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"

     The film, "Mountains of the Moon," was a great movie and I can see now how the Europeans traveled in Africa finding the Nile River. As the Europeans explored Africa, some of the hardships they faced there were when robbers robbed most of the explorers supplies and food. Europeans were short on supplies and food. Rare animals like lions would get in their way, bugs like mosquitos at night, they met tribes on the way and had to give presents to them to stay or pass in the tribes' land or turf. Also the Europeans were ambushed from a bad tribe because they didn't like them and wanted to take any valuables they had especially gold. 

     It's strange that the Europeans named the Nile River,"Lake Victoria," after a British Queen because after they found the Nile River they wanted to name it after their British Queen in honor of her. Along the expeditions of the Europeans, the primary technological advantage they had over African people were weapons like guns. The guns they had were hand guns and shotguns. The African people didn't have any weapons like what the Europeans had, instead they had spears but it wasn't effective.  

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

     Matthew Perry  bullied the Japanese into signing a trade treaty through a display of military might. To impress the Japanese, Perry amazed them by ships with no sails. When Perry came to the ports he intimidated the Japanese with their high technology. 

     Japanese's economy has changed during the Meiji Era by a production of labor intensive goods, handicrafts, and a lower quality of machine from the absence of the Industrial Revolution. The Japanese modernized and industrialized by having two ports after a treaty was signed and trading helped them to get what they needed. Archipelago means a chain of islands. Japan is an archipelago because they had many small islands.  

Karl Marx and Communism

     Karl Marx's idea of Communism was to have workers share wealth in a communist society. He didn't like that landlords and factory owners were being in control and making a lot of money for themselves. Communism is a system of social organization in which all property is vested in the community and each person contributes and receives according to his or her ability and needs. 

     Karl Marx wanted Communism to take over the world because he didn't like that peoples' jobs were unfair and the worker were getting paid less. He saw the conditions of workers' jobs. He saw that since the workers work so hard with less money, he saw them as the good guys and he saw the landlords and factory owners as the bad guys because the way they treated the people that works really hard and they were being greedy making more money.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

When the Industrial Revolution came around, Karl Marx felt that the treatment of the workers were harsh and unsafe. He didn't like it. He was arguing about thatworkers should be in control of factories and farms rather than landlords. He wanted workers to unite in a "worldwide revolution." The Industrial Revolution inspired Marx to invent Communism because workers would share wealth in a communist society.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism is the belief that one's greatest loyalty should not be to a king or an empire but to a nation of people who share a common culture and and history. I'm nationalistic because in the United States we have a holiday called the American Independence which is on July 4th. I watch the television and and see the fireworks go up in the air. I speak the language English, watch the Olympics and cheer on the American Olympic team. I'm such a nationalistic, you can see I'm an American and I show pride.
Nationalism was used to create the nation of Italy because it was one of the countries to form from the territory of crumbling empires. Austria ruled the Italian provinces of Venetia and Lombardy in the north and several small states after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Before Italy became it's on country it was a nation state. Italy wasn't a country until they fought, got freedom, and became Italy.
The country is called Italy because a ruler named Giuseppe Mazzini that supported the nation states. When this man helped people and other nation states, they got seperated. Italy got it's name, started to make it's own food, culture, and it's own tradition.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolution

     Simon Bolivar was born on July 24, 1783. After his parents died when he was young, his uncle don Carlos Palacios was taking care of him. Simon Bolivar's uncle brought to Spain to continue his education. When he grew up he became general. He accomplished a lot of independence for winning his victories and becoming a "Liberator" which were Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. In 1804 he married Maria Teresa Rodriguez. 

     Bolivar is famous because is was one of the greatest leaders of the Spanish American Independence. He was also famous for his victories. The country Bolivia was named after him because of the influence he brought to South America. He helped General Jose de San Martin to defeat the Latin American Revolution and fight for freedom and independence for South America. In his quest for revolution, he was influenced by the people of South America. On December 17, 1830, he died suffering from tuberculoses.     

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

"The Reign of Terror" was a period of violence that happened fifteen months after the French Revolution. Maximilien Robespierre was one of the twelve members of "The Reign of Terror." The twelve members including Max Robespierre wanted to raise new armies, eliminate counterrevolutionary elements and supply food for the armies and and the cities.

"The Reign of Terror" happened because the people in France didn't get what they wanted. So, Robespierre, his members, and the army were still fighting for rights and a new government. They went against the King and the clergy. The nobles and the clergy were losing power. From the Reighn of Terror, 16,ooo to 40,ooo people were killed. Since the people of France didn't listen to the nobles or clergy, the nobles and clergy were taking action to use the guillotine for those people going against them.

The people of France were scared that a lot of people were getting killed. They fought against the Robespierre and the army he put together. The people took a lot of courage and didn't fear no more. At the end for The Reign of Terror, the people of France finally took control and cut Max Robespierre's head off.

The French Revolution

1. Many people in France were critical of the clergy and the nobility because they had privileges that the third estate could not. The clergy, nobility, and the king were the richest. The clergy and the nobility did not have to pay taxes and they were also the only members in society who could not hold positions of importance such as officers in the army. 

2. A French peasant might have grumbled about in 1789 is the high taxes, the food prices got high, they were forced to do military service, they could not hunt or fish on nobles' estates, and peasants had to use the lord's mill,  oven and wine press, and pay for them.

3.  Looking at Source A, the point I think the cartoonist was making was that the peasants hope for a better change than having to serve the upper classes. They don't want to be on the feet of the feudal lords and the clergy. The cartoonist is trying to say that the peasants want to be doing things they thing is better for everyone.

4. The author of Source B describes the lives of French peasants by how the taxes were killing the peasants and being more poor by not having to give what the taxes want. Even though the peasants complain, they have to find a way to pay their taxes by giving away their animals and other foods.

5. By studying Sources A, B, and C, these sources does explain why poor people in France resented the rich because they didn't like how each estate had their own thing especially when the first and second estate were rich and the third estate were poor and paid higher taxes.

6. The person that would be most influenced by his words is John Locke, because they both agree with each other that people should be equal. People should be treated by rights and not by being on the knees of the powerful people.

7. The pamphlet in Source D was banned in 1775 because the top estates like the king, clergy, and the nobility didn't want people to know. They were afraid that the people would go against them and they would lose their power.

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

     John Locke is the most famous person out of all the Enlightenment thinkers. The ideas of John Locke influenced Thomas Jefferson which helped him write the Constitution. In the second paragraph of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson is talking about that we should all be equal. If the form of government becomes powerful, the people have the right to abolish it. The people want a government that's good and organized so that it would be safe and secure. The government comes  from a powerful group that they organized themselves to control the people by their laws. The government's powers didn't come from the people but they kept it from themselves and chose a government without the peoples votes. John Locke did a good thing writing about these ideas and helping the people with the Declaration of Independence.

Copernicus and the Trial of Galileo

The two theories of the Solar System are helicentrism and geocentrism theories. The heliocentric, "is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System." Heliocentrism opposes the geocentric theory. The geocentric theory is that the Earth is at the middle of the Solar System. In the 16th century, a Polish mathmetician and astronomer named Copernicus presenting that the heliocentric theory is correct and even modeling the heliocentric. Copernicus defended Galileo that the Sun was the at the Center of the Solar System.
The theory that came first in the Scientific Revolution was the geocentric theory that was made by Copernicus. Scientific observers were surprised that their conlusions did not match up to the real truth about the world around them. Later in the 17th century, there was progress with the subject of algebra, trigonometry, and geometry that these subjects linked to the numeric values of, "Rene Descartes."
The trial of Galileo is that people didn't believe in his theory. After hearing that Galileo believed that the Sun was at the center of the Solar System, the Catholic Church put him on trial for not believing that the Earth was at the center. The Church examined his observations and models and compare it with the bible of the old and new testament. The Church wanted him to be in pain and death for his ideas in the doctrine and scriptures.

The Scientific Revolution

     In the 1500s people thought that the planets revolved around the earth. It is actually that all the planets revolves around the earth, so that means that the sun is at the center of the universe. A scientist named Galileo tested Aristoltle theory and he was wrong that bigger objects fall down faster than smaller objects. Galileo proved that bigger objects and smaller objects fall down at the same speed. They called this part of science the scientific method.

     The scientific method, " is the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate representation of the world. The scientific method has four steps that explains how to do an experiment. The first step is to do observations, the second step is to form a hypothesis to be ruled out, also the third step that uses the hypothesis and predicts what would happen next. The last fourth step performs the experiments.

Evolution vs. Creationism

Evolution is a theory by Darwin. This theory of evolution is said that species were descended from ancestors. It is creatures that are genetically mutated by a process called "natural selection." "Natural selection" is advantages that make species compete in the wild. This changes animal population to breed. The theory of evolution is in the subject of molecular biology.
Creationism is a religious belief that all life, humanism, Earth, and the universe were created by a deity. Creationism's evidence was found in the Genesis. The Genesis rejects the theory of evolution. Creation is supported by religious people that believes deity. In the 1960s evolution was ommitted fro school textbooks. It's believed that the origin of the universe and all life was by creation.
I believe in creationism because I'm a Catholic and I believe in God. I believe that all life, Earth, and the universe was created by deity. I don't believe in evolution because it's just a theory and most theories aren't correct. Evolution shows many evidence but I'm going to stick with creation because it has evidence that shows that it is more right than evolution.

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