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Fights for Rights

The struggle for women’s rights has been long sought after, mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Even today, women fight for equality in various areas of daily life. If I were to sum up the role of women in the 18th century in one word, it would be housewife. The four main virtues that women were raised to live by, also referred to as the Cult of Domesticity, were piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. Piety meant that religion should be valued in womens’ lives, and they most definitely should have a form of religion. Purity referred to a woman’s virginity, which was supposed to be a sacred thing. Women were supposed to remain virgins until after marriage at all costs - even in cases of rape. Submissiveness required that women know and act like they are inferior to men. Men, by God, were referred to as women’s superiors. Domesticity relates almost exactly to being a housewife. Women were expected to take up sewing, cooking, and cleaning in the home while the men were out do...
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Monroe Doctrine and Connections to Today

The war between the Palestinians and the Israelis over Israel is one that has been going on for hundreds of years. The article on US News explains how John Kerry believes that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is still possible. Kerry explains that he believes the peace is needed more now than a year ago. After peace talks failed to produce anything positive in April, a small war broke out in Gaza over the summer, killing 2,200 people. Kerry states that it must be two-state solution, for it would never work if it were a one-state solution. If the US were to follow the three lasting principles of the Monroe Doctrine, we would have a very different situation. First off, one of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine declares that the US should separate spheres of influence. This means that we should not worry about what is going on over in the eastern parts of the world. Today, that would mean we would not be involved at all with Israel, because they are not under our contro...
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Revolutionary Rumblings

In the Brazilian Revolution, race, and more in particular, identity, played a heavy role in how it came to be. The identity of people was mostly according to their skin color and heritage, which led to their placement on the social pyramid. The most powerful people were the peninsulares, who were people born in Spain and later moved to the colonies. Below them were the creoles – people of Spanish blood who were born in America. Next on the pyramid were the mestizos, which consisted of people of mixed Spanish and Indian heritage. In the middle were the mulattoes (people of mixed African and Spanish blood) and free blacks. 50% of the population consisted of Indian people, who, by definition, were people that lived in Latin America before the arrival of the Spanish. After Napoleon I invaded Portugal and Spain in 1807 and 1808, he removed Spanish King Ferdinand VII from his throne in 1808. This created a series of wars in the struggle for control of Portugal. In 1815, John VI declared Bra...
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Principle of Incarceration

Have you ever been the leader of a group, or found yourself making most of the decisions for a group of people? What happens when someone else suggests something that everyone likes better? What do you do? When people in power have their power threatened, there are many things one can do. These people might think to fight back, maybe even with force, to suppress the threat. What people in power should really do is have a discussion on what is best to do for the given situation. In class, we learned about the Congress of Vienna and discussed what they did for Europe. After the defeat of Napolean, the European powers met and discussed what should be done to keep their powers, but to also keep the people of Europe in line. One solution was the Principle of Intervention. This time period was very rough for Europe. The people were very upset with the rulers of the countries, and they began to revolt over and over again, despite the destruction and death it shrouded Europe with. Therefo...
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Big Boy Bonaparte

Napolean Bonaparte played a huge role in changing the social, economic, and political structures of Europe. During his military campaign that lasted many years, he managed to seize much of Europe and even parts of Africa. After capturing these lands, he proceeded to change their structure at his will. These changes had a lasting effect on all of Europe’s social, economic, and political structures. Napolean did many things for the people of Europe. When he had control of most of Europe, he decided to abolish all titles of nobility and serfdom. This essentially removed the barriers of being poor, and restricted those who were labeled as rich. The French armies also ended church privileges, which meant the people were no longer obligated to follow their rules. One of Napolean’s best decisions was to establish a meritocracy, which rewarded people based on their skills, rather than on their social class. He also allowed people to have easier access to property and education. Napole...
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Marx vs. Smith

When we started class, each person received different amounts of starbursts. Some only got three, others got up to fifteen. This was to teach us the idea that some people, with no work at all, started off wealthier than others. Even though they did not do anything to deserve it, they were wealthier than other people. This was kind of frustrating to me because I only received three starbursts. Marx and Smith each wanted to help the poor, but in different ways. Smith decided it was best for the people to dictate the prices of the goods. If a certain good was too highly priced, nobody would buy it. This would force the company to lower their prices or suffer the consequences. The government would not be involved, and the “trickle effect” would come in to play. When people purchased goods, the money would go to the company, which would go towards the workers, who would make the goods. Therefore, the more goods produced equals more goods sold, which is more money for the companies, and ...
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Feisty Luddites

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          The Luddites were a group of people that were against the mills and their standards. For example, they did not like the fact that factories now had fewer people and many machines, which meant less jobs. They also did not like the fact that the factories were lowering wages. In order to protest this, they would go to factories and destroy machinery. The following is a mock letter from the perspective of a farmer, where he explains his feelings of the Luddites to his cousin.                                                                 Ted Kacynski Dear John,                                                                 ...
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