"The scramble for africa"

The "Scramble for Africa" began in 1881. When Europeans began to expand their influence in Africa. This was called "The scramble for Africa" because the Europeans would claim or take whatever piece of land they wanted. This scramble effected Africa a lot. When the Europeans mixed up the lands they put enemies together and they even split up families. The main european nations involved in the scramble for africa were Spain, Britian, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and Belgium. All of these european nations had a huge technological advance over Afruca. They had weapons,food,medicin;etc. These advantages made it easy for the europeans to eventually conquer africa.

Film Lesson:''Mountains of the Moon''

In the film "Mountains of the Moon" when the Europeans went to Africa they faced many hardships. Such as attacks from the wild animals and even from the African people. Weather also effected the journey to find the Nile river. Many slaves would get sick and even die. This slowed down their search for the source of the Nile. The slaves that the Europeans brought along with them also cause many problems. They would steal products and food that the Europeans needed and run away with it.
It is strange that the Nile river (largest river in Africa) is named after a British queen. This is because the Europeans were the first to every make people aware that the Nile was actual there. There were people in Africa already living there, but in the film, the Europeans were making it known for the rest of the world. So, the Europeans named the river after their queen(Victoria).
The Europeans had a huge advantage over the Africans. They had medicine, guns, and other useful products. The guns were used for protection against lions and even Africans. The medicine also came in handy when someone got sick. All of these advantages made it very easy for the Europeans to conquer Africa.

The Meiji restoration of japan

Mathew Perry "bullied" the Japanese by showing the United States "military might". He dropped an anchor 26 miles off the coast Tokyo and the Japanese were amazed by the movement of the ships with no sails.Mathew Perry arrived with no sails on his ships to prove their technological improvbements. The Japanese were impressed and on March 31,1854 the treaty between Japan and the United States was signed. After the Meiji Restoration Japan became a new formed government and many changes were made. They were no longer a feudal government and the emperor even founded a school of elementary education. Japan is known to be a archipelago. This is a group of many islands in a large body os water.

Karl Marx and Communism

Karl Marx believed in Communism. He believed that wealth should be distributed "to each according to their abilities, according to their needs." Marz also believed that workers would control government. The exact meaning of Communism is when common workers would share wealth in a communist society. Marx wanted communism to take over the whole world so that everyone would be equal in wealth. He also believed that the owners were the "bad guys" and the workers were the "good guys". He said that the owners depended on the workers to hold them up.

Karl Max and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx was a German philosopher that began a movement called the "Communist Manifesto". He believed that there was a scientific reason of how history progressed in the past and would progress in the future. Karl Marx hated the idea of the Industrial Revolution. Marx thought that the workers did all the work, while the owners of the establishments or businesses, took all the credit and made all of the money. He called the owners, the bourgeoisie, and the workers proletariat. He believed that the bourgeoisie would use their wealth to control the government and exploit the proletariat. Because of this Marx decided to invent Communism. Communism is when everyone gets paid the same amount of money equally. This became a problem because people started to be lazy and didnt want to work. The talented people got paid as much as the untalented people. This idea was a failure.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

"Nationalism is the belief that one's greatest loyalty should not be to a king or a empire but but to a nation of people who share a common history or culture." People today are still very nationalistic. Such as my family and many families around the world. I am nationalistic in many ways due to the fact that i share the same nationality, cultural beliefs ,language, history ,religion, and even territory with others. Nationalism was used to create the nation of Italy.In 1815 and 1848,Italians didn't want to live under the foreign rulers no longer. So in 1852 a man named Camillo di Cavour decided to unify the nations or city states of Italy. Cavour achieved his goal and Italy is now a nationalistic country.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

In the nineteenth century a man named Simon Bolivar,also known as "The Liberator",led many military forces of ten thousand soldiers to the nnorthern part of south america to free its citizens from the spanish rule. This action led to theIndependence for Venezuela,Peru,Ecuador,and Bolivia. He joined a man named Francisco de Miranda to beat the spanish. In 1824,Bolivar joined a man named Antonio Jose de Sucre,andformed a army of seven quarters. This army defeated ten thousand Spanish troops. Because of this there was a new formed country,named Bolivia,after Simon Bolivar.Bolivar is famous for his accomplishments and helping others have the oppurtunity to be free. Simon Bolivar was influenced by many things he was seeing around the world. Such as when he traveled to the United States,which had won their independence from Britain. He realized that its was time to get his own countries independence from spain. And he would be the one to do it!!!