Guess who's back for another blog post!!!

Hey guys! It's time for another round of "Oh god I need to do a blog post and I'm 300% clueless!" Lets jump right in:

Imperialism:

• Imperialism in this era can be compared to that of the previous era of imperialism
• "Help! What on earth was the previous era of imperialism?!!?"
• think Columbus and Cortez--> an age of exploration for profit
• Technological changes helped enable explorer's abilities to travel farther than they ever had before (although they still didn't manage to find India properly)
• This era of imperialism came after the Industrial Revolution, another period of technological advances and drastic changes to the previous way of life.
• The economy was growing and countries found the need to expand outward to create a larger market.
• All the sudden, in 1880, all of Europe got really excited about Africa

Accurate representation of Europe fighting over African land

• Before 1880, only about 10% of the continent of Africa was controlled by European nations.
• After 1880, almost the whole continent was controlled by European powers. It was no longer enough to be involved in African trade markets, to show power one had to completely control the whole area. The more land you had control over, the better.
• Important thing to know: The Berlin Conference
• Jules Ferry (from France) and our fave, Bismarck, arranged a conference in Berlin in 1884 to discuss the Africa crisis
• The conference defended territories held in Africa as long as they were justifiable

Migration:

• European migrants were often small peasant landowners that were moving for economic reasons. They were usually good for the receiving countries-- they were hard workers that worked for low wages. (Think Jurgis— he left for America to reach the “land of opportunity”)
• Some Europeans moved inside of Europe, others outside. Some moved
     permanently, others moved temporarily
• Swallows—> Italians that harvested wheat. They harvested in Italy for one season, moved to Argentina to harvest during the other season, then moved back to Italy.
• This was not a permanent migration, but was still worth it for those who made a profit doing it

Info on swallows can be more useful than you think

• German peasants were stuck in the dwarf economy that had small landholdings and had a decline in craft trading industries. Many of them moved to the American Midwest where they could afford the cheaper land.
• Russian Jews fled under discrimination brought upon by a new tsar
• Italians migrated due to an influx of American wheat that flooded the market
• the growing Italian population couldn't keep up and could not provide enough jobs, so many left to go find some elsewhere

Joke of the day: “I know a mushroom. He’s a fun guy” - Nicole

Why is this relevant? Ireland and its potato problem really wasn't fun.

What's Ireland's big problem?

The English, coming in to mess up Ireland with their superior British TV and cool cars

• The absentee landowners controlled the poor, starving Irish, but didn't make any real progress towards making the Irish less starving and desperate. Before the Corn Laws had jump-started the Great Famine, many people in Ireland were looking for home rule, but were sidetracked by a lack of food.
• The English controlled Ireland, but didn't help for a long time, and when they did it was too little too late.

Me, realizing I'm finished

That's all I have for today, folks! Coming next class: "Wait, THAT'S due too???"

- Cory