Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Russian Revolution of 1917 is also called the Bolshevik Revolution or the October Revolution. In 1917 there were actually two revolutions in Russia. One was the February Revolution in which the Tsar abdicated his throne and the Provisional Government took power. The other was the October Revolution in which the Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks.
During the Russian Revolution, the Russian got involted into World War I, and during that time, when they were fighting to the Germany, they were losing so badly, lots of the people were kill during the war. Bolsheviks was the leader of the Russian Revolution, the reason that the revolution starts because of the people were tiredof the government so they wanted a change.

Causes Of WWI

There were multiple factors that caused WW1. One of then was when Francis Fernidad was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. After that Austria-Hungary was able to find an excuse to make Serbia an enemy and declare war on them. Even the Germans pressured Austria-Hungary. Other factors that caused WW1 was imperialism. The Industrial Revolution forced European nations to go overseas and search for raw materials to make products. European nations got some of their raw materials from Africa, and the European nations competed for land in Africa. Britain and France talked things out, but later on there were tension between Germany, Britain, and France. Even becoming allies were one of the factors. The Triple Alliance was formed which was composed of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy. While they were allies Germany and Italy were suspicious of each other because of the Balkans.

Opium Wars - Imperialism in China

The Opium war was one of the very first and biggest drug war in the world. Actually, there were two Opium Wars. The wars lasted from 1839 top 1842.The main reason why the Opium Wars began was because of opium. Opium is a drug that comes from the juice of poppy seedpods. It could also be used form making heroine. Tea was very popular in Europe and the place where the British got their tea from was from China. China only had one place for the British to trade with which was the Canton port. The British always bought tea from the Chinese, but they now wanted to sell things to China. So to even out things the Bristish introduced the drug, opium, to the Chinese people. The British got opium from India. Opium was first used as a medical drug in China. It was used to treat some diseases like diarhhea. It was also used for making people more active and for sex. Later on, the British taught the Chinese that they could smoke opium by mixing it with tobacco. In the 18th centry the Chinese started to abuse and get addicted to opium. So much people were getting addicted to opium that 10% of the Chinese people smoking opium. This lead to the many deaths of the Chinese people. Emperor Daoguang then chose Lin Tse-Hsua to create an anti-opium campaign. it was to stop the use of opium activity like the use, selling, buying, and importing of opium. Chests of Opium were destroyed and thrown away. The use of Opium was also considered illegal. Users of opium would be executed. A letter was also sent to the Queen of England. However, the letter was unable to reach the queen becuase the messenger was killed. The first opium war started in November, 1839 because the British took over Hong Kong. The Chinese lost the first war becuase the were behind when it came to technology. As a result the Chinese were forced to sign the Treay of Nanjing. This was the end of the first Opium War. Another Opium War was caused becuase of the violation of a few treaties. After that war the Chinese signed the Treaty of Tiangin. The treaties were eventually abolished when communism came in to China.