Texas and WWII 1900 Hurricane in Galveston, history homework help
Texas and WWII 1900 Hurricane in Galveston, history homework help
Respond in 100 words to the following post
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 leveled most of the city and killed almost 6,000 people. Galveston at the time was the third largest city in Texas and was a major sea port and cotton compressing center. In the aftermath of the storm Galveston was crippled but this event gave way to Galveston’s rival city Houston to take center stage as the economic center of the Gulf Coast. Galveston slowly rebuilt and in doing so created a revolutionary style of city government; known as the Galveston Plan or the Texas Idea Galveston. Galveston also re-branded itself a vacation/tourist spot which has caused their local economy to grow. The oil boom in Texas came at a crucial time in the states history, Texas up until this time was known for agriculture and little else. With little to no actual industry like many of the northern states Texas seemed limited. Texans knew they had oil on their lands but until the actual industrial revolution oil was seen as a nuisance as it was often found when drilling a water well. In 1894 the first commercial oil well was struck in Corsicana Texas when drilling a water well. After the curiosity of northern businessmen and the good old Texas resolve oil flooded the market. By the end of the 1800’s and the development of oil refineries oil production was up. In 1901 the largest oil strike in Texas history took place at Spindletop just outside of Beaumont Texas. Due to the large amounts of oil in the area oil companies sprang up all along the golden triangle, many of the large oil businesses of today were started due to the oil in Texas. Because of the resources of oil Texas has the economy began to grow many men became wealthy, what took the northerners years to amass in wealth took the oil barons little to no time at all. Certainly Texas and oil would always be associated throughout the remainder of history. Even today Texas is one of the largest oil producers in the U.S. and even during the financial crisis in recent years Texas has certainly not experienced the same economic issues as other states. The Great Depression was the single worst collapse in economic history to hit the United States. With the great prosperity of the early 1900’s up until the 1930’s Texas economy seemed to only be looking up. The only real poverty in the state were the often forgotten farmers who due to the agricultural collapse of the late 1800’s had never recovered their losses. Texas was a growing state with major cities that rivaled the cities of other states. The nation was still celebrating a victory in WWI, the stock market was going up and up. Things looked really good, then in October 1929 the bottom fell out and the stock market crashed. Texas and it’s citizens though seemed unaffected during the early part of the economic collapse. The main reason for this is few Texans invested in stocks. But before long Texans began to feel the same distress as the rest of the nation Texas farmers though didn’t seem to notice the depression at first. Unemployment was at a all time high with 1 in 4 Americans being without a job, many leaders kept to the company line that once the excess inflation wore off the markets would bounce back. Private organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army were asked to aid the impoverished but these charitable organizations too began to fall on hard times. Cities like Dallas and Houston began to help these organizations to aid their citizens. Minorities were treated more harshly than before the depression with many being refused relief. Dallas and some other cities offered free spaces for gardens and soup kitchens and some West Texas towns even held animal hunts. This was all done in an attempt to help those hit by the fall out. Eventually with the election of FDR and his new deal the economy turned around. Some believe this was largely due the second World War. But as I said our state did recover as did the nation. And like I mentioned earlier Texas today has one of the if not the strongest economies in the country, this is in part due to our oil production and our tourist destinations.
RESPOND IN 100 WORDS TO THE FOLLOWING POST
During World War 2 many Texas volunteered and were drafted into the Military, Texas was also a big contributer for manufacturing aircraft and equipment. Texas was home for many Army Air Force during the time period. Texas served as one of the first training ground for airborne troops in Kelly Field, San Antonio for the U.S. Army they dropped troops via aircraft with parachutes to demonstrate the tactical advantage for quick deployment for conflicts coming in the near future. The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard forces were also stationed on Texan coastal regions in defense to prepare against a Japanese and German invasion they also deployed troops across both sides of the world to aid in the wars against the Japanese and the Germans.
I didn’t have any family members that I know of that fought World War 2, My family did migrate to Texas and New York in the late 1800s from Austria and Germany. Although my Great-Grandfather did try to sign up but they didn’t let him because he didn’t speak English properly, and I think he had some sort of medical problem that disqualified him, he did die of throat cancer a few years after the war ended though.
