World History Research Paper

1. Based on your reading of the two primary source documents for this module, in what ways do you feel these documents are historically significant? In what ways do documents such as these help historians to understand history? In the end, what were the main reasons for dropping these two weapons on Japan?

At this point in history, the Chinese only wanted fellow Chinese to be ruler of their country. In result of the Manchus not being Chinese, rebellions took place habitually for decades. Nonetheless, this was soon to change. Kangxi was the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty,

China has changed in certain ways and remained the same in others from the early Golden Ages to the late 1900s. China has experienced a series of cultural and political transformations, shaping the lives of many Chinese citizens. Culturally, the country’s art and literature hardly changed for almost eight hundred years. Along with their culture, China remained politically the same from the beginning of the Golden Ages all the way until the 1800s. On the other hand, China’s government and society were restructured after new leaders took over. From a monarch to total communism, China’s society had a multitude of new ideas and policies they had to adapt to.

1. Humans first appeared on Earth during the Paleolithic Era. The evidence of burial grounds, stone tools, and other items shows a general migration path of humans out of Africa, and support the theory that these groups were nomadic hunters and foragers. Early humans were mobile and could adapt to different geographical settings from savannah to Ice Age tundra. Anthropologists infer that these bands were relatively egalitarian.

Manchus were the one that took control of China after the Yuan (which was the Mongols) and established themselves as the Qing Dynasty. It is also this dynasty that the modern Chinese started. Around the 18th century, the Qing was at its height. However, by the start of the 19th century until the early 20th century, the Qing Dynasty started going downhill with domestic political and foreign policy problems. Within the nation, there were continuation and changes to the traditional Confucian system; Furthermore, there were rebellions due to foreign competitions that lead to the end of the Qing Dynasty.

China remains a current world super power that has been around for thousands of years. It was one of the first civilizations ever created and it has evolved into an enormous country. China is a large territory, but only 10% of the land can be farmed on. This continues to be a tremendous problem, especially with the large population that mostly lives in rural areas. In the past China was seen as a fragile nation that was still stuck in the past, although after the Four Humiliations this began to change. The Four Humiliations were a group of events that forced China to modernize due to the losses it faced. After the last of the four humiliations and the fall of the dynasty era during 1911, China began to catch up to the westernized world by modernizing their government, military, and education. The Chinese

This had led to British completely outmuscling the Chinese with their far superior technology, as well as forcing the Chinese into a treaty that opened up numerous ports in China, allowed Westerners to move to China, as well as pay reparations to the British. This utter defeat showed the Chinese that they needed to adapt, and our second document, a map forecasting the partition of China amongst various nations, showed them that they needed to make those changes quick. All of this led to arguments between groups who felt China needed to self-strengthen and those who feared the increasing influence of Western ideals that could be brought on by learning more about the West in order to better defend against it. This is shown in our third document on self-strengtheners, such as Feng Guifen who argues for youths to be taught in Western languages and sciences in order to best defend against them. This document shows further the nationalism within China, as well as the importance of traditions, ideals, and values, as both sides argue their points based on protecting them from Western

Historians have learned a great deal about the Crusades from chroniclers like William of Tyre and Ibn al-Qalanisi. Today, reporters and newscasters travel all over the world to report on international events, including conflicts. Reporters and world leaders use social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook to connect with the public. Imagine what we might know had there been access to television, cell phones, and social media in the 13th century.

In the Post-Classical Era, trade was crucial for the diffusion of cultures because it connected major areas of the world. With many different trade routes such as the Trans-Saharan and the Silk Roads, religions, ideas, and technology were able to spread with ease. Religions that traveled along those trade routes are Islam and Christianity. Both religions spread far and wide through the practices of trade and warfare. Merchants had a significant impact on the spread of both religions, as they were the ones traveling along these trade routes and learning about different religions and cultures. As both religions spread through vast regions, the different peoples and cultures they came in contact with began to use these religions as a unification tactic as well as a way to identify themselves as individuals. For example, as Christianity spread through the Silk Roads, the Roman emperor Constantine converted, so Christianity

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries American colonies increased their religious tolerance. This started when Puritans and Separatists traveled to the Americas specifically for religious freedom. Seeing that America was a tolerant place, many others who had different thoughts on religion went to America as well. One of these groups were the Quakers who started a wave of change and many immigrants moved to places with high Quaker populations because they were tolerant. Roger Williams was also important in the extent of religious toleration and he founded Rhode Island.

Constantine is best remembered in modern times for the Edict of Milan in 313, which fully legalized Christianity in the empire for the first time. Constantine’s edict gave Christians the right to openly practice their faith. Until then, they had met in the homes of fellow believers. Within a year of edit, Constantine ordered the building of churches throughout the empire. Although some Christians were very worried about the future of the churches if it became too close with the empire. The only people edit mentioned by name were the Christian, and the laws that came afterwards radically limited the rights of Jews as citizens of the Roman Empire.

China has been a communist country since the communist revolution took place in 1949, since then China has been ruled by the dictator Mao Tse-Tung. However the Chinese dictator died in September 1976, he was hailed abroad as one of the worlds’ great leaders. Certainly one of the more impressive aspects of the Chinese communist government, has been the willingness of the people to protest against it (3, pg. 4).

After the Boxer Protocol, came the end of Imperial China - this meant that the people were no longer governed by the ‘Son of Heaven’, and thus left with no other form of guidance. In a way, they were forced to look at other options. One option was a political philosophy, Three People’s Principles, developed by Sun Yat-sen to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation. This led to the emergence of the Nationalist party, also known as the Kuomintang. However, instead of devoting interests towards this ‘unification’ of one nation through Nationalism, democracy, and the livelihood of the people, China had experienced widespread instability in a rift between the Chinese people and the Nationalists that governed them. War provided the

Furthermore, other changes sought by Russians promised under the PG were not met such as food and supply shortages. In China, the situation was quite similar, after gaining power the primary goal of the government changed to maintaining it and “the comfortable and profitable positions that came with it.” (Grasso & Corrin) Land reform was also disregarded by the government in China, many new taxes were introduced such as kettle tax, grain transport tax, roof tax and road maintenance tax (Lynch). Furthermore, the same struggles for food were seen in China as some resorted to “eating the bark from trees.” Chinese peasants were also terrorised under ruthless warlords such as Zhang Zongzhang, whom “took a pathological delight in terrorising the population.” (Lynch) This was compounded in China by the fact that the GMD dissolved workers unions such as the Chinese League for the protection of Civil Rights and disallowed the formation of workers unions unless they were heavily controlled by the government, having the effect of creating mounting discontent towards the GMD. Despite these similarities the GMD went further than the PG by resorting to taking out loans in order to finance their party rather than industrial and economic growth. For that reason, “China remained [even more] hopelessly backward compared with modern industrial powers.” (Grasso & Corrin) Together discontent with government generated

While Sun Yat-sen was in Denver, Colorado he learned about the uprising at Wuchang. Sun was not directly involved but he immediately returned to China. Sun was elected as provisional president in December 1911, and January 1, 1912 was the “first day of the First Year of the Republic”. The rebellion expandedSun new his reign was weak so made a deal with Yuan Shikai that he along with the current emperor would resign and that he would become the next president. And on February 14, 1912, Yuan was elected two days after the emperor resigned and one day after Sun Yat-sen resigned. On March 12 1925 Sun Yat-sen died of liver cancer. Sun was never able to see China become unified, but after his death it did finally happen and all his hard work paid