American Hist 1877 to Present. What If Paper

A Change in History? Looking back through American history there have been those “what if” moments. Moments where we sit there and think, what if that had never happened or if it happened at a different time? Would the world still be the same? Would American’s still have the freedom we have today? One will never know, we can only imagine what the world would have been like if a different course was taken. There are a few events in American history that I felt should have gone a little differently so I tried my best to write it all out. In the year 1867, secretary of state William H. Seward negotiated the purchasing of a state known today as Alaska from the country of Russia for a measly $7.2 million. Two years after America acquired Alaska, a huge gold rush settlement took place in a town named Juneau. The gold rush brought life to Alaska as well as hope for the main land of America. Alaska’s gold quantity seemed to be never-ending, the average gold-miner made $2000 a year where a teacher was making $450 a year. As the population continued to grow, Alaska’s natives saw the need to for their own territorial government in the year 1912. While the population continued to grow so did the amount of gold and silver produced, in the early 1900s Alaska alone produced millions upon million ounces of gold. This large amount of precious metal brought in multiple new foreign investors, helped stimulate Americas economy and pushed the government into becoming involved in the mainstream of the worlds economy. Although mining of the metals was bring in large sums of money for America it was also damaging Alaska’s gorgeous natural habitats by filling the air with toxic smog full of lead and arsenic and poisoning the rivers and soil with mercury and cyanide preventing the natural vegetation from growing. By the year 1980 president Jimmy Carter created the Alaska Land Acts which set aside 100 million acres of land for parks, wildlife reserves, natural forests, and rivers.