The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars was a battle between Britain and the Chinese. The Chinese had all the resources they needed but the British wanted to trade with them because they needed some of their resources. The Chinese unfairly traded little of their resources for many of the British resources. The British were determined to find a product the CHinese could use. They discovered the the Chinese doctors used opium to stop pain. The British started trading the opium with the Chinese. The Chinese soon found out that opium is also a addiciting drug that harms your body. The Chinese Emperor wrote a letter to Britain telling them to stop trade and that it is unfair that they allow opium in China but not their own country. China got no responce from the letter so they decided to wage war against Britain to stop opium trade. This is why The Opium Wars has it's name. The Chinese stood no chance against the technology of the British such as their well built boats and their cannons. They lost the almaost as soon as it started. China was starting to fall apart, people did not trust their Emperor anymore because many were starting. The opium trades did stop eventually but it is unclear as to why.

"The White Man's Burden"

The "White Man's Burden" is the idea that it is the responsibility of a country to share their advanced civilization with the rest of the world by force because they are the best civilization in the world. This is a very racist way of thinking and there is no doubt that the author of this poem was a imperialist. This justified imperialism by saying it was their responsibility to "help" other countries by forcing them to change their entire culture. The actual taking over of the country and forcing them to do labor and take their natural resources is not a burden at all. The only "Burden" according to the author is to make them realize how much better his race is to their race and that they should do things the way his civilization does and forget everything about their own. This racist attitude was common among people of this era and they truly felt that to make the world better, they had to share their ways of doing things with the world even if it was done by force.

"The Scrample for Africa"

"The Scramble for Africa" describes nations competing with each other to gain land of Africa. The France had the most African land. Britain also had a large percent of the land. Germany had the third most land. Very little land was independent because of how fast the Europeans were taking over Africa's land. This gave Africa borders but was extremely unfair to the African people because they did not even ask for their permission. These nations were looking for natural resources in Africa such as rubber from rubber trees and much more. A tribe called Zulu did surprisingly well against the Europeans considering the advanced technology the Europeans tribe had over the Zulu. The leader of the Zulus, Shaka Zulu, teached his followers military skills and were even able to out smart the Europeans in some fights. The technology of Europe soon put a end to the Zulu but at least they proved to the Europeans that they can organize and be civilized when they must. Soon all of Africa was under other nation's control and was done fast and easily due to the machine guns and other technology. This scramble among Africa effected the African people because tribes that lived together for hundreds to thousands of years were seperated and many were seperated from t\land they h\they have gre to be use to and they would have a hard time adjusting to other places.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

The Europeans faced many hardships while trying to explore Africa. Diseases killed many Europeans and cures were not made until many years later. Tribes that lived there have never seem white people before and saw them as trespassers. These tribes would attack the Europeans and kill them. There was no way for the Europeans to control these tribes so they could explore the origins of the Nile river, unless they controlled them by force. The machine gun was built and was a primary technology advantage for the Europeans and soon became the tool that let the Europeans freely explore Africa.

The tribes of Africa were no longer a match to the force of the machine guns. The National Geographic was able to explore places on the map that were never seen before by the Europeans or the rest of the world such as the full extent of the Nile River. The Europeans easily took over Africa. The main purpose was to gain resources from their lands but they also took over their way of life. The Europeans felt they were the greatest and most advanced race in the world and felt they were doing the Africans a favor by teaching them their ways and religion. Many other nations competed with each other to gain African land, this is how Africa got it's borders.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

Matthew Perry led a group of ships to Japan to encourage open trade. He told the Japanese that if they did not open trade with them, he would force them too. Although Perry was threatening them, the Japanese were amazed by the gifts and toys that had technology that they never seen before such as the motor train. The Shogun sign the agreement with Perry without concerning the emperor which made many Shi-Shi furious. The Shi-Shi started attacking the ships, the response from the west was not turning out very well. Japan was in struggle and a teacher named Yoshida Shoen was able to find a perfect solution that would industrialize Japan forever. He tought his students to not fear or hate the barbarians (Americans) but to study them in their own land and see how they live. One of Yoshida's students grew up to be

Karl Marx and Communism.

The idea of communism in the words of it's inventor (Karl Marx) is that all workers should share a common wealth in a free nation, based on your needs and not your skills. In Karl Marx's opinion, the "good guys" were the workers and the "bad guys" was the government. He wanted everyone to share equal power because history has proven that the workers have always struggled from higher up classes, such as the government. Karl Marx felt that this was needed and if the government did not obey the idea of communism, the workers of the world should unite and overthrow their government to make a communist society.
Although many countries did overthrow their government to make a communist government, it was not how Karl Marx originally wanted it to be. Karl wanted a free nation, where all shared wealth and power and none had harsh conditions in factories or in farms, but the people overthrowing the government were making a dictatorship over the country. They punished those who did not follow communism and made many people work on farms or factories, this gave a new meaning to Karl Marx's idea of communism. Communism is now thought of as a dictatorship like government that is very strict and forces the people to do things the way they want. Communism today is different then the communism that was invented by Karl Marx and goes against everything he stood for.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx was the founder of Communism. He did not like how workers were treated in factories during the Industrial Revolution. His idea of Communism was that no matter what your job was, or what skill was needed for it, all would share common wealth in a free nation. Karl Marx wanted all the workers to be free of long hours of harsh work and free of their low wages, he wanted all to share wealth in a common society. The Industrial Revolution was the exact opposite of this and inspired him to create Communism. He felt that the workers should unite for a revolution to make a Communism society. This was ironic since there was already a revolution in the making (Industrial Revolution). Communism was born out of the Industrial Revolution. Many Countries were overthrown by Communism just as Karl Marx wished, but this backfired. The very people who fought for Communism, became a strict government that forced workers to work on farms and factories. Communism was given a new meaning, a dictatorship that forced people to do things the way they wanted and punished those who didn't, this was never in the intentions of Karl Marx.