Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Mahatma Gandhi


Gandhi's real name was Mohandas K. Gandhi. He was called Mahatma (great soul). He was a lawyer who fought against the racial problems towards the Indians. When Gandhi was in South Africa, he purchased a 1st class ticket. But, he was told to move to the third class coach because he was Indian. Gandhi refused and he was kicked out at the next station. The massacre at Amritsar was the act which brought the independence soul from Gandhi. He told his follower not to use violence but civil disobedience. He told the Indians to stop buying goods from the British which would weaken the British government.
Gandhi weaved his own cloth and so did his followers. He took a step to stop the Salt Acts. During that time, Indians could only buy salt from the British. They also had to pay sales tax on the salt they brought. So, Gandhi and his followers marched on the sea cost. They were going to make their own salt. When his followers used any violence act, he would go for fasting until they stop it. He was a great leader. Gandhi wanted Muslims and Hindus to live in the same country, India. He was assassinated by an Indian who did not support the idea about Muslims and Hindus living together.
Indians Independence was not all about Gandhi. Since British was involved in the WWII, they lost many troops and had a huge financial problems. British could not take care about India. So anyway in the future, India was going to get their independence.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Cause of World War I



The primary cause of World War I was the anger the leaders had towards other countries that was supported by the nationalism of the European nations. The three major cause are as follow;
1.Nationalism was one of the major reason which lead to the war. The 4 countries from Europe, which are France, Germany, Austria and Russia were nationalistic about their own country. This brought hatred against each others. The movie we watched, showed how nationalistic they were. The first introduction part was very strong. There were kids from each country, residing poem about their nation.
2. Militarism was other reason which caused the war. Each country were improving in their military system. They demanded more power for their country. Germany was the strongest country with the military. Each country took side of each others. British and France worked together while Germany and Austria worked with each others.
3. The assassination of Sarajevo was the breaking point of Europe. Due to the assassination, Germany promised total help and support to Austria-Hungary who was forced to declare war on Serbia.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Opium War


The First Opium War or the First Anglo-Chinese War was fought between the British East Indian Company and the Qing Dynasty in China from 1839 to 1842 with the aim of forcing China to import British opium. Britain won the war and as a result gained control over Hong Kong.
Opium was used as medicine to cure
diseases such as dysentery, cholera, as well as diarrhea. British wanted to trade with China for tea, but China did not wanted any help from them. So, in order to get the tea, British started to sell Opium to the Chinese people. They got addicted to Opium and the government was not happen with this situation. Almost all the population used the Opium. They traded large amount of sources, specially silver which weakened the economically badly.
Lin Tse-Hsua, an imperial commissioner, was the charge of organization for anti-opium. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria of England, informing about the Opium. But,this did not work the way they wanted to. In 1840, the first attempt of Opium War started. This was the first drug war.
China was not prepared for this war, since they were not advanced in technology like the British. The Treaty of Nanjing marked the beginning of foreign commercial and residential privileges in China. This helped the China to catch up the world in technology.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Mountains of the Moon


As the Europeans explored Africa, they had to faced following hardship;
  1. The distance they had to cover to find out the location of the place where the Nile river started.
  2. They did not have enough people and weapons.
  3. They were attacked by the African Tribes.
The source of Nile River was named after a British Queen because, when the Europeans discoverd the source, they decided to name the source as "VICTORIA" as their queen was Victoria. Even though there are people living in that area, the source is still called Victoria.
As shown in the movie, Mountains Of The Moon, the Europeans were advanced in weapons while the Africans only had hand made tools. The Africans only had arrows while the Europeans had guns a cannons.
Taking over meant a lot to the Europeans because they could used the people as the slave and also get the goods that are located in Africa. Europeans very far better advanced than the Africans in many different ways.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Meiji Restoration


Matthew Perry were bulling Japan by the display of military might.When Perry arrived Japan with the ship and dropped anchor 26 miles off the coast, the Japanese were amazed by their technology and how the movement of ships with no sails.
Japan was falling back while other country like Europe were very advanced in technology. When the Meiji restoration occured, there was a vast change. Japanese started to follow the western countries. The books were translated to English and the education level got higher. They started creating new things in the factories. Japan transferred from undeveloped country to a very advanced industrialization country.
Japan is an archipelago, that means Japan is a chain or cluster of islands that is formed tectonically.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Karl Marx and Communism

Karl Marx idea of communism was that communism was created after the end of process of evolution. this evolution began with feudalism and passing through capitalism and socialism. he wanted to make a group all the socialist leaders living in different parts of Europe so they could all reunite.
Communism a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.
Marx want Communism to take over the world because he wanted to help the poor people from the cruelty of the rich people. The Industrial Revolution was a heavy burden on the poor people. The rich people were getting richer and poor people were getting poorer. He wanted to share the money equally over all the people.
Marx saw bourgeoisie as the "bad guys" and he saw proletariat as the "good guys", because he did not like the idea of Industrial Revolution. He wanted to bring rights for the poor people. The rich people were taking over the country. They owned land and factories.The poor people had to work so hard for the money in order to survive. They could send their children to school because they were send to the factory to work. The result ended up as Child Labor.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Karl Marx and The Industrial Revolution

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Marx had bad attitude towards the Industrial Revolution. He thought that since there are larger number on workers than the landlords. he quoted "workers of the world to unit." He formed an idea called Communism. He said that all the workers should be paid the same amount of wage. He wanted workers to control the government. He published a book, where there were quotes. People seemed to like his idea and they started to follow his path.
He did not liked it at all. He was against the Industrial Revolution. He did not like how the poor people were getting poor and the richer were getting richer. He also went against how the child were treated at the factories. He felt bad for all the people and children who were suffering from the Industrial Revolution.
He wanted to create something that would help the poor people have a better life and where the financial was distributed equally among all the people. He did not believed that all the people worked the same amount of work. People who work hard were poor and could support their family. But, people who just sat around telling others what to do, had many money and power on the people. Rich people owned houses and factories, having a luxuries life, but the poor people they barely have enough money to survive.