Blog #21 - Did capitalism destroy Africa?

We just got done studying capitalism and how the drive to compete and win made the British and Germans the top European countries in the late 1800s.  America, during this time period, also strove to be the #1 steel maker and financial capitol center in the world, but unlike Britain, Germany and France, the U.S. didn't have to search too far for resources b/c they were right in our own backyard. 

The Europeans looked to Africa for valuable mineral resources, timber, rubber and other resources in the 1800s which then spurred a huge land grab and a race for colonies which the British and French won by 1914.  Even before this new age of industry, Africa had been stripped of its human resources during the slave trade - potentially 20 million people either killed or enslaved during the kidnapping to the New World. 

"Capitalism fuelled the slave trade, the profits from which were used to fuel the industrial revolution, which halved the population of Africa (leading to between 40-100 million people being killed or enslaved and taken out of Africa), it also fuelled the imperialism and conquest which left millions of dead and left a legacy of poverty, suffering and misery" 1 http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Argument:_Capitalism_has_fostered_imperialism,_exploitation,_and_suffering

Africans grew cash crops like coffee and cotton and mined gold, salt and silver that had no nutritional value for their own families' food needs.  Therefore, African families starved in many different imperialized nations.  Also, there was the "soft power" of imperialism - the non-hard factors of imperialism like culture, religion, and economic influences like movies, TV and music (in today's life). 

Today, Africa is still stripmined for diamonds and coal, Nigeria is drilled for oil, and the Chinese look to seize Africa as the next world market for its cheap place in the world for everything from toys to shoes (Nike) to computers (Sony).  However, Africa has become the dumping and testing ground for almost every single kind of weapon imaginable.  Arms dealers have supplied countless numbers of weapons for many of the civil wars around the continent.  In fact, the Chinese are pumping billions of light arms into Sudan fueling their civil war against the Christians in the Darfur region.  Potentially, 20% of all light weapons in the world are in Africa. 2

Also, Joseph Kony recruits children soldiers from nrothern Uganda and the surrounding region for his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) so that he can try to topple the Ugandan government - a fight only he continues to wage with little to no support from the Ugandan people.  He is currently hiding out in the Congolese National Rain Forest Parks where he is untouched and encourages / forces the local people to burn protected trees for charcoal.  These actions damage the rain forest and encroach upon protected gorilla habitats too.  See http://www.invisiblechildren.com/ for more info on the LRA and Joseph Kony. 

Watch the Frontline World video on Gunrunners from Sierra Leone - http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/ 


Question:
Was it capitalism that made Africa such a mess?  If so, how did it destroy this beautiful place? 
 - If it wasn't capitalism, what was it that has caused all of this turmoil? 

Due Thursday, May 13. 150 words.
Sources:
2. African Union: http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/AUC/Departments/PSC/Small_Arms.htm
3. China makes Africa its business, The New York Times.  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/world/asia/18iht-africa.2528892.html

Blog #13 - Choose one of these questions

With this imperialism / Great War unit, I decided to have you make up your own higher order thinking questions.


1. Why didn't Vicar tell the other guys (Trench, Willoughby, Jack) that he thought he saw Harry ride off after a spy?


2. Why would soldiers countinue to fight after they've what horror and damage that war can do? - Karen, Maddie, Eric


3. Why did King Leopold mistreat the people of the Congo if that might cause a rebellion? - Braxton


4. Why didn't any of the soldiers in the Great War rebel earlier because of the awful living conditions?

5. Do you think Vicar thought it was all right to kill a man if he prayed to God while doing it? -Kelly

6. Do you think there was a deeper meaning behind why Ethne decided to marry Jack? Maybe she felt bad for him becuase he was blind? Or maybe he was a last resort because Harry was surely gone by then? - Kelly

7. What was your first impression of shell shock? Did you think it was this severe? What were your reactions to it? Do you think stuff like this still happens today and did you ever know about such a thing until now? - Jithmi, Larry G., Maddie

8. Towards the end of Four Feathers, Jack and Ethne are outside talking by a carriage after Harry's visit to his house. It is thought that Jack broke up with Ethne at that point. Why would he decide to do that? - Nona

9. What influence do you think Siegfried Sassoon had on Wilfred Owen and his writing? Do you think Sassoon was liked or disliked by generals? Why? - Jithmi

10. What do you think America should have done during the Armenian Genocide in 1915? Was what they did a good response or could it have been better? Why? - Reanna

11. What would happen if the Turks were to take responsibility for the Armenian Genocide? - Andrea K.

12. Why would the British continue to drop so many shells at the Battle of the Somme when they had made so little progress? - Andrea K.

13. Why were nations like Germany so obsessed with gaining land in Europe when they already had overseas colonies in Africa? Did being a smaller nation have something to do with this? - Larry G.

14. Why couldn't soldiers speak their minds about how the war was going without getting punished? - Karen DLR

15. Why did soldiers like Sassoon go back to the war after being injured? - Maddie

16. Why do you think, even after the war had begun, secret agreements were being made, just like there had been at the beginning when countries tried to gain allies? - Lizzie

17. What do you think would of happened if America had been involved in World War 1 from the start, instead of trying to stay out of it? Do you think peace would of come faster? Or did America’s timing have to do more with it than the country itself? - Lizzie

18. Why might some countries be in favor for the treaties made during World War I and why might some countries be against them? - Emily H.

19. Why do you think that Serbia would choose to not agree to all the demands that Austria sent them, even if it meant avoiding a war and also saving lives and resources? - Emily H.

20. Why was the idea of imperialism so more influential then the idea of Enlightenment? - Eric

21. “ You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye,
who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where the youth and laughter go.” –Siegfried Sassoon, “Suicide in the Trenches”.
What do you think Siegfried poem has to say about the war in this poem? Why? - Alesha

22. Even though women couldn’t fight in the Great War, do you think women are valuable as soldiers now? Support your answer. - Alesha

23.

Please pick one of the questions above (that isn't your own) and answer it to the best of your ability in 150 words. Due Friday, Jan. 29, 2010.