Thoughts and Reflections on: The Communist Manifesto

Ben Howson
Thoughts and Reflections
4/23/15


In Reading a short sweet version of the Communist Manifesto, and watching the Red Empire, I believe that you can break down the Communist Manifesto in to three essential components of marxism that I saw taking place in the Red Empire. The one component of Marxism that I saw taking place in the Red Empire was that Engels and Marx believed that communism (a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.) was the best way for Russia to be governed. Another component of Marxism that took place in the Red Empire, was that Engels and Marx believed that Socialism ((in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.) was not the way that Russia should be governed. The final component of Marxism that I saw taking place in the Red Empire, was that both Engels and Marx believed that there should be no class system, that everyone should just be on the same level. Those are my three components of Marxism from the Communist Manifesto, that I saw taking place in the Red Empire.     

Soviet Union Red Empire Project

Ben Howson, Savannah Franklund, Yale Kim

Strikes and Shootings:

June of 1962 prices in food rose over night   

Two workers began to protest in the square by writing the sign "More meat, More butter, More housing."

Thousands of demonstrators march to the office building and began to fire warning shots, but the shots aimed toward the trees where children were trying to observe. 

The simple protest broke out to a shooting match with to many deaths to count

Failure of Increased Food a Production:

Due to Khrushchev's failed attempt at increasing food production, many important life factors were cut

Spending money for the military was drastically cut, causing essential needs to be compromised

Change in Leadership:

In 1965 after Khrushchev's death, the USSR began to take over

After the change in leadership, the leaders began to enforce the observance of the Soviet Conservation 

Anti-Soviet propaganda began to result in arrest and jail time

Finding Problems and Results:

In 1968 they sat down and talked about Western capitalism destroying socialism

They needed to solve freedom and in the interview said, "For our freedom and yours, long live the independence of Czechoslovakia"      

The KGB:

The enemies of the citizens were the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, their job was to spy on the citizens, and allow all rights to be dismissed. 

The KGB was based on ideology 

Meaning they were visionary theorizing, they were a group of manner and content thinking

"You pay them, They work hard":

In April 1974, 600 people volunteered and began working on the Track Route from North to Pacific

Volunteer work is done for no pay, meaning the work is often not taken very seriously, and these volunteers were lacking motivation

Shortly into the project the commanders of the route agreed they should have added pay to make the motivation more clear 

Cotton Means Money:

Cotton became increasingly more demanding in the production and in labor 

Cotton began to be a hit, even entering its way into illegal trade

Honesty Put to the Test:

One farm manager began to sign documents stating there was fair trade occurring at their farm, but this was a lie 

This man was receiving free cotton and resulted in stealing $1,420,331 and concluded with both parties in court.  

The Crackdown:

The economy needed help, and fast. People started to adjust the pricing of the most popular agricultural product, cotton

If the cotton was reserved at 40-50, the sell it at 35-40, they simply needed more sales

If there was an idea to improve the economy, they took action. 

No Hope:

In 1982. The leader Breshnif had died and once again leadership roles had changed 

In no way was the economy helping these drastic changes and other major problems. 

Hope dwindled every day

The New Hero:

After the GreAt State Funeral in 1984, there was a small change in hope 

"Achieve a breakthrough, there is no alternative" the new leader said, and began to do so

Then the world began to change, unexpectedly:

Country by country the revolutions began and no one expected what happened next, but communism began to dissolve. 

In 1992 one country became 17 countries and economy was changing drastically 

Last Slide ( I can't remember what we titled this last slide):

The First policy is openness meaning no oppression in government, and all was to be fair

Lastly, communism was reforming and began to dissolve before anyone expected. 

  

WWI History Final Project

Book Review:

Book: Henry Ford: Contributions to Industry and Warfare

Author: John Doe Jr. 

Publisher: Penguin

Price:  $19.99

   
 Born and raised on a small farm in Michigan, Henry Ford went on to permanently shift the foundation of American industrialism. He left his rural life at the age of sixteen, when he moved to Detroit to pursue a career in mechanics. In his spare time, Ford tried endlessly to create an affordable and practical automobile for the masses. Though initially unsuccessful, Ford's tenacity and innovation eventual won through with the invention of the Model T, a cheap easy to produce car for the masses. With this momentous step forward in automobile history, Ford inadvertently created a technology which would fuel the immanent conflict of WWI.

    The Model T sold so well that Ford needed to boost production. This led him to perfect the invention of the assembly line, which had been in use for the past eight years or so. By implementing a conveyer belt system, Ford got the production time for a Model T down to 93 minutes per unit. Soon other production companies began taking their cues from Ford, and when war broke out, his methods of production were adopted by manufacturers around the world. 

    Ford’s version of the conveyer belt contributed immensely to the “total war” state of the world which characterized WWI. Everywhere factories were being retrofitted to produce vehicles, weapons, ammunition, and every other conceivable form of supplies. This form of production allowed the French to manufacture everything they needed. The assembly line was also the driving force behind U.S. Production, which allowed the States to sell supplies to the allies. 

Thought and Reflections on: "Lines in the Sand" and "Remapping the World"

Ben Howson
World History 2 per.3
Thoughts and Reflections
04/03/15

The boundaries of the new countries drawn in the Middle East following World War I was based on the greed for oil. The Europeans separated drew the map not thinking of anything else other than oil.  

The new boundaries caused many problems, but probably the biggest was imperial interest rather than local realities. The Imperial interest was all about oil, so many conflicts came out of this, with the new countries fighting for it.

T.E. Lawrence had many great ideas for drawing up new boundaries. He saw that the Middle East should be broken into separate Kurdish and Arab states. He tried to take regional characteristics in to account, because he saw that the political boundaries of the Middle East don't always work with social, religious, and demographical contours.
This process is a product of the modern era, because the idea of separating countries via regional characteristics, ethnicities, religions, and demographical contours is an idea that has just recently come up. This process had many different ways of separating countries, to make a very far and simple border, in which for example divided up resources fairly, putting simular ethnicities close together and more, just to try and get around conflict. Basically all of the other ideas around this time were made by greed and power, but this process looked for the good, the things that would best suite everyone.         

T.E. Lawrence

Thoughts and Reflections on: We wage a war to end war.

Ben Howson
World History 2 per.3
Thoughts and Reflections



Global conflict is inevitable, when one country wants to go to war, and when that county is backed up by huge military powers. But a lot of the time, countries can pull out from war, but a lot of the time they miss the opportunities, or just don't take them.
Global conflict is never really acceptable, but the time when it most is during war. This is because the people who are fighting have some type of disagreement with what their country wants, and that is why they are fighting.    
WWI effected Europe and the larger world, because it started off as really only two people starting a war, but then everyone started to gather allies. Soon basically everyone in Europe was involved in the war, and later even America and Japan were involved in the war. So this basically made Europe a complete war zone, costing tons of money, making many countries bankrupt. It also took money away from other places around the world, who were pulled into a war that they shouldn't have been involved in, just because the Europeans needed allies to fight their war.      
During war is the only time that it is "okay" to violate the sovereignty of another nation. But in my opinion, this should, like I said before, only happen in order to stop  rouge country from doing something outrageous, like starting a war.

Africa Final Project: China in Africa during the 21st century

Link to video

Ben Howson and Kyle Sudol

China in Africa during the 21^st century

·      Europe in Africa to China in Africa

·      Struggles with Africa’s modernization and development

·      What is in store for Africa in the years to come

·      How could China have improved Africa rather than hurt it

·      What would happen if Africa solved their problem

·      How could Africa’s problem be solved  

The initial problem goes way back to the Europeans in Africa. Europe was trying to make Africa something that it is not and were really just trying to postpone the problem, while they exported their resources for their own benefit. For example, Belgium was in the congo excavating for rubber. They were enforcing what we call today, The white-man’s burden, which is the idea that the Europeans had to spread their customs religion, idea, and basically everything about them, on to other countries. Africa knew this, but didn’t have the power to kick them out, and the same thing is happening again with china. But China isn’t inflicting their religion, and customs on to Africa, but instead, they are just taking Africa’s resources for their own benefit. Africa has no real leadership, which is a big problem. China is acting like the heroes for Africa, but they are only there for the same reason that the Europeans were there, resources.  

Africa is being taken over by China, slowly but surly, and they know it. But they won’t stand up to it, because China is a modern and developed country, which has more power and money than them. Even though China is doing this, Africa needs their funding and money, so that they can survive as a country. But if Africa was a modern a developed country, they would need any help from the people who are bringing them down. For instance many places in Africa are still 3rd world countries, which none of todays modern countries have.  
This can really go either way. China is really helping Africa with their funding, giving money and more, and this can be considered good. But China is also taking their valuable resources, and really don’t care about the political part of Africa, which is the part that needs to be fixed. Although it seams good that China is giving Africa a ton of money, the amount of resources that they are taking, is far greater than what they are paying. So if China were to become more involved with Africa’s political side, then Africa could really benefit from it. But if China continues to just take their resources, for less money, then this could end up destroying Africa’s future.  

China could actually care about Africa trying to fix itself rather than ripping them off, taking all of their resources and further destroying the political side of Africa. China could help them in many ways because they have faced many problem with the europeans and have mostly solved them. They could stop pretending that they are helping Africa, and actually help them, by caring about their political and economical situations. Yes, China is giving Africa a lot of money, but this isn’t doing anything for Africa, because they don’t know what to do with the money, and therefore spend it on silly wasteful things, when they could be using it to pull them out of debt.     

When Africa solves both their leadership problems, and their trading problems, many things could be possible for them. First off, Africa will truly be on there own, and will be able to do what they want, without any outside interference. Africa could finally be a true independent country, and they could finally come out of their dark era, starting new.    
Africa really needs to stand up and take control of their trade with China. It is their resources, and they need to set the boundaries. They need to make sure the trade is fair and that both are benefiting from their relationship. They need something that benefits them so that they can recover from the white man's burden, and finally become an independent continent. Africa would need to create an alliance with Japan. They would most likely accept, because Japan and China have a lot of conflict with one another. Africa and Japan are very similar even though it might not seem so. Japan was in the same position that Africa is in, but instead with America. Japan having the third largest economy in the world, and coming from, where Africa is now, and they could learn a lot. Africa would benefit from Japan’s expertise in economy, and Japan would be able to stick it to China, one of their biggest rivals.


Work Cited

"Africa–China Relations." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

"China-Africa Relations in the 21st Century: Engagement, Compromise and Controversy." China-Africa Relations in the 21st Century: Engagement, Compromise and Controversy. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

Chun, Zhang. The Sino-Africa Relationship: Toward a New Strategic Partnership. Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"One among Many." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 17 Jan. 2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

"Robinson | Chinese Expansion and Western Influence in 21st Century Africa." Robinson | Chinese Expansion and Western Influence in 21st Century Africa. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.