Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Russian Revolution


The Russian Revolution was a series of three revolutions. It involved a czar(Russian word for king), the Bolsheviks, and the Provisional government. The Revolution took place because people wanted change to happen for their country. Czar Nicholas engaged Russia to WWI, several lives were lost, and victory seemed impossible. The war destroyed the economy and Russia lost a lot of land, just to get out of the war. Tension sparked and they kick czar out of his throne and killed him and his family.The February revolution was caused because of Tsar Nicholas II was removed from power. This was because he was blamed for all the crisis that had happened in WWI. Some of the major causes of the Russian Revolution was social and economic changes. Also because of political issues. The leaders of the Russian Revolution was Vladimir Lenin, Gregory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Anatoli Lunacharsky, and Alexandra Kollontai. They were communist who opposed the war. "Peace, love and bread" was a a quote be Lenin during the October revolution. He promised peace, love and bread to the people of Russia after the war.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Causes of WWI



On June 28 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne was assassinated by Serbia nationalist Gavrilo Princip while on a formal trip to Sarajevo. Unbeknown at the time, this assassination would be the breaking point between the already tense and nationalistic European countries during this era.
Many countries inside Europe had strong nationilistic feelings, they believed that their country was greater than the next. Countries wanted to prove who was the best, they all wanted to go to war in someway or another. The assisnation of franz Ferdinand gave a reason to Autria-Hungary to go to war with a smaller country(Serbia). Serbia was nationalistic as well, they were upset because of a prior war in which land was lost. The assisnation was not the only cause of the war.

Opium Wars - Imperialism in China



In the 1830's, the English had become major drug-trafficking criminals. They primarily hit China with the drug Opium. Through merchants the English people smuggled this drug into China to give to all the people, this created a country full of drug-addicts. The Chinese emperor wrote a letter to the queen of England asking her why she was allowing his country to become this way, when frankly she would not tolerate it in her own. The English queen did not respond well, especially after the Chinese choose to block English way ports into their country, this started the Opium wars. In the end the English won, because of their technologically advanced ships and weapons. The Chinese suffered a humiliating defeat and the emperor was forced to sign a treaty legalizing Opium in China.