Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

Totalitaranism is when one person has total control of his citizens. He has control of every aspect of their lives such as what jobs they get, how many childern they can have and the food they eat. You also have control of the media and have secret police everywhere to do what you want. Stalin used totalitaranism to control everybody. Stalin wanted to make sure that everywhere knew who he was and obey only him. In order to do this, he had to take control of the media and had assigned secret police to arrest anyone suspected of treason. The Five Year Plans was when Stalin wanted to industralize the country. He tried to catch up to what he said was"50-100 years" behind on technology. He took control of the farms and sent farmers to concentration camps. The Great Purge is when Joesph Stalin believed that his supporters were trying to kill him. He systemically killed his supporters and commanders of the army. It is believed that he killed about half of the Communist Party.

Film Lesson: Doctor Zhivago

Doctor Zhivago depicted the revolution because the Russian people were beginning to get dragged into a war with Germany that they were sure to lose. The Russian people wanted a change because the Czar was treating them unfairly. The Revolution also had some outside help. When Russia lost the battle between the Japanese, the Russian people lost faith. When they backed out of WWI , they gave up chunks of land to their allies and Germany. The revolution also happened because the Russian people went to the Czars house,they were all killed. The film depicted communism because of Lenin and his brother that was part of the red army. Dr. Zhivago got a taste of communism when he returned home because he had his house being shared and his things being given away.

Causes of WW1

Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian was in Sarajevo when a Serbian student shot him. This sent all of Europe into war. When Austria-Hungarian found out, they were angry. They invaded Saravejo and sent them a list of demands. If they didn't follow what was there, they would be in war. Russia had a alliance with Saravejo but backed down when they found out that Germany has a alliance with Austria-Hungary. The goverment of Saravejo wanted to change some demands but Austria wasn't going to do that so they declared war on Saravejo. This sent a ripple effect. Austria also declared war on Russia and France and in turn Germany did also. Another cause of the war is when Germany tried to compete with the British in making naval ships, that only intestified the feelings to each other. Another reason is many of the countries sent their troops to the front lines just in case but many took that as the war beginning and sent whatever they had to the front also.

The Opium Wars

The reason there was a opium wars was that the British needed something to trade with the Chinese because they didn't need anything from the British but the British needed things from the Chinese like tea and silver. When the British found out that they could sell opium, they sold it by the pounds of it. They sold chests of it which each weighed about 150 pounds. When the Chinese found out what is happening, they confiscated the chests and burned them but that didn't stop the British.To make sure that the drugs made it to the consumer, they sent warships. The Chinese was angry and started a war. They lost swiftly due to the fact that they weren't as technogically advanced as the British. The Chinese made a treaty with them that gave them Hong Kong and opened new ports for them. Other nations took the time to take advantage of the defeat of China and gained prots as well.

The White Man's Burden

The white mans burden is what you get from a master to a slave. A burden could easily be washing their feet or getting them something to eat. It is just something that they are ordered to do. What believe what the poem means is that the white men are taking everything that was once theirs and turning it into their own amusement. They take everything and use any which way so that they might be able to get something from it. Yes. America is still imperialistic. The evidence for this is the war that we are in now. We have defeated them but now we want to change their style of goverment to suit us. Even though we are imperialistic, we are not living the white man's burden. What that meant is to enslave them and make them do our dirty work and change their religon.

The Scramble For Africa

The term "The Scramble for Africa" means that all the major powers that were above Africa planned to invade and conquer parts of Africa but also had to compete with each other. The nations involved in this "Scramble" were: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Great Britian, Holland, Belgium and France. These nations were looking to spread their beliefs and thought since each were the superior race that they should teach the Africans manners. It was also a competion between themselves and the other nations. They were able to dominate Africa easily because they had better technology and since Africa was already divided into tribes, they didn't want to unite to take care of the nations. This scramble affected the people because millions died doing work for them and many people were relocated to different parts of Africa. Even today, Africa is still divided into the parts that the nations conquered.

Film Lesson:"Mountains of the Moon"

Some hardships that the Europeans faced in Africa were those of the tribes that never saw white people before them. Another hardship was that they had to deal with dieases and insects. They also had to walk through the African land and desert. It is strange that the source of the nile river is named after a British queen becaused none of the english people have ever lived there and yet the Africans still kept the name. The primary technological advancement that the britians have ever had was of the guns that they had. The europeans took over Africa easily because of the guns and the turmoil of the African tribes.