After watching the BBC's The Great War Diaries, Part One, we discussed some main themes that were central to the film. What I would like you to do is
pick three main themes from the film and discuss how it shows them using specific examples from the film. I've included the film below in case you forgot.
This blog should be at least 250 words and is part of your final exam. It is due Wednesday, June 10, before class begins.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Blog #34 - Red Rubber, White King, Black Death
So far throughout World History A and B, you have studied how Africa had grown as a multi-ethnic
continent with different tribes and thousands of languages before the
Europeans came to become the crossroads for trade and commerce like it
is today.
The northern African countries, the ones that have had the most interaction with Europe (good and bad) like Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are more economically advanced than their sub-Saharan brethren. Those countries that lie South of the Equator are the ones that we will focus on for most of our imperialism unit in Chapter 24 and revisit before the end of the semester.
The British and the French were the two biggest colonizers of sub-Saharan Africa, but the Belgians, Germans, Dutch and Portuguese also carved up the continent after 1800. This period is known as the "new imperialism" - as if the time period of slavery when up to possibly 20 million Africans were stolen from the continent and shipped over to the Americas was somehow "old" imperialism and this was more "enlightened" because the Euros didn't sell humans and instead sold the resources? Yeah, right.
Some of the worst abuses of Africans were done by the Belgians in the resource-rich Congo. The Belgians extracted tons of rubber (this is where the title of our blog comes from), copper and ivory. Those villages who didn't harvest enough rubber would have children or sometimes women lose a hand. This was when the king himself, Leopold II, owned the Congo, until 1908 when the outrages over such treatment forced him to give it up. To quote a BBC documentary with the same name as our blog, "Until Adolf Hitler arrived on the scene, the European standard cruelty was set by a king."
One thing that is included in your history book that was never included in the stuff that I learned was info from the Africans' points of view. The best examples are in Ch. 24, sec. 2, on p. 754-5 and p. 759-761. I had seen a movie about Shaka Zulu but it really was more about the brave whites who had to take on the Zulus in the scary war in southern Africans. I never got to learn the "other side" of the story or the Africans' side of the story unless I watched Roots which came out when I was 9 (in 1977, I think) or read stuff on my own.
As Americans, we can't claim any kind of moral superiority over the Europeans because of the U.S.'s genocidal policies enacted towards our Native Americans between the 1600s - 1800s.
Your questions:
1. Can you think of an instance in history that we have studied where one person has had so much power over so many people and abused it so consistently? Explain.
2. Give at least three examples of abuses that King Leopold's agents forced upon the Congolese people (as mentioned in the people).
3. How were the abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed in 1904 - 1906? What eventually happened to his ownership of the Congo?
300 words total. Blog due Friday, May 29 by class.
The northern African countries, the ones that have had the most interaction with Europe (good and bad) like Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are more economically advanced than their sub-Saharan brethren. Those countries that lie South of the Equator are the ones that we will focus on for most of our imperialism unit in Chapter 24 and revisit before the end of the semester.
The British and the French were the two biggest colonizers of sub-Saharan Africa, but the Belgians, Germans, Dutch and Portuguese also carved up the continent after 1800. This period is known as the "new imperialism" - as if the time period of slavery when up to possibly 20 million Africans were stolen from the continent and shipped over to the Americas was somehow "old" imperialism and this was more "enlightened" because the Euros didn't sell humans and instead sold the resources? Yeah, right.
Some of the worst abuses of Africans were done by the Belgians in the resource-rich Congo. The Belgians extracted tons of rubber (this is where the title of our blog comes from), copper and ivory. Those villages who didn't harvest enough rubber would have children or sometimes women lose a hand. This was when the king himself, Leopold II, owned the Congo, until 1908 when the outrages over such treatment forced him to give it up. To quote a BBC documentary with the same name as our blog, "Until Adolf Hitler arrived on the scene, the European standard cruelty was set by a king."
Link to King Leopold's genocide: http://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/king-leopold-ii-congo
A BBC news link that traces the current state of the region to the mess from the 19th Century: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm
A BBC news link that traces the current state of the region to the mess from the 19th Century: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm
One thing that is included in your history book that was never included in the stuff that I learned was info from the Africans' points of view. The best examples are in Ch. 24, sec. 2, on p. 754-5 and p. 759-761. I had seen a movie about Shaka Zulu but it really was more about the brave whites who had to take on the Zulus in the scary war in southern Africans. I never got to learn the "other side" of the story or the Africans' side of the story unless I watched Roots which came out when I was 9 (in 1977, I think) or read stuff on my own.
As Americans, we can't claim any kind of moral superiority over the Europeans because of the U.S.'s genocidal policies enacted towards our Native Americans between the 1600s - 1800s.
Your questions:
1. Can you think of an instance in history that we have studied where one person has had so much power over so many people and abused it so consistently? Explain.
2. Give at least three examples of abuses that King Leopold's agents forced upon the Congolese people (as mentioned in the people).
3. How were the abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed in 1904 - 1906? What eventually happened to his ownership of the Congo?
300 words total. Blog due Friday, May 29 by class.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Blog #33 Similarities between the Revolutions
Sorry, guys and gals, that this wasn't posted until this morning. The due date is adjusted below.
So we have studied four different revolutions in this class (American, French, Haitian, Latin America), all in different regions of the world, and all within a fifty year time period. Please answer the following two questions about these revolutions:
1. What do these revolutions have in common? Explain.
- things to think about are who is revolting? What are the reasons why they are rebelling? Which system of government / economy is being attacked? Are there similarities between the leaders of the revolutions? How successful were these revolutions (yes, they all succeeded, but how did they conform to Enlightenment ideals?)?
2. Which of these four is the least similar to the rest? Why?
This blog is due Wednesday, May 13 by the beginning of class. 250 words minimum.
So we have studied four different revolutions in this class (American, French, Haitian, Latin America), all in different regions of the world, and all within a fifty year time period. Please answer the following two questions about these revolutions:
1. What do these revolutions have in common? Explain.
- things to think about are who is revolting? What are the reasons why they are rebelling? Which system of government / economy is being attacked? Are there similarities between the leaders of the revolutions? How successful were these revolutions (yes, they all succeeded, but how did they conform to Enlightenment ideals?)?
2. Which of these four is the least similar to the rest? Why?
This blog is due Wednesday, May 13 by the beginning of class. 250 words minimum.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Blog #32 - French Revolution and the Enlightenment
The French Revolution (1789-1815) was heavily influenced by the philosophes that we read about in Ch. 17 and the ideas of the Enlightenment. Also, the American Revolution against the British monarchy and the subsequent American Constitution was extremely important to the leaders of the French Revolution.
Some Enlightenment ideas that were used in the French Revolution were:
1. Natural rights - life, liberty, property
2. Equality for all men
3. Social Contract - government derives its power from the people, not God
4. Religious freedom
5. Separation of powers - executive, judicial, legislative
6. Written constitution
7. Voting for citizens (ability to pick their leaders)
8. Free speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble
9. Schools were improved, not dependent upon the Church
However, there were times, during all four stages of the French Revolution that some of these Enlightenment ideas were betrayed by the leaders (and mobs) of the French Revolution. Explain in your answer how the Revolution both expanded the ideas of the Enlightenment and also betrayed those ideas.
Due Monday, April 27 by the beginning of our class period. 250 words minimum.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Blog #31 - Liberal Arts or Specialized Education
This past week we were reading about the differences between a Renaissance or liberal arts education and a much more specialized or skilled trade education. Leonardo da Vinci was a perfect example of the Renaissance Man because he had so many skills (drawing, inventing and engineering, sculpting, painting, etc) and so many interests from geology to to anatomy. However, today, we can see that Americans have specialized in certain fields, for instance, eye doctors, tax lawyers, and sports stars. 
Your job is to figure out which do you think is a better fit for you in today's world - a liberal arts education or the specialized education - and explain why.
Here are some arguments for a liberal arts education:
- a liberal arts education provides a well-rounded education in language, literature, history, science, and sometimes math. The skills needed to do well in a liberal arts education include critical thinking, analysis, looking at the big picture and thinking outside the box, better written and oral communication skills, and problem solving skills. Recruiters are looking for these kinds of candidates to work for Fortune 500 companies;
- Countries like China that have specialized education are looking to move away from their form of education and more towards an American-style liberal arts education so that they can have more workers who are able to think outside the box, be creative with problems, and stop moving to the U.S. for job opportunities;
- Sometimes, when someone is trained in a skill, that skill can be outdated by a technology or computer within months or years after the student is trained to do that skill. By having a liberal arts degree, there is some flexibility in being able to tackle most anything (short of things that require advanced degrees like doctors, lawyers, MBAs, engineers, etc.) if a job is phased out or shipped overseas.
Here are some arguments for a specialized education:
- Depending upon the specialized school, most graduates will be able to get a job immediately upon graduation and make decent money right away. The skills that a person learns and goes into should be in demand today and hopefully, you will be able to learn which ones cannot be replaced by machines. Also, by getting a job soon after graduation, you should be able to pay off any student loans that you have accumulated;
- Even in a specialized university, the students still take classes in English, history, and other "soft" classes that can train these workers to be competent in oral and written communication. Math and science classes are great at developing critical thinking skills, perseverance, and analysis.
- Right now, there are so many people with college degrees that are unemployed, why not learn a specialized skill that you can put to use right away? 25% of McDonald's managers nowadays have college degrees, according to one article. Find out what you like to do, love to do, and make money doing it.
Response: 200 words minimum, explain your answer by telling me whether you believe liberal arts is the way to go or specialized is for you. You can use some of the reasons that I have provided here or come up with some of your own. If you can't decide, explain why you can't decide.
Due Wednesday, March 25 by the beginning of class.
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