Elle Rae Tumpalan

Period 7
May 18, 2017
Test #33
World History Final Essay

World War One. What could have possibly gone truly wrong in the world to cause
a war that involved well, the world? If you just read an article simply about World War
One itself, you wont be able to catch the events predating this famous war. The thing
with history is that it has a tendency of repeating itself. I mean, who would have thought
that the Qin dynasty building the Great Wall of China to keep northern invaders out
would at some point influence a future president of the United States of America to build
a wall to keep southern immigrants out? Think of history as Lego pieces. You need to
add pieces to the thing that you are building in order to get to the next step towards
completing the object. History is like that. Without certain events, other events would not
have happened, or they may have happened at an earlier or later time, but they will
always be connected in some way, shape, or form. History is like a long chain link, one
chain is a story or an event that leads to the next one and it will lead to the next event
for however long our world will still exist. Its like walking down a street that will always
have a fork in the road with only two paths you can take. It will always be one or the
other, and every decision will influence what happens in the future. Without these
events, the things that led up to World War One wouldnt have happened, meaning
World War One could have never even happened. Isnt it crazy how one change, no
matter how small, can alter history as we know it? Isnt it crazy how one decision can
change the course of the future?
In the Middle Ages, there were many different events going on, one of them
being the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of battles between the Christians and
the Muslims to see who gets to have control over the Holy Land which contains modern
day Jerusalem and Pakistan. The Crusades were what made feudalism, a system
where each social class provides their service in exchange for loyalty, fall apart. Due to
this, the loyalty between the people and the king was diminished. The church began to
become more powerful than the king as he starts to lose his Divine Right.
Feudalism fell because the vassals, the high lords, had to pay for the Crusades and the
only way they could get money to fund it was by making the serfs and peasants pay
cash taxes. The serfs, being the only ones that did much of the hard work to support the
manor, wanted to be paid for their labor. Eventually, the source of power shifted from
the amount of land you owned to the amount of money you had. Serfs that used to work
in the manor decided to leave and become merchants, where they could earn more
money for the goods they sell. This resulted in the creation of the middle class. As a
result of the growth of the middle class, new trade routes started to be discovered. This
was the beginning of the Commercial Revolution. The Commercial Revolution was a
period of European expansion for trading. Many different countries began to trade by
ships in the ports of other countries instead of just trading along the land routes.
Countries such as Italy started to become more wealthy and prosperous due to trade.
Although the Commercial Revolution was great for Europe to be trading within its
own continent and parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, merchants eventually got
tired of trading with the same people from the same countries. The merchants and the
countries they came from wanted to expand their horizons, thus resulting in the
Columbian Exchange. The name itself comes from the famous explorer Christopher
Columbus since his expedition is what caused the Columbian Exchange to begin.
Columbus was sponsored by the king and queen of Spain in 1492 to find a new route to
the Indies, which is India. However, instead of going to India, he came across the
Americas. The powerful European countries, Spain, France, and England, all wanted to
send voyagers to the New World as they called it so that they could find more raw
materials to trade and claim land. Spain claimed what is now Mexico, France claimed
parts of Canada like Quebec and Montreal, and England claimed what is now the
United States of America. The Columbian Exchange allowed trade between the Old
World, which was Europe, and the New World. Through this, goods such as plants,
animals, technology, culture, ideas, and even human populations were traded between
the two different continents. One of the things that the Europeans brought to the New
World was gunpowder. At the time, the only people in northern America were the Native
Americans and they were mainly just able to use spears and bows and arrows as
weapons. Through the Columbian Exchange, the Native Americans were introduced to
some of the new weapons that the Europeans had. Aside from weapons, many crops
like corn, wheat, and rice were being exchanged, which resulted in the Agrarian
Revolution.
The Agrarian Revolution was a change in agriculture during 1750. There were
advancements in farming technology which included the invention of the seed drill and
the rotation of crops. New patterns of the crop rotations and livestock use paved the
way for better crop yields, a larger variety of wheat and vegetables, and the ability to
support more livestock. As a result, the population became healthier and more
nourished. Lords were able to purchase land for farmers and that caused an increase in
employment opportunities, which people took because they needed the money from
their new jobs to support their growing family. More people means a growing population
and an increase in demand for goods. Eventually, the majority of those people would be
working in the newly built factories during the Industrial Revolution.
In the late 18th century, there was a time period where many people developed
multiple creations that changed how the world operated.This occurred in England
because of its access to coal and iron so that it can be used in factories. This means
that England could easily mass produce items within factories and distribute them
throughout the world. During this time period, there were inventions like the steam
engine, steamboat, turnpike, and steam powered locomotives. The transportation of
goods all over the globe impacted other countries when it came to the search for raw
materials. One of the largest places that had large quantities of raw materials near
Europe was Africa. This discovery of raw materials eventually led to the imperialism and
scramble for Africa.
Strong countries like Spain, England, France, Germany, Portugal, etc all took
over some of the weaker parts of Africa by force, which is called imperialism. They all
wanted to get their hands on the raw materials that were found within the continent of
Africa and make their country more rich so they could be the most powerful. France and
England took control of about half of Africa and the other countries got many of the fairly
large areas, large amounts of the smaller areas, or the islands off the coast of Africa. In
1844, the Berlin Conference regulated colonization in Africa by the Europeans and trade
in Africa. The Europeans felt like it was their responsibility to govern the Africans until
the Europeans felt like they were strong and mature enough to govern themselves.
While controlling territories in Europe, the Europeans imported their own cultures and
influenced the Africans, almost ridding them of their natural culture. Of course, with
these countries and rulers becoming greedy and power hungry, the Europeans
prolonged their stay in Africa, resulting in more cultural diffusion and some African
cultures to become lost. All of this led to colonialism. The majority of Africa was under
colonial rule and the African colonies became very dependent on their imperialist
nations. In some areas, individual tribes and groups tried to resist the imperial rule and it
led to nationalist movements in African countries. The farmers were forced to grow cash
crops in order to survive and eating food for sustenance eventually went to the opposite,
eating food during famine. Although this was the last topic that we learned about in
class, the colonialism, imperialism, and scramble for Africa can still relate to events that
happened almost a century after those events. For example, the war to end all wars.
World War I began in August 1914 and ended in November of 1918. The war
started because a Serbian nationalist man named Gavrilo Princip murdered the
Austro-Hungarian heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo,
Bosnia in June of 1914. Princip, along with other nationalists, were trying to end the
Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Austro-Hungarians blamed
the Serbian government for the attack since it was a Serbian man that killed their heir.
Although they were angry that the Serbians had murdered their heir, Austria-Hungary
decided to hold off on declaring war against the Serbians until they received
confirmation that Germany would assist them in their war since Russia would back up
Serbia. On July 5, Germany secretly pledged their allegiance to the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary and sent the Serbian government an ultimatum that was just simply
impossible due to how harsh the terms were. The Serbian government ordered its
troops to mobilize and asked Russia for help, since they were convinced that
Austria-Hungary was already getting ready for war. Within the next week, Russia,
Belgium, France, and Great Britain had teamed up with Serbia to fight against
Austria-Hungary and Germany. Although these events occurred about one hundred
years after the end of the colonization of Africa, there are still some similarities between
the two events. For example, with Princip, a Serbian nationalist, murdering the
Austro-Hungarian heir, it showed resistance against Austria-Hungary. It relates to the
colonialism of Africa because there were some nationalist tribes that also attempted to
resist against their European rulers. Also, Austria-Hungary is similar to the European
colonists in Africa because even though there was resistance, both parties still try to do
everything they can to maintain their control over their territory. The countries siding
with Serbia are like the nationalist tribes fighting against the Europeans.
Events in history all connect together one way or another, even if one event
happened long before another event. History, in its own tricky way, somehow eventually
ends up repeating itself. The African nationalists fighting against the European colonists
is similar to the Serbian nationalists fighting against the Austro-Hungarian empire. Later
on in history, that would become related to how the American colonists rebel against
their mother country of Great Britain. Each event is part of a long, never ending chain
that is history and they are all linked together. Without the Crusades, feudalism would
not have fallen apart the way it did, resulting in the middle class. The Commercial
Revolution would not have been as widespread as it was without many new merchants
in search of newer trade routes instead of always traveling along the Silk Road. The
Columbian Exchange would not have came to be without Christopher Columbuss
expedition and accidentally finding the Americas. The Agrarian Revolution would not
have happened without the trading between the Old World and the New World. Without
the Agrarian Revolution, there would not have been an Industrial Revolution and so on
and so forth. Many events all throughout history would not have happened if it werent
for other events before it. Thus, making them all intertwined with each other,