This year in MWH...

I learned about geography as something I think I should remember for the rest of my life. I may not remember exactly where the Ottoman and Mughal empires where and when but I will no the general area and where other events where located. I never learned much about geography and where places were or even the general area they were in. Now I know what is around Latin America and Asia.

This year I learned about blogging. I learned about the different ways you can blog like investigate or research more about a topic to explore and connect by tracing something new back to something else we had learned or a personal experience. I feel like I have learned about how to reflect in a more analytical way rather than just summarizing. I looked at my first couple blog posts and they were all mostly summarizing what I had researched or they talked a little about what I thought about the situation. Now, I feel like I can talk in more depth and respond to other people's posts in a more reflective manor. This obviously is partially because I have more background knowledge because I have learned about many different cultures, areas, and time periods over the course of the year. I really like how blogs let you participate so you can get participation in class but you can say it outside of class. For example, if we are having a conversation about something and everyone is participating, then sometimes it is hard to get your opinion in. But with blogging, I could share my opinion and be able to reflect on what others had said without having to try to speak up in class. Also it gives you time to think about what others have said and so you have more time to respond rather than on the spot in class. I was surprised by how much freedom blogging provided. I found the text hard to read at some points, but for homework I could talk about the discussion in class rather than trying to comprehend the text and then saying something weird because I didn't get it.

Interesting Facts

1. Mohammad Khatami, a previous leader, let women go skiing without the normal gender barriers. Women were allowed to wear ski attire rather what all women were supposed to wear. They were also let on ski lifts and gondolas with men and were allowed to ski with men. The gender barrier was nonexistent on the ski slopes and so women saw this as a chance of freedom sort of. They have police that are supposed to make sure none of the Islamic values are compromised or broken but they haven't been given skis. So as long as the women are on the slopes, they are fine.

2."There is nothing in Islam that says that (women) working is forbidden...If a woman wants to work, she should be able to. She should be able to tell her husband that she doesn't want to just sit around the house... Some men and women deny the right of women to work, and this is either a result of ignorance or holding on too tightly to tradition." These quotes were said by Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma. She is arguing the fact that Islam should not prevent women from working. She thinks that people should be able to adapt and have the freedom to work if they wish. I thought this was interesting because this shows progress regarding the rights of women in Islam and my above point does too. You don't normally hear about the freedom women have. You mostly hear about what they struggle with or what they don't have.

3. From one of my sites, I found that women who have been around longer know many things about what women can do that is normally restricted by law. For example, they are allowed to be educated and it is illegal to keep girls from going to school. Apparently the laws may have been altered a little to what people think women can and can't do but in reality they haven't been part of the Islamic tradition and religion.

4. Iranian women were just allowed to participate in the FIFA Youth Olympics if they were caps instead of the traditional hijab. I think that this is both good and bad. They are allowing the women to play but they are not allowed to wear what they are supposed to wear traditionally. I think it is a good step in the right direction but there is still some work and adaptation that other organizations could do.

5. Islam has made some changes to modernize and make more sense of its self. Islam has gotten rid of polygamy because the Koran states that wives should be treated equally and if you have six it is hard to treat them all the same. They considered it too much work for even a very wealthy man. I think that this is interesting because it shows that Islam is adapting and modernizing sort of. They are trying to make their religion more practical and it will only be a matter of time when the women are completely equal to men.

5 Resource Sources

Mudditt, Jessica. “The slippery slope to freedom in Iran.” April 17, 2009. Spiked. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/6552/. (accessed April 29, 2010).

“Islam supports working women: Ex-Shoura adviser.” September 2, 2009. Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/hits?docNum=CJ207088657&tab=64&locID=menlo_schlib&origSearch=false&hdb=ALL&t=RK&s=1&r=d&items=0&secondary=true&o=&sortOrder=RE&n=10&l=dN&sgPhrase=false&c=1&tabMap=82&bucket=nws&SU=islam+women. (accessed April 28, 2010).

"Nation of Islam." Civil Rights in the United States. 2 vols. Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/History/. (accessed April 29, 2010).

Maqsood, Ruqaiyyah Waris. "Islam, Culture and Women." Islam For Today. http://www.islamfortoday.com/ruqaiyyah09.htm. (accessed May 3, 2010).

"FIFA compromise in hijab row over Iran women's team." May 3, 2010. CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/05/03/iran.hijab.women.fifa/. (accessed May 3, 2010).

"Homeless good Samaritan left to die on NYC street"

I found this link to an article about a man who died on a street when he was trying to help a woman who was being attacked. He saw this woman and a man fighting and it began to get physical so this guy stepped in to help her but he ended up getting stabbed and was then laying on the side of the sidewalk. It was reported that 7 people walked by before an ambulance actually came and an hour or two had already passed and so it was too late.

I thought this was just awful because people could have had the opportunity to help but they didn't and so they basically killed him. I understand that seeing someone stabbed may be shocking but I wouldn't just leave him and walk by.

This made me think of how people judge others and how they don't always think of how they can help. Some people are too nervous to take a stand and others are too selfish to help anyone but themselves. To connect to this to history, it can sort of tie to people being to afraid to help someone who is in a different situation. In history, there have been many instances where people are not being treated fairly but the people who are treated fairly don't have the guts to stick up for the other side because they are worried that will hurt them and make them be treated unfairly. In this case, the guy was stabbed and bloody on a street and people may have been frightened that they might be killed if they helped or that the blood would get on them and cause a disease or infection. I think that someone should have helped earlier on by at least calling 911 or getting someone else to help if they couldn't. Personally, I would feel awful if I found out I could have saved someone's life but instead I chose not to be late for work or something.

Article URL:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_dying_and_ignored

Humans: Not Advised to Contact Aliens

Stephen Hawking, a british scientist, says that there may be aliens and they may exist but humans should not be in contact with them because they could be harmful. People think that if we were to encounter them, then they may try to take over our planet because they liked some of the resources that Earth provides. They think that it may be like Columbus' discovery of "the new world" but in this case the aliens would be Columbus and we would be the Native Americans. The Native Americans were not treated very well and they had their culture and lives almost completely demolished and taken over by Columbus and his followers. Like Columbus, they think the aliens might feel the need to colonize or capture whatever land they find because they have exhausted their own planet. The aliens may be in a situation like Wall-E where they have used up almost all of the resources on their planet. IN Wall-E earthlings or humans let their planet be taken over by trash and so they sat in space in a spaceship which served as their planet because they had nowhere else to go. The Aliens could have nowhere else to go so they might take any chance they have to find a new planet to live on. There is also a new tv show I think that they mentioned about the Universe and aliens. Humans have made numerous attempts to contact "new life" but no aliens have been found yet. They sent a couple of ships with sculptures but they didn't come in contact with any other living things.

Article Found on...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/sc_afp/scienceastronomyextraterrestrialhawking

Mao: His Impact and Leadership

Some of the main issues that caused a downfall for China were mostly tied to Mao who was for Communism. He thought that everyone should work together and that way they could over power the United States. He tried to get involved in the Korean war but many thousands of soldiers died. He also tried what he called the Great Leap which ironically caused them to fall or go backwards. He wanted everyone to work together so that they could "surpass America" by killing the sparrows because they ate some of their grain. Mao didn't really think of the "then what" or what came after he killed the sparrows. What ended up happening was that then there were too many insects and they ended up eating a lot of the grain which cause a famine. Mao failed to think ahead and that is why many of his ideas were failures. The plan sounded great the problem resulted after the plan had been achieved. Like when he tried to increase harvests. He thought that having people work harder would make them produce more and indeed it did, but it was more of a unrealistic competition. They would say they would produce a ton and so the government would take that as a promise that they could collect a certain amount of what they were going to produce. But when it came time for the government to collect, they hadn't produced what they thought they would and so the government would take what they were promised and left the country workers with nothing.

Mao had great ideas like getting them motivated with competition and to work together to be more efficient, but as I have said before it only lead to disaster. Mao wasn't a good leader in the sense that he didn't think ahead. He thought of what they could do at that moment and then he would try it out. He experimented but it was like testing ideas with people's lives. If his plan failed, which most of them sort of did, then lots of people would die. He was not aware that some many people of the country side were dying when they were supposed to be prospering because of the hypothetical amounts of grain. But the people were actually dying of starvation. A leader needs to be in contact with all the different parts of land and all the different kinds of people, that way he can prevent a chain of deaths from starvation. A leader also needs to be able to think ahead of what could happen if I did this, or what might go wrong and if it does go wrong what can I do to help the people. I think he was so consumed in his own ideas that he got overwhelmed with how well he thought things would turn out.

Japanese War Crimes

So I decided to research a little about the Japanese war crimes and a big one was the Rape of Nanking. They had a hard time finding enough solid evidence to prove it was horrific and a war crime. They now have found that the US may have had some of the more convincing evidence to help the Japanese not be convicted. But why they would do that I am not sure. They think they may have done it so that Japan could move on and continue running smoothly. The Japanese were not as severely punished as the Germans so that is what has lead some people to think that all the facts and evidence may not have been revealed. I think that the German's war crime was horrific because so many were killed in so many horrific ways. The Japanese however invaded without being in much of a war already. I am not saying that what the Germans did is justified but I think that the Japanese should have been suffered a little more and should have received more consequences for their actions. They raped many innocent people for a reason that wasn't very justified especially from the people's view who were somehow connected to the even whether they had someone close who was killed or whether they witnessed part of it. I read about this in a couple essays all in one document from a couple people who decided to investigate and discover more about it.

Research:

http://www.archives.gov/iwg/japanese-war-crimes/introductory-essays.pdf

World War II's change on the definition of war

World War II introduced a new way of fighting and new weapons. The nuclear bomb was introduced and used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Firebombing also occurred. Both of these methods were very effective in the fact that they killed large amounts of people without much of a risk in doing it for the soldiers because most were done by air. This was very sad because many of the killings were used to demonstrate their power and how much destruction they could do so easily. Some who saw these killings that was thought of them as unnecessary considering how much damage was caused. Others saw it as necessary because they thought that they needed to make a statement and assure themselves that the place they bombed or burned would no longer be a threat. World War II had many killings but in large numbers rather than wars of attrition with killings but one by one being shot or killed in the trenches like in WWI. WWII was very traumatizing because having so many people who aren't necessarily directly connected to the war and were innocent civilians were killed. Whole cities were taken out and very few survived. The ones who did survive were traumatized for life because they saw their families and friends and just about everyone around them killed either by the bombs or burned to death. Trauma was a common result from war because it resulted a lot and was more commonly called shell shock in World War I.

Source:

In Class/Ms. Xia

Major Cause of WWII

I think that the major cause of WWII was because of the result of WWI. Britain and France (with some others) created the Treaty of Versailles and it took everything away from Germany and put the blame on them for the war. This cause Germany's anger and this made them want to fight. Then they started taking over Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Then when they all gave in and let Hitler take over those parts, then he grew and gained more power. This lead to later fighting against America and causing the second world war. Back to WWI, not ending up with a relatively even and peaceful closing to that war left Germany enraged because they wanted to get bak at France and Britain and somehow get back what they took. It wasn't a fair ending and so not having the war's end conflict resolved only lead to WWII because of left over anger.

Sources:

Ms. Xia (in class 3-15-10)

Is Japan Totalitarian?

Japan had a constitutional monarchy and allowed males to vote. They also had the military dominate and take over during the times of the Depression. Then they began making people follow the emperor and they changed education and society became very nationalistic. They tried not to be totalitarian but they ended up turning into a totalitarian society in the end. They tried to give the people a voice and they passed male suffrage or the right to vote for males in 1925 and they had leaders of the groups of people and they expanded education. They westernized and that influenced their government and made them less focussed on complete control coming from the government or one major power. Then the Great Depression highly impacted society. The people lost their jobs and their lives became worse and worse. They decided to blame their dissatisfaction on the new rulers and the west because of their influence. Organizations were formed and they were small parties or groups of people with strong nationalism and they wanted change in their lives. They wanted to return to their old ways where they were all ruled under the emperor and the emperor was the leader and only main power source. They ended up going back but military authorities also had some control. I think that they were not totalitarianism but they tried to go back and make it like that but they were not completely totalitarianism.

Information from...

Strayer, Robert. Ways of the World. p. 642-644

Ms. Xia (in class discussion March 09, 2010)

WWI Nations: Germany and America

Germany:

Then they established the Reichstag Parliament. They had lost a lot through the Treaty of Versailles like limited military, lost 10% of land, war reparation of 30 billion dollars, and lost colonies to Britain. The war dues they had to pay were what caused hyper-inflation and that is what lead to the depression. Germany was under the Weimar Republic when they overthrew the Kaiser in November of 1918 and they negotiated an armistice. This was like Russia's armistice that we have previously learned about. The Weimar Republic was what ended the hyper-inflation because of new currency. It also included Dawe's plan which was for America to lend Germany money so they could pay back their war reparations. Hitler later rose to power because he talked about ways to get out of tough living situations like jobs or money. This appealed to the WWI veterans and the workers because they were struggling the most during this time. Hitler was put in jail but he wrote Mein Kampf or "My Struggle" and this basically blamed the Jews and made them the scapegoat and he said that the "Aryan" race was superior.

America:

For America, the war had created new opportunities in a sense for them. Women were given the right to vote (Women's Suffrage) and there was a new rising middle class and they had a lot of leverage going on with money. They would pay $1o dollars for example and get a bank loan for $90 and then they would sell things for more so they would increase their money by a large percent. This lead to the Great Depression because when the stock market crashed people lost money instead of gaining more from selling. They were having to sell at a lower price than what they bought it for and therefore they were in debt because their borrowed money from the banks but they couldn't pay it back. That lead to banks shutting down and people losing their money because the banks simply didn't have it. Then people decided to start taking their money out of the banks so that they wouldn't lose their money but that only made it worse. Then people didn't spend as much so people weren't getting paid as much and so they lost their jobs and wouldn't buy as much and it became a vicious cycle. It was a bad recession or called a depression. This lead to the decision of finding alternative ways of government.

Sources:

notes from Ms. Xia in class (02-24-10 & 02-26-10)

George Ludovic Alexander Picture

Here is a picture of George Ludovic Alexander.

----------------------

Here is a picture of a soldier during World War I and he is sad and sitting in an area that had been destroyed. Many soldiers were traumatized by this and suffered from shell shock which cause many to want to go home. I thought that this related to my diary entry because George wanted to go home as did many soldiers at the time. In the poem that I blogged about in the beginning he talked about after the dark there always comes light and I really admired his positive outlook. In this picture the soldier seems as if he is in the "dark" or the rough times and George's thoughts were that later he would eventually come out and arrive back in a positive and happy environment.

Pictures found at:

http://www.awm.gov.au/visit/images/PAIU1989_140_01_1.jpg

http://www.webmousepublications.com/itow/gla/gla-1918.gif

George Ludovic Alexander (New Diary Entry)

I thought that this diary entry was interesting because he talks about how he goes on this trip to visit back home and many of his entries are about wanting to go home and how much he misses home. Many soldiers fighting at the time all wanted to go home because it was scary with all of the trenches and the bombs and not knowing when and where you were going to die. As we saw in the video people began to injure themselves so that they could go home. The captains or leaders caught on to this and then started killing the people who did this. All of the soldiers wanted to go back home where they felt safe and where they could enjoy being with their family and the people they loved. It was comfortable for them at home and at war is was the direct opposite of comfortable.

In this entry he mentions "Reba and Steve" and Reba was his sister. From the site with information about his family, I could not find someone with the name of Steve but there were last names like Stevenson which could possibly be connected?

This is what he wrote on December 23, 1917.

12/23 1917
As result of much head work and policy I arrived in Little Rock this date. Sorry Reba and Steve could not be there - but this trip home was a real Christmas present to me. A fellow surely appreciates home after a few months knocking around. I went flying around night and day and couldn't have enjoyed anything more than I did this trip.

Citations:

Diary Entry Found At:

http://www.webmousepublications.com/itow/gla/gla-1917.html

George Ludovic Alexander

I clicked on the link for George Ludovic Alexander. In his diary he wrote some poetry and there was this one poem that I really liked. It didn't really say when these poems were written but i believe they were written when he was in the war. He could have written them at home because he went home often to escape the war and to hide for protection. I am not quite sure.

Mingled rain and sunshine,
Mingled smile and tear,
Mingled rose and lily
Clustered on his bier.

Rain-drops gently beck'ning
Flowers to lift their heads
In humble recognition
Of our beloved dead.

Shine-wondrous sunshine
Breaking through the gloom
To cast away the shadows
Reflected from the tomb.

Smiles shone that day somehow
Like sunshine through the rain
They cast away the shadows
And helped conceal pain.

Tear drops were in evidence
And those who loved him best
Wept silently within them
As they bore him to his rest.

Roses - lovely roses
That spoke as roses do
Of all that's good and noble
In a friend so tried and true.

Lilies - fragrant lilies
Above all so pure and white
Cause us to remember,

After darkness, comes the light.

Citation:

written by George Ludovic Alexander

Poem found at

Freud- Id, Ego, Superego

In the video we learned about Freud and his ideas about our unconscious mind. He talked about how people wanted to kill their father because they were jealous of them because they really liked their mother. That is kind of gross to think about. Many people of that time agreed and were very disturbed by the thought of his ideas. He came up with the terms id, ego, and superego. Id is the "pleasure" part of our minds and is what we want. Ego is the "reality" part which thinks of the real world and takes into consideration the id perception and tries to figure out if it works. When thinking of reality, it considers the fact that other people have wants too and so you can't be selfish because that hurts others.. Finally, superego is the part that tries to balance the two and considers the moral parts of situations. In the movie, id was sort of seen as the red, and "evil" figure or part of your mind. It was thinking of the person's wants and would set everything else aside to achieve those wants. ID being red could be seen as a devil sort of figure. Ego was seen as the white, angelic character, considers the reality situation and it talks about what the person can do and what will hurt others. Id is selfish while ego is considerate of other and how the person's actions will effect his or hers surroundings. Superego tries to balance both of those. People sometimes think of the superego as your conscience. It tells you what is right or wrong. Consciences tend to hold onto the bad things that you do and they bug you until you fix them. The superego is what tries to balance what you want so you are satisfied but also at the same time making sure that other people are content. These were very obscure and unsettling ideas at the time, and given the father mother situation, still today they may upset people. Here is the video from Youtube that we watched in class if you would live to watch it.

Video

Sites:

http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html

Class on Friday

Christmas town to Christmas land

Flag:


Anthem:


National History:

Halloween town was at the top of the world. Everyone knew about Halloween town; they had the best exported items, they had the money to buy anything in the world they wanted, and they even had possession of 4 different holidays (countries). Christmas town was a branch off from Halloween town, they were more peaceful and respectful rather than Halloween town. They didn't like fighting, but they were very patriotic and nationalistic. Over the course of 100 years, Halloween town became very needy and greedy. They started taking things from Christmas town and Easter town more than usual. They never asked or told the towns what they were taking, they would just TAKE. Christmas town was getting tired of being the nice one and decided the rebel. Even though it was going against their way to break the peace, they were being treated unfairly and they did not like that more than anything. Christmas town finally won after a long hard battle and was could finally become their own nation. As a part of their emancipation, they called themselves Christmas land. A new nation deserves a new name. I compared this "becoming a nation" to how USA broke off from Britain. They didn't like how the British were taxing them, so they decided to rebel. Both cases the weaker nation was treated unfairly and in order to be your own nation, you have to govern yourself.

Alliances and Connections

Elle, Kaitlin and I decided to make our nation named Christmas Tree Land. It is in the North Pole so therefore we decided to be allies with Europe, Canada, and Russia. We are very open to new cultures or different people. We have our own traditions but we are open to new options and suggestions because we try to have open views. Europe had part of the Ottoman rule which was very strong for a long time. Europe also had the rising Scandinavian Countries which were very strong and had powerful nationalism. We also have powerful nationalism and we take pride in what we do. We would be alliances with Canada because they are a big country and Russia is as well. The North Pole being relatively empty and weak needs those bigger nations and countries to help us when we need protection.

National Anthem of Sweden

Sweden originally just had a Royal Anthem that sort of served as their National Anthem. Then they made "their own" National Anthem but it was intended to include a small group of other countries or their newly found group. The National Anthem was written in 1844. This was during the "pan-Scandinavian movement" which was very strong then. They included them in their anthem and generalized it to the North rather than specifically to just Sweden. The name of this is "Sång till Norden" (Song of the North) and this shows how they were inclusive of The Scandinavian Countries. The Scandinavian Countries are Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, which is sometimes included. This was the northern area as said in the title and they were in the process of being included as part of the group at the time.

Below is the lines of the song first in Swedish then translated to English.

In the lyrics they mention "my own Nordic land..." and this is referring to being a part of The Scandinavian Countries. I thought that in the song they were trying to show their excitement for this newly found relationship or connection that they had with the other Nordic Countries. I think that this is intended to get people excited about this new group that they have joined. It may also help them realize the beauty that they are surrounded by, and that they need to continue to maintain it.

----------------------------------------------------

SWEDISH LYRICS

Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nord Du tysta, Du glädjerika sköna! Jag hälsar Dig, vänaste land uppå jord, Din sol, Din himmel, Dina ängder gröna.  Din sol, Din himmel, Dina ängder gröna.  Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar, då ärat Ditt namn flög över jorden. Jag vet att Du är och Du blir vad du var. Ja, jag vill leva jag vill dö i Norden.  Ja, jag vill leva jag vill dö i Norden.

 ---

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Thou ancient, thou unbound, thou north of the far. In beauty and peace our hearts beguiling. I greet thee thou fairest of lands upon the earth, thy sun thy heaven and thy land so green! thy sun thy heaven and thy land so green!  Thou rest on thy mem'ries from great ancient days, when honoured your name flew far and wide I know that you'll always remain the way you were In my own Nordic land I'll live forever!  In my own Nordic land I'll live forever!

------------------------------------------------------

Links of sites used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Sweden.svg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavia

http://www.nationalanthems.info/se.htm

Japan and Westerniztion

In class, we talked about how Japan westernized but China didn't. This was because Japan saw how the western ways were and how they worked pretty efficiently. Japan decided to westernize but in class we said "Japanese spirit, western things." They thought that they needed to keep their religion and faith but they decided to make some changes in their culture. China didn't change because they were very traditional and they thought that they had it all and the perfect life in a sense already. That is why they stopped Zheng He from exploring more of the world because they felt that there was nothing else they needed. The Chinese government was also split at the time and it was sort of chaotic because some wanted to adapt to part of the western policies but others strictly refused. Going back to Japan, the samurai also had to adapt which was hard but they made the switch. They lost their swords and had to deal with the new modernized state. The Meiji Restoration was also very important because they rose with reinstalling their emperor. Japan went up because of these changes while China went down because of no change.

All from class discussion

Nationalism and the Sepoy Rebellion

The Sepoy Rebellion was the First War of Independence in 1857. I was when Indian soldiers rebelled against the British authorities. An event that led directly to the Sepoy Rebellion was when there was a new rifle that came out and it was said to have been covered in a mix of cow and pig fat, both of which are sacred or religiously important to Hindus and Muslims. They found this very offensive and refused to use them. The authorities were not very happy with that decision of theirs and so many were put into jail, publicly humiliated, stripped in public, and sentenced to labor. Later, there was a big jail break which then caused a chain of jail breaks to occur. People heard about them and so many other people escaped. Then they invaded Delhi and replaced the current leader with a previous leader. Afterwards, the people who took part in the escape from the jails were tried and then strapped to and blasted by a cannon. From the document Aftermath of the First war of Independence they said "The Indians called it 'the Devil's Wind.'"

In my other blog I defined nationalism as "Nationalism is a person or groups "loyalty and devotion to a nation" I think that they were doing this out of nationalism because they were fighting back against the people who were selling things that disgraced their culture and religion. They were fighting because they were disrespected and thought of badly and wanted that to stop. The British was rude to the Indians and they called them "barbarians without any culture." (document Factors responsible for unrest amongst Indian masses) I think that their reasons for fighting was for pride in themselves and in their culture and religion. They were fighting for respect because the British disrespected them and the Indians wanted to make that change.

*Just about all Documents in Packet Used (not sure how to cite)

Boer War

The Boer War occurred in 1899 in South Africa. The "Boers" was a name for the Dutch Settlers. The war was the conflict between the British colonial rule and the "boers" or Dutch setters. They were arguing because they were fighting over who got the land and the African people. When war was first declared, the Dutch overpowered and conquered most of the British. But then, the British came back with a harsher response. They burned down many British farms and captured many wives and children and imprisoned them. They also made man africans, that were on the "side" or under control of the Dutch and they imprisoned them as well. They killed tons of these people that were imprisoned because they were not taken care of well enough. Where they were kept was very unsanitary which made living conditions really rough. They ended the war with The Treaty of Vereeniging. They estimate that several thousands of lives were lost, and about almost half of the Boer population.

Researching this made me think about how I would feel if people started a war where I was living and I had to live through it. I have never experienced a war where I have been living but I can imagine it is not very fun. I think it would be terrifying because I could easily walk out of my house going to school and happen to be in the middle of people fighting, and therefore I could easily get injured or worse killed! I think it must have been even weirder for the Africans because the two people who came in and had this war were not even really related or connected very much to the land. In Iraq, the Iraqi are fighting against the US and so it is at least there own people. That doesn't make it any more right but at least there is one familiar side. Not knowing at least one side would make it even harder to go through because then there is double the chances that you will get hurt. Having a familiar side means that they will probably try to avoid killing their own people as much as possible. Seeing that the Africans didn't really benefit from the war, I think that this must have been a dramatic change that they would have loved to avoid, especially considering that innocent people were taken and killed in prison camps.

Citation:

DISCovering World History. 2003. http://find.galegroup.com/gps/retrieve.do?contentSet=GSRC&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2

C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28ke%2CNone%2C8%29boer+war%24&sgHitCount

Type=None&inPS=true&sort=Relevance&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID

=T001&prodId=IPS&searchId=R1&currentPosition=2&userGroupName=menlo

_schlib&docId=EJ2105240003&docType=GSRC (accessed January 5, 2010).