Field Trip to Birmingham

     Yesterday, the class of 2016 went on the annual junior class trip to Birmingham.  We visited the 16th Street Baptist Church and then we went to the civil rights museum.  The speaker at the church taught us about how four little girls under the age of 14 died while they were in the changing room in the church due to a bomb planted by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.  One girl also lost an eye during the explosion. When the cops were removing the rubble from the explosion, they found all four girls stacked on top of each other. 

     Our visit to the museum of civil right was filled with fun and excitement.  We saw the actual tank that was used to maintain order in Birmingham during big riots.  We also saw a replica of a bus that had been blown up by another member of the KKK.  Griffin, Jackson G., Drew, and I went on a quest for Milo's Burgers.  We walked around downtown for 35 minutes looking for the magical restaurant and finally, after asking a lady on the street, we found out that it closed two weeks ago.  The guys were awfully mad at me. :(

Questions about World War I.

1.  When did World War I begin, and why?  What was the immediate cause? Between what two groups of allies was it fought?

The war started on June 28, 1914.  When the arch duke of Austria Hungry Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the black hand (what we would call a terrorist group today).  The war was fought between two sets of allies.  The allies that started the war were the UK, France, and Russia.  And on the other side was Austria Hungry and Germany.  (Italy, Japan and the US would later join the allies and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria would later join the central powers.)

2.  When and why did the US enter the war?  

The US got involved on April 6, 1917 because of many different reasons, such as the US was already violating the international law by supplying the allies with war materials while the US was still neutral.  And "Unrestricted Submarine Warfare" by the Germans which sank US ships.

3. When and why did WWI come to an end?

The war was finally over on November 11, 1918.  As the US, France, and the British advanced, the Central Powers could not take anymore fighting and surrendered.

4. What were the terms of the major agreement ending the War? Why did the US not ratify this treaty, even though President Wilson had played such a major role in ratifying it?

The Treaty of Versailles (the treaty that ended WWI) put all of the blame of starting the war on Germany.  Which meant Germany had to pay for all damages.  New nations and new land was acquired after the war but the US did not ratify the treaty because the US did not want to be part of the League of Nations, because the US was afraid it would cause more overseas conflict.

5. How did SO many people die in the war?  Were diseases a factor?

The reasons so many people died in WWI is because of trench warfare.  With both sides hiding in trenches and throwing grenades non stop at each other, with no way out, many people died.  Nasty diseases that came about in the wet trenches were,as you can imagine, deadly.  Such as trench fever, trench foot, and lice all plagued the men in the trenches.