Changing China (Ch.19)

During the 1800s-1900s China was becoming a semi colonial society, and foreign powers stepped up their aggression against China. This conflict marked the beginning of what Chinese still describe as a "century of humiliation". During this time, China wasn't just dealing with Europe, their population was growing and they didn't produce enough for its people. With China having a big population, they lacked crops, which led to starvation. All these factors led to rebellions and China having more pressure.
During the revolution, something that really caught my attention was the women that fought with the soldiers. This was something never heard of or seen before, so it was something that changed many views for people during that time. China went through many negative factors during the 1800s-1900s, which makes sense why they described this time as a "century of humiliation".

Scramble for Africa

One hundred years later, after Britain had lost its 13 colonies in America, Spain and Portugal had lost most of South America, a second wave of colonization took place. From 1880-1900, every corner or place of the earth was claimed by one or other European power. Africa saw the most dramatic colonization during this time. It was called the "scramble for Africa" because of how Africa was divided up like a cake split between european leaders. European nations saw Africa as ripe for the taking. They began to export civilization to a continent which they regarded as undeveloped. This colonization was in reality driven by commercial interests, since Europe would benefit enormously from its exploitation of Africa.