Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
Transformation of the economy
– promoted the first industrial and consumer-orientated society in Britain
– British manufactured goods dominated world trade
– Commercial, financial and political power, supremacy
– Range and variety of products
– Products also overstock the markets oversea
– Mid-Victorian years change in economy and society
– Improvement in organisation, finance of industry and commerce, skills and work practices of production and technology, urbanisation, canal, river, road and sea transport
– Growth of population
– Railways
– From agriculture to industry and trade
– Ideals of gender, ethnicity and class changed as well as ideologies and aesthetics
– especially the cotton sector grew because of the import out of the colonies
– however, the growth of national income remained slow, some small manufactures were more successful than large firms and also the capital market was less important than the family finance
Consumer revolution
– demand for goods resulted from rising incomes and the larger number of consumers
– a greater variety was wanted
– china, cutlery, mirrors, books, clocks, furniture, curtains, bedding, buckles, ribbons, buttons, and so ono
– also greater variety of food: beer, butter, bread, milk, meat, vegetables, fruit, fish, and so on; now being bought and not made/grown at home
– social emulation: the social classes aspired the consumption of the superior class
– advertising and department stores increased
Change in Britain
– until the 1840s mainly cotton was responsible for the success
– markets became overstocked à recession
– growing demand from other industrialising nations
– British manufactures extended: iron, steel and engineering
– Capital and credit were easily available
– Corn Laws in 1846 (prevention of the importation of foreign grains)
– Time of isolation in agriculture used for investment and specialisation
– Great Exhibition of 1851 marked the peak of British economic dominance
– British products displayed in Crystal Palace in Hyde Parl
– Slowly other countries like Germany and the United States were catching Britain up
– Cheaper supplies of energy and raw material
– Growth in the economy decreased from the 1870s: farming, textiles, iron and steel, engineering and several other goods
– New industries like chemicals mainly pioneered in Germany
Inhabitants of the countries involved
Pros
– inhabitants understand the refugees’ problems and reasons why they had to flee
–> sympathize with them
– background of war, starvation, unemployment and bad living conditions
– want them to be safe
– angriness because of the stagnation concerning the refugees situation
Cons
– have to think of their own problems
– want the government to stop the refugee stream or to do something for the inhabitants (e.g. money in case of pecuniary injury)
– many inhabitants just want to be in denial because of the feeling of helplessness
– many do not want to have the “problem” in their area ( for example the inhabitants of islands are afraid of the dead bodies washed ashore)
Lampedusa
Maren and my topic is Lampedusa as an example for illegal immigration. The last lesson we read the main article and some others in the internet. Today we created a structure and divided the subtopics so that we can work at home and on our own.
The structure
- Facts about the island
- Illegal immigrants: facts and numbers
- A typical nightmarish trip to Lampedusa
- The refugee camp
- Pros and cons for the immigrants
- effects of illegal immigration on Lampedusa
- Policies
- Conclusion
Maren will work on the subtopics 1-4 and I will prepare the subtopics 5-8.
So today I concentrated on the policies because the main article basically treats the immigrant’s and inhabitant’s views.
At home I will start to write out keywords so that I’m good prepared for the next lesson.
Children of men
– the movie takes place in the year 2027
-since 18 years, no woman has been pregnantà women are no longer able to give birth to a baby
– therefore all over the world chaos predominates and great Britain is the only organised society
– this is the reason why many refugees want to immigrate into the country but the government tries to prevent this à the illegal immigrants are arrested and brought into camps and also killed by the government
– there is a underground group called “the fishes” wanting to improve the situation of the immigrants (the government calls them terrorists)
In our podcast, Julianne, the leader of “the fishes”, calls the “Human Project”, a ship concealed as cutter where scientists want to find out how infertility can be cured, because she has surprising news…
Scientist: Hello?
Julianne: Hello, it’s me Julianne. I’m the leader of the activist-group “Fishes”. We’ve already talked….
Scientist: So how is the situation in London?
Julianne: The situation is getting worse. Great Britain is now under military control, but everything still is in chaos. Millions of refugees are killed in the most brutal way in the refugees camps. All the people of our organization are chased and treated like terrorists…
Scientist: I’ve heard about it … and how do the people cope with the death of our baby Diego?
Julianne: The people are hopeless and sad, now that the youngest boy on earth dies at the age of 18. 18 years of infertility.
Scientist: I’ve to admit that it is still a misery for us. Although we have the latest technology on our bout, we can’t find the reason why women can’t get pregnant anymore.
Julianne: That’s why I wanted to talk to you urgently. There is still some more hope left, but I need your help. I’m in contact with a refugee called Key…. We are hiding her, it’s important to get her on your boat, because it’s the only place, where she will be save.
Scientist: I understand, you want to protect her, but “Human Project” is not mend to put up anybody , who’s in danger.
Julianne: She is not just anybody, she’s our only hope: SHE IS PREGNANT!!!
Scientist: I’ve always hoped, that this day will come, when can you bring her.
Julianne: I will call as soon as everything is arranged. If everything works out, we will meet at the secret point in 4 days.
Scientist: Be sure we will be there, and good luck to you!
Group: Marina, Lela, Paula, Anke, Maren, Franzi, Bianca
Johann Karl Vietor- a “good” merchant?
In the Spiegel article “Zwiespältiges Erbe” the German Johann Karl Vietor is described as a human merchant who 
just employed volunteers because of his Christianity. So he wanted free and mature black citizen able to consume. Moreover, the good relationship in some cases between black and white is mentioned.
But by having a closer look to Vietors aims one can consider him also as racist.
Of course he really was Christian, against slavery and also against forced labour. So on the surface he really seems to be a “good” merchant protecting the black people.
But Vietor also had the basic principle to educate the black to culture by labour. In his case this attitude means that he wanted to give them fields to farm by their own, to raise taxes, buy their products, help them by small loans, give them literacy for culture and delight them by Christianity. The principle of mission and also to let them produce raw materials to export was included in his attitude, too. Moreover, he avoided the formation of labour organizations and revolts because several single workers could not form up.
All things considered certainly merchants like Vietor are better for the black population than the other cruel colonists. But the firm conviction that the whites are “better” and have the right to occupy the land and also that the African cultures are “lower cultures” and have to be replaced by the “real culture” of the whites including Christianity is shown in Vietors attitude. So I would not call him a good merchant but maybe a better merchant.
The history of the “Liemba”
In 1913 the German emperor Wilhelm II ordered a steamer to support the troops in the colony German-
East Africa and to show the power and supremacy of the Germans. It was built at the Meyer-dockyard in Papenburg and named after the German Africa-explorer and former governor Graf Goetzen. The ship was brought in single components in ca. 5000 boxes by train to Hamburg, then by ship to German- Eastafrica, then by train to the Tanganjikasea and was rebuilt there by three engineers from Papenburg and 270 helpers. In 1915 the launch happened.
In the course of the time the Graf Goetzen supported the German troops, was a cargo shop and transported refugees. The ship also was attacked and sunk twice . 1927 it was renamed in “Liemba”. Moreover, the film “African Queen” with Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart was shot at the “Graf Goetzen”.
This very day the “Liemba” serves as a liner for ca. 600 passengers.
Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi in Great Britain
The people called British Asian came to GB in corollary of the long colonial rule in India. Pakistan and Bangladesh are former party of colonial India.
In 2001 1.8 percent of the UK’s population was British Indian. That amounts 50.2 percent of the UK’s non-white population.
The group of Pakistanis in Great Britain is the second largest Pakistani group abroad Pakistan itself.
An interesting article: Asian Indians in Great Britain: A Success Story? from which I quote the conclusion:
“It can be stated that the immigration of Asian Indians is a success story. Asian Indians are a success-oriented people. Education is a very important values to them. However, family ties are even more important to them. Therefore many of them were not willing to leave their “home towns” in Great Britain when may industrial jobs were lost. They preferred to seek ways into self-employment rather than leaving their family clusters. Self-employment has become very prevalent among Asian Indians, partly because they refused to move their families into more prosperous areas once many Asian Indians had lost their jobs and partly because it was also a way to avoid racism and discrimination on the labour market. Racism remains a problem to all ethnic minorities. However, Asian Indians are very likely to become victims to racist attacks and burglary.
Today second and third generation Asian Indians show better school performances than their White peers. Many of them attend private schools and are diligent learners who are very likely to achieve good GCSE and A-level results, as well as university degrees. Intergenerational problems between parents and children are a result of discrepancies between the eastern cultural heritage of their families and the western values they are exposed to at school. Usually Asian Indian children learn how to negotiate between these different values. They learn how to deal with their parents` expectations and the more liberal British culture. Second generation Asian Indians have to find their own way how to deal with the conflicting and polarized cultural issues they have to face in their daily lives being British of Asian Indian origin.”
Pakistani dresses:
For women
For men
The colonial history of Kenya/ British East Africa
Colonial history
Already in the 1840th European missionaries protected by the sultan of Zanzibar settled in Kenya. In 1885 Kenya’s history as a colony began. It became a German protectorate until the Germans gave the area to the Imperial British East Africa Company also working with permission from the sultan of Zanzibar in 1888. Kenya was now part of British East Africa. Seven years later the British government declared Kenya as their protectorate because the Company nearly collapsed. In 1902 Uganda was affiliated to British East Africa and the highland was freed to settle.
In 1920 British East Africa became the colony of Kenya.
more information: History of Kenya
The Mau Mau Uprising
The very special and terrible in the Kenyan history is the Mau Mau Uprising (1952- 1957) against the British colonial rule. Originally it was a movement against the discrimination of Kenyan farmers. The revolt was influenced by cruelty and hardness. Thousands of people had to die because of the two-sided violence.
More than 1000 Africans were hanged because of quick adopted Terrorist Acts, ten thousands of Africans were imprisoned for years and more than 100.000 people had to relocate.
Life in jail was absolutely dreadful because of withholding of food, forced labor, sexual assaults, strokes and torture.
In Great Britain the resistance against the proceeding in Kenya grew more and more.
In the course of the abolition of the revolt by the British and the rethinking the government gave the Kenyan the independence in 1963.
One year later Kenya became a republic with Jomo Kenyatta as the first president.
Problems after the independence
The colonial rulers left an underdeveloped state without any base behind. The countries were directed to the particular ruler’s economy. Right from the start there was just few hope that the ex-colonies could revive. So most of the new governments tried to practise the same strategy as the colonial rulers did: a highly controlled state with no upward mobilities to avoid any opposition. This strategy called one-party system was also practised in Kenya until 1990.
Facharbeit- my first ideas of a topic
Today our task was to brainstorm about our topic of the Facharbeit.
At first I deliberated about the two big topics “Globalization” and “Africa”.
I chose Africa as my topic because I’m very interested in the culture, the different way of living and the problems. Furthermore, I think it is a multifaced topic with many different possibilities to work on.
Another reason why I picked Africa is, that I really like reading and so I already read many books about Africa. I remembered a book, in which a woman called Waris Dirie tells her story as her biography. She lived in the desert of Somalia as a nomad and was a victimto the genital mutilation which is typical for her home country. At the age of 13 she ran away from home because she should marry an old man. So she worked as a housemaid with her uncle in London until she was discovered as a model at the age of 18. It took a long time until she was able to speak about her fate.
Today she is UN advocate for the abolition of female genital mutilation.
So at the moment I think about picking the book as the base of my Facharbeit because it deals with the topic Africa and it contains a problem which I could handle.
Evaluation: Dueling Titans
All in all I’m satisfied with our presentation.
I think it was a difficult topic because Maren and I had to share our article with another group. Because of the many comparisons between China and the USA we had some problems to devide the information. Another problem was that we had not enough time to compare our presentation to the one from Marina and Mi. If we had had more time, maybe we would have managed to create one presentation with direct comparisons between the “Dueling Titans“.
I think our presentation itself was good. The thing I’m not satisfied with is that I was too nervous although I was good prepared. So I have to improve presenting in english because this was never a real topic in former classes.
But the colaboration with Maren worked quite good and so I’m content.
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