GPHC 2018-2019

Peace and Conflict - Bangladesh Starting in 1858, the areas of what are now Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka were under British rule and called the British Raj(Raj meaning Rule in Hindustani). The territory that’s considered Bengal was taken as British territory starting earlier, in 1752. Bangladesh and Pakistan were freed in 1947. Britain had just ended fighting in WWII and was exhausted of resources to control their Indian territories, which were increasingly unhappy about being under British rule. At the time of freedom, Pakistan and Bengal were one country, and both considered Pakistan. They were and remain separated by the entirety of India, which not only was a physical distance, but also caused the people from both areas to be distanced. West Pakistan was what we know now as Pakistan, while East Pakistan is now Bangladesh. East Pakistan resented being under the rule of West Pakistan. The two sides fought over political control and choice of language, and t...

Callista Wilson Mr. Roddy Global Politics and Historical Contexts 2 November 2018 Conflict In Ukraine Against Russian Separatist Forces Ever since 2013, the Ukrainian Government has experienced escalating conflicts against both their own people, and Russia. Tensions originated when tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the capital Kiev with the intention of overthrowing the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The Ukrainian people felt that he was inadequate due to the fact that he had succumbed to Russian influences, and has decided not become more economically integrated with countries of the European Union. This decision contradicted with the ideals of the Ukrainian people, as a majority aspire that Ukraine be considered part of Europe. In response to the protesters, government forces attempted to disperse the people through a show of force and violence, however, this only drew more protesters toward the capital city, which escalated conflicts, and lead...

Zoey Weinstein Mr. Roddy GPHC 11/1/18 The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a conflict, mostly over territory. In 1948, after the Arab-Israeli War, the Holy Land was divided into the State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Many small wars have occurred, shifting ownership of territory minorly. In 1973, the Yom Kippur War occurred when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel because Israel owned the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights, but in 1979, Egypt and Israel established a peace treaty. In subsequent years, more attacks and violence among palestinians occurred and lead to the The first intifada, in 1987. This was a Palestinian uprising against Israel’s ownership of Gaza and the West Bank. The 1993 Oslo Accords calmed the conflict, by creating anew set-up, which allow Palestinians to govern themselves. In 2000, the second intifada began. It was way more violent than the first. Violence continued between Israelis ...

The Second Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was an adjustment to farm subsidy policies. Ultimately, the aim of this law was to increase farmers income, as demand was decreasing and a voluntary holt in production on the part of the farmers would likely result in them not making enough to survive. The Second Agriculture Adjustment Act subsided farmers to reduce acreage and production of "staple items"  including bu not limited to pigs, cotton, tobacco, milk, rice and wheat. This list changed over time reflecting the needs of the country. The most urgent holt in production was cotton. Eventually, the farmers were essentially paid to destroy the cotton surplus in order to save the country money when the cotton surplus began to exceed the international consumption of American cotton, not including the 400,000 other acres of cotton which were planted and had not been harvested. Although it wasn't bad to burn the cotton, it was absolutely unthinkable to burn food when American...

The Resettlement Administration was founded in May of 1935 with the mission of relocating struggling families, especially those in farming communities, into planned communities within cities called City Green Belts. Green Belts should have been glimmering examples of what a sustainable future could look like within cities, but this future never actually arrived. The Resettlement Administration had four branches including Rural Rehabilitation, Rural Resettlement, Land Utilization, and Suburban Resettlement. Initially, the goal of the organization was to relocate 650,000 people from 100,000,000 acres of agriculturally useless land but this plan was unfavorable to Congress and most Americans because it seemed socialistic in nature. Instead the RA moved a few thousand people from around 9,000 acres of land into what was called City Green Belts. Ultimately , Resettlement Administration was ineffective because of lack of cooperation from other government entities and lack of fu...

President Roosevelt passed the Homeowners’ Refinancing Act (or Homeowners’ Loan Act) on June 13, 1933 with the intention of assisting homeowners defaulting on their mortgages. I learned from The Living New Deal all about the background and effects of this law. They explain that since the market crash of 1929 the issue of home loan defaults had become huge, especially because of the amount of large loans taken out immediately before during the Roaring Twenties. Roosevelt hoped that getting homeowners in a position to pay off their mortgages would help more that just the owners; he saw its potential to generate increased revenue for the banks they lent from, help local governments bring in additional funds from property taxes, and provide jobs through the revival of the dying construction industry.    In order to carry this out, the Homeowners’ Refinancing Act established the Homeowners’ Refinancing Corporation. The group bought up homeowners’ debts and then gave them n...

The Federal Housing Administration was formed in 1934 and exists to this day. It was, as The Living New Deal explains, created as part of the Federal Housing Act, which aimed to “encourage improvement in housing standards and conditions, to provide a system of mutual mortgage insurance, and for other purposes.”           Roosevelt saw it as critical that fear of home loans generated by the recent housing market crash wouldn’t cause the industry to stay shattered long after the economy recovered. As The Living New Deal explains, he was already confident his government’s introduction of the idea of long term, low interest loans would fix most of the issues present in the previous housing crash, but he knew he needed to win back trust in the market. Thus he established the Federal Housing Administration, which insured banks against losses on mortgage loans.    This was a resounding success, convincing banks to go back to loani...