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Showing posts from October, 2014

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...

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...

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 ...

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,                                                                 ...

Conditions of Factories and Mills

          The working conditions in factories during the Industrial Revolution at one point could be described as atrocious. Workers, which included children, were getting little to no pay, people were beaten, and some even died working the machines. Needless to say, the working conditions weren’t just because the factory owners were terrible people, but they had a reason behind them. The conditions in which they worked did depend in where they worked.           In both American and Britain factories at one point in time, the workers described their occupation as “white slavery”. Some children working there did not get paid at all, because they were in legal custody of the factories. This is because the factory owners take in orphans and give them food and shelter but they are forced to work in the factories sometimes up to 16 hours a day. In document B from the DBQ, it mentions how many children were left u...