Mountains of the Moon

So this movie was about two men, Richerd Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke, having an expidition in Africa. This was part of European imperialism. Their job was to map out the inside of Africa and find the source of the Nile River. If they were able to map out Africa Europe would be able take over Africa and take its resources. To do this they needed help from a lot of men. Their first expisition wasn't that succesful. They were attacked by the natives and they weren't prepared for the conditions of Africa. Burton got a big spear punctured through his lower face. He didn't die becuase of the spear. They also didn't have enough ammunition to defend themselves. They then went back to England. They were able to map very little of Africa, and they still haven't found the source of the Nile River. Once again, Burton and Spekes went back to Africa to get the job done. This time they had more men, slaves, and supplies. They were more prepared this time. They experience a lot of hard times during the second expedition. On one part of the movie Burton and his men encountered very dangerous animals. With the smarts of Burton his men were able to get through some tigers, and with the gun skills of Speke Burton's life was saved from being attacked by a lion. Like before, Burton and Speke encountered natives. Since they had a lot of supplies Burton's men were able to trade with the natives. They even faced big problems caused by small things. One problem was when a beetle went inside of Spekes ear. Another problem is when Burton had a dieseas in his legs which made him unable to walk. They then found a river, but they weren't sure if it was the source of the Nile River. So then the kept venturing and they found another river. Speke thought it was the source of the Nile River, but Burton didn't agree with Speke becuase there was no measurements or any sort of that. Speke named the lake Lake Victoria after the Queen of England. It's weird becuase the lake is in Africa and named after a white person. The technological advantage the Europeans had was their guns. Eventually the Europeans took over Africa becuase they improved their guns and mad machine guns.