For this blog, I chose to blog about new imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries because that was the time where imperialism was more of a nation-wide phenomena, prompted by racism and nationalism all due to the 2nd industrial revolution and the modernization of the world. Also, this will focus on the imperialism brought by European country's. Imperialism is defined in the textbook as, "the policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by establishing economic and political hegemony over other nations." Of course, New Imperialism, can be defined as European expansion that moved forward with great speed, and participation in it came to be regarded as necessary for a great power, which, most country's in Europe desired to have. Of course, before you understand the new imperialism, you have to understand the causes of its coming about. The innovative and explosive developments in the late 19th centuries (2nd industrial revolution) science, technology, industry, agriculture, communication, transportation, and weapons provided the main sources of power. Due to the fact that European nations had the support of their country and media, this gave them the motivation and ability to do it. Another main cause of this newfound imperialism, was the founding of social-darwinism and jingoism. Social Darwinism is "survival of the fittest" applied to humans and was the idea that helping out the weak is bad, so dominate the inferior which gave justification to new imperialism. Jingoism is closely related with that idea, but it is more a kind of nationalism that says your country is the best, which also gave justification to new imperialism. As a result of these new ideas, some argued that the "advanced" European country's had a duty to bring higher civilization to the people in need of saving for both religion and personal desires. An example of a ruler who defines this is Leopold II of Belgium. He supported imperialism for economic wealth and exploitation in the Congo of Africa. Although african's were treated as inferior people, nation's across the world were disgusted by the cruelty in which Leopold ruled and exploited just for personal gains. He was in the Congo for rubber products. Getting rubber is a strenous activity which requires mass laborers to sap thin vines and carefully pour it onto bodies until it hardens. Then, someone rips off the dried by-product off the person, which is very painful. Leopold had no idea how long it took, so he executed people for not making enough in time. I personally think that this is some of the worst treatment of humans, even worse than the holocaust. How can someone be so selfish and greedy as to not care about the harm they do to others? Of course, Britain was equally bad. They were the leaders in New Imperialism gains as the controlled all of India, South Africa, and holdings in China. They had sorts of enclosure camps, similar to concentration camps, were they kept Afrikaners in they compound until they finished labor. This was very horrific to the people in South Africa because many of them were descendents of Dutch nationality! I am outraged with what nations at the time could get away with, especially with the mass amounts of media at their disposal! Eventually, nations were returned to former rule, but only at the realization that Human Rights were being violated. I wish that people would have realized how much corruption had been going on so that the people being mistreated could not have had to endure so much in such a long amount of time. This just goes to show that human nature is greedy, selfish, and unconcerning to some, but fortunately not all. Hopefully, in our future the governments will seek to stop all corruption and disregard to human rights.
MLA:
Kagan, Donald. AP Edition, The Western Heritage. 7th. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc, 2007.
AP European History class notes. (Edina High School).
For the global issues blog, I chose to blog about the global issue called Biodiversity. Biodiversity goes hand in hand with climate change and global warming, two new imminent threats to our society caused by humans and inefficient use of products, and less social conscience. Due to global warming, habitats are destroyed which causes the extinction of many species as can be shown with the polar bears and other animals that live in the Arctic. I believe that if global warming could be curved, biodiversity could be saved even if a little bit because every day scientists are discovering new types of species. In general, Biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms in our planet: the different plants, animals and microorganims, and the ecosystems they form. You might ask, why is biodiversity in our life important? Its not like anyone would mind if those pesky mosquitoes went away, would it? But in all reality it does matter because every living organism in the planet contributes something special or important for the existence of a healthy planet and our own well being. . You may not be aware of the benefits biodiversity provides. Biodiversity provides us with so many benefits such as; food, medicinal product, wood, protection of water sources, and much more! As an example, honeybees provide many benefits to us. As said in the article, "One third of all our food- fruits and vegetables- would not exist without pollinators visiting flowers." Another problem facing biodiversity is extinction of species. The cause of this is that when there are not enough variety of genes for production, there is in-breeding which increase the chance of extinction. Because we destroy habitats for these species, they have a slim chance of being able to "interact with species with a large gene pool." I think that people and the government could do a better job in getting funding for the protection of biodiversity, but it is apparently a hard thing to try to make people want to "save worms and other species that many people do not know of." Also, since the . In addition, biodiversity increases ecosystem productivity because every type of species is just as important as the next. The contributions of Biodiversity and the importance of preserving the species that make it up can be described by, "At least 40 percent of the world's economy and 80 percent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change." As illustrated above, biodiversity clearly helps the world in ways many people do not appreciate. I for one, think that people should educate the world on this subject and show that, it's not only about the cute animals in danger of extinction that need saving, its the ones that do the work behind-the-scenes. Furthermore, I think that if the ecosystems deteriorate to a small amount, then the problems resulting can be very costly to reverse or undue. From this, I believe that the cost of the effects of endangering biodiversity is much more costly than the maintenance and sustainable development practices that could be used instead. So, next time choose paper instead of plastic, its the little things in life that add up, that can determine the fate of our world. 
