kenny's blog

Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

2008-01-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

Totalitarianism is when the government or someone has total control over a state, country, and city, ect. Joseph Stalin was a totalitarian. He had total control over Russia. He first was promoted as Secretary General of the Communist party. From there he was against Trotsky for power. He allied himself with Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev. But Stalin now turned against Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev and allied with Nicolai Bukharin in order to get rid of Trotsky. They succeeded, Trotsky got run out of Russia, he was later found found in Mexico were he was murdered. Joseph Stalin had an idea on how to industrialize Russia. Russian was about a hundred years behind other advanced countries. So Stalin decided to put the five-year plan into action. Basically everybody has to work about 2 times harder. In order to catch up with the rest of the countries. The poor and dangerous working conditions caused many deaths. Most of the complexes built for the five-year plan were built by slaves who were sentenced there for crimes they didn’t commit. About 3.7 million people were sentenced for counter-revolutionary crimes. About 6.7 million were put to death, 0.7 were expatriated and 2.7 million were forced to go to camps (which were called the Gulag) the majority of the people sentenced to camp ended up dieing. This just shows the amount of power Totalitarianism gives somebody.

Film Lesson:Dr.Zhivago

2008-01-10T05:45:00.000-08:00

The Russian Revolution begun around 1917, many people of Russia didn’t like their Czar. During the war the soldier’s jus got up out of the drenches and walked home. They met up with the replacing soldiers; all the soldiers including the replacement soldiers killed the military leaders. While all these soldiers, Dr.Zhivago Being one of them were in war The Czar was assassinated, Civil war broke out in Russia and now Moscow was controlled by a communist government. When Dr.Zhivago went home he found at least 15 families living in his mansion. He got home confused not knowing what all those people were doing in his house. In a Communist government everybody has to share everything. Dr.Zhivago’s mansion was good enough for 15 families. So he, his wife and his father in law were living in his bedroom.

Causes of WWI

2008-01-04T05:18:00.000-08:00

World War 1 started on 1914. One of the reasons/causes of WWI was all the countries militaries. Every Country begun to build up there armies. Every year starting from 1880 Europe would spend more and more money on their military. So it was like a competition to see who would build the bigger army. With all of these countries on each others borders with an army , war was bound to happen. Another cause is Imperialism. France took over most of Africa . The British had control over some countries in 5 continents. When Germany decided to gain control on other countries as well, that created more rivalry towards Germany. Now the big and main reason World war 1 had begun was when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated . Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the austro-Hungrian Throne. But on June 28 , 1914 Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo princip. Gavrilo Princip was a Serbian nationalist , sent along with 3 other men to assassinate Franz Ferdinand . Now When This assassination occurred Austro-Hungary was furious. So they declared war on Serbia. Now Most of the European countries had alliances with other countries. So when Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Serbia had an alliance with another country and that country with another and so on.The same with Austro-Hungary.

The Opium Wars

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

The Opium war started when Britain wanted Chinas tea. China was always an isolated country. So china didn’t want to trade with any nation. This made the British pretty furious. So the British decided to make the Chinese drug addicts in order to trade their tea for their opium. (The drug) The British succeeded. The Chinese people were addicted and couldn’t stop taking Opium. No one in China knew how to plant or even find Opium. So their only source was Britain. The British started trading their opium for Chinas tea. The Chinese emperor didn’t approve of this; Opium was destroying their nation. But Britain didn’t choose to stop; they were making a lot of money out of their tea, when they got it for a little price (opium). The Chinese decided that they had to go to war in order to stop these trades. But unfortunately Britain won. Because of Chinas isolation they were behind in technology. But Britain wasn’t. Their steam powered boats, cannons and machine guns were no match for Chinas swords and sailboats.

The White Man's Burden

2007-12-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

The meaning for burden is a chore, duty, job, etc. So basically it’s someone’s responsibility .Now the white man’s burden would mean the white man’s job/responsibility. The poem was written during United States imperialism towards the Philippine islands. So the author Rudyard Kipling was writing about how its Americas job to imperialize other countries like they were doing to the Philippine islands. In my opinion I think that America is still imperialistic. Now America is imperializing Iraq like they were doing to the Philippine islands.

Scramble for Africa

2007-12-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

The Scramble for Africa or also known as the Race for Africa occurred around 1840.
Europe was deciding how to break up Africa so different countries can conquer different parts of Africa. The main countries were Britain, France and Germany. The Main reason for the race for Africa was its resources. Many countries were after Africa’s resources. After the cure for Malaria was found and the machine gun was invented it became very easy for the Europeans to conquer Africa.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

2007-12-05T05:33:00.001-08:00

Richard Burton and John Speke were the main characters in the movie.
They were sent to Africa to discover the source of the nile river. They went and did find it. The lake was named Lake Victoria , After the queen of England. Richard and jhon were also trying conquer Africa, Many men before tried but no one could ever succeed, Due to 2 main reasons. One that the people(Tribes)of Africa would kill them and two that many explorers would die of melaria , a disease caused by misquito bites. But now it was different because the cure for malaria was discovered and machine guns were invented, so they can protect themselves from the African tribes.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

2007-12-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

Mathew Perry was a European explorer. He was sent to other countries, that was his job. He was sent to Japan. Japan is an archipelago; An Archipelago is a group of islands that create a country. By this time the steamboats were invented already. But Mathew Perry intentionally sailed to Japan, So that they wouldn’t know how advanced they are in technology. But his army is what impressed the Japanese; they knew that the Japanese samurai were no match for his army. So Mathew Perry basically forced Japan to sign his treaty. Japans economy was impacted in a negative way. Japan was bankrupt. They would build merchandise with simple tools. They would sell it for a higher price, but the quality would be lower.

Karl Marx and Communism

2007-11-13T05:14:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx started communism, Communism is when the government controls everything there is, a single person who holds all the power of the country. If a country is communist then everyone in that country gets paid the same no matter what the job , no matter what your talent is. During the Industrial Revolution Many workers were taken advantage of. They would work many hours for an extremely low wage. Karl Marx thought this was wrong. He was strongly against the Industrial Revolution. Karl Marx would see a factory as all the workers doing all the work , while the factory owner is getting rich for jus sitting in his office. That is the reason he thought of communism.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

2007-11-09T05:26:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx was a german but he changed Russian History.The factories In Europe were very unsanitary and unsafe.Karl Marx suggested that all the workers should share the money in a communist society.As soon as the industrial Revolution had begun all the people began to depend on their money wages. The Merchants,Bankers and Industrialists had a rise in power.Karl Marx wasn’t a big fan of the Industrial Revolution.He was against it. He saw the negative side of the Industrial Revolution. So he decided to Create a communist society.

Nationalism

2007-10-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Nationalism is someone’s devotion to the interests or culture of ones nation. Basically its saying that nationalism is when someone has a lot of pride for were they come from, weather it be their race, culture, background (country), etc. To be nationalist u don necessarily have to fight for your country or wave a flag. I’m a nationalist by just celebrating certain holidays that only America has. I carry a round money (U.S dollars and coins), I celebrate 4th of July, I have a social security number which only Americans have and I know the pledge of allegiance.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolution

2007-10-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas ,Venezuela on July 24th of 1783.Simon Bolivar Gained the independence of Colombia , Venezuela, Peru , Ecuador and Bolivia.Simon Bolivar is Very Famous in South America Because he devoted his life to Libertating South America of Spanish Rule. He And his Army Fought Spain and France.He also fought some of the countrys in south America. Simon Bolivar Devoted his life to liberating South America.

Evolution VS Creation

2007-09-28T05:17:00.003-07:00

Evolution is a theory just like Creation. Evolution is a theory created by Charles Darwin. He believed that people and all the animals are an evolution of animals from the past. He believed that us humans were evolutionized from monkeys. Now Creation is a completely different theory. The Christians and Catholics Created the theory that God Created earth and all the creatures it holds. Its said that God created two humans first called Adam and Eve. After them God created All the animals , insects , ect. But then again there both just theorys .