Friday, December 14, 2007

The Opium Wars


The Opium wars all started when the English wanted to start trade with the Chinese but the Chinese didn't want any of it. The English got there way and started trade with the Chinese by giving out opium to the Chinese people and get them addicted. Then after a period of time the English came back and the Chinese wanted more so they decided to trade tea for the drug. As time went by people that were not addicted stared to despise the English and try to get out of the trade between them. Which started the war and the war wasn't fair. The English were more highly advanced there war ships were steamed powered while the Chinese war ships were still sail boats because of there isolation to the world. The English won easily and went on to what they were doing.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

"The Scramble for Africa"


The scramble for Africa started in 1881. The reason for the big scramble was the vast recources that Africa had. Like rubber, gold, wood, ivry, silver, copper, tin. One of the famous europeans that went to Africa and had succes was Cecil Rhodes. He own 90 percent of the worlds diamonds production. During the African scramble millions of people died and or were in slaved for the europeans doings. When europeans got there their health coudlnt take the vast dieseases Africa had thats my most europeans that went to Africa died or got sick over time.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Film Session: "Mountians of the Moon"


The Europeans had a lot of hard ships being in Africa. They faced disease,enemy tribes,low food and water. The reason the source of the Nile river (Lake Victoria) is named after the British Queen is because when John Speak found it he called it that to show that Europeans discovered it. The Europeans had a big advantage over the African people and that advantage was guns.The African people never seen anything like it before, Africans carried around spears and Shields as there weapons. Then when the machine gun was invented the Europeans went back to Africa and took it over with ease.