Monday, May 10, 2010

WH II Honors: 11 April 2010

Prayer
Current Events:
Pelosi to Bishops: Use Pulpit to Promote Immigration Reform


The Ch. 17 Sec. 3 Quiz is on Wednesday. Be sure to consult the Chapter 17 Section 3 Quiz Study Prep Page.

Chapter 18: Nationalism Around the World, 1919–1939

Section 4 Nationalism in Latin America

The Latin American Economy

Role of the United States

Impact of the Great Depression

The Move to Authoritarianism

Argentina

Brazil

Mexico

The Constitution of 1917 addressed three major issues: land, religion, and labor. The constitution strengthened government control over the economy. It permitted the breakup of large estates, placed restrictions on foreigners owning land, and allowed nationalization, or government takeover, of natural resources. Church land was made “the property of the nation.” The constitution set a minimum wage and protected workers’ right to strike.

Although the constitution gave suffrage only to men, it did give women some rights. Women doing the same job as men were entitled to the same pay. In response to women activists, Carranza also passed laws allowing married women to draw up contracts, take part in legal suits, and have equal authority with men in spending family funds.

Fighting continued on a smaller scale throughout the 1920s, including Carranza’s overthrow in 1920. In 1929, the government organized what later became the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI managed to accommodate many groups in Mexican society, including business and military leaders, peasants, and workers. The PRI did this by adopting some of the goals of these groups, while keeping real power in its own hands. It suppressed opposition and dissent. Using all of these tactics, the PRI brought stability to Mexico and over time carried out many desired reforms. The PRI dominated Mexican politics from the 1930s until the free election of 2000.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party PRI and Vicente Fox, 1:32



At first, the Constitution of 1917 was just a set of goals to be achieved in the future. But in the 1920s and 1930s, as the government finally restored order, it began to carry out reforms.

In the 1920s, the government helped some Indian communities regain lands that had been taken from them. In the 1930s, under President Lázaro Cárdenas, millions of acres of land were redistributed to peasants under a communal land program. The government supported labor unions and launched a massive effort to combat illiteracy. Schools and libraries were set up. Dedicated teachers, often young women, worked for low pay. While they taught basic skills, they spread ideas of nationalism that began to bridge the gulf between the regions and the central government. As the revolutionary era ended, Mexico became the first Latin American nation to pursue real social and economic reforms for the majority of its people.

The government also took a strong role in directing the economy. In 1938, labor disputes broke out between Mexican workers and the management of some foreign-owned petroleum companies. In response, President Cárdenas decreed that the Mexican government would nationalize Mexico’s oil resources. American and British oil companies resisted Cárdenas’s decision, but eventually accepted compensation for their losses. Mexicans felt that they had at last gained economic independence from foreign influence.

Reading Check

Examining

Culture in Latin America

By the 1920s, Latin American writers, artists, and thinkers began to reject European influences in culture as well. Instead, they took pride in their own culture, with its blend of Western and native traditions.

In Mexico, cultural nationalism, or pride in one’s own culture, was reflected in the revival of mural painting, a major art form of the Aztecs and Maya. In the 1920s and 1930s, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco (oh rohs koh), David Alfaro Siqueiros (see keh rohs), and other muralists created magnificent works. On the walls of public buildings, they portrayed the struggles of the Mexican people for liberty. The murals have been a great source of national pride ever since.

Jose Clemente Orozco Murals in Guadalajara, Mexico, 2:58

Murals painted by Jose Clemente Orozco in Guadalajara, Mexico.



David Alfaro Siqueiros, 6:07



Diego Rivera, 4:50



Reading Check

Examining

How did Diego Rivera use his artistic talent as a political tool?

Preview

Chapter 19 World War II 1939-1945

Chapter 19: World War II, 1939–1945
The German and Japanese occupations of neighboring countries led to a brutal war that took millions of lives. Both countries were defeated, but not before the Nazis had killed millions of people in pursuit of Aryan domination of Europe.

Section 1 Paths to War
Aggressive moves by Germany and Japan set the stage for World War II. Adolf Hitler began a massive military buildup and instituted a draft in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. The German annexation of Austria alarmed France but did not shake Great Britain's policy of appeasement. Mussolini became a German ally. Appeasement of Germany peaked at a conference in Munich where Hitler claimed he sought only one final territory, the Czech Sudetenland. This soon proved false. When Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with Stalin and invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Japanese expansion into Manchuria and northern China brought condemnation from the League of Nations. While still at war with China, Japan launched a surprise attack on U.S. and European colonies in Southeast Asia.

Section 2 The Course of World War II
German forces swept through northern Europe early in the war and set up the Vichy government in France. German air attacks on Great Britain resulted in fierce British retaliation. In the east, harsh weather and a resolute Soviet Union defeated an invading German army. The Japanese conquered the Pacific but miscalculated when they attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The United States surprised Japan by abandoning its neutrality and entering the war to retake the Pacific. By the end of 1943, the tide had turned against Germany, Italy, and Japan. After the invasion of Normandy, the Allies liberated Paris and defeated Germany. U.S. President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin met at Potsdam, Germany, to plan the post-war world. The war in Asia continued until the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing massive casualties and bringing Japan's surrender.

Section 3 The New Order and the Holocaust
To further their war effort and Hitler's plans for Aryan expansion, the Nazis forced millions of people to resettle as forced laborers. No aspect of the Nazi New Order was more terrifying than the deliberate attempt to exterminate the Jews. As part of the Nazis' Final Solution, Jews were locked into cramped, unsanitary ghettos or forced to dig their own mass graves before being killed. When this proved too slow for the Nazis, they transported Europe's Jews to death camps where they were worked to death or sent to die in gas chambers. The Nazis killed between five and six million Jews and nine to ten million non-Jews. In Asia, Japan showed little respect for the conquered peoples in its effort to secure industrial markets and raw materials. Japanese treatment of prisoners of war was equally harsh. Japan professed a commitment to ending Western colonialism, but the brutality of the Japanese convinced many Asians to resist Japanese occupation.

Section 4 The Home Front and the Aftermath of the War
World War II reached almost every area of the world, and mobilization for war brought widespread suffering and even starvation. The war caused 20 million civilian deaths. The United States, which did not fight the war on its own territory, sent its forces to fight and produced much of the military equipment for the Allies. Segregation in the U.S. military led African Americans to demand civil rights. Racism and suspicion led to the war-time detention of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans. The bombing of cities by the Allied and Axis powers cost thousands of lives, but probably did nothing to weaken the morale of either side. After the war, ideological conflict between the West and the Soviet Union resulted in the Cold War. The Cold War centered around the status of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe.

Chapter 19 World War II 1939-1945

Section 1 Paths to War
Aggressive moves by Germany and Japan set the stage for World War II. Adolf Hitler began a massive military buildup and instituted a draft in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. The German annexation of Austria alarmed France but did not shake Great Britain's policy of appeasement. Mussolini became a German ally. Appeasement of Germany peaked at a conference in Munich where Hitler claimed he sought only one final territory, the Czech Sudetenland. This soon proved false. When Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with Stalin and invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Japanese expansion into Manchuria and northern China brought condemnation from the League of Nations. While still at war with China, Japan launched a surprise attack on U.S. and European colonies in Southeast Asia.
Note Taking
Reading and Listening Skill: Recognize Sequence

As you read and listen, keep track of the sequence of events that led to the outbreak of World War II by completing a table like the one below.



Note Taking
Reading Skill: Recognize Sequence

Complete this timetable of German aggression as you read.


The German Path to War

Hitler pursued his goal of bringing all German-speaking people into the Third Reich. He also took steps to gain “living space” for Germans in Eastern Europe. Hitler, who believed in the superiority of the German people, or “Aryan race,” thought that Germany had a right to conquer the inferior Slavs to the east. “Nature is cruel,” he claimed, “therefore we, too, may be cruel. . . .I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin.”

Hitler on the History of the Aryan Race (Mein Kampf in English), 3:10



Throughout the 1930s, challenges to peace followed a pattern. Dictators took aggressive action but met only verbal protests and pleas for peace from the democracies. Mussolini, Hitler, and the leaders of Japan viewed that desire for peace as weakness and responded with new acts of aggression. With hindsight, we can see the shortcomings of the democracies’ policies. These policies, however, were the product of long and careful deliberation. At the time, some people believed they would work.

The First Steps

Hitler, too, had tested the will of the Western democracies and found it weak. First, he built up the German military in defiance of the treaty that had ended World War I. Then, in 1936, he sent troops into the “demilitarized” Rhineland bordering France—another treaty violation.

March 1936 Rhineland remilitarized, 3:50



Germans hated the Versailles treaty, and Hitler’s successful challenge made him more popular at home. The Western democracies denounced his moves but took no real action. Instead, they adopted a policy of appeasement, or giving in to the demands of an aggressor in order to to keep the peace.

The World At War - Appeasement, 6:54



The Western policy of appeasement developed for a number of reasons. France was demoralized, suffering from political divisions at home. It could not take on Hitler without British support. The British, however, had no desire to confront the German dictator. Some even thought that Hitler’s actions constituted a justifiable response to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which they believed had been too harsh on Germany.

In both Britain and France, many saw Hitler and fascism as a defense against a worse evil—the spread of Soviet communism. Additionally, the Great Depression sapped the energies of the Western democracies. Finally, widespread pacifism, or opposition to all war, and disgust with the destruction from the previous war pushed many governments to seek peace at any price.

As war clouds gathered in Europe in the mid-1930s, the United States Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts. One law forbade the sale of arms to any nation at war. Others outlawed loans to warring nations and prohibited Americans from traveling on ships of warring powers. The fundamental goal of American policy, however, was to avoid involvement in a European war, not to prevent such a conflict.

The Mood Of The USA 1939 to Pearl Harbor, 2:16



New Alliances

In the face of the apparent weakness of Britain, France, and the United States, Germany, Italy, and Japan formed what became known as the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. Known as the Axis powers, the three nations agreed to fight Soviet communism. They also agreed not to interfere with one another’s plans for territorial expansion. The agreement cleared the way for these anti-democratic, aggressor powers to take even bolder steps.

Berlin-Rome-Tokyo 1937, 2:36



In Italy, Mussolini decided to act on his own imperialist ambitions. Italy’s defeat by the Ethiopians at the battle of Adowa in 1896 still rankled. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia, located in northeastern Africa. Although the Ethiopians resisted bravely, their outdated weapons were no match for Mussolini’s tanks, machine guns, poison gas, and airplanes. The Ethiopian king Haile Selassie (hy luh suh lah see) appealed to the League of Nations for help. The League voted sanctions against Italy for violating international law. But the League had no power to enforce the sanctions, and by early 1936, Italy had conquered Ethiopia.

Union with Austria

From the beginning, Nazi propaganda had found fertile ground in Austria. By 1938, Hitler was ready to engineer the Anschluss (ahn shloos), or union of Austria and Germany. Early that year, he forced the Austrian chancellor to appoint Nazis to key cabinet posts. When the Austrian leader balked at other demands in March, Hitler sent in the German army to “preserve order.” To indicate his new role as ruler of Austria, Hitler made a speech from the Hofburg Palace, the former residence of the Hapsburg emperors.

The Anschluss violated the Versailles treaty and created a brief war scare. Some Austrians favored annexation. Hitler quickly silenced any Austrians who opposed it. And since the Western democracies took no action, Hitler easily had his way.

Demands and Appeasement

Germany turned next to Czechoslovakia. At first, Hitler insisted that the three million Germans in the Sudetenland (soo day tun land)—a region of western Czechoslovakia—be given autonomy. Czechoslovakia was one of only two remaining democracies in Eastern Europe. (Finland was the other.) Still, Britain and France were not willing to go to war to save it. As British and French leaders searched for a peaceful solution, Hitler increased his demands. The Sudetenland, he said, must be annexed to Germany.

At the Munich Conference in September 1938, British and French leaders again chose appeasement. They caved in to Hitler’s demands and then persuaded the Czechs to surrender the Sudetenland without a fight. In exchange, Hitler assured Britain and France that he had no further plans to expand his territory.

After the horrors of World War I, Western democracies desperately tried to preserve peace during the 1930s while ignoring signs that the rulers of Germany, Italy, and Japan were preparing to build new empires. Despite the best efforts of Neville Chamberlain and other Western leaders, the world was headed to war again.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain spoke to a jubilant crowd upon returning to London from a conference with Adolf Hitler in Munich, Germany, in September 1938:

“For the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time . . . Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.”

"Peace in our Time," Chamberlain, September 1938, 3:24



Great Britain and France React

Hitler and the Soviets

Just as Churchill predicted, Europe plunged rapidly toward war. In March 1939, Hitler broke his promises and gobbled up the rest of Czechoslovakia. The democracies finally accepted the fact that appeasement had failed. At last thoroughly alarmed, they promised to protect Poland, most likely the next target of Hitler’s expansion.

In August 1939, Hitler stunned the world by announcing a nonaggression pact with his great enemy—Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator. Publicly, the Nazi-Soviet Pact bound Hitler and Stalin to peaceful relations. Secretly, the two agreed not to fight if the other went to war and to divide up Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe between them.

Stalin-Hitler pact commemorated, 3:58



The pact was based not on friendship or respect but on mutual need. Hitler feared communism as Stalin feared fascism. But Hitler wanted a free hand in Poland. Also, he did not want to fight a war with the Western democracies and the Soviet Union at the same time. For his part, Stalin had sought allies among the Western democracies against the Nazi menace. Mutual suspicions, however, kept them apart. By joining with Hitler, Stalin tried to protect the Soviet Union from the threat of war with Germany and grabbed a chance to gain land in Eastern Europe.

Reading Check

Identifying

Where did Hitler believe he could find more "living space" to expand Germany?

The Japanese Path to War

One of the earliest tests had been posed by Japan. Japanese military leaders and ultranationalists thought that Japan should have an empire equal to those of the Western powers. In pursuit of this goal, Japan seized Manchuria in 1931. When the League of Nations condemned the aggression, Japan simply withdrew from the organization. Japan’s easy success strengthened the militarist faction in Japan. In 1937, Japanese armies overran much of eastern China, starting the Second Sino-Japanese War. Once again, Western protests did not stop Japan.

Japanese Invasion of Manchuria, 2:06



When war broke out in Europe in 1939, the Japanese saw a chance to grab European possessions in Southeast Asia. The rich resources of the region, including oil, rubber, and tin, would be of immense value in fighting its war against the Chinese.

In 1940, Japan advanced into French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. To stop Japanese aggression, the United States banned the sale of war materials, such as iron, steel, and oil to Japan. Japanese leaders saw this move as an attempt to interfere in Japan’s sphere of influence.

Asian Holocaust - Asia-Pacific theatre of war, World War II, 1:07

This short clip highlights the human scale of the tragedy in the Second World War Asia-Pacific theatre. Between 1931-1945, Japanese Imperial Forces invaded and occupied parts of China, Manchukuo, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), New Guinea, French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), British Malaya, Singapore, Burma, Borneo, American-occupied Philippines. This clip is part of a project on www.asianholocaust.org to gather resources and information to commemorate the Asian and Allied victims of this epic conflict.



Japan and the United States held talks to ease the growing tension. But extreme militarists, such as General Tojo Hideki, hoped to expand Japan’s empire, and the United States was interfering with their plans.

War with China

The New Asian Order

Reading Check

Explaining

Why did Japan want to establish a New Order in East Asia?

Ch. 19 Resources

See the war through the eyes of soldiers, secret agents, pilots and evacuees.

Life for children during the war.

Listen to an air raid warning.

The blitz and the home front in the UK.

Churchill and the bombing of Dresden


London, England during World War II




Los Lobos 'One Time, One Night' 1992

Songwriter: Bob Dylan

A wise man was telling stories to me
About the places he had been to
And the things that he had seen

A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America

A lady dressed in white with the man she loved
Standing along the side of their pickup truck
A shot rang out in the night
Just when everything seemed right
Another headline written down in America

The guy that lived next door in #305
Took the kids to the park and disappeared
About half past nine
Who will ever know
How much she loved them so
That dark night alone in America

A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America

Four small boys playing ball in a parking lot
A preacher, a teacher, and the other became a cop
A car skidded into the rain
Making the last little one a saint
One more light goes out in America

A young girl tosses a coin in the wishing well
She hopes for a heaven while for her
There's just this hell
She gave away her life
To become somebody's wife
Another wish unanswered in America

People having so much faith
Die too soon while all the rest come late
We write a song that no one sings
On a cold black stone
Where a lasting peace will finally bring

The sunlight plays upon my windowpane
I wake up to a world that's still the same
My father said to be strong
And that a good man could never do wrong
In a dream I had last night in America

A wise man was telling storie to me
About the places he had been to
And the things that he had seen

A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America

Lyrics reproduced for educational purposes only; copyright remains in the hands of the legitimate owner.



Ritchie Valens - La Bamba



Los Lobos - La Bamba





The Ch. 17 Sec. 3 Quiz is on Wednesday. Be sure to consult the Chapter 17 Section 3 Quiz Study Prep Page.

How To Take Effective Notes
Email to gmsmith@shanahan.org

Tuesday: p. 577, Reading Check

Identifying

Which group did Mao believe would start the Communist revolution in China?

p. 578 Picturing History

p. 578

Reading Check

Explaining

Why did it seem that communism was no longer a threat to China after the Long March?

p. 579

Reading Check

Identifying

What was the intended final stage of Chiang Kai-shek's reform program?

AP Economics: 11 April 2010

Prayer
Current Events:

Official unemployment rates in the United States hover around 10 percent, even though many experts believe the real numbers are much higher. But for young adults in America, the situation is even worse. 54 percent of Americans under the age of 25 are unemployed according to the labor department. It's taking many college graduates over a year to land a steady job, and many are in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.


If any one still needs to take Chs. 21-22 Tests; they should be completed today.

Chapter 21 Multiple Choice MAKE-UP Test, composed of 50 questions, is today. Be sure to put your name on both the Scantron and the Test. You may write on the Test. If you finish early you may take out non-Economic material.

The Chapter 22 Multiple Choice MAKE-UP Test, composed of 50 questions, is today. Be sure to put your name on both the Scantron and the Test. You may write on the Test. If you finish early you may take out non-Economic material.

More Test sample questions, Chs. 21-26, have been posted.

You should have a packet from the most recent AP Economics Workshop Handbook 2008-2009 which includes sample questions and student answers which will help you review.

Finally, the last class Test, a short (20 Question, multiple choice), Diagnostic Test will be administered on Wednesday to determine which macroeconomic topics you need to review most. You will hand in only the Scantron for grading; you may keep the Diagnostic Test as a study tool.

You may also try your hand at the non-Graded, Section II free-response question administered at the same time as the Diagnostic Test. You can check your answer with a hand-out at the end of class.

AP Macroeconomics Diagnostic Test Correlation Chart

Use the following table to determine which macroeconomics topics you need to review most. After scoring your test (you will hand in the Scantron; you can keep the Diagnostic Test for study purposes), check to find out the areas of study covered by the questions you answered incorrectly.

Area of Study

1. Basic Economic Concepts

Questions

6,8

2. Measurement of Economic Performance

Questions

7, 16, 19

3. National Income and Price Determination

Questions

3, 4, 9

4. Financial Sector

Questions

11, 12, 17, 20

5. Inflation, Unemployment, and Stabilization Policies

Questions

1, 5, 10, 14

6. Economic Growth and Productivity

Questions

2, 15

7. Open Economy: International Trade and Finance

Questions

13, 18

In the meantime, re-arrange yourselves into your three small groups and you can review sample Chapter multiple choice questions to answer. Decide within the groups how you want to sub-divide the questions and we can then review the suggested answers.

Review of Chs. 15 - 20 Multiple Choice Sample Questions

Email HW to gmsmith@shanahan.org
1. As review for HW, typical questions that you may encounter on the actual AP Economics Macro Test are included daily:

Review Questions (Princeton):
56. Suppose that Tiger Woods buys a golf ball in 'England for $1 and the marginal propensity to consume in England is 0.75. What is th etotal increase in England's real GDP resulting from Mr. Woods' purchase?

a) $1
b) $1.25
c) $1.75
d) $4
e) $7.50

57. If prices are expected to rise more slowly in the future,

a) the Phillips curve will shift to the right
b) the actual rate of inflation will increase
c) the actual inflation rate will remain steady unless supply shocks set in
d) the government will carry out contractionary fiscal policy to prevent this occurrence
e) these expectations will become reality

58. A decrease in real investment stemming from higher interest rates due to government purchases is most commonly called

a) crowding out
b) zero policy effectiveness
c) the Limbaugh effect
d) fiscal defeat
e) empty policy

59. No #59

60. The balanced budget multiplier is

a) -0.5
b) 0
c) 1
d) 2
e) 10

WH II Honors: 10 April 2010

Prayer
Current Events:

Famous U.S. Preacher Dis-invited from Pentagon






The Ch. 17 Sec. 3 Quiz is on Wednesday. Be sure to consult the Chapter 17 Section 3 Quiz Study Prep Page.

Chapter 18: Nationalism Around the World, 1919–1939

Section 4 Nationalism in Latin America
American investors directly controlled many Latin American industries beginning in the 1920s. Latin American nationalists claimed that U.S. investments propped up the regions' dictators. The Great Depression weakened regional economies and led to the creation of government-run industries, since Latin Americans could not afford many imported goods. Economic crisis and instability prompted military leaders to overthrow the elected governments—which were dominated by small elites—and to establish authoritarian regimes. Dictators sometimes gained an urban following by promising better factory conditions. Industrialization became a core government project. Fascist symbols and nationalist slogans were used amid harsh political repression. In Mexico, a single-party state dominated society. The popular Depression-era leader Lázaro Cárdenas nationalized foreign-owned oil companies and redistributed land to Mexican peasants. Artists helped build national identity in many Latin American countries.

The Latin American Economy



Role of the United States

Impact of the Great Depression

The Move to Authoritarianism

Argentina

Brazil

During and after World War I, investments by the United States in the nations of Latin America soared. British influence declined. The United States continued to play the role of international policeman, intervening to restore order when it felt its interests were threatened.

Vocabulary Builder
intervening—(in tur veen ing) vi. coming between two arguing factions

During the Mexican Revolution, the United States stepped in to support the leaders who favored American interests. In 1914, the United States attacked the port of Veracruz to punish Mexico for imprisoning several American sailors. In 1916, the U.S. army invaded Mexico after Pancho Villa killed more than a dozen Americans in New Mexico.

Young Indiana Jones: Pancho Villa Scene


An American defense of its territory and sovereignty stirred up anti-American feelings, which increased throughout Latin America during the 1920s. For example, in Nicaragua, Augusto César Sandino led a guerrilla movement against United States forces occupying his country.

In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt took a new approach to Latin America and pledged to follow “the policy of the good neighbor.” Under the Good Neighbor Policy, the United States pledged to lessen its interference in the affairs of Latin American nations. The United States withdrew troops stationed in Haiti and Nicaragua. It lifted the Platt Amendment, which had limited Cuban independence. Roosevelt also supported Mexico’s nationalization of its oil companies. The Good Neighbor policy strengthened Latin American nationalism and improved relations between Latin America and the United States.

Mexico

Of Mexico it is said, `So far from God, so close to the United States.'

This Mexican peasants’ song from the early 1900s reflected many Mexicans’ desire for change under the rule of the dictator Porfirio Díaz:

“Our homes and humble dwellings

always full of sadness

living like animals

in the midst of riches.

On the other hand, the haciendados,

owners of lives and lands,

appear disinterested

and don’t listen to our complaints.”

Mexico of the old days (1/2), 2:07

This is a compilation of pictures of the Mexico of yesteryear, ca. 1885-1910
The times of the President, General Porfirio Diaz; Don Porfirio Diaz lived in the Castle of Chapultepec, he has a french-european-alike court; he was the one who ordered the construction of the "National Theater" (Today: "Palace of Fine Arts"); the music and the culture were at his highest expression.

The music is "Chapultepec" by Higinio Ruvalcaba, performed by "Los abuelitos" ("The grandpas").
"Los abuelitos" was a group of musicians who wanted to maintain alive the music of yesteryear; they played: Violin, piano, psalterium, accordion, mandolin, guitar and marimba.


By 1910, the dictator Porfirio Díaz had ruled Mexico for almost 35 years, winning reelection as president again and again. On the surface, Mexico enjoyed peace and economic growth. Díaz welcomed foreign investors who developed mines, built railroads, and drilled for oil. However, underneath the surface, discontent rippled through Mexico. The country’s prosperity benefited only a small group. Most Mexicans were mestizos or Indian peasants who lived in desperate poverty. Most of these peasants worked on haciendas, or large plantations, controlled by the landowning elite. Some peasants earned meager wages in factories and mines in Mexico’s cities. Meanwhile, the growing urban middle class wanted democracy and the elite resented the power of foreign companies. All of these groups opposed the Diáz dictatorship.

The unrest boiled over in 1910 when Francisco Madero, a liberal reformer from an elite family, demanded free elections. Faced with rebellion in several parts of the country, Díaz resigned in 1911. Soon a bloody, complex struggle engulfed Mexico.

Silent film, Francisco I. Madero Morelos. 1911, :42

Alva Brothers. Cuernavaca, Morelos
1911 (July), 35 mm B / N, 41 "
Video of the Film Library of the
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Digitized in 1998 by Iliana León for the
Directorate General for Motion Picture, UNAM.


In 1917, voters elected Venustiano Carranza president of Mexico. That year, Carranza reluctantly approved a new constitution that included land and labor reform. With amendments, it is still in force today.

Venustiano Carranza, :30

Venustiano Carranza joined the Revolution after the death of Francisco I. Madero issuing the Plan of Guadalupe to repudiate the government of Victoriano Huerta.

He organized the Constitutionalist Army, convoked the Congress that drafted the 1917 Constitution that is still in force today.

Venustiano Carranza, in amidst of war, created a country of institutions and laws.


The 1917 Constitution of Mexico, 1:39

The Caracol Museum at Chapultepec Park.


The Constitution of 1917 addressed three major issues: land, religion, and labor. The constitution strengthened government control over the economy. It permitted the breakup of large estates, placed restrictions on foreigners owning land, and allowed nationalization, or government takeover, of natural resources. Church land was made “the property of the nation.” The constitution set a minimum wage and protected workers’ right to strike.

Although the constitution gave suffrage only to men, it did give women some rights. Women doing the same job as men were entitled to the same pay. In response to women activists, Carranza also passed laws allowing married women to draw up contracts, take part in legal suits, and have equal authority with men in spending family funds.

Fighting continued on a smaller scale throughout the 1920s, including Carranza’s overthrow in 1920. In 1929, the government organized what later became the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI managed to accommodate many groups in Mexican society, including business and military leaders, peasants, and workers. The PRI did this by adopting some of the goals of these groups, while keeping real power in its own hands. It suppressed opposition and dissent. Using all of these tactics, the PRI brought stability to Mexico and over time carried out many desired reforms. The PRI dominated Mexican politics from the 1930s until the free election of 2000.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party PRI and Vicente Fox, 1:32


At first, the Constitution of 1917 was just a set of goals to be achieved in the future. But in the 1920s and 1930s, as the government finally restored order, it began to carry out reforms.

In the 1920s, the government helped some Indian communities regain lands that had been taken from them. In the 1930s, under President Lázaro Cárdenas, millions of acres of land were redistributed to peasants under a communal land program. The government supported labor unions and launched a massive effort to combat illiteracy. Schools and libraries were set up. Dedicated teachers, often young women, worked for low pay. While they taught basic skills, they spread ideas of nationalism that began to bridge the gulf between the regions and the central government. As the revolutionary era ended, Mexico became the first Latin American nation to pursue real social and economic reforms for the majority of its people.

The government also took a strong role in directing the economy. In 1938, labor disputes broke out between Mexican workers and the management of some foreign-owned petroleum companies. In response, President Cárdenas decreed that the Mexican government would nationalize Mexico’s oil resources. American and British oil companies resisted Cárdenas’s decision, but eventually accepted compensation for their losses. Mexicans felt that they had at last gained economic independence from foreign influence.

Reading Check

Examining

Culture in Latin America

By the 1920s, Latin American writers, artists, and thinkers began to reject European influences in culture as well. Instead, they took pride in their own culture, with its blend of Western and native traditions.

In Mexico, cultural nationalism, or pride in one’s own culture, was reflected in the revival of mural painting, a major art form of the Aztecs and Maya. In the 1920s and 1930s, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco (oh rohs koh), David Alfaro Siqueiros (see keh rohs), and other muralists created magnificent works. On the walls of public buildings, they portrayed the struggles of the Mexican people for liberty. The murals have been a great source of national pride ever since.

Jose Clemente Orozco Murals in Guadalajara, Mexico, 2:58

Murals painted by Jose Clemente Orozco in Guadalajara, Mexico.


David Alfaro Siqueiros, 6:07


Diego Rivera, 4:50


Reading Check

Examining

How did Diego Rivera use his artistic talent as a political tool?

Preview

Chapter 19 World War II 1939-1945

Chapter 19: World War II, 1939–1945
The German and Japanese occupations of neighboring countries led to a brutal war that took millions of lives. Both countries were defeated, but not before the Nazis had killed millions of people in pursuit of Aryan domination of Europe.

Section 1 Paths to War
Aggressive moves by Germany and Japan set the stage for World War II. Adolf Hitler began a massive military buildup and instituted a draft in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. The German annexation of Austria alarmed France but did not shake Great Britain's policy of appeasement. Mussolini became a German ally. Appeasement of Germany peaked at a conference in Munich where Hitler claimed he sought only one final territory, the Czech Sudetenland. This soon proved false. When Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with Stalin and invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Japanese expansion into Manchuria and northern China brought condemnation from the League of Nations. While still at war with China, Japan launched a surprise attack on U.S. and European colonies in Southeast Asia.

Section 2 The Course of World War II
German forces swept through northern Europe early in the war and set up the Vichy government in France. German air attacks on Great Britain resulted in fierce British retaliation. In the east, harsh weather and a resolute Soviet Union defeated an invading German army. The Japanese conquered the Pacific but miscalculated when they attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The United States surprised Japan by abandoning its neutrality and entering the war to retake the Pacific. By the end of 1943, the tide had turned against Germany, Italy, and Japan. After the invasion of Normandy, the Allies liberated Paris and defeated Germany. U.S. President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin met at Potsdam, Germany, to plan the post-war world. The war in Asia continued until the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing massive casualties and bringing Japan's surrender.

Section 3 The New Order and the Holocaust
To further their war effort and Hitler's plans for Aryan expansion, the Nazis forced millions of people to resettle as forced laborers. No aspect of the Nazi New Order was more terrifying than the deliberate attempt to exterminate the Jews. As part of the Nazis' Final Solution, Jews were locked into cramped, unsanitary ghettos or forced to dig their own mass graves before being killed. When this proved too slow for the Nazis, they transported Europe's Jews to death camps where they were worked to death or sent to die in gas chambers. The Nazis killed between five and six million Jews and nine to ten million non-Jews. In Asia, Japan showed little respect for the conquered peoples in its effort to secure industrial markets and raw materials. Japanese treatment of prisoners of war was equally harsh. Japan professed a commitment to ending Western colonialism, but the brutality of the Japanese convinced many Asians to resist Japanese occupation.

Section 4 The Home Front and the Aftermath of the War
World War II reached almost every area of the world, and mobilization for war brought widespread suffering and even starvation. The war caused 20 million civilian deaths. The United States, which did not fight the war on its own territory, sent its forces to fight and produced much of the military equipment for the Allies. Segregation in the U.S. military led African Americans to demand civil rights. Racism and suspicion led to the war-time detention of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans. The bombing of cities by the Allied and Axis powers cost thousands of lives, but probably did nothing to weaken the morale of either side. After the war, ideological conflict between the West and the Soviet Union resulted in the Cold War. The Cold War centered around the status of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe.

Los Lobos 'One Time, One Night' 1992

Songwriter: Bob Dylan

A wise man was telling stories to me
About the places he had been to
And the things that he had seen

A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America

A lady dressed in white with the man she loved
Standing along the side of their pickup truck
A shot rang out in the night
Just when everything seemed right
Another headline written down in America

The guy that lived next door in #305
Took the kids to the park and disappeared
About half past nine
Who will ever know
How much she loved them so
That dark night alone in America

A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America

Four small boys playing ball in a parking lot
A preacher, a teacher, and the other became a cop
A car skidded into the rain
Making the last little one a saint
One more light goes out in America

A young girl tosses a coin in the wishing well
She hopes for a heaven while for her
There's just this hell
She gave away her life
To become somebody's wife
Another wish unanswered in America

People having so much faith
Die too soon while all the rest come late
We write a song that no one sings
On a cold black stone
Where a lasting peace will finally bring

The sunlight plays upon my windowpane
I wake up to a world that's still the same
My father said to be strong
And that a good man could never do wrong
In a dream I had last night in America

A wise man was telling storie to me
About the places he had been to
And the things that he had seen

A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America

Lyrics reproduced for educational purposes only; copyright remains in the hands of the legitimate owner.


Los Lobos - Will the Wolf Survive?

Through the chill of winter
Running across the frozen lake
Hunters are out on his trail
All odds are against him
With a family to provide for
The one thing he must keep alive
Will the wolf survive

Drifting by the roadside
Climbs each storm and aging face
Wants to make some morning's fate
Losing to the range war
He's got two strong legs to guide him
Two strong arms keep him alive
Will the wolf survive

Standing in the pouring rain
All alone in a world that's changed
Running scared, now forced to hide
In a land where he once stood with pride
But he'll find his way by the morning light

Sounds across the nation
Coming from your hearts and minds
Battered drums and old guitars
Singing songs of passion
It's the truth that they all look for
The one thing they must keep alive
Will the wolf survive
Will the wolf survive

Lyrics reproduced for educational purposes only; copyright remains in the hands of the lawful owners.


Ritchie Valens - La Bamba


Los Lobos - La Bamba


The Ch. 17 Sec. 3 Quiz is on Wednesday. Be sure to consult the Chapter 17 Section 3 Quiz Study Prep Page.

How To Take Effective Notes
Email to gmsmith@shanahan.org

Monday: p. 574, Analyzing Primary Sources, #1-3

p. 576, Reading Check

Explaining

How did the Chiang Kai-shek change the Communist-Nationalist alliance?

p. 577, Geography Skills, #1-2

Finish the sentences:

Last week, what I liked least about the class was . . .

Last week, what I liked most about the class was . . .