Creation of the Middle East

Summary - During WWI, the Ottoman Empire which had sided with the Central Powers ruled over vast lands in the Middle East. The Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain and France control over the region which proceeded to carve out nations that make up Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Eventually the Balfour Deceleration would help establish the Jewish state of Israel in Palestine.


Today, there are many events happenning in the Middle East. One major occuring event is the conflict between the Israli and Palestinian people. This problem originates all the way back to before WWI. What began to occur during this time was zionist movment (Jewish nationalism). This form of Jewish nationalism, that continued into the 1920s and 1930s, encouraged the Jews to migrate to Palestine which would in turn make a Jewish-majority state there. Palestinian Arabs then began to demand a state of their own to be established, which was Palestine. Palestine, however, was ruled by the United Kingdom under the Palestine Mandate. The Brish however were being attacked by Zionist independence fighters and in 1948, they left after a 28 year period of rule. Israel then declared its independence but was then attacked by neighboring Arab states. After the victory of Israel, Over 700,000 Arab Palestinians fled the region. Israel continued to take over lands, such as East Jerusalem, the West Bank of the Jordan River, and the Gaza strip. This broke Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which says that the settlement and annexation of territory aquired in military conflict is forbidden. In 1987, a small up-rising against Israeli rule grew into a large conflict in Gaza, Jerusalem. An attampt to avoid tension in Gaza was the construction of the West Bank Wall, which has since been able to stop Palestinian militants from launching attacks against southern Israel. The best diplomatic way to end tension is a new distribution of territories between Israel and Palestine. The conditions would be that Israel would still maintain Jerusalem (their inherited right) and that the distribution would make Israel not spread out and in the middle. The entire territory will be split right down the middle with more security barriers to prevent any further attacks. If this is done, then the attacks would die down. The two peoples will not become bestfrieds (they have only hated eachother for the last century) but they can still avoid war and killing.

Tsarist Russia-A Day in the Life of Peasant

Peasant's in Tsarist Russia were very badly off. They would wake up evry morning in freezing temperatures in their little izbas(huts). This made them save a quater of the room in the hut for a perch, or large stove that was fueled with straw. They would be practically starving from the shortage of food because of the lack of crop production. This was due to the poor, hard, and sometimes swampy soil conditions. They all had to bond together, peasant to peasant and share food from a common bowl just so their bellies would be some what satisfied. This became a sign of friendship and trust, which was a good feeling for these peasants considering they were ruled by a ruthless and selfish tsars. These same tsars heavily taxed these peasants which brought them down into complete poverty. The only thing that kept them pushing on was story telling. This was when peasant families would sit down together and tell eachother stories of how the future would be bright and full. This and the trust they all had in eachother enabled them to persevere through hard times. These people most certainly would support the idea for a Revolution. This is because they were economically in poverty and needed change in order for them to have better lives.

Imperialism

Summary - Though colonial empires dated back hundreds of years, the rapid drive for colonies at the end of the nineteenth century led Europe to gain political control of most of Asia and Africa. From 1880-1914 European nations scrambled to divide among themselves the entire continent of Africa, except Liberia and Ethiopia. Once European nations carved up empires, they quickly set up colonial governments to rule them and systems to make them profitable. European imperialism brought modern inventions and techniques of the Industrial Revolution to the non-European world, but to peoples in Africa and Asia Western expansion represented a profoundly disruptive attack on their society.


The basic goal of imperialism is to dominate other countries politically. economically, and socially. England(and most of Europe), however developed and adopted a new imperialism. This imperialism basically expressed that the dominate country would some into the other nation and show them their superior way of life in exchange for doing just about anything. Like England did to much of Africa; not only did they completely change and threaten Africa's culture, they made many Africans do hard physical labor(diamond mining). The effects of this imperialism was the rebel of many African tribal groups. For example, the Boer war that was fought between the Britsih and Dutch settlers(the boers) on the Zulu nation(the largest South Afican ethnic group during the time). This war was fought because of the British policy of slaves and land. Even though the Boers lost this war, it can be learned from this war that imperialism comes with a group or several groups that will disagree with the motives of the dominate country. Some motives(from Europe) may be the interest of natural resources that the weaker country possesses increasing their production of material goods and profit. Another motive was "For God" for they believed that their almighty culture, which included their religion of Christianity, should be given to the African people. In other words, they wanted to spread Christianity which allowed foreign people of Africa to march in there, settle, and finally claim that territory resulting in the expansion of that nation's territory. This attitude of acting higher than the rest leads into the final motive, that being superiority. Their belief that their culture was superior to all led them(Europe) to believe that their cultural values must be shared with the weaker countries of the world. Imperialism may have had the general idea of a "win-win" situation but had its obvious dissappointments in the system.

Industrial Revolution

Summary - Industrial Revolution, term usually applied to the social and economic changes that mark the transition from a stable agricultural and commercial society to a modern industrial society relying on complex machinery rather than tools.

Blog Question - Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Great Britain?


The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain for mainly one reason. This reason being that they had all the Factors of Production aquired in their country. For instance, they had land containing natural resources(coal, iron, oil) that greatly helped in the fueling of machines and the transportation of goods. They also had the means of labor because of the high amount of farmers that lost their farms and resorted to moving into the city and working in factories of advanced technology(technology being another factor of production). Another obvious need for the start of the Industrial Revolution was money, which Great Britain had plenty of. Also, the demand for these advanced products became greater which resulted in the increase of money. To top all of these necesities, the infrastructure(railroads, roads, etc.) of Great Britain allowed them to ship advanced products many places in return for money. Basically, the Factors of Production, which Great Britain obtained, started the Industrial Revolution which forever changed the world's economic and social outlooks on life.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Summary - Napoleon Bonaparte was a powerful force in Europe from 1799 to 1815. He rose from the ranks of the French army to become the emperor of France. By 1812 he had control of most of Europe. Unfortunately, he met his demise when he attempted to invade Russia. His downfall was almost as swift as his rise to power.


Blog Question - Describe Napoleon’s character and leadership style and discuss how Napoleon has had positive and/or negative effects on Europe using specific expamles and details.

Napoleon's character and leadership style was very bold especially in battle for he won great battles under very large odds. This effected Napoleon in positively because of all the tremendous battles he had won. It negatively effected him from all the enemies he made (Russia, England. etc.) and eventually he started losing critical battles like the entire invasion of Russia where he marched in but the clever strategizing of Alexander defeated him and his army of once 420,000 that marched in fell to only 10,000. Napoleon's boldness and greed for power eventually led to his downfall and defeat. He would even die an exile on the remote island of St. Helena, a hated enemy to most of Europe.

Latin American Revolutions

French Revolution

Summary - The French Revolution is defined as the political upheaval of world importance that began in France in 1789. Inspired by the success of the American Revolution, French citizens overthrew the noble, ruling class and establish a democratic government. The French monarchy under Louis XVI was viewed as oppressive and corrupt and the social structure was rigid, meaning it did not allow for social mobility which eventually forced the people to demand change.


Blog Question - Why was the French Revolution a significant movement in history and would you consider the French Revolution a success?

The French Revolution was a significant movement in history because it changed the entire's countries basis of power because of most people seeing a democracy instead of tyranny as the best way to run a country. This change gave ideas to other countries whose governments were still in question. The Revolution was a success because the French became more equal in social standards and justice became a more prime factor in government.