I chose the Waco cult siege for my research topic out of curiosity. I had no idea of what it was, or what happened. First I went to Wikipedia to get a general idea of what it was. Waco was a cult in Texas that was suspected by the FBI to have illegal guns in its compound. The cult consisted of one big living quarter on about 10 acres. Waco’s living quarters had about 100 people living in it at once.

            When I knew the background I broadened my research to find out what the full story was. This great  primary source was very helpful in doing so. The FBI was interested in Waco because they had reason to believe they had a stock pile of fire arms and weapons of destruction inside there housing. The FBI had tried to get a deal with David Koresh, the cult leader, to get him to surrender peacefully. The FBI waited 51 days on David and when he kept breaking the deals they stormed the compound, on February 28^th 1993. I got this from here.

            The FBI drove tanks and armored vehicles in to the compound. They shouted from a loud speaker things like “This is not an assault, do not shoot, you are responsible for your own actions, come out now and you will not be harmed.” David instead prepared his people to fight, getting them there gas mask and supplies. The FBI called out what they where going to do before they approached and threw in tear gas and smoke grenades. Agents where in front of the compound, defending themselves when the cult members started to fire on them.I got from here

             

             When the cult members refused to leave the compound the FBI agents started to break down the walls of the house to give the agents a shot. The house all of a sudden started to burn and no fire trucks came to put out the fire the FBI was then scorn for the deaths and destruction that was done.source In many public opinions the Waco siege was poorly planned and drawn out. The FBI was right about there suspicions of the cult having many illegal weapons and it probably was a good thing that they acted upon them cause the cults stock pile had more than 200 weapons. In the finical records of the Koresh  he spent 199,715 dollars on ammunition and weapons just seventeen months before the destruction of the cult. The list consisted of -

-         19 SGW CAR-AR assault submachine guns (three fitted with silencers), nine other silencers

-        8 hand grenades and at least 31 other grenade parts and fragments, more than 20 pieces and fragments of rockets (apparently used to make rocket-propelled grenades) along with 1 sight for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

-         3 Israeli-made IMI Galil assault rifles

-        10 Ruger Mini-14 assault rifles (one with a mounted scope)

-        A barrel for a M60 machine gun
-     1 30 mm rocket shell

-         9 FAL assault rifles (three mounted on bipods)

-         At least 54 AK-47 or AKS assault rifles (some converted to fully automatic submachine guns)

-         11 .12-gauge shotguns (one with a sawed-off barrel)

-         Dozens of pistols

-         Dozens of barrels for M-16s, AR-15s and other weapons

-         Gas masks and one chemical warfare suit

-         Several Kevlar tactical vests and other body armor and eight Kevlar helmets.I got most of this information about the weapons from here.

The cult at Waco was defiantly stock piling weapons for something. I think the actions of the FBI definitely saved America from an attack from one of own citizens. The court ruled David Koresh as most likely a psychopath. The death penalty was sent to David Koresh and his family.  source

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http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r? ammem/fsaall:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8a19115))+@field(COLLID+fsa))- Walker Evans

         This photograph, taken during the great depression, shows how people didn't have income, by the characters just standing around almost like they are waiting. The man and women waiting out side a building or maybe a business can show you how no one was going to shop or buy anything,  The characters in this image as you can see have very rough and dirty clothes on as most people in this era only had one pair of clothes cause they had sold the rest to get money. The women's jewelry can also show how this couple could have of been wealthy and now during the depression are poor. The depression was a time in witch every one struggled.

American protective league

           The american protective league was a organization  group that was against immigrants and was anti catholic. The founder of the american protective league was Henry F. Bower who was a attorney that opposed the involvement of the Catholics in politics!!. Some of the main factors that lead up to the start of the APL where, the great migration, race riots, and the espionage act. 0-07-325718  I found in my research that the american protective league claimed to have 250,000 members. Also in my research i found that the league was funded by the government and had a headquarters in Washington  DC. The Attorney General, Thomas W. Gregory described the league as a "patriotic organization". Thomas also was a avid supported of repressing dissent. The american protective league was similar to other vigilante organizations such as, the national security league, the boy spies of america, and the american defense society; the APL was also larger than these other organizations. 0-07-325718

                                                                                       

          In the great migration hundreds of thousand of African Americans came in to the northern industrial cities from the south. This was one of the major results of the war. The reason the migration happened was from a push  of poverty, indebtedness, racism and violence the the African Americana experienced everyday. 0-07-325718 The factories offered jobs and lives that the south didn't. This wave of migration to the north aggravated the whites in the north because they didn't like the blacks taking there jobs. More than 70,000 black residents came to the north in search for jobs. The race riots helped in the of forming the APL. The burning down and terrorism of a black neighborhood by a white mob during the race riots of 1917, along with the Espionage act of 1917 showed the need for the APL, I found the the espionage act created stiff penalties for spying, sabotage, or obstruction of war efforts! Through reading my textbook I found that the espionage act gave the government new laws and power.0-07-325718. i also found some of my information here
           The american protective league was started in 1917. If you wanted to be a member of it you had to memorize a oath  of the league. The oath stated this. A member of the APL signed the secret oath that pledged themselves to its principles! The oath was constructed by the founder Henry F. Bower. The american protective league pretty much didnt like anyone who was different in race or other things.

         The victims of the League where socialist, labor activist, female pacifists. The league also targeted most frequently on immigrants such as, Irish  American because of there historic animosity toward the British, Jews beacause many expressed opposition to the anti-Semitic policies of the Russian government 0-07-325718. The APL was a private organizationt that had no legal authority and its   members acted as vigilantes.
        The American Protective league supporteda campaon that to purge society of all things german. German Americans siciety where also a huge target for abuse. Even though most German Americans supported the war there where terrorizerd when there public opinion turned "bitterly hostile".0-07-325718 The American Protective League commited many crimes and was never brpught up on charges!!!!!. I found this information in my research and to me it seams almost like the APL was above the law, because they commited many crimes and where never brought up on them.
        In the eyes of the American Protective league members they where commiting acts for the greater of america and what they believed in.  When really the League was harming innocent americans. I found this information here The league members who seved as agents, would intrude on the privacy of there neighbors by opeaning there mail, taping there telephones, and in general attempting to unity of opinion on their communities.0-07-325718 Through my research i found out that the APL, started by Henry F. Bower, was basically a orginization that was out  to better america but in there minds that ment to kickout anyone who wasnt fully american, like immigrants. The league was extreamly cruel to the new african americans that came up from the south in search for jobs. The American Protective Leaguen my mind did what wanted to and got away with it. I found this here

my cites

http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/minutedoc.htm
text book isbn- 0-07-325718-4
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=14&sid=40fa025a-1204-4bad-a968-9aaa77ffd4c2%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=khh&AN=349656
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http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/biltmore_industries/05_political/bi_05_american_protective_league/jpeg/apl002mod.jpg
http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/martin_awl/medialib/timeline/docs/sources/theme_primarysources_Immigration_7.html
http://www.spybusters.com/History_1917_APL.html

my books ISBN

Victorian America ISBN 0 - 8160 - 2531 - 2

WW1 primary source

In world war 1 the Indians where sent to the front. In the front the Indians would dig out the trenches and stack sand bags filled with mud or sand around the tops. the trench diggers and workers would lay wire entanglement around the mine so it would make it had for any type of a attack. In the trenches supplies would have to be brought to the soldiers in the trenches. In this war they used two manned machine guns witch where heavy the to carry but useful.my link is here

The Great White Fleet

This website tells us the reasoning behind the great white fleet and what some of its major goals where, like developing the US as a world power. Theodore Roosevelt sent the ships around the world to show off to everyone who the US where. When Theodore left presidency he had moved the us navy in to second strongest in the world.