The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars started in 1839 and ended in 1842. The war was between China and Great Britain. Since China had been isolated for so many years, Great Britain saw the opportunity to trade for tea. China has a great natural resource of tea which the British loved. Since the Chinese didn't want to trade with the British, the British began to sell them Opium, and they happily bought it. Opium is a drug that is very easily to get addicted to. It is extracted from the Poppy flower, and was sometimes used to stop diarrhea. Yes opium was very a dangerous drug, but the British thought that the Chinese rulers should sell it to their people.

The government of Great Britain and China signed a peace treaty that allowed the British to use five ports instead of one. They were able to do this because of how much the Chinese were buying opium. The British mixed tobacco with Opium and sold this new type of cigarette product in China. Over two million pounds of Opium was being sold to China every year. By the late 1830s more than 30,000 chests, each of which contained about 150 pounds of opium, was being brought in annually by the British. In 1838, the trade of opium ended, and anyone who was trying to trade it would be killed. Then in spring of 1839 Chinese authorities at Canton confiscated and burned the opium. China was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, and the British signed the Treaty of the Bogue in 1843. This war was called the Opium Wars because it was a fight for Opium. China wanted the Opium out of the country, while the British wanted it in. The British won this war due to their high technology and powerful army. This war ended in the Chinese losing the power of a very important island and trading port called Hong Kong. The British and French again defeated China in a second opium war in 1856. This time they allowed foreigners with passports to travel inside of China.

Film lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

In the film "Mountains of the Moon," the Europeans faced many hardships trying to find the source of the Nile River. Some of these hardships was dealing with the African tribes that already lived in the territory that they were traveling on. The African tribes were fascinated with their skin color and the way they dressed. They had never seen people of different skin color in their territory. They began touching Richard Burton and John Speke's hair as if it was the best thing in the world. They also had to deal with the bugs in the desert that gave John Speke an infection in his ear. When they found the source of the Nile River they named it Lake Victoria after a Queen of England, this name was very common in this time. Lake Victoria is located in the middle of Africa and is the third largest river in the world. The primary technological advantage that the English had over the Africans i believe were the guns and the compasses. The gun because it helped them fight against African tribes. The compass helped them to move around in Africa, so they would know which way they were heading. The Europeans eventually were able to conquer Africa because of the technology they had. Also because of the weapons that they used to defend themselves to take over the African land.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

Mathew Perry was an American and a commodore who traveled in many ships. He threatened to destroy Japan. Mathew Perry bullied the Japanese by forcing them into singing a treaty.This treaty impressed the Japanese with the technologies that the Americans used in their everyday life. He used America’s technology because it was advanced and better than those of the Japanese. They sent many ships in order for Japan to open it to trade and for them to "get on the map".The Japanese were very impressed by the technology of the American steam ships. On March 31, 1854 a treaty was signed between the Americans and Japanese; that opened two ports to the United States to trade with the Japanese. Japan is an archipelago which means that it is made up of many different little islands.

Japan had been in isolated from the rest of the world for so many years that their army and technology was very weak and if they got attacked for their land they would lose it. The Meiji Era had a great effect on Japanese economy. A new emperor came in charge called Meiji. He wanted to bring back the divine right to rule instead of an actual government. The Meiji Restoration was to turn Japan into a modern country. The Meiji period ended, with the death of their emperor in 1912, by this year the Japanese economy became better because of there trading with the United States. They were able to have more contact with the outside world; "putting them on the map," which got them modernized because it seemed as if they were living in a completely different generation. They were able to modernize because they established a government, and different methods of transportation as well as methods of communication.

Karl Marx and Communism

Karl Marx's ideas influenced so many people that they started calling it communism. Communism is when everyone is created equal in every aspect; including someones paycheck. The government at this point controlled all its people. He wanted a revolution to begin so the workers would have better rights. He believed that since there were more workers that they could gain control of the landowners and the government. In Marx's communism idea he had to different social classes the proletariat's (workers) and the bourgeoisie (landowners).

Karl Marx wanted communism to take over the world because he wanted everyone to enjoy this form of life, in complete equality. He thought that the good people were the "poor" because they worked hard to achieve everything they had. The bad people in his view were the "rich" because they pretty much abused the factory workers for their own wealth. He hated the fact of how badly the proletariat class was treated which were the workers. His idea of communism was for society to produce only what they needed. He wanted no one to have private ownership on their property, which meant that everything they had was the government's not theirs.

Karl Marx and The Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx was a German philosopher as well as many other things; who completely disagreed with the Industrial Revolution. His many ideas against the Industrial Revolution influenced and impacted many people in Europe, and all around the world. He believed that workers should have the power and rights in factories instead of the factory owners. He also thought that the people had enough power to take over the government. Since his ideas influenced so many people began to call it communism. To some communism was a solution to all their problems.

Many people in this time including Karl Marx thought that the rich were getting richer and the poor poorer. In this time now there were several different social classes. These classes were called the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The proletariat's were the workers, and the bourgeoisie were the landowners; who owned most of the factories. Since there were more workers than there are landowners, that "the workers of the world should unite!" Many followed through with his ideas even though he died in 1883, it influenced the following generations to unite.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism is the belief of that one's greatest loyalty should not be to a king or to an empire but to a nation of people who share common culture and history. Nationalism is having pride and loyalty to your country. Religion, language, history, culture, money and territory all contribute to nationalism. The biggest cause for nationalism in the world is because of the French Revolution. Before the French Revolution the people that lived in France didn't consider themselves French, all they knew is that they spoke the language and that they paid taxes to their government.

I am nationalistic to the United States because I celebrate the 4Th of July, I speak the common language of the country, and use the dollar to pay for things. But I am also nationalistic to Colombia because my parents are from there which makes me Colombian as well. I celebrate Colombia's independence on July 20Th with my family, I also speak the common language and i use their currency when I go there. You are nationalistic because you pay taxes to this country to help the government have a strong country.

Nationalism was used to create the Nation of Italy. Italy was one of the countries to form empires. Before Italy became a nationalistic country, it was very separated. Each region had its own ruler or king. Italians were tired of being ruled by foreign rulers; Giuseppe Mazzini was a ruler who supported nation-states. He believed that having nation-states was the best hope for democracy and in the countries of Europe. His main goal was to unite Italy, because it wasn't united because of they multiple empires throughout the country. However many wars broke out because of disagreements between Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini; who was an idealist. Piedmont-Sardinia was the largest and most powerful state in Italy. Camillo Di Cavour worked very hard in order to expand Piedmont-Sardinia's power. He not only achieved his goal but he united Italy. Now Italy was finally united with the help of these two people.

Simon Bolivar and the Latin American Revolutions

The way I look at it Simon Bolivar made his parents proud. Even though his parents died before he was a teenager, if his parents were alive during all of the revolutions that toke place in South America, they would be proud. Simon Bolivar was born on July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela. When his parents died they left him a fortune, which he used in the best way he could. As a young man he traveled to Europe to finish his education. When he was nineteen he married a beautiful young lady from Spain. When Simon and his wife went back to Simon's country (Venezuela), his wife died of yellow fever just after a year of living in Venezuela.

Now Simon Bolivar was back in South America, he wanted to help the south American countries gain their independence from Spain. In 1810 he tried to get the independence of Venezuela but was not successful, but he tried and tried until it happened in 1813 and gained control of Venezuela. Then in December of 1819, Simon announced the establishment of The Republic of Colombia. He made himself the leader of this great country but he wasn't a good leader. Next he freed Ecuador from the Spanish with multiple battles. He then moved into becoming the dictator of Peru, since that didn't work he became the president. His presidency didn't last long because Peru broke up into two different countries; Peru and Bolivia.

Before Simon even knew he fought against the Spanish to gain independence for most of South America's countries. He had a country named after him; Bolivia. But most importantly he was heavily influenced by The French and American Revolutions. The constitutions that were made for the countries in South America, are very similar to those of France and The United States. Due to all his accomplishments he is know as "Simon Bolivar: El Libertador" or some people referred to him as "The George Washington of South America." He deserves both of these labels for everything he did. His accomplishments of freeing six countries from Spain, giving them their independence, made him one of the most important political leaders in history. Simon Bolivar died on the island of Santa Marta, Colombia on December 17, 1830 of tuberculosis.