In-Class

Jake Teachey

March 2, 2015

US History B

Great White Fleet

I pledge

The Great White Fleet was an Armada of 16 ships that Theodore Roosevelt commenced in 1907. There were many reasons why Theodore Roosevelt decided to send a convoy around the world, but one of the most widely known was to show the world that America was not lacking in the navy department, and that the other nations did not need to mess with the United States Navy. The Great White Fleet symbolized power for the United States.

            The name “The Great White Fleet” was not assigned until after the ships had sailed their course. One of the more obvious reasons on why this name was chosen is because the ships were white in color. The crew on the Great White Fleet felt famous in a way. The fleet turned into more of a sight seeing tour than a defense mechanism. For example, August 15 1908 the fleet arrived in Australia, and when the ships arrived in port they were greeted by more than 250,000 people who had stayed up the entire night before waiting on the arrival of these famous white ships. The following 8 days after arrival the citizens of Sydney Australia threw a 8 day non-stop party for the crew members of the fleet.

            The fleet launched on December 16, 1907 to serve as a symbol of strength and power for the United States. Roosevelt claimed that the purpose of the fleet was to have a fleet of military ships circumnavigate the globe. Despite what Roosevelt claimed everyone knew that the main purpose of the fleet was for intimidation. The fleet served more as a parade of intimidation sailing around the world from country to country to show the world we weren’t to be messed with. This tactic of intimidation was actually remarkably successful because word spread about this “great white fleet” around the globe and put a sense of fear into nations hearts.

            The Great White fleet is arguably one of the biggest most successful things that have ever happened to the US navy.  With that being said it was not all sunshine and rainbows in the end. The construction of the ships was not as good as they looked. From the out side the ships looked grand and almost majestic in a way, but there were areas that lacked interest on the inside. An example of this is two of the 16 ships did not complete the voyage due to major mechanical malfunctions, but that also could be because not all of the ships were brand new ships. From 1904 to 1907 the United States built 11 brand new ships, meaning 5 out of the 16 ship in the fleet were refurbished battle ships.

            The journey these ships went on is as great as the ships themselves. Over 14 months these ships said 43,000 nautical miles around the globe. The voyage included over 20 stops in 6 different continents. The fleet was the first United States navy vessel to navigate around the entire globe. This is proof that the boats were really just used as a parade to show off to the world how “big and bad” the States Navy was.

            In conclusion there was not really a meaningful reason on why the Great White Fleet existed other than an intimidation factor. Although it may not of had a credible war-related history it still served its purpose remarkably well. It did wake up other countries and let them know that the US Navy was not one to mess with.

TextBook

Navy

United States History GWF

Great White Fleet- Voyage of the Great White Fleet

The Cruise of the Great White Fleet

Topics in Chronicling America

Great White Fleet Picture #1

The Great White Fleet Crosses The Atlantic Ocean

                                             

Great White Fleet Picture #1

USS Connecticut

USS Connecticut at high speeds

Great White in Color

Great White Fleet

Crew of the USS Virginia

USS Virginia

Theodore Roosevelt with The Great White Fleet

T Roosevelt GWF

             

How do you analyze a Political Cartoon

Read the caption

Do some quick research on the topic

Think back to the political figure or what you know of him to help analyze

Don't take the cartoon too literally 

Look at it and see what you eye goes to first

How to Analyze Politcal Cartoon

Step 1) Let your eyes float over the cartoon and see what catches your eye

Step 2) Look at the "flow" of the cartoon

Step 3) Decide the audience

Step 4) Try to understand the context of the cartoon

Cartoon 1

With this cartoon the first thing I see is the large man running across the desert which is uncle sam. The next thing I saw was the bee with Aguinaldo on his wings. The audience is the American population. This cartoon is Uncle Sam chasing the leader of the Philippines trying to catch him even though it may not be worth it.

Picture 2

When I look at this picture I see a large uncle sam and a smaller man standing on a book. The flow of this cartoon is from right to left because of the way Uncle Sam is larger than the other man. The audience is the people that are against the American forces in the Philippines. This cartoon is about how no one really knows what happened in the war, thats why the book is locked with someone guarding it. 

 Cartoon 3

In this picture the fist thing that catches my sight is the huge american ship that is controlling the Republic of Santo Domingo and Europe. This cartoons audience is the american population. The flow of this cartoon is once again from the right to the left. The context of this cartoon is how the americans have complete control over all the other countries.

Speech

Hello, my name is Jake Teachey, and I am very pleased to speak to you on this fine Tuesday morning. Through out this semester in our History class I have learned about a variety of topics. One topic in particular I was pleasantly surprised to learn about was how the people of the 19th century spent their downtime, this is the first time in American History where “leisure time” was acceptable in society, it is also interesting that the divide between the choice of leisure time from the different social classes. The working class would often go to amusement parks such as Coney Island, and the wealthy would go to central park.

One thing I was unpleasantly surprised with was the unit on the west & Native Americans. I did not find this unit interesting at all. Nothing about it really caught my attention, I think part of this “hatred” or “dislike” I have for this unit is due to the way modern day movies portray the “Old Western” to be. The unit was not interesting to me because I want to believe what the movies say rather than how it really was; Hollywood makes The Old West much more enticing than it truthfully was.

If you were to ask me what I would be able to remember and discuss ten years from now it would be the movie 12 years a slave. I say this because I am a very visual learner and I tend to remember things for a much longer period of time if I hear and see them. I also found this movie much more intriguing and memorable than Glory due to the quality of production. What I mean by this is since 12 Years a Slave was made in more modern times so the producers had access to better special effects, and film quality than the producers of Glory.

            In the past Americans struggled with people going on strike and protests, from the Pullman strike to the Homestead Strikes. In more modern times this relates to the protest in Ferguson. The protest back in the 1900’s also sometimes resulted to violence, just like the Ferguson protest where storefronts were broken, and police had to use tear gas to calm the crowds down much like in the Pullman strike where 2,000 US troops were called into the Chicago area to break the strike up.

            If I had to give a name for the time period between 1865 and 1920 I would call it the “The Age of Unions”. I would deem this name appropriate because of the great amount of unions formed over the working conditions and labor laws. Two of the main unions that were formed were the Knights of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Both of these unions were fighting for different things but did have one thing in common and that was better working conditions. Both of these unions helped aid in the dubious amount of strikes that occurred in this time period, and for this reason I would gladly announce this time period as the “The Age of Unions”.

Success 

There are many factors that determine success, such as luck, hard work, skill and opportunity. The most important of these four factors is hard work. You can not have anything in life without having to being open to work for it. Many of the worlds most economically successful had to work extremely hard to obtain the fortune they now have. The rapper 50 cent is a great example for someone who has worked hard to get where they are now in life. There is a story that 50 cent was on the set of his movie and at the same time,  he was recording the soundtrack for the movie. So one day a reporter came up to 50 cent and asked him "So when do you sleep 50?" he boldly replied “Sleep, sleep is for those people who are broke. I don’t sleep, I might miss the opportunity to make a dream become a reality.” So this shows that success and handwork go hand and hand. The second factor that I would say is important is opportunity. If you are willing to work hard and seize the opportunity that you have then you will be successful 99% of the time. I feel as if the other two factors do not have as much to do with success. 

Today I learned about the "Made in the U.S.A." crisis that is going on in the Marianas Islands. There is a good amount of well-known brands of clothing that are taking advantage of the labor laws in this United States Pacific Island territory. For many years these companies such as GAP, Banana Republic, Geoffrey Beene, and Levi all were taking Chinese immigrants and shipping them onto this island and shoving them into poor living conditions and into a dark labor filled slave like life. There are many sweatshops scattered over the main island, Saipan, with huge american flags flying over them. Many people are against this and are trying to stop the "slave-like" labor that is going on in these islands.


NY Times Article

Dear Susan,

                      I have now been in the united states for 3 weeks now. It is a whole new world over here, I knew this from the moment I sailed into the harbor and saw the huge statue of liberty. How are things back in Ireland? It has been incredibly difficult for me to find a well paying job over here. There is such a large influx of people coming over from over seas that the job market is flooded. I read in the paper the other day that the urban population of Chicago is now 84% Immigrants. I have listened to your advice as far as giving up all of the cultures and traditions that we had back home. I am trying my best to live the most American life I can.
                      My main complaint about this new life overseas is my living conditions. My house is currently shared with 10-15 other irish immigrants just like me. We are all shoved into one small room with a few beds and no windows. The stench in these houses they put us in is nothing that I can describe with words. Although I moved it still feels a little like home here since there is so many young Irish immigrants here it seems remarkably close to home. I know I have spoken a lot of negativity about this new land but I do see hope and promise, I know this was the right choice for me, and out family.
Love,
          Jake