History

History

World History 1
Qiliang HE
December 6, 2012


Final Paper


Throughout this world, there are many reasons to why things are the way they are. You may ask, what got this certain idea into play to where it affects our world today. That question is automatically answered with history and through history we are able to understand why todays culture, labor, or anything is the way they are. Therefore, actions in the past effect our tomorrow.

During the nineteenth-century, there were many things going on. Slavery was a big epidemic during this time and not only that gold mining. In 1867 the discovery of diamonds were found in South Africa and this spread across the land to Europeans. This caused gold mining to be very demanding because it held such a great value to finding gold and diamonds but at the same time people risked their life. This discovery of gold and diamonds would forever change the world.

In the 20th century mining became very serious. Just imagine, a natural resource such as gold has come into play and everyone wants to have their share. In 1946 there were one thousand miners lined up in Market Square Johannesburg, South Africa. These people were part of the African Mine Workers Union (AMWU). This organization was a Non-European union that was created to approach the pay differences between the black and white mineworkers. Those differences were that the white mineworkers were getting paid way more than the black mineworkers. African miners sought to settle these differences and went to the Transvaal Chamber of Mines to demand a higher pay and if they were not granted a higher pay, then they threatened to go on strike (History of South Africa’s Cheap Labour Economy).The miners were not granted what they wanted so they took action into having a strike. This led into a massacre to which forty-five were killed and thirty-four of them were miners.
This reading explains how things are today in our world. I believe that the author...

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