Texas History Day Archives - Page 3 of 4

The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: Balancing Rights and Responsibilities in Times of Crisis

by Maura Goetzel
O Henry Middle School, Austin, TX
Junior Division
Individual Historical Paper

The Alien and Sedition Acts are one of the most infamous laws in American history. Signed into law in 1798, these dual pieces of legislation gave President John Adams two controversial pieces of executive power: the ability to deport any alien the President deemed “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States” and the restriction of “seditious” political speech. The ruling Federalist Party justified these repressive measures by claiming they were essential to combating the violent ideas spreading from Revolutionary France.

For her Texas History Day project, O Henry Middle School student Maura Goetzel wrote a history of the Alien and Sedition Acts and considered how early Americans balanced liberty and security.

President John Adams (Wikipedia)

“Throughout our history we have found that it is difficult to balance liberty and security, especially in times of crisis. If people are given too much freedom, anarchy could result; conversely, if the government goes too far in its exercise of security, we might compromise an “unalienable” right. This problem becomes even more difficult in times of crisis. When people get afraid, they want protection. But how far can the government go in exercising its responsibilities without jeopardizing the people’s rights?”

Original copy of the 1798 Sedition Act (United States Federal Government)

“The Alien and Sedition Acts provided the first test of a young United States government in balancing an individual’s rights against the government’s responsibilities to provide for the common defense. The Acts, like the recent Patriot Act, were passed ‘in a period of real and perceived threats to the homeland.’ History ultimately determined that the Federalist Party went too far, and that the nature of the threat was no reason to ignore the Bill of Rights.”

The War, The Weapon and the Crisis: The Arab Oil Embargo of 1973

By Johana Mata

Read Johana’s Paper Here

In October of 1973, members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries—or OPEC—placed an oil embargo against the United States and many of its NATO allies. This dramatic move was retaliation against the West for their military support of Israel in the ongoing Yom Kippur War. The embargo caused the price of crude oil to promptly skyrocket in the United States, creating an economic and political crisis.

For Texas History Day, Johana Mata delved into the history behind OPEC’s provocative act. She argues that the embargo represented a serious turning point for the global economy:

Israeli tanks cross the Suez Canal’s western border into Egypt, 1973 (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

“The embargo and its consequences sent shock radiating through the social fabric of the industrial nations. The fear and uncertainty caused by the oil cutbacks had both oil companies and consumers frantically seeking additional supplies not only for current use but as a safeguard for future shortages. Buyers were scrambling desperately to obtain any oil they could find. ‘We weren’t bidding just for oil, we were bidding for our life,’ said an independent refiner who did not have a secure supply. The effects of the embargo on the psyches of the Western Europeans and the Japanese were dramatic. The disruption instantaneously transported them back to the bitter postwar years of deprivation and shortages. In West Germany, for example, the Ministry of Economics took on the task of allocating supply to desperately worried industries. In japan, the embargo came as an even more devastating shock. The confidence built by strong economic growth was suddenly shattered and ignited a series of commodity panics.”

An American gas station experiencing the embargo’s impact (Image courtesy of Vintage Everyday)

“In the United States, the shortfall of oil struck at fundamental beliefs in the endless abundance of resources, convictions rooted so deeply in the American character and experience that a large part of the public did not even know until October of 1973 that the United States imported any oil at all. In a matter of months, however, the public found out just how dependent the country was on Middle Eastern oil. Gasoline prices quadrupled, rising from just 25 cents per gallon to over a dollar in months. Gas lines became common sights as drivers became desperate to fill their tanks before the gas ran out. There was an instant drop in the number of homes built with gas heat and Congress issued a 55 mph speed limit on highways. Daylight savings time was compulsory year-round in an effort to reduce electrical use and one of the biggest long-term effects was the massive change in cars due to the oil embargo. The production of gas guzzling cars was halted and the sale of Japanese cars increased because they met efficiency standards that American cars did not. Americans lost the confidence they had held for the future.”

Johana Mata
Senior Division
Research Paper

Student Showcase – The “Knock Knock Who is There” Moment for Japan: The Signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854

By Kathleen Ran

Read the full research paper

In 1854, a fleet of American naval ships arrived in Japan’s Tokyo Bay. The squadron, led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, was charged with the mission of convincing the Tokugawa shogunate to open commercial and diplomatic ties with the West. Beginning in the mid-17th century, the island’s feudal leaders enforced an economic, political and cultural isolation, allowing no contact with foreigners in order to preserve traditional Japanese society. After a series of tense negotiations between Japanese and American officials, including indications from Commodore Perry that his ships were willing to use force, both sides ratified the Kanagawa Treaty, also known as the Convention of Kanagawa, which officially opened Japan to international trade and diplomacy.

Kathleen Ran’s Texas History Day paper, “The ‘Knock Knock Who is There’ Moment for Japan: The Signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854,” explores the historical impact of this watershed agreement on Japanese society. She argues that significant political, economic and cultural changes took place as a result:

Woodblock print portraying an 1854 meeting between Commodore Perry, his officers and Japanese noblemen, circa 1887 (Image courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)

“The Americans came to Japan and sought access to ports and friendship. They got what they wanted through the Treaty of Kanagawa. The Japanese were reluctant and in some ways were dragged to the treaty table. However, the treaty later turned out to be very profitable to Japan. The Treaty of Kanagawa was primarily responsible for the rapid transformation of Japan from an isolated and feudal empire to one of the world’s most powerful and successful nations.”

The opening of Japan stirred a negative reaction from many segments of Japanese society. This 1861 woodcutting reflects such sentiments, depicting a traditional sumo wrestler throwing a foreigner to the ground. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

“Before the treaty came into effect, the country was far behind in areas of technology, economics and entirely shunned foreign relations. Now, though, Japan is among the world’s cutting-edge producers of technology and an integral part of the world community. The Treaty of Kanagawa opened the door of Japan and initiated the nation’s transformation from a feudal empire to a modern world power; therefore, it was a turning point in history.”

Kathleen Ran
Junior Division
Research Paper

The Emergence of Atatürk: A Turning Point in Turkish History

by Ilona Altman

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is a monumental figure in Turkish history. After leading the successful Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allied forces, Atatürk entered the realm of politics and initiated a bold agenda of social, political and economic reforms. Known as Kemalism, these reforms sought to transform Turkey into a modern and secular nation-state that would be equal to–and not subject to–European powers. Almost a century after the Republic’s founding, Kemalism remain a cornerstone of Turkey’s government, economy and society. Moreover, Atatürk’s likeness continues to adorn statues, paintings and memorials around the nation he built.

For Texas History Day, Ilona Altman explores the historical significance of Atatürk and his “Kemalist” agenda in the website “The Emergence of Atatürk: A Turning Point in Turkish History.” In the site’s process paper, Ilona talks about her personal and historical interest in this topic:

“We strolled down the streets of Istanbul, walking into teashops, rug stores, and bazaars. Every place we went had a unique aura. Oddly enough, every place had one consistent quality – in all of the shops, a portrait of a man known as “Atatürk” was hanging on a wall. Our family made a game trying to find “the poster” in each shop, and I suddenly came to wonder who exactly “Atatürk” was. What had he done to earn such recognition? I began drowning in questions, so upon our arrival home, I began researching.”

“The emergence of Atatürk as Turkey’s president was an immense turning point in Turkish history, fitting perfectly with the NHD Theme “Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, Events.” Atatürk’s emergence through presidency was a turning point that allowed for the movement toward a modern and successful Turkey to begin. By becoming president, Atatürk had the power to implement reform. Turkey’s successful embrace of Western ideals makes it a role model in the Middle East today, demonstrating that a successful incorporation of Western secularism, principles, ideals, and progressive economy with an Islamic religious consciousness is possible. Turkey demonstrates that western ideas can build a middle class and strong economy. Learning about Ataturk made me realize that individuals matter – one person truly can change the world.”

Photo Credits:

Atatürk speaking before a crowd in Bursa, Turkey, 1924 (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Atatürk’s visage carved into rock, Izmir, Turkey (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Portrait of Atatürk, 1923 (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Ilona Altman
Junior Division
Individual Website

Rosalind Franklin and Her Contributions to the Discovery of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid

by Danielle Maldonado

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was an English biophysicist who made critical scientific contributions to our knowledge of DNA. Her data enabled crucial breakthroughs in the field of biochemistry, notably the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure. For Texas History Day, Danielle Maldonado produced a video performance of Franklin’s life and work, outlining her achievements and explaining what life would have been like for the iconic scientist. You can watch her dramatic and historical performance here. Danielle argues that Fanklin’s work represented a major turning point in history:

“Everyone knows who Dr. James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins are. If you don’t, they are credited with the discovery of the structure of DNA. They won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Without the help of Rosalind Franklin, this great turning pointing in history wouldn’t have been possible. The base of genetic biochemistry was stabilized by Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA….This knowledge has helped scientists discover other biological breakthroughs that would’ve otherwise been impossible. Told from the viewpoint of Rosalind Franklin, she expresses the struggles of completing all the main research on her own and explains how many genetic advancements have been made since then. Rosalind Franklin’s work helped pave a new road for biochemistry to travel.”

“The base of genetic biochemistry was stabilized by Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This is a turning point in history, and is thus significant in history, because there is so little that we understand about human life. In the 21st century, being able to recognize and treat genetically inherited diseases and disorders impacts our lives greatly. The structure of DNA is one more puzzle we were able to solve, though not all puzzles are solvable. We may never be able to see the whole picture that lies at the end, but we will continue to piece it together, one strand of DNA at a time.”

Danielle Maldonado
Division II
Individual Performance

Photo Credits:

Rosalind Franklin performing an experiment (Image courtesy of Science Blogs)

Images used under Fair Use Guidelines

The Transistor: Humanity’s Amplifier

by Nick Walker

The transistor is one of the most essential components of modern technology. Developed in the late 1940s and early 1950’s, this device enabled scientists to amplify and redirect electrical power, a crucial innovation in the field of electronics. Nick Walker, a student at Communication Arts High School in San Antonio, created a video for Texas History Day narrating the big history of this little device. You can watch it here. Nick describes the origins of this topic in his process paper:

“I began my research with an examination of available online resources. I trawled the films made accessible online through the Internet Archive. I searched for relevant books available from within my school district’s collections. I traveled to local higher education libraries, including those of Northwest Vista and San Antonio College, to locate more extensive resources. After reading these materials and examining their bibliographies, I conducted further research to locate copies of primary materials. I also contacted the authors for interviews and the resultant discussions would further guide my research in new directions. I was able to locate the Center for the History of Physics’ Neils Bohr Library website and its oral histories, the Computer History Museum’s Corporate Histories Collection and its numerous assorted documents, and the numerous historical films released by the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation Archives. I accessed numerous research databases, primarily JSTOR, IEEEXplore and EBSCO Academic Complete. I contacted alumni from semiconductor firms and obtained further perspective on the industry. These discussions would lead to a final round of research at the libraries of the University of Texas at Austin and the J.J. Pickle Research Campus.”

“The invention of the transistor was a turning point. The immediately preceding research and the new insight into the nature of electrons and electricity it produced proved a key to unlocking hitherto mysterious corners of physics. The rapid pace of change that would see the advent of such phenomena as Moore’s Law, the persistent increase in circuit density, evinces an unprecedented trend of growth with implications for all of humanity. The rapid pace of iteration, over time, would see the creation of entirely new technologies that are now inescapably pervasive. These technologies have shaped the world we live in today.”

Photo Credits:

A replica of the first working transistor, which was invented in 1947 (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Student Showcase- The Annexation of Hawaii

By Sheridan Ashlynn Steen

Read Sheridan’s paper here

In 1898, the United States formally annexed Hawaii, a chain of eight South Pacific islands. But what were the islands’ cultural and political history prior to becoming the 50th U.S. state? And what factors led to the islands’ eventual colonization?

For her Texas History Day submission, Incarnate Word Academy student Sheridan Ashlynn Steen researched the history of Hawaii’s annexation, arguing that it constituted a “major turning point, not only in the history of Hawaii, but also in the history of the United States. Hawaii lost its independence, unwillingly became a United States territory, gained a larger population of foreigners than native Hawaiians, and lost much of its culture. The United States, on the other hand, secured military advantage, economic enrichment, and the first territory outside of its boundaries. America’s annexation of Hawaii extended its territory into the Pacific, resulting in economic integration and leading to its rise as a Pacific power.”

Click the link above to read more of Sheridan’s fascinating paper.

Sheridan Ashlynn Steen
Incarnate Word Academy
Corpus Christi, TX
Individual Paper

Photo Credits:

Painting of Kamehameha III (1813–1854), an Hawaiian monarch who signed an 1851 accord establishing strong military and political ties between the United States and Hawaii (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Fire and Ice: How a Handshake in Space Turned Cold War Agendas from Competition to Cooperation

By Kacey Manlove

Read the full paper here
See more images here
Annotated bibliography, including author interviews with former NASA officials

What role did space exploration assume in the history of Soviet-American relations? For her Texas History Day research paper, Kacey Manlove argues that it represented the “fire” of mutual distrust and fear, but also the “ice” of cooperation and détente:

Time Magazine Cover "Space Spectacular: Science, Politics, & Show Biz" over two hands shaking, each is painted to represent a different flag (the U.S. and U.S.S.R)

“Between 1945 and 1991, Robert Frost’s ‘Fire and Ice’ presented sobering possibilities as Cold War confrontations dominated world politics. Both America and the Soviet Union postured for superiority in nuclear strength, building armories with potential to annihilate the world in fiery holocaust. October 4, 1957, marked the first major turning point when Sputnik’s launch catapulted the possibility of destruction into space. Their tense competition for nuclear dominance on earth and control of activities in space appeared unsolvable until 1975, when their Cold War space agencies initiated the next major turning point, symbolically transforming American-Soviet relations from conflict to détente as the commanders of their joint Apollo-Soyuz mission reached across space to shake hands. That handshake planted the seed for other cooperative events, first Shuttle-Mir and later the International Space Station, today’s symbol of international cooperation.”

You can follow the links above to read all of Kacey’s fascinating paper, see more images and read her first person interviews with former NASA officials.

Kacey Manlove
Rockport-Fulton High School
Senior Division
Individual Paper

Photo Credits:

1975 issue of Time examining American-Soviet cooperation in space (Image courtesy of “Fire and Ice: How a Handshake in Space Turned Cold War Agendas from Competition to Cooperation”)

Student Showcase – A Turning Point in the Communication Age: The ARPANET, The Ancestor of the Modern Internet

by Matthew Baker, Christopher Calandria and Jake Leland

In their group website, “A Turning Point in the Communication Age: The ARPANET, The Ancestor of the Modern Internet,” Matthew Baker, Christopher Calandria, Jake Leland of James Martin High School argue that the “ARPANET” system was the precursor to the modern Internet. The group site examines how it functioned, why it was created, and explain how a modest government program expanded into a globally dominant technology.

Baker, Calandria and Leland contend that that ARPANET was initially developed to facilitate greater communication between government researchers. They quote Leonard Kleinrock, one of the primary engineers of the program, recalls that what “initiated [the ARPANET] was the need to share resources among fellow researchers.” But by the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the ARPANET technology steadily entered the public as the Internet, irrevocably changing our economy and society.

However, the group argues that ARAPNET’s historical role was not uniformly positive and had a “dark side” of unforeseen consequences, including a rise in hacking, fraud and theft. They conclude by stating that the “Internet had considerable repercussions, both positive and negative” and that the “creation of The ARPANET was the significant turning point that resulted in these impacts.”

Photo Credits:

An interface message processor, or IMP, a network of small processors which allowed for the interconnection of different computers (Image courtesy of “A Turning Point in the Communication Age: The ARPANET”)

The Enduring Chanel: Reaction to a Revolutionary Reformer of Women’s Fashions

by Leila Bonakdar, Kate Chen, Jessica Salazar, and Lauren Todd

“The idea to do our project on women in the Roaring Twenties initially intrigued us because the romanticized era appealed to our captivation with fashion, music and American culture. Few people look past the glamorization of the flappers, but we wanted to dig deeper to find both the causes of the reform in gender roles as well as the era’s lasting impact on women today. In November, after a preliminary perusal of various sources at our local public library, we decided that our project should explore the controversial fashions of the twenties that boldly symbolized the liberation of women from confining Victorian social expectations.”

Drawing of three women in ankle length dresses with hats.

“We visited with Dr. Rebecca Sharpless, a Women’s Studies professor at Texas Christian University, in December and she suggested that we focus on the legendary French designer, Coco Chanel, whose revolutionary designs helped shape the role of women in the twenties. However, the majority of our research came from sources found in the University of Texas at Arlington Library. With the aid of Lea Worcester from the Special Collections Department, we were able to access a trove of primary resources, including 1920’s magazines, advertisements, newspaper articles, photographs, and microfilm, that was instrumental in helping us develop our script. We also accessed the university’s online research database and borrowed several books about fashion, the twenties and Chanel to refer to later in our project. We had the opportunity to view an exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art that featured works of American artists in the 1920’s. Many of the artists (O’Keefe, Hopper, Murphy, etc.) had dramatic, avant-guard styles that seemed to demonstrate the boldness of the decade. Melba Todd, a Neiman Marcus Special Events Coordinator, gave us her perspective on the significance and legacy of Chanel. Additionally, we visited several other local libraries and conducted email interviews with experts in the field of fashion.

We chose to do a documentary as our medium of expression because it allowed us to strategically use many of the visuals we found as we researched. In January we outlined the script and considered which issues would be crucial to our documentary. Our goal was to illustrate the significance of fashion in history. With our analysis, we were able to formulate the final script and record the voiceovers on Garageband. The documentary was compiled and edited on iMovie for the finished product.

Cartoon shows a woman in a large hat and long gown shooting at a flock of geese. — Source: The Library of Congress

The Roaring Twenties proved an ideal time to foster social, political and economic reform for women. And although fashion is considered by many to be immaterial to historical events, it often reflects changing attitudes because it is a powerful form of self-expression. Women reacted by embracing the androgynous, sleeker styles offered by Chanel as they audaciously proclaimed their independence and demand for equality. By shedding constrictive corsets and voluminous skirts, women were able to demonstrate their desire for freedom from oppressive social expectations. Chanel was more than a pioneer of fashion; her revolutionary designs and unusual role as a businesswoman consolidates her enduring legacy today.”

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