Congress of Vienna, Solutions to One Big Disaster

Hello readers,

The essential question for this unit was what should people do when their power is threatened? This question is to allow students to think about what happens when the government power is threatened by revolutions or another power. An example would be when Napoleon tried to take control of countries all over Europe. A more specific example of this would be Napoleon trying to take control of Austria and Austria’s prince Metternich deciding that he will not stand for it. We watched a video on Metternich’s and Napoleon’s meeting. To answer this question we looked at the Congress of Vienna. The Congress of Vienna was a meeting healed after Napoleon had fallen from power to figure out what they were to do next.. We read a background reading on the Congress of Vienna and learned about how they had to figure out how the governments were going to be rule and what the country lines were going to be, as well as who was representing each country involved in Napoleon’s conquest. We then read problems that Metternich had to face when he was resolving the issues of the country lines, government leaders, and what they were to do for future revolutions. We then discussed and took notes on what the solutions would be to figure out the issues. We learned about Holy Alliance, Principle of Intervention, Principle of Legitimacy, and the Balance of Power. It was a great way to learn about how the powers of the time would solve revolutionary problems.

Final Act of the Congress of Vienna, 1815 http://www.emersonkent.com/historic_documents/congress_of_vienna_1815.htm

To prevent future revolutions when the Congress of Vienna was held they came up with the idea of Holy Alliance. The idea was initiated by Czar Alexander of Russia. The Holy Alliance was based off of, as you can guess, the idea that the government powers were under God’s control and appointed by God. It meant that the monarchs had divine right to rule. This would mean that whoever decided to revolt against the monarchs was not just treason but was also against God. At the time almost everyone believed in God and that he was the most powerful being ever to exist. No one went against God. This would prevent people from lashing out in the future because they would not go against God’s wishes. In the future revolutions would have gone against God when they were revolting which was hard to do because they would not be able to get as many on their side as they needed to succeed. The Congress of Vienna was important in this way because they were able to help prevent future revolutions by coming up with many ideas on why people should not revolt.

I believe that the Congress of Vienna made a good decisions to help themselves at the time. I think that they did a great job deciding how to prevent revolutions like Napoleon’s and others. I think that they could have made better decisions to improve the lives of their people. They should make it okay so that the people of each country could have a say in what happens with the government. I think that they should not have been so absolute with their absolute monarchies. The powerful should sacrifice some of their power to improve the lives of their people they rule over. The governments for the people would be much better and revolutions would be less likely to occur.

Thanks for reading,

Julianna

Ideologies Influences on Political and Social Issues

Hello readers,

The last week we learned about political ideologies of the 19th century and how they influenced social and political actions. To learn about this though we first had to understand what we were trying to learn about. We first had to define what an ideology was to understand what the question was. An ideology is a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theories and policies. It can also be defined as the ideas and manner of thinking characteristics of a group, social class, or individual. Three examples that we focused on was conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism. We then wanted to learn how each of these ideologies, conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism, affected the political and social actions of a government. To start the learning process each group gave their own definition, classified as the modern definitions, of a liberal, conservatism, and nationalism. After working together as a class to give each a more exact definition, we learned about our project to keep expanding our knowledge of conservatism, liberalism, nationalism. The project was to create a one minute project to explain our assigned word and give an example in the project at the impact the words had on political and social issues. To learn even more about our words each group got an article to read on their own word. After we reading the article and coming up with an explanation of how conservatism, nationalism, or liberalism influenced social and political actions we then had to come up with how to do our project. We had complete freedom of what we did as long as it was interesting. One group chose to do a live skit, three other groups chose to animate a picture, others chose to make a video of drawings and speak over it, my group chose to use Educreations and create images and then speak over them. After watching each other's groups video we came up with definitions and explanations on how the other words impacted social and political actions.

This imagine is the first imagine in our project on conservatism. The King is on his death bed and the son is about to become king when someone suggests a new idea. In the next slide you see what happens to the man. Here is the link to my group's video.  

To see the video that my group has created on conservatism click here! For my groups project we got the word conservatism. We read the article provided by our teacher on Edline. To read each article you may click here. We then gave our definition of what conservatism really was based on the article. Our project consists of the all powerful, very common monarchy, a king and his son, and what would happen in a conservative ideology if someone suggestion a non-conservative idea. Conservatism meant, like I said in the video, that only time-tested traditions were the only solutions to social and political problems. We showed a man suggesting a new idea which was immediately rejected. We learned that conservatism did not allow room for expansion and improvements in the government so the social and political issues were solved with the same thing always, time-tested traditions, like aristocracy and monarchy. The video explains and portrays conservatism because it shows that conservatism is about monarchy and old ways, it shows that there is no room for revolutions.

After watching the other groups’ projects on liberalism and nationalism as well as reading the articles everyone in the class was able to define and understand how they influenced political and social issues in the 19th century. We defined liberalism as the opposite of conservatism. It was a newer way of ruling in the 19th century that was based on merit, freedom, and rights for the middle class. The main focus was allowing the middle class to participate in the social and political issues. Many countries and people believe now that liberalism works wonders although back in the 19th century it was not as popular. Nationalism was defined as either countries or people that have bonds that connected them, like similar cultures, uniting to better themselves or prevent against intruders. Allies are perfect examples of this, they work with other countries to defend their country and the other country against an intruder. Another example of this would be how countries united to defend themselves against Napoleon. The three ideas are all very different and they all have their pros and cons to their influence on political and social issues.

Thank you for reading!

Julianna

Napoleon's Social, Economic, and Political Impacts

Hello readers!

Everyone in their school career has or will learn about the powerful ruler Napoleon Bonaparte. Many people love him but many people also hate him. He was a very amazing leader and ruler. He accomplished many things in his lifetime, including overtaking many other countries. But the question is what was his impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe?

Portrait of Napoleon via the BBC website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bonaparte_napoleon.shtml

Napoleon had a very large social impact on the rest of Europe and France. Marshal Michel Ney speaks of Napoleon's social impact. He says, taken from Napoleon Review, "the times are gone when the people were governed by suppressing their rights". Napoleon gave his people rights and options. He allowed the people he ruled over to get an education. Napoleon established a meritocracy to create jobs and standings based on the skill a person had, not on their father's name. Napoleon also abolished serfdom and nobility. Napoleon created a fair way for his people to live their lives and have opportunities.

Napoleon created a very successful economical system amongst Europe. He had full control over the prices of objects. Napoleon encouraged industry throughout his countries. He put a lot of money towards new roads and canals to improve trade routes. He also established a budget and the Bank of France. He had an understanding of money and how to improve France. Although he did take money from the countries he overthrew he put that money to good use in France.

Napoleon's political impact may be the greatest of them all. Napoleon led by war. He led his armies into countless of successful and unsuccessful takeovers. Madame de Staël sums his method up well in Napoleon Review, "he would like to persuade men by force and by cunning, and he considered all else to be stupidity or folly...". Although she may not be his biggest fan what she says is true. Napoleon would get men on his side exactly by that. It's how he took control of his armies and other's armies. It's how he took control of many countries. In the document The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians they describe how smart of an army leader he was. Napoleon ruled all of the countries he overthrew the same way. He allowed them to have some of their own laws and work their own way as long as they follow his main guidelines and laws. Napoleon also got rid of the directory in France; that group unjustly killed people. He also reduced the church's power.

Napoleon had huge impacts on Europe at the time he ruled. These also translate over to now. Roads are still taken care of, industry is encouraged, and more. Napoleon was a magnificent ruler, in both the good and the bad sense. To learn a bit more about Napoleon click here for a five minute overview.

Thanks for reading,

Julianna

How to run a country, what is the right way?

Hello readers!

To start off learning about different government ideas and techniques we did a very fun activity in class about Socialism, Communism, and Capitalism. It was very informative but the best part was that we got to eat the activity. So to learn about each idea we were given Hershey Kisses. To start some people got two Hershey Kisses while others were given more. We then had to play Rock Paper Scissors with different people until we ran out of Kisses. That was Capitalism. I of course lost mine right away. We then demonstrated Socialism. Each student was handed two Hershey Kisses. Then we demonstrated Communism by us all having two Hershey Kisses and every student refusing to play Rock Paper Scissors so we would all have an equal number of the candy. It was a very good way to learn about each thing. Although it was frustrating to have to lose a lot and not have a say in what we did it was a great demonstration and put us in the position of the people. We then continued to take notes on Marx's ideas and Smith's ideas.

Marx had a theory that society would progress through these three systems, Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism. Capitalism was when there was private ownership of industries which allowed them to have private commerce thus creating unequal economic classes. This all of course led to class struggles which caused the workers to revolt.  Capitalism then led to Socialism because of the class struggles and revolts. The goal for Socialism was to create an equal society without classes. To achieve the goal of Socialism the government must own all the industries. Finally, for Marx, there was Communism. Communism was created following Capitalism and Socialism. This was a lot like Socialism but the goal of a classless society was achieved and no government was even needed. Marx published all of these ideas in the Communist Manifesto. Here is a place you can access the document, click here. Another man named Adam Smith also had very good ideas before Marx published his. He published his idea in a book called Wealth of Nations. You can access the book by Smith by clicking here. The Invisible Hand was the government and it's role. The idea was that the government should leave people alone so people could compete with people on their own. They would be able to buy and sell goods without government interest. This would then make it so people would only buy lower priced, high quality goods. It would cause the economy to grow by itself. It would also help allow the poor to become part of the economy because the prices would be low.

After thoroughly examining the two options I believe that Adam Smith's idea is the best option. Although the process would take a long time and some would suffer from the time in the long run it will create a great economy. It would allow the poor to get involved which limits the amount of people in the lower class. It would create a fair "playing ground" for everyone. Marx's idea has too many steps to it that not all of them may be able to work. Too many things like the monarchy and the people would have to put into several different places. For example one day the government would have total control and the next they would have none. I don't believe we have many other options than these two. There may be a happy medium that I can't see but I would think that is unlikely.

Thank you for reading!

Julianna

Why Woman Would Work in the Cotton Factories

Hi Readers!

We are still learning about the Cotton Mills in history class and now we are focusing on the woman workers in the Cotton Industry. We have learned all about the reasons why the woman went to work in the mills in Lowell. We also learned about why the girls might not want to work there but why they stayed anyways.

The girls wanted to work in the mills for many reasons. One reason was that the girls didn't want to stay in one place, on the farm, forever. Another thing that motivated the woman to go to Lowell is the excitement to go to a new place and buy new things. It was be a completely different place than the farm most of the woman were used to. In the video we watched in class about a girl and her journey as a mill worker she got to Lowell with the other girls and they gasped and squealed with excitement. They also loved the fact that they would be able to provide for themselves and their families. In the video the girl begged her father to let her go and in trying to do that she said she will be able to send back money for the family. They also got an education when they were working there which was probably more than what they would have gotten staying at the farm. They weren't just taught to be book smart there too they were also taught to be street smart. They were taught to be street smart because of all of the cons of working in the mills.

There were also a lot of cons to working at the mills. The conditions were very bad at the mills. Injuries were very common and deaths would also occur. Although pay first came off as a great thing it was soon not enough for them to send any back to their family. They also were probably not able to pay for anything special for them like they thought they were able to do. I think that this taught them all to stand up for themselves, how they feel, and what they want. In the video the woman workers protested until they got the pay they wanted.

The woman of the 1800's were absolutely looked down upon at the time. Although they did get payed their pay was restricted compared to what many men got. The fact that the girls were only given enough money for board and food also showed how they were thought less of. In addition, the woman were also given the dangerous jobs of working in the mills. This makes it seem that the woman were useless and disposable.

Thanks for reading,
Julianna O