The Opium Wars

During the 1800 hundreds trade between China and Britain grew, but mostly on the Chinese side. The British payed large amounts of money for tea from China while China bought nothing from the British. That was until the introduction of Opium to China. Opium was a power downer drug made from the poppy seed that had an adverse affect on many of China's citizens. The Chinese decided they wanted no part in this destructive drug and banned sale and use of opium in China punishable by death. Britain didn't take to kindly to this and after awhile they decided to take action. In 1839 England attacked China's coastal cities with a fleet of ships and the Opium wars began. Britain being more technologically advance then China was able to defeat them easily in 1842 and made them sign a treaty legalizing opium in China.

The White Man's Burden

The White Mans Burden is a poem about white man's imperialism. White man being technically the most advance and successful took it upon its self to educate and conquer the lesser races.I agree with the poem to a point. I agree white man is the superior race but i do not believe it was white man's burden to share their knowledge. White man would have been better off keeping it to themselves. In fact many non white nations that are now prosperous owe it all to white imperialism. Even today we are still living out the poem. Going to Iraq and putting in another government to civilize the savages is a perfect example. If you ask me we should mind our own business and keep our prosperity and ideas to ourselves.

"The Scramble for Africa"

The scramble of Africa was indirectly caused by the Industrial Revolution. With so many European Nations reaching great heights in production Europe was eventually sucked dry of resources and Europeans were forced to find an alternative. The alternative was Africa. Mainly France, Germany, England, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Belgium all went after Africa all settling in somewhat different regions. With their advance technology and vast well equipped armies the Europeans easily took over Africa and depending on what region they were in had different effects on the African people. If you went to Africa you would notice North Africa near Spain in places such as Morocco have a very Hispanic culture while South Africa retains some English culture.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

In the film Mountains of the Moon the Europeans faced many hardships. Hostile tribes, harsh weather conditions, famine, deserters and a over all unfamiliar sense of their surroundings. Its sort of weird that the 3rd largest lake in the world which resides in Africa is named after a English Queen because it was named by the people who conquered the land rather then by the people who originally lived there. Even though the Europeans had many disadvantages they had great advantages in the Field of technology. Guns tents clothing and primitive medicine all helped the Europeans in Africa.

The meiji restoration of japan

For the most part japan has been a isolated secluded country. That was until Commodore Matthew Perry arrived with a fleet of steam powered ships. The Japanese have never seen big black steam driven monsters loaded with guns such as these and it was more then enough persuasion for japan to open its ports for American vessels. With all the new trade coming in and all the cultural diffusion and the Japanese getting pushed around they realized that they needed to make some changes. When Emperor Meiji came around that's just what happened. Japan threw away its feudal system and borrowed ideas from western countries. After some time japan became a modern powerful nation in Asia. By the way japan is an Archipelago which is a chain of islands =D

Karl Marx and communism

Karl Marx idea for communism was for the poor working man to rise up
above and create a fair equal classless society. He hated the fact that
some people could be well off while many suffered from poverty. In contradiction to what most people believe communism is actually a fairer equal way to run a country then
democracy its just people are so greedy and want everything for
themselves so Karl Marx's idea of communism never really got off the
ground. In most communist governments the people who work and run the
government become rich while the people are suppressed and the press
censored.

Karl Marx and the industrial revolution

Karl Marx was born a German Jew in 1818 even though his father converted to Christianity he never believed in either religions. He even stated that religion was the opiate of the people. He lived during the Industrial Revolution and resented it. He didn't like the image of the low class being trampled by the rich factory owners. This led him to think of a new form of government called Communism. Communism formed on a government based on the working man. Wealth property and power were more or less distributed evenly and fairly. Communism is looked down upon mostly because it has never been proven to work. Most communist countries are ruled by power hungry dictators and even if their not it all boils down to people being too greedy to live with Communism. To put simply Communism looked better on paper.

The French Revolution: Social Causes

The problem with the French government that led to the revolution was that the two upper class sections that made about 2% of the population the first and second estates (The Clergy and the Nobles) where exploiting the poor and middle class the third estate (The Peasants and Workers) During meetings each estate got 1 vote in that way the first and second estate could always outvote the third. The third estate got so tired with this they broke off and had their own National Assembly. On July 14, 1789 French citizens stormed the Prison Garrison known as the Bastille. In a matter of hours the citizens defeated the soldiers inside and the Bastille was taken and the prisoners released in an attempt to show the king and the government they were a force to be reckoned with. This in turn led to the King and Queen being executed some years later and they way was paved for a democratic France.

Evolution Vs. Creation

To me evolution makes much more sense than creation. Evolution means organisms and other things slowly adapted to their surroundings over time such as ape to man. Creation states that all things were just instantaneously created by a higher being or god. I'm a firm believer of the evolution theory which according to me should no longer be a theory but a proven fact. Charles Darwin explained and wrote a book about the evolutionary theory called the Origin Of Species. In fact I think the only reason that the evolution theory isn't considered a fact is because of the firm religious believers who strongly oppose the idea of being related to simple apes.

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