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Massacres at Sand Creek
Sand Creek is a village in southeast Colorado, home to 800 Cheyenne Indians. On November 28, 1964 Chief Black Kettle was promised his people would not be disturbed at Sand Creek.The next day, Colorado Volunteers surrounded Sand Creek, and in an attempt to control the situation, Black Kettle raised the American flag as a sign of friendship. Colonel Chivington commanded his troops to "Kill and scalp all, big and little". 400 Cheyenne people were killed, mostly women and children. -
Period: to
1877-Present
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Immigration
Experience of Immigrants coming to the U.S. -
Labor
During the mid 19th Century, most of American labor was still done on farm. By the beginning of the 20th century, United States economy began to revolve around factories. Labor conditions were terrible. Both mean and women worked until their body stopped properly functioning and they knew something had to change. They lacked money, education, and political power but they knew the workers had the body count over owners. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
300 Sioux people reluctantly agreed to be transported to Wounded Knee Creek on Pine Ridge Reservation. On December 29, 1980 the army demanded the surrender of all Sioux weapons. A shot rang out, possibly from a deaf brave who misunderstood his Chief's orders to surrender. The seventh cavalry opened fire on the Sioux. When the smoke cleared, 300 Sioux were found dead. This was the last showdown between Native Americans and the U.S. army. The 1890 census declared the frontier officially closed. -
Resurgence of the KKK
By 1915 the Ku Klux Klan was almost dead, but William Simmons of Atlanta, Georgia held a gathering on Stone Mountain with the goal of bringing back white supremacy. Gradually the klan grew. By 1920 there were around 5,000 members. Elizabeth Simmons and Edward Y. Clarke held many fundraisers to boost the numbers of the klan. The leader of the KKK is titled "Imperial Wizard" -
Treaty of Versailles
The "Big Four" consisting of Woodrow Wilson of the United States, and three European leaders as well. Most of the final decisions made at The Paris Peace Conference were made by these four men. Wilson wanted peace between the nations after the war, but the European leaders wanted repayment from Germany. They wanted Germany to admit being guilty for the war and pay for all the damages caused by the war. Woodrow returned to the states to present the Treaty of Versailles to the senate. -
League Of Nations
Henry Cabot Lodge, the Republican leader of the U.S. senate was suspicious of Wilson and the plan he was presenting. Lodge viewed the league as having power or influence that outdo the government. This led him to worrying that this would limit the power of the U.S. government. Wilson asked the senate of Democrats to vote against the treaty, in hopes that Lodge's uncertainty would be dropped. Unfortunately neither party complied, and the treaty was shut down. -
The Great Depression
U.S. had the largest economy in the world by the end of 1929. After WWI, Europe struggled and America thrived. President Herbert Hoover believe the end of poverty in the U.S. was near.Then in 1929, the stock market crashed. This sent America into the worst economic crisis in it's entire history. 9,000 banks failed after the crash of the stock market. Prices of trade items were already lowering during the 1920s, making it difficult for farmers to recover. This worsened the downward spiral. -
The New Deal
The near end of economy also ended Hoover's term. Franklin D Roosevelt was was the next hope for helping the nation recover. His statement that won over the country was "a new deal for the American people". This was enough to get him into office, the people were desperate for change. He had no massive strategy for fixing the nation's problems, he was just bold enough to try new things. The New Deal began a revolution in American opinion on the relationship between the people and the government. -
The Holocaust
Nazi Germany committed mass murders of Jewish people, and even homosexuals, Jehovah's witnesses, and Soviet prisoners of war. These people were tortured, and many killed in brutal manors. Jewish people were deported to concentration camps from German owned land in Europe. The German military changed their oath to "unconditional obedience" meaning obeying Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany, and leader of the Nazi party. Although, there was a minority of troops who helped the Jews. -
The Road to Pearl Harbor-War Breaks Out
For unknown reasons, Chinese and Japanese troops broke out in combat. Japan saw the opportunity to invade China, and bombed cities in China, putting them ahead because the Japanese army was better equipped. Mass murders and rapes, called the "Rape of Nanking" were brought to America's attention. President Roosevelt decided to approach the Japanese in a different, more forceful way. -
The Iron Curtain
The wartime capital of Germany, Berlin, was the most difficult of all issues that separated the U.S. and the S.U. in the 1940s. Berlin ended up being broken up into four zones, like the rest of Germany. The nation of East Germany was created, and the allies section, "West Berlin" became an isolated area of democracy and capitalism behind what was called the Iron Curtain. Truman giving Berlin up to the Soviets would disregard the doctrine of containment. The U.S. needed to make a new plan. -
The Cold War
World War II ended in 1945, and the Cold War began soon after. Billions of dollars and millions of lives were lost during the 45 year span of this war. America became the leader of the capitalist world, and with the assistance of its allies, struggled with containing communism in the Soviet Union, and not allowing it to spread to Europe, Asia and Africa. The Soviet Union failed to follow through with promises of freedom to eastern Europe, and the allies won the war. -
Postwar Challenges
Americans were overjoyed when the soldiers returned from WWII, there were parades to welcome the survivors. American army and navy were now the most powerful in the world. The end of this war almost instantly caused another war- The Cold War Americans brought the new technology of nuclear weapons to the War field. The U.S. was unwilling to sit and watch their ally, the Soviet Union struggle. For the following 50 years, the Cold war mattered the most of all foreign policy issues. -
The Atomic Era
President Truman Created a law that all civilian working for the government have a thorough background check. When a high ranking official was convicted for using spies, there was an increase in fear of communists. There were also fears of a nuclear Holocaust when the news that the Soviet Union set off their first Atomic bomb in 1949. Also in that year, China, who had the nations largest population became communist. Americans constantly were becoming aware of new atomic threats. -
The Berlin Airlift
Truman was not going to allow the Iron Curtain to stop them from helping out the out West Berlin. There was a way around the wall, and it was to go over it. For the next eleven months planes from the States and from Britain delivered over 4,000 tons of goods DAILY to west Berlin. This made Stalin look bad, since he was willing to bring civilians into it to help with his plan of expansion of communism. The U.S and Britain flew over 250,000 supply missions. Soviets ended the blockade in May 1949. -
Vietnam War
This was the second longest War in U.S. history. The goal was to keep communist forces from spreading to South Vietnam. The U.S. was not successful in this war. On top of that, we lost billions of dollars, and over 60,00 lives of troops. Lack of support really influenced this failure. The enemies were hard to identify. Viet Congs had a strategy to blend in with everyone else, and unexpectedly ambushed American troops at night. The mentally scarred America survivors did not heal very well. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the 1960s civil rights movements. He made change from a peaceful approach, which is different from the previous attempts to make change. His organization of the Montgomery bus boycott, which was a protest against the racial segregation on public transportation started this new method of change. After this, King continued to protest, and spread the dedication of gaining civil rights until he was assassinated in1968. -
The Reagan Years
Americans were almost out of hope. Their confidence in the economy vanished. Reagan's message seemed like he had more of a plan. He was going to downsize the government, as it had grown too much. He knew the people were not in favor of the growing power of the government. Also, he was going to lessen taxes, he believed they were outrageously high. Also he increased military spending. The American government was supposed to be the best, he intended to prove this statement true. -
The Information Age
New technologies were being introduced to America in the 1990s. During the decade new types of entertainment, commerce, research, work, and communication became a regular thing in America. The motivation for all these changes was the internet. The internet was developed in 1970 , and first meant for scientists to communicate with each other. The World Wide Web was created in the early 1990s. Email was starting to become a popular form of communication. Todays term "surfing the web" came to be. -
End of the American Century
The beginning of the 21st century started in 2001. During its second industrial revolution, America begun to develop overseas empires, and an influence around the world. America earned the right to determine post war outcomes. America started the development of nuclear weapons, computers, send the first people to the moon, and lead the development of immunization techniques. Although things such as minorities advancement to equality, things like gun violence and school shootings were more common
