Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Opium Wars

The opium wars was battle between China and Britain. The Chinese were fighting so the opium would stop coming into the country because it cost was very high and it gave some bad side affects to some people. Britain fought because they wanted the tea from China so they needed more ports to trade instead of the only port available which was Canton. This lasted from 1839 to about 1842 (3 years). It was called the opium wars because they were fighting over the trade of opium.
During these three years of battling many things happened. The Chinese would take the opium coming in and destroyed it. Also they would kill anyone who tyred to sell opium. Capetian Charles Elliot tried to get a letter to Queen Victoria. The letter never made it to England because his messenger was killed by some sailors in China. In the three year span Britain won the war because of there advanced technology. They made china sign a treaty that enabled china to give the British more ports and legalise the opium.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Film lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

In the movie "Mountains of the Moon" some hardships the Europeans faced while traviling was being killed by the locals but mostly the disese from the water or the Misquitos. It is sort of strange that the source of the Nile river is called Lake Victoria is weird because it already has a name but the Europeans just call it lake Victoria.
The technologicly advance that the British had over the Africans was that the British had many many guns and the Africans had spears. This is why the British eventualy won because the British created the machine gun which shot faster than a spear.