was much higher than it was in the British colonies. The British colonies, in fact, never let the slave population eclipse that of the whites in the colonies. The pie chart at the bottom of this paragraph shows how imbalanced the population of the Latin American colonies were. Also, the whites in the British colonies actually shared the labor between the slaves and the whites, not completely equally, but still shared nonetheless. This can be shown in the quote that says, "North America was, by contrast, neither a conquest society, nor a slave society. In its origins, it was a colony of farmers, a predominantly white society of European immigrants who established a relatively egalitarian system of social and economic organization..." The whites in the Latin Americas did little work and usually forced the slaves to do everything for them. Finally, Once the slaves were actually freed in the Latin Americas, they did not want to return to work. This led to a collapse of the economy after Independence was earned. Quoted in the essay, it was said “Wanting to travel and to see the Africans for myself, with my own eyes, to determine whether it was possible to get them back to work after they had been so suddenly emancipated...".the Africans he refers to in this quote are the slaves.

 

In the document set that covers national literacy, it can be proven that the English colonists had the upper hand in independence once again. This can be proven by the fact that literacy itself was a very important tool used to shape nations after they gained their independence. The Spanish colonies in Latin America had only a ten percent literacy rate, and the literate population only lived in the cities, proven in this quote, “At a guess (there is no hard data that I know of) the literacy rate in New Spain in 1810 could not have been much higher than 10 percent overall, with much of the literate population compressed spatially into the cities, and socially into the upper reaches of the social hierarchy". Comparatively, The British colonies had a literacy rate of sixty percent but grew to an astonishing one hundred percent soon after. Also Spanish colonies had to deal with language barriers in their colonies which made it harder to educate the whole nation, which can be seen on the pie chart at the bottom of this paragraph. Finally, Literacy was treated as more of an important skill by the Europeans that moved into the British colonies. 

Haitian Revolution Assignment

Haiti was Frances most profitable colony in the western hemisphere. At the time of it being a colony to France, however, it was known as San Domingue. France inherited the colony after events of both the thirty years war and the nine years war that led to France laying claim to the land and protecting it from the Spanish. Two huge luxury resources ruled the land at the time, sugar and coffee, both of which were plentiful on the island nation. As a result of the booming industry there, thousands upon thousands of slaves were imported from Africa to work on plantations. This single-handedly shifted the population so that it was now a majority of black slaves on the island. Rigid class systems were established so as to keep what little whites were on the island nation, in power over the blacks. Soon, however, the blacks became fed up with the segregation and started a revolt that would last 12 years, securing their freedom from France and Slavery. Once Haiti was declared as a sovereign nation, however, another new nation made clear that it was not to accept Haiti as a real nation. Thomas Jefferson and the United States were quite skeptical of the new nation and its political stances. As quoted from an article written by Edwidge Danticat, "The fact that the U.S. was not more supportive of its smaller, slightly younger neighbor had a great deal to do with Louverture's roots, which were African and which were now planted in America's backyard.". Jefferson was afraid that the slaves he kept in his own nation may be persuaded by the actions taken in Haiti, and may plant dangerous ideas in their heads. On top of this, France also made its displeasure known by forcibly extorting money from Haiti, threatening military action if not complied with. This debt was not to be halted until 1947, an astonishing 140 years after Haiti was declared independent.

These effects piled on to the new nation of Haiti, which was woefully unprepared to handle such a response from such powerful adversaries. This led to Haiti falling into extreme poverty that extends to this day and age. Some argue that it is Frances responsibility to reimburse Haiti for the wrongful taxation of their nation, however, no such deal has yet to be made between the two nations. Haiti was never able to become a prosperous nation because of these sanctions put on them by France and the US, which must have been quite disheartening for the people who fought so hard for its independence.

picture link:http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/haitian-revolution.htm

Napoleon Blog Post

Napoleon was one of the most successful rulers in French History. His military might allowed him to conquer a majority of Europe at one time, Creating a kingdom that reached from Paris to Moscow. He was only able to achieve these great feats through a rigorous military campaign where Napoleon stole the hearts and minds of his followers who were, for the most part, devoted to following in his footsteps. This was somewhat surprising as Napoleon ruled ruthlessly and used fear and threat to help drive his empire forward. Politically speaking, his following allowed him to climb to the highest positions in the French government, eventually culminating in him crowning himself emperor. In The Lost Voices of Napoleonic History, it is said Napoleon had the "peculiar combination of military genius, civilian disinterestedness and domineering will, which were just what France wanted". He struck fear in the hearts of men that opposed him, yet they admired his mind as well. Socially, Napoleon was in favor of Human advancement, and cared little for the class based system that had existed in France before him. J.T. Headley was quoted as saying that "Napoleon's moral character was indifferent enough; yet as a friend of human liberty, and eager to promote the advancement of the race, by opening the field to talent and genius, however low their birth...". This also lead to him being revered by the bourgeoisie in France, but held in contempt by the nobility. One such Nobility was Madame de Stael, the daughter of a previous french financial adviser to King Louis XVI. She believed Napoleon was nothing more than a tyrant who used brute force to control people and get what he wanted. She also thought he quote "found contempt for all the intellectual riches of human nature...". Economically, Napoleon helped to raise France to one of the most economically sound countries of the time. He did this by collecting wealth and treasures from the nations he conquered, as well as having them pay hefty taxes to France while conquered. He also conducted public works projects, such as roads, which helped to create more effective trade routes throughout the French empire. In short, Napoleon was one of the most powerful rulers in the History of France, and the world and had a huge
impact on Europe at the time.

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US and Great Britain Comparison

The industrial revolution was a powerful force in both Great Britain and the United States. However, Industrialists were more likely to succeed in Great Britain for some select reasons. For one, there was a labor shortage that occurred in the United States, who were a critical part of the industrial machine. One quote that signifies this would be in the comparative essay that read "Another challenge in the United States was a relative shortage of labor. Much more than in continental Europe or in Britain, labor was in chronically short supply in the United States." (P.3). With little labor to be found, resources would have to spent by the company to try and recruit workers to work in the factories. In Great Britain, however, labor was plentiful, as well as having plentiful resources and a good transportation system. Finally, Industrialists had it better in Great Britain because the accepted that people could move up on the social ladder through hard work and having a gift at whatever craft they may have chosen. This kept the economy booming and allowed industrialists to let their investments grow and work for them. All these factors combined to made Great Britain a veritable cornucopia of opportunities for industrialists.

Although both the US and Great Britain each had their fair share of undesirable traits that went along with working in the factories of that time, the US had slightly better working conditions and offered better benefits to the workers. Harriet Robinson also explains in her autobiography how the wages that some of the mill girls earned during this period in history were revolutionary for womens labor at the time. "We can hardly realize what a change the cotton factory made in the status of the working women. Hitherto woman had always been a money saving rather than a money earning, member of the community." (paragraph 7). Also, although child labor was common in both parts of the world, the work was not as demanding in the US as it was in Great Britain. Another quote from Harriet's Autobiography that signifies this would be "These mites worked about fifteen minutes every hour and the rest of the time was their own. When the overseer was kind they were allowed to read, knit, or go outside the mill­yard to play." (paragraph 4). Finally, mill workers in the US were able to demand higher wages because of the labor shortage at the time. These factors combined to create a more opportune working environment in the US than in Great Britain.

picture link: http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/textile.html

Mary Paul Letters Response

Mary Paul was a young girl who was born on a small farm in New Hampshire. She had correspondence with a cousin who had moved to Lowell to work in the newly erected cotton mills. She decided she wanted to do the same, and begged her father to let her go. After much persuasion, her father let her go off into the large city of Lowell to work. While there, she wrote letters to her family explaining her job and how she was being treated in the new environment. The first letter was to her father, asking his permission to attend the mills and work full time, seeing it as a great opportunity to earn her own way in the world. You can tell that she is anxious to go as she lists off many of the benefits she would gain by working in the mills. Her second letter is her first from Lowell and states what she will be working on during her stay. She also explains how the pay is going to be handled, stating how much she will be earning and how much she will have to pay for room and board. She also hints at how she wants to be written to, telling her father he must “write as soon as you receive this”. The third letter takes a darker turn in it, as she tells of how some of the girls had accidents during work, some of them actually dying on the job. This shows how she might be scared of how dangerous the work can be. The letter than turns to a better light as she tells of how she received her pay and used some of it to buy some clothes for herself. In the fourth letter, she tells of how she is one of the hardest workers in the mill room, however she is told by others that she is “growing very poor”, which means she is growing sick because of the work load. This is also explained later in the letter when she tells of her schedule in its fullest detail. She also appears to be growing lonelier as she once again asks for people to, not only write to her, but visit her as well. In letter five, she makes it very obvious that the work load she has is way too much for her. She states in the letter that she actually lost her old job and had to scrounge for a new one that wouldn't pay as much. She also complains about how the wages she already earns, which are meager at best, will be reduced even further. The final letter is very short and states that her condition as deteriorated even further. She had actually become so sick that she was “obliged to be out of the mill four days”. She also had not been paid, and didn't expect to be paid much if at all. That was her final latter before she left the mill and traveled back to Vermont. These letters are a very credible account of the impact the Lowell experiment had on the girls who participated in it. These letters show that show both success and failure in the Lowell experiment. It was a success because Mary was able to make some money working in the mills, and also was a very hard worker for the company. It was also, however, a failure because she became ill due to the increasingly bad working conditions and was also neglected in terms of pay, which led to her quitting and moving away from the mills.