Africa: A Great Continent

By Oviedo Chavira

Africa is an amazing continent, thanks to all the nature Africa has, thanks to all the materials you can get out of there, thanks to all his culture, thanks to all of his huge territory, thanks to the people that live there, and thanks to all of their traditions. In general Africa is a great continent, but it has some bad things, like poverty, a lot of disease, there is not a lot of food, there is war, etc.

 

Africa has a great history this history starts in the Stone Age with some early settlers on the Nile Valley. Through the years this settlers had moved from other territories like Sudan and Egypt. In this time it was a very big change on the climate, most of the rivers were getting dry and without water so the people could not have cattle and start with the agriculture, so the settlers start moving to other territories so they can find water an places to have cattle and agriculture. One of the biggest places with water was the Nile Valley so the people started to fight for water and resources so they could survive, but with the time the people share all the resources they had.

 

On the years 3200-2750 B.C On Egypt it was when the first writing was made in form of hieroglyphics some years later the pyramids were made with stone and mud to join each stone to get a form of triangle, this pyramids were used for the living of the Pharaoh. During all this time there was a lot of things made by the knowledge the Egyptian had. The Egyptians had a lot of architecture, agriculture, and they had a system of dynasties, but with the time all of the dynasties started to finish. Egypt was one of the biggest states from Africa at the time.

 

With the pass of the years Spain got a lot of slaves from Africa to work in their colonies in America. With all this slavery in America all the traditions, culture, music, and religion from Africa went to America and that is why Mexico is very diverse in the aspect of cultures. During this time African salves started a revolt with his leader William Willberforce and thanks to some factors like the beginning of the Industrial Revolution on the United Kingdom slaves were less effective than the machines, so the people with the time started buying more machines than slaves. Another factor was that in 1776 the United Kingdom lost all their colonies in America so they did not need more slaves.

 

Thanks to the liberation of slaves Africa became a great continent again, but thanks to that rising of that continent the French wanted some of the materials in Africa and more slavery, because France had a lot of colonies thanks to the Napoleonic Empire, so they need a lot of slaves and materials so they can make grow the economy of France.Elsewhere the mineral wealth of the continent fixated and dazzled European adventurers. But soon casual commercial dealings were replaced by systematic exploitation and control. At the beginning of the 19th century the European grasp of African geography was confined mainly to the coast. But by the end of the century Europeans were straddling the continent with railways and roads. Now it was possible to take control politically and commercially.

 

Commercial greed, territorial ambition, and political rivalry all fuelled the European race to take over Africa. This culminated in Africa’s partition at the Berlin Conference 1884-5. The whole process became known as “The Scramble for Africa”.

 

Until the 19th century the French had played a smaller role in Africa than the British, but their defeat in the Napoleonic War made them look to Africa for compensation. North Africa became a theatre for Anglo-French rivalry, illustrated most dramatically by the Fashoda incident, where troops from both powers marched from opposite directions to meet in the wilderness in southern Sudan, bringing the two European powers to the brink of war

 

 

The Scramble for Africa had the effect of defusing and displacing tensions between the European powers in Europe, but eventually the tradeoffs and alliances could not disguise the fact that Imperial Germany was on a collision course with Britain and France. Now for the first time, Africans found themselves dragged into a conflict which had its origins in the war rooms of Berlin and London. The moral posturing of European powers, supposedly representing civilisation, wisdom, reconciliation and order, soon disintegrated into the chaos, death and destruction of World War I.

Capitalism and Democracy effects in the Ottoman Empire

By Sebastián Rodríguez Villalobos

The  Ottoman Empire had been one of the world’s largest imperial powers, especially during the 16 and 17 centuries under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. It was founded  at the end of the thirteenth century in northwestern of Anatolia by  the  Oghuz Turkish tribal leader named Osman. The small Ottoman dynasty (kingdom)  was transformed into a transcontinental empire after multiple conquest through Europe and Asia. The vast Ottoman Empire surprisingly survived and lasted more than 4000 years in the world but finally succumb and separate at the beginning of the 20 century. There were many factors that brought down this empire but the most important were its internal political struggles caused by the conflict between the old monarchies ideas and the new introduced democratic ones and the economic crisis it suffered for not adapting to the capitalism system largely used in the rest of the world.

 

At the height of its power during the 17 century the Ottoman Empire ruled large regions of Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. The empire was governed from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey); its ruler was the sultan, the heir of a royal family. During this time it was very powerful military and economically.

 

In the 19 century the decline of the Ottoman Empire rapidly increased  as the empire struggled to retain control over its territory against internal revolts and other nations. The situation became desperate with the consecutive defeats in wars because of the significantly decreased military power, leading to the lost of many territories in Europe and the north of Africa with other nations. The Ottoman Empire in response as a defense for the losses of territory initiated an internal reform called Tanzimat, which  was characterized by various attempts to modernize the Ottoman Empire and to secure its territory against other nations and nationalist revolts movements with force.

 

Then there was the political instability in the Ottoman Empire created as the first Ottoman constitution, inspired by democratic ideas, was written by members of the group Young Ottomans, mainly by a member called Midhat Pasha, introducing a parduring the reign of the Sultan (“king” for other nations) Abdülhamid II. Although it was only in effect for two years this started a series of conflicts between the democratic ideas and the royal family which lead into constant change between the types of government of Parliamentary, constitutional monarchy or old monarchy. This constant changes cause a lot of instability in the empire as each type of government took controlled did a large number of different  actions to the other systems. The conflicts lasted until the end of the empire due to the corruption and transformation of each parliamentary that was implemented into a monarchy.

 

The last but more important factor for the decline of the empire was the economic crisis it built up. From the beginning the Ottomans saw military expansion and fiscalism (is when a government pay its spending levels and tax rates to monitor and influence a nation’s economy) as the primary source of wealth. Agriculture was seen more important than the industry and trade. This economy is describe by historians as a “war economy” where the majority of the wealth is gain by invading other territories, looting everything from the unlucky one. This system was very effective at is time, we have as a proof the fact that it was one of the most powerful empires in history (they beat the Romans so that are some extra points) but it was also their doom. As the capitalism spread all over the world the Ottoman Empire never try to change its economical system, trade became equal to the wealth and as all the nations around trade and become wealthy, the Ottoman Empire started to built large amounts of debts and it didn’t help that the Europeans nations on purpose, didn’t trade with the empire. The industry and manufacturers also became critical to for wealth and the Ottoman Empire only focused in agriculture, an activity that long ago became not so important creating economical crisis.

The Opium Wars

By Emilio Gonzalez

This war was divide in 2 war between 1839-42 and 1856-60, I will start saying what all was about in a brief mode, the beginning of the problem was that why this war is known as the Opium war, this was because opium was a drug that is most known now as heroin, in the late world the Britain country was so interested on a lot of resources that China had but the government of China wasn´t interested on the products that England could offer to this big country so that the England country make a play some one could say a dirty play, but others like a smart play, they start introducing Opium to China to pay all the resources that they need from China like silk, ceramic, and tea, so they start to introduce Opium in all the ways they could the Opium price dropped as the drugs starts to affect all social classes just to a moment that there was so many persons addicted to Opium that the Chinese country get angry and worried about his people so they start to clos e all of the ports so the western nations cant introduce more drugs to the country they close an important port like Canton port that makes the sells get bigger in the center of the nation so the government take cards on the affair so all of the importers could live in the city but they cannot bring their families to the nation and that get more limits so the importers only can stay on the country like a few months, the limits increased till western merchants could not contacts Qing officials directly, and there were no formal diplomatic between China and Western nations, the government start to think what more could we do to stop completely all these trades about Opium and different drugs, and because China was so strong in his economy that they decide that a “just war” should be fought to defend progress in the economy, In reality the British leaders of the Opium “trade” were more interested in protecting their drug sales in order to fund lucrative retirement packages, also to this moment China was also in a fight with western nations. So in summarized words Britain only way to pay resources was Opium so the Chinese government gets angry. The Opium trades was so effective that most of the people want to involve in the Opium market, as Chinese people as many others so all that people joined and start to introduce Opium to all lower classes but they give them like the leftovers of the Opium they sell it to the people that can’t afford to more expensive drugs, until a moment that more of the 50% of the officers and governmental officials consumed Opium as the Opium affects the military forces the alarms in the Chinese country and forces grew up the alarms and there was still persons that find a way to trade in the Canton port so the emperor was so frustrated because he couldn’t resolve the problem. So that they star a court and in one way he officials was arguing about the social class and silver drain, but in other side a merchant supported by some important officers proposed the legalization of Opium and taxation of drugs, they get in a decision of the emperor to get anti-opium crack down, that was so chaotic that the people of China also get upset but one of the most influential person in the decision of the emperor was a important officer named Lin Zexu that after 19 audiences with the emperor he convince the emperor to get off the trades in the Canton port.

By Neil

The Japanese empire started in the year in the year 1868, it started because of the Meiji restoration that were a chain of events that restored the practical imperial by the rule of emperor Meiji. This restoration led to big changes in political and social structure. This helped to modernize Japan. This period also make Japan change from being a feudal society to have a market economy and left the Japanese empire with a lingering western society.
Like European countries, many in the Japanese government turned expansion into a systematic goal, for security, national pride, resources for industrialization, settlement of overpopulation, and markets for manufactured goods. These goals were often intertwined.
The zaibatsu and government guided the nation, borrowing technologies from the West.
The Japanese were very arrogant, they saw their land as a gift of God and the thought they had to expand their land. In 1868 the Japanese sent an announcement to Korea monarchy. The announcement implied that Japan’s monarch was superior in status to Korea’s monarch. Diplomacy would have been served by Korea smiling at Japanese arrogance and accepting the announcement. Instead the Koreans rejected it, and Japan’s militant patriots and supporters of Meiji rule considered Korea’s response an affront to Japan’s national dignity, and exchanges in the months that followed failed to mollify the irritation felt by both sides
Japan emerged as the first Asian industrialized nation , they embraced the concept of a market economy and a adopted a British and American form of capitalism
Japan gradually took control of much of Asia’s market for manufactured goods, beginning with textiles. The economic structure became very mercantilistic, importing raw materials and exporting finished products, a reflection of Japan’s relative scarcity of raw materials. The economics also included a modern currency named yen, that was bases on banking, commercials and tax laws, stock exchanges and a communication network. This conducted to an advanced capitalist economy took time but was completed by the 1890s. By this time, the government had largely relinquished direct control of the modernization process, primarily for budgetary reasons.
With many similarities to the West, Japanese imperialism differed from Western imperialism. The first similarities is that Japanese empire was the first empire that wasn’t for. The west and they previously faced the colonization from an empire of the west . Like Western powers, Japanese expansion was fueled with Social Darwinism, and racism:
Despite Japan’s civilization, Western countries, because of racism, treated it the same way as other Asian countries.
Imperial expansion the last chance to win Western respect and ensure security and survival as a nation, and even bring civilization to other countries in Asia.
Japanese government turned expansion into a systematic goal, for security, national pride, resources for industrialization, overpopulation and market for a set of manufactured goods. Instead nations like England, Spain and France obtained their colonies from America to show their power. In religion some Asians leaned toward Christianity. Japan saw how effective imperialist policies and they used the same strategies, they also seeked to modernize their economy
In the political effects the British provided unity to India, the inducted western ideas like nationalism, democracy, constitutionalism etc. Japan abandoned their centuries of isolation, they were capable of expand with their huge army.

Chinese Isoliationism

FINAL ESSAY: WORLD REGIONS

Dominic  Hernandez Corral

The region I’m going to talk about its ASIA.
-It is the largest and most populous continent in the world, it shares borders with Europe and Africa to its West, Oceania to its South, and North America to its East.
Asia is often divided into culturally and geographically similar regions, although definitions, names, and borders can change, depending on the region.
The majority of beliefs in the world come from Asia.
The concept of Asia(a name dating back to classical antiquity)by its size and diversity may actually have more to do with human geography than physic geography.
As we said, Asia varies very good across and within its regions with regard to ethnic groups,, environments, economics,cultures, historical ties and government systems.
It has a mix of many different climates ranging from the equatorial south via the hot desert in the Middle East, temperate areas in the east and the extremely continental centre to vast subarctic and polar areas in Siberia.
-China is located in the East of Asia, bordered by the Pacific Ocean.

I’m going to describe the history of Chinese isolationism and explain why did China isolate itself during the 15th century.

*The term of Isolationism means: “the policy or doctrine of isolating one’s country from the affairs of other nations by Denying to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one’s country to its own advancement and remain atpeace by avoiding foreign entanglements and responsibilities.”
In 1368, Ming Dinasty took control of china from Mongols
In the early 15th century, after Zheng He (a chinese muslim admiral) led 7 naval expeditions , the Ming Dynasty started shutting the Middle Kingdom out of the rest of the world, this mean that they became increasingly isolationist.
The Qing dynasty that came after the Ming dynasty continued the Ming dynasty’s isolationist policies, and the empire remained largely isolated until the 19th century, because of foreign “initiative.”
However, just when Spain and Portugal started developing with an economy based on trade, the Chinese prefer to close their doors to the world.
The main reasons why china did this…
They pretty much had all the resources they needed in the country,so the trade was not a need and even though Zheng did go out exploring they were not interested in mercantilism.
Mercantilism was pretty much frowned upon within the Confucian system, merchants did not produce goods, they moved them around and made money which made them a disaster on the system.
The few who were enterprising and the ones who came up with some new product often find themselves in competition with the government.
Also there was a palace fire in the Forbidden City in the 1420s that the Chinese, at the time saw as a sign from heaven that they should no longer send expeditions out into the world. In addition, the emperor at the time, Yongle, had difficulties conceiving a successor, and his eventual successor was against sending out exploratory fleets.

As we can see, the Emperor system considered itself the center of the world, the focus of the heavens. When outsiders came they gave tribute and fealty to the Emperor, so the outside world came to them, they did not need to go out.
Imperial China didn’t need the outside trade,because they were a large country that didn’t have need for resources from the outside and their technology at that point was sophisticated enough for what they needed. Also they seemed to be able to sail fairly far with their ships, which were extremely large.
CONCLUSION
On my opinion I think that this isolation affects china in the way that the Chinese developed a very distinct culture. They believed that they were the center of the world and even called themselves the middle kingdom. Their decision will affect them on a comercial level and if they stay like this, they will become like North Korea.
I wouldn’t like to grow up in a region like china on those times, because I think that you live in an environment that can’t enjoy the global harmony that the other countries have. You also can’t have any of the things sold in other countries and I wouldn’t like to grow up in a worldwide trade being wrong or illegal because in order for a country to succeed you need to work together and make the most out of the things you and the other person has. Right now China is a world power and that may be because their ideals of the world and trade have changed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-history/the-ming-dynasty.htm

Middle East

Final Essay
World Regions
Carlos Valverde
1.which is the main interest of the imperial powers over this region ?
2.why was the ottoman empire called the sick man of Europe ?
3. what led to the empire’s decline ?

the main interest of the imperial power over the middle east is because the middle east had a lot of culture and a lot of economical benefits because of its minerals and the petroleum and a lot of different religions like Judaism, Islam and Christianity. and also they wanted to have better lands and more lands to explore and because they have a lot of resources which they cant take advantages of the resources and advantages of that specific location that is why they wanted power over that region

Sick man of Europe is a label given to European country experiencing economical difficulties and they where called like that because they great power was crumbling by the 20th century all that remain of the ottoman empire outside turkey was Syria , Mesopotamia , Palestine and parts of the Arabian peninsula . The ottoman empire ,within 100years loses over 2 million sq km of land , she is pushed back from having the entire balkans plus few oder cities having jus one measly city in Europe .Then in WWI she is almost universally considered the weakest of all next to the Italians and maybe the Austrians. The phrase “sick man of Europe” is commonly attributed to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, referring to the Ottoman Empire, because it was increasingly falling under the financial control of the European powers and had lost territory in a series of failing wars.so finally after they are called the sick man of Europe
because they economy wasn’t good and the lost 2million sq km of land .

At the beginning of the late eighteenth century the ottoman empire began to face a lot of challenges like the foreign invasions , in response to the foreign threats the empire , the empire initiated a period of tremendous internal reform which came to be known as the Tanzimat ,which it succeeded in significantly strengthen the ottoman empire central state despite the empires . over the course the ottoman empire began to gain power and rationalize , exercising a great degree of influence over its population . Between 1683 (Battle of Vienna) and 1923, we are talking about 240 years of decline of which the first half (until 1804 when the Serbs revolted) were spent without Ottoman power being seriously contested, save by the Russians. Their other great enemy, the Habsburgs were content with the territories conceded then. Venice had declined before the Ottomans did. The other european powers, used them opportunistically as an ally from time to time, against Russia or the Habsburgs. They also used the subject nations aspirations for independence, without commiting to support their revolts to fruition, until 1830. After 1830, the European powers propped up the OE because they were afraid that an antagonist would benefit more.

Ottoman Empire

By Sofia Cardona Castro

The Ottoman empire, also known as the Turkish Empire or Turkey by his contemporary ones, though the leaders osmanlíes never used this name to refer to their state. The Ottoman empire was a multiethnic and multilingual state governed by the dynasty osmanlí. founded at the end of the thirteenth century in northwestern Anatolia in the vicinity of Bilecik and Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman.
By the time of the Ottoman conquests, Anatolia had been home to ancient communities of Hellenistic and later Byzantine Jews. The Ottoman Empire became a safe haven for Iberian Jews fleeing persecution, and in its heyday, the city of Thessaloniki had a Jewish majority.
The status of Jews in the Ottoman Empire often hinged on the whims of the Sultan. So, for example, while Murad III ordered that the attitude of all non-Muslims should be one of “humility and abjection” and should not “live near Mosques or tall buildings” or own slaves, others were more tolerant.
The Ottoman empire starts by being one more of the small Turkish states that arise in Asia Minor during the decadence of the Empire Selyúcida. The Ottoman Turks were controlling gradually to other states and under the reign of Mehmed I they finish what stays of the dynasty selyúcida.
The first phase of the Ottoman expansion took place under the government of Osmán I and continued in the reigns of Orkhan, Murad I and Bayezid I, at the expense of the territories of the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria and Serbia. Bursa fell down under their domain in 1326 and Adrianópolis in 1361. The Ottoman victories in the Balkans alerted Europe on the danger that this Empire was representing and it was the central motive of the organization of the First Crusade. The place that the Ottomans put to Constantinople is broken thanks to Tamerlán, leader of the Mongolians, whom prisoner took to Bayezid in 1403 but the Mongolian control on the Ottomans lasted very little

The empire together under the control of Mehmed I towards 1412, lived through a dizzy expansion with the successors, Murad II and Mehmed II; the first one, conquers Ladislao of Poland in 1444 and, Mehmed II, captures Constantinople in 1453. This way, the Ottomans passed of being a nomadic horde to turning into one of the most extensive and resplendent empires of the world. Under the governments of Selim I and Mercury chloride I Magnificent, takes place the expansion of the empire towards Hungary, Valaquia, Moldavia and Transylvania. Part of the secret of their victory resided in the possession of a powerful army shaped by strict hierarchies to which Christians and foreigners could concern. The body of elite was shaped by the famous “jenízaros”, or European soldiers who were stolen from children and re-educated in the Islam
The Asian limits of the Ottoman Empire were not respected by a lot of time either. Selim I attacked the “Mamelukes” of Egypt and Syria, took Cairo in 1517 and assumed the succession of the caliphate. Also the Venetian properties met affected in Greece that they stayed under their power.
During Solimánen’s reign 1535 begins the proverbial relationship between France and Turkey, joined against the Spanish Hapsburg. Mercury chloride reorganizes the judicial system and under their government they bloom the literature, the architecture and other arts. Also it establishes what would be one of the canonical Moslem laws: the Sharia, which was limiting the prerogatives of the sultan, awarding him a counselor, with the political sufficient power to question his actions.
Because of the death of Mercury chloride, it continued a progressive decadence. The priests (ulemas) and the jenízaros were earning power and exercised on the successive leaders a notable influence that allowed the corruption of the system. The first important blow is inflicted in 1571 on the navy of Selim II in Lepanto’s famous Battle, Spanish and Venetian where supervised by Juan of Austria they defeat the Ottomans. Nevertheless, the military Turkish power meets restored in the 17th century, when the army of Murad IV conquers the Persian ones in 1638.
In 1683, under the control of the Great visir Mustafá, the Ottomans come up to Vienna. In aid of the city there comes Juan III of Poland and the subsequent campaigns of, Carlos V of Lorraine, Luis of Gully made by rainwater and Eugenio de Saboyaterminarían in a series of negotiations with the signature of Karlowicz’s Agreement in 1699, which costs to the Turks the loss of his(her,your) territories in Hungary.

Other possessions were getting lost gradually and between the XVIIIth and XIXth century drastic reforms are introduced under the reigns of Selim III and Mahmud II, but everything is useless, Turkey and the Ottoman dynasty are wounded by death. After a series of capitulations, the Ottoman Empire is losing power and economic independence and though Turkey, theoretically, wins in the War of Crimea, his economy is ruined. In 1856, The Congress of Paris recognizes to the Ottoman Empire as a sovereign state and with it confirms, paradoxically, their dependence of the European power.

In 1875 the revolt of Bosnia and Herzegovina precipitates the war against the Russians (1877-78). This represents the independence of Romania (before Valaquia and Moldavia) and today Serbia and Montenegro. Bosnia and Herzegovina turn into conditions dependent on Austria.

The irruption of the First World war and Gallipolli’s Campaign in opposition to the forces allied in 1915, ends with the occupation on the part of the English forces of Baghdad and Jerusalem. In 1918 the Turkish resistance collapses both in Asia and in Europe, concluding with an armistice and the definitive fall of the Ottoman Empire, disuelto with the signature of Sevres’s Agreement.

Internet censorship in China

By Mariana Parra
The internet arrived in China in 1994, but by 1998 the Communist Party of China decided it was dangerous to let people talk about Chinese government on a World Wide Web, so they introduced the Golden Shield Project, a.k.a the previously mentioned Great Firewall of China. This “shield” keeps foreign internet services such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, most of Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, the New York Times website, etc. outside of the country’s borders. The government keeps everything under control using fines and arrests as punishment and maintaining the definition of “state secrets” vague. The size of the Chinese internet police force in 2013 was 2 million.
It’s very easy for me to think “so, why don’t they revolt?”, since only a week ago I had no idea of what this censorship is all about and still now I don’t completely understand what it is to live under these regulations, also my country’s history is full of both successful and unsuccessful (mostly successful, though) revolts. My question was answered when, while researching, I found a very interesting TED talk. In this conference Jing Zhao (a.k.a Michael Anti) explains how this system consists on balancing two hands. On one of them you have keeping the network under control, and on the other one, satisfying people’s need of social media. He called this “smart censorship”. “Sometimes the Arab dictators didn’t understand these two hands. For example, Mubarak, he shut down the Internet. He wanted to prevent the Netizens [from criticizing] him. But once Netizens can’t go online, they go in the street. And now the result is very simple. We all know Mubarak is technically dead. But also, Ben Ali, Tunisian president, didn’t follow the second rule. That means keep the server in your hands. He allowed Facebook, a U.S.-based service, to continue to stay on inside of Tunisia. So he can’t prevent it, his own citizens to post critical videos against his corruption. The same thing happend. He was the first to topple during the Arab Spring”. Since foreign social media isn’t allowed, they have their own. Jing Zhao said that the Internet has two Internets, one is the “Internet” and the other one is “Chinanet”. He said: “You have Google, we have Baidu. You have Twitter, we have Weibo. You have Facebook, we have Renren. You have YouTube, we have Youku and Tudou. The Chinese government blocked every single international Web 2.0 service, and we Chinese copycat every one.”
The reason to limit Internet access and its relationship with Chinese history is also mentioned in the conference: “if you are a fan of Game of Thrones, you definitely know how important a big wall is for an old kingdom. It prevents weird things from the north. Same was true for China. In the north, there was a great wall, Chang Cheng. It protected China from invaders for 2,000 years. But China also has a great firewall. That’s the biggest digital boundary in the whole world”. After listening to this part of the conference I understood that the wall protects them from the outside world, from foreign opinions and from change, which I feel like I confirmed after asking a friend about his opinion. His answer was: “I think there are two important reasons: First one: Chinese government protects domestic internet companies not to be impacted by foreign companies; second one: china is not a democratic country, the whole country is leaded by the communist party without other parties, the party is afraid people in china know more info about others, so in china, internet censorship is stricter than America or Mexico”.

The Sepoy Rebellion

By Alessandra Vargas

It was on May of 1857, when sepoys in the British East India Company’s army rose up against the British. The unrest soon spread to other army divisions and civilian towns across north and central India. By the time it was over, a lot of people had been killed. India changed forever. The British home government broke up the British East India Company, taking direct colonial control of the British Raj in India. Also, the Mughal Empire ended, and Britain sent the last Mughal emperor into exile in Burma.
The cause of the Indian Revolt was a clearly minor change in the weapons used by the British East India Company’s troops. The East India Company upgraded to the new Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle, which used greased paper cartridges. In order to open the cartridges and load the rifles, sepoys had to bite into the paper and tear it with their teeth.
Rumors began in 1856 that the grease on the cartridges was made of a mixture of beef tallow and pork lard; eating cows, as we know, is forbidden in Hinduism, while consumption of pork is prohibited in Islam.
Thus, in this one small change mostly because of religion, the British managed to seriously offended both hindu and muslim trops.
The revolt started in Meerut, which was the first area to receive the new weapons. The British manufacturers soon changed the cartridges in an attempt to calm the spreading anger among the sepoys, but this move backfired as well the fact that they stopped greasing the cartridges only confirmed the rumors about cow and pig fat, in the sepoys’ minds.
And as the Indian Revolt spread, it took additional causes of discontent among both sepoy troops and civilians of all castes or social clases. Royal families joined the uprising, due to British changes to the inheritance law, making adopted children ineligible for their thrones. This was an attempt to control succession in many of the royal states that were independent from the British.
Large land-holders in northern India also rose up, since the British East India had confiscated land and redistributed it to the peasantry. Peasants were none too happy, either, though they joined the revolt to protest heavy land taxes imposed by the British.
Religion also convinced some Indians to join the revolt. The East India Company forbade certain religious practices and traditions, including sati or widow-burning, to the outrage of many Hindus. The company also tried to undermine the caste system, which seemed inherently unfair to post-Enlightenment British sensibilities. In addition, British officers and missionaries began to preach Christianity to the Hindu and Muslim sepoys. The Indians believed, that their religions were under attack by the East India Company.
Finally, Indians regardless of class, caste or religion felt oppressed and disrespected by the agents of the British East India Company. Company officials who abused or even murdered Indians were seldom punished properly; even if they were tried, they were rarely convicted. A general sense of racial superiority among the British fueled Indian anger across the country.
The Indian Revolt of 1857 lasted until June of 1858. In August, the Government of India Act of 1858 dissolved the British East India Company. The British government took direct control of the half of India formerly under the company, with various princes still in supposed control of the other half. Queen Victoria became the Empress of India.
The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was blamed for the revolt. The British government sent him into exile in Rangoon, Burma.
The Indian army also saw huge changes after the revolt. Instead of relying heavily on Bengali troops from the Punjab, the British began to recruit soldiers from the “martial races” which were certain caste or social groups regarded as possessing a more masculine character, suited for military service. Unfortunately, the Indian Revolt of 1857 didn´t result in freedom for India. In many ways, Britain reacted by taking a rigid control of the “crown jewel” of its empire.
As to conclude, the sepoy rebellion is a subject that makes you wonder how do people develop it on both countries, India and England. How do both nations teach it to kids at school, since this rebellion had a lot of purposes that made it happen.
You can tell the East India Company pushed the limits of the Indian people by forcing extreme taxes on them and torturing them. The bloody revolution began and although it was unsuccessful, it did nearly defeat a large world power when it was organized only by peasants with limited resources and limited training.
The lesson of the Sepoy War is not one of victory or justice, but failure. People, once pushed into a corner, will fight for nothing more than the freedom to fight, and live, if not for religion then for their basic right to live in freedom.

What were some different African political systems previous to European imperialism ?

By Josue Arzola

The precolonial Africa was the time where africans controlled their own affairs and administered justice among themselves. The system of government was defined by relations , it was characterized by structural diversity and pluralism in the political thought, habits and political institutions. In the system, the diversity was a reflection of the pluralism of the political philosophy espoused by the Africas´s diverse of al lot of social cultural groups.
The variation in the political philosophy , especially in social groups was viewed in the nature political authority ,the rights and obligations. The political structures were not rigid but adaptive to de environment exigencies as well as responsive to the local needs, all circumstances and the wishes of the ruled. The principle of central government was combined with less local autonomy.
This systems were the product of centuries of successful trial and error in which men had worked in ways for living in tropics and the forests, in the mountains and grasslands of this enormous continent. The systems were in a long period of natural selection of a natural selection of a social kind. They thought men within frameworks of spiritual and sufficient moral of power and persuasion. The systems were strong, this means that within the limits of the world they knew they worked really better than anything that was offered in exchange. The used to work better not only at a material level, but also in terms of spiritual, moral and socially constructive behavior.
Ohaegbulam identified three types of political organizations that evolved in precolonial Africa.
This types were based on the degree of control exercised at the political centre , the regulation of the force and relation with the nature.
In the first type, the political authorities were lead by one common leader, they had a good relationship. The second type were larger and more extensive than the first. The society preferred an egalitarian difussion of political authority thought different segments or units of their society, there was a cultural and linguistic nation performing all the functions off a political system. The third type is described as centralized kingdoms or states. The great empires of Western Sudann – Ghana, Mali, Songhai – and the ancient civilization of the Nile valley _ Nubia, Axum andd Egypt – Those can be some examples of this type of states. This kingdoms had an institution, administration, and judicial structures. The power was served the good of society better than the fragmentation or segmented systems, that’s why this system had the most developed states of Africa.
While Europe was trying to colonize Africa, the people from there was giving a strong resistence
Because the africans had a complex strategical thinking.
After the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, most powerful European countries agreed to the rules for controlling African territories, the British, the french, germans, italians, spanish, portuguese, and belgians finally implemented strategies for a long term control of Africa .
By 1850, only a few colonies existed along African coastlines, they were Algeria(French), Angola(portugal), and the cape Colony(Great Britain). The free african states continued, and after the one of the slave trade in 1800s, a lively exchange took place between African and European states.They traded manufactured goods for gold. As the Europeans powers started to invade and interfere with african land and culture, the people became extremely frustrated and upset.
The advantage of the Europeans was that political independence was lost as one territory after another was conquered. Although post–Berlin Conference colonial rule followed decades and even centuries of involvement, its imposition was failing. The use of military force was necessary everywhere to establish and maintain European control of African territories. The European tools of empire, from quinine (to treat malaria) to the steamboat, railway, and machine gun, all this enabled the penetration and conquest to be complete. In some places, such as the Benin kingdom of Nigeria in 1897, Europeans forcibly removed the local rulers (the oba and his chiefs) from power and sent them into exile. Cultural treasures that expressed power and recorded the Benin kingship’s historically sanctioned legitimization were stolen and taken to Europe, where they were stolen or used for a common benefit.