Francisco Global blog

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2009-04-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO was a organization that was made up of countries in North America and Europe. NATO was established on April 4, 1949. This is a mutual defense between the nations so if an outside party were to attack then other countries will come to their aid. This organization was made because the communist party especially the USSR were growing in power. The European countries saw this as a treat so they established NATO. The USSR counter to the organization was making the Warsaw pact. The Treaty was signed in Warsaw, Poland on May 14, 1955. It was the same as NATO mutual defense between the allied nations.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

2009-04-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

Schindler's List was a film that depicted the WWII Nazis. The film in the beginning show the scramble for capturing the Jews. The Nazi storm the city and try to find all Jews in that area. With the people taken by surprise they were easily captured. One of the most horrific scene was this one in my opinion. It shows how the Jews were reduced to animals as the ran from the Nazi. They hide in anyplace they could find no matter how small or uncomfortable it was. Schindler was a man in the Nazi who protected his workers in the factory. In this effort most of them who would have been killed at any moment survived and honor Schindler as a hero to them

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

2009-04-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Night and Fog is a documentary that was made in 1955 about the concentration camps in nazi Germany. WWII was a very dark time for mankind, we saw humans being exterminated like insects because of one man's hatred for them. No one at first really believed that human can preform these kind of acts to another human but what they saw stunned them. Footage of this documentary really shows the aftermath of all the concentration camps. Dead bodies were just out on the road, clean up crews piled all the bodies together. From the sight of the footage it is not normal to feel nothing. These people were starved and tortured. The Jews were taken to a train where they will be sent for examanation or execution. The Nazi pick only the fit to work in the nazi work camps. The documentary really captures the true evil that was being done to these people.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

2009-02-24T07:13:00.000-08:00

The Treaty of Versailles was the document that ended the war. This document consisted of the demands that needed to be meet by the losing side(Germany). This treaty was one of the causes of WWII. This treaty was unfair to the losing side. This document restricted the military forces and divided up land that was loss in the war. No more than a hundred thousand troops and 6 navel battleships. All the damage done to the allied power was to be paid for by the Germans. This giant debt cause Germany to go to a big depression. The treaty of Versailles was very unfair to the losing side. All the restrictions led to many damages inside the German people. This led to an uprising in the people. The people searched for a new leader to rid Germany of its hardships. Hitler arose for this cause. As people saw him as a leader the world saw him as a threat.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

2009-02-11T07:14:00.000-08:00

Secular is a word that refers to seperation of church. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) wanted a seperation from the church in everyway like school, culture, and legal affairs. He wanted to modernize turkey. He change things by letting people practice their religion anytime. He wanted to replace the traditional values of turkey with modern ones. This was the reformation he made. He completly change the turkey economy for the better.

Film lesson- "Gandhi"

2009-02-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

Gandhi was the person that greatly helped India receive it's independence. He is a symbol of peace. The matter in which he takes care of situations are the most pure action. No matter how many times he is struck he just does nothing and do what he was previously doing. The film we watch portrayed him greatly. The scene in which he told the Indian people to throw away their ids and burn them was one of the few scenes that shows his philosophy. In Gandhi's life he was imprisoned and hurt by racism.
Some of the ways he achieved independence was using various tactics. One really effective one was the boycott of British goods. This included their clothes and salt. The British had a law that said the Indian people cannot buy salt from anyone other than the government.Gandhi took a lot of people and marched toward the sea. This march was meant to go out to the coast and make their own salt. Gandhi told the people pf India to make their own clothes. this will stop the dependence on British goods. The British took a big hit from the this boycott. Gandhi's way was not to start a fight but to do anything to prevent it. One hurtful way Gandhi prevent a fight was to fast. The only way he would stop fasting was if everyone agreed to stop fighting.
Gandhi's philosophy is a very noble one. His actions of peace made the British look bad when they used violent means against him. The massacre of Indians at Amritsar shows the violent means to keep the Indian people oppressed. I completely agree with his ways but these types of actions take a lot of self control. Gandhi was viewed as a hero to the Indian people. At his funeral he was praised by everyone. The peaceful man made the whole world shed tears for his death.

The Meiji Restoration of Japan

2008-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Japan used to be an isolated island. There was no contact with the west or any othe country for that matter. This was a reason that their technology was not as advanced as it would be if they were in communication with other people. When the west came Matthew Perry was the commander of the fleet that came to Japan. He bullied Japan with threats of annihilation of their chain of islands, They then signed a treaty of trade. With the newcomers overthrowing the emperor of Japan, Japan knew it was time for change. They then overthrew them and emperor Meiji. He ruled the land by ruleing people's fear of becoming a colony. They then started to modernize Japan. Japan is an archipelago which is a chain of islands.

The Opium Wars

2008-12-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

The opium wars were about the Chinese government did not want the Europeans to bring any opium into china. The Europeans did not want to stop because they used opium as a trade for china's resource tea. As the Chinese people were becoming addicted to the opium it brought in more tea for the Europeans. The opium wars included china and England. the English won the war without effort. The English had better weapons so the Chinese swords were no match for the guns the English had. So now the English now controlled China and able to take any resource they want.

Film Lesson: "Mountains of the Moon"

2008-12-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

Europeans faced many hardships when they entered Africa. This is because the African people in the center of Africa have never seen a white man. They are also very territorial, and because of this then they attack any intruders that enter their territory. The geography of Africa was a hot and dry land. This cause a lot of people to die in the hot weather. The rocky terrain caused a lot of trouble traveling. The lake was named after a British queen because there were no other explorers that discovered the source (Lake Victoria) and the area that surrounds the lake. The middle of Africa was a unknown area because all the hardships. The reason for being superior than the African people was the European technology. The biggest technology gap was in the weapons. The Africans had spears and Europeans had guns. This led to an easy conquering over the African people. Thats why Europeans could take over the contenent.

Karl Marx and Communism

2008-11-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx was the man who thought of the idea of communism. He thought that the majority of the people who are the working class should get most of the power. He saw that the factory owners kept getting richer and with that the workers got less even though they are doing most of the work. This happened a lot in the time of the industrial revolution. The government would have been made up of the working class getting complete equality. He wanted his plan to be enforced all over the world because in other places it was worse than it was in where he lived. On paper this seems like a great plan but the thing with complete equality is that someone will want more than the others around them and find a way to get more. Karl Marx saw that the workers were the good guys and the rich were the bad guys. Today there are forms of communism but im sure that was not the original plan that Karl Marx had in mind.

Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution

2008-11-05T06:40:00.000-08:00

He believed the industrial revolution was not good because the people were working in bad conditions. Marx made the point of the workers running the factory not the owners. He was disgusted when he heard of all the harsh, unsafe conditions these people were working in. He said a famous quote for is idea of communism “workers of the world unite”. He wanted a worldwide revolution for the workers.
His idea of communism looks good on paper where all people have the same thing. House, car, and salary. The problem with this is people are greedy and will try to find a way to get more than the other person. This will cause problems among the group. Communism is viewed as a bad thing because instead of the government being run by the workers, dictators rose from this idea. People are forced to work and are given low salary.

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

2008-10-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Nationalism is when you have pride in your country/heritage. You know that you are from a curtain heritage is when people have a lot of things in common. One of it could be place of origin and language. These are things that represents culture. Having similar culture is the foundation of being of a nation, a union of people of the same culture. Naturally going to another place where they have different culture like a country like America, a person will lose some or all of the their culture. Mixing a culture is called cultural diffusion. In America people often mix culture or forget one and practice the other.

I am Mexican American. I show I am nationalistic by practicing Mexican culture. But the downside is when being exposed to a different culture then that my parents thought me, it is hard to practice both. So with the cultural diffusion I don't practice as much mexican culture like the holidays

Italy separated from this huge empire called the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The empire fell because the empire could not hold the tension of all the countries wanting to be their own country. So Italy separated itself from the empire. So after becoming a country it developed its own culture and traditions.

Simon Bolivar and the Latin American Revolutions

2008-10-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

The French and American revolution both had the same concept of fighting off a curropt government and creating your own government. These wars sparked an idea to the minds of people that were controlled as well. Most of South American belonged to Spain and present-day Brazil used to belong to Portugal. People in South America wanted to break free from control of Spain. Many important figures in South America came about because the deeply cared about the freedom of South America. One of these important figures was Simon Bolivar. He was a man with a troubled past as like his parents not being there for him and his wife dieing. Even with this past he still managed to become one of the most influencal people of this revolution. As he was traveling through the U.S. he saw how the Americans fought for their rights to freedom and saw how happy there were that now they have it. He wanted this for his own country and all of South America.

Bolivar dream was to create a united nation with all places in South America called the "Gran Colombia". The only way he knew it was possible was through getting South Americas freedom. So he fought and got freedom for the countries in South America.

Robespierre and The Reign Of Terror

2008-09-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

"The Reign of Terror" was when the kings, queens, and jack lost their power and the people that took that power did not put it to a good use. The people set up the limited monarch and limited the power the royals had. With no one really in charge street gangs started to act like government officals. One gang called the Jacobins wanted to remove anyone that was related to the royal family or opposed them. They used an execution machine called the guillotine, they used this machine to killed the ones that believed differently than them. They also had the head of the king cut off in public. Robespierre was one of the people that believed that there should be no trace of the royal family. He changed everything like the calender and the days in the weeks because he believed that sunday was was a day about old religion. His ruling over france was called "The Reign of Terror". He was cutting of everyone's head and the people grew tired of this. The people used the way he execution and killed him.

The French Revolution

2008-09-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

1)a.the nobility- they had complete control over the peasants. They were allowed to tax them as much as they want.
b. The clergy- they had as much power over taxes as the nobles and the lives of the peasants.
c. The peasants- The had control of nothing, they were always taxed unfairly

2)A peasant might have grumbled about how his life is so terrible and how everything is not fair to him because hes not a royal.

3)The cartoonist is making the point that the peasant was the work horse of the nobles and feudal lords and how he was the ones carrying all the burden of the people above him.

4)They describe it as being taxed for everything and having to pay taxes to feudal lords and then had to pay the king's tax

5)Yes it does because it shows how the life of a peasant had very hard times while the nobles get lots of money that were not able to be taxed because of their ranks.

6)We the United States because now we do believe that and we fight for other people to protect that right, but we would not have agreed with these statements during the birth of our democracy.

7)I think the only reason it was banned because the leaders would not want their subjects to listen to a phrase that will change their whole way of thinking and cause a revolt against the lords. The people who most likely banned this was the people with the higher ranks.

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

2008-09-18T06:57:00.001-07:00

In our modern democracy we use the words of the people who came before us. We use the knowledge they left for us in the Declaration of Independence. In these we describe the rights given to us and the natural rights all men should have. These words come with so much wisdom and this were the original teachings of John Locke. The rights that were given to us because we are humans are the rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are ones that should always be available for all men no matter the condition. In the Declaration of Independence the document that was built upon of the words of John Locke says that the power of the government are ones that the people give them. The people are the ones that decide the appointed officials. We give the power to the government.

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

2008-09-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

The scientific revolution brought up a lot of question to old facts. One important statement that was challenged was that the earth is in the center of the universe. This statement was first introduced by the church, more sepecificly Pope Urban. He came up with this statment with the scriptures of the church. A few people really disagreed with this statment. They beleived that the sun was the center of the universe and the earth rotated around the sun every year. Copernicus introduced this idea and shared his idea by publishing a book about his theory. Galileo started to believe this theory and sent a letter to a german mathamatician named Johannes Kepler.

The Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

2008-09-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

When have you have a question that needs an answer you reason and try to find the answer. The only way that you would know that your answer is fact is that you would prove it. The way people proved it was through mutiple experiments. In ancient greek the way they would figure out that something was true, was asking someone else. They would just accept the fact that was told to them. As time progressed people started to question more everyday things. Then scientist used a method to prove the facts that were once stated in the past.
This method is a way you make a statement a true fact. The way you try this method is observe and analize any data that was found. After analizing the data make a hypothesis out of the analized data. When you belive in a hypothesis you start testing this theory with mutiple experiments. After these experments are through you make a scientific theory.
An example of this method in work is when a person conducts an simple experiment to see if sunlight really affects plant life. A person would make a hypothesis and test it mulitple times so that it has consistant results. Then after you gather the data from the experiment you make a scientific theory regarding all the trials done.

Evolution vs. Creation

2008-09-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Evolution is a theory that is used to describe the advancement in the DNA of species in the world. Over time it is told that a simple ancestor has evolved over time to a more complex species. This evolution is done to help a species survive better. Like species evolving to get wings and learning to fly. This advantage makes them superior to other animals in this way. This helps them survive better and the species that did not evolve will soon die out due to natural selection.
Creation is the theory of a higher power creating all life on earth. This is a religious belief that is acknowledged by many religions. This belief shows that every living thing is a direct creation from a higher power (God). Then after there was a global floods that shaped the earth. As science started to effect the belief of many believers, you start to see a change in the religion. The oldest belief of creation, believes that the world is 10,000 years old but then after science gave the earth an official age, believers of creationism adopted that as the official date.
I believe in creationism. For many reason but main one is that I grew up learning and practicing the religion, Roman Catholic. After sometime pass I start to realize that this is what I believe. I think that what you do in this life will decide what happens to you in the afterlife. I rather not believe that when you die nothing happens.

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2008-09-04T06:59:00.001-07:00

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