You can view my project here.

​This is the link to my work.


The point of divergence in my project had John F. Kennedy's attempts to prevent the missiles in Cuba fail. As a result, the missiles are launched at America, putting the entire country in disarray. What follows in the following years would be a post-apocalyptic America where it's either kill or be killed. Not only that, but with the country essentially crippled, Soviet forces would move in on America, looking to take over. In all honesty, I had most fun in making the backstory of this "future" America, because it was always a subject that interested me. Dystopian scenarios always gave me that feeling of desperation, which is what really drove me to choose it as my future America. However, the most challenging was showing that through the medium I chose. I doubt that TVs and laptops would be working forty years after the country gets nuked, so I decided to go with a sort of daily newspaper column led by a mysterious man known only as the Journalist.

I definitely felt as though this project could've been made better if I added some sort of twist to the whole columnist thing, but I kept taking into consideration what this place would really be like in a few decades after being bombarded by several nuclear missiles and the limitations that would come as a result. I guess if I had to do this again, I would've added more pictures of a destitute America, just to really sell the point home. But regardless, I sort of had fun making this thing.

My project is about what if JFK died during the war? 

The future i visioned was mostly that we would most likely have a different way of war. Cause JFK wasn't president so i would say that we never would've invaded cuba for the missiles. I say there would have been a missile war also if we didn't threaten Cuba and Russia. 
What i like about this project was that i got to change history in my own way even though it didn't happen but i could picture it sorta. I think picturing the future at first was the most difficult cause i mean its kinda hard when you change how something that has happened but not the way history says.
i liked how they gave me detail on my research on how he went to harvard and was forced to leave cause of health problems but then went to Yale and joined all these sports and then out of no where wanted to join the navy and become a leader and he basically did everything he wanted to do. 
I think my project could be improved if i had added a little bit more of details and explained some stuff.
If i had to do this project again i think i would have changed how he was killed or make something like he was captured and held hostage and is still held as a prisoner. and make some exotic crazy story to get people all hyped up.

My project was about, What if Stonewall Jackson was not shot down by his own troops during the Civil War?

This is the link for my benchmark 

My point of divergence was not having JFK exist. There was a point where JFK almost died before he was assassinated. JFK was in World War II. He was in charge of the PT-109 boat in the war. JFK and his crew men were sent out north, PT-109 was not notified that enemy engagement was happening. PT-109 was in the path of Japanese destroyer Armagiri. Armagiri ran down PT-109. The captain of the destroyer was not aware. PT-109 was cut in half. JFK along with seaman Andrew Jackson Kirksey and Harold W. Marney. Which results in him not becoming President.
My future wasn't a specific things changed just in 2012 but the dates leading up to the things that changed in the United States. I just talked about things that happened in 1960s to 2012.

 I changed important things that happened when JFK was president and changed things that happened because of him since he doesn't exist anymore. What I liked about this project was that I could change what ever I wanted and there was little to no limitations. This was a little challenging finding a specific time to change and a specific thing to change. It was challenging finding specific things that had changed in the United States as well. The most interesting fact that I had found out doing this project was that JFK wasn't the best at the space fund. It seem to show that when he was assassinated the space fund was more funded then it was before. Systemic changed impact the historical recored because it had changed things that happened in America and things that could have happened that could have changed the course of American history just because one single person or event didn't happen. What I would change would be more time on the project and having more information then I already have.


Three Created Sources

President Nixon Letter

President Nixon Addresses the Nation

REFLECTION -

When it came to picking a certain topic to focus on I knew I wanted to think of What If with segregation or anything relating to the civil rights movement. Once it came down to picking a more solid topic I came across the Brown V. Board Of Education case. I remembered studying it during my ILP last year with the Marshall Brennan program and I knew I would be able to create a very solid project with this topic. The easiest part to me was picking what i could change, my divergence point. For this I chose to prevent the death of Fred Vinson. In this case many people believe that his death was a major factor in the final decision taken. Many believe that if he hadn't suddenly died segregation in schools would have continued.So of course I knew that making that my point of divergence would allow me to create a very solid final project. 
Once the researching came up I was having trouble focusing on certain things. In the beginning I didn't really think of sources that would help me with the final project I was spending time just looking for sources about segregation. Of course these were some kind of help but later on in the process I found myself trying to find other sources that would help more with the topic.Even though at first I had trouble with finding my primary resources once I got a sense of what I wanted and needed I found plenty of useful materials. Pictures,Articles as we all a Documentary. 

When it came down to determining how to present it I had a hard time choosing the final medium for this. At first I wanted to create a simple wiki spaces. Which then I realized that it would be too plain and I wouldn't be able to do much with it. I also later had the idea of making a weebly but I also wanted to be able to post the intro to the mock documentary I made and with weebly that wasn't possible. While I was thinking of a clever way to present this I came about a link to a project created by Christian Gelbolingo in Mr.Hermans history class. Once I realized that creating a website on this site was what I was looking for i got started right away. I found it difficult to get use to all the setting and what not but later on found myself enjoying the challenge. Compared to other sites it offered more then just a way to make a website but it allowed me to make it more appealing to my audience. Even though its a simple theme I still find it more appealing then a simple wiki space or a weebly. Not only that but I was also able to include the video I had directly on the website. 

Through out the whole process I was trying to find a way to organize it as well so it could flow and not be confusing. I decided to present the disclaimer and the introduction to the project as the first thing seen on the website. I then move on to including background story of what the case was about and the i start to slowly flow into the What If part of it all. In my opinion I include a lot of visual appealing aspects, very few writting but I keep it informative. Overall I am very proud of all the work I put into the researching, into the creation of my own primary sources as well as the creation of the final website.

What if Abraham Lincoln did not issue the Emancipation Proclamation? 

Click here for the link to my website! 

                                                    Reflection

The point of divergence that I choose was to make the Union loose the Battle of Antietam. This caused Lincoln to not have enough power to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Changing this point in history only held things up rather than changed them. The League of Nations came in and enforced equality in 1920 as a result of the Union loosing the Battle of Antietam. 
The future I envisioned resulting from the POD was a whole different thing than I got. I expected that the world would still have slaves and that we wouldn't have Obama in presidency and it was a whole lot more dramatic then what it actually came out to be. I figured that if I got rid of the Emancipation Proclamation, that the world would be how it looked in the 1870's. It turns out that even without Abe Lincoln issuing the Proclamation, the League of Nations would have jumped in and declared freedom for the slaves. 
I had the most fun putting all of my sources together. When I wrote it all out, it finally made sense and was in some kind of order. My favorite part was closing up my wikispaces page and getting this done. The hardest part might have been making the fake primary sources because I didn't know how to actually make a source. Creating your own newspaper clipping is harder than I thought it would be! The most interesting fact had to have been that Abe Lincoln had to wait for a Union win to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. I would have thought that since he was president that he would be able to do whatever and be able to keep that power. 
The actions of each individual effects the history because if you change one point, it dominoes and changes multiple other events in history also. You cannot just erase or swap history and expect nothing to change. Even with an end result that is similar to how life is now, the history behind it has been changed. One decision can be majorly influential to the historical landscape. For example, the decision to make the Union win the Battle of Antietam changed the outcome of major historical events. 
I could improve this project by making the website more colorful and eye catching. If I had to do this project over, I would change the way I made the wikispace. I would add more links and make it more wikipedia like. 

For this benchmark I created a fake news site with articles as my primary sources. My POD was using the original copy of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson.This copy included a paragraph about slavery. Check out how it changed the future here!

Below is a picture of the homepage.

​Reflection:

During the Revolutionary War the Declaration of Independence was written. The copy that effects us today, however, was not the first or original copy of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first copy and in this he included a debatable paragraph that discussed slavery. For this project I decided to change history so that the original copy was used. Due to the fact that the south was all for slavery, they were not in agreement with the Declaration. In an alternate history they were so displeased that they separated themselves from the north and sided with the King of Britain. 

What I liked about this project was the fact that I got to dictate what I wanted to happen. Based on my research I could create a reasonable alternate reality. What was difficult however was coming up with a situation that would really make a difference. The original idea that had was to effect the history of slavery by ending the life of Harriet Tubman. Automatically I assumed that this would rid history of the underground railroad but then it was brought to my attention that someone other that Harriet Tubman could have created the underground railroad or something similar. Another difficult thing was creating the articles (the primary sources). Often times I felt that I was being very repetitive and at a lost of what to write. I wanted to change history but not so much that I confused myself and come up with an unreasonable outcome.

I think that history itself is based on the actions of an individual or group. Without people trying to solve problems in history or standing up for what they belief there is no history. Systemic changes are a result of the individuals effect on history. Often times I think systemic changes are hyped up more in history. This is not to say they aren't important though. I didn't realize until this project that if a simple decision wasn't made in the past, it in fact could have change my life completely at the moment. Usually I think of history as a set thing, I never thought about changing it.

I think that with this project we had a lot of freedom of choice, we chose the topic, what type of primary sources, and how we wanted to present it. Now that I'm done with the project I think that it was a good idea to handle the project the way it was handled. I don't really have any improvements that I could suggest. But if I had to do this project over I definitely would have spend more time finding a topic that interest me more instead of picking the first one.