The Opium War

The first thing that comes to mind hearing the word opium is drugs. The opium was was all about the time when the British imported massive amount of drugs to China.
The Chinese were isolated from the whole world during 14th century and they thought that they were better then any other nations even after the isolation time period. They thought that they had everything that ever needed. British wanted to trade with China because China had a lot of natural resources, but China did not wanted to allow British to get their resources. So the British supplied a massive amount of opium to China. millions of people in China got addicted to this opium, and needed more opium. The Chinese emperor ordered China to stop importing opium but British did not stop the importation. The opium war was about China vs British in order to stop the opium importation and exportation.
The outcome of the war was predictable. The Chinese people lost miserably. China was no match for the British technology and better weapons.

"The White Man's Burden"

The poem "white man's burden" was written in the 1899. Back then the England had a lot of power and invented many different weapons. So England took over many different places of the world which is called the imperialism. This poem was about the time of the British imperialism. The poem was writes about how England was more powerful and superior of all of the land and places. Every one should thank the England for taking over a land and bringing technology to the land. But instead the people think that England is taking over the land and torturing the regular people. So eventually the poet of this poem is thinking that educating these people is the white man's burden.

"The Scramble for Africa"

The scramble of Africa is all about the time when different nations and different leaders tries to take over different countries of Africa. In 1400s the Portuguese started to trade at the coastline of Africa. In 1600s the Dutch established trade in the southwestern tip of Africa. In 1870s Belgium started a trade with Africa in Congo. After that many European countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Portugal tried to invade Africa in order of trade the natural resources that almost every country needed. That is called the scramble of Africa. The countries were able to take over Africa so easily because of how weak the Africans were in terms of technology. African people couldn't defend them self from westernized technology such as guns and cannons etc. The people in Africa were forced to work for the foreign countries and turned into slaves in their own homeland.

Film Lesson: "Mountain of the Moon"

The movie, "Mountain of the Moon" is about an event right after the industrial revolution. In this time period the people of British runs out of resources and looks at Africa for natural resources. The movie shows two people looking for the source or the river Nile in the Africa. The people in Europe had to first face the Sahara desert. They had to travel with resources like water and foods. They had to go through a lot of hardship where it was very hard to survive.
The British found the source of the Nile river, so they named the river after the queen.
The time was right after the industrial revolution. So Europe had a lot of technology that Africa never thought about. The Europe had guns and other inventions that the African people were so afraid of. So later on when the two European people returned and the told about the African disadvantage they had. later they went to Africa with better and bigger technology.