This included empires like that of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec. Increasingly drawn to the New World by the myth of golden cities (and just gold and wealth, period) the Spanish colonized much of the Americas.

This colonization was justified by the Doctrine of Discovery. This doctrine, establish by Pope Alexander IX, declared that any lands not inhabited by Christians were 'discoverable' and within that, claimable.

Interactions between natives and the Spanish included enslavement, conversion, and overall violence. An example of such interactions would be between the Spanish and the Pueblo peoples of Southwest N. America.

Unlike most indigenous groups, however, the Pueblo launched a successful revolt, pushing the Spanish out of the region for 12 years. Upon their return, the Spanish essentially had to compromise with the Pueblo. This allowed the Pueblo peoples to retain aspects of their culture that other groups were not.

West Africa became part of the triangular trade that took place between Africa, the Americas, and Europe. In addition to the trade of enslaved Africans, raw materials like tobacco and cotton were traded, which were then turned into processed goods (like clothes, which were also traded).

One of the most important cash crops that European nations had enslaved people cultivate was sugar cane. This was grown, harvested, and processed on plantations throughout Brazil and the Caribbean. Sugar was highly profitable for European nations, so much so that the cultivation of sugar increased European reliance on enslaved African labor, and a new form of slavery: chattel slavery. Essentially, enslaved Africans were considered literal property. This also led to the development of race as we know it.

The experience of the Middle Passage (the leg of the triangular trade from Africa to the Americas) for enslaved Africans was horrendous and dehumanizing, and the vast majority of enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil and the Caribbean. Thousands of trips were taken, and millions of Africans were enslaved. Millions also died en route to the 'New World'.

• Motivations for Westward Expansion

The motivations for westward expansion stem from ultimately the the G's, God, glory, and gold. They heard there was gold out west and they wanted it. They also wanted more land and more resources to become a bigger, more powerful nation. As always, they justified their actions of taking the land and their means in doing so by saying God commanded these non Christians to be converted by these people.

• Mexican American War

Following the Mexican American War, Mexico had to relinquish 55% of their territory. People who became Mexican Americans with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo were striped of their culture and their land. Due to the fact that the people of Mexico aren't white, some politicians in power were hesitant to accept the gain of these territories because they wanted America to look a certain way and that just happened to be white.

• Chinese Exclusion Act

In 1882, for the first time in our nation's history, American banned Chinese immigrants from coming into our country, which by the way kind of goes against the constitution that their founding fathers wrote... So, for ten years, people from China were not allowed into our country.

“Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

• War of 1898

Also known as the Spanish American War, the War of 1898 started due to America declaring war on the Spanish because they bombed a ship in one of our territories. The war resulted in the Americans winning and gaining control over Spain's oversea territories. We ended up signing the treaty of Paris, which officially ended the American Revolution

“Research Guides: World of 1898: International Perspectives on the Spanish American War: Introduction.” Introduction - World of 1898: International Perspectives on the Spanish American War - Research Guides at Library of Congress, guides.loc.gov/world-of-1898. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

1. The purpose of the St. Louis World Fair was to show American dominance and superiority over other countries due to our moderness.

2. There was a human zoo that put people on display from different nations This zoo showed them off as "savages" and made them perform rituals or acts that reflected their culture to people who would just stand and watch.

3. There were baby incubators where babies would be on display in a box for people to look at. If they were healthy enough, which was a low bar, they would be taken out and people would feed them. Most of these babies died from neglect or sickness.

• What caused the Great Migration?

The Great Migration was caused by people wanting more opportunity and a better life. People went looking for better jobs, culture, and overall conditions. Some push factors included war, famine, poverty, religion.

• The connection between The Great Migration & the Harlem Renaissance

The connection between The Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance was that in the Great Migration, people came to America looking for better. The Harlem Renaissance consisted of African American people coming from the south to the north looking for better.

• How did the US 'Grow' in the Early 20th Century?

The US grew in the Early 20th Century in very Controversial ways. Black music such as jazz was becoming a part of mainstream American society, women were exercising their rights to cut their hair short and wear clothes that weren't form fitting. Members of the LGBT community were beginning to show who they truly were in public, even though it was illegal.

The spiral of injustice is a graph that shows the spiral that people in oppressed groups go through as discrimination turns into more. It starts with people talking and using language that belittles people of certain groups. Then it becomes people avoiding these groups entirely because they don't want to be seen with those people who are being talked about poorly. Then it becomes discrimination where people completely dehumanize these people and paint them in a way that makes them seem like inhuman when in reality, they are just human. Eventually, it turns into violence and people hurting these people all the way to elimination where people start to kill each other.

• Jim Crow - a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation.

Jim Crow laws affected black people in the United States by legally segregating them. They weren't allowed to vote, have the same access to jobs, or receive an education. These laws lasted for around 100 years in the post civil war era. If these marginalized people were to attempt to preform these acts, the could be arrested, lynched, fined. The spiral of injustice applies to black people with Jim Crow laws being discrimination, violence, and elimination.

• Race Riots - primarily from white supremacist groups. People would riot against the rights of people who weren't white.

Groups that were affected were anyone who wasn't white, and these people would be violently attacked or even lynched by white people who were extremely racist. Anti-lynching laws were not enforced until 2022 in America.

• Redlining - A method of governmental discrimination in which neighborhoods with primarily minorities would be withheld from funds and government support.

Groups that were affected by this were anyone of any minorities, more specifically, neighborhoods that were dominated by black residents.

• Sacrifice Zones - Areas where there is a high level of pollution or hazardous environments.

Groups that were affected by this were people who come from lower incomes because usually the housing is cheaper in these areas due to the health hazards. People who live here are exposed to carcinogens, respiratory disease, and countless other illnesses.

Sources:

“Jim Crow Laws: Definition, Facts & Timeline.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws. Accessed 13 Nov. 2024.

“Sacrifice Zones 101.” The Climate Reality Project, 18 Apr. 2022, www.climaterealityproject.org/sacrifice-zones.

"Eugenics" was once considered by many to be a legitimate science (it no longer is; it is highly racist/ableist and not based on actual science). Highly educated people -- in the literal sense of the word, people who went to schools like Harvard, etc. -- were proponents of this set of ideas. Famous and well-known individuals like Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, and Margaret Sanger were staunch eugenicists.

Over 20,000 people were compulsorily sterilized in California alone. Overall, nearly 70,000 (likely more) people. Eugenics-based laws largely targeted working-class women (over time, undoubtedly targeting working-class women of color) and people with disabilities (both mental and physical). Some women were coerced into sterilization by being told their doctors would refuse to help with their pregnancy if they did not agree to a hysterectomy.

Nearly a third of Puerto Rican women were sterilized from the 1930s-1970s. Trials of birth control were introduced and used with little informed consent on Puerto Rican women as there was also a belief by some leaders that the population of Puerto Rico needed to be controlled. Sterilizations became so commonplace, in fact, that women began to call it “La Operación (The Operation)”.

In a case that became nationally known, two young girls -- 12 and 14 -- were sterilized when their mother, who was unable to read, 'consented' to their sterilization. However, there was a lack of transparency -- the Relf girls had already been subjected to an unsolicited experimental birth control trial; their mother thought they were receiving that same shot. Instead, both girls were surgically sterilized. This led to their parents filing a class-action lawsuit on their daughters' behalf. Relf v. Weinberger resulted in the prohibition of the use of federal funds for involuntary sterilizations. This is just one example of many -- this practice was prolific and thousands of women and girls were put into situations in which they were underinformed, coerced, and sterilized.

Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist, was herself sterilized without her consent. She noted how these nonconsensual sterilizations of working-class Black women in the South were so common that within Southern Black communities, the procedure was called "a Mississippi appendectomy."

Other groups known to have been targeted for sterilization includes Native American women -- the Indian Health Service was accused of sterilizing nearly 25% of Indigenous women during the 1960s and 1970s.

The Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell (1927) decided that a Virginia law authorizing the mandatory sterilization of inmates in mental institutions was constitutional. Essentially this meant that people, mostly women, who were committed, could be sterilized without their consent. People with disabilities were targeted for sterilization, and the law permitted it.

Eugenics was on the rise in other parts of the world, too, however. Notably -- Germany. In Mein Kampf Hitler praised the United States, noting, “There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of citizenship] are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States.”

• 1917 East St. Louis Race Riot

• The Scottsboro Boys

• Cancer Alley

The Scottsboro Boys were a group of 9 black boys who were accused of the rape of 2 white women on a train. When a white man stepped on the hand of one of the boys, a fight broke out on the train. When the boys got to their destination, they were faced with a mob of people who were about to assault them because of what happened. There were also 2 white women on the train that were being faced with charges and to get out of these charges, they said the Scottsboro Boys rapped them.

This case ended up being a landmark case for adequate defense because their lawyer came to the trial basically drunk. Some of the results of the trial were awareness for the injustice of black people in the legal system.

The Scottsboro Boys | National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/scottsboro-boys. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

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• Fannie Lou Hamer

• Ella Baker

• Diane Nash

• Bayard Rustin

• James Baldwin

• A. Phillip Randolph

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• The Black Panther Party

A social activist group that advocated for equality for black people. They were classified and known as a "violent hate group" because they stopped putting up with people's crap. They would advocate for self defense, which was new at the time because black leaders would say just let them inflict violence and they would have to put up with it. They would provide a ten point program that allowed for free breakfast, education, fighting against police brutality. They were anything but a hate group, but they just did defend themselves when people acted violent toward them.

• The Rainbow Coalition

The Rainbow Coalition was an organization that literally accepted everyone and anyone who was being discriminated against. They fought for anti discrimination for marginalized communities. This movement was so powerful because it wasn't just black people, it was everyone.

• Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton was a member of the Black Panther Party and a founder of the Rainbow Coalition. He was a fighter for black activism and equality. He ended up getting assassinated because people didn't like that he advocated for human rights.

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• El Movimiento

• Gay Liberation Movement

• Asian American Movement

• American Indian Movement

• Women's Liberation Movement

• Why was a 'war on drugs' declared?

There was an increase of drug use in America and a growing crack cocaine epidemic. President Nixon declared the "war" because of the HIV and AIDS outbreak within America that could also result from people sharing dirty needles.

• What are the social consequences of the war on drugs?

The social consequences were that people who were poorer than others were more targeted than those who had enough money to buy pure cocaine . These people who got targeted for having crack, which was more stigmatized than cocaine, would end up in jail, not just for crack but all drugs including weed.

• What has the 'cost' of the war on drugs been?

The cost of the war on drugs was an increasing amount of people incarcerated. To this day, most of our states hold more incarcerated people than countries around the world.

(excerpt from "A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic")

The United States was the focal point of the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. The disease was first noticed en masse by doctors who treated gay men in Southern California, San Francisco, and New York City in 1981.

When cases of AIDS first emerged in the U.S., they tended to originate among either men who had sex with other men, hemophiliacs, or heroin users. The fact that the disease was also prevalent among Haitians led to the "Four-H Club" of groups at high risk of AIDS.

Though some people believe that AIDS began in the U.S. in the 80's, that is actually the decade when it gained recognition as a health condition. Instances of HIV are believed to have been in the U.S. long before that - perhaps as early as the 1960s. The first reported cases of HIV are believed to have come from Kinshasa in or around 1920. Scientists believe the disease was transferred from monkeys and chimps to humans.

The prevalence of the disease among gay men in the U.S. in the 80's and 90's resulted in a stigma against homosexuals and a general fear and misunderstanding regarding how AIDS was spread. Over time attitudes changed as celebrities like Rock Hudson and Freddie Mercury revealed that they had the disease, and Magic Johnson came forward with HIV, and dedicated his retirement to educating others about the virus. In 2010, a U.S. travel ban on HIV-positive people that had been in effect since 1987 was lifted, finally allowing entrance to the country without a waiver.

• What factors influenced the impact of COVID-19 on different groups? (reference class lecture/discussion in your response; provide a minimum of 3 sentences in your response)