Great Powers Game Debrief

I was U.S.A., with my partner Joel. Powerful countries such as, Great Britain, U.S.A., Russia had advantages at the start. We had these advantages, because we were stronger countries to begin with, and we were also larger. My empire was a good one that had a strong army and navy at the start. It was probably more important to buy industries and colonies so that we could buy large amounts of armies in the end. But, instead of using that method, my empire grew slowly and steadily. We did very well with backing up our allies, unless they’ve crossed us or betrayed us. We should have bought more industries and colonies at the beginning to help improve our power. About half of our alliances were good and trustful. We were allies TWICE with Great Britain, but they crossed us twice and declared war against us. Some allies such as Italy, France, and Japan, definitely could be trusted.

I learned quite a few things about conflict from this simulation. First of all, you can’t trust anyone but your self/country. Some of the countries we were allies with, completely turned on us. One of them declared war against us, so in the last year my country, the U.S.A. declared war on them and five other countries joined us. Only one country joined Great Britain. After the simulation was over, I realized how allies could suddenly become enemies. Secondly, I learned that conflict could make a country greedy for more power. For example, when my empire lost the war declared upon us, the winners asked for TOO much. They went almost over the top. Lastly, conflict could also lead to new alliances. When a country declared war against Russia, we weren’t on Russia’s side, but later on Russia and the U.S.A. we were great allies and fought against Great Britain. In the end, we didn’t win, but I was quite proud of our country.

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Goals

Feedback

When it came to my goals last quarter, I think I did quite well. My notes were all basically in my own words. Sometimes I did need some help phrasing things. And my writing style did improve a little more than last quarter. I STILL could work on that.

My goals for next quarter are;

•To have AR done within the first month of this quarter
•To study harder for tests and quizzes (spend more time studying…. Maybe half an hour more)
•To research more thoroughly for the projects that I will have in this quarter

Merry Christmas!!!

Hotel Rwanda Blog Assignment

In the film, when the leutennant from the UN told Paul, the hotel manager that the whites would only help their own race and that they would be abandoned. That was completely necessary of him to tell Paul, because he would have been ready for the whites leaving.I found it quite horrible that the UN(who were SUPPOSED to help peace) abandoned the blacks, while the blacks deserved more than the whites to leave. The whites brought back a poodle and didnt even bother to bring at least ONE African with them. They must have been full of shame and regret to have left so many people there to be killed by the Hutu soldiers.
I completely agree with source A when it says, "The UN may save lives. But, ultimately, the future of Rwanda is in Rwandan hands." The UN have helped a bit, but when they abandoned the blacks, they made it worse than it was before. What these so-called "peace-keepers" have done is shameful.

Analyzing a political cartoon on Imperialism

When I see this picture, I notice that the continent itself is black, not green, or brown, but black. I then noticed that the footprint on the country is very strong and is white. I also noticed that it was a boot and not a foot.

The blackness of the continent symbolizes the race living there. It is also black because the white called it "The Dark Continent". The foot/boot print symbolizes the "white" settlers and what they have done to the continent. According to the political cartoon, the "white" people stamped on Africa, they made a mark. They made a mark that wont go away and has effected them greatly. The foot print is a boot which says that the foot print was made by white people because they are more likely to wear boots, unlike the native people in Africa. The dried land on the foot print could symbolize that the "white" have ruined their land, and have taken away the agriculture. This political cartoon makes a good point about what the "white" settlers have done to Africa.

I think it also has to do with the "White Man's Burden" and how the "white" people thought it was their duty to "help" the black people.

Scramble For Africa Game

In this game, there were about seven different countries trying to claim Africa. In each country group there were no less than three people. Only two countries had one person in its group.Mine was one of them and Spain was one of them. My country was Portugal.In this game I mostly aimed for getting the most natural resources I could, even though my main goal was to claim the west coast, southeast coast, and southwest coast. Sadly, some countries were quicker than me and took over all of the coastlines in Africa.

To be honest, I truly think Spain lost this game because of a few reasons. Firstly, Spain took over quite a bit of the Sahara. I found that that was pointless because there were no natural resources, there is barely ANY population, and that the climate is too hot. The climate will STILL be too hot even though there are a few oasis'. sorry spain!

When it comes to who won, I think France won (even though Britain did a really good job!). France won because they have the most natural resources. Even though they didn't take over the northeast coast(which is closer to Europe) like Great Britain, they took over the northwest coastline. It was important to take over a coastline because of all the resources and possible trading docks. I really liked this game and think we should do it again. Well done France!

The Five Themes Of Geography

To remember the five themes of geography, you should remember M.R.HE.L.P;

Movement~how people, ideas, and goods travel from one place to another
Region~how a place is organized
Human Environment interaction~How we get along with the environment
Location~answer the question 'where?' and can be absolute or relevant
Place~answers the question 'what?' what it's like

I will give an example of each from the book (Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe)

Movement-In the book, when missionaries came to the village to convert them into Christians (pg. 148 onwards)

Region-The way Ezeudu's funeral was organized (pg. 120 onward)

Human Environment Interaction-the people of Umuofia and other villages drink palm wine which relates to the environment because they got it from the Earth (pg. 147)

Location-Umuofia, in Africa (pg. 3 onwards)

Place-very dry and funerals are very different, many different wives for one man (pg.120, 71, 89)

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