History 140
Midterm
Richard Henry Dana came from a prominent Brahmin family. He attended Harvard college but was forced to drop out his junior year due to a measles attack which temporarily affected his eyesight. Dana wanted to tour Europe but was unable to afford it. Instead, he decided to sign on as a seaman at nineteen years old, and sailed around Cape Horn to California. When trying to recall his motives for becoming a seaman he wasn't sure if it was his "desire to cure my eyes, my love of adventure and the attraction of the novelty of a life before the mast, or anxiety to escape from the depressing situation of inactivity and dependence at home" (vi).
The first place they come to is the island of Juan Fernandez. Here ."..all the people, except the soldiers and a few officers, were convicts sent from Valparaiso" (48). Because of the mass population of convicts, knives were forbidden, and all weapons were to be kept away from them. Dana and the crew concluded that the island belonged to Chili and was used by the government as a Botany Bay.
After 150 days at sea they finally arrived in the bay of Santa Barbara. This bay was very large, formed by the main land on one side, and three islands opposite it. Here they found out that the thermometer never fell before zero and that there were little changes in weather during the different seasons. They heard of the mission and town of Santa Barbara that lies near to the beach and is a collection of one story buildings built of brown clay. In the center of town is a large building, the presidio.
Monterey bay is wide at the entrance, but narrows as you approach the town. It has well wooded shores and everything was very green. The...
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...249). This is because of its great climate, abundance of wood and water, its fertility, and good anchoring grounds. On the other hand Dana thought of San Pedro as being " the hell of California", and thought it was designed for wear and tear of sailors.
I think his opinions reflect a collision between Anglo and Latin cultures. He does not seem to be racist against the Indians but does make a point to let us know how much he hates their language. He never bad mouthed them the way he did to the Spanish of California. However, he does see the people of California as lazy and a little stupid. I think his opinions changed after the U.S acquisition of the territory. The people were now a little more civilized and orderly, and the land a little more advanced. Since they are under new acquisition they now are under different rule and are more advanced and thrifty.
The other author to provide readers with a different historical perspective is Daniel Richter. Richter’s book Facing East from Indian Country allows readers to see the story of coming to America from the Native American perspective. An interesting point that Richter makes in his book is “Perhaps the strangest lesson of all was that in the new nation whites were the ones entitled to be called “Americans” Indians bizarrely became something else” . In early America when the first Europeans arrived to America they mistakenly referred to the natives as “Indians”. Even people today use the term “Indian” when referring to the Native
Mission San Juan Capistrano is in the center of the small town named for it. Shops and restaurants also named for it are found on the streets in front of the entrance to the mission. A high adobe wall surrounds the mission grounds. There are many restored buildings in the inner patio, and the great stone church. Across the fountain there is the bell wall that sits beside the ruined church. Near the bell is a statue of Father Junipero Serra. The ruins of the original stone church are in front of the mission. Only the sanctuary and parts of the church remain, but that’s enough to have an idea of how big it was. The church walls are made of large stones and birds have build nests between them. Mission San Juan Capistrano was one of many Spanish
In the beginning of this speech, he talks about how the “fight” between the Indians and whites was unfair because of the weapons the whites possessed. Despite this, the Indians still believed they had a chance to defend themselves, unfortunately they were no match for the guns. What initiated this fight was the land, belonging to the Indians, that was taken with no regards to the inhabitants. He wanted to explain that Indians were of no harm to the “white society” and wanted to carry on with their own way of life. He feared that Indians will lose their culture and will become similar to whites in a negative sense. Some similarities he lists include lying and hypocrisy, adulterers, lazy, all talk, and
“California is a story. California is many stories.” But whose story is heard? What stories are forgotten? In the memoir, Bad Indians, Native American writer and poet Deborah A. Miranda constructs meaning about the untold experiences of indigenous people under the colonial period of American history. Her memoir disrupts a “coherent narrative” and takes us on a detour that deviates from the alleged facts presented in our high school history books. Despite her emphasis on the brutalization of the Indigenous people in California during the colonization period, Miranda’s use of the Christian Novena, “Novena to Bad Indians,” illustrates an ‘absurd’ ironic stance amidst cruelty and violence. The elocution of the Novena itself, and the Christian
Turner pointed out several key areas in his thesis that he indicated were absolutes do to the frontier. The first of these was “composite nationality” , which by definition according to Turner’s understanding was, “he (Turner) saw the Native American as a line of savagery…Assimilation could not, according to logic, cope with the presence of the Native American whose customs, were too alien, too different, to become merged into the American self. This implies that the Native American had no other choice than to give in to the demands of the American government or face the consequences if the failed to comply. Hine and Faragher show that the Native American Indian was forced from their homes more than once during the early part of the 19th century because of “manifest destiny”. Those in the United States government who enforced these rules demanded that the country be turned over to the Americans without question because of their supposed superiority over them. David Nichols points out in his article. Civilization Over Savage: Frederick Jackson Turner and The Indian, that Turner’s reference’s the Indians as “public domain” and the disposition of that them by the first frontier. The conclusions that the Native American Indians were nothing more than public domain that needed to be done away with makes me question his bias towards the American Indians as
He refers to all the immigration groups in a judgmental way. He complains about the intelligence levels of the Italians, how dirty and deceitful the Jews are, and even the immaculate cleanliness of the Chinamen. Although he does possess quite a bit of bigotry that boarders on the line of prejudice when it comes to African Americans he recognizes that they are suffering from racism and he sympathizes with th...
cut back on the problems in the Bay. Scientists have given an unthinkable amount of attention to the Bay of the past several years and researchers from countless numbers of agencies and institutions have dove deep into the issues and studying every nook and cranny to create answers to every politicians’ questions. The biggest concern with the Bay, and the most concentrated ...
The San Pedro Bay breakwater began construction in 1899. This was to facilitate the building of the Port of Los Angeles. It served well as a breakwater for both ports.
In his first paragraph, he states that, “Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stone.” This shows that ideas can be stronger than force. which is why one of his main points is that America must rely on its own culture and ideas, rather than those of other countries. He provides actual evidence as to why the ideas of other nations are inadequate for The America’s. Marti’s quote, “How can the universities produce governors if not a single university in America teaches the rudiments of the art of government, the analysis of element peculiar to the people peoples of America?” is one example of how he supports his argument that only those with a deep understanding of America can properly govern America. Those who are educated in the ways of Europe or the United States cannot comprehend the needs of Latin American countries. Perhaps his greatest strength is that he compels his readers to take pride in their Latin American heritage. At one point in his essay he states, “…for there are no lands in which a man may take greater pride than in our long-suffering American
Robert Walton was raised by his uncle after his father died. On his deathbed, Walton's father entreated his brother not to allow Robert to pursue a seafaring life. Robert instead became a poet so that he "might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated" (Shelley 16). Unfortunately, Robert was very unsucce...
When Spaniards colonized California, they invaded the native Indians with foreign worldviews, weapons, and diseases. The distinct regional culture that resulted from this union in turn found itself invaded by Anglo-Americans with their peculiar social, legal, and economic ideals. Claiming that differences among these cultures could not be reconciled, Douglas Monroy traces the historical interaction among them in Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Beginning with the missions and ending in the late 1800s, he employs relations of production and labor demands as a framework to explain the domination of some groups and the decay of others and concludes with the notion that ?California would have been, and would be today, a different place indeed if people had done more of their own work.?(276) While this supposition may be true, its economic determinism undermines other important factors on which he eloquently elaborates, such as religion and law. Ironically, in his description of native Californian culture, Monroy becomes victim of the same creation of the ?other? for which he chastises Spanish and Anglo cultures. His unconvincing arguments about Indian life and his reductive adherence to labor analysis ultimately detract from his work; however, he successfully provokes the reader to explore the complexities and contradictions of a particular historical era.
You may already know that there are 21 missions today in the state of California. Starting in San Diego all the way past San Francisco, the missions remind us of an earlier time when the Spanish were colonizing Alta California. The California missions were started because the Spanish king wanted to create permanent settlements in the area of the New World called Alta California. The decision to create Spanish missions in California was political as well as religious. The Spanish government wanted to gain control in California before the Russians did. They also wanted to spread Christianity among the Native Americans (Johnson, page 5). Most of today's missions are active churches, some have held mass non-stop since their founding. Others are part of the California State Park system. All are modern day treasures and a path backwards in time to our beginnings. They have influenced many aspects of our history, and continue to be an important part of our state today. Thousands of people annually visit the Missions and they find its architecture beautiful and interesting. The architecture of the California missions was influenced by many factors like the limitation in the materials, the lack of skilled workers, and the desire of the founding priest to imitate the structure of his Spanish homeland.
My report is on Mission Santa Ines which is 35 miles north of Santa Barbara among the rolling hills near the Santa Ynez River. The mission was established September 17, 1804 by Father Estevan Tapis as the 19th mission along El Camino Real.
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
Rawls, James. "California: A place, a people, a dream." California Dreams and Realities. Eds. Maasik and Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin: 2005. 11-17.