The Opium Wars

Opium War
- During the Opium War, what happend was that the British and the Chinese would trade alot. The British wanted the tea from the Chinese, and the Chinese wanted Opium from the British. Soon enough the Chinese people started becoming very ill from the Opium, and the Chinese government didnt like that. So the government requested Britain to stop giving the Chinese Opium, But the British refused because they wanted their tea and money. Thats when they declared war.
The reason why its called the Opium war is because the chinese were trying to get Opium out of their country, but the British kept bringing it in. As a result the British easily won the Chinese because the British had way more modern technology than the Chinese did. This is one of Chinese's most humiliating loss in history.

Mountains of the moon

Mountains of the moon
-In the film "mountains of the moon" Europeans go to Africa to look for a source river to find gold. It wasnt so easy because they were on foot traveling for 6 months or more and also had a lack supply of food. Another hardship is that people died on the way from malaria, but later on they found a cure for malaria. The travelers got stopped by other Africans that never saw white peopple before, but eventually showed them that they meen no harm. Another hardship they faced was mosquitos at night and also getting their valuble belongings stolen.

It is very unusual that the third largest lake in the world was named after a British queen. The reason for this is because when the Europeans explored, they named certain places even thought it wasnt their country or their land.

The Europeans had a huge advantage over the Africans. The europeans barely had any type of weapon except the spear. Much better than the Africans, the Europeans had machine guns & pistols which is what led to the Europeans to be able to conquer Africa.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

Meiji Restoration
- The Meiji Restoration was a chain that led to major effects in Japans Social structure. Matthew Perry was an American and a commodore who traveled ion many ships. He came to tokyo bay threatning to Destroy Japan. Matthew forced or "bullied" Japan to sign a treat by impressing them with new technologies that America had. They sent alot of ships in order for Japan to stop being independent and to start trading. At the time Americas technologies were more advanced than the Japanese.

The Meiji Era had a great effect on the Japanese economy. A new emperor was elected called Meiji. His plan was to reclaim his divine right to rule and restructure Japan. The Meiji Restoration was to turn Japan into a modern country. Japan had been independent (isolated) for so many years that their army and technology were very weak. Matthew Perry dropped 26 miles off the coast of Tokyo, to impress the Japanese.

After a while Japanese became better with trading because of the United States. They stopped being isolated and traded with other countries all over the world. The way they modernized was by establishing a parliament and made a system of transportation and communication.