Opium Wars- Imperialism in China

The Opium War took place during 1939- 1942. During the Opium War Britain had wanted to have many of China's resources. Especially their tea. Tea became very popular for trade in Europe. Britain had then started to trade opium to China for their resources. Opium was first used for medical purposes and then later made as a drug. Opium is a very addictive drug and Britain knew that. It became very dangerous in China. China wanted Britain to stop selling them Opium. Opium became illegal, but was still being sold to them. The Opium War then started when the Chinese had tried to make the trade stop between them and Britain. Britain refused to back down. Britain was far more advanced in their military then China and succeeded in defeating them. They signed a peace treaty that said China will allow Britain to use five ports, lost control of Hong Kong, and was forced to make Opium legal.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

The film Mountains of the Moon was made in 1990 and had shown Richard Burton's and John Speke's journey into Africa to find the source of the Nile. Some the hardships that Europeans faced as they explored Africa were Malaria, which they got from mosquitoes, and the African tribes that would kill them because they were on their territory. To protect themselves from diseases they slept with bug nets and tried to find cures so that they can be able to explore Africa without getting sick. The source of Nile is Lake Victoria. It was named after a British Queen. It is strange that the lake was named after her because even though it's in Africa it was not named by Africans. It shows that Great Britain had more power back then. The primary technological advantage that Europeans had over African people were their weapons. Europeans had guns while Africans had spears. This made it easier for Europeans to conquer them. Guns can people faster than spears. They later made machine guns which made them kill Africans even faster and easier than ever before.

Imperialism Project

We did an the imperialism project so that we can learn how European countries had spread their influence and had made colonies in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. We saw how some of the big power houses of Europe were able to conquer many countries and spread their rule all over. In the project I learned that Great Britain had attained the most land out of the rest of the countries. Spain and Portugal had attained land in South America. Other countries had followed suit and had attained countries in other continents.

Karl Marx and Communism

Karl Marx's idea of communism was that the workers would get the same amount of money as everyone else who had the same abilities. He had wrote a book with Friedrich Engels. The book was called "The Communist Manifesto". In it he had described his ideas of Communism. He believed that all the workers should unite and that they should control where they worked instead of the current owners. He believed that eventually the workers would have a revolution and that would be bad for the government. Communism is when everyone gets the same amount of power and wealth, no matter who you were. In communism the government controls everything. Marx had wanted communism to take over the world because he wanted everyone to have the same things so it would be fair and not a certain amount of people to get more power and wealth than anyone else. Marx saw the Proletariat as the "good guys". They were the working class. He saw the bourgeoisie as the "bad guys". They were the ones who controlled production.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx had not liked the Industrial Revolution. He thought that the workers in the factories were treated unfairly. He thought that their working conditions were not good and very dangerous. The Industrial Revolution had inspired Marx to invent communism by him thinking that everyone should be treated fairly. He believed that the workers should control the factories instead of the owners. He wanted everyone to get the same amount of money depending on the work they did and the abilities they had.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism is when people fight for, root for, or basically love their country. Also to show support to people who share the same culture and history. I show that I am nationalistic by having the American flag at home. I also root for America in the Olympics and some other teams that belong to America. I enjoy past times that most Americans enjoy. I use the money that comes from and can only be used in America.

Italy was created by many people hearing about the idea of Nationalism. Nationalists wanted a united country to be independent and be free from foreigners' control. Italy was controlled by different kingdoms. Giuseppe Mazzini and Camillo di Cavor were the people who had helped Italy unite and become one nation. It became Italy by many people who had the same opinion and who had allies fought in battles until they conquered the country.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

Simon Bolivar was a Venezuelan man, who had led a revolutionary army against Spain and had won Venezuela its independence in 1821. Simon is also known as the liberator of Latin America

He also had won the independence for Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia against Spain. He wanted all the ties between Latin America and Spain to be cut. He thought that it was dumb for them to be controlled by Spain, who was at the time, ruled by a French man (Napoleon's brother). When he had went to Europe, for a time to further his studies, he had learned about people who had new ideas that thought that everyone deserves to be free. It was the Enlightenment. Simon joined the forces of Francisco de Miranda. Even though later on, Miranda had surrendered to Spain, Simon kept going with trying to win Latin America's independence. He had let the countries be free from Spain, which was what he wanted to do all along.

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

On the U.S. Constitution, John Locke was a person who had influenced major ideas behind it and modern democracy. In the second paragraph of the Constitution there was a lot of ideas that originally came from John Locke. The"rights" that Thomas Jefferson is talking about in the U.S. Constitution are that everyone is created equal. Everyone has the right to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Everyone has power and there voice will be heard among the government, no matter who they are and where they come from. The government gets its power from the people. The people get to decide who runs the country. We elect the politicians and vote for who we want in our government.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

One of the theories of the solar system is the geocentric theory. The geocentric model is the theory that the Earth is the center of the universe and that everything orbits it. This theory was used up until the 17th century. This was the first theory. It was part of Greek astronomy and philosophy. Ancient philosophers believed that every orbited and centered the Earth. People had looked at the sky and it looked like the stars, moon, the sun and etc. went in a rotation around the Earth.

Another theory of the solar system is the heliocentric theory. The heliocentric model is the theory that the Sun is the center of the theory and that everything orbits it. This theory came out of the scientific revolution. This is the correct theory and the theory that we still use today.

In 1633 Galileo Galilei was put on trial for believing that the earth was not the center of the universe, but that the sun was. He had published the book Letters on the Solar Spots, stating his beliefs on the universe. The Catholic Church put Galileo on trial because he was going against the Church's beliefs. The Catholic Church had believed in the geocentric theory, while Galileo believed in the heliocentric theory.

Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a way to solve science problems by conducting experiments. Basically the experiments you will conduct is to see if your hypothesis is correct or incorrect. There are certain steps in the scientific method, first you have to the problem, question or theory your trying to prove. Then you find some background research to help you choose what your hypothesis which means you also need a hypothesis. You need to then conduct the experiment that will either prove or find your hypothesis correct or incorrect. This will lead to your conclusion, the conclusion is a statement that says if your correct or incorrect.

An example of a scientific experiment is testing if a certain liquid is an acid, base or if its neutral. So first you would need to know what an acid, base and a neutral liquids are. Then you have to make a hypothesis of what you think the liquid is. Then you would have to conduct the experiment using indicators testing pH levels and see what the liquid is. After that you write your conclusion stating if you got your hypothesis right and what if the liquid is a base, acid or neutral.

Evolution VS Creation

Evolution

Evolution is the theory that everything in the world had a common ancestor and we all evolved from it. Charles Darwin believed that everything was evolved from a small organism. Instead of everything becoming varied over a long period of time, entirely different species were created. Charles Darwin had also believed in "natural selection". He believed that animals would keep the stronger traits that would get passed on in their genes to their offspring. He had believed that evolution would happen over a very long period of time but it would surely happen.

Creation
Creation is the theory that God created the Earth an everything on it. People who believe in creationism are very religious and are strongly against the theory of evolution. The idea of creation came from Genesis 1-2, stating that God had created everything in 7 days.

The theory that I believe in is evolution. I believe in evolution because I believe that everything evolved from something. I believe that animals had passed on stronger traits in their genes to their offspring so that they can survive with their surroundings. I also believe that animals developed certain traits to make life easier for them in their surroundings.