The Opium Wars

During the opium wars England, and other European countries wanted to get the Tea from the Chinese. The Chinese did not want to trade with them because they were isolated from the rest of the world.China was a self-sufficient country and the Chinese did not want or need anything from Great Britain or any other foreign countries.When the British couldn't find any other products to trade with China they decide to mix opium with tobbaco to promote opium smoking.The British were sucsesssul, and sold nearly 2 million pound of opium in to China each year.Because of Opium large amount of Chinese population weakened. Almost 10% of Chinese people were smoking opium.When the government discovered the opium trade they set laws and illegalized the sell of opium in terms of smoking. However, it can be used for treatments. The punishment for selling opium would be banishment, or execution. However that did not stop the British from selling the highly addictive drug, because the government addiction were corrupted, and accepted bribes from the British.The war was called the Opium war because the British wanted to keep selling opium to China, but the Chinese didnt want British to keep selling opium because it weakened their population, and more and more people were dieing.Basically the Chinese wanted out, and the British wanted in. The British won the war, and they made the Chinese sign the treaty.

"Mountains of the Moon"

Some of the hardship that the Europeans faced as they explored Africa were from the people in the village that lived there. They never saw white men. They were very surprised and started to touch them, feel their hair, and looked at the clothes that they wore. They never saw anyone wearing clothes like the European explorers wore. Also the African people felt threatened and attacked the Europeans with arrows, and spears. They attack one of the European explorer Richard Burton who got an arrow struck through his mouth. The Africans that the Europeans hired, betrayed the Europeans by stealing there things, and runnig away at night. Its so strange that the third largest lake in the world is named after the British queen, because it should be named by the African people, not the visitors who claims that they "discovered" the lake. There were people already living there, and they should give the lake african name. It was also strange that when they took over Africa, they created borders, and named the countries which is not fair because its not their country. The primary advantage that the Europeans had over the Africans is that they were very advance in technology. They were civilized, they had government, and had nice clothes. The Africans were very far back in technology then Europeans. They hunt for food, lived in tribes, and did not have good clothes. Also the Europeans had gun powder, and guns. These advantages made easy for the Europeans to take over the continent of Africa. While Africans had arrows, and spears, the Europeans had guns, and gun powder. The Europeans wanted to take over Africa because they wanted to get their hands on spices, and all the valubles that they can get in Africa, and not in Europe.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

Matthew Perry "bullied" the Japanese into signing a trade treaty by impressing them with technologies.The Japanese were very impressed with the steam ships that the Matthew Perry had, and realized that they were no way near America in technology. They were amazed by the movement of the ships without sails. It allowed the Japanese and the Americans to sign a treaty that opened up two ports.The Americans scared the Japanese with their military might, because they felt that they were weak after they saw the Americans with new technology.Its almost like as if the Americans forced the Japanese to sign the treaty.The economy change dramatically when Japan started to sign traties with other countries like America, and Europe. They traded and got money, and also the economy went up. Now its almost like they opened up the doors of a room that had been locked for years, and found treasure. Before they were isolated and did not have anything to do besides their people.After the Japanese saw that they were far behind in technology they started to adopt the western ways. They send students to Europe, and American to study the western ways so they can asopt it.After the Meiji Restoration Japan had a highly centralized, bureaucratic government,a highly educated population free of feudal class restrictions, a powerful army and navy, and an established and rapidly growing industrial sector based on the latest technology. Japan is an archeopelago because it is a series of chains of islands.Most of our technology present days come from Japan.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx felt that the Industrial Revolution was unsafe, and very harsh for the factory workers,and childrens.He felt that the workers should own the factories rather then the landlords.He thought that workers of worldwide should unite for revolution.Karl Marx hated the Industrial Revolution because of the unfair and very harsh treatment to the factory workers, and child labor.He felt that it was strictly unfair for rich to get richer and poor to get poorer.He observe what was going on during the revolution, and it inspire him to come up with a new form of government called communism.Under communism no one is rich or poor, everyone shares the same class of living. Everybody is treated equally, no ownership of private property, and everybody is paid the same amount of wage.This form of government was for the workers, rather then the landlords.

Karl Marx and Communism

Communism is the control of goods and services through a government that produces only to serve the people. It is total equality. Communism is abolition of private property, meaning that resources such as minerals, coal, oil, and production (factories, plants, refineries, ) are owned in common by the people.This form of government is for common, and working class, its not for people like Bill Gates, and Donald Trump.Everything in this form of government is equal everyone gets paid same amount of money under communism.Karl Marx wanted communism to be worldwide because Marx hated the Industrial Revolution, he wanted Communism to be world wide, because this way not only the people of England would have what he thought were equal rights, but everyone else world wide would be able to enjoy what he thought was the best way of life. Marx was truly a man, who was for the people, he always thought in the best interest of the people even though it meant putting in place a system which is so controversial as communism is.He was for the people working in factories, and barley surviving with limited amount of money.Karl Marx saw the working people and the factory workersas the "good guys" because in his eyes they were the victims of capitalism, and the rich people like factory owners took adventage of the poor people, so Marx viewed them as the "bad guys".

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism is devotion and loyalty to ones nation.Also shows loves its nation and can do anything for its country.Just like George Washington and what he did for our country.I am nationalistic of two nations, India, and United States Of America.I celebrate 4 of july, and also 14 August which is Indian independence day.I go to parades for both countries.I say the Pledge Of Aliigence at school, and i also have a Indian flag in my room hanging on the wall.

Italy was a part of Austria-Hungary empire, and it was being ruled by them.When other countries in Europe started to declare war for independence, Italy was influenced by them and decided to do the samething to gain independence. They had riots all over Italy and it triggered many other riots.They soon created their own nation and named it Italy, and created their own government, rules, and flag. As you can see Italy used Nationalism to gain independence.

Before Napolean came into power and took over the governmaent there were no definate borderss, but there were only small kingdoms who were ruled by kings. The people of the kingdoms were devoted and loyal to their kings, and nobles, because there was no such thing as countries. So thanks to Napolean who created definate borders of European countries, and afterwards countries started to follow the same idea.

Before Italy became Italy, Italy was part of the Austria-Hungary empire.It was a city-state.It became Italy because the people were heavily impact with the nationalism. They saw what was going around them and decided to do the same thing to gain independece from Austria-Hungary empire.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

Simon Bolivar is a very famous hero in South America,just like how Geroge Washington is for United States.He liberate all the northern South American countries. The country of Bolivia was named after him for fighting against the Spain and succsesfully gained victory from Spain and also because There is a country named after Bolivar because he and some help were the one's to fight for the independence of most of South America.The Spanish were defeated in 1824 and Bolivia got its independence in 1825.However he also freed many other South American countries from Spain, such as Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and VenezuelaHe also became the president of Peru. He was named the "El Liberator".Bolivar was influenced by the Scottish,French and the Greek enlightment.

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

After the revolution everyone expected democarcy, but it turned out to be very opposite. The King, queen, and the nobles lost almost all of the power. The middle class, and the peasants were running the country.But not very long, because a man name Maximilien Robespierre took control over the government.He tried to remove any thing that had to do with the old monarchyHowever after the revolution the changes not only took place in the government but changes in calendar were made also along with the government. The months of the year were renamed, and sundays were removed from it. The revolutionaries thought that the religion is old fashioned. Lot of churches were closed down in Paris.

Robespierre ruled France like a dictator. During his time of rule the time period was called the Reign Of Terror. So many people were executed by the government.No one felt safe during that time, even the people in the government.He killed the King of France Louis XVI. He even killed the queen Marie Antoinette.As mentioned before the people in the government did not fell safe,because they thought that their head would be next to be chopped off.So a conspiracy was planned against Robespierre,he was arrested, and his head was chopped off.After he was executed the Regin of Terror was over, and there was stability in the France government.

The French Revolution

1. They were charging lot of taxes on the peasants. The taxes that they pay goes the king, and the nobles who spend it for their good. All the money goes towards the benefit of the higer class people. The lower and the middle class people just had enough to survive, whatever left over goes to the higher class.
2. They would be grumbling about their unfair treatment that they recieved from the nobles, and the king. They worked all day on the land and whatever amount of limited money they get goes to the nobles, and kings. So they basically worked for the higher class people.
3.The cartoon shows that the peasant is taking the burden of the king, and the noble sitting on his back,also refers to peasants working all day on the land and paying taxes that goes to nobles, and kings for their royalty.
4.The peasant is complaining about all the things that he have to give to the king, plus the tax. He has to give grains, and oats to them also. It is the same idea in today's everyday life. We work and some portion of our earnings goes to the government for the country. The differnce back then was that the money would go to the higher class.
5.They felt that they had no rights over anything, they had to do what the higher class rich people say they had no choice. They felt over powered, and felt like animals who were just born to work all day, and had just limited amounted of food left over for them.
6.The people that would be most influential to his belifs and ideass are the peasants, because he wrote that everyone would get to choose their own leader, had rights in the government, everyone would be treated equally, and everyone had to pay taxes, not only them.
7.The people who banned this were the rich higer class, nobles, and the kings, because if this takes place now they would have to pay tax, they would have to work the land and they would have to plant their own crops.

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

John Locke was one of the famous enlightment thinkers. Thomas Jefferson was heavily influenced by John Locke when he wrote the U.S. constitution. He influenced modern democracy also which is a form of government in many countries. The rights that Jefferson is talking about is that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. According to Declaration of Independence th government obtain its power from people.

In any form of democracy the government gets its power from people. People are the government, and every american citizen has a right to vote, and chose their own leader. If they dont like the leader they can run themselve or choose someone else. This is because when the thirteen colonies were being ruled by the British king they did not have a representation in their government, however, the Americans were forced to pay taxes. The Americans did not want another King like British had, so they wanted their government to opposite of British. In Britain only the king rules, but the americans did not want that so they wanted democracy, so every person can have a representation in the government.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

Heleocentrism is the theory that the sun is at the center of the solar system. Earth is one of the number planets that is orbiting the sun. Nicolas Copernicus stated the theory based on little evidence that he had to support his claims. This theory was not proven by physics, and math beacsue math was not very advanced to prove the theory right or wrong, however in the seventheenth century development of algebra, trigonometry, and physics was gradually advancing.Geocentric opposed the theory of heleocentrism.

Geocentric is the theory that states that the earth is in the middle of the universe, and the objects go around it. The ancient Greeks believe this theory very commonly. Great philosophers like Aristotle, and Ptolemy accepted the theory. Also ancient China believed that the earth was in the middle of the universe. They believed that the sun, other planets, and stars that are visible with naked eyes are surrounding the earth.The Geocentric theory came before the heleocentricsm.

Galileo was trialed because he collided with the Roman Catholic church.Galileo's world of science and humanism collides with the world of Scholasticism and absolutism that held power in the Catholic Church.Gallileo belived in helocentricsm.His belief oppose the Roman catholic church. That was the end of Gallileo, and he was killed.

Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a series of steps that are follow in an experiment to solve a promblem,or to get to a solution. The scientist back then and now used and uses this method for their experiments. The first step in a Scientific Method is the Problem. Problem is the question or the main idea that you are trying to solve. After the Problem comes the hypothesis, hypothesis is an educated guess based on your knowledge of the topic. Sometime at the conclusion of your project your hypothesis can be proven wrong, or it can be correct.


The other steps for the Scientific Method are the Experiment, Data, and the conclusion. The Experiment is the test that you do to see if your hypothesis is correct or incorrect. Within the Experiment there is also one important step that you need is the Data. Data is the information that you take while doing your experiment to have a proof for your experiment. The last and the final step is the conclusion. Conclusion is the result of your experiment.


For example I would want to measure how tall the building i live in is? I would first form a hypothesis based on my knowledge and take an educated guess of how tall my building is. Then i would actually conduct an experiment by masuring the building from top to bottom three times. Then i would write down my data. Finally i would check and see if my hypothesis was correct or incorrect, and see my conclusion.

Evolution vs. Creation

The theory of Darwin's evolution states that life came from non-life. It is also stated that fishes are related to bannanas. He also stated that these changes occur during a long period of time, not just days, months or couple of years, it takes many years to changes to occur. For example they say that humans come from monkeys. We came from changes(evolution) that occured in monkeys. In Darwin's theory it is also stated that the traits that are in humans will be passed on to the offspring.

Majority of the people say that humans came from creations of god. They believe that god ios the creator of the universe, adn he is the one who created us(humans). Religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism believe in god or gods. They all believe that god was the created of everything that is here.

I also believe that everything that is on the universe was created by god. I am also religious, and i believe in god, and that he was the creater of the universe. However i also believe that it is possible that we came from monkeys because it is proven by scientists, but i still believe in god more then any kind of scientists or proof.