The Meiji Restoration of Japan

Matthew Perry was a United States naval officer who negotiated with the Japanese for several months. The Americans wanted to open a port, where they could trade with this isolated country. Americans also needed the supplies to run their ships, so they needed help anyways. The Japanese were very impressed by the technology that the Americans had. This opened their eyes to new ideas. Which started the modernization of Japan.

The Americans had things that the Japanese never had seen. They had massive ships, rifles, cannons, a ship run by steam and many other things. To Japan these were like futuristic ideas. Many Japanese people didn't want to open up to these ideas. But their Emperor Meiji realized that his people couldn't stay uneducated forever. He decided he needed to modernize his country.

The Japanese signed the Treaty of Kanagawa which allowed many things between Americans and the Japanese. The Americans benefited a lot from this Treaty. They received a lot of help with their ships from Japan. The Treaty stated:

1. Alliance between the United States and Japan.
2. Opening of two ports to American ships at Shimoda and Hakodate.
3. Help for any American ships around the Japanese coast.
4. Permission for American ships to buy supplies, coal, water, and other necessary provisions in Japanese ports.

Although the Americans benefited a lot so did the Japanese. Japan now had two ways to trade with other countries as well. This helped with the modernization of Japan.

Japan adapted many ideas as well. From the German they adopted the ideas of a centralized government. They also adopted ideas such as education, industrialization, advances in technology and more countries to trade with. This also started battles with neighboring countries. Such as China, Russia and Russia. Japan also now had railway and shipping lines, telegraph and telephone systems, and factories making things like sugar, glass and textiles.

The Meiji Era changed in ways that the society pyramid didn't matter anymore and nationalism sprung out full throttle. Japan now had new industries and technologies. Even when it came to voting Japan now had ideas of letting males vote. But only if they were wealthy. They were becoming a lot like America.

Now Japan is one of the most advanced countries in the world. Probably the most. With inventions that top most of the American inventions. It's ironic how it worked out. Americans gave them the boost to start their modernization and they are now basically ahead of us. Japan also had an advantage that its an archipelago. An archipelago is a large group of islands or chain. Like, Hawaii. Since it has so much water surrounding it, it can have many harbors that help when it comes to trade.

In the end, my opinion is that its good Japan didn't stay isolated. I'm sure they praise the Emperor Meiji. Without him Japan wouldn't be as advanced as it is today.

Karl Marx and Communism

Karl Max didn't like the way the industrial revolution had the people of Europe living. He didn't accept the idea of capitalism. He showed the workers that they should be getting their very big share, just like the owners were. They had to do the same stupid routine everyday and most of the conditions in the factories weren't that great or safe. He definitely proved his point. Communism sounded like a great idea to the workers. This way they were able to get their own piece of the pie.

Communism is a form of government where property is shared and everyone has common property. That way everyone can be equal and no one will be devastated that the work they put in never paid off. Of course, this doesn't work for the people that actually do more work then others but they had to deal with it.

Marx wanted communism to take over the world so that everyone would be equal. He believed that capitalism would cause destruction. People that worked really hard would one day want to be on top. He thought that a bloody revolution would start if the workers didn't get what they wanted. So either way they could go the communist way or just revolt. He thought the communist way would be better.

For Marx, the "bad guys" were the owners of the factories and land. The "good guys" were the workers, or the proletariats. He believed that the "bad guys" were the owners since they believed in capitalism. They of course believed in it since capitalism was on their side. The "good guys" were the workers. Since they agreed with his ideas. Plus his ideas would work in their favor.

Communism was a form of government for many nations after Marx. His ideas of fairness was a bright one to many people. It does make a lot sense, but it truly only makes a lot of sense when you're the one that is on the bottom of the social class. It would be pretty weird to find someone who likes to work harder then others and still get the same amount as the laziest person in his community. Don't you agree?

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx made a world wide revolution. He changed a government and showed new ideas to the people of Europe. His believes were different from those who thought it was okay to have long hours of work just because you were poor and lived in dirty cities. He was born into a family with two religions. He worked really hard in school even though he also remembered to have fun. He married in 1843 and moved with his wife to Paris. There he became a journalist.

Paris was becoming a very unfair industrial city. He started to see the side of capitalism. He didn't like how the industrial cities were being run. Since he really liked philosophical ideas he was determined. He was determined to change the way Paris and other industrial cities treated their workers.

Marx didnt enjoy the way the workers were treated. They worked really long hours to end up with a really low salary. The money coming in was really only for the owner of the factory. This was capitalism. People working for owners that get most of the profit. He thought everything should be fair that way everyone would be happy. Workers shouldnt have given up their money for the land owners, they should have been able to split it.

The anger that Karl Marx went through when he saw how bad the people were being treated, made him come to the decision that the people should make a communist government. Communism is a equal government where everyone can own their own things. Most things are fair in a communist society. Even though Marx promised the people a place where they can control the government more, most communist governments are ruled by the government officials.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism is a positive feeling and positive doings in support of your country. It became really popular and started in the 180o's. It's one of the strongest things of all nations, no matter what type of society you run. Nationalism is when someone has devotion and loyalty for their country. Basically, patriotism. A lot of governments want their people to be loyal to them and feel like their government is the best. In order to say that you are a nationalist, you have to admit and have proof of how proud you are of your country. For me I'm proud of two countries. One country is where I was born, America. The other country is where my parents were born at. My nationality, which is Dominican.Americans represent America a lot without even noticing. Just by voting, that's one way you are supporting your country and you are supporting its government and society. I represent my pride of being American by speaking English and supporting the rights that we have. Even by standing to do the the Pledge of Allegiance.
Before Italy was known to be the Italy that it is today, it was like many other nations. It was separated and each empire had its ruler. The rulers weren't even Italian. Italians started to notice that having foreign rulers was breaking their nation apart even more. This led to the conclusion that the rulers should at least be Italian.
This led to two great leaders who believed in different things. There names were Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini was an idealist and he created the Young Italy group which only held men younger than 40. He believed that Italy would actually be better with the separated nation-states. While Garibaldi, a nationalist, was uniting all the nation-states in the South of Italy. He fought many battles to unite the South while Count Camillo di Cavour was fighting many battles to unite the North. In the end, the united state- nations were handed over to King Victor Emmanuel II.
Now that Italy was united nationalism was taking its course. Of course, there was many disagreements, especially between Mazzini and Cavour. Mazzini believed that Cavour was trying to unite Italy for the wealth of the King, instead of for the advantage of having all of the people of Italy together. With so many wars, Italy was losing its money. This made Italy a poor country entering the 20th Century.

SImon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions

Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, was a famous hero for the South American countries. He rescued them from years of monarchy. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela on July 24, 1783. He was a very privileged child because of the fact that his parents were very wealthy. Although he lost parents when he was a teenager, his guardians made sure that he received great tutoring in Venezuela and schooling in Spain. By the age of 19 he was married. His wife died shortly after they married.

He left Venezuela and traveled to Europe. In Europe, he learned the enlightenment ways of Rousseau, Locke and Voltaire. The ways of monarchy from, Napoleon Bonaparte. He learned justice, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Coming home from Europe he passed through United States, their he learned that it was fine for the people to govern themselves without having to face monarchy. These were great influences of the revolution in Latin America and started the spark of freedom for South America...

Bolivar started by joining the revolution against Spain for Venezuela in 1810. In 1811, Venezuela had received its independence but Spain was not ready to lose a colony. They attacked once again and this time Venezuela was not awaiting it. Bolivar did not give up, he was determined to be the leader of the next civil rights movement. He tried more attacks against Spain but once again failed. He made friends with the people of Haiti who had just received their independence from France. He wouldn't give up like a true leader, but he still hadn't won any freedom.

Other nations of South America, were waiting for their turn against Spain seeing how Venezuela was working to get their freedom. In 1811, it was Colombia's turn. Bolivar had an army of less than twenty-five hundred men. He made his army suffer, going through different kinds of lands and finally fighting. On August 7, Bolivar had a surprise for the Spanish defenders. The definition of his nickname, the Liberator, proved everyone that day he truly was the liberator.

Ten-thousand Spanish troops had landed in Venezuela in 1815 once again for the revolution. Meanwhile, other Hispanic countries were getting their freedom from Spain as well. Mexico had receive its independence in 1813, Argentina in 1816, in 1821, Bolivia, Peru,Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras had also received their independence. As well Venezuela, the country that had been fighting for so long. Ecuador was freed in 1822 with long companion and friend Antonio Jose de Sucre. Sucre had also helped with the other nations. Finally, in 1823 Peru and Bolivia got its independence. Bolivia was named after Bolivar. It became separate from Peru in 1825, under the honor of Simon Bolivar. After fighting with only seven-thousand, Bolivar defeated ten-thousand Spanish troops.

Bolivar was a better revolutionist leader than political leader. The different provinces were able to split from their helpful leader, leaving Bolivar with only Colombia. However after the death of his long and old friend Sucre, Bolivar resigned. Seeing how he had no one else to trust.

Bolivar fought for years. He fought for the independence of those who deserved it and he made sure that they lost their mother country, Spain. We all end up growing up right? Well the South American countries were ready for to be on their own. They just needed a little push.

Robespierre and The Reign of Terror

The people of France had to wait for the fall of Robespierre to start their democracy. The Reign of Terror was a period of time where people's heads were guillotined. For reasons as internal enemies towards France. The leaders of the Reign of Terror were George Danton and Maximilen Robespierre. The Reign of Terror was suppose to make all French people scared and make them want to stop the revolution. It even made people watch what they said because if anyone every heard about revolutionary ideas, that was all the evidence a jury would need to kill you.

Robespierre was one of the most powerful men in France. He was the leader of the Committee of Public Safety and the executive committee of the National Convention. Robespierre soon began to take the guillotine way to far. His own supporter started to notice and started to stand up against him. His friend Danton who was along his side was killed and before he was killed he said, "Above all, don't forget to show my head to the people - it's well worth having a look at." Although Danton was killed Robespierre was stopped. The other members of the Committee of Public Safety started to notice that something was wrong and they arrested Robespierre and killed him the next day. He was the last person ever to have his head cut off.

The Reign of Terror happened because the government was scared that everyone would keep revolting against them. They felt like they had to take action. That was their only way, they decided to threaten their people. The executions would start with a person who just looked like a threat to the government and then they would be arrested. After that they would have to kneel for their heads to get cut off. Thank god that we live in a place where we have freedom of speech.

The French Revolution:Social Causes

The French Revolution took place in the 1780's. It was a new era that started because of new political ideas where the people of France saw that they were being treated wrong. Things were unfair and for a long time the French people didn't notice it. When they finally did they decided to take matters into their own hands by defeating King Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette.

They were three estates. The first estate was the Catholic clergies, the second estate was the Nobles and the third estate was the rest of the country. The rest of the country was the peasants, merchants, farmers, city workers and middle class people. The rest of the country paid the most taxes. Really high ones. After a while the people of the country didn't even have enough money to buy bread because they were paying all of their taxes. They started to understand that all the taxes they paid was only to suppport others above them. They basically paid a share that nobles and clergies should have paid instead of them. Which is why they felt like they were being used. They worked really hard only to have their work treated like it was nothing and then to have to smile at higher ranks and just keep paying was just about enough.

Most people started to think like the great Enlightenment thinkers. They thought about a world where they were able to speak up just as much as the next person. A democracy where everything was fair. A society where they could put their ideas in and have a leader that would help them and take in their ideas. Not a leader that was greedy and dozed off in important meetings where they needed a smart king. People started to get the idea of questioning everything because it was time they thought about themselves not just their king, because of this questioning a revolution began...

The people of France got together on July 14, 1789 and went to the Palace of Versailles. They were able to get the King and Queen out of their beautiful and huge palace. The King and Queen were never to return. The King and his Queen were beheaded a few years after that date.