Opium war- Imperialism in china

The opium wars were fought during the years 1839-1842. China fought the opium wars against britain. Before the opium war, China did not have interest in the countries in the Western Hemisphere. The tea that was only avaliable in China was a very popular drink in Great Britain. So Great Britain would trade with China for the tea. In exchange, China did not want any of the ideas that the countries in the Western Hemisphere had. Great Britain felt like this trading system wasn't balanced. They felt that they needed to buy and sell from China not just buy. In order to balance this trading system, they decided to sell China Opium. There were different views of the effects of Opium. The Chinese thought that Opium was used to make herion and morphine. While Great Britain thought it was a medicene used to relieve pain reduce hunger and thirst.

So in the end, Great Britain ended up winning and China felt humiliated. China tried so hard to eliminate the drug from their country but Great Britain could not let that happen. So in 1841, Great Britain sent gunboats to destroy most of China's costals cities. China was left destroyed after this surprise attack because China was behind in modern weapons and technology. They were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjiing in 1842. It is called the opium wars because it was a war of the drug opium. Great Britain won becuase they were moire advanced in modern technology and weapons.

Film lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

In the movie "Mountains of the Moon", Europeans traveled to Africa in search of the source of the Nile River. Europeans had more power over Africa, however they faced many hardships in Africa. They need to face the fact that there are alot of bugs that can harm them. Such as the mosquitos that carry around Malaria. One of the Europeans had a beetle go inside his ear. Then he got a sharp object and put it in his ear. He ended up killing the bug but injured his ear. They also needed to communicate with the people in Africa even though they dont understand them.

They would name the river after their queen because they found it and they had more control over Africa. They had more power and control over Africa and since they found it, they named it after their queen. Europeans have greater technology such as a gun while Africans still fought with sticks and stones. They are moer advanced in technology then Africa.

Imperalism project

In the imperalism project, we cut out cotton, slaves, copper, etc. We then glued them to an empty world map in the specific place in wehich they grew. For the slaves they had to glue them to the certain country in which they were kept. After that, we had to color in the main country in England. With that same color we had color in the countries that the main country controlled. This showed imperialism because the country that was colored in Europe was the main country. The other countries that were colored in the same color somewhere else in the world, was the country they controlled. This is what the imperialism project was all about.