WWI Letter Home

      Dear Mother,
This doesn't ever seem like this is going to end. Every day it seems like our patients double, constantly making me work extra hours. I have never seen so many people in one hospital. It makes me scared for the people that i know that are fighting in the war. Seeing all these horrible injuries makes me sick to my stomach. When i finally have a break from work all I can see outside is smoke, reminding me that people have died because of those bombs.
Every time i hear gunfire I can't help but to think about Grandpa. He has constantly been on my mind the whole time i have been here. All the patients i take care of have no hope at all. There has been one patient who i will always remember. His name was Jake, I met him before the war in one of the training camps. We became pretty good friends. When we went off to war he would always come talk to me when he had the chance to. It became an ordinary thing for him to do. Every day i would look forward to seeing him. Everything was fine until one evening he didn't come. I felt like everything was fine and he might just be later than usual. A couple hours had passed and i started to worry. At about 11p.m. i heard a group of voices coming through the hospitals doors. Jake was being carried in by two other soldiers. He had massive burns on his skin, i couldn't even tell it was him anymore. The pain coming from his screams were heartbreaking. I tried to help him as much as i could but there was only a certain amount i could do. I spent the last couple minutes he had with him and i could barely handle myself. When he passed i felt like i had nothing to live for.
Ever since Jake's passed the days have gone a lot slower. I have had no motivation lately and it feels like this war will never end. I miss you a lot mom and i wish you could be here with me.
    - Marissa

WWI Causes

Alliances - Alliances caused more than one country to be at war. Lets say that Germany went to war, that means Austria-Hungary would also be at war because they were their allies.

Militarism - At this point everybody tried to have the best Army and Navy. Countries were constantly upgrading these two to prepare them for war.

Imperialism - Countries fought over power by trying to control other countries and gain allies. Constantly countries were arguing over colonies which caused war.

Nationalism - Having extreme love and passion for ones country. People would go out of their way to keep their country safe, some cases were extreme like murders which caused war.

Spark of War - The Spark of the War was the assassination of the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand.

Lusitania - 1915, A ship that was sunken by the Germans because it had ammunition on their boat.  Sussex pledge - 1916, no longer sinking merchant ships without warning
Unrestricted Sub Warfare - 1917, sinking a ship without warning
Zimmerman Note - 1917, Germany told Mexico to stop the Americans from being sent to Europe.

WWI - Red Baron

Red Baron -

During World War I many soldiers would be involved in battle in the sky. They would use fighter planes to shoot each other down. There was one soldier who was known as a hero, his name was Manfred von Richthofen. He flew his signature blazing red airplane all around the world shooting down plane after plane. The "Red Baron" has 80 credited victories and has become a legend in the air. Richthofen was 22 when the war first started and fought on Germany's side. 

In 1915 Richthofen switched over from the Germany army to the Imperial Air Service. Once 1916 came around he was up in the air doing mass amounts of damage. In one year he shot down 15 planes, bypassing all of the previous records set by previous pilots. Richthofen flew a Fokker triplane that was painted entirely red in tribute of his cavalry regiment, this is how he got the nickname "The Red Baron".

On April 21, 1918, Richthofen was in the territory of the Allied. Up in the sky leading his squad he saw an enemy plane and followed it. The Red Baron followed the plane too far into enemy territory and too close to the ground that he received machine gun fire from Captain Arthur Roy Brown in a plane following him. One of the bullets hit him in the torso, he was able to land his plane but the Australian troops didn't get there in time. Captain Arthur Roy Brown often gets the credit for shooting down the Red Baron, but some claim it was an Australian gunner on the ground. Still today people discuss who actually shot down the Red Baron. He died at the age of 25 and was buried by the Allies at a cemetery in France. Manfred Von Richthofen was one of the most recognizable pilot during his era. 

Sources - http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/redbaron.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/red-baron-killed

Cool History Sites

The cool history sites I found! -

http://www.besthistorysites.net/

http://www.edu.aceswebworld.com/best_history_sites.html

http://history-world.org/

http://www.historyworld.net/

http://www.articlemyriad.com/history.htm

http://www.besthistorysites.net/index.php/american-history

Progressive Era - The Jungle

1) What qualities did Sinclair believe a person must have to succeed in Packingtown? 
You had to be a knave. A man who had been sent to Jugis's father by the boss. You had to tell tales and spy on your peers. Nobody rose in Packiongton by doing good work. A man who would mind their own business doing their work would wear him out. 

2)According to the passage, what is the plant owner's main goal.
They tried to squeeze as much work as possible out of the workers. Always pushing the man below you to be better than you are. The owners just wanted money so he tried to have the best workers that could get the job done.

3) What does Sinclair mean when he says, "...there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar....?"
The owners didn't care about the workers, they were worthless. As long as the job got done the owners were happy. The workers hated their job. All they wanted was their money out of it. 

Government regulating meat packing - 
When the "Workers Bill of Rights" was published in June of 2000 it set some guidelines. It created safe work conditions, organized employees, and help from the state if needed. There were signs that were posted to caution the workers if it is a hazard or dangerous. Overall the workers had better working conditions and were more safe after the "Worker Bill of Rights" was published.

Imperialism and Industrialism #3

Industrialization was the development of industry. In this period industries started implementing new inventions and made workers less important. The new inventions often times lightened the work that the workers had to do. This era had more people living in the cities and working in factories. The income for the workers increased because the overall economy was rising. Industrialization made many immigrants come over to America because they were hoping to find jobs which led to urbanization. New technologies and new big business helped the economy. Laissez-Faire started to come into play and change the game with industrialization.

Source 1 - "labor -saving inventions would lighten the toil and improve the conditions of the laborer." These inventions started making workers worth less because the machines could do the same work without having to pay them.

Source 2 - David A. Wells was one of the first people to realize that machines were taking the jobs of workers. Wells believes that technology has begun to change society. Before these inventions were made only certain people had the special characteristics to complete the job. Those people were valued back then but got replaced by machinery. "The result has been that the individualism or independence of the producer in manufacturing has been in a great degree destroyed."

Source 3 - Industrialism has changed the productivity of a person. The new inventions sped up work so they can get more things done in a certain amount of time. Railroads help connect people so they aren't isolated like they were before in their living area. The markets for products increase because of transportation through railroads.

Thoughts as an industrial worker - Industrial workers have it rough at this time. Before machines they were very valued because of the skills they had. Now that machines are here its like the whole staff has those characteristics and they aren't special anymore. This doesn't really make a need for workers anymore because the machines can do the same thing without getting paid. If I was an industrial worker I would feel very sad because I would most likely lose my job because of these machines. Feeling unworthy in a job that I once felt praised. Workers should be treated with great respect. If i was an owner of a factory I would see why they would only want machines because they have more of an income. The workers shouldn't be taken out of the equation because all of the work before the machines wouldn't have been done without them.

Radio

The radio was the first device that made mass communication possible. It was one of the first devices to be able to communicate internationally. In the 1860's, a Scottish Physicist named James Maxwell discovered radio waves, electromagnetic waves that have the capacity to transmit music and speeches. The first development of the radio began in 1893 when Nikolai Tesla demonstrated wireless radio communication in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1896, Guglielmo Marconi was awarded with the official patent of the radio by the British Government. 
Without the telegraph and the telephone the radio would be nothing. Radio-telegraphy is sending radio waves that contain morse code that is used in a telegraph. The first use of radio transmitters was used for ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship communication. When a ship was sinking it would use the radio to reach nearby stations to call for aid.
In 1912 The Radio Act required all land radio stations and ship stations to be staffed  24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the late 80's and 90's the radio started expanding with radio stations that broadcasted sports and comedy acts.

Sources - 

http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtk187/art2/radio.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htm