The Opium Wars

The Opium war started when Britain wanted Chinas tea. China was always an isolated country. So china didn’t want to trade with any nation. This made the British pretty furious. So the British decided to make the Chinese drug addicts in order to trade their tea for their opium. (The drug) The British succeeded. The Chinese people were addicted and couldn’t stop taking Opium. No one in China knew how to plant or even find Opium. So their only source was Britain. The British started trading their opium for Chinas tea. The Chinese emperor didn’t approve of this; Opium was destroying their nation. But Britain didn’t choose to stop; they were making a lot of money out of their tea, when they got it for a little price (opium). The Chinese decided that they had to go to war in order to stop these trades. But unfortunately Britain won. Because of Chinas isolation they were behind in technology. But Britain wasn’t. Their steam powered boats, cannons and machine guns were no match for Chinas swords and sailboats.

"The White Man's Burden"

The meaning for burden is a chore, duty, job, etc. So basically it’s someone’s responsibility .Now the white man’s burden would mean the white man’s job/responsibility. The poem was written during United States imperialism towards the Philippine islands. So the author Rudyard Kipling was writing about how its Americas job to imperialize other countries like they were doing to the Philippine islands. In my opinion I think that America is still imperialistic. Now America is imperializing Iraq like they were doing to the Philippine islands.

"The Scramble for Africa"

The term "The Scramble for Africa" means that all the major powers that were above Africa planned to invade and conquer parts of Africa but also had to compete with each other. The nations involved in this "Scramble" were: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Great Britian, Holland, Belgium and France. These nations were looking to spread their beliefs and thought since each were the superior race that they should teach the Africans manners. It was also a competion between themselves and the other nations. They were able to dominate Africa easily because they had better technology and since Africa was already divided into tribes, they didn't want to unite to take care of the nations. This scramble affected the people because millions died doing work for them and many people were relocated to different parts of Africa. Even today, Africa is still divided into the parts that the nations conquered.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

The Europeans had a lot of hard ships being in Africa. They faced disease,enemy tribes,low food and water. The reason the source of the Nile river (Lake Victoria) is named after the British Queen is because when John Speak found it he called it that to show that Europeans discovered it. The Europeans had a big advantage over the African people and that advantage was guns.The African people never seen anything like it before, Africans carried around spears and Shields as there weapons. Then when the machine gun was invented the Europeans went back to Africa and took it over with ease.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

The reason Matthew Perry got what he wanted was because the Japanese were amazed by the boats Perry and his man were sailing. They were so amazed that they gave him what he wanted. Which was coal,food,water. He just bullied them by anchoring 26 miles away from the capital city with sails down and a Naval force that was far greater than any other Japanese war ship. They had no choice but to give in to his demands. A year later in 1854 the treaty was signed to open two ports. With the amazement of the technology the Americans had, the Japanese sent men all around the world to find out new ideas so that the could keep up with the world change in technology.

Karl Marx and Communism

Karl Marx was a communist, and most of his ideas were based of that. The three volumes of Capital were all communist ideas. When Marx was working with Friedrich Engels, he was already a communist and was interested in the ideas Marx came up. By 1844, Marx became a communist and doing that caused him and Engels to be expelled from Paris. In 1845, he and Engels both moved to Belgium and worked on more communist ideas. Their famous work that was published was The Communist Manifesto of 1848. As a communist, Marx had been arrested and got expelled from Belgium. King Louis Phillipe convinced Marx to come back to Paris, and then he went to other countries and they expelled him in most of them. He finally settled in London, published his first volume of Capital, and died over there in 1883. After his death, most of his communist ideas were still used but not in many countries.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx is a German philosopher who lived during the Industrial Revolution. Marx is a communist and all of his writings caused him to be expelled from different countries, which includes Belgium and France. His reaction to the Industrial Revolution was serious because of the political economy. With the help of Friedrich Engels, he published the first volume of Capital. This talks about his view of capitalism and his opinions of that and his own work. Marx stated in an essay that he wrote in 1875 that dictatorship would work better. After Karl Marx's death in 1883, Friedrich Engels used Marx' work and published the next 2 volumes of Capital.

SIMON BOLIVAR AND LATIN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS

Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas ,Venezuela on July 24th of 1783.Simon Bolivar Gained the independence of Colombia , Venezuela, Peru , Ecuador and Bolivia.Simon Bolivar is Very Famous in South America Because he devoted his life to Libertating South America of Spanish Rule. He And his Army Fought Spain and France.He also fought some of the countrys in south America. Simon Bolivar Devoted his life to liberating South America.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution was a period of political history of france and Europe. Most of the reasons for the French Revolution were economic reasons. Some factors were The social and psychological burdens of the many wars of the 18th century, which in the era before the dawn of nationalism were exclusively the province of the monarchy. The french population was divided into three estates. The first estate was made up of the clergy. It numbered around 100,000 people. The second estate was made up of the nobility. It numbered around 400,000 people. The third estate was made up of the bourgeoisie, wage earners, and the peasantry. It was made up of the majority of the French population . The third estate feel used because of this reasons.

* peasants were forced to do military service.
* Peasants could not hunt or fish on nobles estates.
* Peasants had to pay taxes to their lord ,king and church.
* Peasants had to use the lord's mill, oven and winepress, and pay for them.
They made up 90% of the population.
In 1789 they wanted to make a constitution to see how france was to be governed.

Reign of Terror

While the French Revolution was a great thing that eventually led to democracy in France, it wasn't all jolly and happy once it ended. The French Revolution faded into the Reign of Terror, one of the scariest moments in history. The Reign of Terror lasted many years. After the French Revolution ended, Louis XVI was a limited monarch. He was a ruler with limited powers. This kind of nation is called a limited monarchy.

Because Louis XVI hated his loss of power and the government, he tried to flee the country. He was unsuccessful and was brought back to France. When he returned, there was a power struggle in France. People panicked and wondered who would be the next leader. Street gangs took control and sometimes even had more power than the government. One street gang, Jacobins, even took Louis XVI and killed him in the guillotine.

France soon grew desperate and it turned into mayhem. Many groups tried to fight and take power. However, one individual, Maximillien Robespierre, rose up. He took control and killed anyone who went against him. He did this in order to wipe out any evidence of the old way, or the old monarchy. Robespierre almost had absolute power. Many people had their heads cut off by the government. Eventually, citizens got so aggrivated that they had Robespierre arrested. Soon, his head head was cut off. Napolean rose up and became the next leader. He was a very successful person.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

In the 1500's, there were two main theories of the solar system. Heliocentrism, and geocentrism were the two main theories of the solar system. Geocentrism is the belief that the Earth was the center of the universe. Geocentrism goes way back until Ancient Greece around 500-400 BC. Heliocentrism is the belief that the sun is the center of the universe. Heliocentrism began in the late 1500 to 1600's AD. Heliocentrism has been proven by many scientists today. Unfortunately, in the 1600's, Heliocentrism was not very accepted because the Catholic Church taught Geocentrism to its followers.

On 1632, Galileo Galilei was summoned to Rome for a trial because he went against the Catholic Church. In the 17th Century, the Catholic Church was extremely powerful; almost to the point that it ruled people's lives (absolutism). Because Galileo spread his ideas and tried to raise awareness to people, the Church was aggrivated. After many, many long weeks, Galileo was released where he was allowed to stay in his small farmhouse in Arcetri, and in 1641, he died.

Evolution vs Creation

Around 1830, Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, composed the Theory of Evolution. Darwin's Theory of Evolution stated that all of life (the natural Earth we see today) was evolved from a single organism. If monkies evolved from chimpanzees, and chimpanzees evolved from bears, this fact would help prove Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
Darwin's Theory of Evolution revolved around one important term that we know today: natural selection. Natural selection is when the weak ones die and the strong ones live. The strong ones will then pass on its traits to the offspring, producing offspring that are better adapted to their environment.

As an example, let us take the woodpecker. The woodpecker drills holes in trees in order to eat insects. In the woods, there are three types of birds, Bird A, Bird B, and Bird C. Bird A has a long beak and can drill through trees, much like a woodpecker. He has short wings however, and is not able to fly well. Bird A will drill holes near the base of trees to eat insects. Bird B has webbed feet and is designed to eat fish in the water. Bird C has long wings and can fly well. Bird C is able to eat high in the trees. Because Bird B is not used to the environment, he dies. Birds A and C therefore mate and gain different qualities to make Bird D. Bird D has a long beak and long wings, allowing it to eat insects high in the trees and near the base as well.

Darwin's Theory of Evolution revolved around natural selection. Like described in the previous paragraph, this process would take many, many years to make what we have today. Constant mating and survival of the fittest allowed mutations and the ability to adapt to different environments. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is being proven more and more as we progress into the future. Molecular biologists even believe that life may have started from a single cell. The cell would duplicate at an exponential rate, and throughout millions of years, we have life today.

Creationism

Put simply, Creationism is the idea that all life was created by a single higher power/deity, such as Islam's Allah or Christianity's God. Creation is commonly debated and criticized. Because it revolves around religion, it is unable to be taught in science classes in public schools. There are many Creationists in the world