Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) is known for being the first President of Turkey. He modernized Turkey in a very short period of time. He made Turkey more secular. Secular are things that are not pertained or connected to religion. He let people believe in the religion they wanted to believe in. He believed in united humanity and equal rights for everyone. He believed that that the country was drastically not modern. He wanted to modernize Turkey to give it a new sense of dignity, equality, and happiness. Ataturk gave women their equal rights in 1926, with the new Civil Code. He wanted the people of Turkey to start wearing European hats and never to wear the fez. He made women stop wearing veils. He wanted all citizens to have surnames. He changed the Islamic calender to the Western kind. Ataturk also decided to change the nation's language, from Arabic to Latin.

Film Lesson: "Gandhi"

During class we watched the movie Gandhi. It was based on the life of Mohandas Gandhi. He was better known as Mahatma in India and for playing a part in the independence of India from Great Britain. He believed in non-violent resistance to get independence. This meant that he wanted the people of India to rebel without violence. He used this by making Great Britain look bad instead of the Indians who were getting hit and not doing anything back. When he saw that Indians were using violence he went on a hunger strike until they stopped. This helped by making Indians not use violence. Gandhi spoke at many gatherings. He told Indians to stop buying Britain's clothes and make their own. He made his clothing by using a spinning wheel several hours a day. He led many marches but the most famous one was the Salt March. Britain was putting taxes on many things including salt. Gandhi led a march from Ahmedabad to Dandi. At the end of the march he made salt.

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.

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.

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.