Marco's History Blog

Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

2008-01-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

Totalitarianism means a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life. Joseph Stalin used totalitarianism to rule the Soviet Union with an iron fist. Stalin took control after the death of Lenin. Stalin controlled everything, he also controlled the media, he choose what the people of the Soviet Union could know.

Film Lesson:Doctor Zhivago

2008-01-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

The film Dr.Zhivago was a very important film that displayed the truth about the troubles during the Russian Revolution. The people of Russia disliked the ideas of Czar's, because the Czar's mistreated the people. In the film, "Dr.Zhivago", Yuri Zhivago came back home and his house was taken away. Once owned and occupied only by him and his family, now its occupied with 10+ families. In communism the government owns everything, so because of the money trouble all the families were placed in the Zhivago house. Once he came back home he noticed, maybe communism wasnt such a good idea.

Causes of WW I

2008-01-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Assassination of the archduke Franz Ferdinad of Austria was a major trigger for WWI also known as The Great War. Archduke Ferdinad was killed by a serbian, after his death Austria declared war on Serbia. There were two powers in the Great War. The Entente powers that included France, Britain, Serbia, Romania, Italy, United Kingdom, and the Russian Empire. The other side was called the central powers that were led by the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and German empires. The main reason that the United states entered the war was because the Germans attacked an American ship, and United states was neutral. The U.S. entered the war however they maintained their distance for the remainder of the war. The Central powers lost, the empires has split up and there were many new countries. That was one of the few positive outcomes of the war. As a result of the war Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Poland, Lithuania, and Czechoslovakia, all gained independence from the German empire.

Militarism also played a part in the war. As the countries gained more weapons, the surrounding countries also tried to get more advanced weapons to stay ahead of the game. For example, the Austro-Hungarian empire was east of France, if France bought 20 tanks from a allied country. Then the Austro-Hungarian empire would get 25 tanks in order to prevent defeat in war with the France. However, With this situation occurring war was inevitable. The competition would continue till one country would declare war on the other, then the bloodbath begins.
Nationalism is when a country wants to become independant. For example, Estonia wanted to become independent from the German empire, so the Estonians can be considered nationalist. The Estonians spoke a different language then the Germans, this was another reason for the need to make them selves independent from Germany. However Italy was also a nationalistic country and it became very powerful during this time. Theres a possibility Estonia could be as powerful as Italy, only time could tell.

The Opium Wars

2007-12-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

The Opium Wars, was a war between the British and the Chinese because of opium. The chinese emperor wanted the british to stop sending opium into his country because the drug was ruining the country and killing all of the people. However the Birtish did not want to stop sending the drugs because they were getting money. It was called the Opium wars because the reason the countries fought was because of opium. The British won because they were much more advanced then the Chinese. The majority of the fights were fought on sea. The British had ships with canons on the sides. Even when they reached land they were still more advanced then the Chinese. Both countries signed a treaty and the war was over, but the damage was still done. Many of the Chinese people were still addicted to Opium, so the country had alot of repairing to do.

The White Man's Burden

2007-12-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

Burden is a problem. The White Man's Burden is the problem the white men went through. The white men went through many problems on their trip to the Philippines . I agree with the articles because the Europeans went into Philippines and tried to take everything over. They acted as if they already owned the country, they treated the Philippines as if they were less important. The Europeans had the state of mind that they were superior to any type of race that was out there.

The U.S. is still imperialistic because Bush sent out millions of troops out to Iraq in order to take over. The government lies to us and says that the only reason of the invasion is because of the oil, however Bush wanted to take over the land and have all of the raw materials in his control. Even if the poem was written over 100 years ago, it is still very similar to the problem the U.S. is facing right now.

The Scramble for Africa

2007-12-05T07:45:00.000-08:00

The main countries in the scramble for Africa were Europe the British, the French, the Germans, and the Belgiums. They went into Africa in order to look for natural resources. The Europeans took salt, gold, wood, copper, and ivy to Europe to better the nation. They also were very greedy so they wanted to conquer other countries. The British thought they were the first race and they were superior to other countries. Africa wass very easy to conquer because they European nations were more advanced then the Africans. The Europeans used machine guns while the Africans used spears. The scramble affected the Africans because the borders were created which played around with the land of thw Africans. This ruined the amount of land the African tribes controlled.

Film Lesson "Mountains of the Moon"

2007-12-03T07:47:00.000-08:00

Mountains of the Moon was based on the explorations of Richard Francis Burton and Lt. John Hanning Speke. They went to Africa in order to explore the Nile river and to find the source of the river as well. They went for Queen Victoria and the british empire. The first trip to Africa ended up being a mistake because the tribe that owned the land that burton and Speke were resting on, attacked them. Burton received a spear to the face that went through his cheeks. Speke was hit by a spear on both legs. The African tribe killed all of the African workers that were hired by Burton and Speke. Everytime a tribe saw the explorers they stopped and they were scarred because they had never seen a white man before, they touched there face and there hair to see if they were real. The explorers named the source of the Nile, lake Victoria. In honor of the queen. The Europeans had the advantage of having guns, This way they could defend them selves from the Africans that tried to attack them. Europeans easily conquered Africa because they had guns, especially the strength of machine guns. Machine guns were much more effective then the spears that the Afircans used.

The Mejii Restoration of Japan

2007-11-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

Matthew Perry was the U.S. commodore in 1853. He went to Japan in order to have a rest stop for the ships that might go have to go through Japan. Japan at this time was isolated from everyone else because they thought there views on life were much better then tht of any one elses. The Japanese were impressed at the ships that Matthew Perry brought, because they were steam powered ships and they had cannons on the side. The Japanese economy changed after Japan started to become more industrialized. The mass production had changed the way Japanese worked with their money. Japan modernized by having statesmen go to othger countries such as Europe and north america and learn the views of life and how they study. Also they learned about the government. Then the statesmen came back and told the emperor all they saw on their trip. This changed the japanese government because after this thgey took the idea of a constitution and made their own then they began to take over other countries. This way they could prove that they were not a weak country. Japan is a archepelago that means that its a chain of islands. Japan is many islands that form into one country.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

2007-11-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx did not like the industrial revolution. He believed that the workers should overthrow the capitalist system. The workers should change capitalism and change it to communism. This way they would share wealth and own property. Karl Marx joined a small group of radicals. The group named themselves the "Communist League".He was asked to write a manifesto. Marx said that the communist where the ones who best understood the struggle of the workers.

Karl Marx and Communism

2007-11-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

Communism has no class system. This way there would be no rich or poor. In other words no Bourgeoisie and no proletariat. The bourgeoiusie were the job owners and the land owners who made all the money. The proletariat were the working class who were exploited by the bourgeoisie. Communism is a system of political organization. Marx thought that the world should become communist because it was a great way to live, according to Marx. Marx saw the workers as the good guys, they worked constantly and got paid very little it was unfair. The bosses of the places were considered the bad guys because they were treating the workers as scum. They did not pay their workers the money they deserved.

Nationalism and the creation of Italy

2007-10-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Nationalism means a persons pride in their country, or of there culture. The ways people show their love for their countries is displayed all over the place. I could be a nationalist by wearing a jersey from my country, Colombia, of the soccer team. Other people leave flags hanging outside of their windows showing pride in their country. Nationalism destroyed empires, however it also started countries, such as Italy. Giuseppe Mazzini, was a pioneer in the creation of Italy. In 1932, a nationalist group called Young Italy. The group did not allow anyone above the age of 40 to join. During 1848, there were revolts in eight states on the Italian peninsula. The rebellions failed and the rulers of the Italian states sent Mazzini and the nationalist to exile. Mazzini just wanted to get the whole country united, so he went to the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Mazzini spoke to Camillo di Cavour who was named prime minister by the king of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel III. Mazzini did not trust Cavour, Cavour just wanted to control northern Italy. Cavour became ally with Napoleon III from France and together they took control of northern Italy from the Austrians. The Roman city also became property of Italy, and It was known as the United kingdom of Italy.

Simon Bolivar and the Latin American Revoltions

2007-10-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

Simon Bolivar accomplished alot in his time. Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia all won their independence from Spain with the help from Simon Bolivar. Bolivia was name after him. Simon Bolivar was the first president of Great Colombia, the 2nd and 3rd president of Venezuela. Also the 6th president of Peru. Upper Peru was named Bolivia in honor of Simon Bolivar and he wrote the constitution. Bolivar was influenced by the French Revolution because he saw how a group of people revolted against a king who had alot of power over them. He did the same thing with his small group of soldiers fighting for the rights of independence from Spain. Also Napoleon Bonaparte had placed his own brother Joseph Bonaparte as the king of Spain and as the ruler of all the South American colonies ruled by Spain. This angered many of the South Americans because they were being ruled by someone who isn't Spanish.

Robespierre and the Reign of Terror

2007-09-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

The reign of Terror lasted from 1973 to 1794. Just about 18,000 people died because of the guillotine. Max Robespierre had alot to do with the Reign of Terror. No one could call Robespierre anything at all because they would be automatically executed on the guillotine.

French Revolution

2007-09-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

The French revolution lasted about 10 years, during this time King Louis XVI was the king of France. France was very low on money because they had just borrowed money in order to help the united states also revolt against Great Britain. King Louis XVI had a special castle made for him at Versailles in order for him to be away from all the people at Paris, because at this time Paris was very overcrowded. One of the main problems of the French revolution was that the rich people such as the nobles and priests paid very little tax and did not receive any punishment if they did anything wrong.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2007-09-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

Galileo Galilei was born in 1564, from a early age Galileo showed interest in science. At the age of 19 he created the pendulum. After a few years Galileo was known through out Europe as a scientist. While working at the university of Pudua, he showed great interest in the Copernican theory. the Copernican theory was made by Nicholas Copernicus. Copernicus wrote the book "Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs" which stated his idea that the sun was the center of the universe. However the church told everyone that the earth was the center of the universe, and no one had the guts to go against the church because they might be put on trial. That is what happened to Galileo, he was placed on trial for going against the sayings of the church. Galileo was forced to say that the earth was the center of the universe and Nicholas Copernicus was wrong. Galileo has been referred to as "The Father of modern physics".

Scientific Method

2007-09-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

The scientific method is used to answer questions. Many people answer questions by what they see or past experiences. However scientist use the scientific method in order to answer the question scientifically. The scientific method has four steps. They are observation, forming a hypothesis, the use of the hypothesis, and finally the experiment being tested.

Evolution vs. Creation

2007-09-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

The main person behind the thoery of evolution is Charles Darwin. Charles got his theory of evolution from little things he noticed about life. He noticed that species have a great fertility, and the offspring can grow to adulthood. Most people see the argument of Evolution vs. Creation as Religion vs. Science. Both of these theories have their weak points. If humans were created, who created them? Also if we did evolve, what did we evolve from? Just because human DNA matches 92% or so with monkeys does not mean that we did evolve from monkeys. If humans did evolve from monkeys, how come monkeys no longer evolve. Theres no clear view on how humans ended up on planet earth, however everyone has their own theories.

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2007-09-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

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