Best Works
Project | 01
Bio-engineering Project
Description: Along with other students in honors biology we created a sort of pitch for a solution to some medical issue. The medical issue that we addressed was at home blood testing. I chose this assignment because this was the first assignment in which I truly was given the ability to take studying outside of a school environment
Project | 02
Financial Management project for Algebra 2
This assignment for algebra was chosen because it genuinely provided me with real life application of something that I learned in class. For the assignment, we chose an occupation and estimated about how much money that occupation would provide us throughout the rest of our lives. We were then told to create a spreadsheet of yearly expenses and see if they fit within our budget
Project | 03
Imperialism Report
Description: As someone who has interest in the world we live and why it is the way it is, this assignment allowed me to express the interest. In a regular school, you would simply read about a topic and that would be the end of it, however, this assignment gave me the freedom to show my grasp on the topic of Imperialism
Unit 1 Exam: Imperialism
During the 18-19th centuries, many nations went on a campaign to spread their influence all around the globe, whether it be through military action or diplomacy. Today, we recognize such practice as Imperialism. The first to engage in Imperialism were European nations like Britain, Spain, Germany, etc. The US did engage in imperialistic activities, but did not carry them out to the extent that European powers did, in terms of spread of influence and exploitation. One thing that is deniable is that it did establish leaders that served US still.
European spread of influence resulted in consequences that are still felt today. For example, Europeans engaged in imperialism to the point where entire continents have had their religious demographic shifts. One might cite how 30% of people in puerto rico are protestant due to US spread of influence(Guided Lecture Notes), but the US government took no action in converting people, it was the solely Protestant missionaries. While the matter of who carried out the conversion might seem trivial, by definition, imperialism is “the policy of extending a country’s influence through diplomacy/military force” (Rodriguez); the action of some individuals is not the action of a state.It is still notable that though the US did not spread Protestantism, it did provide missionaries the safety to do so through the US military presence.
Though the US did use the nations they occupied as proxies through which they could spread their influence(i.e, military bases, establishing pro-US governments), unlike the Europeans, the US never exploited the resources or people of the countries they occupied. European exploitation of not only natural resources, but also humans can be felt presently. For example, the manipulation of the hutu and tutsi tribes that ultimately resulted in genocide. One might point to Guatemala being exploited for its land and labor,but the US gained nothing financially, only the United Fruit Company did (Imperialism comprehensive timeline).
Despite the US not having not having gained anything financially from the nations they occupied, one thing that is deniable is that they established pro-US governments(Imperialism comprehensive timeline). In some instances, the US established such governments by financially supporting leaders who had US interest, other times, it was done by militarily occupying a nation. In Guatemala, the CIA financially backed Jacobo Arbenz(Imperial comprehensive timeline), a military leader who was anti-communist . During the US occupation of Cuba, the US created the Platt amendment, which stated the US needed to maintain control over Cuba (Cuba case study graphic organizer). The Platt amendment heavily restricted the movement of the Cuban government; Cuba’s constitution was amended to correspond to the Platt amendment(Guided lecture notes).
Imperialism only benefits the imperial power and whoever might be collaborating along side it (i.e, government officials of puppet regimes). Imperialism often does bring advancement of infrastructure to a nation, but the downsides are to steep. Leopold II brought things such as railroads and education to the Congos but also caused a genocide that killed one million. This is only one example of many. It would require great change to remedy the damage done in countries that have exploited by imperial powers, and probably requires the help of foreign powers. It should also fall on formerly imperial countries to support these failing nations. While the reality of imperialism might seem grim, as long as there are a less developed people, human greed will encourage humans to exploit them. What we can do as humans is spread the history of imperialism so it will never repeat itself.