Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution took place in 1917. During this time the government was changed three times. The Russians had started a revolution because of many reasons. The Czar had led Russia into WWI. This caused Russia to have economic and political problems. There were many food shortages and Russia was spending a lot of money. Russians were scared of the power that the government had. The people were constantly hurt. The Russians wanted to have a revolution to get out of the war and to be free from their cruel ways. The Czar abdicated the throne and was later killed with his family. Their leader was a man named Vladimir Lenin. He was the leader of the Bolsheviks party. Lenin had once been exiled but thanks to the Germans was able to get back into Russia. Lenin and the Bolsheviks party overthrew the government and made Russia into the first Communist country. The quote "Peace, land and bread" means that the Russians wanted to have peace, land and bread. In Feburay 1917 there was a bread shortage in Russia. Bread became more hard to get. The people of Russia had wanted bread, so that is where the quote had came from.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Causes of WW I

World War I took place during 1914-1918. It was first called "The Great War". It involved most of Europe and the United States. There are many causes as to how it started.

One of the causes of World War I was nationalism. The countries involved in WWI were strongly nationalistic. They loved their country and thought that everyone should be like them. As this thought went around, many countries were trying to dominate others. They wanted to spread their countries' ways. This made the countries involved in WWI want to try to dominate each other.

Another cause of World War I was militarism. The countries involved in WWI started expanding their military. They were in constant fear of other countries going to attack them. They believed that other countries were planning attacks on their country. For the fear of getting attacked they made their military bigger and stronger. They started making plans and were always ready to attack.

Another cause of World War I was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Francis Ferdinand was the heir to the Austrian throne. He was killed with his wife in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. He was killed by a Serbian nationalist, who was part of a group called the Black Hand. This officially helped start WWI. Austria-Hungry then seeked vengeance against Serbia for killing the heir to their throne. This lead to Germany backing up Serbia. One by one countries were declaring war on each other.