The Treaty of Versailles(ended of WWI)

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty to end WWI between Germany and the Allied powers. The Treaty of Versailles affected Germany in alot of ways by paying compensation which was to pay for the war, ten percent of German lands were lost, their overseas colonies were taken away, and 12.5% of Germany's population were separated and were outside the borders of Germany. Germany's economy was ruined and they were getting broke. Many people in Germany lost jobs and supplies of food.
There are 440 articles in the Treaty of Versailles. Some of the rules of the treaty were that article 227 says, "charges former German Emperor, Wilhem II with supreme offence against international morality. He is to be tried as a war criminal." Article 228-230 says that, "many other Germans are war criminals." Another article; Article 231 states that, " the War Guilt Clause lays sole responsibility for the war on Germany, which would be accountable for all the damage done to civilian population of the allies."
I think the treaty was fair because it stopped Germany to gain more control and helped other people to be free and when Germany's land was broken apart, part of the ten percent of it's land became other countries. Historians say and believed that the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of Facism and Adolf Hitler because Germany had lost some its land and were getting poor so lots of Germans believed in Hitler. Hitler wanted get Germany back into power and get back what they've lost. But the Germans didn't know he would wipe out the Jewish people.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal wanted to modernize Turkey to have a nation of, "dignity, equality, and happiness." He modernized and made it more secular in Turkey by having European hats replace the fez, women stopped wearing the veil, citizens took surnames, and made a truly secular system in Turkey that had a majority of Moslem and some Jewish and Christians were free to practice their faith.
Secular is the state of being separated from religion. The changes that Mustafa Kemal made was he had a political revoloution which was Republican because he believed it was the only republic regime which can best represent the wishes of the people. Another change was Reformism which meant that traditional concepts were eliminated and modern concepts were adopted. Other changes were also Nationalism and Statism. Nationalism preserved the independence of the Republic of Turkey. Statism is that the state was to regulate the country's general economic activity.

Film Lesson- "Gandhi"

After watching the movie "Gandhi," Gandhi helped his nation of India gain Independence from Great Britain by protesting without violence using civil disobedience. Some of the things he did was he protested on land tax, eased poverty, helping the woman's rights, and protested on British-imposed salt tax. HIs idea of nonviolence was to require strength and courage in a nonviolence way. It was a strategy for social change that rejects the use of physical violence.
I think that India's Independence was not all about Gandhi. I think it was more about coming together as people and going against the British because it was Indian people's country and they wanted rights. Gandhi wanted the same as for his people and after the Independence, Muslims and Hindus came together. In Great Britain about the time of Indian Independence that may have influenced events was World War II. It influenced World War II because during the war Britain spent a lot of money to provide the army.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution started in 1917 and was also called the Bolshevik Revolution. There were two revolutions called the October Revolution and the February Revolution. The February Revolution was about Czar Nicholas II losing power and the people having riots in the streets. The October Revolution was about a small group of people which were the Bolsheviks that led them and represented themselves as dictators of the proletariat. The Russians had a Russian Revolution because they wanted change the Russia Empire and after WWI broke out Czar collapsed and then there started a revolution.
Some of the major causes of the revolution were that so many soldiers died, starvation, less supplies and on food, and peasants grew rapidly. The Revolution was all about the people wanting a new government and they didn't like Czar since he was leader. People hated him so much when they heard the quote, "Peace, land and bread" by Lenin, they liked the idea of communism. The quote meant that there'll be no more problems and trouble and communism came from the idea of Karl Marx. Russia use to be a communist country, but now it's not a communist country anymore.

Causes of WW1

There were many causes of WW1. Nationalism was one of the primary causes of the war. Nationalism that had made a settlement of peace on the Congress of Vienna was ignored. Countries like Austria-Hungary and the Balkans(from Europe) became a "posed problem" from Nationalism because it conflicted many national groups. There was an alliance system that Bismark made which were Germany, Russia, and Austria Hungary to defeat France.

Another cause of WW1 was militarism. Militarism increased, strengthen, and increased in cooperation to gain more power for the army. Germany was one the countries that had this strategy to gain more control and try to win the war. Germany worked with Austria and Britain worked with the French. Germany and Austria had military agreements and so did the British with France.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was also a cause of WW1. Franz Ferdinand was an archduke of Austria-Hungary. He was assassinated in Sarajevo that declared war on Serbia starting World War 1. Alliances collapsed because of this when Ferdinand was assassinated and made Austria-Hungary mad at Serbia. The alliance system contributed in the war and Austria-Hungary was in war with Serbia.

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.