Iran's Nuclear Threat

This article talks about the problem that I believe we have all probably heard of, and its the problem of nuclear weapons and Iran. Iran claims to not having or making any nuclear weapons, and that the Uranium is just being used for medical purposes, but other people are 100% sure that the Uranium is actually being used to develop bombs. If Iran did develop nuclear weapons they could bomb Israel, and cause a massive nuclear war. This would happen because the US is allies with Israel, and they would have to protect the Israel people. One way that this article connects to some  of the stuff that we have been learning is that it could potentially be one big war crime for Iran to break the treaty that all countries currently have.

War Crimes in World War II

World War II consisted of multiple war crimes. Some of these war crimes consisted of the Holocaust, the Raping of Nanking, Firebombing, and the dropping of the Atomic Bomb. “The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.” (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143) The German Nazis considered themselves superior to the Jews, and this mindset led to one of the greatest mass destructions of all time. The Raping of Nanking is also a historical event of such horrific human action that history itself attempts to forget it. Although Japan had already taken control over most of China, this was not enough. Tension between Chinese and Japanese military troops caused an exchange of firing near Peking (now Beijing), and the Japanese used this incident as an excuse to declare war against China. This led to a significant period of time in which Japanese gladly took the lives of thousands, proceeding to rape, burn to death, or bury alive innocent Chinese civilians. When the events were drawn to the attention of the public, neighboring countries were quick to attempt to clean up the reputation of the Japanese along with cover up the tragedy as best as they could. In attempt to bring World War II to an end, America dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. To this day, it is undetermined whether or not dropping the bomb was the necessary course of action the United States should have taken in attempt to reach the end of World War II.

All of these events are very controversial events that took place during World War II. In my personal opinion, they all would be qualified as war crimes, however the definition of a war crime may vary. When war is declared, those agreeing to participate in the war are aware that what comes with fighting are severe injuries, destruction, and death. With this said, the “crimes” committed such as the Raping of Nanking and the dropping of the Atomic bomb would not technically be breaking any rules. However, actions such as those discussed above cross the moral border. Take the Raping of Nanking- did the Japanese have any right to take the lives of thousands of innocent Chinese civilians? And not only that, but what incentive did the Japanese have causing them to display such crude and vial actions against the Chinese? In order to determine whether or not something is really a war crime or not, I feel as though it is merely personal. Majority of the events that took place centered around World War II or a war of some sort included an abundance of deaths and destruction. This is what is expected of a war. However, does that make it right? That question can be answered only individually.

Sources:

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143

http://www.nanking-massacre.com/RAPE_OF_NANKING_OR_NANJING_MASSACRE_1937.html

War Crimes

The Holocausts, around 1933-1945, were one of the biggest war crimes ever committed throughout history. The killing of about 6 million innocent Jews just because of prejudice is not fair at all. The way many of these people died is also a big crime. Burning someone, or starving someone to death is really unethical and torturous. All of this was done to satisfy only one person which is the worst part of this all.

The Atomic Bomb was also a war crime because it murdered thousands of innocent civilians. It would have been better for the US to just fight them without the use of this bomb, because Innocent women and children would have most likely been safe. If the US would have just fought them without the bomb, they would have avoided the extensive Cold War that came as a result of them dropping the bomb.

Zalcra

Flag

National Anthem

From mountain to mountain
From snow to sand
Coco to coconut
Land to island

We wanted to talk
They wanted to fight
A tragic mistake
In the night

We won the battle
Us, proud and true
The beautiful land
For me and you

Now there is peace
Peace is our hope
We only want peace
Our only hope

National Identity

Lizzie, Agustin, and I created the nation of Zalcra where Zalcranians live. The original founders of this nation were from Switzerland, one of the only neutral countries that is involved in no wars. These people traveled to Hawaii, and planned to settle on an island off of the state. Since we are settled on an island, we have resources such as coal, iron from the volcanoes, water, sand to make glass, and forests for trees. Majority of our people are from Switzerland so they speak English, French, Dutch and German. Since we come from a neutral environment and then settling into a new are, our classes in society are all equal. I will be designing a national flag for Zalcra that is found as a logo on many of our products also.

National History

The history of Zorcra is a rich one indeed. Zorcra was founded in the early 1800s, after the great Battle of Hapunawaha. It is a small island near Hawaii, which was actually formed from a volcanic eruption as early as the 1600s. Originally, Zorcra was inhabited by Pacific Islanders who called themselves Palma’as.  They were fierce warriors and were also a very advanced society who had made many different types of weapons, as well as herbal medicines, vaccines, and sturdy building materials.  They were also very smart and most of the population was literate in the island language of Palms.  The Palma’as were indeed in tune with nature, as the name of their people suggest.  They had many natural resources that were worth celebrating, such as strong bamboo, all kinds of different fruits and crops, fresh water and mineral springs, coal and volcanic rock, rich farmland, and iron and other metals in the Ho’ana mountains.  In 1790, the Swiss government had heard about all of these incredible resources from some early explorers that had stumbled upon this island, and they began to grow extremely interested in the area.  They sent a fleet of ships to check out the area and meet some of the settlers.  The voyage was only intended to check the island out and see if the tales were true, but the islanders mistook the gesture as a threat.  Not only were the islanders threatened, but England was there as well, and they had settled part of the island in the hopes of conquering the Hawaiin Islands and taking them in the name of the queen.  The Swiss tried using their neutrality and their peacefulness in order to make a treaty with the islanders, but most of the islanders did not speak English, and the English weren’t willing to translate, so as a result the Battle of Hapunawaha began.  Hapunawaha was the Palma’a general in charge of the army.  The battle lasted 3 days, but in the end, the Swiss won out.  The battle wasn’t particularly bloody because the Swiss simply took out a few of the key leaders, putting the island into chaos and taking as few lives as possible.  The total death toll was around 200, 130 islanders and about 70 British people.  The total island population was around 2,000 at the time, comprising of about 1,800 islanders and 200 English settlers.  The Swiss fleet comprised of about 3,000 sailors.  After the battle, the Swiss cleaned up the island of any collateral damage, as well as treated the wounded and the sick of the island, as well as built a beautiful memorial to the fallen warriors.  This clearly pleased the islanders, who decided a treaty was indeed a great idea so that the Swiss and the Palma’as could live side by side peacefully.  This is how the country of Zorcra was founded. The people are called Zorcranians, as well as a few Palma’as.  The language is called Palmekens, which is a mix of Palms, German, Italian, and French.  These languages are also spoken separately in Zorcra, as well as Romanish, English, and Palms.  

Alliances and Connections
We Zalcranians look down on a lot of the nations around the world for being so violent. We don't like to acquaint ourselves to very violent nations, because we fear that they will bring all of their violent people to our island. We do accept people who are being prosecuted for reasons having to do with anything but crimes. We love to change these peoples lives and show them what a nation should be like. If we really had to be allied with three nations, even though we feel as if we are better off solo, we would be allied to Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. We would be allied to them, because we never hear of any type of disputes in these places.

Suez Canal

In our reading, there is an example of overseas expansion and how the newly man made Suez Canal played a role in this movement. The Suez Canal is a connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It allows large ships to travel from Europe to Asia, not needing to travel around the tip of Africa.

In relation to the reading, Europeans could access the Asian countries more efficeintly with there large amounts of goods that needs to be sold. When ships reached the Suez Canal, they used telegraph, inventing a following underwater telegraph to help the communication amongst all the ships in the canal.

Google images

Darwin: Origin of Species ( primary source)

Of the Origin of Species by mean of Natural Selection, Is a book that was published by Charles Darwin in Nov/24/1859. This book is centered around the idea of Natural selection, which is the idea that there will be a struggle to survive based on your physical characteristics. In other words, survival of the fittest. Darwin backs up this idea with his findings of biology on his trip to the Galapagos Islands. These ideas were considered crazy at the time, but because they weren't threatening to the church, and weren't too radical, they were accepted over time.

Why take a test: Final Exam

I don't know why schools give students finals. It isn't fair that we have to take a test that covers everything from the beginning of the year through half way through the year. It is nearly impossible to remember every single topic, so students stress out and have to study a ton. It is pretty much like teaching a whole semester in just one week, and for most students this is really overwhelming.  Not only do we have to worry about one class, but we have to worry about every single one. On top of a week packed with finals, teachers always throw in that five page research paper, that chemistry test, and that “Quest”. We are only left with the extended class periods to study for the finals, and that is just not enough time! What is the point of doing this? What are we going to gain out of this? I say that we gain nothing, and that teachers should consider taking finals out of our lives.

Taking Finals out of our lives would benefit the student in many ways. First, we would actually look forward to school in the last couple of weeks of the semester. This means that we can just have a regular schedule and be stress free. We would also not risk that grade that we worked so hard for over the course of the year during just one test.

I'm sure that teachers can find a better way to end the year. Instead of a hectic week, why not make it a fun week. We can have projects like the end of the year. Students get a lot more exited about this type of stuff because it is hands on. Or we could have finals, but just be reasonable on the assignments the week before. We could also have them spread out in a better way. Instead of having two a day, why not have one per day, and just have the entire week before be dedicated to just studying.

Extra Credit Test Blog

Tests are horrible. They are made in order to evaluate a student based upon the results of other people at your school or even compared with the other kids around the country. This is a very poor way of testing someone's knowledge, as there are so many factors that can affect how someone does on a test. Many of the factors are based upon the student, yet many times the teacher can affect the test in a way that screws over the person who takes the test. A student may have had a long night, and may not be thinking straight because of all of the other things on his/her mind. With so many classes, students can only retain so much information, which forces students to work until they are dead tired, which rarely allows you to get enough sleep and think straight. Tests force the students to do well, which puts the emphasis off of learning. The joy of learning is lost from the students, and there is only pressure to compete and do better than your peers. Tests are horrible as they take away from the joy of school, and cause bitter rivalries as to who did better on different assessments.

Why take a test?

Personally, i believe that taking a test/quiz is a good way to see how well someone has learned a particular topic. However, when tests get longer and longer, it becomes less about understanding and more about memorization. This is why it is better to take multiple small quizzes than one big test. Quizzes can be focused on one small piece of material and are an excellent way of judging how well a student know a topic because often, quizzes are either hit or miss. You either get it or you don't, there's not much of a middle ground. Quizzes are also easier for teachers to grade. Another benefit is that if a student bombs a quiz, they can make it up by maintaining a decent grade on the other small quizzes. If a student bombs a test, it could take a whole quarter of 100%'s to bring that student's grade back up. Doing bad on a test would also bring down the moral of a student, causing him to dislike the class more and be less inclined to learn.

Extra Credit Blog

xtra Credit Blog: Why take a test? What is the purpose of a test? How do you study? Can you learn something during a test?

Personally I despise test. They are the worst invention. I would rather have projects. Yeah taking test do test what you learned and your ability of remembering what we did during the unit, but couldn't we be tested by a project and hitting key points of the unit your project?. studying for history is a little bit difficult because there is so much to study since we cover so much information. I sometimes study too broadly and not deep enough and then i get to a few of the multiple choice questions and i am screwed. I like when you give us what to study like the prompts and other things we will need to know for the test. I do not really believe you can learn things during a test but reviewing for test is where i learn the most. Tests are Test and every class has them

Ota Benga

This picture is of Ota Benga, the African Pygmy who was brought from the Congo to live in the Bronx Zoo in New York. This action shows the start of classifying races in American and European society in the late 1800s early 1900s. Instead of seeing this as something cruel, this was regarded as scientific, and the exhibit was something that was "intriguing" for everyone to see. Ota Benga was placed in the same habitat that the monkeys were in, which showed how the European mind classified races at the time. The zoo director William Hornaday apparently saw no difference between an orengutan and a "little black boy".

I got my picture here.

I got some information here.

The Ming Dynasty

The Ming dynasty expanded over east Asia, or China from 1368 to 1644. I like to call the Ming dynasty a time for China to recover and become very powerful in their new ideas and talents. They had a well built centralized government system in which the emperor was the main head, and the loyal eunuchs worked under them. Using this strong base, they strategized to repair the old work of the Mongols when they were in rule, restoring all the cultivation and doing a great amount of farming. They also repaired parts of the Great Wall and were known to built the "forbidden city." Through all these efforts, the international and domestic trades rose vigourously and the population flourished. This marked the spot of the Ming dynasty being the most successful and prosperous civilizations of the world. Since they were located along the coast of China, it gave them an advantage in creating large fleets of ships and sailing across the world in hope for progress. The muslim eunuch, Zheng He led one of these expeditions to many places like, India, Indonesia, Arabia and East Africa, bringing back people to make the Ming even stronger. "Bringing order to the world," the Ming presented tribute with these people and finished their trading opportunities.

The Ottoman Empire

The Islamic Empire, after some time, was finding some unification within four states. One of these states was the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire could be called at one point the most powerful empire in the world. It was composed of Turkish warrior groups that had found a new beginning in Anatolia. Over time, the Empire grew until it covered much of the Anatolia peninusula,  gone deep into southeastern Europe, and had conquered a large Christian population. This was only the beginning. After this, the Ottoman Empire expanded its control to a lot of the Middle East, the coasts of North Africa, land around the Black Sea, as well as even farther into Eastern Europe. Few could hold a candle to the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were now established as dominant over the Islamic world. The Ottoman truly asserted themselves as the top dogs when they seized Constantinople from the Christian Byzantines. After this victory, the Ottoman Empire expanded to become the next Roman Empire.

This Isn't my Blog Entry

This isn't my blog entry I just want to know what people think the answer to this question is.

Why was the Ottoman Empire so successful? Why did the economy and culture all of a sudden become more sophisticated?