Help!!! Anyone know anything about history? I just have a few questions.....please help......?

Question

I am working on my final exam study guide and there are just a couple of topics that I can not find much about, can anyone help me? I am not asking anyone to do my homework for me.....in fact it is not even homework....i make my own study guide of topics the teacher tells us we need to know.....so I am just trying to learn about them before i take my final. Here are the topics that i am having trouble with.............

1. Explain the motives by Imperial powers to colonize weaker nations in the nineteenth century.

2. What was Latin American (legal and illegal) immigration like from the 1940's and its economic controversies?

3. Explain violence and instability in the U.S. during the 50s and 60s and the black militantcy.

4. What was US Imperialism in Latin America and the Pacific like?

Any information you can teach me would be greatly appreciated, and thank you in advance.

Answer 1

It will take me ages to properly adress those questions. I'll just give you the basics so you can elaborate.

1- Primarly; raw materials, markets, international prestige, populate new lands, geo-strategic reasons.

Couple of good starting points;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Euro...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_fo...

2. No freaking idea!!

3.Think of civil rights, Kennedy, Malcolm X, etc..

this is a decent starting point; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLK

4. Big stick policy by Teddy Roosevelt, annexation of Hawaii, Convention of Kanagawa, Spanish-American War, Gunboat diplomacy, separation of Panama from Colombia, Grover Cleveland foreign policy, manifest destiny, Roosevelt Corollary, New Imperialism, William Walker (soldier).

Check these entries on wikipedia.org

Answer 2

1. Explain the motives by Imperial powers to colonize weaker nations in the nineteenth century.

Two main reasons:

a. To exploit the natural resources such as gold and diamonds in South Africa or copper mining in the Belgium Congo. (Many more examples but you get the idea)

b. To cultivate markets for industrial goods such as selling cloth to India while India was a part of the British Empire.

2. What was Latin American (legal and illegal) immigration like from the 1940's and its economic controversies?

This is a HUGE ongoing question today.  It all revolves around cheap labor.  As Pres. Bush says, immigrants (legal and illegal) from Latin America are willing to do jobs that most Americans do not want to do and for lower pay - especially as in picking agricultural products.

3. Explain violence and instability in the U.S. during the 50s and 60s and the black militancy.

Again, this question could spawn a book as could the other questions you are asking.  The black community felt excluded from opportunities to have the 'good life' enjoyed by white Americans in the prosperity of the 50's and early 60's.  The militant African Americans sought to remedy this unfair situation with violence.

4. What was US Imperialism in Latin America and the Pacific like?

The take over of Cuba and the Philippines after the Spanish American War of 1898 and the acquisition of the Hawaiian islands in the 1890's are good examples to look up.  The 1890's primarily was our (America's) brief Imperialistic phase.

All of these questions really require a long essay beyond the scope of this site, but maybe this will help.  Hopefully your textbook covers all of these in much more detail.  The textbook I use for my college World Civilizations class has good sections on each of these topics.  Good luck on the test.