What if the Saddam Hussein's prison escape failed in 1967? 

Click here to view the project.  

My fourth quarter history benchmark is called the "What If? Benchmark". A project allowing us to alternate history with our own sets of events and to see how it affects the world of today. My POD (Point Of Divergence), is "What if Saddam Hussein never escaped prison?" 
So if that were to happen some 50 years ago, the America today would be much different. Lets say he never took charge, because his escape was unsuccessful, then the possibility of the Iran-Iraq war might've been far out of reach eventually meaning that the Persian Gulf War would not have happened either. Probably wouldn't have sparked 9/11 either, because that's considered a blowback from smaller and weaker Islamic countries, and lastly the economic crisis would not have happened which is linked in with the Iraqi War 2003 a.k.a Operation Iraqi Freedom. 
The Individual in my project would be Saddam Hussein and of course without him and his actions during the 70s and 80s. It's quite evident the affair between americans and islamics wouldn't be so heated. Everything in history happens for a reason and that's due to a decision. His influence not only affected Iraq for the past 50 years but the United States for 2 decades. 
For my project, I would definitely improve on making it more visually appealing. And that's exactly what I would work on to change it if I had a chance to redo in the process of the project. 

What if Leonardo died sooner? 

Click Here to view my website.

Topic:
What if Malcolm X died when his Michigan home was burned to the ground?

Reflection:
For this project I wanted to take a prime leader who changed society out the equation. I choose Malcolm X because he played such a huge rule in the civil rights movement. Without Malcolm X in the picture the altered world became more peaceful. So my exact point of divergence is in 1929 Malcolm X's Michigan was burned down to the ground. To change history I am saying that Malcolm X does not make it out the house alive. That incident changes history drastically because now Malcolm X is not able to become a leading African American figure. As the years pass with the new defined history in 2012 I predicted that there will be less animosity between the black and white race. 

One person can have a huge impact on history. I realized that taking a key player out can also have a drastic change. If one person can gather thousands of people to rally for a change in society of course eliminating them will have a different outcome. So in  my project I mentioned Malcolm X being more of a aggressive leader so by taking him out there will be more positive energy to go around. The positivity would eventually lead to a more peaceful solution. 

If I could do this project I would ask more thoughtful questions in the interview. In my interview I talked more about what has happened after because of Malcolm X's death than what lead up to it. That is something I would definitely change next time. Also in my interview I mentioned several family members to Malcolm X but next time I plan to make it more clear to the audience who are actually the family members. Overall I am very happy of my project's outcome. 

For my created primary sources:

New York Times Article 

Cartoon

Press Conference 

To view my project please click the link below. The link will have you download my project, so instead of just clicking through the pages, actually play the presentation because I added some effects. 

Click here (well more like copy and paste): If you want to download the keynote....  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40815479/IJohnsonQ4Bm.key

If you don't want to just view it here!

For this project I decided to focus on something that I could kind of see effecting my life today. So I chose to focus on Steve Job, his personal life, and the impact he had on the world and the technology revolution. My point of divergence is what if Steve Jobs did not get adopted. Many things could have happened the night Job's biological parents called to see if someone would adopt their baby. His adoptive parents could have not answered the phone, or his biological mother would have decided to have the abortion. However, I wanted to go down the route of what would happen if his adoptive parents never answered the phone. This would make Job's an orphan considering the fact that his biological parents were not allowed to keep him. So with Job's being an orphan his world would be so complicated thinking about technology or a way to make the world better would not take place in his thoughts. He would be more focused on family issues, financial troubles, and learning how to care for himself. 

The future that I imagine resulting from my POD is that we would be behind in the technology revolution, Science Leadership Academy would not have been successful, and  technology would cost less. Technology would cost less because Apple kind of set the standards of having high priced products since they were so unique. So without Apple being in the picture, companies would not sell their products to the public for unreasonable prices. Another thing that effects the prices of the technological products that is also a result of my POD is the fact that we are behind in the technology revolution. The technology revolution is really the progress of technology and the quickness of how technology has changed. With many original ideas, technology not only has changed on itself, but the way people think, create, and design. But many companies have admitted to trying to copy the style of Apple. Mainly the professional look Apple gives off, and it's simplicity. So without having Apple as a model technology is still complicated with navigating, the finished product does not look pleasant, and people are not able to expand their creativity since the technology does not hold applications that can go above and beyond the average human thoughts. 

This project was very interesting and the one part that I really liked was the fact that I was open to do whatever I really wanted. (Well kind of.)  This gave me a chance to write my own type of world where anything could really happen and it really forced me to use my imagination which I haven't really been able to do recently with my work. I feel as though the most challenging part of this benchmark was the fact that I wasn't entirely sure as to what should be added into the project. Like a paper wasn't provided to explain the project, so I had nothing to go back to when there's no one to answer my questions. So things were pretty confusing when it came to making the primary sources. Also, I chose a topic where I couldn't really make a primary source because it involves someone's birth. And my thing was where someone just didn't answer a phone call, so I couldn't have a hardcore change of primary sources for it.

Here is my Q4 "What If" benchmark.

Topic:

What if the Social Security Act was not passed by Congress?

Click here to view my final product.


Reflection:

            For my project, I decided to change the history of the Social Security Act. My main question was “What if the Social Security Act was not passed by Congress?” After researching about this topic, I found out that this act helped provide financial support to the homeless, unemployed, elderly, and disabled. It gave them a small income just so they were able to obtain the proper necessities of life. During the Great Depression, unemployment devastated the lives of individuals and had a critical effect on the economy. Older Americans as a group was particularly affected by this crisis even though improvements in medicine meant people were living longer. Yet many elderly Americans faced age discrimination that made it difficult to find employment. The Social Security Act basically provided unemployment insurance for workers, aid to needy children who had lost one or both parents, and disability insurance for workers who could not work on account of an injury.           

            The future that I envisioned resulting from my POD was that young adults were not gaining jobs due to the fact that older workers had first priority. Also, from this drastic change it left the sick and homeless with no hope to living a normal life. From all this, the unemployment rate would continue to increase and eventually leading to massive protests and riots against the government.

            The most challenging thing about this project was connecting actual primary sources to my new topic since they were completely different events. I was able to relate pictures to my POD because they are more flexible and can be changed easily. I really liked how I could choose my own idea and develop my own masterpiece. It was difficult at times to make something that did not have a drastic domino effect on society, but after several tries I was able to choose something I am proud of. If I could do this project all over again, I would probably add more fake primary sources because that is when you can add creativity to your final product. For example, I really wanted to make a video newscast of my POD so it was as if it was realistic. Overall, I am very satisfied with my final product, and it is something that I am really proud of.

For this assignment, my point of divergence, was that during the Mexican American War, Ulysses S. Grant was killed in battle. This eventually led to the loss of the United Stats in the Civil War. This change drastically changes the history of America. As if this were true, here is a mock wikipedia page depicting the history of the new United States of America. 


Reflection:

For the fourth quarter benchmark for American History we had to choose a Point of Divergence(POD) in America and envision how the US would be different today due to this change. For my POD I chose to make Ulysses S. Grant die in the Mexican American War. This would eventually cause the Union to lose the Civil War because he could not be a leader in the war. Many changes occurred from this loss by the US; the Confederate states seceded, the United States completely cut itself from the outside world, offered no help in WWII, the axis powers won WWII, Germany gained control of all of Europe and North America, The US and CSA rebelled against the German power, and only became the US again in 2007. The United States in 2012 is a country rebuilding itself, reestablishing it's government and global reputation. It consists of 18 states and is not known for luxury. It is only similar to the real 2012 in that the citizens are free people. 

This project showed how important one event can be in history. The smallest change can affect so much. One man's death, in my scenario, changed an entire world's history. There were also small decisions that I envisioned for the project that I could have changed, and then a completely new America could have been created. Every decision made by someone could effect everyone else on the planet and no one has any idea what will happen. This project taught me a lot about why it's important to make the right decisions because it could affect everyone, everywhere. 

The project, in it's entirety, I am very happy with. The project guidelines allowed us to be very created and do almost anything we wanted with American history. I love the timeline I created in my project. I created a very different and dramatic story for America. There are only a few things I would change if given the chance. I would make it look more professional by keeping the design consistent through all on the pages and documents. I also would have added for detail to my historical events. Overall, though, I am very proud of my end product. 

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We also had to create three fictional primary sources for the project. The sources are directly available through the document but for your convenience, these are the Direct links to the files. 

New American Flag
New York Times Article
Proclamation of Peace and Secession

​ My Point of Divergence was to have Christopher Columbus, the conquistador of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, not be able to go on his voyage. During 1476 Christopher Columbus was almost killed during a shipwreck. But luckily he survived and went on to voyage towards the Caribbean, believing it to be a route to India. He sailed under the Spanish government, which lead to his findings being claimed as Spanish Territories.

One change made by one individual can change the lives of many. If Columbus hadn’t colonized Puerto Rico, then there would be no Spanish on the island of many skins.

I believed that if Columbus had not discovered the Caribbean Islands then others during the time would have. For example, it the alternate past I made, John Cabot, and English sailor, would have gone in a similar direction. John Cabot was the explorer that I had put toward finding Puerto Rico. This would lead to Puerto Rico being an English colonized settlement. Since Englishmen would have discovered Puerto Rico, the name that was given would have been in English and the main language learned would have been also been English. Some of the most significant points would have been Puerto Rico being named St. John’s Island after Saint John the Baptist. _­

My favorite part was researching and learning new facts that I didn’t know, such as John Cabot’s expeditions. Also I enjoyed creating Primary Source documents. The hardest part was finding Primary Sources about such old topics, many were websites announced that the documents had disappeared or been ruined.

The most interesting facts I researched were the reasoning behind why Puerto Rico wasn’t a state, and about the Spanish- American War. During the Spanish American war Puerto Rico was used as a military base for the Spanish and French. If Englishmen had colonized Puerto Rico it would have been used as a beneficial military base for America due to its position in-between North and South America. This would have lead to Puerto Rico being acknowledge at a higher priority rather than a territory of America, similar to the situation with Hawaii. In this alternate past, Puerto Rico or St John’s Island would have become a state because of recognition of its position during the war.

To improve this project I would have enjoyed turning this into a television interview. I could have asked questions about how Puerto Ricans thought that the change would have affected their land, and staged actors talking about the alternative past and future. I would have used both videos and shown how life would have been different for both cultures. 

my point of divergence(pod) is when stonewall Jackson was supposed to die. i rewrote it that he didn't die but instead live to help change the out come of the civil war. This change would make the confederates win their independence and separate from the union states. stone wall would have helped win the civil war by leading a charge across union territorry to washington DC. they would have worn down union troops and help end the civil war.  going into this project i decided that picking this point in history would have a huge impact on where things would go from there. Because rewriting history to have stonewall live changes so much more then the size of a country it creates a whole new country and changes the way people developed and grew the country. 

I invision that the way things are in 2012 if stonewall would have helped win the civil war would have been a lot different. first of all the united states of america wouldn't exist. there would be two separate countries one owned by the north one by the south. the civil rights union would have never happened in the south because the slaves wouldn't have been released until cost would have out weighed the need which i predict would have been in the early 1900's. people who werent white would probably be treated very poorly and many laws will be made against them. there would also me a more in state government in the south then we are used to now.

i wish i would have put more time into this project i feel like if i worked on it a little bit longer it could have been a really goo product. it was interesting thinking about how such little a change could make such a big impact. i really liked the idea of this project it really makes your brain have to think harder about a certain event. i feel like it leaves you wondering what if things had been alittle bit different what would we be like today. i feel like the most challenging part of this project was thinking about which event you could change to make the impact that you wanted