Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a type of government that has total control on it's citizens and does not tolerate parties of differing opinions. Totalitarianism is very similiar to dictatorship and the only difference is thaat in a dictatorship there is only one person who is incharge. But in Totalitarianism there is a group if people who are incharge. Totalitarnism was meant to be very much like democarcy but is not even close to democracy people are not allowed to vote and elect their leader but in totalitarianism people are not allowed to vote and choose their leader.

Film Lesson: Doctor Zhivago

The film Doctor Zhivago Is a film about the russian revolution and the destruction of Czar Nicholas II and how the Soviet Union was Formed. The movie was about love and war at the same time. When Doctor Zhivago goes to war to help treat hurt soliders he meets a very beautiful nurse and he falls in love with her. But he also had a family back home which he loved dearly.

After when doctor Zhivago came back to his house where his family lived saw how communism had takken over Russia and his house was filled with poor people. And this was a perfect example of communism because it shows how all people are being treated equally and the rich were no longer the ones with all the big houses but the shared with the poor people.

The reason that the Russian revolution heappend was because of the unfair treatment of the lower class people in russia. They had to face "overcrowded housing with often deplorable sanitary conditions". They complaint that they had to work long hours. The often had to face risk of injury and/or death at work sites because of poor saftety and sanitary conditions.

Causes Of WWI

World war I also known as the Great War started in 1914. WW I primarily took place in Europe. WW I was a fight or war between two groups of nations. France, Russia, Great Britain, later Italy and then The United States called The Entente Powers, which were led. The second power was called the Central Powers and was led by Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, and The Ottoman Empire.

Prior to WW I there was a lot of tension in Europe. Nations were building up their armies and having a kind of arms race. There was a delicate balance of power in Europe, and this balance of power failed when Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated in 1914. This was really the spark that started the war. A Serbian shot Ferdinand, who was Austrian. So Austria declared war on Serbia - but Serbia was allied with Russia, so Russia declared war on Austria. Then everyone began declaring war on everyone else and WW I began.

Another main reason that WW I started was because of Nationalism. Nationalism is when a part of an old country wants to be independent and make themselves different with a unique or similar culture, language, etc, Through nationalism came two very powerful countries, Italy and Germany, which had a major roll in the war. Some European countries were kind of new - so they were still proving themselves and flexing their muscles.

Another main reason for WW I was imperialism. Imperialism is the practice of one country extending its control over the territory, political system, or economic life of another country. And this created rivalries between European nations. The 3 nations that had increased rivalry between them due to Imperialism were Great Britain, Germany, and France. They all competed for land in Africa, and eventually they became each other's rivals and enemies.

These are just some of the causes of WW I. WW I turned out to be a devastating war. WW I was really the first war that featured modern weapons like tanks, bombs, missiles, and machine guns. Many nations lost hundreds of thousands or even millions of its young men. Cities were completely destroyed by bombs. People thought that it was the war to end all wars. But as we now know - peace did not last long and WW II began.

The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars was a war between China and Britan. This war was due to the Opium which is a drug that British got from India and Sold it to China. The war started when the Chinese Emperor asked the british to stop selling opium because the chinese got very addicted to this drug and this drug was causing a lot of problems for China economically, and politically. The chinese goverment got very tired of this drug and when Britan didn't stop selling Opium the chinese got angry and started a war.
The war was won by Britan. At the time of the China didn't have the power to match with Britan. The War was fought at Sea and at the time Britan had the best ships in the world at the time and the chinese didn't. Britan had guns and cannons on their ships and the chinese didn't. The British ships were steamed powered and the Chinese had old ships which were no match for Britan. The war was a insulting for China and the Britan won very eaisly and continued to sell Opium to China.

"The White Man's Burden"

The White Man's burden, a poem by Rudyard Kipling. This poem was wrote during the Spanish American war and when the Americans took over the phillipines. This poem was mostly about the troubles the "white" went through to take over the phillipines. When they actually troubled the phillipines. Americans thought they were the strongest country and the had to teach the other countries how to be like them.

I agree with the poem. I think that the white men that tried to take over the Phillipines went through a lot of troubles. And from what I think Burden means problems. So therefore, I agree with the poem.

I don't think that America is an imperialistic nation anymore. I don't think we are still living the White Man's Bruden.

"The Scramble for Africa"

Some people think that African Imperialisms is the British going into Africa and taking over the land and the African People. But that’s not true European imperialisms are many of the European nations going into Africa and trying to establish their colony there. From what I the scramble of Africa is when many of the European nations went into Africa and broke apart different nations to make their colony and now day’s countries, which were caused by the European nations. So basically I would say the scramble for Africa is the fighting of different European nations for land in Africa.
There were many nations involved with The Scramble of Africa but a few major nations are France, Britain, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Italy. All these nations were looking for land and raw materials in Africa. Land was the major thing these nations were looking for. Britain and France had most of the African land, France had most of the north - eastern African land and Britain had some land North - East, some land South - West, and some was all over Africa. Belgium had the least amount of land in Africa.
All these nations were looking for raw materials for their factories in Britain and land to manufacture more good. European nations were able to so easily dominate Africa because they had many technological advances. The Europeans had automatic guns, cannons, much more destructive weapons and stuff like binoculars and compasses.
This scramble really badly affected the African people. This is because when European countries put borders to make different countries in Africa they would some times put two enemy tribes together or split up two really friendly tribes. This wasn't really good for the people because if tribes in two different countries go to war then much powerful countries like Britain and France might have to go to war also.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

Mountains of the Moon a very interesting movie, this movie is about the time after the Industrial Revolution when Europeans needed more materials for their big factories and more land for more factories. When the Europeans tried to take over Africa. In this movie Europeans were looking for the Source of the Nile River.
The Europeans faced many hardships to takeover Africa. It also took them a while to take over Africa. But at last they were successful. It wasn't very easy for them to win though. It was always a very hard fight for both sides. In the movie they showed how African tribes would sneak into their camp at nighttime and try to kill them and their people. In the move the character of Richard Burten gets attacked by a spear between his mouth. Which was very painful and described the type of hardships that the Europeans had to face. Another character, John Speak was captured by an African tribe and had his legs stabbed and broken. On his second trip to Africa a bug crawled into his ear and he had a very painful time by the way it was described or showed in the movie.
In the movie the lake that they found which is the source of the Nile River is now named after the Queen of England. That is not really that strange. Because when a country discovers something new, which has existed for other people for more than 100 years, is some how there and they decide to name it what ever they want. I guess they wanted it named after their Queen because she was like the main head person of England at that time.
England's technological advances helped a lot in talking over Africa because the Africans had very simple weapons like sharp knives and spears. But England had automatic guns, they had cannons and they had stuff like binoculars from which they could see people and animals from very far. So England’s technological advances were the main reason they were successful at taking over Africa.
England was able to take over Africa so quickly because of the technological advances in weapons and they had more medication to fight diseases that the people got in Africa so England was able to take over Africa really quickly