Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

(The picture to the left is Lake Victoria in Africa.
The source of the Nile River.)

The movie "Mountains of the Moon" is about Europe taking over Africa. Europe needed more materials and space to expand their industrial revolution. Materials such as ivory, wood, coal, land and more. Since Africa was nearby they were able to conquer easily,as well for other reasons. It wasn't very easy but Europe had many advantages and disadvantages. In the end, Europe won.

The hardships that Europeans faced would have scared me not to ever go back. Europe might have been technologically advanced but they had to understand they didn't have the benefit of knowing the land memorized and easily. Its always best to fight in you own territory. Its always best because you know who's around you and you don't have to worry about whats on the other side of the mountain. You can also have allies when your "home". Which makes everything easier.In new territory, you are an enemy to everyone that doesn't recognize you.

In the movie, Richard Burten gets a spear thrown at his face. The spear pierces a hole from cheek to cheek. Making holes in both cheeks. John Speak has two sticks stabbed into both his legs. Not only that but a bug also crawls into his ear. The tactics to help these two man with their problems looked more painful then the problems they went through.To get the bug out of Speak's ear they had to put something like candle wax in his ear.But that was so painful that Speak decided to stab his ear.

Europeans had to deal with Africans traditions.If they got into trouble their African friends had weird ways to help them out.They had to get use to it. They also didn't have that many Africans allies, the Europeans had more enemies than allies. Which made them fight for themselves when Africans invaded their territory.

It isn't strange, that there is an African river named after an British Queen. Well at least if you know enough about history you wouldn't find it strange. Its like asking, "Isn't it a coincidence that there's a place in England called 'York' and a place in America called 'New York'?"It isn't a coincidence, its just when the English took over they named a place in America after a place in England. Just like when Britain invaded Africa they decided to name a river after they "discovered" it, well at least to the Europeans they did.

The advancement in technology helped a lot. This gave the Europeans advantages in a big thing, WEAPONS. The Africans had their spears and things like that. But Europeans had things like gun powder and canons. For transportation they had things like ships. Europeans were decades ahead of Africans. This helped a lot. Not just with the people of Africa but also with the animals of the jungles.

In the end, Britain was able to conquer easily because of their technology. They also spread diseases. Europe wasn't just one nation. It was a lot of nations against Africa. they were able to divide land easily, by hurting those that didn't want to be divided. When the Africans were divided it made it easier for the English to conquer them since they didn't have each other anymore. The Africans were probably scared to trust anyone, since they were probably with different people. From different African groups, with different African traditions.