I Am Bohai's Annexation To China

In this course activity, you will participate in a peer discussion about how literary or other artistic pursuits and governmental, religious, political, or social structures affect one another. Afterward, you will summarize the discussion and how it helped shape your thinking about your original ideas.

I was born in a middle class family in China and my parents care about me very much. Before I was even born, my farther adjusted the business hour of his clinic to make more profit by accepting more patients and my mother was a nurse who worked in my dad’s clinic, so they saved the money to send me to school and prepare to move to the U.S. Most of the members of my family already moved to the U.S. Moreover, once my aunt got her U.S. citizenship, she, as the sponsor, was able to apply for us to come. When I was 15, we finally got our immigrant visas and my parents told me we were ready for move to the America. Therefore, we sold everything we had in China we were staying at my uncle’s house in Hong Kong because we need to take the airplane from Hong Kong to Missouri, U.S. I still remember what my uncle said to me because he looked at me with a very serious face that caught my attention. “Qianxin, the America is different from China. I’ve heard people said life in the America is harder than China. However, if you work hard enough, you will get what you deserve.” The words are always in my mind. I tried to do my best in school and in everything because I want to be the person who can help my family.

There have been many issues with annexation with the United States in the past. So many that you would think the leaders of today would know by now that annexation is not a wise move to make in expansion. A prime example of forcible annexation is with the annexation of the Philippines. The United States annexed the island nation with no consent and, some would say, no mercy for the natives of this country. This quote from the San Francisco Agronaut highlights Americas non-concern for the Filipino people: “WE DO NOT WANT THE FILIPINOS. WE DO WANT THE PHILIPPINES…The more of them killed the better. It seems harsh. But they must yield before the superior race,” (Lapsansky). This act is made even more horrendous when you take into account the fact that the United States had just helped the Philippines receive freedom from the horrible dealings of being annexed into and apart of the empire of Spain. We set the small island nation free from one country to be annexed into another.

While doing this assignment I have learned how others think more. Many of the members in my group disagreed with each other on pretty much everything, but the suggestions people made on my concepts also opened my eyes more. It thought me to stop being so bias and quit with my stereotypical

I think that everyone in my group gave good and valuable input. I could tell that some deep thinking went into the write-up of people’s jobs. Everyone came to class prepared and I could tell that Kelly, Nicole and Emma put a good effort into thoroughly completing their jobs. We had no problem discussing anything that involved the book. The discussions went really well. I think that the fact that we all had our own thoughts and opinions about the different events that occurred in the book, and even the book itself is what made our discussions so benefiting. We all found the book enjoyable to read, though we wouldn’t typically choose this type of book for ourselves. A Long Way Gone was different for all of us and even though we all really liked the book, its themes and plot were kind of new to us. Still, we had no problem discussing it. Over all, everything involving the book went smoothly. I felt as if I had plenty of time to read that weeks chapters and do my job by the time it was due. Nicole, Kelly and Emma also came to class prepared, having read all of the needed chapters and done their job

Classical Athens was an intellectual paradise. Philosophers, playwrights, historians, scientists, mathematicians, and scientists made Athens what we remember it as. Han China was a prosperous and advanced culture. Han China shows that it was an advanced culture through achievements like the Great Wall of China, the Silk Road, and the Civil Service System. Though they were both advanced intellectually and culturally, Classic Athens and Han China were very different.

The third attempt at having The Kingdom of Hawai’i annexed was a false claim by the United States declaring Hawai’i territory of the United States because it was a Neutral State. The United States Congress and President McKinley signed into law a Joint Resolution, which they claimed Hawai’i annexed by the United States of America and was now U.S. territory; this claim was a violation of war between the Hawaiian Kingdom and the United States. The United States claimed due to concern Hawai’i might become part of the European Nation’s Empire they needed resolution claiming Hawaii’s Annexation. But Hawai’i disputed the claim stating Hawai’i could not be annexed thru a Joint Resolution and that a Joint Resolution is not a treaty; it is a congressional act on behalf of the United States. The congressional act can only affect U.S. territory and Hawai’i was not a U.S. territory or state to be claimed

John Stevens, who was the US minister of Hawaii, had brought military forces to Iolani Palace to support the people who yearned for annexation. To prevent violence and bloodshed, Queen Liliuokalani had surrendered her throne to the US (Potter, Kasdon, and Rayson 157). Moreover, had there been no threat of slaughter, Queen Liliuokalani would not have had to abdicate her throne. This shows that the annexation of the Hawaiian monarchy was done illegally, through force rather than consent, and that it was not justified because the Queen resigned at the threat of violence against Native Hawaiians, not by her own assent

The United States Of America should annex Hawaii to their country. First of all, annexing the island of Hawaii means that it can support the U.S war strategies. Another reason to annex Hawaii is because the government could get more profit from Hawaii.

History class this past week consisted of lecture, class discussion, and our weekly exam. The topics discussed during this session were interesting and informative. The lecture content stimulated thought-provoking questions which lead to high student engagement level. The lecture for this week was easier follow in comparison to the lecture last week and I walked away with a better understanding of the subject matter.

Write a brief reflection on the activity (no more than 3 pages). What did you learn about yourself and others? What implications might this have on your own classroom practice?

During the group discussions it helped me earn feedback from my different peers in the class and view the different thoughts and ideas that my fellow classmates had. When writing an essay, having different classmates review my work and give feedback helped me learn more about myself and other people. It helped me learn that people will always have a different point of view when it comes to writing, and I also learned that peer reviews are a precise and beneficial way of showing different ideas and showing mistakes that I made in my essay. This also contributed to my overall improvements of

| |the intellectual conversation of topics that were discussed. I also enjoyed the learning |

The group discussion has just passed, and it was really a hard work and challenging. There were many precious lessons I got, and, hopefully, so did with my friends. Our group was consisting of four students. As a quantity, reasonably, we had had enough power to do a better work and gained a satisfying result. As I flashed back to the group discussion, it was enriching my memories. Some were in high spirit, remarkable and enjoyable. Opposite to it, few were disappointing.

The persuasion scenario our group choose to observe is the events that happen in United States of America in 19th century. It’s the President Abraham Lincoln famous Gettysburg address. One of the main points for Lincoln when he giving this speech is to persuade both union and confederate (two different sides during the civil war) citizens to come join together to create the new equal and justice United States. This persuasion speech made me known why many people saw him as the great man. He did not antagonize, nor did he show disrespect to the dead, even those who fought for the Confederacy (who is oppose to Lincoln administration). He treated them all as people of one country, and honored them all equally. Lincoln’s respect for every man