The Congress of Vienna

The essential question of the class was, what should people in power do when power is threatened? This question was asked in connection with the Congress of Vienna which was formed to solve problems between countries in Europe. To inform ourselves of the Congress, we read a background reading about what happened during the meetings of the great powers in Europe and who was represented. We also looked at a map of Napoleon's conquered land and there was another reading about the new problems each empire would have to face, and their goals they would like to accomplish. 

What should people in power do when power is threatened? The Congress of Vienna sought out to retain their power of their nation and wanted to stop revolutions from happening. For one, they devised the Holy Alliance. This said that monarchs had a divine right and any revolution was treason and against god. In the 1800's religion had even more of an impact than it had today, and by saying that if you were to go against the monarchy then you would be going against god. This was a very big deal, and frankly still is which is why this was put in place to hopefully stop threats against their power. By having the major powers (except for England, Protestant) partake in this meant that anyone going against the monarchy would be condemned to hell, which in theory stop the people from an uprising. 

I don't think it was the best thing for the Congress of Vienna to create the Holy Alliance because I feel that it would only make the people madder. If I was revolting and they told me that if I went against the monarchy I would be going against god I would rebel even more. Just because you have royal blood doesn't mean that if I go against you that I should go to hell. I feel that a better way to react was to give the people what they want so that they listen to you more after you have fulfilled their wants. I think the powerful should be willing to sacrifice some of their own power in most circumstances if it makes sense, if that's what is needed to help the people. 

Napoleon Bonaparte

What was Napoleon's impact on the social, economic and political systems of Europe? This question has been asked after going over Napoleon, the leader of France. The question asks what was Napoleon’s impact of the systems of Europe. This question can easily be asked as “What did Napoleon do to change Europe?” In class we went over articles regarding Napoleon, and also we watched a movie about his life.

Napoleon had a very large impact on the economic, political and social systems of Europe and other conquered nations. Economically Napoleon did a lot to improve and try to boost France's income. France controlled the prices of goods and encouraged trading. By doing this other countries had to compete with this economic powerhouse  which changed the way each country had to trade and interact with other countries. Also the Bank of France was established  and the budget was balanced, and public work programs were made, which introduced the idea of work programs into Europe in a bank.. Napoleon even brought in an entirely new Social system called 'meritocracy'. This system rewarded people based on their skill rather than their social class. More of the population were also given the right to own property and education had become more accessible.

My opinion of Napoleon is that I generally liked him. I think that he is more interesting than other men of history. His ideas of helping the lower class and making life more fair by introducing meritocracy into France. The fact that social class was based more on skill was a great idea in my book. Also Napoleon seemed like we wasn’t just some war mongering villain. He had purpose for his conquering which was to make France as powerful as he could. This in fact, is why I like him. Trying to make his country the best it can be, not a personal mission to control the world.  His improvements of France as a country is just staggering and he became a truly powerful leader.

http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/c_historians.html

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Socialism and Communism

In class each student was given chocolate. This chocolate was meant to represent the total amount of wealth earned in each type of economic system. In capitalism for example a majority of students got 3 chocolate, but some students received 10. After the candy was handed out every student has to play Rock Paper Scissors. If you won your game you got chocolate, but if you lost you had to give the victor one of your pieces. When you ran out you sat down. However, in Socialism you didn't have to play like in capitalism, and  if you did lose all your candy you were supplied with more. The game was fun because I goo eat chocolate. It was also frustrating though because  other people may have had an unfair advantage compared to you which became annoying.

Marx and Smith both had very different ideas to help the poor, but in theory do their job. Marx's idea is that through the changes to capitalism to socialism and finally to communism will improve the lives of the poor. Communism allows the people to all have equal pay which for the poor would be perfect. This would give them a boost in society and even the playing field so that the rich nobility is the same of the commoners. However, Smith's idea is very different. His idea is to let the invisible hand help the poor. The invisible is allows wealth to be distributed evenly over the course of time. It allows businesses  to compete with each other   so that the people can get the best quality and price for what they want. This allows economy to regulate itself.

In my opinion I think that Smith's is the best way because I feel that it is more natural approach to helping the poor. I think that Marx's ideas lead to a too fast paced change which would intern lead to worse living conditions. Even though Smith's may take longer it would help better in the long term, and would create better lives for the poor than Marxism.

MOSI Chat

Before the chat with Jamie we had done some activities so that we could be prepared for the conversation. For one, we made some questions we would like to ask him. This questions ranged from the hours of work of the mills to the dangers they might face. We also went on to their website, but we also saw an video of Jamie before the actually chat. Vocab was also learned so that we could understand the 'lingo' surrounding the cotton mills.

The chat with Jamie was very interesting. I never would have thought just how dangerous it was for people to clean and to work with the machines. The picture below is a shuttle, it would shoot fibers across the loom. This could malfunction and shoot out and potentially kill a worker. While cleaning some of the machines girls and children could be scalped if their hair got caught and they could get seriously injured by the moving parts of the machines. By seeing Jamie talk about the machines helped me to understand his job as the curator. I knew that he had to understand a lot about the topic he is talking about, but I never really realized the amount of dates and information he had to his memory. He knew everything about each machine he talked about to the year it was made to who made it. For families the looms were a way of getting income, but I felt that they relied to heavily on it. I think that there was probably another way they could have received money other than for making cloth. This made the loom both a positive and a negative for me because it both helped and hurt families.

I feel that I learned more from a outside expert. I think this because by talking to an outside expert it gave me another perspective to look from which can make it easier to understand the information. I didn't really dislike anything from the chat beside the quality of the chat, because if there was another way to have voice chats that were not as staggered that would the chat so much better. I would definitely want it to do it again with other experts for other topics.