Ajah’s Spring WH Blog

What was the role of Gandhi in India’s struggle for independence? In South Africa, Gandhi organized Indians (mostly Muslims) to protests that country’s policies of racial segregation. He highlighted a new political philosophy known as “satyagraha” which was a confrontational, though nonviolent, approach to political action. He rose within the leadership ranks of the INC and applied his approach in periodic mass campaigns that drew support from Indians-- peasants and the urban poor, intellectuals and artisans, capitalists and socialists, Hindus and Muslisms. To many people, Gandhi possessed magical powers and produced miraculous events. He was the Mahatma which means “the great soul”. He worked to raise the status of India’s untouchables, which were the lowest and most ritually polluting groups within the caste hierarchy.  Why was African rule in South Africa delayed until 1994, when it had occurred decades earlier elsewhere in the colonial world? African rule was delayed un...

In what ways was Japan changing during the Tokugawa era? In the Tokugawa era of Japan was left unstabilized and to create stability many changes were made. The Tokugawa regime broke the population into four hierarchically ranked groups. The groups were ranked in the order of highest to lowest by samurai’s, peasants, artisans, and merchants. They were all given specific rules to follow for their occupations, residence, hairstyles, dress, and behavior. With no army or wars to fight in the samurai became a bureaucratic group that made up five percent of the population. Peasants became entrepreneurs especially in the rice industry growing an abundance of rice. Exchange networks emerged making Japan a market economy. Confucianism also became popular in Japan increasing their literate population to forty percent men and fifteen percent of women.   In what ways were the histories of China and the Ottoman Empire similar during the 19 th century? And how did they differ? Both th...

Spend a few minutes studying the map titled “Conquest and Resistance in Colonial Africa” on page 796. What is so striking about this map? If you were in a group discussion during class, what would be the observations you would share about this map? One thing that seemed striking to me about this map was that for the most part the British have an all around presence. Another thing that was notable was that the French and the British have the largest presence. The Portugese and Independent African States both only cover two regions. The Belgians only cover one territory. Another thing I noticed was that a few of the dates overlap with each other.  Read the poem on page 798 by Nguyen Khuyen, a Vietnamese official during French colonial rule. If you had the opportunity to share a glass of his “fine wine” (or a cup of tea) with Mr. Nguyen, what would you say to him? How might that conversation go? Here is the poem for your convenience: Fine wine but no good friends, So I buy n...

How did the Industrial Revolution transform British society? The landowning aristocrats sat high before the industrial revolution happened. Many leased their land out to tenant farmers. They dominated the British Parliament until the Industrial Revolution. As the Industrial Revolution focused more on urban wealth it gave rise to jobs such as businessmen, manufactures, and bankers. These jobs took over as the base of wealth. For Britain's middle class they fared pretty well. The men were wealthy merchants, bankers, and mine owners, doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Politically the men stood as liberals. Women in the middle class lived out the ideology of domesticity. Britain's laboring class were the most harshly affected by the Industrial Revolution. A large number of people in the laboring class were desperate for work. The working conditions that many of the laboring class were subjected to were very harsh. The laboring class worked long hours for low wages. In addition to t...

In your blog post:  1) Summarize the section from chapter 20;  2) Summarize what you learned during your self-guided research; and  3) Relate what you’ve learned from both of those activities to the world we live in today. Some people say that fascist tendencies seem to be on the rise in parts of the world today… do you agree? If so, in what ways do contemporary trends demonstrate fascist tendencies? If not, what key elements of fascism would you need to see evidence of in order to say that this is an accurate claim? The section on fascism in chapter 20 gives us a look into how fascism played in Europe specifically Italy and Germany. In Italy, following the Russian Revolution, people in the middle and upper class viewed communism and socialism as a threat to their independence and looked to fascism as a better option for their circumstances. The end of the First World War left many people unemployed and resentful about the amount of land gained from the T...

While the world has not been shy of pandemics throughout the years, it doesn’t make the fear of not knowing any easier. It’s still concerns our overall health and is a literal matter of life or death. Still, with no official certainty from professionals who are on the frontlines combatting this disease, many instances of pandemics manage to parallel one another from previous global crisis. When H1N1 first surfaced in the early 1900s, many people believe that the cause was due to human contamination and contracting it through one another. It was later discovered that the disease was spread through birds. Although no specific species or origin was confirmed as to where it all started. Nearly 1/3 of the world was infected resulting in nearly 50 million global deaths. While COVID-19 is specified as being more prevalent in older people, people who already have pre existing health conditions, or compromised immune systems, anyone could contract H1N1, including toddlers and young adults...