The Opium Wars

The Opium war was the worlds very first drug war. Opium is a drug made from poppy seedpods. It was produced in the East Indes and shipped to China by the British merchants. Opium is used to make other drugs such as Heroin, Morphine, Codein and Mescalun. At one time, opium was used as medicine to treat diseases. When the chinese were introduced to mixing opium with tobacco, they began to smoke it. This drug was so powerful that the chinese became badly addicted to it.
After a while, the British merchants didnt have anything to sell to China. China was a self-sufficient country so everything that they needed, they alredy had. In order to keep the tea trade flowing, the British merchants imported opium mixed with tobacco to china. This promoted opium smoking. Many of the chinese smoked this drug and as a result, the chinese population decreased. When the chinese government became aware of the drug, they tried to put an end to it. There were policies against selling opium to smoke. opium smoking houses were banned and shut down. Anyone who sold opium to smoke was either banished or killed. eventhough there were policies against opium, the British still kept selling it to china. Because some of the government officials were greedy, they became part of the illegal opium trade.
Some time had passed and the chinese really became serious about the sale of opium. In more ways than one, they tried to get the British to stop selling opium to China. They wouldnt listen.

an anti-opium campaign was started. Great Britain demanded that the Chinese ended the campaign but they didn't so the Britain's attacked the Chinese. They Chinese were caught by surprise by this attack. Because the Britain's had advanced technology, they won the Opium war.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the moon"

The Europeans faced many hardships as they explored Africa. First the Africans who were with John Speke and Richard Burton had to travel with no shoes. They traveled on rocks and in different forms of percipitation. Second, the europeans had to travel with personal belongings, food and tents for shelter. These things were pretty heavy to carry. Third, they had to travel through the high grass and branches of Africa. They used instruments to chop down the grass and branches in their way. Fourth, they came across tribes who didnt know who they were. They were most facinated by the sight of white men. Fifth, they were robbed by some of the Africans who were at first traveling with them.
Lake Victoria is the third largest lake in the world. It is named after a british Queen. It is strange that Lake Victoria is named after a british Queen because lake Victoria is the source of the Nile River. As we all know, the Nile River is in Africa. This leads me to conclude that Lake Victoria is in Africa. If this large lake is in Africa, why is it named after a british Queen? This very question has me very perplexed.
The Europeans had advanced technology over the African people.One was the magnifying glass and the telescope. When the head of the African tribe was given the magnifying glass, he was looking through it because he had no clue what it was. When he was given the telescope he thought it was a musical instrument. He blew through the telescope which was pretty funny. The piece oif technology that amazed the head of the tribe the most was the gun. He was holding it like it was a precious item. He laughed when he had shot one of the people. He was truly amazed with this weapon.
Eventually, Europeans were able to conquer Africa. They had a great technological advancement. They were able to conquer Africa with their machine guns. The Africans didnt have this advancement in technology. They still had spears and bows and arrows. There was no way that they could fight against the machine guns. For this reason, Africa was taken over by the Europeans.

Karl Marx and Communism

Karl was known for communism. He had the idea that the workers should be the ones to control factories and farms. He urged the workers to unite and rebel against the landlords in a worldwide revolution. Marx came up with the idea for communism because he didnt like the way the workers were treated. Communism was the idea that workers would share wealth in communist society and that all workers should be treated equal.He started to express his ideas but they were shot down with threats from the authorities. He moved to paris with his wife and began mixing with the working-class. The poverty that he saw was shocking. It was then that he applied the dialect theory to what he saw in Paris. Now Marx considered himself a communist and he argued that the working class would be the emancipators of society. Karl Marx viewed the workers as the good guys and the landlords as the bad guys.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx was not in agreement with the Industrial Revolution. He hated the treatment of the workers in Europe and the conditions that they were living in. The European factories were very harsh and unsafe. Marx felt that the workers should be the ones to control the factories. He hated the way everything was before and after the Industrial Revolution. It was a battle of the rich verses the poor.
If it wasnt for Karl Marx' strong dislike for the Industrial Revolution, there would be no communism. Communism in other words is basically a classless society. Marx didnt like the way that the poor people were treated. His a idea for a classless society was a good idea. This would make both the rich and the poor equal.

Nationalism

Nationalism is the belief that ones loyalty should be towards a nation of people who share a common culture or history. I for one am not nationalistic. I do not watch the olympics and root for America. I do not salute the American flag or have a flag of any nation hanging in my window. I do not sing the National Anthem or God bless America. I do not follow up on the war between America and Iraq. I am not a nationalistic individual.
Nationalim destroyed empires and built up nations. Italy was formed from the territory of the destroyed empires. Austria ruled Venetia, Lombardy, and many other small states in the north. The Spanish Bourbon family ruled the kingdom of the two Sicilies in the south. Between 1815 and 1848, the Italians no longer wanted to live under foreign rulers. Two leaders with different personalities and different goals, each contributed to the unification of Italy, by way of nationalistc views.
Before Italy actually became Italy, this country was broken up into states. Piedmont-Sardinia was the largest and moost powerful of the states.In 1852, the king of Sardinia named Camillo Cavour as its prime minister. Cavour worked very hard in order to expand Sardinia's power.He achieved the expansion of Sardinia's power along with the unification of Italy.In 1866, Venetia became part of Italy.In 1870, the Italian forces took over the Papal states which was the last part of the territory.

Simon Bolivar

Simon Bolivar was a venezuelan, famous for being the liberator of South America. Shortly after Bolivar's wife died, he went to Europe and traveled in France and Italy. During his travels, he studied the philosophies of Rousseau and Locke. On his way back to South America, he stopped in the United States. He organized and led a revolutionary army in order to free South America from the rule of Spain. At first, he lost some of the battles but he eventually won independence for Venezuela. This helped other South American countries such as: Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia and Peru gain their independence. In the end, Bolivia was named after Simon Bolivar.

In 1822, Bolivar became dictator of Peru. Upper Peru became a separate state named Bolivia, after Bolivar. The Bolivian constitution is one of the most important political pronouncements

Robespierre and the Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occured after the onset of the French Revolution. It was provoked by conflict between rival political groups, and it was marked by the executions of many enemies of the revolution. Robespierre played a big part in the reign of terror by becoming its dominant member. He took control of the government and tried to wipe out the old monarchy. With Robespierre as the new dictator, everything changed. Many people were executed by the government. No one was safe. Not even the people in the government. People got tired of Robespierre cutting off everyones head. As a result, a conspiracy was formed against him. He was arrested, and beheaded. This ended the reign of terror.