The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution lasted from 1917 through 1918. It all started after World War one, which had weakened Russia's economy and Government. This also resulted to hunger and mass shortages in Russia. The people were fedup with these ways they were being forced to live, becasue how the Czar had lead them thorugh the war. It was Tsar Nicolas whose decision to take personal command of the army seemed to make him personally responsible for the defeats. So in March of 1917, the people revolted and Tsar lost his power in the streets of Russia.
The Revoultion begun, and the overthrowment of the Provisinal Government. The Soviet Union replaced the Russian Tsar System, and now Russia was consided a Communist country. The voliet communist group, the Bolsheviks gained power in Russia. Their leader was Lenin and they followed the teaching of Karl Marx. Lenin told the people he was a great leader, and promised them "Peace, love, and bread."

The Cause of World War 1

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.

For many years each country had their military strongly prepared and ready for the war. They spent millions of dollars to help prepare their military. They were trying to prepare themesleves to have a very powerfullly millartaty. There was one problem about all of this and that was that they didnt have anywhere to use it. This made them start tension and conflict within eachother. Miliratism was a really important factor in starting the war.

Another reason why the "Great War" started was because of Imperialism. There was a lot of rivalries because of the economic income for each country. 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.

All of these caused promises between the natoins to be broken. 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.

The Opium Wars

The Opium wars were about when China and European countries fought over a drug called opium that took about 3 years from 1839 to 1842. Opium was a drug from India. Opium was one of the first drug wars in the world. The reason of the Opium wars were because China wanted to isolate themselves outside their country. Europeans especially Britain wanted to trade with China. Europeans saw that tea from China was a great product and they liked the China's tea. China only let the Europeans access to the port and that's when China adapted from Western civilizations. Europeans gave the drug opium to them.

China was so addicted to opium that it was a heroin and morphine and the Chinese made a law that it was illegal because the drug affected many people in China. The Chinese would confiscate it and destroy the opium and buy no more of it from the Europeans. During the Opium wars China would get defeated a lot because of the highly equipped Europeans. It was called Opium wars because China got mad at the Europeans for bringing a drug to their country and they stopped trading the Europeans tea. Europeans got mad also for not getting tea from the Chinese. All because of a drug it was called the Opium wars.

In the war Europeans attacked the Chinese with their gunboats and cannons. The Chinese were not prepared for the war and only had swords. The Chinese's weapons were no match for the Europeans advanced technology and weapons. The British defeated China. China signed two Treaties called Treaty of Bogue and Treaty of Nanjing. They finally got peace and China was able to legalize opium. Also Europeans were able to have five ports in China.

Film lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

In Global History class, we recently just watched the documentary film, "Mountains of the Moon." The film was about the Europeans' exploration of South Africa and their search of the source of the Nile. During their quest, they faced various hardships and conflicts. Richard Burton and John Speke lead the group of people for several days through Africa. They faced long hot days in the deserts, and rocky roads with scarce food and water. During the night and day, they had to be careful of the wild animals that wondered in Africa and unknown insectsEuropeans were also stopped many times by Africans tribes with threatening spears. To survive in the depths of Africa, they had to resist from any conflicts that would scar their journey.
Then finally Richard Burton, John Speke, and their crew found the source of the Nile. Its the third largest lake in the world and they named it Lake Victoria. At the time, that was the Queen of Britain's first name, so they named their discovery after her, and the name stuck till this day, Lake Victoria. People might think that it's strange that its name Lake Victoria because hundreds of people who lived in Africa had already knew of this lake and its existence, so why do these Europeans come out of no where and get to chose the name of it.
The Europeans went into Africa and had the advantage of advanced technology. They had guns while Africans had spears. They also had scientific tools such as microscopes and telescopes. African have never seen people of white colored skin before, or had they seen the goods they began along with them.
Over time, Europeans conquered Africa. It was easy to conquer because of the knowledge that Africans had on modern technology. Europeans soon invent the machine gun and took control. Africans were powerless with their spears against the Europeans. that might cause infection or disease.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

The word Nationalism derived from Nation. A Nation is a group of people of (usually, but not always) the same race, history, culture, language and geographical territory. Nationalism is the belief that every nation has the right to rule independantly the land that they lived on for the whole history. Nationalism is sometimes confused with Patriotism which means loyalty to your country.

Nationalism is the reason why some nations exist, it is also why some Empires were broken up. Italy was once ruled by Austria, but the people wanted change so during 1848 the people had rebelled. People wanted to make Italy a nation. A prime minister named Camillo di Cavour helped unite Italy and gain its freedom as a nation.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

Simon Bolivar was a famous military leader and a famous liberator. He helped many South American countries become free from Spain's grasp. Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas on July 24 1783 to don Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte and doña Maria de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco. He went to school in Spain and was very bright. Bolivar started a revolution that led to Venezuela's independence on July 5th, 1811. After freeing Venezuela from Spain's grasp he continued and freed many other South African countries. He established the Colombia, in which he granted himself president. Bolívar became President of Gran Colombia from 1821 to 1830, President of Peru from 1824 to 1826 and President of Bolivia from 1825 to 1826. Simon Bolivar was considered the greatest revolutionary hero for South America.

The French Revolution

1) Everyone was critical of the king, noble and clergy has an easy life style. They didn't have to pay tax for lands

2) In 1789 the French would grumble about the taxes to the king. They already have very little money, and they would have to pay a lot of taxes.

3) This picture is saying that the peasants do all the work and lift the King and nobles and clergy up. They carry the burden of maintaining the feudal lords and clergy. The peasant is on the bottom and the other two are the Clergy and feudal lords. The quote means that the peasants hope that this abuse will end soon.

4) The french lives horrible. They always have to please the king, do this and that for him. They had to give the 20kg of wheat and 3 chickens as feudal dues to one lord and even more to the kings tax collectors.

5) Yes, it does explain why they resented the rich. The wealthy men and women has to do very little and gained a lot of money. Poor men and women has to pay stocks and pay for taxes with only $750-$200 a year. All the peasant money was given away to the wealthy.

6) The peasants would be most influenced by his words, He is trying to say 1 man can't control over 1000 people.

7) I think that the pamphlet was banned because they knew that if the people saw this they would rebel. The rich and clergy wanted to ban it because they knew that the only reason they were so rich and had so much power was because of the peasant's.