The Russian Revolution

The Russian revolution had many popular revolutions in Russia. There was a huge social gulf between the peasants who were former serfs and the land owners. The peasants regarded anyone who did not work as a parasite. They had always regarded as all land belonging to them. To the peasants the land retained by the landowners at the time serfs were freed was stolen by them. Only force could prevent them taking the land. There where some causes about why the Russian revolution began one was in February 1917 when there were shortages of bread in Petrograd and prices were very high.A second cause was that Tsar Nicholas II was weak and did not keep his promises.The third cause was the effects of the First World War on the Russian army. In Russia there were big differences between rich and poor.The Russian Parliament (the Duma), which was set up in 1906, was not given any real power. The Tsar still ruled as an autocrat (like a dictator).

The leader of the Russian Communist Revolution was Vladmir Ilich Ulyanov, otherwise known as "Lenin."He was a communist politician, the principal leader of the October revolution, the first head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.In 1998 he was named TIME magazine as one of the most 100 most influental peo0ple.The quote "peace, land abd bread" was Lenin had promised "Peace, Land, and Bread." After several false starts, the Bolsheviks successfully negotiated a separate peace with the Germans, the famous Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Ratified in March, 1918, Lenin ceded the Baltic states, eastern Poland, and the Ukraine to the Germans. This amounted to surrendering over 25% of Russia's population. This removed the external threat to the Bolshevik regime; and since Lenin anticipated revolution in Europe and in any case planned to break the treaty after consolidating his regime, there was much sense in his claim that "To obtain an armistice now means to conquer the whole world." Lenin's Left SR allies objected so violently to Brest-Litovsk that they left the coalition government; but by this point, they had outlived their usefulness anyway. At the Seventh Party Congress the Bolsheviks also changed their official name to the Russian Communist Party, and it was as "Communists" that the world would henceforth know them and their adherents around the world.

Causes Of WW1

The first world war began in August 1914. It was directly triggered by the assassination of the Austrin Archduke,Franz Ferdinand and his wife, on June 28Th 1914 by Bosnian revolutionary,Gravilo Princip. This event was,however,simply pulled the trigger that set off declarations of war. The actual causes of the war are more complicated and are still debated by historians today.Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one's country. The Congress of Vienna, held after Napoleon's exile to Elba, aimed to sort out problems in Europe. Delegates from Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia (the winning allies) decided upon a new Europe that left both Germany and Italy as divided states. Strong nationalist elements led to the re -unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. The settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France angry at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and keen to regain their lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups, all of whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived.

Militarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by the government. The growing European divide had led to an arms race between the main countries. The armies of both France and Germany had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914 and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas. The British had introduced the 'Dreadnought', an effective battleship, in 1906. The Germans soon followed suit introducing their own battleships. The German, Von Schlieffen also drew up a plan of action that involved attacking France through Belgium if Russia made an attack on Germany. The map below shows how the plan was to work.

The Opium Wars

badly hooked by the early 1800's. It The opium War also known as the Anglo Chinese Wars, lasted from 1839 to 1842 and 1850 to 1860. The Opium war a a climax between the Qing dynasty and the United Kingdom and Ireland. British smuggling of Opium from British India into china in defiance of China's drug laws erupted into open warfare between Britain and China. Opium is a preparation made from the juice of poppy seedpods, and used to produce heroin. The drug was mainly produced in and shipped from the east indies to china by British merchants. This addictive drug was had gotten many Chinesewasn't always a addictive drug to China, it used to be a medicine in which they used to cure diseases, this happened in the 15Th century. it was used to cure diseases such as dysentery,cholera, as well as diarrhea.

In the movie "Mountains Of The Moon", there were many hardships in traveling to Africa.One thing that was a problem to the Europeans was that they had to travel through scorching desserts. They had no food and no water. When they found a lake, they thought there problems of water was over, but later on they found out that the lake was contagious and if they drank it they would later die of the disease. Another thing is that since a lot of the people that drank out of the lake, they died or got very weak and unable to work. So the Europeans lost many of their men and they couldn't carry everything they wanted to Africa.The technological advances that the Europeans had over the Africans was the guns. The Europeans had guns and the Africans only had spears.

Many years later, after the two Europeans,Richard Burton and John Speke returned from Africa, other Europeans returned to Africa but this time with machine guns.And people in Africa still had spears and shields that were made out of wood. And because Europeans came back with machine guns, they were easily able to conquer Africa.The source of the Nile river, Queen Victoria, was named that way because Queen Victoria was ruler of a different country and they named the river in Africa after her. That's what strange about the name of that river.

The Mejii Restoration Of Japan

The Meiji Restoration was a point in place when Japan started a trade with the united states. The Japanese had no reason to trade with the U.S but a man names Mathew Perry convinced them otherwise. The negotiations between Mathew Perry and japan was not so negotiable. When Mathew brougt his ship and anchored it about 26 miles from Tokyo, the japanese were impressed by the way that the ship's movement without any sails. At first, Perry was not there to impress them, he wanted to intimadate them with the U.S techonoligical advances. The impressive naval force that Perry bought was far more superior than the Japanese warships. This left Japan with options, one was either to fight them or negotiate with them. Seeing the ships, they knew they didnt have a chance to win, so they went with the other choice.

On March 31,1854 a treaty was signed between the United States and Japan that effectively opened two ports to the United States and acted as a catalyst towards Japanese subordanation. Over the next few years the major European players would follow suit and establish their own treaties with Japan.

Karl Marx And Communism

Communism is different from socialism so do not get them confused.Communism is when people believe of being the same. Socialism is when the government believes in power,money above everything. The richest get the best things and become richer and the poor just become poorer and do not get good things. The problem with communism is that it becomes dictorial. The government will force everyone to get paid the same . A doctor will be paid the same as a garbage man, a lawyer will get paid the same as a teacher. Not everybody wants that,not the people that believe in socialism.

Karl Marx was the founder of communism.

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

Simon Bolivar was one of the most famous South America's greatest generals. He is most famous for his victories over the Spaniards. Liberating Bolivia,Panama,Colombia,Ecuador,Peru and Venezuela. He is also known as "The George Washington of South America".Simon was born in July 24,1783, at Caracas Venezuela. His parents died when he was a child.The thing that influenced Simon Bolivar was him traveling around the world and seeing that the U.S had just won it's independence from Great Britain. He thought that it was about time that his country should also gain it's independence from Spain. He felt that he was destined to be the leader of this movement. In 1810 Bolivar joined Francisco de Miranda in a revolt against the Spanish.