Eugenics: An Excuse to be a Racist or a Means to a Better Tomorrow?
The term eugenics was coined in the late 19th century. Its goal was to apply the breeding practices and techniques used in plants and animals to human reproduction. Francis Galton stated in his Essays in Eugenics that he wished to influence "the useful classes" in society to put more of their DNA in the gene pool. The goal was to collect records of families who were successful by virtue of having three or more adult male children who have gain superior positions to their peers. His view on eugenics can best be summarized by the following passage:
What nature does blindly, slowly, and ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly, and kindly. As it lies within his power, so it becomes his duty to work in that direction.
They sought to establish this by discouraging marriages that were unfavorable in terms of eugenics by attaching to them the stigmas associated with marriage between cousins.
Margaret Sanger, the pioneer of the movement for birth control, came from a family that would have been viewed by Galton to be unsuitable for reproduction according to eugenics. She was the sixth of eleven children born into her poor Irish family. She felt that women's reproductive freedom was essential. She coined the term voluntary motherhood and opened the first birth control clinic in the country in Brooklyn in 1916. Like many others who supported the birth control movement, she also supported the idea of eugenics trusting that the "human race could be improved through 'controlled breeding'." Sanger felt that all the problems of society were centered around uncontrolled breeding. She decided that women had the right to know about methods of contraception and about the workings of their own bodies. Her views are best summarized by her statement regarding women's reproductive freedom:
The basic freedom of the world is woman's freedom . . .. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother."
Angela Davis felt that birth control was not only advantageous to minority and lower-class women, but to women of "all classes and races." She did not however think that fewer children would help the plight of the human race and "could create more jobs, higher wages, better schools, etc., etc." She felt that if women were not troubled by several childbirths and miscarriages that they could pursue other avenues of life outside of the constraints of marriage and motherhood.
The eugenics movement started in the early 1900s and was adopted by doctors and the general public during the 1920s. The movement aimed to create a better society through the monitoring of genetic traits through selective heredity. Over time, eugenics took on two different views. Supporters of positive eugenics believed in promoting childbearing by a class who was “genetically superior.” On the contrary, proponents of negative eugenics tried to monitor society’s flaws through the sterilization of the “inferior.”
Imperialism is a policy by which a country gains power over the world or other countries. It begun in 1865 and it caused US to expand. America had “Thirst for New Market”. The business in The United States was developing rapidly so it needed more supplies (trade) from other countries. The United States used different methods such as Jingoism/Racism, Economic Expansion and American superiority over Europe, but however, economic expansion contributed most for the US Imperialism. This meant more money and power compare to other countries.
Imperialism is the practice by which powerful nations or peoples seek to extend and maintain control or influence over weaker nations or peoples. By the 1800’s, the Western powers had advantages in this process. They led the world in technological advances, giving them a dominance when conquering other countries. The European Imperialists made attempts to conquer China and Japan. In this process, they succeeded by influencing Japan greatly. However, they were not as successful with China.
Throughout the course of history, nations have invested time and manpower into the colonizing and modernizing of more rural governments. Imperialism has spread across the globe, from the British East India Company to France’s occupation of Northern Africa. After their founding in 1776, the United States of America largely stayed out of this trend until The Spanish-American War of 1898. Following the war, the annexation and colonization of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines ultimately set a precedent for a foreign policy of U.S. imperialism.
On September 14, 1879, Margaret Sanger was born in Corning, New York. She was the sixth child of eleven children and realized early what being part of a large family meant; just making due. Although her family was Roman Catholic both her mother and father were of Irish descent. Her mother, Anne Purcell had a sense of beauty that was expressed through and with flowers. Her father was an Irish born stonemason whose real religion was social radicalism. Her father was a free thinker and strong believer in eugenics which meant Margaret possessed some of the same values. (Sanger, Margaret) Eugenics is the belief that one race is better than a different race just because they are not like them, kind of like Hitler and the holocaust. “He expected me to be grown up at the age of ten.” (Source 4.3 page 30) Coming from a family of eleven children she did have to grow up fast. Faster than most kids should have to. She left her house as a teenager and came back when she needed to study nursing. It was during this time that Margaret worked as a maternity nurse helping in the delivery of babies to immigrant women. She saw illegal abortions, women being overwhelmed by poverty, to many children, and women dying because they had no knowledge of how to prevent one pregnancy after another. This reminded her of the fact that her own mother had eighteen pregnancies, eleven children, and died at the age of forty-nine. Margaret dropped out of school and moved in with her sister. She ended up teaching first grade children and absolutely hated it. She hated children at that time. When Margaret was a child herself however, she would dream about living on the hill where all the wealthy people lived. She would dream of playing tennis and wearing beautiful c...
The practice of eugenics was instituted in the late nineteenth century. Its objective was to apply the rearing practices and procedures utilized as a part of plants and creatures to human procreation. Francis Galton expressed in his Essays in Eugenics that he wished to impact "the useful classes" in the public arena to put a greater amount of their DNA in the gene pool. The objective was to gather records of families who were effective by virtue of having three or more grown-up male kids who had better positions than their associates. His perspective on eugenics can best be expressed by the accompanying section:
Sanger, one of the pioneers of modern birth control, founded Planned Parenthood which was an
Imperialism is when a mother nation takes over another nation and become its colony for political, social, and economical reasons. Imperialism is a progressive force for both the oppressors (mother country) and the oppressed (colony), majorly occurring during the late 19th and early 20th century. It had more negative effects than positive effects due to its domination to other nations.
Imperialism is described as strengthening of a country territorial boundary in order to conquer other country so that they can be powerful. It began in the nineteenth in the century when most countries in the Europe had lost their oversea colonies. These included England together with her American colonies and the Spanish with South America.
...Destiny and extended its international influence 10,000 miles from the Puerto Rico to the Philippines. This aggressive expansion policy with its extensive addition of territory was stimulated by both political and economic interests in these foreign islands. The United States could definitively be defined as an empire as it coerced people to live under American government as it sought to extradite wealth from these island nations that became territories and protectorates by military and political force. American Imperialism would continue into the presidency of Woodrow Wilson who was initially an anti-imperialist in rhetoric but invaded more countries than any other president. The prevalence of American Imperialism from 1890-1913 saw the United States expand its borders as well as political, economic, and military influence in international affairs across the globe.
Imperialism is defined as a policy to dominant other countries and rule them. Then, these new colonies surrender their markets, industries, and resources to their invaders. “US imperialism, supported by US politicians, was intended to bring profits to US manufacturers (capitalists)…” (lecture4-p13). Although the period of 1890-1910 is usually known as “the age of the US imperialism”, the US imperialism is not limited to that era. Overseas imperialism began during 1890-1910 with the invasion of Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, which was an attempt to expand the American’s territory to reach natural resources such as minerals, timber, oil, and land. These new territories could also provide corporations with cheap workers and military bases. There have been numerous other examples of the US imperialism. Starting from North America, the US government took over the Pacific Ocean and found its way into Asia. “A State Department list... shows 103 interventions in the affairs of other countries between 1798 and 1895” (Zinn-12), including Argentina, Uruguay, China, Angola, Nicaragua, and Japan to protect American’s interests in those countries. The same motivation was pursued in attacking Vietnam. According to Zinn, the main reason of the US intervention in WWII was to follow its imperial interests. “For those interests, in the thirties, an anti-Soviet
During the early 1900s, American nurse Margaret Sanger led the birth-control movement in the United States. She and others opened clinics to provide women with information and devices. Although frequently jailed, she and her followers were instrumental in getting laws changed. In subsequent years, laws against birth control gradually weakened, and more effective methods were developed.
America had definitely played its role in its imperialism. First of all imperialism is the control from one country doing to another. America has controlled a lot of countries in its time. In this essay I will talk about the causes and effects that America’s imperialism played a role in. We have really controlled a lot of countries in our time but this essay will focus more on the 19th and 20th century. We play a pretty big influence in the world today as in status wise. A lot of countries respect us because of our integrity and greatness that we have achieved. Overall I will talk about how imperialism existed in the time of American in 19th and 20th century as well as explain the causes by this time and effects that resulted on our lives today.
The idea of American Imperialism had both its advocates and its critics. One only needs to look at a map to see which side won. America has greatly expanded since its own phase as a colony of the greatest European Empire of the time. America became her own Empire through the accusation of vast territories through many different mean. "Sometimes she purchases the mighty morsel, sometimes she forms it … by the natural increase of her own people, sometimes she "annexes," and sometimes she conquers it ("Manifest")."
When created in 1923, the American Eugenics Society exemplified an air of reform with a seemingly positive purpose, however this cannot be further from the truth. In reality, the society polluted the air with myths of weeding out imperfections with the Galtonian ideal, the breeding of the fittest (Carison). The founder of the society, Charles Davensport , preached that those who are imperfect should be eliminated(Marks). From the school desk to the pulpit, the fallacies of the eugenics movement were forced into society. Preachers often encouraged the best to marry the best while biology professors would encourage DNA testing to find out ones fate (Selden). A...