World History AP

Today in WHAP we took our chapter 18 and 19 reading quiz. We started out with hectic pre-quiz review like usual before Mr. Profitt handed out the quiz, no changes in procedure here. Initially, I didn't think the quiz was going to be too bad. With no ID and HTS, that leaves the SARS, which generally are pretty kind to me. Today, however, was the exception. I found the quiz today pretty difficult, and unfortunately judging off of my performance in the multiple choice section the results for the quiz may have not been the best. Always hope for the best tho The end of today basically signals the beginning of Easter Break even though we technically have school tomorrow, but it doesn't really count since we have a half day and it's an I-Day. So, enjoy your evening, get some victory royals, and have a relaxing Easter break! With that, the bell rang and we were dismissed. Until Tomorrow! P.S. - After Easter break check out the Roundup for some TASTY articles concerning

Today in WHAP we took notes about China. So initially, back in the 1800s, China could still protect its own borders, and keep out the west. Britain, among other European nations, was especially eager to open up trade with China for the lucrative money they would make off of the trade.  Eventually, Britain started the McCartney mission by sending in McCartney, a general, to try and broker a trade. Britain wouldn't agree to China's tribute system, so they ended not having any sort of trade relationship. Then, Britain, realizing they couldn't get trade to work in a diplomatic manner, decided to start selling opium to the Chinese. The Chinese people became addicted to the opium, and as a result wanted more and more of the drug. The British were importing a LOT of opium into China, and due to the population suffering from various side effects of opium the Chinese wanted the British to stop trading opium into China. All efforts of banning opium failed, so the Chinese

Today in WHAP we had a talk history day and continued our 19th century imperialism notes. First, we started out by discussing why Africa was called the dark continent. It was called this because of how it was considered primitive and savage, it was a racial issue, and the fact that Africa was unexplored also added to this view. David Livingstone was a person of the time was exploring Africa and was a major figure known around the world. In the 1860s he goes into Africa and then disappears, and many people are curious of where he went. Then, Henry Stanley was sent into Africa with a nearly unlimited budget and given the task of finding Livingstone. The reason that Livingstone was able to stay so hidden was because he was practically integrated into society, and when Stanley finally found him he reportedly said "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" He then went on to write a book detailing the possibilities in Africa and making himself look good, but then it turned out he wasn

Today in WHAP we continued out notes on 19th Century Imperialism. We continued where we left off yesterday with the two types of imperialism: Direct and Indirect. First,  direct imperialism is essentially when the Europeans would create a colony, and control the territory by conquering it. In contrast, indirect imperialism is when the Europeans would rule through proxies, taking advantage of the local leaders and nobility and having them rule under the Europeans. Direct rule wasn't really practiced until after the Sepoy mutiny, which was when the native soldiers turned against their European rulers in their country, while the Europeans had no army of their own in said country. There are three main types of colonies in the 19th century, and they are tropical, settlement, and mixed. Tropical colonies contain a small amount of Europeans while settlement colonies contain majorities of Europeans. In these settlement colonies, the Europeans would kill nearly all the native whether it

Today in WHAP we took a clicker quiz and notes. First we started class off with a clicker quiz. Surprisingly, it was very difficult, with our class coming in at 85% accuracy. Apparently, that was the highest score of the day, so I guess it was tough all around. We also didn't get the bonus. After the clicker quiz, we moved onto some notes about the 19th century imperialism. So first of all, this 19th century imperialism essentially is the colonization of the new world. It involved "players" like Spain, Britain, and the Dutch, while introducing new players like Italy, Germany and Belgium. Fun fact about Belgium is that at one point in time, their king owned the largest piece of privately owned territory every, in Africa. It was one large division of land that he and only he owned. Like his backyard. The Industrial Revolution was the biggest cause of this imperialism, and it also gave the Europeans a huge advantage in combat. A notable fact about this combat is th

Today in WHAP we took a clicker quiz. We started class of with some review time, featuring some jazzy music. Great stuff to listen to for clicker quiz prep. We then started taking the quiz. Today was one of those clicker quizzes that took up the whole class period because it's a lecture and a quiz, so that's really all we did today. One of the main points we talked about was the European conquest of Africa. Initially, they weren't able to conquer Africa because of disease (that would make them sick, little bit of karma here), their horses would die, their guns weren't super effective, and they could be beaten by the Africans. Things changed once the maxim gun and a treatment (not a cure) for the African diseases were invented. Another point we talked about was the effect the Europeans would have on whoever they would invade or try to trade with. The Europeans would ALWAYS make their presence known in society, and would disrupt the status quo enough that all the

Today in WHAP we talked about what we learned last week. To start of class, Mr. Profitt showed his bafflement in how Mr. Donahue gave us the answers to the quiz on Friday. To bring a student's perspective to this matter, I personally like this type of study guide. After this, both of the Will mentioned their idea of a scholarship in Guy's name. I like the idea, and think it would really be a great tribute not only to Guy but also to his studious nature as he would have a lasting impact upon students at the school for years to come. After this, we talked about gaps in our knowledge, and while Mr. Profitt didn't have time to talk to us about these gaps, he did recommend that we check out the slideshow on Moodle. We then looked at our schedule, and to sum that up we have A LOT of stayer to read this week. Also, much to my chagrin, we have a MC mastery exam right when we get back from Easter break on Wednesday. Looks like I know what I'll be doing on Easter Sunday.

Today in WHAP we went over the history of Jesuit's architecture. Mr. Donahue used a power point of Mr. Howard's about the architecture of  Jesuit throughout the ages and went over that today in class. Once again, this was an interesting class which was a good way to keep our thoughts off of other matters. Long story short, the tennis courts were and always have been a point of contention at Jesuit. Interesting. The school has also changed A LOT, with the surrounding area changing with it. It's been nice these past two days to just learn for the sake of learning... being able to enjoy information and not having to memorize it knowing that I'll be tested on it. The subject matter helped too, because Jesuit's history is more interesting to me than some of the stuff we learn. I enjoyed have Mr. Donahue as our sub, it was a pretty fun week. I think we all saw a different side of him than the side that we normally see when some kid isn't in uniform, which I th

Today in WHAP we took a tour of the school led by Mr. Donahue, but that's not what's really important about today. Guy Delaney, a member of our 6th period WHAP class, passed away last night after getting in a car accident. Prayers go out from all of Jesuit today to Guy's family and close friends, and we all hope for Guy's speedy reuniting with the Father. In class, we walked around campus and learned the history of some of the school's architecture. We also learned that Mr. Donahue likes cats, because they are natural infantry. With that, the bell rang and we were dismissed. Until Tomorrow, and keep the Delaneys in your prayers.

Today in WHAP we talked about Adam Smith. So to recap about him, he was the one who wrote the wealth of nations, a book which concerns how a nation becomes wealthy, not necessarily the individuals. So in a logical train of thought, individuals generally don't care whether their king is wealthy when they are poor. Instead, they themselves want to be wealthy. This inspired the idea that the wealth of a nation should be measured by citizen's wealth, so you can tell that with wealthy civilians there is a wealthy nation. All this is caused by the government removing taxes from markets.  There are then 5 assumptions made in order for this to work. The first is pursuing economic self-interest is primary motivation in human behavior. That's pretty true, most people do work to make money, then get promoted, and make more money. The second is the presence of a free open market, which is not manipulated at all. Eh..... The third is that there is intense competition in the free a

Today in WHAP, with Mr. Donahue again, we continued our discussion over the Industrial Revolution. We started class with Mr. Donahue showing us some graphs desalinating the change in the atmosphere in recent decades. It seemed like all the levels have exponentially jumped higher right around the time of the Industrial Revolution, which is just a little bit too coincidental. So the people working at this time worked in the factory system, whether that be bobbin' boys at the yarn factory or something similar to that. These jobs, while dangerous, monotonous, and hard, were really not any worse than farming. Most of the labor was unregulated until a large amount of people died in a fire, because they were locked in a building. This harsh labor started being regulated a bit more, and slowly things got a little bit better for people. We then moved onto the Guano boom, in which poop piled up from birds was traded for by Europe, who needed the nitrogen in the guano for their fields,

Today in World History we talked about the Industrial Revolution. Today was the first day of Mr. Donahue subbing, and to be quite frank, it was quite enjoyable. I can tell this will be an interesting week. The first thing Mr. Donahue did was give the whole class a list of questions, and hinted that if we knew them well, we should do well on the quiz. This is a godsend boys, don't waste it. After this, we started watching the CC video on the IR. I'm just going to say that this is the third time I've seen this video, as I accidentally watched it last weekend, and I gotta admit that gag with the pixel plant gets me every time. During the video, Mr. Donahue made an observation about how in the picture John Green showed of a classroom, how there were so many kids in the class. He then turned that into a point about how teachers aren't paid extremely well because initially it was an all female profession, and females were traditionally paid less then men, back in the da

Today in WHAP we took a Reading Quiz. We started out class reviewing for the quiz by going over the key terms and MR. Luckily, someone asked about the key term we ended up getting, maternal feminism, someone asked about during this time, so I think we were well prepared. The quiz wasn't too bad, I think everyone probably liked their SARS. Probably got one or two MC wrong, but that's kind of a regular feature these days. Test corrections this weekend, hopefully you don't have to do too many. Remember that Mr. Profitt is taking a trip next week, so we won't have to deal with hi- uh I mean we won't have the pleasure of being taught by him next week. Mr. Donahue will instead be subbing. With that, the bell rang and we were dismissed. Until Tomorrow!

Today in WHAP we talked about nationalism. We started of class with the plan to ask Mr. Profitt a bunch of questions about the review, but class ended up taking a different turn where we talked about a topic mentioned on my blog, the relation of Nationalism to what we are studying right now. First, just to help you out in the MRQ area, on #8, life for former slaves didn't really become much better after they were freed. They may have legally been free, but they weren't even close to politically equal. On top of that, they were still in different forms of slavery, like sharecropping, where they worked for wages that were far too low. So onto Nationalism. So the way I understood it today is that Nationalism is idea of an identity, maybe even a force, that can bring us together or tear us apart. This idea of being part of a nation stemmed from the Enlightenment. The problem with this idea of Nationalism is that once a nation gets too big, instead of bringing it together, i