Well, Year 9 ended with another war and this was a great one at that…or not so great, depending how you look at it. The Great War of 1914-1918 was always going to happen. Europe was a barrel of gunpowder just waiting for a spark to blow it all up. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austria-Hungary empire, was that spark. It sparked the beginning of a domino like effect of countries waging war on each other. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination and waged war on Serbia. Russia, who have promised to protect Serbia wage war on Austria-Hungary. Germany, who supports Austria-Hungary, declares war on Russia. Britain prepares its warships. Germany attacks the French, hoping to defeat them quickly and then finish off Russia. Germany asks Belgium to allow soldiers to march through Belgium to attack France. Belgium says ‘No!’ Germany marches through anyway. Britain, who agreed to protect Belgium, declare war on Germany. Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia and, finally, Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary.
It was that simple…
The war itself, however, was far from it. Lord Kitchener himself, the man who convinced young men to join up said, referring to trench warfare “I don’t know what is to be done…but this is not war.”
The class studied the Great War and discovered how brutal and horrible it was. A war that would have been a lot easier if everyone had just stayed at home and shot 5,000 of their own men a day, for four years. 9 million men lost their lives in four years.
Their assessment was to create a presentation on whether the lions, were really led by donkeys. Lions being the courageous men who fought and gave their lives; the donkeys, being the Generals who sent them there. It was a very poignant end to the year, and those fallen, Lest We Forget.
In geography, Year 9 really delved into the deep unknown world of Southwest China. An area often forgotten by the world yet has significantly risen in the last 50 years. Case studies galore as we learned about having hukou, which means you are not allowed to have the same rights as others born in urban China. No doctors, no education! Which means many children are ‘left behind’ with grandparents or neighbours so they can still have free education while their parents work in the cities. We learned that life is very different there and many are actually nomads who prefer to live off the land than be given shelter by the government. They are free without anyone’s help, they believe. We paralleled the relationship of china and it’s Southwest region with MEDCS and LEDCS that we have studied this year. There are many similarities. As always, many poor areas are home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world
, such as the Plateau of Tibet.