Africa

Before we started the unit on Africa, I saw Africa as a poor continent with little technology and with extremely poor living conditions. It was very interesting in our studies of Africa to discover that parts of it are in fact technologically advanced and that it has some thriving economically strong cities. Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is an excellent example of a vast city with over eleven million people. There are many very poor parts of Africa, but that is only half the story. Frequently people think of it either as a poverty stricken continent with vast deserts, severe health issues and political unrest or as a safari destination such as Kenya in the east, with elephants and rhinos and lots of very colorful wild life. I believe that movies such as Lion King and advertisements for charities such as the Christian Foundation have helped to paint these pictures. Africa did not always have as many poverty stricken areas. In fact at one point it was one of the most technologically advanced and richest continents in the world. This all ended when European countries began to colonize Africa. They moved in, took control and stole most of Africa's natural resources. They exploited their people as slaves and then left them with nothing. When the Europeans finally left the African people had no leaders Civil wars resulted as various groups attempted to seize power and control of the country. The same struggles for power continue today with wars ragging in many of its countries. I have learned that Africa is an amazing place in our world. It has beautiful rich areas along with very poor areas and a wide variety of different cultures. I believe that a lot of the poverty and the struggles for power would not have been as extreme if Africa had not been colonized by other countries.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution started in 1917, however there were many events leading up to it that played a major role in its creation. The first major move towards the revolution occurred in 1861 when the Russian government put the emancipation edict in place. It cancelled all of the debt from that the peasants had accumulated over the years. They were now "free of debt slavery." The emancipation edict was the first sign from the government that they recognized that there was a problem and that they were attempting to fix it, however it did not work. The next event leading up to the revolution occurred in 1905 when Russia lost a war against Japan. The people blamed the Tsar for this and as a result the Tsar put in place a Duma. The Duma was supposed to be the representative of the Russian people. It did not work as only the people with money were allowed to vote. So the peasants still had no say in their government. The next event leading up to the revolution was WW I. Russia got involved in a war that they were not ready to fight. As a result their soldiers were unprepared for battle and had little training, poor weapons and very limited food and clothing. The Russian people were also very unhappy with their extremely poor living conditions. A lot of these poor conditions had to do with a man called Grigori Rasputin. He was a very powerful influence on the Tsarina and had many laws passed that angered people and partly led to the revolution. The Russian people had rebellions to protest their horrible conditions. The government called in their army to help control the situation, however instead of fighting the rioters, the army joined them. Several small armies were sent in to deal with this pandemonium. However these smaller groups were too stubborn to unite. They insisted on fighting by themselves so that they could claim victory. The result was that they were all defeated and the Tsar was forced into giving up the throne. Between February 1917 and October 1917, two government parties were in control of the country. This two party rule ended in October 1917 when the Bolshevik took over power. The first order of business for the Bolsheviks was to purge the communist party by arresting and sending its leaders to work camps. Joseph Stalin eventually took power over the country and remained its leader until his death in 1953.