The treaty of Versailles(Ended WW I)

The treaty of Versailles was, as its name states, a treaty signed at the Versailles building in France. In the most basic of terms the treaty stated that the start, damages, and causualties of and during WW I were all the fault of Germany. This treaty was conpletely unfair in the way that it simply beat down germany to the point where the country was insignificant. It limited the number of troops the country could have, so that it'd be unable to fight sucessfully in a war. The unfair treaty also forced Germany to give up all its colonies effectively cutting off a huge source of their cash flow and trading sources. Lastly and importantly, the treaty forced Germany to pay reparations; a huge sum of money to the British and french nations for the costs of the war, money the country did not have.

Looking at all these cruel and unfair rules against the German nation, it's not unexpected to find displeased man willing to change it. This man was Adolf Hitler. Though he is known for WWII before that he brought Germany, like a phoenix, back from its ashes and even more powerful than ever before. This single man brought forth due to the unrest caused by the unfair treaty. This, as believed by many historians, is, logically, the cause of the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Mustafa Kemal(ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal - "The Father of Turkey" - was president of the country for about 15 years. He modernized the country by using European ideas; such as a dress code, a revised legal system, along with an industrial and agricultural advancement. His dress code required the muslims to throw away their robes and fez to replace them with shirts, pants, and ties. Mustafa's revised legal system said that everyone in the country was equal regardless of position of power. Mustafa was guided by his six principles he attempted to instill on this new, modern, Turkey; Nationalism, Republicanism, Populism, Statism, Secularism, and Revolutionism.

Film Lesson - "Gandhi"

Gandhi was faithful follower of his nonviolent "attack" on the British government. His method was known as Civil Disobedience; the act of disobeying a law or rule but in an orderly manner. This civil disobedience was used to make the British rule look unjust and cruel. In one instance of when Gandhi and his followers were marching toward the Salt works, a factory meant to break down the salt into a usable form, which was collecting indian salt and placing a british tax on them. The men who simply marched into the line of soldiers waiting to attack them with the butt of their rifles. The indians fell by the dozens without even raising a finger in resistance from the british attack.

Though Gandhi aided India in achieving it's independance, in time they would've won their independance through war. Right after the events of WWII the British wouldn't have been ready for another attack, especially one that of which couldn't recieve reinforcements. The British soldiers in India would have eventually lost, though it would've been a bloody revolution, like most, the indian people would still have won their freedom.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution is a set of events leading to the their czar being overthrown and being replaced by a communist society. It began with the end of WWI, the Russians were suffered such a great blow that the entire country was in a state of famine. The workers demanded food from their government, which was being hoarded by their czar. Soon the people became fed up with the czar erupting strikes and revolts. The people captured the czar and killed him a year later. For the time being the government was being controlled as best as they could be doing. During this time a powerful and ruthless man rose to claim this throne, not in a literal sense. Lenin and the bolshlevik, using the communist manifesto as a guideline, took complete control over the government promising the people "Peace, Land, and Bread!"

Cause of WWI

World War I was caused by three primary things; Nationalism, Militarism, and the assassination of Franz Fernidad. It seems to have begun with Nationalism, which is an extreme and sometimes irrational love for their country. The citizens disliked people from countries other than their own because of things such has different traditions, religions, and even language, which acted as kindling for the flames of war.

The second reason which was the largest reason out of the three. Due to the increased Nationalism between countries citizens, the men of power in that country became very cautious of other countries. Eventually this Nationalism rose to the generals making even then wary of neighboring countries so they decided to increase their "defenses". These defenses ranged from more soldiers to weapons and even the production of countless battle tanks. These heavily increased "defenses" acted as gas for the kindling, which was already stacked high.

lastly and importantly was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Franz was the archduke of Austria-Hungary, a very high person in their government. The assassination itself wasn't the exact cause of hatred, rather it was the location. He was assassinated on Serbian soil, which at the time there was a lot of bad blood between the two countries leaving them on edge of his presence to begin with. His assassination was the definite and clear spark that started the fire of war.

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."