June 25, 2019 Tuesday
Bedtime Story
The 1850s
These “push” type immigrants lived around
the city ghettos in very unhygienic conditions doing low-paying and physically
demanding work and were largely treated as undesirable by the already settled populace.
The “pull” type immigrants were the German
immigrants who had a prosperous life back at home (but believed that economic
disaster could hit them soon) and sold of their property and arrived in this
new country with lots of money in their pocket.
They chose to settle in the Midwest in and
around cities such as Cincinnati in Ohio and St. Louis in Missouri.
A large part of the Midwest that was
acquired by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 from France in a deal known as
Louisiana Purchase was then known as unorganized territory for the simple
reason that this sparsely populated vast land had virtually no organized system
of government.
This unorganized large chunk of land lying
in the very center of now mainland United States was organized and integrated
as states through the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
Even here the issue of slavery rose its
ugly head in the form of political controversy as to whether the newly admitted
state of Kansas would be a Free State or a Slave State meaning whether the new
state or states will allow owning of slaves to be legal or not.
Series of violent mini civil confrontations
ensued between the two groups that gradually degenerated into barbaric gang
wars and even paramilitary enforced guerrilla warfare.
Certainly the history and formation of
today’s mighty Empire was far from rosy or seductive as one would hope, desire
or fantasize about it to be so.
In contrast to the North which was rapidly
industrializing the South had cotton plantations for the simple reason that
cotton was then becoming a very valuable commodity in the world market thanks
to the growing population, industrialization and booming textile industry.
Remember that the largest manufacturing
industry during the Mughal India was cotton textile manufacturing and in the 18th
century Indian cotton textiles was the most important manufactured goods in the
world trade.
The entry of East India Company opened the
gates of cotton from India to the world thanks to the formidable reach of the
vast and mighty British trading Empire to all corners of the world including
the Americas.
By 1800s the United States had become not
only the most important consumer of British cotton (and thereby Hindu cotton) but
also a production house of cotton due to simultaneous convergence of various
factors into one local geographical space and time.
One such factor was innovation in spinning
and weaving.
You remember my story on Jacquard Loom,
don’t you?
It was invented in 1804 and would have far
reaching, unimagined and unintended repercussions in North America.
Not only would it lead to the American
Civil War but would be a crucial advancement in the history of computing
hardware by inseminating the idea of computer programming into the minds of
fascinating apes.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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