In WWII, nuclear weapons were the foundation for ending the war. We raced against Hitler in an attempt to beat him to the atomic bomb. If he we had not beaten him, I would be speaking German right now and free speech would be limited. The atomic bomb is one of the most lethal weapons to date, and the pure imagining of your enemy having this weapon should be enough to end a war. If you really think about it, the atomic bomb is a metaphor for a war itself. The bomb is created, which is the creation of an army. The side threatens war with the bomb, which is the threat of war. The bomb is then dropped, which is the insertion of the army. The bomb explodes, which is the fighting of war. And the ashes, rubble and radiation remaining is the impact of war itself. The atomic bomb is a small war altogether, but only now does war fly a thousand times faster.

WWII Definition

I think that the definition of war has changed a bit due to WWII because of the new technology. Over time we have developed from swords to guns and now we have bombs and other machinery that allows us to fight from a far and are even more deadly. WWII was the beginning of the first nuclear weapon and firebombing these weapons are deadly methods of destruction. This was a lot to lay on the USA, it gave them a lot of power over what they could do. They decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing many civilians. I think that after looking at the effects the bombing caused and the harm it changed what people thought of war. The idea of bombing harmless civilians seemed immoral and not beneficial all it brought was anger and fear from the enemy. Before this war there weren't that many rules because there was not much one could do in war that caused this much damage or gave one of the sides this much power. With the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an imaginary line was drawn in what was good and bad in other words this caused a strong emphasizes in what was war crimes. In my opinion, war is fighting with in certain boundaries. Even though the civilians of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and countless others were affected and in a way became part of the war, I don't believe it was a total war. This is because, not everyone in Japan didn't all help. I don't mean it literally when I say everyone but instead that all men, women, children, and elders could help. Unlike in Italy where they are fascists and they say a women can help by working in the factories and build weapons, or a farmer can produce food for the troops or look at the sky for any signs of invasions, the Japanese didn't place emphasizes on everyone as a whole helping in the war. WWII changed war then what it used to be.

Citations:
Notes from class

Italy and Germany

Italy: In terms of Italy's World War experience, they were passive. Italy had a stance that was borderline "Watch the others fight" and "Take action once we know how this war is going". Italy was divided between the socialists and the nationalists. The nationalists, like Mussolini, were against the war and thought that action should be taken, while the socialists wanted to stand down and see the war's turnout. But it 1915, there was the Secret Treaty of London sent from Britain, that offered Italy land if they were to join the Entente. Italy could not refuse such a deal, so they took it and switched sides.
The Great Depression in Italy was seen as a small loss, but did not harm the well being of Italy's economy. Italy lost its international trade networks, but was able to maintain their jobs and stabilize the workflow.

Germany: During the war Germany was a strong warring power, but were not strong enough to fight the Entente's final push aided by the Americans. Germany did in fact though develop strong military weaponry that influenced many other great powers at the time. But in the end they were forced to weaken their military forces and give up parts of their land. In terms of the great depression, Germany was hit as hard as any other country during its time. Germany lacked the strong economical foothold, and lost much, just as the other countries did.




Sources:
Italy: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~quadrini/papers/deprpap.pdf
Germany: In Class information

"Floyd Gibbons at Belleau Wood"

On June 6, 1918, Floyd Gibbons, war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, and Lieutenant Oscar Hartzel of the Intelligence Division entered Belleau Wood. There they met Major Benjamin S. Berry, battalion commander of the Fifth Marine Corps. Berry advised them to go back, as it was "hotter than hell" just ahead, but relented with the admonition that they were coming at their own risk. Gibbons and Hartzel found themselves in the midst of one of the roughest and toughest battles of the entire war. The French were so impressed with the heroic fighting abilities of the Marines, and the nullifying of the German threat to actually march on and capture Paris, that they renamed the area Bois de la Brigade des Marines - "the Woods of the Brigade of Marines".

Belleau Wood, west of the town of Lucy-le-Bocage, was not one solid mass of forest, but made up of many one- to five-acre patches of woods with oat and wheat fields in between. The advance of the Marines was so rapid and over such rough terrain that the men had only machine guns, their carbines with bayonets attached, hand grenades, and side arms for the officers. Although the heavy artillary in the rear was within range of the front, the speed with which the Marines were rolling forward prohibited the use of heavy shelling. The Fifth Marine Corps was poised on the edge of a V shaped oatfield, bordered on all sides by thick woodland. According to the international rules of war, Floyd Gibbons, a noncombatant, could carry no arms. He was armed with his notebook and pencil.

Berry gave the order to advance, stepping out first himself, with each man following at ten to fifteen yard intervals. Floyd was next in line to Berry, with Hartzell next to Floyd. As they reached the middle of the field German machine-gunners a hundred yards on their left, opened up. Berry ordered everybody down, and they flattened themselves in the young oats as best they could. Floyd looked up to see Major Berry, his right hand holding the stump of what had been his left hand, still standing.

Floyd yelled to him to get down, and started inching towards him. Trying to hide his movement from the German machine-gunners, Floyd crawled along, his left cheek hugging the ground and his helmut pushed over the right, partly covering his face on that side. Floyd had gotten but a few feet when a bullet hit him in the left arm, just above the elbow, going in one side and out the other. He continued to push himself forward. A few moments later another bullet hit him in the left shoulder blade, still he inched on. Another five feet along, a third bullet hit him, it ricocheted off a rock in the ground, and with an upward course ripped out his left eye, continued on, making a compound fracture of the skull, and finally coming out on the right side of his helmet where it blew a hole three inches long.

Remarkabley Floyd did not lose consciousness, he was dazed, and experienced a sensation of a lot of glass crashing around him, everything turning white in his mind's eye. His eyeball was lying on his cheek split in half. His left hand and arm were numb and out of commission. He wondered if he was dead, and pinching himself for reassurance, concluded he was still alive.

Citation:

Diary Record of Trench Warfare

http://www.worldwar1.com/sffgbw.htm

Einstein

Albert Einstein brought upon change in both the world of science and the world of today. He mentioned many controversial ideas, that at his time, were thought you be ridiculous. In my opinion, one of his best theories was about Space Time and the laws that the universe relies on. Einstein was able to prove that time was relative. Meaning that time doesn't operate the same way all over the universe. This of course was shocking to anyone who lived in his time. The idea that time was changing was very farfetched when we witness time moving at the same speed every day. But Einstein was in fact correct. Time could be beat. Time could almost literally be ignored. And if you were to do this, you would have to move faster than the speed of light. To better explain this, I'll use the most common form of explanation for this concept. Say that you have a twin brother or sister. An astronaut takes you onto a space ship, leaving your sibling behind. You then proceed to fly around the earth for 30 years as your twin sits around back on earth. When you land, something significant can be seen. Not only is your twin 30 years older but you have not aged. This concept was truly crazy, because not only would that make the trip seem instantaneous, but we ask the question: "What happens on the spaceship?" But of course we cannot achieve such a feat. We can barely fathom how much energy it would take to move the speed of light, mostly because light itself has no mass. So when you try to move mass that speed, you find yourself with a problem. Einstein not only determined the factors of light speed but also came up with an explanation for space. Picture the universe as a large trampoline. If you were to place a bowling ball (let's use this as the sun) in the center the trampoline, it would form an indentation. This indentation is what represents gravity. When you roll a small marble (let's use this as earth or some planet) across the trampoline, you'll find that it will roll towards the bowling ball. The proximity of the marble to the bowling ball is also taken into account, because the depth of the indentation is much deeper near the bowling ball than it is near the outskirts of the trampoline. It's this method that keeps our planets in orbit. It's this continuous falling that stops our planets from falling into the sun. But you still have adapt the trampoline model to the 3rd dimension, because we all realize that the universe isn't some flat piece of fabric. You must picture it like a sponge the pinches inward when a object has a large mass. And the sponge itself is just a force and not an object. These two theories that Einstein came up with are not only hugely important to where we are in science, but were the most horrific sounding things to the common people of his time.


For more on the twins and spaceship demonstration, go here.

Pacifica

National Flag:

National Anthem:
Pacifica is so profound,
Battling the torment of our brotherʼs ground,
And as our city bells do sound,
Weʼll keep living on this world around.

National Culture of Pacifica
Pacifica has a free-form government and is very accepting of all races and religions. The only times we draw the line is when one forces religion on another. We have a very diverse palette of languages ranging from English, Spanish, French, and more. Our dominant language is English, due to the large percentage of our people previously being American. But when we broke off we did not lose the cultures that the US had, we simply added the other cultures. Holidays that were once practiced in the US are still practiced in Pacifica, but we do not make them mandatory. We still appreciate the efforts that brought the 50 states together, only now we thank them as a separate nation. Everyday life in Pacifica is fairly similar to the lives of most Californians. But we have tried to create eco-friendly communities and have self sufficient cities. We do not want to be forced into trades by other nations, but rather only export specialty goods. Being small in size, we do not have much to offer, but just like Japan and China, we have a large threshold for learning, and we will stop at nothing.

National History
Our nation is called Pacifica, our nation grew out of California and are located in the Bay Area. Unlike the Ottomans who became chunks and had its down fall, we became a very successful nation. Pacificans broke off from the US and bought the land that way we could build our own laws. We believed US was too independent, we wanted to build a strong bond between the rest of the Americas and maybe even the world. When we saw that Canada was lending out a hand to us, we immediately took it and that was our first step as a nation. Canada helped us with resources because the US was furious with our actions and henceforth they cut all connections between us at the time. After some years Mexico decided to take arms with us because they saw our prosperity. Also they people of Mexico were considered inferior and the idea of acceptance of all appealed to them. Not long afterward the US gave in to the Pacificans as allies and they became one of our strongest allies. We do not resemble other nations like China, because when they wanted to close their doors to westernization and make China for the Chinese they fell profusely. We instead do the opposite. We open our arms to the foreign allowing us to prosper because we have learned that we can prosper better as one. That is why our allies are so strong, since we have accepted them.


Allies and Connections
The main 3 allies are Canada, Mexico, and the United States. All four of us are on the same continent of North America, so it makes great sense for us to be friends. We watch everyone's back. If one of us is at war, we are at war. We watch our borders to the West, Canada to the North, the United States to the East, and Mexico to the South. All four of us are allied nations. We could be compared to brothers and sisters. Together we are the nations of the future. None of us can do it alone. Each and every one of us is necessary for this equation. If one of us backs out, in essence we all back out. Together we shall prevail, and alone we shall die.

The Nagasaki Port

Originally founded by the Portuguese, the Nagasaki Port became a huge part of culture in Japan. Goods such as tobacco, textiles, bread and castellas (a type of Portuguese cake), became a new popular part of Japanese culture. Being a Portuguese owned city, Jesuit Leader, Alexandro Valignano wished to keep the control of Nagasaki out of the hands of a "Non-Catholic Daimyo." So for a short period of time, Nagasaki became a Jesuit colony. Nagasaki soon became a refuge for Christians escaping Non-Catholic regions of Japan. Nagasaki was becoming more and more Christian. In effect the daimyo, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, attempted to unify the Southern and Christian part of Japan with the rest by exiling the Christian missionaries. But his commands were so weakly enforced that Nagasaki remained a Christian city. As you can see from the image, Nagasaki is extremely close to China, thus creating the perfect environment for cultures to move between China, Japan and Portuguese.


Image from World-Guides.com

Timeline Rap

Hey guys, I wrote a rap kind of version to remember the Timeline. I tried my best to make it all fit. Hope it helps.



The Ming became King,
And the Ottoman came to power,
Columbus then new world,
Start of Mughal Empire,

Flourishing Spanish Empire,
Shogunate of Tokugawa,
Now it’s the Qing,
The BEI’s on ya,

America had a revolution,
Forming our constitution,
A revolution in France,
The Haitians stuck it to them,

Reign of Terror,
Followed by the Cotton Gin,
The Napoleon,
And the Steam Engine,

Mexican Independence,
Latin American Revolutions,
Factory Act to Opium War,
Power Looms’ been perfected,

London Exhibition,
Unification of Germany,
United America,
Trans-Atlantic Telegraphy,

Marx writes the Capital,
The Railroad’s Completed,
Meiji Restoration,
Italy’s now as you see it,

There was the First Boer war,
The Berlin Conference in 84,
Paris’ World Exhibition,
Chicago Columbian Exposition,

Sino started a war,
With the Japanese,
America attacked Spain,
While the Spanish flees.

Tesla

Nikola Tesla was born into a serbian family in the Austrian Empire in 1856. He was fairly educated and decided from an early age that he would become an electrical engineer. He lived a life of crazy inventions, and with the constant need to improve on his work. He has been called the mad scientist of our times, and no one can compare to his lack of rationality. He always put himself in the middle of danger, mostly because he knew he would leave unharmed. Although the Tesla Coil was one of the most renown inventions Nikola had, he went on to make households electrical by streaming long wires through the structure of a mansion, and leading all the power lines to a steam engine generator that would lay outside the home. It was very likely that there would be problems with this set up, and in many cases there were. He even set fire to a mansion when the electrical wires sparked. Beyond all of this, Tesla made a name for himself, and even today, he never ceases to amaze.

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was the mad scientist of the 1800's, he created many contraptions relating to electricity and showed them off to masses. As you can see above, Nikola Tesla is sitting inside a cage as jolts of electricity travel around him, without actually touching him. The cage protects him as a tesla coil sends an immense amount of energy outward all around him. The reason we call him mad, is because he's sitting inside reading a book as if he hasn't even been phased by this experience. Tesla went on to try other experiments with electricity and always put himself in the spotlight when he performed his scientific wonders. I got my picture here.

596-597

In the reading I found that Europeans were very ignorant in the ways that they treated the Africans and Indians. They felt that just because the Africans seemed native, they must be treated as lesser people. They wouldn't even allow the educated ones have any authority. I feel that if I were in the position of either the Indians or the Africans, I would be greatly offended because I don't necessarily need the knowledge the Europeans have to offer. I wouldn't even need to learn the languages that they speak. Just because their skin is a different color doesn't mean that the IQs will be different. There were even controversies over the idea that a well educated Indian man should have the right to be the judge of a white man's case. It's extremely racist and belittling of any other race on this earth. I almost wish that the Africans and Europeans could switch places for a second to show how everything is subjective in this scenario.

My Story....

My name is Billiam Hopkins, and I was recently laid off from my job as a farm hand. I aspire to find my fortune in Manchester as I've heard so much about the wealth in the growing cities. I used think that my life was great, being a farm and all. I would wake up to the smell of wet earth and fresh crops. Now I look forward to a life in the comforts of a state-of-the-art factories. I boarded with the family that hired me, and slept in their attic. The nights grew cold, so now I look forward to a hot factory where I will pass my days and nights. I've received word that some factories work their laborers hard, but I plan to take a job in a textile factory, for manufacturing garments seems far better than railroad work. Being 24 years of age I am looking for a woman with whom I may live the remainder of my life. I've heard that the husbandless women of Manchester are abundant throughout the city. The only thing I fear is that I won't be able to fit in with those city folk. They have paved streets and skyscrapers up to ten stories tall. The whole sight of those buildings will surely astound me. And since I can't compete with that newfangled reaper, I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to keep up with those swift factory workers. Those other farmhands back in the country told stories of those city chaps - how their hands can move faster than the eye can see! I'm also concerned for my sickly parents back home. They rely on me to send them lump sums of money every year. My sister ran off with some rich French man, and my brother can't walk a straight line even if it would earn him some whiskey. Times were simpler not to long ago. When a man could earn an honest wage, without worrying about some scientists building a machine to replace him. My parents had we work every farm job imaginable, and if it weren't for the lack of work in the country, I would've gladly worked there until my dying day. I've heard that there are even steam machines that get people from one place to another. Why on earth would a man rely on a machine to get them where their legs might just as well take them. But after all of this, if I have a roof over my head and some bread on my plate, then I'll survive.

American Revolution vs. French Revolution

The American Revolution was based upon the fact that the British were taxing them without their consent on items like tea, paper and stamps. America felt like the British had no general presence in America, aside from the negative policies, which drained American resources. This caused a large revolt, because America felt completely separated from Britain, and wanted to secede from the empire. Britain was infuriated with this idea, and sent soldiers quell the uprising. This then led to events such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and then the Declaration of Independence.

The French helped America with their revolution, which then led to bankruptcy. This bankruptcy caused Louis XVI to tax the 2nd and 3rd Estates. The Bourgeoisie and peasants felt poorly represented, and demanded a National Assembly. Louis XVI had this assembly, but once he head that the 3rd Estate was pushing for a more Democratic nation, he locked the 100 representatives outside, forcing them to meet in a tennis court. Thus causing the very heart of the French Revolution. And it was this sort of uprising that triggered both the French and American revolutions. It was due to the royal's ignorance that the whole structure collapsed. As my favorite comedian, Eddie Izzard says it: "The French structure during it's revolution slowly collapsed, like a flan in the cupboard." And so it did. But in the end, the French were left with little, while America was totally revamped and ready to rebuild. And one crucial point that separates the French revolution from the American, is the fact that for the French, they dug their own grave. They didn't need to help America, but they did. And so this whole turn of events came to be.

Locke Compared to the Modern World

John Locke was a british man who had very similar views on government to ours in the U.S. today. He wanted the separation of church and government, just like our system that we obey today. He brought up the idea of checks and balances, and it was this idea that led him to support the idea that all people had inalienable rights. He even pushed for women's rights, and it was to this extent that he wished the government would concern. Being a secular man, he detested religion, but did not wish to disprove it. He simply referred to religion as nature, and would call the common "acts of God" nature. He is very similar to the other people we have studied in this era of enlightenment, but he is the only one who believes that everything should be completely balanced to the extent that no one is above another, but rather equaled by at least one other. This system is very similar to our President - Judicial Branch - Senators and House of Reps. They all equally rule, but the citizens always have a say.

Upon doing further research on Locke, I found that he also has a strong view on ownership or property. He feels that property is any material good, and that property is a natural right earned through labor. Meaning that you should be rewarded for your work, no matter the level of importance. I find this very similar to our system of minimum wage, and how no worker goes unpaid.

To summarize this knowledge, I would basically say that Locke was looking far into the future and could have been a major influence in our common beliefs today.

Response to Class Discussion on Science

To reflect on the class discussion, I have put a lot of thought into the idea of knowledge, and how it is transferred between people properly. Even in modern day society, it's very hard to know when something is honest or at least partially true. Especially when it's coming from a person, rather than a book, or some form of inscription. In the times of Isaac Newton, the church acted as a full form of government, and was able to enforce laws as if they were running the world. Newton is probably one of the most prestigious scientists of our time, but he was so afraid that he would run into trouble with the church for publicly announcing his beliefs, that he hid everything he had ever worked on. Newton was very church oriented, and he had nothing against the church, but yet he was still able to fight his religious beliefs and many a time prove the laws of the church wrong. But it was only after his death that people found his knowledge and all his writings. And it's parts of history likes this that show how people so blinded by faith can try to control knowledge and enforce their own beliefs. I'm sure that if Newton came out with his beliefs, that we would've been outcasted, or even killed. Information was almost at a halt in that period, because nothing could be invented without some sort of religious ruler looking over your shoulder. Some theorize that without the church around in europe, 1,000 years of development would have occurred because both the dark ages, and the watching eye of the church in Newton's time would not have existed. Knowledge is fragile, and as soon as you give it away freely, it can become so twisted that the original idea could be destroyed.

Sources: In the past I have done some research on Newton and his works in comparison to the European Church.

Research through Trade

I think that if I were to name the century of 1500-1600 in terms of the empires that existed within it, I would call it "Research through Trade". Because every empire that flourished in terms of technology relied on trade to advance in science, and this trade was also essential for the empires to stay afloat. The trade also allowed many ideas, alliances, and views on the world to be created.

The Californians

The empire I helped design was a group of Californians (The Majoria), who controlled most of the west coast of North America (now the United States).

The Ottoman Empire: Like the Ottoman empire, our empire was very accepting of all the people within it, and we had no restraints on religion. We did practice some shamanism, but it was not a belief that was required in our empire. We were also very accepting of others and we only had military support for defense, just as the Ottoman Empire had.

The Portuguese: The most similar thing between our Empire and the Portuguese was that we had extensive trade networks that were spread throughout the world, and were near limitless in terms of the distance we traveled. We were able to become allies with civilizations all of the world, and we were able to slowly adapt all of their technologies, and we incorporated their beliefs with ours.

The Inca Empire: Both the Incas and our Californians were able to have a wide variety in food and could adaptively grow anything in our region. This was not only because both our lands were fertile and abundantly filled with life, but we were able to learn many ways of farming from our travels throughout the world. One could deduce that our wide range of crops could even triumph the diversity found in South America

The Qing Empire (Dynasty): Just like the Qing we had a very organized and split law system that allowed all of our citizens to be fairly represented in court. We even organized our capital city around this system by dividing a circle in half and having each side represent a side of law. Both sides would work together, but they also had different views.

The Aztec Empire: Similar to the Aztecs, our Californians had a strong system of slavery that was both democratic, and hierarchical. We would enslave people, but allow them to either buy their freedom or work the penalties off. It was a "tough love" system that would always result in freedom in the end. Very few slaves were not allowed their freedom in our lands.

Death to the Indigenous

After I read the reading on pages 407-409, I felt that it would be interesting to look into the deaths of the indigenous people of the Americas and how exactly they were killed by disease. When I was researching I came upon many places where they claimed that the Spanish, Europeans and other travelers may have purposely given the indigenous people disease in an attempt to clear the lands. On the other hand, others believe that the settlers would not have known about the diseases because medical information at the time was so thin and useless. What we do know is that the Native Americans were only immunized against the diseases of their lands, but were not with measles, influenza, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus and malaria. And because there was so much of this disease and so little time for their bodies to adapt to these harsh changes the Native Americans might as well have been declared dead the day the settlers arrived. Even in Mexico, the live population decreased from 10 to 20 million to 1 million by 1650. I am truly unsure if this was intended when the settlers arrived, but I'm sure that it was apparent to them that the indigenous people were dying off fast. The fact that the settlers did not take action is just as appalling as the fact that this plan could have been intentional.

I found my information here and here.

Is Door to Door Solicitation Old News?

After reading pages 370-372, I realized how eerily similar Zheng He's (the Muslim captain who sailed around the world) plan is to the ones of many americans now in days. Zheng He's intentions completely mirror the intentions of a evangelical, or solicitor going door to door in hopes of being listened to. Zheng He made sure to have a sweet bargain by giving the foreigners gifts as soon as they agreed with trade, and I find that similar to the free Knick-Knacks that you get anywhere where ideas are being thrown at you. Zheng He also brought many men with him, and in today's view, the more people you bring to convince somebody of something, the easier it'll happen. Zheng He is the solicitor from the past with a much larger goal of course, but I still find it hilarious at how uniform and "door to door" his plan feels. And I am aware that this comes across as a little juvenile for a blog topic, but to give a more serious definition. I feel that Zheng He was both successful for his persistence but also for the fact that few foreigners had traveled the world, so Zheng He was able to provide this for them. And in the end, everyone was supplied with some sort of lump sum that then commenced the trade between the two. In modern society, solicitation takes place hundreds of times more than Zheng He's trip, but we have learned to ignore the persistence and buy that bronze plaque: "No Solicitors".

How I define an Empire

So for my blog entry, I will give a little insight on how I define an Empire. (I'm pretty sure this was one of the choices for the homework.)


So to begin, every empire has to have five key aspects if it is to be called an empire in my book. The first is having resources. Resources are beyond essential to life, and are easily seen in every empire in the past and present. Next is military strength. Although we could argue that empires could thrive purely on the basis that they're nice people, if an empire doesn't have protection, then it will be demolished by others. My third aspect is appeal. An empire's appeal determines if it's people will want to stay apart of it, and whether or not others would like to join in. Appeal also leads me to my fourth aspect, power. And when I say power, I really mean the metaphorical power that dictators use to instill their subjects. I could always substitute the word power with the word fear, but I thought that power sounded better when in terms of empires. Lastly, what is needed is a good ruler. Basically some guy who has a great plan, can convince people to follow him, and can instill fear into others. I do realize that almost all the empires had bad rulers at some given time that eventually led them to failure, but it was the original founders that knew what to do. And although the new leaders didn't follow in the footsteps of their ancestors, once the empire has been built, then there is little a leader has to do to maintain it. And to conclude this piece, I am aware that many of my aspects could be replaced with others, but I'm sure anyone who is reading this could understand my big picture.