The American dream has been the major contributor and a driving factor that has greatly affected the modern American society. It is the dream of every American citizen to ensure that all the achievements are adhered to. However, the US citizens have undergone a series of undermining factor, marking their downfalls and their strengths, enabling them to propel every daily aspects and activities of the American citizens, through social, economic and political agenda. However, the 1906 earthquake became a political turning point to San Francisco and the American nation.
The Bay Area in San Francisco is one of the densely populated places in the United States, where the population comprises of different cultures from different racial and ethical composition. In this manner, it is quite significant to understand that the place must have had a cultural rift.
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It is quite significant to see how the 1906 earthquake became a political turning point in the Bay Area. As Thomas and Morgan, (2014 ) points out, the earthquake turned the citizens of the Bay area into a dozen of refugees as most of their homes were destroyed in the catastrophic accident, which led to the loss of innocent lives. On the other hand, political differences and the greed for power to control the economic growth of the Bay became one of the specific agenda and talk of the day. With the minorities flocking into the bay, a multiple culture nation was born, where racial and ethnical discrimination became the order of the day. The minorities such as the Black community were economically oppressed with larger economic values and political power bequeathed to the compact majority groups.
With this form of leadership, it was quite evidenced that there was nothing else that would close difference gap between the poor and the rich, the compact majority and the minority in the place.
The earthquake
On April 18, 1906, San Francisco, California was the beginning of a political turning point, that would specifically revolutionize the political agenda and political campaigns of the politicians in the city, due to a massive earthquake ( Dyl, 2017 ). Even though the earthquake was estimated to have lasted for less than a minute, its impacts were by far devastating. Several fires were ignited all across the city spreading from one are to the other, burning for more than three days, destroying nearly more than 500 blocks ( Ayres, 2014 ).
The aftermath of the Earthquake
The result of what seemed to be a nightmare in the American soil unleashed a new chapter of political reform, with the Congress paying a more significant consideration on the serving the citizens without any political or geographical discrimination. To begin with, a couple of bills seeking to reconnect the salon and the liquor store owners were campaigned to be compensated. The police defense had a meticulous campaign to curb the enormous fire from spreading but destroying the liquor store of most of the natives. Through this, the Congress in the Senate greatly campaigned for compensation of the innocent entrepreneurs whose liquor was destroyed in the process of curbing the excessive destruction the fire. Furthermore, this was a way of ensuring that violence was curbed in the process.
Rebuilding the city
The California governor during his speech he pointed out that this was not the first time for San Francisco to rebuild itself, but rather he called for assistance from all parties within the state to ensure that all immediate support was greatly exploited to the needy citizens. For the first time, the political and racial discriminations differences were buried, creating a room for unity that would increase the chances of rebuilding as well as offering support to the needy nation. As a matter of fact, the city needed more immediate support both from political aid and military intervention to discourage looting.
The politician swigged int action in concentrating different ideas and thoughts that would give the city a new phase. In this case, the politicians had a matriculas task to ensure that a better team was chosen to help restructure a new city from its ruins. The Congress played a significant impact to ensure that the best team in the Senate was chosen.
On the other hand, the nation had suffered from a significant impact of the financial crisis a step that was fueled by the poor leaving standards of the city. In this manner, the politicians came to realize that the interests of the citizens were more valuable than their interest. As Thomas and Morgan, (2014 ) points out that, the politicians formulated favorable rules that would significantly attract more investors in the city to ensure that the citizens of the would soon pick up their economic steps. In this manner, several tertiary industries such as the Bank of Italy was offered more flexible rules that would encourage the economic growth of the nation to provide credit services to the affected citizens.
The Senate Committee on Public Buildings
The Senate played a contribution in enhancing the rebuilding and assessment of the city buildings that remained unharmed. In this manner, the Senate realized the safety of the remaining citizens was not going to be at risk from any human error, where the formulation of this team was to produce a report of the damaged buildings and the magnitude of damage. According to the report, the Senate formulated regulation rules that are dictating a demolition of the building that poses threats of collapsing. In this manner, the political influence was buried to safeguard the residents of the city.
On the other hand, the Senate also extended its support by ensuring that all the insured properties were fully compensated, giving an opportunity for the local citizens to rebuild their businesses and the building from scratch.
Due to political influence and the need to get to the catastrophic disaster, school building and other social amenities took another plot and structure to restore the city to its final landmark. In this case, the politicians greatly emphasized on rebuilding the schools to ensure that the schools were readily available with a minimal cost of education system rolled out. As a result, education became available and affordable to every member of the city especially considering that the minorities had very limited opportunities and resources allocation.
Ayres, (2014 ) Observes that the Black who occupied the minimal contribution of the total population was quickly absorbed to the national functionalities sealing the threatening racial gap to ensure that the city heals from the past events.
The new water delivery system
The Senate realized their past mistake by structuring the city to have very limited water supply system that was difficult for the fire brigades to combat the fire spread. Through this, the building and other social infrastructures were brought into ashes leading to loss of lives with most of the trapped individuals being burned alive. As a result, the city was restructured, giving priority different factors such as water supply and sewage drainage systems.
Prevention of the division
The political structure had by far contributed to the suffering of the citizens of San Francisco as most of the spent their fewer night in the concentration camps and, with the limited food supply, which was not enough to feed the whole population during the disaster. As a result, the victims relied on the limited food supply and medical facilities. In this manner, the Senate realized that there was a more serious problem that needed more attention to helping the survivors. Through this, politicians were forced to formulate a rule that allowed them to set a budget that collated enough money from their budget for disaster management
Road systems
As a way of attracting more potential investors, the city swinged most of its attention on building their demolished roads and other infrastructure, increasing road network communication all across the city. Through this, the politicians showed great interest in building more roads to even the places that had no development in the previous years before the catastrophic disaster.
When the whole city was brought down into ashes, politicians and the businessmen around the municipality lamented about the fire being the critical component to why the city was destroyed beyond repairs. However, the very fewer emphasis was focused on the seismic charges that regarded the whole disaster.
After fewer years of research a much firm conclusion was made in 1913, a year before the nation once more ventures into the World War I, that the city was built in poor and devastating conditions that would not have escaped the wrath of fire ( Dyl, 2017 ). As a result, the politicians became more concerned with the construction styles and construction materials, with the main aim to use non-flammable materials which would prevent a better city from such disasters. Today, it is quite a significant that the political advocacy paid a lot of positive impacts to the modern San Francisco and entire America at large.
Conclusion
In the bottom line, it is quite significant to understand and see how the earthquake significantly transformed the San Francisco citizens. In as much as the resulting devastation moment cost them millions of dollars and time wastage, the nation underwent a series of transformation that was aimed to politically and economically improve the lives of the residents of the nation. On the contrary, the racial discrimination which had recently gained its momentum since the abolishment of the slave trade in the late 1890s by Great Britain, gave an opportunity for the American nation to understand, that despite the defeat from the natural factors, they can still work together in accomplishing any major national project.
References
Ayres, R. (2014). Turning point: end of the growth paradigm . Routledge.
Dyl, J. L. (2017). Seismic City: An Environmental History of San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake . University of Washington Press.
Thomas, G., & Morgan-Witts, M. (2014). The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster . Open Road Media.
