Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is state regulation of nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of secret police, propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, personality cults, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, single-party states, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics.propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, personality cults, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, single-party states, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics.

Stalin rid himself of all potential rivals in the party, by having many of them executed. To ensure his position and to push forward "socialism in one country," he put the Soviet Union on a course of crash collectivization and industrialization. An estimated 25 million farmers were forced onto state farms. Collectivization alone killed as many as 14.5 million people, and Soviet agricultural output was reduced by 25 percent, according to some estimates.

The "Five Year Plans" were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. The "Great Purge" campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the 1930s, which removed all of his remaining opposition from power.

Film Lesson: Doctor Zhivago

The film Dr. Zhivago depicted the Russian revolution as a horrible time to live in Russia. Some of the reasons that Russia wanted the independence were first because they wanted to get rid of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. The reason they wanted to get rid of him was because by the spring of 1917, Russia was on the verge of total collapse. The army had taken 15 million men from the farms, so food prices had soared. The severe winter dealt with railways, overburdened by emergency shipments of coal and supplies, which would be the final blow.

Causes of WWI

World War 1 had three different causes, Nationalism, Militarism, and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Nationalism is an extreme loyalty to one`s nation and concern for it`s welfare. It was one of the causes of WWI because European nations were looking to regain their lost territories. Militarism is a nation`s policy to maintain strong army forces. This was also another cause to WWI because France, Russia, and Germany were competed to build powerful armies. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was probably the first cause of WWI. Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of archduke of Austria. He was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist. This led to the Austrian-Hungarian empire to declare war on Serbia. After that Serbia had it`s friends to help them out, but so did Austria-Hungary.

The Opium Wars

Many things happened during the opium war. The British began to trade opium to the Chinese for tea. The Chinese used the opium as medicine in the beginning, but soon the British began to show the Chinese how to smoke opium. The Chinese emperor began to hate the British for bringing the opium to China. He hated the British because the opium was making the people of China very lazy. So the emperor wrote a letter to queen Victoria, but the queen of england did not respond to the letter. Then China closed it's trading gates to england, but england did not like this so they came with gunboats and attacked the Chinese ports the Chinese tried to defend themselves but the British boats were too advanced in technology. So england defeated the Chinese easily.

"The White Man's Burden"

The white man's burden was to bring every one civilization to all the native lands like Africa, and Asia. I agree with this analysis because the poem is basically saying that Europe is like getting tired of making everyone civilized. I think that the Europeans were just confused because it's not like the other lands wanted to be civilized. What Europe did was first conquer the land and then by force make them learn how to be civilized. I don`t think that the U.S. was as imperialistic
as before. In some places they might some racial slurs, but no we are not living the white man's burden anymore.

The scramble for africa

The main countries that fought over the land of Africa were Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Germany, and Belgium. These countries fought over Africa's vast resources like diamonds, gold, silver, rubber trees, ivory, wood, salt, and other materials. They were able take over Africa with the invention of the machine gun and the cure for malaria. The Europeans made many borders which confused the Africans by separating the friendly tribes and putting them together with their rival tribes.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

Some of the hardships that the English explorers John Speak and Richard Burden faced were the harsh weathers in Africa. Africa has a very hot climate, which explains it's deserts. The wild tribes were also a problem. The first time John and Richard encountered a wild tribe they were attacked and they had to retreat back to england. Then when they returned, they encountered other tribes. These other tribes were