Kevin's History Blog

Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

2008-01-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-10T05:18:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-04T05:33:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-05T05:21:00.000-08:00

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"

2007-12-03T05:35:00.000-08:00

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.

The Meiji Restoration Of Japan

2007-11-27T05:16:00.000-08:00

Matthew Perry didn't as much "bully" the japanese but as much as intimidated the japanese people. When he arrived at the port of japan, they could not believe their eyes.They had saw huge ships traveling without sails and weapons that showed the samurai class to be obsolete. After that display the japanese people had no choice but to accept the terms. The japanese economy changed drastically during the Meiji Period of japan.The emperor didn't like that the outside powers were getting all the power so he set in some laws that changed everything.Since the japanese were cut off from the world for so long, they didn't know how to moderenize so the emperor put in the educational system hoping to raise knowledge and national pride. After this the emperor took ideas from countries that he thought excelled in one aspect:from Germany, he took their military style and goverment polictics, from United States their schools and from Britian they took their naval strength and railroads. Archipelago means when a nation takes over a nation and whatever they do, the superior nation takes control of it.

Karl Marx and Communism

2007-11-13T05:16:00.000-08:00

Communism is ideology that has no classes and everyone is considered the same and equal person. Karl Marx's ideology is that communism isn't something to follow but something to point them in the direction.Karl Marx wanted communism to take over because he thinks that it is only a matter of time before the lower classes have enough and stage a revolt. He uses history as his proof like the Civil War and American Revolution. He also says that the other classes depend on the lower class to much and that will add to their downfall. Karl Marx believed that the people who wanted a different lifestyle for the lower classes were the good people such as Bruno Bauer and Friedrich Engels. The "Bad" people were the goverment who is allowing this to happen and the rich people.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

2007-11-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx was a german philospher whose ideas shaped countries during the 1800's to the 1900's.He lived in England during the Industrial revolution so he was in the middle of it. He was furious that the owners were paying the workers little compared to the profit that they made for the products that the workers made. Karl Marx believed that the workers should control the factories instead of the owners. Karl Marx soon wrote his most famous work called the "Communist Manifesto". In this work he stated that the lower classes will soon take over everything and overthrow the goverment. He called this communism. He also wrote a very famous quote that goes as "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."His ideas for communism nver caught on and he soon died publishing a paper called "The Capital". Karl Marx had planted a seed that would grow into a huge uprising in Europe and become a problem for the United states.

Nationalism and The Creation of Italy

2007-10-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

Nationalism is the belief that a person who shares your history and share your opinons should stand together and protect your belief at all costs. I am natioalistic because I live in America. I listen to the pledge of alligance everyday and use money that we all use. Before Italty was Italy, it was part of an empire called The Austrian empire and part of italy was also controlled by The Spanish Bourbon Family Empire. Itlay came to be joined by an Italian named Camillo di Cavour. He concluded that for him the only way to win was to get the help from the French emperor Napoleon the third. After they got back Northern Italy, Cazour got the help from the Sardinia and France to get everything alse from the two empires.

Simon Bolivar and Latin Americans Revolutions

2007-10-15T05:12:00.000-07:00

He is famous for the battles that he fought in South America that also came to be known as Bolivar's War. Bolivar fought for the freedom in South America for countries such as Venezula, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Bolivia. His tactics used in battle using guerilla warfare would be brutal but effective. The reason there is a country is named after him is because that country was grateful for him to free them. His conquest to free the countries was a hard due to the country that had taken over South America who was: Spain. He followed Napoleon where he went.

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

2007-09-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

The Reign of terror was a period in France when everything fell apart. There was no order or laws in place that helped the community. People were being accused of keeping the food to themselves and helping out the enemies. All some one had to do is point a finger and say the crime and they were in proson awaiting execution. Max Robespierre was a important influence in the Reign of Terror. He was the type of person to make a bloody fight even more dangerous by giving the people what they wanted and in this case: Death. The Reign of Terror happened because the peasants and all the people of France were afraid of enemies from the inside and the outside. The executions were carried out by the guillotine which is basically a huge knife at the top meant to chop people's head off.

The French Revolution: The Social Causes

2007-09-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

The three estates were the First estate (clergy), second estate (The nobility) and finally the third estate (middle class and peasants). The clergy and the nobility only occupied a small part of France but the peasants occupied maybe more than 95% of France. The third estate even though it is bigger, was getting a bad treatment. The voting system was one vote per estate. When ever something favored the Clergy or nobility and not the middle class, the clergy always doubled team the middle class.Enlightment thinkers influenced the french Revolution by makinng its force stronger with words. The event that tiggered the French Revolution was when the middle class took over a Bastille which is a prison and ammunitions hideout. Also the peasants also in the country went and killed the people that lived in the manors.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2007-09-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

In ancient greece people believed that the earth was the center of the universe and all the planets revolved around the earth. This theory was called the geocentric theory. Many greek philosophers and famous ones too such as Aristole believed that the earth is the center of the universe. Aristole made a model showing the earth in the middle from Eudoxus's Model and called The Aristotellian system. he connected 56 spheres to earth to show one for each planet.The geocentric theory came first.
Heliocentricism is the complete opposite of geocentric theory. This theory states that the planets and the earth revolved around the sun.The founders of this statement were Copernicus.People in those days didn't like being wrong and wanted to shutCopernicus up so they said that heliocentrism is aganist every religon in europe. Galileo took up Copernicus's work after he died and because of this he was put on trial. Galileo was then forced to reject the teachings of Copernicus and was exiled from the church for the rest of his life.

Scientific Revolution:Scientific Method

2007-09-10T05:21:00.000-07:00

Scientific Method is a way that scientists in the 1500's used to prove theory's wrong or right.The scientific method aims to prove something over 4 steps:1.Pick a problem 2.Come up with a theory or hypothesis 3.Test out your hypothesis 4.Record your results and change your hypothesis to suit the results. Scientific method is also used to take away one's perspective from a object by putting it through a series of test. Scientific method is used to disprove something more than prove somthing. An example of scientific method used to disprove something would be Aistotle theory of the earth being the center of the universe.

Evolution Vs. Creation

2007-09-06T05:16:00.000-07:00

Evolution is when complex organisms evolve from simple organisms. Many don't make because of natural selection. Nartural selection is when a certain group have a advantage over everybody else. The natural selection then went from the parents to the offspring and the traits were even stronger in the offspring. Darwin explained that natural selection had 5 important componets to it. If one componet was to be missing , everything would be broken down.
Creation is the opposing theory to evolution .Evolution agrues that it evolved from simple organisms and creation is that god created them the way they are. Christians and Mulisms all believe that god created them the way they are.Evolution was outlawed in the 1930's in schools and creationism took its place.Creationism teaches us that God made Adam and Eve. From those two we were created and in turn we are all related somehow and in that lies the flaw.

Test

2007-09-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

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