Critical Thinking 15-1 # 3 & 4

3) Which group of immigrants do you think faced the greatest challenges in the united states? Why?

The new wave of immigrants had come from all different areas of the world. Most came to the States from European countries. others came from Mexico and the west Indies. However, an extremely high percentage came from eastern Asia. Namely China. (461)
The Europeans and Mexicans had it more easy than others, as long as they were doing it legally. Unfortunately, there were so many Chinese immigrants coming into America, there was no possible way there could be enough jobs for both them, and the locals. The employers, however, looked at this as an opportunity to cut pay wages. These immigrants were so happy just knowing they had a job, they couldn't care less how much they were paid or how many hours they worked.On the other hand, there were those who've been working in this country all their lives and knew exactly what kind of pay they should be getting.
The locals were upset about the employers hiring the immigrants that they went to the government with the issue. The result of this was the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. this act banned entry to all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, tourists and government officials. therefore, it is quite obvious that the Chinese immigrants had a much worse situation than those from Europe and Mexico. (465)
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4) What were the effects of the massive influx of immigrants to the U.S. in the late 1800s?

in the late 1800s, there was an increasingly large amount of immigrants coming into America and the results didn't make many people too happy. First of all, simply the sheer number of people coming into th country was ridiculous. In Massachusetts, the number of Irish immigrants added up to about 249 thousand people, and thats only the Irish immigrants. there were even more in more states. Not to mention the German numbers were even higher!(461)
However, having Asian immigrants was an entirely new element to the situation. the Asian immigrants were much more accustomed to doing harder, more physically tiring work. and because they didn't have a preference to how they were payed, they were hired more often than others. This led to the locals creating something called, nativism, which was favoritism to those born in America. It was basically a form of racism against Asian immigrants.(464)
the popular "Anti-Asian" subject reached congress and they decided to do what the people would like, and created the Chinese exclusion act, which kept Chinese immigrants from entering the country looking for work. (465)

Critical Thinking 14-3 #3

Do you think the tycoons of the late 19th century are best described as ruthless robber barons or as effective captains of industry?

Although their methods seemed very cruel, the business tycoons did prove to be useful and effective. Their tactics and strategies were extremely effective. The creation of horizontal
and vertical integration gave businesses the ability to rely upon themselves. Some companies in the same industries even partnered using trusts. Although this could be looked at as bribery.
They also made various contributions to the economy. For example, they made products such as oil and steel easier to access for the public. This was made easier by the construction of Vanderbilt's railroads. The construction of these railroads provided more job opportunities for many common citizens. However, some of these jobs were used for child labor, but this was only used for extreme situations when there weren't enough men to work the coal mines.
Although the tycoons were creating trusts with businesses equal of each other, this wasn't the case with smaller, private owned businesses.These smaller competitors were often put out of business. However, most of the time, they were hired to work for the larger companies. Therefore, these business tycoons were not as ruthless as they were effective and contributing to the expansion of our great nation.

Current Events Summary #1

Southern Africa News Wire

In the first weeks of September, Southern African nations took steps to improve trade and quality of life for their citizens. The nations of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, have joined forces to promote job creation and tourism by proposing the creation of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Park, a $100 million project. Child migrants from Zimbabwe have been making their way across the border to South Africa in search of "work, food and schooling." Ennie Nelushi coordinator of The Children's Resource Center, takes care of "vulnerable children from both South Africa and Zimbabwe." Country's such as Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, part of the Southern African Development Community, take credit for producing 60 percent of the worlds diamonds. Representatives of these countries met in Angola and decided to form the African Diamond Producers Association to "increase their influence in the Global market for the gem." US company Olivine decreases production value "as part of that country's sanctions regime" against Zimbabwe and it's Dictator, Mugabe. In turn, Mugabe buys out Olivine as the first company acquired by Zimbabwe in response to the sanction regimes.
In Mozambique, President Armando Guebuza had a meeting with Brazil's President, Lula da Sila to discuss cooperation on immigration and job opportunities for both country's citizens. Angola, Namibia and South Africa joined forces to create "The Benguela Current Commission (BCC)" and concluded to share fishing waters in the Atlantic as well as contribute to the environmental problems and share fishing stock. Botswana is in command, for the deadline is by the end of December, of the Southern African Development Community team during the trade negotiations between the Europe Union and ACP countries on Economic Partnership Agreements in Brussels. However,there are only eight counties in the Southern Africa region - Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzania , South Africa and Botswana itself, most of these countries being "classified as Least Developing Countries." South Africa's Rugby team has a whole line of merchandise as one of the favorite teams in the World Cup. However, The Congress of South African Trade Unions recalled and shunned these items after learning that they were produced as cheap textile imports from china.This is a problem due to the manufacturers recent agreement on having only "local made" products.