The Opium Wars

The Opium wars are a series of wars between Europe and China for a drug, opium, that of which took place from 1839 to 1842. Opium is a drug found in middle eastern countries from poppy flowers. The cause of this war is a little strange in that the cause was that China wanted to be isolated while the Europeans, particularly the British, wanted to trade their opium to private buyers who used it recreationally. The drug's original use was to cure such sicknesses as diarrhea. When the Chinese saw what the opium addiction was doing to their citizens they banned it from China, from then on all Opium found was confiscated and destroyed. Europe didn't stop sending the drug because they were becoming rich off this drug so in turn China stopped selling their Tea causing the explosive reaction, war. In truth the war was fought over more than just the drug, the Chinese were fighting to keep their culture and morals pure while the British fought for wealth. The war ended with the British as the definite victors due to their overpowering military and technological advantage over the Chinese. With their victory the Europeans gained 5 ports and two treaties which allowed them to legally sell their opium.

Film lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

We'd recently watched the documentary, "Mountains on the Moon". The film was about the Eurpopeans' exploration of South Africa and their search of the Nile River's source. During their trip, the men faced various hardships and conflicts. Richard Burton and John Speke led a group of people through Africa. They faced long hot days in the deserts, and the rocky roads where food and water was scarce. night and day they had to be careful of the wild animals and disease-ridden insects that wander throughout the continent. Europeans were also stopped many times by native African tribes. To survive in the depths of africa, they tried to avoid any conflict that could disrupt their journey.

Then finally Richard Burton and John Speke along with their crew found the source of the Nile; the third largest lake in the world, Lake Victoria. The Name came from the Queen of Britain at the time. People may find it strange to name an African lake after the Queen since they had no relation at the time, this was because since the Europeans were the first to document it they claimed the right to name it.

The Europeans went into Africa and had the advantage of their superior technology. Basically when a conflict did occur, a gun beats a spear. Another advantage their technology gave them was their tools of data collection, which infaturated the Africans.

After this Discovery the Europeans overtook Africa. Due to their modern technology, and the invention of the machine gun, this was a very easy task. After Africa was taken the European countries fought over control of the land which came to be known as "The Scramble for Africa."

Karl marx and Communism

Communism is an economic and political system created by Karl Marx. He never agreed with the idea of capitalism, he didn't like the fact that the rich became richer through the work and toil of the poor, which were becoming even poorer. His idea was that communism would put all men on equal ground so that there would be no need for competition, everyone would receive the same pay as well as the same benefits; no man was above another. Communism is considered to be the branch of socialism, a broad group of social and political ideologies that of which draws on the various political and intellectual movements. Marx saw the worker as the good guys and the factories owner as the bad guys because they workers were treated unfairly and the boss took advantage of the workers. Marx wanted Communism to take over the world because to him all problems within the social classes would end. this idea of Marx’s works- in theory.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx felt that the Industrial Revolution created a harsh and unsafe environment factory workers, which were adults and children as young as the age of six. He felt that ,since the workers do all the work, they should own the factories rather then the Factory owner. He thought that workers of the world should unite and revolt against the owners. He felt that it was strictly unfair for rich to get richer and poor to get poorer. His observation of the revolution sickened him to the point where he was inspired to form a new one, communism. Under communism no one is rich or poor, everyone shares the same class of living. Everybody is treated as an equal, nobody had private ownership, and all the workers received the same pay. This government created an equilibrium for the working class since everyone would be in the working class, however, this is only in theory.

Nationalism and the creation of italy

Nationalism, to take pride of one's residing country or country of birth. Many things are brought about through nationalism; friendships, fights, feuds, and even wars. I personally am a pacifist while still being a nationalist, being that i can still be prideful of my country(Brasil) without taking it to any extreme to anger anybody. From time to time i play soccer with a few friends or wear the Brasilian colors when i go out and lastly i actually have two Brasilian flags in my room.

Italy, like some other countries, had such a respect and pride for it's country and wanted a change for the better. These nationalists wanted a new government; a government for the people. This government wasn't like the one in America or france Italy made something different, a constitutional monarchy. This worked basically as follows: the king had rule but his decisions could be overthrown by the two ministers and the two ministers had a group of citizens who had meetings over political decisions which then informed the ministers of their decision. In a way the people had some power, and they were content with that.

Simon bolivar and latin america revolution

Simon Bolivar was a Venezuelan general who eventually freed most of South America  from the Spaniards, a "George Washington of South America" if you will. He was born into a rich family and at a young age received the entire fortune due to the early death of his parents. With his wealth he helped fund and even fight with a group of patriots attempting to free Venezuela. They soon freed Caracas  from the Spaniards. At one time he went to the British in search of aid but only found neutrality. When he returned the Spaniards attacked and forced his troops back into New Granada(Columbia), who was also at war with the spaniards. The two forces allied and attempted another attack but this was forced to retreat into Jamaica. After that started the string of victories freeing the territories of Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, and Venezuela. The capture of these key areas caused the Spaniards to become weak and essentially useless in South America. In the end he also captured Peru which was then cut in half and became Peru and Bolivia in honor of Bolivar. Bolivar, after capturing all these areas, created a The Original Republic of Columbia also becoming it's first president.

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

The Reign of terror was a violence event which took place 15 months after the French Revolution. 16000-40000 people were killed during the reign of terror. Many famous and well know people were executed by guillotine. They were executed in front of an audience to show that people who don't support them that they will to have the same end. French nobles and clergy were not approving of this new terror, as they now had to work and did not received any goods from the peasants.

Maximilien Robespierre tried to erase everything related to the Old Regime. Churches were closed as it was one of the major strain on peasents. He, acting as dictator, was the cause of The Reign of Terror. The governed people were scared and tired of his idea of guillotine punishment, they did not feel safe. They organized a revolution against him and he was executed the same way, he was guillotined, The Reign of Terror was over.

The Reign of Terror was caused because democracy, that the people fought for, was not granted to them. They had to fight against this Reign of Terror as they fought against Louis the XVI. It ended in bloodshed among brothers but have now earned their freedom. The Terror ended the same way it began; With the guillotine

The french Revolution

1) The people of France did not like that the Nobles and Clergy paid little to no taxes. There was a food shortage and taxes were rising. They also thought the King was very weak and useless.

2) A French peasant has quite the list of things to coplain about. There was a food shortage, and the price of bread had increased. The government was falling into debt and the people where being treated horribly.

3) Source A shows a poor worker who had to support the two higher estates and hoped he wouldn't have to for any longer; he hoped for a revolution.

4) The author of source B describes the lives of peasants to be very harsh and very desperate. The people did not have that much, but still had to pay 20kg of wheat, and three chickens as taxes. The taxes where difficult for them to pay.

5) Yes it does. It shows that the poor had a very hard life, and that they had to pay to support the rich. It shows why they would want to revolt against the rich and have a revolution to avoid the harsh times.

6) The peasants would be influenced by his work and follow him. They do not like the old form of government and would embrace democracy for France. It would be more fair for them and a better lifestyle.

7) It was probably banned by the Clergy and Nobles and King, because they do not want peasants to revolt and want them to follow there rules. They wouldn't want the peasants to try to form a new government.

Scientific revolution: the scientific theory

The scientific theory is the process at which a scientist must go through to prove or disprove an idea. It begins with forming a hypothesis to be tested, then must be continuously tested again and again to make sure it is not just a random occurence. These things in theory are long and difficult tasks but in general occur in a specific order.

First a hypothesis must be stated for there to be anything to experiment. then an experiment must be set up and done several times and to be observed taking note of everything. Then you must take your observations and attempt finding why or how each occurence...occurs. Afterwards everything must be tested again for accuracy of your findings. Then you must allow a large group of people to attempt to recreate your experiment and if the majority end with the same results as you it can become a theory.

Copernicus and the trial of galileo

The Geocentric theory was the belief that the earth is the center of the universe which was formed by acient greek philosopher, aristotle. This was also greatly believed in the church as well which in those times were a great and powerful force. Although there was never any evidence to prove this theory is was widely believed.

Then at one time a man named Copernicus who scientifically explained how many celestial events occured without the earth at the center of the universe. He, though bringing large amounts of evidence, was for the most part swept aside and pushed away by the church for having a different idea. After the time of Copernicus tested many other ideas which then began a scientific revolution in acient greece.

The one man who stood out of all these people was Galileo. He was a man who, without a doubt, proved that the earth wasn't the center of the universe and even showed how the sun is the actual center of the universe. this idea came to be known as the heliocentric theory. With all this evidence the church became outraged because someone was going against their ideas and was excommunicated; not allowed to interact with anyone connected to the church in anyway,which at the was was everyone. This event is what gave future scientists strength to come up with their own ideas and bring us to the true scientific age.

John Locke and "The Enlightment"

When Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence was based off ideas formed by John Locke. The government for example was formed off the idea that Locke had which basic terms said let the people have government and how they choose to have it. In other words the government in the US is dependent on it's people, this is how the idea of democracy was formed.

Evolution vs. Creation

The conflict of evolution vs. creationism is a huge matter in the U.S. Creationism is the religious belief that god created everything and that we didn't evolve. Though this is widely believed there is a lot of counter evidence and even so within the religion themselves there's dispute on the matter which is mostly about the time period at which the earth was created and they go from instantanious(the earth, adam and eve, animals, plants, and mountains all made at the same time) to the the biblical 7 days and sometimes even longer.

Then there's Evolution which explains how everything decends from a common ancestor. This theory is widely accepted in the scientific world due to substantial evidence. At first this was based on similarites of physical appearance and skeletal structure but later on they investigated in DNA and found that there are many more similarities then originally assumed.

My personal idea of this matter is, there is a chance that both can be true. It can be possible that some great being created everything but i doubt it was made within 7 days, in fact i think everything was created over a span of thousands of years and may possibly still be going on. Although this godly creation may still be continuing they've evolved from their original form.

Test

test