Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution happened in 1917. It was led by a man named Vladimir Lenin. The Russian Revolution happened during WW1. The leader of Russia kept on sending troops into war. After a while the soldiers got fed up with always being hungry, cold, and badly equipped, so they decided to desert. After Nicholas II's regime was overthrown Vladimir Lenin took over. He created the slogan "Peace, Land, and Bread" and promised to provide those to every man in Russia. He was very popular for that. The Russian citizens were tired of losing at war, not being able to afford land, and starving, so when Lenin started promising these things the majority of the Russian people supported him, which inadvertently ended up going from communism to a dictatorship.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Causes of WW1

There were several reasons that WW1 started in 1914. One of those reasons was nationalism. Nationalism is a strong sense of loyalty and pride for your country. Often times people thought their country was better than another, which helped lead to WW1. Another reason was militarism. Militarism is the belief that a strong military force is essential to your country. Before the war started the governments of europe were building large armies trying to out do the other countries and advance the progress of their own. This led to certain european countries hating each other. The last straw that started WW1 was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. He and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist. The serbian people wanted a revolution, and they thought that if the Archduke helped the poor then they would become content and lose their interest in fighting. Austria went to war with Serbia, and after all the allies of each side joined it became a true World War.