The Opium Wars

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

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

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"

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

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.