The Russian Revolution

The Russians had a revolution because they were all unhappy. The winter of 1917 was a very cold winter. It was horrible for the Russian people and they were all very hungry but the czar wouldn't do anything about this. Instead he would waste all of his money on sending worthless troops out to fight World War I, while they would just get killed anyway. The Russian people were furious. They thought that they needed a change in their government and all of these events triggered it. The people during that time were all hungry and desperate and they just believed it and voted to keep their country a Communist nation. The leader of the Revolution was Lenin. He was in the Bolshevik group as well as Joseph Stalin. The quote "Peace, land and bread"means that the Russians wanted Peace in the country no wars, land for them to have farms and bread for them to feed their children. They wanted these aspects to have a better Russia and communism promised them that.

World War I

During the late 1800's throughout the early 1900's there were still empires that were formed. Many of the people that were being taken over were very unhappy with that and wanted there own country. The people thought that in one empire they spoke over three different languages, then why would they even be a united country. One major reason why World War I happened was because of Nationalism. Countries spent millions of dollars to help prepare their military. They were trying to prepare themselves to have a very powerfully military. There was one problem about all of this and that was that they didn't have anywhere to use it. This made them start tension and conflict within each other. Militarism was a really important factor in starting the war. What triggered the war though was when the archduke of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian, Austria declared war on Serbia which then cause Russia to join the war on Serbia's side. This was the collapse of the alliance system. This war caused the people of all the nations they belonged to felt pride in the fact that their country was the dominate one.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx really didn't agree with the Industrial Revolution. He disliked the fact that the factory owners controlled the workers, but the workers were the ones that were doing all of the work. He was the one that invented the idea of communism, he wanted the government to be used by all of the "common" people. The industrial revolution inspired Karl Marx to come up with communism was because he really disliked the fact that all of the people that were doing the actual work, were getting treated horribly and they were doing all of the work and had no power.

The Opium Wars

During the Opium war, the Chinese weren't very open to trade with other Nations. The British wanted the tea from the Chinese, and the Chinese wouldn't want to trade. So, the English made the Chinese addicted to Opium. Soon enough the Chinese people started becoming very sick, weak and very lazy from the drug that they were addicted to. The Chinese government was very unhappy, which resulted for the government requested Britain to stop giving the Chinese Opium. The British refused because they wanted their tea and money, because during that time tea was very rare. That's when they declared war. It is called the Opium war is because the Chinese were trying to get Opium out of their country, but the British kept bringing Opium in China. As a result the British easily won the Chinese because the British had advanced weapons and a bigger and stronger military. This is one of Chinese most humiliating loss in history, because they got beaten so badly. In Conclusion, the Chinese decided to allow trade to catch up on the modern technology.

Meji Restoration of Japan

Mathew Perry was taking over Japan due to his Superior military strengths. Perry arrived at the coast of Tokyo, 26 miles off. He arrived at the port with his sails down to intentionally intimidate the Japanese with his advanced technology. Thanks to his superior military forces that could easily defeat the Japanese, they had no choice but to give in to him.This lead to the Japanese economy dropping. It dropped because of European and American production and the Japanese having no tariff on the supplies. So in order to become a modern nation, the emperor used a mandatory state fund of education.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of The Moon"

The movie was about the European exploration into Africa to search for the source of the Nile river. There were two explorers, Richard Burton and John Speke. Some of the hardships they faced were starvation, and intense heat. They also faced the long walks on the everlasting desert. They also faced wild animals and diseases they didn't know of. They found a lake and named it Queen Victoria because that was the name of their queen at the time. Even though Africans lived around the lake and knew well of it, the Europeans got to name it because of their technical advancements and their greater intelligence over the Africans. Europeans were much more advanced in technology, while Africans still used stones and spears, they had guns and many more advanced items. Which lead them to think that Africans were an inferior race. The fact that Europeans would then develope machine guns and much more advanced technology while Africa stayed then same. This lead the Europeans to later conquer many parts of Africa.

Karl Marx and The Industrial Revolution

Karl Mark did not like the industrial revolution. He felt that the treatment the workers received were harsh and cruel. Workers often worked long hours for little pay, under terrible conditions. This lead to Karl Marx inventing Communism. Communism is a concept in which all workers share the same wealth and are sometimes rewarded for hard work. Nobody had any better of a chance than everybody else and things are always fair and equal.