Wednesday, May 28, 2014
May Madness Julius Caesar Presentation Link - Enjoy!!!
Friday, May 16, 2014
Political Cartoon - China
The Qianlong Emperor allowed trade with foreigners only to exist at the single port of Guangzhou. The foreign goods from China were in great demand back in Europe; thus, Europeans, especially the British, were eager to trade with China in order to profit by selling the goods in Europe. However, the Chinese demand for European goods was nonexistent. Thus, it became extremely difficult for the Europeans to trade with the Chinese, primarily because they had nothing to offer - besides silver bullion. Thus, the British merchants paid for Chinese silk, porcelain, and tea with silver bullion. Since silver bullion was a highly prized item, the British sought alternatives with which they could trade with the Chinese. The British eventually turned to opium, an illegal drug manufactured in their Indian colonies, which Chinese readily accepted as an alternative to silver bullion, despite its significantly lower value. The Chinese significantly were at a disadvantage as a result of this switch in trading items - drug addicts began to become commonplace and China's reserve of silver bullion was significantly lowered. The Chinese realized this and placed Lin Zexu in charge of destroying the opium trade. This anti-opium policy ignited a conflict of wars known as the Opium Wars, in which the Chinese suffered a humiliating defeat to the British, who cut off access to the Grand Canal. Because Britain won the Opium Wars, it was able to dictate the terms of China's surrender. The end result was a series of treaties known as the "unequal treatises". They were named so due to the unequal quality of the agreement, which heavily favored the British. According to the agreement, opium trade between Britain and China was restored, and China was forced to cede 5 major ports and the island of Hong Kong. Additionally, the Chinese were forced to grant extraterritoriality to British inhabitants in China in a series of treaties including the Treaty of Nanjing. As a final result of this altercation, China was weakened in that it lost a majority of its silver bullion and suffered socially as a result of the re-opened silver trade. On the other hand, the British benefitted handsomely from this reopened trade with China.
Cartoon Explanation:
As depicted in my political cartoon, the economies of both China and Britain are being compared to each other via a scale. The scale is heavily tilted in favor of the British, indicating that the scale, symbolic of China's treaties with Britain, is unbalanced. The position of the British in relation to China indicates that the items on China's section of the scale outweigh the items that belong to China. There are far more items on Britain's end of the scale than China's end of the scale, signifying that Britain is benefitting more from the treaty than China. On the British half of the scale items are a pyramid of blocks of silver, a chest containing a series of treaties, and a British man happily holding two of them into the air. As a result of the Opium War, Britain's reopened trade with China resulted in Britain reserving its bullion, while draining the bullion from China - thus, a great amount of silver is represented on the British half of the scale. Within the chest on top of the pyramid of silver blocks are many papers, two of which are being held by a British individual. The British man is holding one paper entitled "Declaration of Chinese Port Ownership," which reflects the 5 ports that the Chinese were forced to cede to the British as a result of post-war negotiations. The other paper reads "Treaty of Nanjing," which was among the first treaties written as part of the post-war agreement. There are numerous papers remaining inside the chest, indicating that there are many other treaties which also favor the British over the Chinese. As one could imagine, the British individual looks pleased with the agreement. On the Chinese half of the scale is a lone individual smoking opium, and he is accompanied by a sac of opium. His eyes are crossed and seems to be going crazy, reflecting the social changes that occurred as a result of the unfair post-war negotiations. There is nothing positive about the Chinese half of the scale - there is no bullion (the British have taken it back) and they have lost a right to govern their ports. It is no wonder that the man standing on the Chinese half of the scale looks miserable.
Monday, April 28, 2014
"World War in World History" Document Analysis
Answer: World War I was a global war with respect to the nationality of the members fighting the war, even though it seemed to fit the qualifications of an "European civil war" from the perspective of Asians. The "internal character" of World War I can be attributed to the fact that the only countries engaged in war were those of Europe. Though Asia and the United States both had prominent roles in the war, they in aspect played mere supporting positions of the larger European powers around which the crux of the war was centered. However, it can be seen from a different angle that World War I was a global war in that it involved countries from around the four corners of the globe. Of the global powers other than the Europeans involved in the War, the Asians played prominent roles, eventually joining the efforts of the Allies against the Entente Powers. Though the Asian powers are noted as supporting the Allied Powers, a majority of the Asian population did not have a preference over who won the great European "civil war". However, the general Asian population resented many of the Allied Powers because they attacked and imperialized many areas of Asia with little regard to Asian sentiment; in contrast, the Germans had "no tradition of Asian conquest," and thus would have been expected to appeal more than the Allied Powers. However, in the name of democracy, a majority of Asian states came to the defense of the Allied powers. Allied powers promised to defend democracies, which would result in political stability in Asia, a factor that would play a great role in settling Asian society and political policy. Thus, even though Asians were pro-German due as a result of their resent for territorial expansion of Allied powers, they sided with the Allies to defend democracy.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Pg. 913 Document Based Question
Prompt: Compare and contrast the sort of adjectives Kipling uses to describe native people as opposed to Europeans; how does his very language usage convey his sense of white superiority?
Response: To convey his sense of white supremacy and superiority over other indigenous people and foreigners, Kipling uses different adjectives to describe different individuals of different skin color, emphasizing his view that imperial rule is mandatory in colonies such as the British one in India. Kipling first refers to the subject people of the British as a "breed," implying that the native Indians are animal like. Since animals must be tamed in order to be controlled and behave properly, Kipling is upholding his view that the British must "tame" the Indians metaphorically to keep stability in the region. Despite the fact that Kipling is attempting to justify British control in India, he is not stating that any type of rule is sufficient. He believes that the ruling should be orderly, not morally low or "tawdry".
To describe the Indians, on the other hand, Kipling uses diminutive and servile forms of adjectives. Kipling describes the Indians as "silent" and "sullen," indicating that the subjects of British hegemony are expected to obey, command, and respect those in control, the British. The word "sullen" indicates, however, that the Indian subjects were not fond of the British rule in India, despite the generous way in which they ruled.
The "burden" that the Imperial British are faced with as a result of their hegemony is described by many adjectives, leading the reader to believe that it was a great struggle for the British to provide India with order and imperial rule. The burden is metaphorically described as a "heavy harness," indicating that it took a lot of effort for the British to maintain order. Though India provided many trade opportunities for England, it also must have a heavy burden regarding other British affairs.
Map of Global Hegemony
When creating this map, several aspects of the locations of imperialism areas were outstanding. Here is a list of those aspects I found somewhat interesting:
1. Russia by far has the largest land mass; however, Russia has no other states within it. In fact, most of the other colored in countries and territories could probably fit within the single state of Russia.
2. England seemed to consist of the most widespread areas of land it controlled as colonies. Every one of its controlled territories was specific in the goods it exported and produced, so Britain must have profited from its colonies. It is hard to believe that England acquired so much power after only winning the 7 Years' War.
3. I noticed that the Spanish tereitories, especially in Africa, we're very limited despite the greatness of the Spanish state. Why were they able to colonize and get such a head start in the Americas while obtain almost no land in Africa? (Especially because they are located so close to Africa).
Monday, April 7, 2014
4/4/14 Homework: The Young Turks
The Young Turks gave specific rights to their own age cohorts within the Ottoman Empire in terms of voting rights and education, primarily to increase their say in Ottoman policy and governance. In the Proclamation of the Young Turks, the third point of the constitution states that all citizens of the Ottoman Empire (not including slaves and those without citizenship) are given the right to vote. This does not mean that they are forced to vote, however. In giving younger Ottomans a chance to vote, they were given a greater power in determining foreign and internal policy, thus privileging the Young Turks. In order to eventually occupy high government positions, the Young Turks must have placed great importance on education, which is necessary to all individuals within a smoothly functioning government. It is due to this reason that the Young Turks provided free education to all individuals regardless of age. Motivated children and boys would be able to be educated from an early point on in their lives, which would increase the change that they become a highly government official. They placed the power of schooling and age restrictions in the hands of the government to ensure that all children legally had the same rights, benefits, and opportunities to become educated. In a broader perspective, the Young Turks privileged their own age cohort within the Ottoman Empire in terms of voting rights and education to increase the likelihood that they are educated and are able to elect each other into high government positions in the future, possibly providing the Young Turks Party to gain power in the Ottoman Empire.