History

As we move into the new millennium, more so than decades, quarter or half centuries, we reflect back on the past. A vast number of books and other publications have come out which review certain areas of the past, a Y2K in review. Of course, the term Y2K immediately evokes the image of a world of computer technology going haywire. The world has had its share of tragedies and hardships, as well as great technological achievements and human advancement in this last century. As we enter Y2K, perhaps one of the major events we will speculate on is the rise and fall of communism.

For the US, it has had a great influence on foreign policy. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent shift in power of former Soviet satellites, as well as the change in the centralized communist government in China to a market economy, many wrongly suspected that other smaller communist nations must follow suit. Such was the case for North Korea. Many times, especially in the last decade, it was assumed that North Korea was on the verge of collapse, only to rebound and somehow stay afloat.

How is this possible for an impoverished country where the military take precedence over the citizens, and even the military lacks the means to upgrade its equipment and conduct training due to lack of fuel? With allies running short, and old comrades, China and Russia, not only stopping support, but trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its missile project and not to go through with hereditary rulership, North Korean officials must certainly feel the strain.

Unable to get loans due to multiple defaults, having numerous foreign diplomats expelled from Third World countries for indecent behavior and setting everyone on edge with an alleged satellite missile launch, North Korea has had to resort to threats and concessions of nuclear production and inspections to obtain food and other aid, such as the promise for the development of two light-water reactors.

But even a North Korean defector, Kim Shin Jo, states, I cant understand how people can be so naive that they let themselves be used by North KoreaIt is wrong just to give food to North Korea, because those people who are really starving will not get the food (Hidden, p37). And furthermore, why help a country that spends tens of millions of dollars celebrating the birthday of Kim Il Sung with ever bigger statues and staging massive military parades(Hidden, p38)?

Nonetheless, the North Korean legacy continues, and the war continues. More than a thousand South Koreans have been killed [on the DMZ] since 1953, as have fifty Americans (In the Land, p58), and the DPRK has gone as far as to beef up their missile capability recently along the DMZ with the alleged ability to hit any part of Japan. As Bruce Cummings states, we need to look at Koreas history to find a better approach to dealing with North Korea. The New Dynasty

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines dynasty as 1: a succession of rulers of the same line of descent 2: a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time. Following the formation of the Democratic Peoples Republic in late 1945, Kim Il Sung quickly gained full control over the government and the central party. Orville Schell describes it as [b]y occupying all the highest positions in the state, the party, and the military, he managed to turn North Korea into a private fiefdom. (In the Land, p59).

Though nominally a communist nation, it also has the strong makings of a fascist state. Following the 20th Party Congress, the Soviet leaders pressed Kim to adopt the principle of collective leadership, which was tantamount to the abandonment of his near dictatorial position (The NK Communism, p105). And with the passing of power from father to son, Korea was apparently advised by Deng Jiao Ping not to go through with the family legacy (A World W/O, p27). However, there seems to be little suppression of the citizens for cooperation.

Orville Schell was told by his guide while in the DPRK You must never ever allow yourself to think that our loyalty is forced (p58). This is due to North Koreas unique system of Juche, or Chuche, which shows Kims unique diversion from communist creed: As early as December 1995 Kim Il-song, in the midst of pressure from Moscow, expressed his determination, though cautiously, to strike out on an independent road for North Korea by calling for the establishment of Chuche among Koreans (The NK Comm. , p126).

Juche mixes aspects of Marxism, Leninism, Christianity, Confucianism and xenophobia (In the land, p 59). Hwang Jang Yop, a North Korean official who defected in February of 1997, described the system as an abnormal system, a mix of socialism, modern feudalism and militarism (Hidden, p38). The article Kim the Father, Kim the Son states that lumping the North in with other communist regimes is a mistake. Its claim to legitimacy is based not on Marx, but on something more likely to last: religious sense of nationalism. 56) The Kims are viewed by the people as something more like gods or divine rulers, a view strongly supported by the government run papers, publishers and radio. Korea is Tanguns country and Kim Il Sungs country. (Kim the Father, p58) Despite this almost fanatical devotion, one rumor is that attempts were made on the life of President Kim Il Sung] in 1986 and 1987 and also two explosions on trains are believed to be the result of sabotage, and there are said to have been several industrial strikes (Signs, p38).

Despite rumors of political unrest and possible military revolt, it can not be doubted that the Kim Il Sung’s, and now Kim Jong Ils, power is firmly entrenched. Various statues dot the landscape dedicated to both rulers. Photos of one or both are required to be hung in meeting halls, public areas and most houses. Kim Il Sungs various titles range from the Eternal Sun of the Nation and the Greatest Genius of Mankind(Hidden, 37), the Lodestar of Human Emancipation(In the Land, p59) and the Great Leader.

His legacy, now passed on to his son, Kim Jong Il, has also passed on titles like the savior of present-day human music (Hidden, 37), the genius of 10,000 talents (NK Under, p3) and the Dear Leader. Both are known together as Our Sun and Star (inside [US News], p53). There is nothing the Korean establishment craves more from foreigners than the appearance of respect for its leaders and revolution (In the Land, p6). Various grand structures, with no practical use or economic justification, are expected to impress the thousands of foreign visitors.

Signs, pg38) While Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have fought endlessly to demonstrate North Korean superiority in various fields, they never fail to receive bad reviews by foreign visitors who may marvel at the stunning parades, but are stuck by the apparent falseness of it all, the empty streets, the often strange presentations, strict guided tours and ominous structures. The North Korean government, who believes the Western World is trying to slander them for their own gain, naturally, poorly receives these reviews. However, it is important to analyze the government to find some means of understanding it.

North Korea has once again put itself into a unique position. With the inauguration of Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leaders lasting achievement is to have established the first dynasty in communist history. (Looking, p12) Having presented North Korea in this manner, it seems appropriate to look at North Korea from the perspective of dynastic rule. Whereas communist regimes look unfavorably upon the centralized, Confucian-based Dynasties of old, which the communist parties in Korea and China had struggled against, the centuries of dynastic rule have left lasting impressions on the Asian societies.

The individual dynasties of both Korea and China have lasted centuries, with one ending and another taking its place. Such is the legacy that many assume was left behind with the fall of Koreas Yi and Chinas Ching Dynasties. However, as the barbarian forces of the Mongols and the Manchurians learned, centuries of tradition hold a lot of weight, and they carried on the dynastic tradition with the founding of the Yuan and Ching Dynasties.

In understanding this legacy and showing how it may be seen in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, it may become easier to understand why the country continues to survive, despite evidence supporting its collapse. To do this, it is necessary to view history and present not in the negative, but in a manner becoming the great tradition of dynasties. As China once saw itself as the center of the world, North Korea now sees itself as the last bastion of strength against imperialist aggressors, the last great nation on earth where many citizens believe there to be maybe only four other countries (presumably Russia, Japan, U. S. A. , and China, South Korea being part of Korea), and furthermore consider any reliance on the outside world as a source of weakness. (Looking, p13) Therefore, this paper will look at the general dynastic cycle of China, specifically the Ming dynasty, in comparison with the new North Korean Dynasty as well as compare one of the great Ming rulers, Wan-Li, with Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

In choosing a comparative dynasty, consideration was given to the Ming governments nationalistic and ethnocentric sentiment, indoctrination through education, hierarchical methods, the dynastic decline and centralized style government. In choosing Emperor Wan Li, his position as a divine ruler, great accomplishments in the early part of his rule, an eccentric patronage of the arts, later anti-social behavior and his ability to maintain power were the main factors.

None of the European power wanted World War I, but they feared Germany. Germany was newly unified, and was beating the European powers in population and Industry. France wanted to recover the Alsace-Lorraine. Britain was a country used to being on the ocean, so they felt threatened by Germany’s colonial expansion and William II’s insisting on a large navy. Russia and Austria feared pressure on their unstable empires. In 1887 William II refused to renew the Reinsurance treaty with Russia, but continued the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

In 1894 Russia made an alliance with France, and Great Britain settled it’s differences with France in the Entente Cordiale in 1904 forming the Triple Entente. The assassination, with Serbian Knowledge, of the liberal Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinan in Sarajevo in June 1914 was the spark that set off the war. Germany assured Austria full support, which resulted in an Austrian ultimatum that Serbia could not accept. Austria declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilized to defend Serbia, then Germany declared war on Russia.

Germany also declared war on France. Germany wanted a quick defeat of France. To avoid the French frontier, German forces moved through neutral Belgium thinking they would take Paris by surprise. The Germans encountered more resistance than expected in Belgium, giving France time to prepare. [Caidin 207] This violation of international law destroyed all sympathy for the Central Powers. Although German forces nearly reached Paris, the British and French Miraculously turned back the Germans at the Battle of Marne.

The two sides dug trenches for a war that would last four years. The Russians then attacked sending Germany into a two front war. The Germans defeated the Russians Many times on the east, but the Allies blockaded the Germans on the east by cutting off food and raw materials, The Germans became desperate to break the blockade, so they declared unrestricted submarine warfare. [Villiers 176] After several American ships were sunk, the United States entered the war in 1917. The Russians were in the middle of several revolutions so they were not a threat to Germans.

In 1918 when the Germans did not have to worry about the east, they launched an all out offensive attack in the west, but the United Allies slowly turned the tide. Realizing the situation was hopeless the German High Command urged William to let a new civil government sue for peace. Woodrow Wilson, U. S. President from 1913 to 1921, insisted on dealing with citizens. William grudgingly appointed Prince Max of Baden as chancellor. Even Though Wilson was negotiating with the chancellor there were still many problems.

Fighting continued, sailors mutinied, socialist staged strikes, workers and military formed Communist councils, and revolution broke out in Bavaria. [Grolier] Prince Max announced the abdication of William II and resigned. When Germany surrendered and changed its government, it expected a negotiated peace rather than the harsh terms of the Versailles treaty of 1919. The allies were determined to receive reparations for their losses and to see that Germany was never in a position to harm them again. Germany lost the Alsace-Lorraine to France and lost West Prussia to Poland.

It also lost all its colonies and had to give up most of its coal, trains, and merchant ships, as well as its navy. Germany had to limit its army and submit to Allied occupation of Rhineland for 15 years. Worst of all, the Germans had to ccept full responsibility for causing the war and, consequently pay its total cost. The Germans did not consider themselves anymore guilty than anyone else and could not possibly pay all of the costs demanded. The Versailles treaty seemed fair to the Allies point of view, but it did not ensure a lasting peace.

By accepting the treaty the German Government gained a bad name among its people. [Encarta96] The war reparations put a enormous strain on a country already bankrupted by four years of war. In Weimar in 1919 a nationalist assembly, led by the Social democratic party, wrote a democratic constitution for the ew German Reich. But the prospects of the Weimar Republic, as it was familiarly known, were dim. For most Germans the government was defeated and was controlled by the Versailles treaty, which they regarded as only temporary. Encarta96] The Parliamentary government was opposed by conservative militarists and revolutionary scientists. Both sides frequently tried to overthrow the government with small armies. For instance the military Kapp Putsch in 1920 and, the Uprising of the Communist Sparticists in 1919 under Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. The economic situation made matters worse because he German government could not pay off reparation requirements, so France invaded Ruhr in1923 to take over coal mines.

The government encouraged the workers to resist passively, printing large amounts of currency to pay them. The result was an inflation that wiped out savings, pensions, insurance, and other forms of fixed income, creating a revolution that destroyed the most stable elements of Germany. Aided by the Dawes plan of 1924, which set reasonable amounts of reparations and provided for foreign loans, the brilliant German Minister Gustav Stresemann reorganized the monetary system and ncouraged industry. Stresemann introduced a new currency, and paved the way for more reasonable reparation schedules.

For five years Germany enjoyed relative peace and prosperity. In 1926 Germany joined the League of Nations. In 1929 when the worldwide depression hit it plunged the city into disaster. Million of unemployed, disillusioned by capitalist democracy, turned to communism or to the party of National Socialism (Nazism) led by Adolf Hitler. In notable efforts called the Munich Putsch of 1923 Hitler and the Nazis made a farcical attempt to seize power in Bavaria. From 1930 on the government functioned by emergency decree.

The Communist profited briefly from radicalization, but the main beneficiary was the Nazi party. The Nazi party had twin attractions of appearing to offer radical solutions to economic problems while upholding patriotic values. [Encarta96] By 1932 it was the largest party in the Reighstag. The next year President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor after allowing himself to be convinced by generals and right-wing politicians that only the Nazi leader could restore order in Germany and that he could be controlled.

The Black Death had profound effects on Medieval Europe. Although most people did not realize it at the time, the Black Death had not only marked the end of one age but it also denoted the beginning of a new one, namely the Renaissance (“Effects” 1). Between 1339 and 1351a. d, a pandemic of plague called the Black Death, traveled from China to Europe affecting the importance of cities, creating economic and demographic crises, as well as political dislocation and realignment, and bringing about powerful new currents in culture and religion.

In the beginning, the Italian town of Genoa was one of the busiest ports in Europe. Ships sailed from there to trade all over the Mediterranean Sea. In October of 1347, 12 merchant ships sailed from Caffa to Italy (“Arrival” 1). A strange disease had infected the crew of these ships. Dying bodies lay aboard the ships. City officials, afraid that the disease might spread, issued an order that no person or piece of merchandise was to leave the ships. They even forbade medical treatment for the sick sailors and passengers. The disease still spread.

The officials had not considered that the rats from the ships were able to leave the ships by crawling along the ropes that were tied to the ships. From Italy, the disease spread all over Europe, traveling along the major trade routes. The rats were responsible for carrying the disease, which was transmitted by fleas from infected rats. The fleas drank the rats’ blood that carried the bacteria. The bacteria multiplied in the flea’s gut. While the fleas gut was clogged with bacteria, the flea bit the human and regurgitated blood into the wound (Transmitted” 2).

The Black Death came in 3 forms: the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. Each different from of the plague killed people in a vicious way. All forms were caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis (“Forms” 1). The bubonic plague was the most commonly seen form of the Black Death. Which had a mortality rate of 30-70%. The symptoms were enlarged and inflamed lymph nodes (around armpits, neck and groin). The term “bubonic” refers to the characteristic bubo or enlarged lymphatic gland. Victims were subject to headaches, nausea, aching joints, fever of 101-105 degrees, vomiting, and a general feeling of illness.

Symptoms took from 1-7 days to appear (“Forms” 2). The pneumonic plague was the second most commonly seen form of the Black Death. The pneumonic and the septicemic plague were probably seen less than the bubonic plague because the victims often died before they could reach other places (this was caused by the inefficiency of transportation). The mortality rate for the pneumonic plague was 90-95%; (if treated today the mortality rate would be 5-10%). The pneumonic plague infected the lungs. Symptoms include slimy sputum; saliva mixed with mucus exerted from the respiratory system, tinted with blood.

As the disease progressed, the sputum became free flowing and bright red. Symptoms took 1-7 days to appear. This disease could only be transmitted through the air, by someone’s cough (“Forms” 2). Finally the septicemic plague was the most rare form of all. The mortality was close to 100 %. Symptoms, which took 1-7 days to appear, were high fever and skin turning deep shades of purple (“Forms 2”). The Black Death struck the European people without warning. Physicians and philosophers harmed rather than helped. They did not understand the causes of infectious diseases nor how they spread.

It is no wonder that they looked to priests and storytellers, rather than doctors, for answers. They did not have the ability to understand where this sudden cruel death had come from. And they did not know whether it would never go away (“Causes” 1). The most common belief was that God, being a punishment for the sin people had committed sent the plague. Even innocent people, such as infants, had to suffer for the horrible crimes of others. The church was quick to condemn gambling, excessive drinking, the immodesty of women, and the laziness of pheasants.

Guilt lay upon every man’s heart. Therefore, it was only natural that the first measures taken against the plague were the confession of all sins and prayer for forgiveness (“Punishment”2). Praying seemed to have very little effect. Therefore, many believed there was a necessary for extreme measures. A group of men decided to punish themselves in order to persuade God to forgive them. Each of theses “Flagellants” would carry a wooden stick with a couple of leather tongs attached to one end. At the end of each tong would be a sharp spike, about an inch in length.

The flagellants would walk from town to town. Once they would arrive in a village or city, they would go to a public place where there were a lot of people, such as a market or store. After they found that public place, they would start beating themselves with their wooden sticks, hitting their backs until blood flowed freely. The townspeople would always welcome them and the flagellants would sometimes encourage the townspeople to join their beatings. It was common for people to die in these beatings.

The flagellants would then leave the town after a few days, usually taking a few locals to join their group. The group’s numbers grew rapidly from 200-300 to 1000. They did more harm rather than help. The only thing they were doing was carrying the disease with them only spreading up the process (“Flagellation” 1). Many people believed in a legendary witch called the Plague Maiden. She was very beautiful and carried around her neck a red scarf. It was said that she traveled from town to town passing by each house.

When she waved her red scarf in front of a house window, the house would become infected. The legend also told that a man waited all night from the witch to arrive and when she did, he cut off her hand with a sword. It was said that this man was the last to die of the plague in his town (“Plague maiden 2”). In Europe the Jews were easy targets to blame. It was a common belief that the Jews were poisoning the water supply. In some towns, Jews were rounded up and burned to death. They also were accused of practicing witchcraft consequently also suffering the anger of mob violence.

There were massacres, especially in cities along the Rhine River, and many more cases of the Jews being expelled from the town. A few towns actually protected their Jews, but the Jews were being expelled generally from Western Europe during the 14th century, and they were tolerated in Poland and Lithuania. So when the persecutions associated with the Black Death a rose, some Jews simply migrated eastward and did not return (“Jews 1”). The effects that the Black Death had on Europe were very profound. The population of Europe lost about one- third of its people.

These general numbers disguise the uneven nature of the epidemic. Some areas suffered very little, some suffered far more. Some examples are as follows 45% and 75% of Florence died in a single year. One- third died in the first 6 months. Its entire economic system collapsed for a time. In Venice, 60% died over the course of 18 months, 500-600 a day at the height. Certain professions suffered higher mortality, especially whose duties brought them into contact with the sick, doctors and clergy. In Montpellier, only seven of 140 Dominican friars survived.

In Perpignan, only one of 9 physicians survived, and 2 of 18 barber surgeon (“Population loss” 1). The death rate of Auignon was 50% and was even higher among the clergy. One- third of the cardinals died. Clement VI had to concentrate the Rhone River so corpses could be sunken it, for there was not time or room to bury them. Long term population loss is also instructive. Urban populations recovered quickly, in some cases within a couple of years, though immigration from the countryside because of increased opportunities in the cities.

Hardest hit was special groups, such as friars, who took a couple of generations to recover. In many areas, pre-plague population levels were not reached until the 1500’s, in a few not until the 1600. This is one reason why the Black Death marks a dividing line between the central Middle Ages, with medieval culture in full bloom and at its greatest strength, and the later Middle Ages. The later period was one of chronically reduced population (“Population loss” 2). Prior to its arrival, life was difficult for the ordinary man, who was practically enslaved by his landlord.

Additionally, living conditions were very unsanitary. When the plague was brought to Europe, this state of existence promoted the spreading of this new disease and changed the way people, both rich and poor, dealt with their lives. After many years, when this epidemic finally ended, living standards had changes dramatically, Immense effects could be seen in culture, spirituality, and especially economics. Society was never to be the same again; life had changed forever. (“Effects” 3) Eventually, the plague did disappear, but it left Europe with great cultural changes.

Art, in other cases, was most effected by the plague. During the pre-plague times, Nobel lords were shown in full health, in their best clothes, and armor, holding their swards. Afterwards, half-decomposed bodies with parts of skeleton clearly visible were shown. The clothes draping the body were old dirty rags and some sculptures showed worms and snails borrowing in rotten flesh (“Art” 1). After the plague the art was obsessive with cruel aspects of pain and suffering. Painting focused on skeletons mixed in with men in every day life. It was a very cruel sort of art.

Literature was also effected by the plague. It became more dark and somber. Now that most of the stony writers and tellers died from the plague all that was talked about were dead bodies and poems of death and stories were told about the plague. In architecture, many of those with the skill to build died from the plague. Many buildings that were started before the plague were never finished. Universities were abandoned. In Europe Education Standards were incredibly low.

The whole community of scholars suffered as universities and schools were closed or even abandoned. of 40 Professors at Cambridge died. French was commonly spoken among the education in England, The death of numerous French teachers, however, helped the English language to gain over French in Britain. (“Art”1) Cities were hit had hard by the plague, Financial businesses were disrupted as debtors died and their creditors found themselves without recourse. Not only had the creditor died, his who family had died with him and many of his friends. There was simply no one to collect from (“Disruption” 1).

Construction projects were stopped or even abandoned, guilds lost their craftsmen, without the ability to replace them, important machinery broke, and those with the ability to repair them had died (“Effects”). The labor shortage was very severe, and consequently, wages rose. Because of the mortality, there was an over supply of goods, and prices dropped. Whole families died, with not heirs, their houses standing empty. The countryside faced a short-term shortage of labor. They tried to get more forced labor from them, as there were fewer peasants to be had. Peasant in many areas began to demand fairer treatment.

Lastly, the change in spirituality was one of the major effects of the plague. The Black Death left survivors mourning, depressed, and fearful of its return (“Economy” 1) One of the groups that suffered the most was the Christian Church. It lasts prestige, spiritual authority, and leadership over the people. The church promised cures, treatment, and an explanation for the plague. They said it was God’s will, but the reason for this awful punishment was unknown. People wanted answers, but the priests and bishops didn’t have anything to say. The people abandoned their Christian duties and fled.

People prayed to God and begged for forgiveness. After the plague ended, angry and frustrated villagers started to revolt against the church, this caused the churches to be abandoned (“Effects” 2). The Black Death changed European history in many ways. Its fatal symptoms took many human lives, and its influenced carried over into many areas of society. People suffered religiously because the disease brought out the darker side of life and made them question God. Europe would not be the same today without these changes brought on through the devastation of the Black Death.

The study of world history is very important to us as Americans because it is helps us understand who we are and what helped us to get where we are. Also it helps us understand who we are as a culture and where we come from. Many people are different and share their different point of views. People have different religions and different ways of living. With the different ways of living and different religions there is a lot of racism and ethnic violence in America today. I feel this a very important issue in the world today because we as Americans need to tie together and become as a team.

While I take this course I hope to learn more about the different cultures and where they were originated from. If I learn where different cultures originated from and how they live their everyday life this can help me learn on how their life is lived and give me a vision of what their lives are really like. For example the people in Somalia are starving for food and will work all day for a simple meal, while most Americans eat food as if it was an everyday thing. As you can see all people have something a little different in them.

I think it’s very important for people to know their own roots. It is also important for us to learn about our government as well as other countries. This is another important thing that I would like to learn and understand by taking this class. We must learn about the leaders of different countries because many leaders from the past have taken a significant influence on our world’s history. The biggest leader who sticks out in my head is Hitler who lead Germany to believe in the Aryan race. This lead to many deaths of Jewish people at concentration camps.

If we would have learned more abut Hitler and his views we might have been able to sway him from his ways, or maybe even taken him out before the large death tolls of Jewish people at the concentration camps. We must learn these government believes and know its powers. Government is a main way of communicating with other countries. In order to keep it this way we must keep accepting some of the things they do. Your religion is one of the most important thing in one’s life that can separate one person from another.

The differences can cause major conflicts and can lead to a Holy War. This is why today in America they call it the “melting pot” of cultures and religions. Many people from all over the globe migrate to America to express their religion and cultural backgrounds. This is one of the biggest reasons of how racism comes into factor. As you can see I feel it is very important for Americans to learn about other cultures and other backgrounds so we can know how different people are and we can adjust to other peoples beliefs.

This can help cut down on racism in the world but it will take more than this to get rid of the people who are ethnocentric. Another important factor in our nation is our economy which depends upon the world’s demand for goods and resources. In understanding world history we can get to know our consumers better, and in doing that it creates a much bigger market for our goods. In return it benefits us by creating more jobs and capital in the United States. Every day Americans consume millions of dollars in imports. Whether it is the oil in your car or the leather coat you are wearing.

We depend on other nations just as they depend on us. One of the most important things in world history is the Bill of Rights. This has changed everybody’s life since it has been applied. Without the Bill of Rights, Americans will not be governed by laws and we would not have the rights we have today. The Amendments help protect the people and give them the rights they need to feel like they are American citizen. Amendments also help people from incriminating themselves. It makes it possible to protect yourself by keeping a gun in your house.

It gives us freedom of speech which is a very important thing to have because you are allowed to say whatever you want; without freedom of speech you would not be able to stick up for yourself and say what you think is right. If Americans didn’t have the amendments the world would be a very curupt place to live in. I am very happy to be an American citizen, and feel it is one of the most important things to me. I learned how lucky I am from taking looks at other countries and comparing what I have for rights and living style in America.

Many Americans take their country for granted, after learning more about the Modern World I am positive that I won’t. The scientific revolution did not happen all at once, nor did it begin at any set date. You can push the date back to the work of Nicolaus Copernicus at the beginning of the sixteenth century, or Leonardo da Vinci in the middle of the fifteenth. Even then, you haven’t gone back far enough and you haven’t included all the factors that contributed to scientific revolution. It’s hard to pinpoint the shift in these attitudes.

The introduction of humanism in the fourteenth century was in a large part based on the idea that human intellect and creativity were trustworthy, and human experience was, to some extent, a reliable base on which to hang knowledge. But the humanist revolution didn’t happen all at once. The difference between experience and authority was the question throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. What should you believe? What your experience shows you? Or what authorities, including the church and the bible, tell you to believe?

While it’s hard to pinpoint the shift in European attitudes, the first, unambiguous statement of this shift in values come in Leonardo da Vinci’s treatise on painting. The Scientific Revolution has been given several dates from the mid to late 1600’s. I feel it occurred in the mid 1500’s to the mid 1700’s. Floris Cohen labels the late 1400’s and 1500’s as the Renaissance for science and the late 1500’s through the 1600’s. Any attempt to assign exact dates is impossible in my opinion. There are historical events that can be identified as useful reference points.

There was a scientific revolution of sorts in the high Middle Ages that in many ways rivaled the later scientific revolution in its sweeping changes, but all the cultural components were not in place. So the scientific revolution of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries did not produce a way of thinking about the world that closely resembles our own. You see, even in the high Middle Ages, Europeans believed that the center of all truth and experience was in God. The medieval’s deeply distrusted human perception. Not only has human perception variable and untrustworthy, the material world itself was deceptive.

Rather than a vehicle for truth, the material world was put in place to actively distract humans from the real task. Moreover, a revolution takes place over time while conditions are put in place which freeze in time the major identifiable events. Following this event, more changes are put into motion, continuing until somehow the activity of change becomes activity of stability. The Scientific Revolution is identified as the beginning of modern science in the early 17th century. The beginning and end points are still the subject of debate, but the events of the first few decades of the 17th century are identifiable and remarkable.

The impact of the Scientific Revolution has been profound. Its most direct influence was on European intellectuals who created a movement that they called the Enlightenment. These intellectuals saw that most human beings lived in ignorance and superstition. They believed that people could emerge from this darkness if they used their minds properly. Their inspiration was Issac Newton. But would the pioneers of the Scientific Revolution celebrate the way that it has triumphed? Today, most people accept scientific explanations as articles of faith rather than theories to be tested.

On October 13th of 1492, Christopher Columbus made a “discovery” that changed all of mankind. He under the backing of the Spanish government made the pivotal first steps in colonizing a new land. The journey that had long been anticipated by Columbus was not important because it was the first of such expeditions, for it indeed was not. The fact that sets him apart is that his discovery was the last of such magnitude and lasting effects in history. His discovery was made at a time when Europe was in the process of great change.

These changes greatly influenced the voyage of Columbus and contributed to curiosity of the monarch and the citizens of Europe. The famous series of Wars called The Crusades caused great changes in the ways that Europeans thought and acted. The crusades, begun four centuries earlier, had increased the appetites of affluent Europeans for exotic things, and the most important of these things was gold and silver. The main reason for curiosity into new worlds and lands was the need for more trade, and quicker routes for existing trade routes.

Europe was in position to become the dominating force throughout the world and it was pertinent that they expand, and seek new riches and lands to add to its kingdom. The changes in Europe not only prompted Columbus’s voyages and those of others, but it paved the way for European domination for the next five hundred years. Often overlooked in the explanation of the events surrounding the discovery and settlement of the new worlds, are the little contributing factors. Those things that motivated and aided in the discovery and the settlement of this land.

The Europeans did not set sail on a wild goose chase for new territory. They had an idea of what they were looking for, who they were looking for, and what to do with whatever they encountered. The Europeans were organized in their efforts to conquer. Many different motivating factors contributed to Spanish expedition into the America’s; all are important and without each the affect of the expeditions in to the lands would not be possible. Foremost among these factors is the improvement of the European weaponry used, and the advances in technology that Europe had amassed.

The new technologies of warfare developed farther and faster in Western Europe than anywhere else in the world because of the union of existing technologies. By the 15th century, Europeans were the world’s masters in firearm manufacturers . This initiated an arms race that ushered in the refinement of archery, drill, and siege warfare. The arms race that was started then, has continued into the 21st century. This supreme dominance in the art of military technology gave the confidence needed by the Europeans to embark on their various expeditions into territory uncharted by Europeans.

When Columbus and his fellow mates landed in the Caribbean, they greeted the Indians with weapons that the natives had no notion about. The guns, and gunpowder were foreign to a society using bows and arrows, and spears. The ships in which they traveled far exceeded even the largest Indian vessel. The native Indians had never fathomed the advanced technology that the Spanish presented. This fact aided in the ease with which the Indians were controlled and enslaved. “To the Indians, the size of the ships with their billowing white sails suggested floating islands with close-hanging clouds” .

It was as if they were presented with an omnipotent force in the Spanish. Even the most traditional of weapons were beyond belief to the Indians. It is through the frightening of the Indians that Columbus found that the Indians became more manageable. They were afraid of the Spanish, intimidated by their strong omnipotent presence. The Spaniards upon embarking on the new land marched through the island to put down any signs of non-compliance with their demands or resistance to their enslavement . They were accompanied by horses, dogs, crossbows, these were all alien to the natives .

Columbus even notes that they didn’t know what their weapons were and so they reached out to touch the sword and cut themselves, because they didn’t know it was sharp . Another important factor in the process of colonization was ideological or even theological: amassing wealth and dominating other people came to be positively valued as the key means of winning esteem on earth and salvation in the hereafter. The Europeans hungered for gold and silver. The supply of the precious metal, by way of the Middle East and Africa, had always been uncertain.

Now, however the wars in Eastern Europe had nearly emptied the Continents reserves. A new supply, a more regular supply and preferably a cheaper supply was needed. Part of Europe’s desire to search for new land, was the rumored wealth of Asia, and Columbus indeed thought he had arrived in the famed land. Upon Columbus’s arrival in the New World his desire for riches was immediately satisfied. The natives were bejeweled with many gold pieces that pleased the eyes of Columbus. “Of course Columbus was looking for gold.

He saw little bits of gold in their noses and ears, and he was very anxious to please” . The profit motive operated heavily within Columbus as well as the Spanish crowns psyche. Columbus sought gold from the natives, so he sent them out to look for gold so he could have something to bring back for his sponsors in Spain. Columbus even placed a quota on the amount of gold the natives would have to amass, or face a penalty. When he reached Hispaniola, one of the largest discovered islands in the Greater Antilles, he found the gold he was searching for.

Columbus obtained enough gold through barter on Hispaniola to ensure a warm reception when he met Isabella in Barcelona in 1493. The gold craze spread and was the trigger to the exploration of the entire continent for its riches and the many different peoples that inhabit it. The wealth that was generated by the Spanish conquests was enormous. This wealth and the trade it generated within Europe was the backbone around which Capitalism was built. The Spanish quest for gold and wealth took on a religious connotation.

Columbus put it, “Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure and he who has it does all he wants in the world, can even lifts souls up to paradise” . His quest for gold and exploration took on religious aspects. It was a major contributor in the motivation of Spanish conquest. Another very important factor is Europe’s readiness to embrace a new continent, was the nature of their religious beliefs. They believed that their religion rationalized conquest. After Spanish discovery of New Lands they would read aloud a passage, which has come to be called “The Requirement”.

Here is a short excerpt from one such writing. “I implore you to recognize the church as a lady and in the name if the Pope take the King as Lord of this land and obey his mandates. If you do not do it, I tell you that with the help of God I will enter powerfully against you all. ” This served as a means by which to satisfy their consciences by offering the Indians a chance to convert to Christianity, after that the Spaniards felt justified in any action against the natives. To say it was totally their religion that motivated them would be a fallacy.

European imaginations played an important role in the developments leading up to the discovery by Columbus (Discovering Columbus p. 17). The importance of areas that could be used for the expansion of the church was futile. The new area was prime for mission work. The conversion of the natives, the theoretical justification for the Iberian presence in the Indies, was the churches first priority was one of the first priorities. The fact that the technology and sheer size of European advances made it very easy to cause the natives to question their gods.

Once Columbus arrived he almost immediately initiate the process of bringing missionaries to assimilate the peoples. At the same time it was pertinent that these natives did not confuse the abuses they received with the nature of the religion. That was the job of the missionaries and priests, to shield the natives from the corruption and immorality of the European settlers and the labor demands of such a mass acculturation. Though the church of Spain moved quickly to convert the Indians, Columbus and the government saw these Indians as workers that could benefit the effort to colonize such a vast and profitable area.

This would lead to conflict among the church and the state, mostly over the use of the natives as slaves in cultivating and as aids in working to build a colony. Though great conflict arose, and the understanding of the value of Indians and Whites was still very evident. The fact to them stood, God ordained them as the chosen peoples to conquer the world in his honor. Neither Europe, nor Columbus would have even set sail without one of the most influential assets to exploration. The presence of slaves provided the needed manpower for Europe to complete its expedition.

In the early 15th century slavery in Europe had declined. Not until the Portuguese exploration into the western regions in Africa, did they encounter the slave trade of the indigenous peoples . This was a major feat, for by 1450, African slaves were pouring into Europe each year, almost five hundred slaves a year by 1480, and a constant flow continued for years after that. Thus, by the time Columbus sailed, African slave were much part of the social order within Europe. These slaves were very important to the manpower of the conquests, and were very helpful to the organization of the conquests initial efforts.

Though they were slaves, the Africans were much educated to the social norms of the Europeans. Many were baptized as Christians , and some even received education. Although the blacks were visibly, and culturally different from their white counterparts; they joined the Spanish conquistadors in imposing Europe’s domination and power over these native Indians. During the conquest of the new world the Africans held a higher rank among the Indians. The Hispanics viewed the Indians as weak and even used Africans to supervise the Indians at times.

The Indians observed the blacks as “black white men” . No matter the way both the Indians and the blacks saw each other, they were both under the control of the Europeans. Neither held the view of a full human being in society. With the eventual importance of sugar and the mining of gold, the Indian and African populations within colonial Latin America were utilized and their labor was a major contributor and major source in the colonial economy. Slavery and the disease of the Europeans destroyed the Indian populations.

The diseases they were exposed to and the work conditions aided in their extermination by the Europeans. To replace the dying Indians, the Spanish imported tens of thousands more Indians from the Bahamas. The results of all the Indian slave deaths lead to a slave trade of blacks and Indians across the Atlantic. These masses of slaves were responsible for cultivating the land, and mining for gold. All these tasks were for the betterment of the Spanish crown. Without this type of manpower and cooperation the conquest would be virtually unfeasible.

Henry VIII succeeded his father to the throne at a very early age, with a correspondingly nave fairy tale view of a war like king; seeking power and glory. He implemented these aims through an aggressive foreign policy in the first five years of his reign until Wolsey came and directed Henrys glory attitude to a more moderate form of diplomacy. So it could be said that Wolsey was the main factor that influenced the conduct of foreign affairs in the later part of this period. Henry thought that war would reunite his people and establish himself as king in a strong definite way.

Henry gained an ally, Ferdinand of Aragon through marrying Catherine of Aragon, his brothers widow. Although France was posing no threat to England; English troops still invaded in 1513 capturing the towns of Therouanne and Tournai. French troops fled quickly hence the battle being named the Battle of the Spurs. Also in 1513 the Scottish King James IV was killed at the Flodden Field. This left the regency for James V in the hands of his mother, who was conveniently Henrys sister, Margaret.

These victories strengthened the English nobility, which was later to become increasingly important in Henrys time; through the French invasion an administrative genius emerged and his name was Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey had a passion for foreign affairs. He wanted to be a peacemaker, statesman and honest broker. Wolseys main aim behind his pomp arrogant attitude was to stop England going to war in Europe. Wolsey wanted England to have an active foreign policy but stop before it got to the point of war.

Ultimately, the hostility between France and Spain meant that England had no fears of invasion and every chance of being treated with respect. Because both France and Spain were searching for an ally, England might even gain their assistance in an event of an attack. France were worried because after his election as Emperor of Germany in 1519, Charles Vs territory seemed to encircle France. Meanwhile the Emperor was very worried about French expansion in Italy. In 1514 England made peace with France, this was probably quite a lot to do with Wolseys influence.

Henry seemed completely set on a peaceful coexistence with the old enemy. To seal the new friendship, Henrys younger sister, Mary, was married to King Louis XII of France. However, in 1515 the ageing bridegroom dies. A young man Francis I became King of France. This was bad for England because Francis wanted to avenge England for their attack in 1513. Francis tried stirring up trouble between England and Scotland. Wolsey persuaded Henry not to go to war, as they did not have an ally and not a large pile of finance. In 1518 Wolsey hijacked a papal call for a crusade against the Turks and turned it to Englands advantage.

He brought together the great powers of Europe, including England, Spain, France and The Holy Roman Empire, to sign the Treaty of London. This was a universal peace deal complete with protective security. Tournai was returned to France at the price of 600, 000 crowns, proposed marriage between Francis son and Henrys daughter Mary, helped secure British French peace. England was at the centre of affairs and it was Wolseys triumph and a step in the direction of a great \European diplomat. Two years after the Treaty of London, Wolsey triumphed again. Once again it was peace with glory for England.

June 1520 Henry led an expedition to France (not in a war like manner). He met Francis in a field near Calais that belonged to England. There were feasts and games and the meeting was a festive, happy, peaceful occasion; peace broke out again. However it wasnt long before England was back at war with France in 1523. France was weak at the time due to the Italian wars; Henry saw this as an opportunity to gain power and glory again. The French army was taken up in Italy. English troops took Boulogne and after an embarrassingly failed advance on Paris, due to poor supply connections.

The 1920’s were a decade of enjoyment, employment, and for some disappointment. It was a decade classified as the “roaring twenties. ” Men returning from World War I had to deal with unemployment, wheat farmers and oil companies were striking it rich, new modern conveniences were being thought up, and fashion was a major issue among the rich. During the twenties the economy had a definite impact on the society. It benefited some, but hurt others. The people that benefited were the prairie farmers and the oil companies. The people who didn’t benefit were American soldiers returning from WW1.

Around the middle of the twenties, a wheat farmer was the person to be. Business was booming for all the wheat farmers, places like Europe, which were in war, were hungry for American’s wheat and contributed tremendous business to the American wheat industries. Farmers began making more money than ever before, and they started buying farm machinery to take place of their cattle and horses. Prices of wheat were at an all time high, which gave America’s wheat industry an even bigger advantage and a bigger form of money making in our economy.

American soldiers on the other hand who had returned from war were expecting to be employed when they returned, but not even after fighting for their country could they get a job. It was very hard to get a job because women and immigrants had taken them all during the war. American soldiers were surprised at how difficult it was to get a job. While they were out fighting in WW1, people who had business relating to military were striking it rich because of all the military equipment that was needed for the American army, to supply the soldiers who were fighting in the war.

Unemployment was something that white men had very seldomly dealt with before. During the twenties another discovery led to a rising economy for America. The oil industry struck it rich in Turner Valley Alberta, where a huge oil discovery took place. Eventually this industry would create new jobs and more money for the economy. America did have its good and bad times in the twenties, but most people benefited from the good times because of more job increases, and because of new industries such as wheat and oil.

Entertainment in the Twenties consisted of many famous people, it was n the twenties when a man by the name of Charlie Chaplain who was known for his “tramp” look, dominated the silent movie business. He was considered one of the most talented actors of the 20’s. Also during the 20’s radio was the popular for of listening to music and listening to the news. In the later 1920’s the television was created which now aloud people to see a picture in their home for entertainment, but the television did not surpass the radio entertainment wise, because most people were unable to afford it.

The 1920’s were filled with signs of raging new fashions. The loosening of fit and gradual downward movement of the waistline. In the twenties women could say and do what they please so in no time women were wearing make-up, changed there hairstyles to short and skirts gradually became shorter. While women were getting more daring in what they would wear, men tended to be more conservative, wearing double-breasted tuxedoes to dances and on a casual day wearing a nice suit. Also during the 1920’s a man by the name of Henry Ford created the assembly line.

He was also the founder of ford Motor co. creating the first automobile used by the average person. Fords assembly line was the key to his success in the automotive industry, because he was able to produce a mass amount of cars to lower the price so more people could afford them. Not only did the plant produce a lot of cars it also supplied thousands of jobs for unemployed workers. The automotive industry was a huge help on decreasing the unemployment rate. So as you can see the 1920’s or rather “The Roaring 20’s” was a very prosperous time to live in.

Some had to endure hard ships, but by the mid-1920’s the economy was booming and people were having a good time. Veterans had returned home and the unemployment rate was greatly decreased by the automotive industry. Many modern inventions were made, fashion changed, and women received more rights. Without the occurrence of the 1920’s in the way that it happened the United States wouldn’t be the same today. The 20’s inspired people to rebel, layback and have some fun. The 1920’s were a very influential time period in United States history.

Arrogant, powerful, wise, heroic, conqueror, and a superior leader are a few words that describe Dariuss I reign and the life that he lived. Darius I is one of the greatest leaders of any nation to ever live. Darius was always well dressed; he was clearly distinguishable from others by his gold scepter, long square beard, fancy jewelry, and a high flat-topped tiara. He wore robes of purple embroidered in gold, fine crimson trousers, and boots. He sat underneath a purple canopy all people were to fall or bow to the great king. His great authority was reflected in his title: Great King, King of Kings, or King of Persia.

His conquests are magical his reign is superior. His ability to consolidate power over his great empire is amazing in its self. He ruled for a thirty-six year period providing his empire with a new form of state organization. From the military down to small provinces and courts Darius had left his mark on Persia. His vast accomplishments helped Persia for many years to come. If it werent for Alexander the Great, Darius I would be a man everyone knows. His great undertakings should not go unnoticed for he propelled Persia into an even greater empire.

Darius I great reign was inscribed on a gigantic rock face facing the main caravan route Ecbatana to Babylon. Known as the Bisitun Inscription, the inscription claims that he is the rightful successor as the King of Persia. The throne was to be given to Gautmata pretending to be Cambyses brother. In 522 B. C. Darius defeated Gautmata and took over as the Great King of Persia. Darius took over as King at the young age of twenty-eight. The first two years of his reign were spent suppressing rebellions, the most famous in Babylon in 520.

After he successfully crushed the rebellion Darius committed himself to reorganizing Persia and securing its outer borders. He reorganized the immense empire into twenty satrapies (like small provinces). He built highways, created a postal system, reformed the currency, encouraged commerce, and was deeply liked by the large portion of his ethnically diverse empire. By reorganizing his empire into twenty satrapies Darius was able to collect taxes from each individual satrapy. The taxes were a fixed annual tax rate or tribute. The provincial system allowed different ethnicities to practice their own religious preference.

The people were pleased with Darius and his decision not to press one religion on his empire. Even though Darius himself was a great worshipper of Ahuramazda. Ahuramazda was said to be the god who invented the earth, man, the sky, and the creator of happiness. Darius allowing his people to retain their customs and religion was the greatest achievement of the Achaemenid Dynasty. Darius allowed the Jews to complete the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem in 516. This propelled the Achaemenid Dynasty to rule the empire for over two centuries. Satraps ran the satrapies for the King.

Satrap is known in the English language as a petty tyrant. The satraps were ordered to command the provincial armed forces, to collect imperial taxes, and of course to enforce the Kings will. Satraps had immense power and money. Unlike provincial German princes in the medieval era Darius was able to put a check and balance system on his satraps. Darius established a traveling bureaucracy to drop in on his satraps to make sure they were being faithful to the people and to his income. All of his checks were unannounced; if appointments were made satraps could easily cover-up any wrong doing.

Darius was able to control his satrapies by his impeccable highways he had built. These great highways were also a great transportation system for trade routes. Darius built the longest road in the world which extended from Elamite to Epheus on the Aegean coast, cumulating a total over seventeen hundred miles! His postal system was made possible by these great highways. With vast trade and the ever-growing amount of people on these highways made it safe for travel. Important posts were setup at cities such as Babylon, Memphis, Ecbatana, Pasargrade, and Perseopolis.

These posts made rapid communication through the empire possible. The postal system was made up of horses for transportation. Darius found out how far a rider and a horse could travel everyday before needing a rest. Fourteen miles turned out to be the answer, so every fourteen miles a fresh rider and a fresh horse was waiting to continue the delivery. It took only a week for the Kings command to reach the farthest parts of his empire. With this speedy delivery system if revolts were to break out they could be dealt with quickly. The King would be able to be in contact with his satraps on a weekly basis.

The famous phrase of the U. S. Postal Office comes from this time period, Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night will stop the royal messages. Darius also had a great canal built between the Nile and he Red Sea. Now ships could have direct access to the Mediterranean to the Red Sea without having to use a land route or going all the way around Africa. More importantly the unbroken waterways now connected the eastern and western ends of the empire. Dariuss canal is now the modern day Suez Canal. The arrogant side of Darius is inscribed on the walls of his canal, found in 1866 by laborers on the Suez Canal.

The inscriptions read This canal was dug out as I commanded, and ships went from Egypt through this canal into Persia as was my desire(Achaemenide Map). Now with the connection of the eastern and western empires Darius ruled an area of almost two million square miles including ten million people. Persia enjoyed a great economic prosperity early in Dariuss reign. Darius stimulated the economy by promoting agriculture and trade. Agriculture would increase trade would increase revenue in the satrapies and the increased revenue would mean in creased taxes.

He also provided a common system of weights and measures while at the same time issuing a gold coinage. The empire used these funds to build better irrigation systems and encourage different manufacturing enterprises. People also used ingots, which was melted down gold or silver used for trade. Ingots were weighed for trade, the heavier the ingot the more it was worth. Dariuss gold coins were known as Darics, surely named after himself. The satraps were able to make coins of silver and bronze but the King could issue gold coins. Creating a single coinage made trade easier as well as unifying Persias commercial empire.

Darius the first was able to secure his borders by having a gigantic standing army. His army was known as the Ten Thousand Immortals, composed mainly of infantrymen. Every time a soldier was killed or could no longer serve in battle a new recruit quickly replaced him. Thus the standing army never shrank. His soldiers were armed with bows, spears, and swords. In battle they had light wicker shields, they wore a cloth headdress and a colorful tunic usually over a metal scale shirt. The soldiers were well protected in battle but very mobile. A thousand soldiers served as Dariuss personal bodyguards.

Soldiers were allowed to bring concubines and servants with them into battle. This must have made the enemy believe that their army was even larger than it actually was. Archers overwhelmed enemies by a barrage of arrows. The Persians were great horsemen and did not use their cavalry for just close combat but soldiers would actually fire arrows from horseback. Persians also brought elephants and camels into battles when in need. They often attached slashing blades to the wheels of their chariots and mowed down their enemy. Early in Dariuss reign he used his great standing army to secure his empires borders.

He conquered new territories along the Indus River in the east and to the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest. By conquering the northwest Darius was able to control a narrow straight that connected the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. By having control over this narrow strip he successfully split Asia and Europe at modern day Istanbul. During Dariuss reign the Persian Empire achieved its highest peak. Persias borders were strong and their economy was sound. Like all good things Dariuss empire would not last forever. Toward the end of Dariuss reign a rebellion from Ionian Greeks broke out.

Ionian Greeks were Greek that actually lived in Asia Minor. The Ionian Greeks had grown tired of the mounting taxes, mandatory military service, and the local government. The rebellion was encouraged by some mainland Greek cities, however their home of Sparta wanted no part with Persia. Athens sent limited help to the Ionians, amassing twenty-five ships. Athens was deeply worried about Persias control over the Black Sea trade. After five years, starting in 499 B. C. the Ionian rebellion was struck down with severity. Four years later in 490 B. C. Persia launched his army to the mainland of Greece to punish them for encouraging a rebellion.

These were the first of the Persian Wars. The first war is the famous war of the Battle at Marathon. Though the Greeks were out numbered they retained the highland on the Marathon Plain giving them the advantage. The charging Greeks fought the Persians in hand-to-hand combat. Persia was a successful close range army. They were known for staying a good distance from their enemy and unleashing an onslaught of arrows upon them. The Persians suffering heavy casualties (6,400 soldiers to Greeces 192) were forced to retreat bank to Persia (Marathon, 1995).

Greeces war hero General Militades sent his best runner Pheidippides back to Sparta to tell them of the majestic news. Pheidippides ran roughly forty kilometers (almost twenty-five miles) (Marathon, Gr 2000). At his arrival he shouted, Victory! and died (Marathon, 1995). Modern day marathons are taken from this incident over two thousand four hundred years ago. Now if you see an individual of Persian decent remember that they are then celebrating their own defeat. It seems weird that almost every month theres a marathon somewhere in the world to celebrate the downfall of a society.

The Battle of Marathon was unquestionably the turning point in the Achaemind Dynasty. Darius began to build another exploration against Greece. It took longer than he planned for he had to suppress rebels on the other side of his empire. In 486 B. C. his planning came to a halt when he was killed in a revolt in Egypt. Xerxes his son took over as King of Kings but was never able to recapture what his father had built. The Persians once again were defeated this time at Platae. Persia had now lost all control over their European territories.

Persia managed to hang on to all its lands for a lingering half century to the end of the Achaemind Dynasty. With the rapid decline of the Persian Empire after the death of Darius, it is safe to say Darius was King of Kings among the Achaemind as well as the Persians. Darius I is one of the greatest political emperors to ever live. His ability to manage such a large area with little travel by himself and little technology. There were no phones, computers, television, or radio to broadcast the news, only men on horseback. His vast system of roads enabled his empire to increase trade, send messages quickly from one satrapy to another.

He built the longest road in the world and made the first postal system possible. Without the immense number of roads he had built the postal system would not have been possible. He constructed what is now the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. His ability to restructure his government into smaller provinces and to check the power of the people that ran the provinces is remarkable. The economy flourished during his thirty-six year reign. He minted his own gold coins to be put into circulation and promoted agriculture and trade.

Darius understood that strong borders, strong economy, and strong communication would make his empire a powerhouse of the world. The most impressive accomplishment by Darius was his religious tolerance. He let people in the provinces worship who or what they wanted. The people loved him for that and gave him support. When thinking of great leaders Darius I should be one of the first ho comes to your mind. Remember when someone tells you that Bill Clintons a good leader you can ask him what he has done. Without Dariuss leadership Persia would never have amassed its great wealth and power at the height of its existence.

Persia set a precedent for all other empires to do one better or fall back into another recession. This well dressed powerful man propelled himself to be one of the greatest leaders to ever live. His accomplishment of the Bisitun Inscription puts the icing on the cake of his reign. In three different languages overseeing a heavily traveled trade route Darius wanted to make sure that everyone could see and read his accomplishments. The Bisitun Inscription describes his arrival to the throne and the power that he possessed over foreign countries and domestic people.

The great battles he won, his inventions, and his family. Darius should never be forgotten. Even though he has religious tolerance of others Darius was devoted to the God Ahuramazda. One of the inscription sums himself up and his empire perfectly. A great god Ahuramazda, who created this earth, who created happiness for man, who made Darius King, one king of many, one lord of many. I am Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries containing all kinds of men, king in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage.

Welcome to Entrepreneur-Land; home of tough decisions and (calculated) risk takers. This living heritage evokes images of Vikings on trade routes from Russia through the Black Sea and Istanbul, trading furs and northern products for exotic silks, spices, and metal craft of the Middle East. Thanks to technology’s World Wide Web, networked and encryption secured computers, faxes, cell phones, and satellite/land-line transmissions, the United States sports dozens of barter systems with thousands of members; from the largest corporate giants down to the “Mom & Pop” businesses of Hometown, USA.

We’re talking $8 billion worth of cashless trades for goods and services, and that’s old (1993) news; it’s growing strong. These systems have solidified their political clout in NATE (National Association of Trade Exchanges) and IRTA (International Reciprocal Trade Association). And the success of their lobbyists in Washington, D. C. was demonstrated as early as 1984, when a special understanding was reached with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Monthly statements, and more importantly (to the government) 1099Bs (Barter) are promulgated to these member businesses, who then put together (often using tax preparation software, I. E. TaxCut or TurboTax and submit (frequently via email) their yearly Federal Tax Returns, to an accepting IRS, which then (if authorized) electronically transfers the overpayment of taxes back into the businesses checking accounts.

Reputable barter brokers actively earn their commissions every day. These professionals provide the advertising, marketing, and accounting necessary to expand their clients businesses to areas and individuals that are not normally reached through “cash only” avenues. Developing the right strategy with a sharp barter broker can be the catalyst that enables you to start, and more importantly, stay in business, no matter how volatile the global economy gets.

Boadicea was she a powerful ruler, or a merciless general? Many questions arise when you begin to explore her accomplishments or many would even say failures. Most of the information on Boadicea has been derived from myths and most of what is written about her is from the words of her Roman enemies. During the creation and rule of the Roman Empire, Rome would constantly be aiming to take over the entire known world. Consequently Boadicea and her people of Britannia clashed.

Julius Caesar was the first to take over Britain; he forced 6 powerful barbarian tribes to become a part of the Roman Empire. Iceni was amongst them, which happened to be the tribe of the famous Boadicea and her husband Prasutagus. However, Caesar and his army left that same year because they found the conditions too cold. Later in 43 AD Claudius Nero came into power. A man who was both cruel and pitiless, in his lifetime he managed to not only kill both his wives, his brother, and his mother but was known to go around the streets at night killing random men.

Nero who wanted so badly to earn the respect of his Roman citizens decided to retake Britain. Boadicea was born into aristocracy in the year 30 AD she then married the ruler of the Iceni tribe. She had two daughters during their marriage. When the Roman army invaded her city her husband Prasutagus agreed to leave all his accumulated wealth to the Roman Emperor. Prasutagus did this in the hope that his country would be taken in piece but Nero did not see it in the same light. He took the offering as surrender.

The Roman army began to take action, they treated all the Iceni people as slaves, and they raped both of her daughters. Then when her husband past away, she became regent to the thrown and she was brutally beaten by the Roman army. If this was not enough Boadicea also had to witness the suffering of her people; raised taxes, forced military service. Claudius even had a temple built for him in Iceni, Boadicea had had enough. She recruited her army and the army of other bitter barbarian tribes and begun a very bloody war.

Boadicea and her supporters all felt that the army would only last for a short matter of days but lasted from 60 to 61 AD. Her opportunity came when the Roman general Seutonius Paulinus and his army were resting in what is modern day Wales. She took the Romans by surprise; she attacked the Romans strongly fortified temple, which gave out in only two days. The war cost hundreds of lives of not only the Celtic people but the Romans as well. Boadicea was successful in pushing the Romans all the way south to London.

On her way to the final battle in London Boadicea sacked and burned each major city she passed. She managed to burn the capital at Colchester, London and Verulamium. This however was not such an easy task, but the famous warrior queen was so determined in her revenge against the Roman people. Each house was built of hardened clay and timber making them hard to burn to the ground but she didn’t stop until every house was down to the ground. Was she determined and a powerful leader for doing this? Or was she merciless and evil?

In today’s society this is referred to as ethnic cleansing and would not be tolerated. Not only did she burn every object touched by the Roman people she crucified them, she took woman caught of their breasts and placed them in their mouths, which was thought to may have been a pay back for the rape her two daughters experienced. Fortunate or not Boadicea lost her final battle with the Romans. Boadicea refused to suffer the humility of being captured so she took a poison administered by her most faithful druids.

It is a common myth that her body still lies under platform 9 of Lords King Cross Station. Even though many will say Boadicea was an inhumane person by the punishments she enforced onto the Roman people she did manage to accomplish quite a few things. One, she was one of the earliest women in history that lead a successful battle. She was also the one who shocked the Roman emperor into adopting new, better and kinder policies towards the treatment of the lands they conquered because the Roman government was scared for another revolt of the same magnitude.

Although, the Iceni tribe was not free from Rome, they did manage to encourage Seutonius successor Pretonious Turpilanius to let the Britons guide themselves. This gave Britannia more power and freedom than ever before. Every battle Boadicea fought she fought it with all her might it was Boadicea who said, “Think of how many of us are fighting and why. Then you will win this battle or die. That is what I, a woman plan to do. Let the men live as slaves, if they want. I won’t. “

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the movements to explore the new world increased rapidly. Among them was the arrival of the early Europeans on Americas. Only in a few decades this arrival has changed the land and the people of the Americas both on the physical the non-physical outcomes. On the physical outcomes, within a few decades after the arrival of European Ships on October 12, 1492, successive waves of explorers and colonists slaughtered, raped, and exploited indigenous populations who were poorly equipped to resist the bearded, white strangers invading their bays, inlets, and high plateaus.

As mentioning in The Second Voyage: The Cannibals of Columbus: Having her in my room and she being naked as is their custom, I began to want to amuse myself with her. Since I wanted to have my way with her and she was not willing, she worked me over so badly with herTo get to the end of the story, seeing how things were going, I got a rope and tied her up so tightly that she made unhearding how things were going, I got a rope and tied her up so tightly that she made unheard of cried which you wouldnt have believed.

Spears, arrow, wood, and human agility proved no match against guns, cannon, steel, and horses. Many native communities were wiped out. As a result, a large number of people were killed, European as well as Native American. As mentioned In the King Philips war, one in ten soldiers on both sides was injured or killed and it took many years for Plymouth and the other colonies to recover from damage to property. (Ms. Hamidahs lecture notes) In addition, the Spanish would soon rely on slave labor to send profitable supplies of gold, sugar, coffee, and tobacco (new human necessities) to European markets.

Hundreds of Natives who fought with Philip were sold into slavery abroad; others, especially women and children were forced to become servants locally. Columbus had this idea as soon as he came to the New Land: They ought to be good servants and of good skill, for I see that they repeat very quickly whatever was said to them. In many ways, the arrival of whites was tragic disaster for Native Americans. In the 1700s, about two thirds of the native population in Michigan died from diseases whites brought such as smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, measles, influenza, and even the common cold.

The combination of slavery, disease, captivity, and brutality exacted a heavy toll throughout the Americas. Considering land as gold, the encounter between European and the Native American has given many conflicts. From the conflict in non-physical it leads to the conflict in physical aspect. To the Native Americans, land is something that they have to respect. On the contrast, the European considered land as a tool to enrich them. As a result, tribes lost massive amounts of land to the U. S. Government, for which they were often neither paid nor compensated.

By 1820, they had lost claim to over half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Most Native Americans and some whites thought that the government’s relations with Native Americans were marked by dishonesty, corruption, and deception. By 1838, almost all native villages in Michigan had been abandoned. As the result of the invader of European on the physical aspect, the relationship between the natives and the invaders was clear: conquest, enslavement, the expropriation of all the wealth and resources of the land. However the Native Americans were also affected on the non-physical aspect.

As the traditional base of existence changed due to the Colonists victory, the local Native communities had to adapt certain aspects of their culture in order to survive. Rich source of misunderstanding between Indian and White Anglo-Saxon cultural analysis is the different attitude of most Native Americans to such concepts as Nature, the environment, and social values. Wolves held a special place in almost all Native American tribes. They were admired for their strength and powers of endurance, and taught the tribes many skills. And after killing the prey, a good hunter always left a piece of meat behind.

This was reflected through the dialogue between the two wolves and the man: Now we will tell you why we have helped you. Whenever you went hunting you always gave the best part of the meat to us and kept only the smallest part for yourself. For that we are thankful and help you. Contrasting with European folklore, wolves are usually depicted as evil. The Indians watched the Europeans come and kill the wolves. The Blackfoot and Lakota believe that a gun used to shoot a wolf will never shoot straight again. In addition, the two different cultures and concepts of land use had caused tension for many years.

To the Native Americans, Esdzanadkhi (probably Mother Earth) created humanity so they always respect her as well as their land. This causes the conflict with whiteman’s violent aggression towards the land. A continuing problem was the trampling of Native cornfields by colonists livestock. Increased competition for resources (particularly land for planting, hunting and fishing) caused friction between the two groups. One of the short stories that reflects the conflict is A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.

Because of the land conflict and the necessary to take the land back, the Native American captured Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Moreover, the history of the interaction between American Indians and the American Government has been characterized by a number of conflicting policies. On the American Government side there have been policies of separation by which the American Indians were to be removed from the lands that the expansionist whites coveted. At the same time there was recognition of the Indians’ sovereign rights to their new territories.

This policy was historically followed by one of coercive assimilation in which Indian ways were to be replaced by the culture of white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. Native Americans also grew increasingly distant from native culture under the influence of white schools, missions, and churches. Within a European view of the natives as barbarous, uncivilised, the European thought to a need of conversion to Christianity to save Native Americans souls as Columbuss thought when he departed to a new land: I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they belonged to no religion.

On the other hand, despite the unremitting efforts of many Christian missionaries and schools to replace the native religions with Roman Catholicism or one of the varieties of Protestantism, a diverse range of native religions survive or have been attached to Christian forms. Another result of European conquest and settlement is the language. Maybe, depending on their strength, the European imposed their language on the new land and made some languages of Native Americans disappear.

By the middle of the 20th cent. , perhaps two thirds of the many indigenous American languages had already died out or were dying out. Still other aboriginal languages are only now being discovered and investigated by researchers. Especially, The Indian contribution to America is greater than is often believed. The European languages those are official today in countries of the New World, such as English, Spanish, and Portuguese, have also borrowed a number of words from aboriginal languages.

English, for example, has been enriched by such words as moccasin, moose, mukluk, raccoon, skunk, terrapin, tomahawk, totem, and wampum from indigenous North American languages; by chocolate, coyote, and tomato from indigenous Mexican tongues , etc Last but not least, the way of life is also the effect of the encounter of the two cultures (The Europeans and Native Americans). The Navaho were a nomadic tribe. In winter they lived in earth-covered lodges and in summer in brush shelters called hogans. They farmed (corn and beans), hunted (deer, elk, and antelope), and gathered wild vegetable products.

After sheep were introduced (early 17th cent. ) by the Spanish, sheep raising superseded hunting and farming. Thus the Navaho became a pastoral people. In summary, there are many differences in culture and ideology between the Europeans and the Native Americans. The conflicts on both the physical and the non-physical outcomes are the result that we can not get rid of. And the result for those conflicts is that a completely new and different labor, religious, economic, and social regimes were imposed.

When dinosaur bones were first found they thought that they belonged to giant lizards. The word “dinosaur” came from the Greek words deinos, meaning marvelous or terrible, and sauros, meaning lizard. The larger dinosaurs must have seemed to be terrible to the smaller animals. Some of the first dinosaurs were only about as big as a small dog. That is how big the horses of that time were. Over the years, as the dinosaurs aged, they grew to be much more large in size. The sizes of dinosaurs ranged greatly, all the way from two feet long to one hundred and fifty feet long.

They weighed as much as fifty tons, which is seven African Bull Elephants. We first discovered the fossils and bones shortly under the surface of the Earth. After scientists got more into the study they started to dig deeper down. The fossils get so deep because of the years of rocks and dirt that were piled up on it. Some also get buried if a dinosaur were to die next to a river, and over the years the river probably changed courses a little, so therefore the bones would be covered up. They would actually be in the bank of the river. The Evolutionary theory states that everything evolved over millions of years.

Evolutionists say that dinosaurs came from six million years back. They also say that the Earth is four to six billion years old. They say that fifty million years ago there was horses no bigger than dogs, and birds as tall as man, three hundred million years ago giant dragon flies buzzed around in the large forests, six million years ago small animals, called trilobites, lived in the sea and were rulers of the world. Evolutionists think that the world started off with just plants on it, then came legged animals from the sea that took over.

They feel that a certain kind of fish evolved into the first four-footed animals. After millions of years those animals eventually turned into dinosaurs. That is how dinosaurs came to be. Then finally the dinosaurs died off and little, furry, four-legged creatures appeared. These animals were called mammals, which then took over the world. Then those mammals evolved into man. The Evolutionists believe that dinosaurs were extinct millions of years before there were even any people to walk the Earth. The Evolutionists had a hard time trying to explain why dinosaurs became extinct. They have many different theories.

One theory says that the impact of an asteroid or comet caused the destruction of the environment, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Evidence to support this theory includes the discovery of a buried impact crater (thought to be the result of a large comet striking the earth) that is 124 miles in diameter in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Using similar techniques to date the dramatic changes in the record of microscopic fossils, they have found that the impact and the dinosaur extinction occurred nearly simultaneously. They believe dust blocked sunlight from the earth’s surface for many months.

Scorched sulfur from the impact site, water vapor and chlorine from the oceans, and nitrogen from the air combined to produce a worldwide fallout of intensely acidic rain. Scientists theorize that darkness and acid rain caused plant growth to cease. As a result, both the herbivorous dinosaurs, which were dependent on plants for food, and carnivorous dinosaurs, which fed on the herbivores, became extinct. Animals such as frogs, lizards, and small insect-eating turtles and mammals, which were dependent on organisms that fed on decaying plant material, were more likely to survive.

Their survival indicates that, in most areas, the surface of the earth did not freeze. Whatever happened, Evolutionists agree that it must have been a world-wide scale disaster. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. ” – Exodus 20:11, John 1:3. Those are the words from the Bible. What that says there is that God created everything on Earth and that includes Earth itself, therefore dinosaurs had to have been created by God, which proves evolution wrong.

Dinosaurs are even mentioned in the Bible, of course not by the term “dinosaur”. It uses the ancient name “behemoth”. One of the Bible’s description of a dinosaur is in Job 41:15-24. Job is a very old book, probably written around 2000 B. C. Here God describes one of the larger dinosaurs. It is said to be describing a Brachiosaurus. It is a giant plant eating animal with strong bones. There are tracks in Texas that are embedded in hard rock that show that dinosaurs and man walked at the same time.

There is one human track and one dinosaur track seventeen inches apart. It is evidence that shows the thought that dinosaur and man never saw each other may be wrong. From the facts here I believe that the Christian theory is correct. The Evolutionists couldn’t agree on a reason for the disappearance of the dinosaurs, and I think that the flood wiped all but the one that were on the Ark. After the flood the dinosaurs could not handle the conditions, so they all died off. The theory of the canopy collapsing, I believe is why dinosaurs are gone.

The atmosphere after the flood was too harsh and hot. Also there was a big air pressure release after the flood. In evolution’s theory, the beginning of time was started by an accidental “Big Bang”. The planets were pulled into place. That opposes the Christian theory. Christians feel that God place all of the planets in a specific place. Creation was a matter of time. It took six days for the universe to be created. According to Evolution it just happened instantly. You can read anything in Genesis 1 and it will contradict the Evolutionary theory.

On August 2, 1945, Harry S. Truman made the toughest decision of his life. He knew that if he made the right decision, he would save hundreds of thousands of American lives. In making this decision, he would also be responsible for the deaths of hundreds and thousands of Japanese lives. If he made the wrong decision, the war would drudge on as the death count rose higher and higher as each new battle was fought. Japan would not surrender unconditionally, as the United States wanted. With Germany already beaten, the United States was not about to back down.

No one knows whether or not he made the right choice, but he did, in fact, bring an end to World War II. World War II’s basic statistics qualify it as by far the greatest war in history in terms of human and material resources expended. In all, 61 countries with 1. 7 billion people, three-fourths of the world’s population took part. A total of 110 million persons were mobilized for military service, more than half of those by three countries: USSR (22-30 million), Germany (17 million), and the United States (16 million).

For the major participants the largest numbers on duty at any time were as follows: USSR (12,500,000); U. S. (12, 245,000); Germany (10,938,000); British Empire and Commonwealth (8,720,000); Japan (7,193,000); and China (5,000,000). Harry S. Truman was born May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri. He was named Harry after his uncle, Harrison Young. His parents, John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Young Truman, wanted to honor both of Harry’s Grandfathers when they were deciding on a middle name for him. The only problem was deciding which one, Anderson Shippe Truman or Solomon Young.

His parents finally decided to name him Harry S. and let the S stand for both of Harry’s grandfathers’ names. Before Harry S. Truman became the thirty-third President of the United States, he had many jobs which included: railroad work, business man, sales rep. , Captain in the United States Army, a United States Senator, and Vice President. Harry S. Truman became President of The United States on April 12, 1945 after Franklin Delano Roosevelt had passed away from a heart attack. He never knew what he was really getting himself into. Harry S.

Truman had only been the President of The United States for thirteen days when Henry L. Stimson, The Secretary of War, delivered a complete report on the United States of America’s new secret weapon that would supposedly end World War II. Before Harry S. Truman received this report, he had no idea that such a weapon existed or that the American scientists had been trying to develop the atomic bomb over the last four years. On July 21, 1945 while at Potsdam, Truman received the results from General Leslie Groves testing of the atomic bomb at Alamogordo.

The results were as follows: A force of 15-20,000 tons of TNT, a fireball lasting several seconds, a mushroom cloud rising skyward approximately 41,000 feet above sea level. There were many secondary explosions within the mushroom cloud causing a 1,200-foot crater in the ground. The 100 feet tower, which the bomb had been detonated in and a seventy-foot steel tower a half-mile away was disintegrated. It became obvious that Truman had two choices: invade mainland Japan or drop the atomic bomb.

If Truman chose to invade Japan, he calculated he would need a ground force of 766,700 soldiers with roughly 31,000 American casualties within the first 30 days (Hamby 19). In addition to the estimated casualties of the invading ground force the estimated 100,000 prisoners of war would be slaughtered (Ferrell 24). The order was issued by Japan’s vice minister of war as follows: “Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, or however it is done, with mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, decapitation or what, dispose of them as the situation dictates.

In any case it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces. ” Another factor in the equation of the bomb vs. an invasion was the weather. At close to the time of the planned invasion a typhoon struck mainland Japan almost leveling everything in its path (Ferrell 24). Japan had anticipated a U. S. attack so they readied themselves by assembling 215 Kairya available with another 207 being built; 115 Koryu–five man suicide submarines complete with another 500 more being built, Kaiten–human torpedoes carrying bombs which were capable of sinking the largest U.S. ships.

Also in their arsenal was the Fukuryu which was capable of staying under water for up to 10 hours with huge mines attached which could destroy a 950-ton ship. Other precautions they took were to send 4,000 Navy Shinyo to Kyushu with anti-landing obstacles, coastal batteries to set up pillboxes, bunkers, strong points underground fortresses and barbed wire entanglements to force the invaders into the enemy line of fire (Reese 41). Truman made his final decision on August 2, 1945 to drop the bomb on Japan August 6, 1945.

Colonel Paul Tibbets flew the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima from an altitude of 31,600 feet. The explosion occurred at 2,000 feet, killing approximately 80,000 Japanese instantly. No single device in the history of warfare had killed so many people so indiscriminately (Hamby 24). On August 9, 1945 at 11 am the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing approximately 40,000 Japanese instantly. Everyone knows that millions of lives were lost in this war. Even though we had solders fighting the war civilians lost their lives too. Some of the death tolls are more substantial then others.

The U. S. lost only 407,318 military personal, while Japan lost about 1,700,000 military personal and 380,00 civilian. Almost one half of the Japanese civilian casualties came from the dropping of the two atomic bombs. Truman later said to the media on August 15, 1945: “I did not hesitate to order the use of the atomic bomb on military targets, I wanted to save half a million boys on our side and as many on the other. I never lost any sleep over my decision. I was there. I did it. I would do it again. ” Truman later found out that Japan had perfected their atomic bomb one day after the U. S. bombed Nagasaki.

This discovery further confirmed in his mind that his decision was the correct one. There have been many people who have criticized Truman over the years for his decision. So many human lives were destroyed by his decision, but when you look at the facts and weigh the possibility of what would have happened if Japan had dropped their bomb first, then this was the only possible decision to make in order for the U. S. to come out victorious. With all that I have researched I have found that Trumans’ decision to drop the Atomic bomb on Japan was the right decision because it saved American lives.

In January 1889, Wavoka, a Paiute Indian, had a revelation during a total eclipse of the sun. It was the genesis of a religious movement that would become known as the Ghost Dance. It was this dance that the Indians believed would reunite them with friends and relatives in the ghost world. The legend states that after prayer and ceremony, the earth would shatter and let forth a great flood that would drown all the whites and enemy Indians, leaving the earth untouched and as it was before the settlers came to America.

The religion prophesied the peaceful end of the westward expansion of whites and a return of the land to the Native Americans. The first dance was held by Wovoka in 1889. The ritual lasted five successive days, being danced each night and on the last night continuing until morning. Hypnotic trances and shaking accompanied this ceremony, which was supposed to be repeated every six weeks. The ceremony also had rhythmic drumming and introduced many new musical instruments into Indian religious ceremonies.

In addition, both men and women participated in the dance, unlike other Indian religions in which men were the primary dancers, singers, and musicians. Word spread quickly and the Utes, Bannocks, and Shoshone tribes accepted the Ghost Dance. Eventually, the plains tribes also accepted the Ghost Dance movement. The peaceful message of hope was uplifting to many Indians. It gave them a sense of hope that the progress of the white man would be stopped by the will of Nature. While adopting the movement, many tribes added specific customs and rituals that reflected the tribes individuality.

The Sioux, for instance, added two specific elements including the use of hypnosis to bring about trances as well as aid in communication with the dead, and Ghost Clothing. There are two specific types most commonly used, the ghost shirt and the ghost dress. Both were believed to protect the wearer from bullets. Sitting Bull, a famous Sioux warrior, adopted the ghost dance into his way of life. He was a respected leader, medicine man, and warrior. His following of the movement alarmed both the military and Indian Agencies. In 1890, just a few months after attending his first ghost dance, Sitting Bull was killed while resisting arrest.

His followers fled and joined Kicking Bull, one of the first to Practice with Wovoka. Donning their ghost shirts and with their beliefs firm in their hearts, the followers of the ghost dance were rounded up at Wounded Knee creek and killed while resisting arrest. Hundreds of Sioux were killed, including women and children, all wearing their ghost shirts, that unfortunately, did not make them immune to the bullets of the military and Indian Agencies. The ghost dance continued to be practiced in more southern tribes, but at the end of the movement came with the deaths at Wounded Knee.

The hopes of the Indians also ended at that massacre. Many of Wovokas ideas and concepts were adopted by Peyote cults and can be found in practice today. Indian tribes did not survive the push of the white man. Broken up and with broken dreams, the tribes were shuffled onto reservations and lost many of their customs and rituals. The Ghost Dance was one of those customs lost, but never forgotten. Resurrected from the past, the Ghost Dance and other tribal beliefs are brought together in the education of our nation.

Akhenaten is know as one of the greatest mystical revolutionaries of all time, but was his new religion a product of his creative genius, or merely a reaction to threats within his own empire. As Pharaoh, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, changed the traditional polytheistic religion to a monotheistic one centered on the Aten (the sun disk). He moved the Egyptian capitol from Thebes to a site now know as el-Amarna. After Akhenatens death, his successors re established the old order of things and set about systematically destroying any trace of him and his reforms.

In this essay, through the analysis of evidence, I will come to a conclusion as to what really inspired Akhenaten, need or enlightenment. Very little is known about Akhenatens early years. As had an older brother, Thutmose, it is not likely that he was expected to rule. Amenhotep, as he was then called, was probably trained as a priest of Re at Heliopolis, as where all young princes. The manner Akhenatens accession to the throne is still a much debated event in his life. Scholars are still unsure as to weather he came to power directly after his fathers death or if he ruled with his father in a co regency.

Scholars are still debating the length of the co regency, some say a short period of around 2 years while others argue it was probably around 12 years. At the start of his reign, Akhenaten did not do anything unorthodox. He completed his fathers building projects, and had himself depicted worshiping the traditional gods of Egypt, although special attention was paid to the falcon-headed Re-Horakhty, who wears the Aten sun-disk on his head. By year 3 of his reign, Akhenaten was beginning do make changes.

He celebrated his first Sed festival, which was a celebration that showed that the Aten was in partnership with Akhenaten. At the same time, Akhenaten ordered the building of four new temples at East Karnak which where to be dedicated to the Aten. This would have been quite a surprise to many people of the time because East Karnak was the traditional precinct of the god Amun. The cult of Amun was the strongest of all the cults and its power had grown almost so as to rival the pharaoh himself. Many modern day historians believe that this was the firs blow in a plan to take all power away from the cult.

Others argue he was only showing his devotion to the Aten, with no ill intent. Nefertiti lived a good life as Akhenatens queen in Thebes. She held a prominent place in society, higher than any other queen before. At the temples in East Karnak she is depicted in a traditional head smiting pose, like the king, and is shown worshiping the Aten with her daughter, Meritaten. A topic which has been greatly discussed by historians is the unusual appearance of Akhenaten in the paintings he had made of himself.

Many believe it was a product of his creative nature; he wanted to look different to uphold the theory of his religion which says that he is the son of the Aten. The most likely theory is that Akhenaten suffered from Frhlich syndrome, which caused physical abnormalities such as a woman shaped body, incredibly long neck and facial distortions. Akhenaten might have preferred to be depicted in his actual image than shame himself by having the painting made to look perfect. There are many theories but as of yet, historians are still unsure, some even claim Akhenaten was a woman posing as a man.

In year 5 of his reign, Akhenaten made drastic changes to the Egyptian empire. It was at this time that he changed his name from Amenhotep to Akhenaten. Shortly after this he began the establishment of a new city, which was to be built in a barren plane which is now called El-Amana. The city was to be named Akhetaten He ordered the construction of 14 border stelae on the hills surrounding the site. The main reason for Akhenatens selection of this sit was the fact that it had never been dedicated to any god.

This action took even more power away from the priests as it moved the court and capital away from Karnak The city was built quickly, partly due to Akhenatens new building techniques, which included the use of talitat blocks (smaller building blocks that could be carried by one man), and through the use of sunken relief, which was quicker and more effective and stood out stronger in the Atens rays. Another contributing factor was the sheer scale of the building project. Thousands and thousands of workers built the palaces, temples, promenades and dwellings of the new city.

Once the city was complete, the court and royal family moved in. Nefertiti Enjoyed a great lifestyle. She was seen as almost an equal with the king. She appeared with the king in the window of appearances to reward their good subjects and was much loved. Nefertiti was a central part of Akhenatens atenist religion. In relives Nefertiti is often depicted wearing crown traditionally only worn by the king and smiting enemies in battle. At the peak of her power she shared a co-regency with Akhenaten.

The ordinary people of Akhetaten lived in quickly constructed plastered, mud brick houses. The city was essentially a living parade ground for Akhenaten, Nefertiti and his new religion, atenism. The central belief of atenism was that Akhenaten was the son of the Aten, who he claimed was the only and true god, who believed in Maat. Akhenatens religion was merely a monotheistic version of the traditional religion, with several gods being given names and new forms, but unlike before it made the King divine and so forth the highest individual in Egyptian religion on earth.

In effect he took all power from the Amun cult, and all other cults, which received no further funding. The changes in the methods of worship created incredible focus on the king and the royal family, because the only way to worship the Aten was through worshiping his son on earth, Akhenaten and through him was the only way ones prayers could reach the dead traveling into the afterlife. Many people didnt like the changes because they preferred the personal relationships they had enjoyed with the gods of their old faith.

It is known that in some houses of Akhetaten, shrines to the old gods could be found. It is at this time clear that Akhenaten has completely turned his back on the old order. The changes in temple architecture where in key with Akhenatens revolutionary approach; traditional roofed temples where the statue of the god was kept in the darkest place where replaced with light open temples with no roofs. No cult statues occupied these new temples of sunlight, as traditional representations of gods where avoided. The alters where open to the air and the sun shone brightly on them.

Akhenaten also reintroduced the benben, a ritual stone that dates back to the first old kingdom worship of the sun. A priest of Aten had little to do, as now all worship was directed to the pharaoh. The priest came to hold a position similar to a modern day alter boy, greatly reducing their status. By this time the Amun priesthood was all but destroyed, leaving no rivals to Akhenatens power. Akhenaten created an original artistic style, which later became known as Amarna art, named after the amarna period.

Apart from his controversial depiction of himself, he created a new style of art. It was a beautiful natural looking style, almost classical. This was a very different approach to former artworks, in which people and objects were depicted in unnatural poses, and almost always in perfect health. Prior to the amarna period, the personal life of the royal family was not for the publics attention, but Akhenaten beloved every part of their life was sacred as he was the son of the Aten. Paintings began to portray the royal family in intimate moments, formerly never carved.

The changes to a more realistic style of art are probably as a result of his belief in maat, which is both a word with the meaning truth and also a concept of truth. It came from the old god of truth, Ma at. Akhenaten continued his fathers foreign policy, and was a peaceful king apart from some small campaign early in his reign, although, while his father had been a genius at such diplomacy Akhenaten was to preoccupied to worry about foreign affairs, and relations with other countries grew distant although trade continued to flourish. Akhenaten needed a great deal of funds for his colossal building projects.

In the later years of his reign, Akhenaten became an oppressor of anyone who showed any belief in the old gods. He became obsessive about destroying all trace of the cult of Amun and had its name carved out of every monument in Egypt. Some say this obsession came from his original motive to take power away from the cult of Amun. Others believe he was filled with such religious zeal that he did it for his faith. At the end of his reign, the capital was moves swiftly back to Thebes and all trace of Akhenaten and his religion was destroyed.

For this reason, the armana period is a highly researched period in Egyptian history. Before deciding weather Akhenaten was a revolutionary or a reactionary character, one last point must be mentioned. Akhenaten was not the first pharaoh to show interest in the Aten. Akhenatens forefathers also showed interest in the Aten, devoting several sights to different versions of the sun disk. Was Akhenaten a reactionary, creating the new religion to consolidate his power, raise his status and make him more famous than any pharaoh before.

Or was he a Revolutionary, bravely developing and impementing his beliefs, which would have been influenced buy his fathers obvious soft spot for the Aten. It is true that Akhenaten probably used the new religion as a way to draw more power and prestige to himself, but the new ideology, art forms, architecture, way of life and capitol where all truly the result if a great revolutionary vision. If he began his quest only with the intention to increase his power, then by the time he was at its end, he truly believed in it. What might of began as a reaction no doubt became a great revolution.

The Boer War was a conflict that lasted from 1899 to 1902 in southern Africa between Great Britain and their allies, Transvaal (South African Republic) and Orange Free State, in what is now South Africa. Throughout the 19th century, after Great Britain conquered the Cape of Good Hope in 1814 and expanded its territory in Southern Africa, there was tension between the British settlers and the Dutch-descended population which were called Afrikaners or Boers.

This resulted in the Afrikaner migration called the Great Trek, which was from 1835 to 1843, and the establishment of the Afrikaner republics. These republics were called Natal, Orange Free State, and the South African Republic. Natal became a British colony in 1843, but the Transvaal territories were granted independence from Great Britain in 1852. In 1854, Orange Free State also got their independence. In the late 1850s, the Transvaal territories formed the South African Republic.

In 1884, gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand, which lured thousands of British miners and prospectors to settle in the area. The Afrikaners, who were mainly farmers, didnt like the newcomers (Uitlanders), so they taxed them and denied them voting rights. The dislike of one another grew, which lead to a revolt by the Uitlanders in Johannesburg against the Afrikaner government. This revolt was instigated by the British colonial statesman and financier Cecil Rhodes, the premier of the Cape Colony, who wanted to bring all of Southern Africa into the British Empire.

In December of 1895, Leander Starr Jameson, who was a friend of Rhodes, led a group of 600 armed British men in an attempt to support the Uitlanders in the South African Republic. This was called the Jameson Raid. It resulted in Jamesons capture and imprisonment, and in Rhodess resignation. Jameson later became the premier of the Cape Colony from 1904 to 1908. Direct negotiations to solve the South African problem were unsuccessful, and hostility between the Afrikaners and the Uitlanders continued. The president of the South African Republic, Paul Kruger, would not back down from the Uitlanders.

In 1899 the British governor of Cape Colony, Alfred Milner, who strongly disliked the Afrikaners treatment of British subjects, issued orders to build up the 12,000 man British army in Southern Africa. The British army eventually grew to 500,000 men. On October 9, 1899, Kruger demanded the removal of all British troops from the Transvaal frontiers within 48 hours. Their alternative was war. The South African Republic and the Orange Free Stated made an alliance. They then declared war on the British on October 12, 1899 because they were uncooperative with Kurgers demands.

The Afrikaner forces were successful in invading Natal and Cape Colony. In December the British commander in chief Sir Redvers H. Buller sent fresh troops to relieve the British forces in three war zones. These zones were Colenso, Natal, the hills of Magersfontein on the Orange Free State and Cape Colony borders, and the mountain range of Stormberge in the Cape Colony. Within a week, which is referred to as the Black Week by the British, each of the new units had been defeated by Afrikaner forces.

On January 10, 1900, the British general Frederick S. Roberts was sent to replace Buller as commander in chief. However, Buller remained to fight throughout the war. Early in February, Roberts ordered the British commander John D. P. French north to relieve the city of Kimberley. Roberts marched northeastward from Cape Colony into the Orange Free State. Attacked by the Afrikaner general Piet Cronje on February 27, Roberts fought back successfully and forced the surrender of Cronje and his troops. On March 13, Roberts entered Bloemfontein, which was the capital of the Orange Free State.

Roberts captured Johannesburg on May 31 and Pretoria on June 5. After they won, President Kruger went to Europe and Roberts returned to England in January 1901 because he thought the war was over. British satisfaction was short lived. Boer leaders attacked the British troops using guerrilla warfare. The fighting continued for the next year and was finally ended through the severe tactics of the new British commander in chief, Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener. He stopped the enemy by destroying the Afrikaner farms that sheltered the guerrillas.

They placed black African and Afrikaner women and children in concentration camps and built a chain of iron blockhouses for his troops. Negotiations for peace began on March 23, 1902, and on May 31 Afrikaner leaders signed the Treaty of Vereeniging. The treaty ended the problems and led to the self-government of Transvaal and the Orange Free State as colonies of the British Empire. Britain agreed to pay an indemnity of 3 million dollars for rehabilitation to the Afrikaner soldiers who promised their loyalty to the British monarch.

The Treaty of Vereeniging brought peace and political unification to South Africa but did not erase the causes that had triggered the conflict. Even after the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the Afrikaners kept themselves culturally and socially separate. This event involves imperialism, nationalism, militarism, economics, mercantilism, and geography. Imperialism is shown when the British and the Afrikaners were trying to conquer each other. Nationalism played a part in the Boer War because the people of both sides were willing to fight and stand up for their land.

Militarism and mercantilism were involved because both Britain and the Afrikaners had to trade with other countries in order to build up their military and gain technology. Geography played a role in the war because Britain was fighting for land in order to expand their territories, while the Afrikaners were fighting to keep their land. Economics were involved because as a result of the Boer War Britain had to pay the Afrikaner soldiers a 3 million dollar indemnity, which was worth a lot more at that time then it is now.

Peaceful yet popular and very well respected, Edward VII plays an influential part in bringing Great Britain, France, and Russia together in 1907 into the Triple Entente. One of the most wittiest and inventive satirist’s writers in England is a journalist most noted for his fiction pieces, known as Hector Hugh Munro. Saki is his pen name ( Comptons Online Encyclopedia). His typical stories are marked by amoral reversal revenge on the pretentious cruel practical jokes, and uncary supernatural incidents (Encyclopedia of Knowledge).

Evidence from research has proven to show that Edward VII’s political practices and beliefs have almost no influence on Saki’s writings. Edward VII is born in London in 1841, at Buckingham Palace. He is the first of three sons born to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Edward belongs to the royal family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and is the first member of the royal family to tour the USA ( Ross, 15). When his father died in 1861, Queen Victoria, Edward’s mother, blamed him for the death. Edward then has his seat in the House of Lords as the Duke of Cornwall (www. artacus. com).

In 1863, Edward married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The Prince and Princess have six children (Encyclopedia Americana). In 1901, Edward is the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland and empire of India (Encyclopedia Americana, 544). Edward takes place in many public duties, has a close interest in politics, and has an intrest in the military. He opposed attemps to reduce public spending on the armed forces (Langguth,129). In 1904, Edward contributed to the Entente Cordiale, and the Anglo Russian Agreement of 1907 (www. db. web. aol. com).

While at throne, Edward helps support the Territorial and Reserve Forces Acts, helped find Royal College of Music,witnessed the conservative party split,opposed woman’s suffrage, and Edward is a patron of Arts and Sciences. Edward is also a familiar figure in the worlds of racing, yachting, and grouse shooting ( Somerset,29). After a short reign of only nine years, Edward VII, the King, collapsed on the afternoon of May 6, 1910, after a series of heart attacks. He left the throne to his son, King George V ( www. spartcus. com).

The very first decade of the 20th century is the decade in which Edward VII reigned. This era is known as the Edwardian Era (World Book Encyclopedia, 59). It is King Edward’s era, being named after him. ” The Edwardian Era was the beginning of the 20th century, and led to all sorts of predictions by all sorts of people about how that century would signal the start of a truly golden age,” said Richard Washington. This era is known as the sanest era in the history of our world (www. geocites. com). Edward VII along with other Edwardians helped to make it that way.

Saki is a novelist and short story writer born in Akyab, Mynamar on December 18,1870 ( www. spartcus. com). Munro is the youngest of an Inspector – General’s three children. At age two, he is sent to England and is brought up by his two strict aunts, Aunt Tom and Aunt Augusta. Hw later takes literary revenge on them by using them as characters in the “Lumber” and the “Sex That Never Shops” (Langguth, 219). In June of 1893, Saki returns to Burma, joins the police force, and begins to study Burgmese animals. He writes about one of the tigers in his short story, ” Mrs.

Packletide’s Tiger. ” Saki says, ” It was Mrs. Packletides pleasure and intention that she should shoot a tiger. ” Three years later, Munro returns to London and writes political satires for the West Minister Gazette and publishes ” The Rise of the Empire”, in 1900 (Encyclopedia of Knowledge, 224 ). A collection called Not So Stories is published soon after in 1902. For a few years he works as a foreign correspondent for the Morning Post, in the Balkans, in Russia, and France, before settling in London in 1908 to write full time (www. l. com).

In 1910, “Reginald” in Russia is published, followed by ” The Chronicles of Clovis” in 1912 ( www. bnl. com). By the spring of 1914, Saki is writing a column called ” Potted Parliament for Outlook” and ” Beasts and Superbeasts” is published the same year ( langguth,187). Hector Hugh Munro is also responsible for two novels. These novels show his gifts as a satirist of his upper-class Edwardian Era ( Comptons Online Encyclopedia). These two novels were , The Unbearable Bassington , and When William Came.

The Unbearable Bassington features a likeable but maljusted hero ( AOL: Biography Find). Saki shows his sense of humor, high spirits, wit and urbanity in the two stories ( www. bnl. com). In June of 1916, Saki goes back to London to spend time with his sister and brother. Three months later, he becomes a lance – sergeant ( langguth, 22). November of the same year, Saki enters World War I. Hector Hugh Munro, Saki, is killed by a sniper in the early hours of a winter day, on November 13, 1916 ( Langguth, 98).

Saki is remembered for his fiction pieces distinguishing by dialogue and narrative ( Encyclopedia Americana, 26). He delightes readers with his political sketches, intensive writings. He is often compared with ” O-Henry” ( www. spartcus. com). Edward VII and Saki’s lives overlap. Munro’s writings are not influenced by Edward’s practices or beliefs, except for the content of The Unbearable Bassington and When William Came. These novels deal with the Edwardian Period which is named after Edward himself.

Both of Munro’s Novels are published after Edward VII’s death. Saki is not living under King Edward VII’s rule for all nine years of his reign. Saki’s only there to witness the last two years of the Kings Reign. (1908-1910) Edward VII and Saki both live through many of the same events,witness and feel similiar feelings, and share the concept of trouble childhoods, but Edward’s political influences do not effect the works of Saki. Hector Hugh Munro and Edward VII both live seperate lives and have different beliefs.

1412, it is in the last half-century of the Hundred Years’ War in which the French attempted to attain freedom from English rule by fighting to eradicate English strongholds. An unusually strong, healthy, and possibly clairvoyant girl is born to Isabelle Romee and Jacques d’Arc in the small village of Domremy, France. Her mother is from the town of Vouthon, which is west of Domremy. Her surname concurs that either she or a family member has visited Rome. Her father was born in a village called Ceffonds in the province of Champagne.

His last name indicates a onnection with Arc-en-Barrois, a small town fifty kilometers north of Ceffonds. She had a somewhat wealthy family as you can tell from their home with a stone construction. You can still visit her home today. It has since been used as a wine cellar, a wine press, and a stable. She was one of five children: Jacques, Catherine, Jean, Joan, and Pierre. Their wealth came from their farming of wheat, flax, beet hemp, and colza. They also bred livestock, spun wool and tow, and kneaded their own bread.

She was baptized by Jean Minet in the Church of St. Remy. She is admired by patriots, women’s rights activists, paranormal investigators, and playwrights. The woman I am talking about is commonly known as Joan of Arc. When Joan was 13 she began to see visions and hear voices who she later determined to be Saints Catherine, Margaret, and Michael. They convinced her that she was chosen by God to help the dauphin, Charles VII free France and take his seat in the throne. At age 17 in 1429 she gained access to the King through the military commander in Vaucoulaurs.

Charles was desperate because the English had captured almost half of France including Paris. When Joan told him of her visions of the Saints he was doubtful so he set up two tests for her. In the first he disguised himself as a courtier, but she pointed him out immediately. For the second test he asked her what he prayed to God for the night before she arrived; she told him exactly. Some of the clergy believed her to be Satanic, but Joan was approved. Charles fitted her with armor and gave her command of the military. Soon after she set out to free Orleans from a brutal siege.

The other French commanders hesitantly ollowed orders, but soon they obeyed her whole-heartedly. Under Joan’s command the siege was broken after only ten days and the English fled. She was given the everlasting title “The Maid of Orleans”. Joan convinced Charles to undergo a formal coronation in the Cathedral at Reims. While escorting Charles, Joan and her army won several battles with the British along the way. She was at his side when Charles took the throne on July, 17 1429. During a minor battle in September, 1429 where Joan tried to free Paris, she was injured.

Eight months later she was captured by a troop f Burgundians who wished to sell her for ransom. Instead she was sold to the English for a lot of money. The English believed her rumored visions Satanic so they tried her on accusations of witchcraft and heresy. Despite constant badgering she never swayed from her belief that her visions her from God. A French clergy sympathetic to the English convicted and sentenced Joan to death. On May, 30 1431 in the town square at Rouen she was burned at the stake. Due to her bravery in death people thought they had witnessed martyrdom of a Saint.

Much to her family’s regret she was not allowed a Christian burial as her ashes were thrown into the Seine River. In 1455 Joan’s family requested a retrial for her and a hearing was granted by Pope Callistus III. One year later she was found innocent. Joan was beatified by Pope Pius X in 1909, and in 1920 she was canonized as a Saint. You can celebrate her feast day on May 30. “Joan of Arc, the maid of Orleans, was neither a witch nor a saint, but by curious circumstances her life and death fulfilled the requirements of both. “

In the springtime of 51 BC, Ptolemy Auletes died and left his kingdom in his will to his eighteen year old daughter, Cleopatra, and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII who was twelve at the time. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC in Alexandria, Egypt. She had two older sisters, Cleopatra VI and Berenice IV as well as a younger sister, Arsinoe IV. There were two younger brothers as well, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. It is thought that Cleopatra VI may have died as a child and Auletes had Berenice beheaded. At Ptolemy Auletes’ death, Pompey, a Roman leader, was left in charge of the children.

During the two centuries that receded Ptolemy Auletes death, the Ptolemies were allied with the Romans. The Ptolemies’ strength was failing and the Roman Empire was rising. City after city was falling to the Roman power and the Ptolemies could do nothing but create a pact with them. During the later rule of the Ptolemies, the Romans gained more and more control over Egypt. Tributes had to be paid to the Romans to keep them away from Egypt. When Ptolemy Auletes died, the fall of the Dynasty appeared to be even closer.

According to Egyptian law, Cleopatra was forced to have a consort, who was either a brother or a son, no matter what age, throughout her reign. She was married to her younger brother Ptolemy XIII when he was twelve, however she soon dropped his name from any official documents regardless of the Ptolemaic insistence that the male presence be first among co-rulers. She also had her own portrait and name on coins of that time, ignoring her brother’s. When Cleopatra became co-regent, her world was crumbling down around her. Cyprus, Coele-Syria and Cyrenaica were gone. There was anarchy abroad and famine at home.

Cleopatra was a strong-willed Macedonian queen who was brilliant and dreamed of a greater world empire. She almost achieved it. Whether her way of getting it done was for her own desires or for the pursuit of power will never be known for certain. However, like many Hellenistic queens, she was passionate but not promiscuous. As far as we know, she had no other lovers other than Caesar and Antony. Many believe that she did what she felt was necessary to try to save Alexandria, whatever the price. By 48 BC, Cleopatra had alarmed the more powerful court officials of Alexandria by some of her actions.

For instance, her mercenaries killed the Roman governor of Syria’s sons when they came to ask for her assistance for their father against the Parthians. A group of men led by Theodotus, the eunuch Pothinus and a half-Greek general, Achillas, overthrew her in favor of her younger brother. They believed him to be much easier to influence and they became his council of regency. Cleopatra is thought to have fled to Thebaid. Between 51 and 49 BC, Egypt was suffering from bad harvests and famine because of a drought which stopped the much needed Nile flooding.

Ptolemy XIII signed a decree on October 27, 50 BC which banned any shipments of grain to anywhere but Alexandria. It is thought that this was to deprive Cleopatra and her supporters who were not in Alexandria. Regardless, she started an army from the Arab tribes which were east of Pelusium. During this time, she and her sister Arsinoe moved to Syria. They returned by way of Ascalon which may have been Cleopatra’s temporary base. In the meantime, Pompey had been defeated at Pharsalus in August of 48 BC. He headed for Alexandria hoping to find refuge with Ptolemy XIII, of whom Pompey was a senate-appointed guardian.

Pompey did not realize how much his reputation had been destroyed by Pharsalus until it was too late. He was murdered as he stepped ashore on September 28, 48 BC. The young Ptolemy XIII stood on the dock nd watched the whole scene. Four days later, Caesar arrived in Alexandria. He brought with him thirty-two hundred legionaries and eight hundred cavalry. He also brought twelve other soldiers who bore the insignia of the Roman government who carried a bundle of rods with an ax with a blade that projected out. This was considered a badge of authority that gave a clear hint of his intentions. There were riots that followed in Alexandria.

Ptolemy XIII was gone to Pelusium and Caesar placed himself in the royal palace and started giving out orders. The eunuch, Pothinus, brought Ptolemy back to Alexandria. Cleopatra had no ntentions of being left out of any deals that were going to be made. She had herself smuggled in through enemy lines rolled in a carpet. She was delivered to Caesar. Both Cleopatra and Ptolemy were invited to appear before Caesar the next morning. By this time, she and Caesar were already lovers and Ptolemy realized this right away. He stormed out screaming that he had been betrayed, trying to arouse the Alexandrian mob.

He was soon captured by Caesar’s guards and brought back to the palace. It is thought that Caesar had planned to make Cleopatra the sole ruler of Alexandria. He thought she would be a puppet for Rome. The Alexandrian War was started when Pothinus called for Ptolemy XIII’s soldiers in November and surrounded Caesar in Alexandria with twenty thousand men. During the war, parts of the Alexandrian Library and some of the warehouses were burned. However, Caesar did manage to capture the Pharos lighthouse, which kept his control of the harbor. Cleopatra’s sister, Arsinoe, escaped from the palace and ran to Achillas.

She was proclaimed the queen by the Macedonian mob and the army. Cleopatra never forgave her sister for this. During the fighting, Caesar executed Pothinus and Achillas was murdered by Ganymede. Ptolemy XIII rowned in the Nile while he was trying to flee. During July of the year 46 BC, Caesar returned to Rome. He was given many honors and a ten-year dictatorship. These celebrations lasted from September to October and he brought Cleopatra over, along with her entourage. The conservative Republicans were very offended when he established Cleopatra in his home. Her social manners did not make the situation any better.

She upset many. Cleopatra had started calling herself the New Isis and was the subject of much gossip. She lived in luxury and had a statue made of gold placed by Caesar, in the temple of Venus Genetrix . Caesar also openly claimed Caesarion as his son. Many were upset that he was planning to marry Cleopatra regardless of the laws against bigamy and marriages to foreigners. However, on the Ides of March of 44 BC, all of that came to an end. Caesar was assassinated outside the Senate Building in Rome. He was killed in a conspiracy by his Senators. Many of the Senators thought he was a threat to the republic’s well-being.

It was thought that Caesar was making plans to have himself declared king. After Caesar’s murder, Cleopatra fled Rome and returned home to Alexandria. Caesar had not mentioned Cleopatra or Caesarion in his will. She felt her life, as well as that of her child, was in great danger. Upon returning to Alexandria, she had her consort, Ptolemy XIV, assassinated and established Caesarion as her co-regent at the age of four. She found Egypt suffering from plagues and famine. The Nile canals had been neglected during her absence which caused the harvests to be bad and the inundations low.

The bad harvests continued from 43 until 41 BC. Trying to help secure recognition for Caesarion with Caesar’s former lieutenant Dolabella, Cleopatra sent Dolabella the four legions that Caesar had left in Egypt. Cassius captured the legions hich caused Dolabella to commit suicide at Laodicea during the summer of 43 BC. She was planning to join Mark Antony and Octavian (who became Augustus) with a large fleet of ships after Dolabella’s death, but was stopped by a violent storm. Cleopatra watched in the time that followed, who would be the next power in Rome.

After Brutus and Cassius had been killed and Antony, Octavian and Lepidus were triumphant, Cleopatra knew which one she would have to deal with. Octavian went back to Italy very ill, so Antony was the one to watch. Her son gained his right to become king when Caesar was officially divinized in Rome on January 1, 2 BC. The main object was the promotion of Octavian, but the triumvirs knew of Cleopatra’s aid to Dolabella. Cleopatra and Antony spent the winter of 41 to 40 in Alexandria. According to some sources, Cleopatra could get out of him whatever she wanted, including the assassination of her sister, Arsinoe.

Cleopatra may not have had so much influence over him later on. He took control of Cyprus from her. Actually it may have been Cleopatra who was the exploited one. Antony needed money and Cleopatra could be generous when it benefited her as well. In the spring of 40 BC, Mark Antony left Cleopatra and returned home. He did not see her for four years. Antony’s wife, Fulvia had gotten into a serious movement against Octavian over veterans’ allotments of land. She fled to Greece and had a bitter confrontation with Antony. She became ill and died there.

Antony patched things up with Octavian that same autumn by marrying Octavian’s sister, Octavia. She was a beautiful and intelligent woman who had been recently widowed. She had three children from her first marriage. In the meantime, Cleopatra had given birth to twins, one boy and one girl, in Alexandria. Antony’s first child by Octavia was a girl. Had Octavia given him a son, things ight have turned out different. Antony kept the idea of the treasures of the Ptolemies and how much he wanted it. When he finally did get the treasures, the standard interest rate in Rome fell from 12 percent to 4.

Mark Antony left Italy and went to deal with the Parthians. Octavia had just had another daughter and went with him just as far as Corcyra. He gave her the excuse that he did not want to expose her to the dangers of the battles and sent her home. He told her that she would be more use to him at home in Rome keeping peace with her brother, Octavian. However, the first thing that he did when he eached Antioch, was to send for Cleopatra. Their twin children were officially recognized by Antony and were given the names of Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene.

Mark Antony gave her much land which was very essential to Egypt. He gave her Cyprus, the Cilician coast, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, Judea and Arabia. This allowed Egypt to be able to build ships from the lumber from Cilician coast. Egypt then built a large fleet. Antony had planned a campaign against the Parthians. He obviously needed Cleopatra’s support for this and in 36 BC, he was defeated. He became more indebted to her than ever. They had just had a third hild. On their return to Syria, she met him and what was left of his army, with food, clothing and money.

Early in 35 BC, he returned to Egypt with her. Antony’s wife, Octavia was in Athens with supplies and reinforcements waiting for her husband. He sent her a letter telling her to not come any further. Her brother, Octavian, tried to provoke Antony into a fight. Octavian would release troops as well as ships to try to force Antony into a war, which, by this time was almost inevitable. Antony might have been able to patch things up with Octavia and her brother had he returned to Rome in 35 BC. Cleopatra probably did er best to keep him in Alexandria.

Octavia remained completely loyal to Antony through all of this. After Antony’s death, Cleopatra was taken to Octavian where her role in Octavian’s triumph was carefully explained to her. He had no interest in any relationship, negotiation or reconciliation with the Queen of Egypt. She would be displayed as a slave in the cities she had ruled over. She must have had memories of her sister, Arsinoe, being humiliated in this way. She would not live this way, so she had an asp, which was an Egyptian cobra, brought to her hidden in a basket of figs. She died on August 12, 30 BC at the age of 39.

The Egyptian religion declared that death by snakebite would secure immortality. With this, she achieved her dying wish, to not be forgotten. The only other ruler to cast a shadow on the fascination with Cleopatra was Alexander who was another Macedonian. After Cleopatra’s death, Caesarion was strangled and the other children of Cleopatra were raised by Antony’s wife, Octavia. Her death was the mark of the end of the Egyptian Monarchs. The Roman Emperors came into to rule in Egypt. The Ptolemies were Macedonian in decent, but ruled as Egyptians, as Pharaohs. Cleopatra was the last Pharaoh of Egypt.

What is often not associated with Cleopatra was her brilliance and her devotion to her country. She was a quick-witted woman who was fluent in nine languages, however, Latin was not one of them. She was a mathematician and a very good businesswoman. She had a genuine respect for Caesar, whose intelligence and wit matched her own. Antony on the other hand almost drove her insane with his lack of intelligence and his excesses. She dealt with him and made the most of what she had to do. She fought for her country. She had a charismatic personality, was a born leader and an ambitious monarch who deserved better than suicide.

The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, which resulted in 19 executions, and 150 accusations of witchcraft, are one of the historical events almost everyone has heard of. They began when three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam began to have hysterical fits, after being discovered engaging in forbidden fortune-telling (not dancing naked in the woods) to learn what sorts of men they would marry. Betty’s father, the Reverend Samuel Parris, called in more senior authorities to determine if the girls’ affliction was caused by witchcraft.

Although Betty was sent away airly soon, and did not participate in the trials, the other girls were joined by other young and mature women in staging public demonstrations of their affliction when in the presence of accused “witches. ” The events in Salem have been used as a theme in many literary works, including the play by Arthur Miller which we are going to read during this unit. They are interesting to anthropologists because they display some of the characteristics of “village” witchcraft and some of the features of the European witch craze.

Many commentators have seen the Salem witch craze as the last outbreak of he European witch craze, transported to North America. As in African and New Guinea villages, the original accusations in Salem were made against people who, in one way or another, the accusers had reason to fear or resent. Moreover, the first few of the accused fit the definition of “marginal” persons, likely to arouse suspicion. However, as in Europe, the accusations spread, and came to encompass people not involved in any of Salem’s local grudges.

As in Europe there was a belief that the accused were in league with the Devil and “experts” employed “scientific” ways of diagnosing itchcraft. Interestingly, during the colonial period in Africa, shortly after World War II, there were a number of witch finding movements in Africa, which resembled the Salem episode in some ways, and had a similar status “in between” the sort of witch hunt found in Europe and the typical African pattern. Typically, in these movements, “witch finders” would come in from outside a village and claim to be able to rid the village of witchcraft.

At this period there was great dislocation, with people moving around because of government employment, appropriation of farmland, and other causes. Some people were improving their economic status as a result of these changes, and some were doing much worse than before. Whereas in the past everyone in a locality had followed the same religion, people were now exposed to Christianity and the local religions of people who had moved to their region, or whose regions they had moved to. In the cities of central and southern Africa, many local religions and Christian sects could be found, as well as Islam.

Belief in witchcraft tended to unite people across religious differences. Typically, the names brought to witch finders were those of the ame sort of local enemies we have become familiar with in reading about the Azande. As the frenzy increased, people began to be accused who had not aroused any particular jealousies, possibly because they possessed a peculiar bag or horn, which might be said to contain “medicine” – in one reported case, such a container did indeed contain “medicine” but ordinary physical medicine, not magical substances.

These crazes tended to die down, often after considerable conflict and property damage, and the witch finders would then move on to the next town. As witchcraft accusations still ccur in the area, we can conclude that the movements did not get rid of witches forever, nor, unlike the situation Salem or Europe, did belief in witchcraft itself actually end with the witch crazes. The actual execution of witches was not usually a feature in African witchcraft, so there was probably less to repent in the end, though there was certainly social disruption and property damage.

Despite these differences, these African witch movements are evidence that events like the Salem witch trials, where village witchcraft accusations blossom into something larger, while still remaining relatively ocalized, have happened elsewhere under particular social conditions. These social conditions include fairly rapid social change, a distrusted outside political authority (the British government in Africa, Salem town council in Salem village), and new opportunities for betterment which are not evenly distributed throughout the population, causing increased social inequality.

There have been three basic approaches taken to the analysis of the Salem witch trials. Scholars have sought psychological and biological explanations for the symptoms displayed by the bewitched girls. Sexual repression in Puritan New England, the low status of women, especially young women, in the community, and lack of opportunity for any sort of entertainment are among the psychological explanations which have been offered. “Group psychology,” or the tendency for out of control behaviours to spread in crowds, has also been mentioned. Various dietary deficiencies at the end of a New England winter have also been blamed for the symptoms.

My colleague, Anne Zeller, has written an excellent article suggesting that the diet of Salem villagers at that time might well have led to alcium deficiency, which is known to cause spasms and “hysterical” states. It has also been suggested that some of the “spectral evidence” (claims to have been visited or actually sat upon, choked, etc. by the “spectres” of accused witches) might have been the result of a condition known as sleep paralysis. (Click here to visit a site maintained by a University of Waterloo psychology professor, in which sleep paralysis is compared to both beliefs in demons and beliefs in alien invasion.

While some of these psychological and biochemical factors were undoubtedly present, we eed to look further to explain why the symptoms were interpreted in the precise way they were, why so many people were accused and convicted, and why certain people were accused and not others. The reasons why “witchcraft” was blamed for the symptoms, rather than psychological disturbance, physical illness, or even religious conversion (the experience of receiving Christ and being saved) have often been sought in the theology of the Puritan inhabitants of Salem.

Another generation of New England Puritans, a little over fifty years later, did interpret a similar outbreak of spasms and ysterias in young girls as “salvation,” an event which led to The Great Awakening, a series of mass conversion experiences throughout New England. A core belief held by New England Puritans, which may have led to both interpersonal suspicion and conceptions of a secret world, hidden from living humans, was the notion of predestination, the belief that God had already determined who was to be saved and who was to be damned.

As He had not made his choices known, however, believers had to rely on clues as to who was among the elect, the souls destined for salvation. Only these people could become full church members and receive communion. Adherence to strict codes of conduct was necessary, but not sufficient, evidence of salvation. A “feeling” of being saved, and, above all, the ability to convince others of one’s status, were important. To some degree, wealth and status in the community counted as evidence of salvation, but there were relatively poor church members and relatively rich non-members.

Whether a member or not, everyone was expected to attend Sunday meeting, and failure to do so, as we shall see in The Crucible, could count against one if one were accused of witchcraft. Both church members and non-members were accused and convicted of witchcraft. Indeed, a sincere church member would be most likely to have difficulty issuing a false confession to save his or her life, since to lie was evidence (at least to oneself) that one might not, after all, be saved.

For a true believer, a decision to make a false confession might really appear to be sacrificing a hope of eternal life for a few extra years of life on earth. During the century after the Salem witch trials, the New England Congregationalist church struggled to reconcile the notion of predestination with a culture which placed strong emphasis on individual mbition and responsibility. (I notice, by the way, that many Distance Education students have indicated on the Web Board that you blame yourselves for your own misfortunes — that is a very modern notion, which was just in the process of being born in 1692.

The experience of being converted, or born again, began to be actively sought and to become the main requirement for church membership, though one was expected to verify the conversion experience by living a virtuous life. The Great Awakening, referred to above, was one of the evidences of this new opportunity for ndividuals to actively seek evidence of salvation, but even then there was dispute as to how open church membership should be.

Jonathan Edwards, the minister who diagnosed the Northampton, Massachusetts girls as being visited by divine spirit, rather than bewitched, eventually was dismissed from his pulpit for insisting that only those who had experienced conversion, and not those who simply awaited it with sincerity, might take communion. Early in the eighteenth century, Cotton Mather, a rather complex Massachusetts theologian, who, during his life, both wrote a manual for the rosecution of witches, which was used in the Salem trials, and encouraged smallpox vaccination in Massachusetts, prepared advice for those who wished to be saved.

You may read that advice at this website. Mather placed great emphasis on fear of God and an acute sense of one’s own sinfulness – only by feeling truly bad could one have hope of avoiding damnation. In a world where God was seen as giving clues, at best, to His intentions, it was also credible that another secret force was at work: God’s enemy, the Devil. Witchcraft confessions were incomplete ithout reference to attendance at secret meetings to worship Satan, and acknowledgments that oneself and others had signed documents enrolling in Satan’s service.

Belief in a secret world, where the forces of good warred with the forces of evil, both acting out of human sight, prompted a search for visible “clues” that some people were involved in a Satanic plot. This search might be seen as a kind of negative mirror of the search for clues that one was saved. Cotton Mather’s guide to the prosecution of witches described some of these clues, including ones familiar to us from the film The Burning Times. They included strange marks on the body (e. g. birthmarks, and extra nipples, which many women have, and which were considered “witches’ teats” used to suckle demons).

More controversial was “spectral evidence. ” The afflicted girls and some male witnesses said that they saw “spectres” (normally invisible spirits) of the accused, either in the courtroom or at other times, and that these “spectres” choked them, frightened them, and otherwise tormented them. No doubt some of those who confessed, and were spared, were able to justify confessing on the ground that their pectres might have done things of which they were not aware, rather like confessing Azande witches who say that mangu may have acted without their knowledge.

Although some authorities, including Increase Mather, Cotton Mather’s father, were dubious about the use of spectral evidence, the fact that it was used is evidence of how deep was the belief among Salem residents in an unseen world, peopled by malign forces. A belief in an ongoing battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil can quickly become an excuse for scapegoating in times of real or perceived crisis. And demons need not always be spirits.

As we shall see, Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, uses the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for the obsession, in the U. S. during the 1950s, with a vast, hidden communist conspiracy, threatening all that was good in America. This excursion into theology, I hope, helps to explain why the girls’ symptoms were interpreted as they were, and why certain kinds of evidence were used at the trial. To understand why certain people were accused and certain others accused them, we require an analysis in terms of social relationships, just as we did in the case of the Azande.

The selection in your text, from a well-known book on Salem, Salem Possessed, attempts to explain the witch craze primarily in sociological, political and economic terms, though it does not neglect psychology or theology. Boyer and Nissenbaum suggest that Salem was in a state of some flux at the time of the witch trials. Several ministers had left Salem as a result of factionalism in the village. The minister in 1692, Samuel Parris, was involved in several disputes over his salary, his supply of firewood, and the ownership of his house, among other things.

Boyer and Nissenbaum believe that the core of the trouble was ension between Salem town, the larger entity of which Salem village was a part, and the village of Salem. Salem town, which was a prosperous seaport, received taxes from the residents of Salem village and until 1689, the year Parris was appointed, controlled the “Church” in the sense of those covenanted members who had been saved. Until then, although some Church members lived in Salem village, one could only become a covenanted member and receive communion through the Salem town church.

Salem village had been given permission to build a meeting house because of the nconvenience of travelling several miles to meeting, but the local committee which hired Salem village ministers did not really have legitimacy. It was simply a committee of townsmen, with shifting membership, rather than the group of covenanted elders who would normally have the authority to elect a minister. Salem village had repeatedly asked for permission to form its own “Church” in the proper sense, but been denied.

This meant the status of Salem village’s minister was never secure. This, along with town factionalism, may have accounted for the fact that several ministers before Parris had either been dismissed or left voluntarily when they saw the hopelessness of their situation. One of them, George Burroughs, was called back to be executed as a witch. Although Salem Village finally obtained a covenanted Church in 1689, which hired Parris as its first minister, the tensions and factionalism of the preceding period did not disappear overnight.

Authority was further compromised by the fact that there had recently been a bloodless revolution in England, and the king had been deposed, leaving weakened authority in that quarter. Moreover, the Governor was away fighting Indians during much of the furor, giving the judges more power than they otherwise would have had. The trials, in fact, were stopped shortly after the Governor’s return. In general, Boyer and Nissenbaum argue, Salem town was richer than Salem village. Salem village was particularly pressed for land, being hemmed in on all sides.

Salem town also was more open to the outside influences one would expect in a wealthy seaport, while Salem village was more strictly agrarian. The Puritan religion forbade most forms of entertainment, but Boyer and Nissenbaum uggest that Salem town offered more possibilities than Salem village. One of the earliest people to be accused (and ultimately hanged) was Bridget Bishop, who ran an unlicenced cider-shop in her home in Salem village. Boyer and Nissenbaum argue that there were personal enmities, based on land ownership and inheritance, in Salem village and neighbouring towns.

There was also general potential for schism between those parts of the village near to Salem town and those further away from it. The authors note that most of the accused witches lived in the Salem town side of the village, and most of the ccusers lived in the side of the village further from the town. The meeting house was in the part of the village where most of the accusers lived. Those who accused their neighbours tended to be supporters of Rev. Parris. The accused and their relatives and supporters tended to belong to the faction that opposed Parris.

In general, the opposition to Parris represented the better-off residents. The anti-Parris faction clustered around Israel Porter, a member of Salem town church, and the pro-Parris faction centered around Thomas Putnam, Jr. , whose daughter was one of the afflicted girls nd whose wife was one of the other accusers. Thomas Putnam believed that he had been cheated out of his inheritance by Joseph Putnam, his half brother, who had connections to the Porters, and who was the child of Thomas Putnam Sr. ‘s second marriage to a woman in Salem town.

Elisabeth and Thomas Very were related to Thomas Putnam Jr. ‘s stepmother, Mary Very, whom he probably blamed for his father’s will. On the chart on p. 268 you can see some of the links between the accused. Boyer and Nissnbaum suggest that it would have been unremarkable, at the time, for the first three ho were denounced, including a rather bad-tempered beggar, Sarah Good, and the Parris’s West Indian slave, Tituba, to be the target of accusations (Tituba confessed and survived. ) Such marginal individuals frequently become scapegoats for social tensions.

What they believe needs explanation was the way in which the witchcraft accusations spread, so that many respectable people were accused and hanged, including a former minister of the village, George Burroughs. This is what takes the Salem witchcraft episode beyond the range of the Azande-type pattern, though it never achieved he scope of the European witchcraft trials. Boyer and Nissenbaum suggest that Parris used the theological assumption of a hidden battle between good and evil to force villagers to take sides between himself (whom he identified as on the side of God) and those who opposed him (whom he identified with the Devil).

The witchcraft craze in Salem began when Parris’s daughter Betty, his relative and ward Abigail Williams, and his slave Tituba, were found to be using magical practices to predict the fortunes, particularly the marriages, of Betty, Abigail, Ann Putnam Jr. and a number of other girls in the community. Because they were practicing magic, these people could all have been accused of witchcraft themselves, or they could have been seen as wayward women and children and punished accordingly, or simply ignored.

That only Tituba was accused, while the others became accusers of many of Parris’s enemies, proved to be very opportunistic for him. As the town minister it was Parris, of course, who first had to make the decision to treat the strange symptoms of Betty and Abigail as bewitchment and call in the relevant experts. Boyer and Nissenbaum make the relevant point that although many respectable people were tried nd convicted, the leaders of the anti-Parris faction, who were among the politically and economically strongest men in the village, were not accused, though their friends, wives and kin were.

Moreover, what finally stopped the witchcraft craze was its spread beyond Salem, so that important people in Boston, the capital of Massachusetts Bay Colony began to be accused. Even Cotton Mather himself was named at one point, though he was never formally charged. It should remembered that Increase Mather, along with Judge Sewall, one of the trial judges, began to question spectral evidence. At any rate, when the Governor’s wife was accused, the Governor called an end to the trial. Eventually, everyone who was still in jail was released, and some compensation was paid to the survivors.

Parris was removed from his pulpit some years later, and replaced with a man whom Boyer and Nissenbaum (elsewhere in their book) characterize as more interested in hunting and fishing than in seeking out evidences of the Devil’s work. He also established a school and a charitable organization in the town, to take charge of two elements of the population who had been heavily involved in the tart of the trials, as accusers and the earliest accused: young people and beggars. The Salem witch trials represent an instance of theology being wed to politics, with tragic results.

In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the trials to draw attention to a secular theology of fear (substitute “Communism” for “Satan”) which he believed was involved in a similar marriage in 1950s America. Before reading my comments on the play, you ought (if you have not done so already) to visit this website, where the liberties which Miller has taken with the play are spelled out.

Apart from the hanges which obviously are made for theatrical convenience (giving Ann Putnam, Jr. different name from her mother, reducing the number of locales, and therefore the number of required stage settings), Miller’s alterations tell us something about the nature of recent “witch hunts,” as compared with those of the 17th Century. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who gave his name to an era, led the U. S. House Un-American Activities Committee in seeking out real and imagined Communists, who were widely believed to be infiltrating the U. S. government, spying and spreading propaganda on behalf of the Soviet Union. Because of this fear of propaganda, the media and entertainment industries were also subject to scrutiny.

Indeed, many people who worked in these industries, including Miller himself, did have left-wing sympathies, but it is unlikely in the extreme that many (or any) of them were actively working for the Soviet Union. People suspected of Communist sympathies were summoned to testify in front of the House of Representatives Committee, and asked to name any “accomplices” who had ever been members of the Communist party or “Communist front” organizations. The penalty for not confessing and aming one’s associates could be anything from arrest to “blacklisting. ”

Pressure was put on publishers, film studios, etc. ot to allow suspected “Communists” to work. If you visit this website, you will find a list of writers who had to work under false names in order to write for the movies during this period, along with the movies for which they have only recently been given credit. It might be added that similar, though less extreme, pressure was brought to bear on people with left-wing sympathies elsewhere in the “free world,” including Canada. To be fair, much more deadly and xtensive purges of people suspected of anti-Communist sympathies were being conducted in the Soviet Union, and these too can be profitably compared to witch hunts.

Arthur Miller himself, already a famous playwright, was at least partly blacklisted until he proved that he was a “normal” American male by marrying Marilyn Monroe! This fact is symptomatic of another aspect of McCarthy era America, one which undoubtedly influenced some of the changes Miller made to the historical record. The 1950s were the era of Leave it To Beaver (a television show whose passing our own Mike Harris recently mourned! ). It was a time when women were being encouraged to return to the kitchen, after being encouraged to leave it during the war years.

Recently returned soldiers scrambled to acquire an education under the G. I. Bill, which paid their tuition, and to buy houses in the new suburbs growing up all over North America, and to get jobs in a rapidly expanding economy to support large families, and buy unprecedented quantities of cars and household appliances. Deviation from such “family values” made one suspect. For a time, “homosexual” was a word that was almost synonymous with “Communist” in the United States. Moreover, Jewish intellectuals like Miller were automatically suspect, and Miller’s history of divorces would also have stood against him.

I believe it was this emphasis on sexual conformity during the McCarthy era that led Miller to exaggerate the sexual aspects of the Salem story, changing the ages of some of the characters to make sexual interpretations more credible. Sexual innuendoes were certainly not absent in Salem, but sexual politics were certainly bubbling closer to the surface during the McCarthy era, to boil over a decade later, in the so-called “sexual revolution. ” Recent politics in he U. S. teach us that sexuality is still a lodestar for political suspicion in the U. S.. To each age its own demons! The other theme which is very important to Miller, and concerning which he alters the record somewhat, is the pressure on accused witches to confess.

Certainly, the accused could save their lives by confessing, just as writers, actors and civil servants in the 50s could try to save their careers by confessing and naming others. Of course, in both cases, they paid a price, other than that exacted by their consciences – many of their friends no longer trusted them. This was likely to be a more acute problem in the U. S. since the people who were named by those who cooperated with the Committee weren’t hanged and put out of the way, just fired and left to try to lead the resistance to McCarthyism. Namers of names sometimes found themselves with no friends at all, since anti-Communists often still failed to trust them. The issue of resisting collaboration with the witch hunters was important enough to Miller that he altered history, and portrayed the trials as stopping when more people refused to confess when, in fact, a significant increase in confessions probably erved to cast some doubt on the validity of individual confessions.

Taking liberties with the text is one of the characteristics of the interaction between humans and their myths. And a charter myth is certainly what the witch hunts in Europe and Salem have become, though they have more basis in fact than most myths. The stories of the witch hunts are charter myths for our time, to be told by feminists, left-wing intellectuals, and lawyers for President Clinton, each taking what he or she needs from the story, adding or subtracting as seems fit.

During the 1960s the world was hit with four different assassinations of some of the leaders in the world who were out to change the way things were. Although some disagreed to the changes that they were trying to do and even threatened them, they still continued to pursue their idea of change. Ngo Dinh Diem became the first president of South Vietnam in 1956 he was a catholic who opposed Communism and sought for an independent Vietnam while it was under French power.

Although he was viewed as brutal, corrupt, and prejudice against non-Catholics and Buddhists, he did however help make Vietnam an independent country from France and help prevent Communist rule over all of Vietnam. In 1933 Ngo Dinh Diem was appointed Minister of the Interior by Emperor Bao Dai, at the same time during the 1930s Ngo Dinh Diem began to disapprove of the French rule over Vietnam. He decided to leave the government and follow the many Vietnamese nationalists who were also against French rule.

In 1950 he left Vietnam and headed for the U. S. fter Vietnam had fallen under rule of Viet Minh in August of 1945, seeing Communism as a threat to his values as a Catholic and to an independent Vietnam. President Dwight D. Eisenhowers administration fearing Communist takeovers in Southeast Asia saw Ngo Dinh Diem as a Vietnamese nationalist capable of overturning Communist Viet Minh. In 1954 Viet Minh defeated the French and he won control of Northern Vietnam, thus splitting the country in half. Southern Vietnam remained under the control of Emperor Bao Dai, who was supported by the U. S. greatly.

The U. S. appointed Ngo Dinh Diem as Prime Minister under Bao Dai. In 1956 elections were held in South Vietnam and Ngo Dinh Diem was elected the first president of the newly established Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The U. S. military was sent into South Vietnam to form and train an army for the republic, thus becoming the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). While Ngo Dinh Diem was president he forcibly moved peasants and rural villagers from their homes and put them into controlled settlements in order to suppress Communist activities.

He also drafted all males from the villages into the ARVN. As a result of his acts a group called the National Liberation Front (NLF) was formed in order to overthrow his power as president. Ngo Dinh Diem was also prejudice against non-Catholics and extremely prejudice against the Buddhists, and often denied them of positions in the government. He would also give government positions to his family, such as his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu who headed up the National Police.

Ngo Dinh Nhu was a gangster, and often trafficked drugs and promoted prostitution. In May 1963, Buddhists formed large demonstrations against Ngo Dinh Diem. During one of these demonstrations the National Police killed 9 people, in protest against the killings Buddhist monks set themselves on fire, and burned themselves to death. After the killings and after the protests of the Buddhist burnings, Ngo Dinh Diem lost his U. S. support and viewed him as an embarrassment to the U. S. also that his government was brutal and corrupt.

On November 2, 1963 a group of ARVN generals took over Ngo Dinh Diem government and with the USs support, assassinated Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. The major effect of Ngo Dinh Diems assassination was that it led North Vietnam to its victory over South Vietnam because of political confusion caused by the assassination during the Vietnam War. It also led to the expansion of the NLF, which aided the North Vietnamese in over throwing the South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president in 1961 he became the youngest person ever to be elected president. Although his presidency was cut short and he only got to serve 3 years, he was one of Americas greatest presidents. During his presidency he influenced the world, young people looked up to him, brought back old traditions of the United States government, fought for the equal rights of all humans despite their racial background and the color of their skin. He also prevented a Nuclear War and possibly World War III from developing during the Cuban missile crisis.

In a speak he said Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americansborn in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritageand unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. He was committed to changing this country and influencing the world to change for the better that no human rights shall be denied to anyone.

Were he called for a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. He realized that this was going to be a hard thing to do, and that he wouldnt be president to carryout but he still new he had to start it and he announced that too. He said All this will not be finished in the first 100 days, nor will it be finished in the first 1000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. Then on November 22, 1963 tragedy struck the U. S. and the world.

President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy were in Dallas, Texas riding in a open convertible on the way to have lunch with Texas Governor John Connally and Connallys wife who were riding with them in the convertible. Out of nowhere two shots were fired rapidly at the president, he was hit in the neck, where the bullet then hit Governor Connally in the back, the second bullet hit the president directly in the head. John Kennedy was rushed to the hospital but never gained consciousness, at 1:00PM he was declared dead.

On the 24th of November, John F. Kennedys body was carried through the streets of Washington D. C. as more then 1 million people watched as it passed by. At Kennedys funeral in Arlington National Cemetery hundreds of thousands of people including representatives of 92 different nations. On President Kennedys grave marker was an eternal flame, which will burn forever in memorial of him. The assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, who worked in the warehouse where the shots had been fired from a window on the sixth floor. While he was being transferred to a different jail, Jack Ruby a nightclub owner in Dallas shot and killed Oswald.

The major effect of John F. Kennedys assassination came two hours after President Kennedy was pronounced dead, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in as president. Lyndon B. Johnson was said to be a masterful politician. He fought a way against poverty though out the United States. On his State of the Union address, on January 8, 1964, He said his office today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America, and I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort. To do so he created programs to help the poor like Neighborhood Health Care Facilities.

Also during his presidency Medi-care and Medi-aid were created to help the elderly and the poor. The most profound effect of John F. Kennedys assassination will never be known, for we will never know what changes might have occurred, or effects that he might have had on the world if he had never been assassinated. One effect is for sure, that no President of the United States will ever ride in a open convertible again without the fear of being attacked. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a American clergyman, Nobel Prize winner, the main leader in the civil rights movement, and a advocate of nonviolent protests.

He challenged segregation and racial discrimination during the 1950s and 1960s. He also successful in convincing whites to support the civil rights cause throughout the U. S. and the world. He had excellent public-speaking abilities, were he was praised for having powerful impression on the people he was speaking too, by doing so he was able to influence the people of color to protest nonviolently against discrimination towards them. In 1954, he became pastor at a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he used his speaking skills and his intellectual influence to promote and encourage nonviolent protest against discrimination.

In 1955, he was chosen as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which directed the Montgomery bus boycott between 1955 to 1956. He was able to make a positive impression on whites outside the south, by not fighting back when attacked while protesting. In February of 1956, he was able to get the federal court to rule that city buses must be desegregated. In 1957 he founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization of black churches and ministers that sought to stop racial segregation.

The SCLC encouraged the use of nonviolent protests directly against discrimination, such as marches, demonstrations, and boycotts. By doing so he provoked some whites to act out violently against the protesters, which lead to the federal government to confront the discrimination and racism. King was able to make connections with radical activists such as the American Communist Party, who gave him advice and supplied him with money to fund protests. He also met with white Protestant leaders and other white public figures to help him in stopping discrimination. On August 28, 1963, He delivered a speech in Washington D. C. ring a massive protest of more than 200,000 supporters.

The speech he gave will be remembered forever, the I Have a Dream speech. During the speech he was noted for these statements, I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. As a result of his speech a political momentum was created, and soon following was the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The act prohibited segregation in public accommodations, and discrimination in education and employment. Kings speeches against discrimination and teachings of nonviolence protests, won him a Nobel Prize for peace in 1964. Later in 1965, king and the SCLC marched from Selma, Alabama to the capital of Alabama, Montgomery more then 50 miles away to join a voting-rights protest. 300 people made the whole trip taking 5 days to complete and when they arrived in Montgomery they were joined by 20,000 people in front of the capital building were King led the protest.

Later President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned the use of voter qualification tests that were used often to prevent blacks from registering to vote. King later focused on discrimination in housing and employment in the cities, and moved his headquarters to Chicago. Then in 1967 he started to protest for a redistribution of the nations wealth to help solve the problem of black poverty. On April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, while he was supporting garbage workers on strike, he was shot and killed by a sniper, James Earl Ray.

The effects of the assassination were felt almost immediately shock and anger swept the U. S. and the world, riots broke out in hundreds of U. S. cities in the days after his death. King has become to represent black courage and achievement, speaking skills, leadership skills, and the ability to influence others to change. Several memorials have be built for him including Martin Luther King, Jr. , Center for Social Justice, a research institute located in Atlanta another memorial in Atlanta is Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, where his birthplace, the Ebenezer Church, and the King Center, where his tomb is located.

Then in 1983 Congress dedicated a National Holiday in his honor on the third Monday of January. Robert Francis Kennedy was a great U. S. political leader and Senator, were he was extremely concerned with the problems of urban ghettos and of the poor and disadvantaged. He attended Harvard and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948, and was later awarded a LL. B. degree from the University of Virginia in 1951. Later in 1951 he was made an attorney in the U. S. Department of Justice.

In 1952 he helped manage his brother John F. Kennedys senatorial campaign. After John F. Kennedy was elected president, Robert was appointed U. S. attorney general, while in office he fought on the enforcement of civil rights laws. He later resigned in 1964, and later that year he was elected U. S. senator from New York. As senator he continued to fight for civil rights, and work on the problems in the ghettos and with the poor. During the spring of 1968 he was campaigning for the Democratic Party nomination. In June of 1968, he had won major primaries in Indiana, Nebraska, and California.

While leaving a celebration in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968 after the California primary was assured that he would win, he was shot. The next day on June 6, 1968 he died after being shot by Jerusalem-born Jordanian Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. His gravesite is in Arlington National Cemetery near John F. Kennedys gravesite. If Robert F. Kennedy was never shot, he may have become president, and bought new changes to the U. S. , for he is known for saying in one of his speeches Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?

Advancement in Science and Technology One of the biggest achievements in science and technology was the invention of the laser. The idea of the laser and how it would work was first invented by Albert Einstein in 1917. The first laser was outlined by the American physicists Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes that were patented in 1958. But a working laser was never seen until 1960 when the American physicist Theodore Maiman observed the first laser in action. Then in 1961 a helium-neon gas laser was built by the American physicist Ali Javan.

Later in 1966 a liquid laser was constructed by the American physicist Peter Sorokin. In industry lasers are being used on all types of different things ranging from cutting to monitoring earth movements. Powerful laser beams can be focused on a very small spot, where the laser can be used to heat, melt, cut, or vaporize material with very precise accuracy. For example lasers are used to drill holes in diamonds, shape machine tools, cut microelectronics, and create semiconductor chips. Lasers are also being used in an attempt to create controlled nuclear fusion.

The short laser pulses allow for high-speed photography, and laser beams are also being used for accurate alignment on construction sites. Lasers are being used to study the movement of the earth to study earthquakes and are also very effective detectors of air pollution. Also lasers have been used to determine the distance between the earth and the moon and other planets too. Lasers are also used for scientific research in the study of molecules and chemical analysis. Scientists can use lasers to measure changes in molecular structures of matter to better study and analyze molecules.

Also by using lasers the speed of light has been determined accurately. Chemical reactions can be selectively caused in controlled environments to study chemical analysis. Lasers can be used for communication too, lasers can carry more information and move it faster then any other form of communication. Lasers can be sent on long distances without losing information and little reduction in strength. Lasers can carry 1000x more information then the older forms of communication such as microwaves, so they are ideal for space communication.

Fiber optics were develop to send lasers throughout the earth sending telephone calls and computer information across the planet at incredible speeds. Lasers are also used to record information on CDs and read information off them too. In medicine intense laser beams are being used to do medical procedures. Doctors are using lasers to cut, repair and destroy certain tissues without damaging the surrounding healthy tissues. Also in the military lasers are being used as guidance systems. The guidance systems are used for missiles, aircraft, and satellites for accurate location of targets.

Laser beams have been proposed for use against hostile ballistic missiles as a defense system. Lasers are also being used to trigger an atom or molecule to separate isotopes to build nuclear weapons. Although lasers were still being studied in the 1960s and didnt have any major effect during the 1960s, they have had a major effect in all fields of work starting in the 1980s, and the possibilities for use of lasers is endless. Arab-Israeli Conflict; The Six Day War On May 14, 1948, Israel became independent, thus triggering conflicts to become a full-scale war between Israel and the Arab States.

The Arab States claimed that Israel was on their territory and that they wanted it back. The Arab States included Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. The first war between the Arab States and Israel was between May 14, 1948 and January 7, 1949 where a cease-fire was announced. In 1956, Israel became convinced that the Arab States with the Soviet Union on their side were preparing for war and Israeli with the United States, Great Britain, and France on their side they prepared for an attack. On October 29, 1956, Israel attacked Egypts Sinai Peninsula.

Israel captured the Gaza strip and Sharm el Sheikh, after capturing these they withdrew and turned them over to the UN in 1957. Between 1957 and 1960 conflicts between the Arab States and Israel were calm. Then during the 1960s Arab nationalists, Egypt and Jordan wanting to destroy Israel supported Palestinian guerrillas who attacked troops and civilians in Israeli territory. In April of 1967 Syria after bombing Israeli villages began to fight Israel in aerial battles. Israel shot down six MiG Syrian planes, which were given to Syrian from the USSR.

Israel warned Syria about attacking again, Syria then turned to Egypt for help. Egypt in May moved 100,000 troops and 1000 tanks to Israels southern border the Sinai Peninsula. UN forces were stationed around the area but on May 17th Egypt asked that the UN troops be removed, the UN did so. Then on the 22nd Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran, which was a major shipping route for Israel and cut off major sources of petroleum. Back in 1956, Israel had declared that if the canal was ever closed again they would consider it an act of war. Soon following Egypt and Jordan put their armies under one command.

Because Israel didnt want to fight a three front war between Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and wanting to fight over Arab territory, Israel decided to attack first. On June 5, 1967 at 8:45AM the Israeli air force attacked Egyptian military and air bases. Israeli forces destroyed 309 of Egypts 340 aircraft. On the ground Israeli troops invaded the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip. Egypt suffered heavy casualties but Israeli suffered a few causalities. Egypt told the Egyptians and Jordanians told Egypt had won the battles, even though that was not so.

At 11:00AM Jordan believing that Egypt had won, Jordan launched an attack against Israels side of Jerusalem, which had been split in half years ago. Israelis air force then moved in on Jordans military and air bases, and nearly destroyed it completely. At 12:00am of June 6th Israeli troops began to take back Jordans Jerusalem and by morning had taken back the city. By now Israelis air force had destroyed 2/3 of the Arab States air forces. At 10:00AM on the 6th Israeli troops had taken back the Wailing Wall in the Old City, which is a holy place in Judaism for the first time in 2000 years.

On June 7th Jordan troops had retreated across the Jordan River. That night the UN declared cease-fire between Jordan and Israel. On June 8th Israeli troops made it to the Suez Canal and gained control of the canal. The Egyptians were retreating back to Egypt, but along the way back to Egypt, Israelis air force continued to bomb them. On the 9th Israel began their attack on Syria and began to surround the Syrias troops. Then on June 10th at 6:30, Israel and Syria made a cease-fire agreement. The fighting between Israel and Egypt didnt end until 1979, even though Israeli controlled the Sinai Peninsula.

Israels attack on the Arab States (Egypt, Jordan and Syria) was devastating to the Arabs. The Arabs lost almost all of their air forces and military weaponry. In Sinai and Gaza more then 10,000 Egyptians were killed but only 300 Israeli were killed. Overall Egypt lost 11,000, Syria lost 1000, Jordan lost 6000 and Israel only lost 700. As a result the Soviets who had supplied the Arab States with weapons, realized that their weapons were inferior to the Western weapons used by the Israeli forces. This embarrassed the Soviets and pushed them to improve their weapons thus continuing the Cold War.

On November 22nd the UN passed Resolution 242, which told Israeli forces to move out of the territories occupied during the war, and said that the Arab States had to recognize Israels independence and guarantee that Israels borders remain secure. Neither side followed Resolution 242, and the Arab States said that they would continue to fight against Israel. Israel began to build up defenses along the occupied territories borders and around Jerusalem and also announced that they intended to make Jerusalem their capital. This caused conflicts between the two and in 1973 led to war, the Yom Kippur War.

Resolution 242 even though it was not obeyed it helped the peace process and showed results in the late 1970s. But then in 1978 Palestinian guerrillas launched an air raid on Israel from Lebanon, Israel then sent in troops to Southern Lebanon to protect Israels border. Later in 1982 Israel sent troops into So. Lebanon to destroy all military bases belonging to Palestinian guerrillas (Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)). The war lasted for 10 weeks and ended in West Beirut, when the Palestinians were forced to accept a U. S. plan where the PLO had to leave Beirut.

Israel left Lebanon in 1985 but still has border protection between Lebanon and Israel at the northern part of the border. As a result of the Six Day War, two more wars have been caused, more then 18,700 people were killed, and conflicts still exist between the Arab States and Israel. Also after the Six Day War was over the Soviets now had an idea of the U. S. military technology, and now knew what they had to do to improve their own weapons. The Soviets also knew somewhat on what the U. S. technology was capable of doing during wartime.

The U. S. however realized that their military technology was superior to that of the Soviets. Space Race The space race was a battle between the Soviet Union and the U. S. on whom would conquer space first, by getting a man to the moon and to put spy satellites in the earths orbit to keep an eye on each other. The U. S. space program began on October 1, 1958 when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA was inaugurated. Their task was to oversee a civilian space program, and beat the Soviets in what was to become the space race.

The Soviets were the first to send an object into space by sending the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in October 4, 1957. The world viewed this as a great achievement in the advancement of science. The U. S. government didnt view this as a great achievement but as a threat to the U. S. defense. This showed the U. S. that the Soviets had advances in the design and construction of rocket-propelled ballistic missiles. By being able to send a satellite (Sputnik 1) weighing 184 pounds into space it surely showed that the Soviets had the means to construct missiles capable of equal distances of the satellite if not more.

Soon following the Soviets launched yet another satellite, Sputnik 2 into space, this time weighing 1120 pounds and carrying a living dog inside it. Finally in January of 1958 the U. S. launched a satellite of its own into space, Explorer 1. On September 12, 1959 the Soviets launched Luna 2 landed on the moons surface and crashed after 36 hours of flight. Until April 12, 1961 no man had ever been in outer space but under the Soviets project Vostok, Lt. Yuri A. Gagarin became the very first man in outer space, were he orbited the earth once in 1 hour and 48 minutes.

The U. S. later on May 5, 1961, Comdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr. flew Freedom 7 into outer space but didnt orbit the earth, he did however stay up for 15 minutes and 28 seconds. The U. S. launched 1 more mission before sending a man into orbit around the earth, Lt. Col. John H. Glenn Jr. was the first American to orbit the earth, he orbited 3 times and was up in orbit for 4 hours and 55 minutes. But before the U. S. had a man orbit the earth just once the Soviets had sent a man to orbit the earth 17 times in 1 day, 1 hour and 18 minutes.

It seemed to the Americans that the United States was losing the space race, then on May 25, 1961 President John F. Kennedy promised that the United States would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. To the American people they were enthusiastic but NASA was not so optimistic and felt the extreme pressure of the presidents speech. On October 12, 1964 the Soviets launched Voskhod 1, a successful but reckless attempt to beat the U. S. in the space race again, to be the first to put three men into space aboard the same spacecraft. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered that the Soviet Space program beat the U. S. in the space race, to do so they put the pilots at extreme risk.

To get three men into the same spacecraft they had to remove safety equipment, the ejection seat, and didnt have the cosmonauts wear spacesuits. Although the mission was successful, the publicity stunt was one of many reasons that lead to Khrushchevs downfall. Later with Voskhod 2, which was launched on March 18, 1965 the Soviets sent two men into space with adequate space and with a airlock which could be opened in outer space. On the 18th the Soviets beat the U. S. once again and sent the first man to successfully walk in space.

Then on March 23, 1965 the U. S. under project Gemini began to advance ahead of the Soviets in spacecraft maneuvers. Between March 23, 1965 and November 11, 1966 the U. S. advanced over the Soviets and over the course of 12 different missions the U. S. successfully completed 4 docking, 3 pass by, and 2 space walk missions along with maneuvering missions. The success of these mission objectives led to the start to a new project, Project Apollo, at the same time the Soviets started a new project themselves, Project Soyuz both beginning in 1967.

On January 27, 1967 while testing Apollo 1, there was a fire inside the cabin of the spacecraft and all three of the crew were killed before workers could open the door of the spacecraft, it was said that the inside of the craft reached 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. After the fire the Apollo program was postponed until investigation was completed. Investigators concluded that the fire could have been prevented if the inside of the craft wasnt made of such flammable materials, and put the blame on poor design.

The program remained postponed for about a year and a half while the whole craft was redesigned. The same fate occurred for the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 1, on April 23, 1967 the spacecraft took off and completed 13 orbits when the spacecraft failed and began to spin out of control. The pilot was able to reenter earths atmosphere but was killed because of excessive heat during reentry, and crashed into earth. The Soviet space program was also postponed after the accident for about a year and a half. The next six Apollo missions were unmanned while testing was conducted.

Then on October 11, 1968 Apollo 7 was launched and conducted a prolonged earth orbit that lasted for 10 days and 20 hours. The U. S. was winning the space race, for the Soviets didnt conduct a pass by until Soyuz 3 launched on October 26, 1968 and less then 2 months later the U. S. completed the first manned moon orbit, Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968.

On January 14 and January 16, 1969 on two different missions 2 different dockings and space walks were conducted in an attempt to catch up too the U. S. the space race. Then on March 3, 1969, Apollo 9 took off and tested the lunar module (the spacecraft used to land on the moon) for the first time in space in a successful mission they were able to dock to the lunar module, separate, and then re-dock. On May 18, 1969, Apollo 10 was launched and went into orbit around the moon, following along with the command module was the lunar module, the lunar module then came within 9 miles of the moons surface then took back off and then reattached to the command module.

The success of this mission showed that a moon landing was possible to come back from, the only thing left to do was to land on the moon. Finally on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 took off on board were astronauts Lt. Col. Michael Collins, Col. Edwin Aldrin, and Neil A. Armstrong. They named the lunar module the Eagle and the command module the Columbia. While orbiting the moon, the command module and the lunar module separated, aboard the Columbia was Lt. Col. Michael Collins, aboard the Eagle was Col. Edwin Aldrin, and Neil A. Armstrong.

On July 20, 1969 at 9:18PM, the Eagle landed on the moon, and the U. S. had won the space race. Neil A. Armstrong was the fist man to walk on the moon and as he took his first step on to the moons surface nearly 1/3 of the world listened to him say Thats one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. After several science experiments and collections had been completed the Eagle took off from the moon and docked with the Columbia and returned to earth. They spent the next three weeks after returning to earth in quarantine in fear of viruses that they could have contracted while on the moon.

The Soviets had lost the space race but still launched three more Soyuz missions between October 11 to October 13, 1969, no one knows for sure why they had launched them, no docking was conducted, although they did pass by each other. There are some thoughts to why they launched these missions such as to build a space station, or simply use up hardware, or maybe they were still in the space race and were simply failed to successfully dock. There is thought that the Soviets dropped out of the space race back on April 24, 1967 when Soyuz 1 failed and crashed into earth.

Once again the U. S. nds on the moon, using Apollo 12 launched on November 14, 1969. While on the moon the astronauts found Surveyor 3, a unmanned spacecraft launched on April 17, 1967 by the U. S. to photograph and test the composition of the moons surface. The space race wasnt just about manned space flights and rockets sent into space to collect information, it was also about a race to gain power over communication worldwide, military reconnaissance, and advanced weather. On August 12, 1960 Echo 1 was designed and launched by Bell Laboratories and NASA, it was a 100 foot wide balloon, made of plastic and covered with aluminum.

It was used only when it was in the right position over earth that it could be used to send radio messages to another location. In 1962 Telstar 1 was launched by Bell Telephone and AT&T as a communications satellite. Telstar was a 3 foot-diameter ball, that had solar cells which provided power to the satellite. It was capable of picking up radio signals like television broadcasts and telephone calls. On earth receivers would pick up the radio signals, and would then amplify them to be heard or seen.

In 1963 the first commercial based satellite communications company was formed the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) in 1963. When the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) was formed in 1964, COMSAT became the U. S. member. Based in Washington, D. C. , INTELSAT is owned by more than 120 nations. Intelsat 1 was launched in 1965 provides either 2400 voice circuits or one two-way television channel between the U. S. and Europe. Also for military usage, the military has satellites, which they use for private communication and early weather detection.

From 793 to 1066, England was terrorised by Viking warriors. These were people from Scandinavia, especially Danmark and Norway. Scandinavia at the time had a growing population and with inland areas inhospitable, the vikngs looked overseas for new territories and wealth. “In the year 793, the pagans from the north came to Britain like stinging hornets… ” wrote an early Saxon chronicler about the first Viking raid on England. The Vikings had struck a small costal monastery, killed and pillaged.

This was the frist blow in a mighty struggle between the Vikings and England whch ended with The Battle Of Hastings in 1066. For the next 40 years however, there was peace. The Vikings had been preparing for a full-scale invasion and from 835 onwards, hardly a year went by without a raid being reported to the Saxon chronicles. In 851, the Vikngs first wintered in England and in 856 forced England to pay its first Danegald or tribute. In 867, 3 famous sons of ragnar hairy-Breeches : Ivar the the boneless, Ubbi and Halfdan landed in East Anglia, marched across country, seized York and settled in Northumbria. By 871 the Vikings had overrun the north of England and were preparing to invade the Saxon tronghold, Wessex.

This was the first time they had come face-to-face with the Saxon Prince Alfred. Although only second in command, Alfred led the Saxons to victory. Later that year, Alfred became King Alfred and within months was on the battle fields once again. This time however, he was defeated at Wilton and forced to pay a tribute. After this the Vikngs split in two. One group under the leadership of halfdan went and settled in northumbria. the remaing under Guthrum settled in South Cambridge and waited for another chance to invade Wessex.

In 875, Alfred went to sea with a small aval force and on the south coast of Wessex met 7 Viking longships and defeated them. This was the first time that the Vikings had been challenged at sea so Alfred decided to build a fleet. While busy seeing over the shipbuilding, Alfred failed to notice that Guthrum had struck south. Guthrum had taken Chippenham thus surrounding Wessex and giving himself a much greater chance of success. The Vikings had taken control of most of West Wessex and the Saxons submitted to them. But not Alfred. He and a small group of troops made a small stronghold at Athelney.

Alfred, wishing to know the Vikings plans nd tactics, dressed as a wandering minstrel and walked boldly into the viking camp and snuck his way into the council of war. After staying a few days, and content that he knew all he needed to, Alfred hurried back and told his men how easily the Vikngs could be beaten. With the people of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire united, Alfred drove the Vikings back to Chippenham and stayed to negotiate a treaty with Guthrum. This treaty stated that Alfred and the Saxon people aknowledged their new neighbours and territories.

Guthrum returned to Danelaw which was comprised of the five boroughs of Derby, Stamford, Leicester, Lincoln and Nottingham but not before being baptised in the presence of Alfred. After Guthrum moved back to Danelaw, there was seven years of peace. this was until a new army from the continent came across the English Channel and seized the city of Rochester. Alfred’s army came once again to the rescue athough and defeated the new invaders and pushed them back to sea. Alfred steadily pushed the Vikings back with many small invasion attempts and by 886 had regained control of London. y now all the English looked upon alfred as their leader.

Alfred felt n easing of pressure and now concentrated on his defences. He built fortified towns or Burhs. There were seven more years of peace, until The Great Army from Germany crossed the Channel with 250 ships, sailed un the Lympne estuary and stormed one of Alfred’s Burhs . These Vikings were defeated at Farnam and at the same time the Vikings in danelaw chose to send 100 ships to the north coast of Devon, so that the Saxons had to march west. The Saxons overtook the vikng army on the banks of the Buttington and on the Banks of the Severn and besieged it on every side.

The Vikings his time were defeated be famine and when they finally faced the Saxons they lost a very bloody battle. After 2 further years of fighting, The Great Army broke up. In October 899, King Alfred died. He went down in history as the man who saved England from being completely overrun but the Vikings still held Danelaw. Alfred’s successor edward the Elder (899-925) was a powerful king. He conquered much of Danelaw in his reign as king. The next king, King Athelstan (925-940) was a powerful king also. Despite this, the Northumbria Vikings were restless and joined forces with the Scots and the Norwegian vikings rom Ireland.

Athelstan inflicted a devestaing defeat upon them. The Northumbria Vikings continued however until their last king, Erik Bloodaxe was driven out in 954, when Northumbria became an English earldom. The Norwegian Vikings settled down and started to settle in the Northeast and Midlands. Edgar the Peaceable (959-975) became friends with the Vikngs as he respected their beliefs and customs. But his son Ethelred the unready (978-1016) was a different kind of man. The Viking attacks were soon renewed. The Vikings had a string of victories and made Ethelred pay higher and higher amounts of Danegald.

The most annoying of Ethelred’s foes was the king of Denmark, Svein Forkbeard. He attacked mercilessly until Ethelred ordered that “all the Vikings that have sprung up on this island shall be destroyed”. This led to the massacre of St. Brice’s day on 13th November 1002. Among those killed was Svein’s sister, Gunnhild. Her death enraged Svein and from 1003 onward there were continuous attacks. When Svein died, his second son Canute took his place. He wooed the church and went on a pilgrimage to Rome. In all he ruled England, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and the Orkney and Shetland islands.

While he reigned the Vikings and Saxon people lived in harmony, but when he died everything changed. His son died unexpectedly and as the fight for succession carried on, the English elected a new king, Edward the confessor (1042-1066). The Vikings made one last attempt to conquer England under a new leader Harald Hardradi. However three days after losing the battle of Stamford bridge, the Normans landed led by Duke William. They fought hard with King Hardradi and all his remaining troops but were defeated and it was there that King Harald was killed. The Viking raids were over and the English had new tormentors.

The British colonies in North America were not societies that valued or expected equality. They conquered Native American land without any payment for it and they used African Americans as slaves. By the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, the standard norm for the British included vicious warfare with the Native Americans and enslavement of the African Americans. These practices became the standard norm as a result of carelessness and perhaps fear of change on the part of the British.

Early British settlements in North America established first contact between the British and the Native Americans. Almost twenty years after the mysterious disappearance of the colonists who settled at Roanoke, the British settled In the Chesapeake Bay area in the early 17th century. They called it Jamestown in honor of their king, James I. Shortly after settling in Jamestown, a group of about two hundred Native Americans attacked the British because the British were trying to exploit Native American labor and wealth.

The British saw nothing wrong with holding a peaceful social state but at the same time using Native Americans as a cheap form of labor. Although the Native Americans had supplied the British with food and other vital necessities, tensions still persisted. The British and the Native Americans interacted very often in trade surroundings, but the failure of each group to understand and accept the other group’s culture prevented any lasting cooperation between the two groups. Simple misunderstandings during a trade agreement could turn into violent confrontations as a result of the large difference in culture and beliefs.

In March 1622, one Native American by the name of Opechancanough planned a surprise attack on Jamestown. Intending to wipe out the whole colony, his plan was only partially successful as a result of British retaliation which killed more Native Americans than they did British. After retaliation by the British, the Native Americans mounted their last major act of armed resistance. This failed due to British awareness, preparedness, and superiority over the Native Americans. After peace was restored, the Native American population in the Chesapeake Bay area was down from eight thousand to two thousand.

Later conflict between the Native Americans and the British occurred in 1676 when an English planter named Nathaniel Bacon organized an unauthorized force in Virginia to drive the Native Americans farther west. Bacon and his followers were frustrated that all the best tobacco land had already been taken by the wealthy and decided to drive the Indians west and settle on that land. Bacon’s army consisted of other angry Virginian planters who wanted more land so they could grow more tobacco. When the British sent an army to stop Bacon, he reversed his aim and instead went after Jamestown.

The sudden death of Bacon while trying to escape an attack from the British army put an end to one of America’s first violent protest movements. One result of this rebellion was that it strengthened the elite group of the wealthy planters and government officials. They also realized that indentured servants would not be a reliable source of labor and that they needed enslaved people to work for them. They needed human beings who would never have a chance at freedom, own land, or protest the government. Bacon’s rebellion also severed British relations with the Native Americans.

The conflict between the British and the Native Americans broke into open hostility and as a result, King Philip’s War. King Philip’s War began around 1675 in the New England area. The two groups had hoped trade would ease the tensions but in the 1670’s the peace came to an end. The English continued to destroy forests, put up fences, and create pastures for their cattle. This threatened the livelihood of the Native Americans, who lived by hunting game, gathering plants for food, and growing crops. This meant that Native Americans needed almost twenty times the amount of land per person as the English needed.

Minor disagreements over land disputes between a Native American leader, Metacom (known as King Philip to the settlers) and the people of Plymouth began the war. These minor disputes lead to larger ones and war inevitably broke out. The war started out as a disaster for both sides. Each side was losing just as many people as they were killing and the war was turning into a war of attrition. The English soon gained the upper hand and the large number of English settlers began to pay off. The end of the war came with the death of Metacom.

Once he was dead, the English cut his head off and sent it to Plymouth Colony where it was displayed for decades. Aftereffects of this war were both economic as well as political. The region of New England did not surpass its prewar income per person for more than 140 years. Politically, the aftereffects in part lead to the American Revolution due to stresses and strains obtained by the amount of interaction between the colonies and Britain. The relations between the Europeans and the Africans, on the other hand, were extremely one-sided.

Slavery came about because the colonists needed a more controllable source of labor. Indentured servants wouldn’t work because the owners needed a race that would have no chance of being allowed freedom, and understood that. Africans were used to being slaves so when they were first brought over by slave traders, they did not expect to ever be free. Slavery eventually developed into a much more widespread practice. No longer were certain slave traders bringing slaves across the Atlantic Ocean but slaves were now being shipped across in large numbers.

The Europeans traded with the West Indies and the Americas which formed a sort of triangle. The Middle Passage was the part of the triangular trade between Africa and the Americas where slaves were transported to the West Indies and on to North America in exchange for American goods such as tobacco. Although conditions varied from colony to colony for African Americans, conditions were consistently brutal. The African Americans who lived in South Carolina and Georgia labored under particularly brutal conditions.

These slaves primarily cultivated rice and indigo because conditions in the low country were especially good for that. Slaves in North Carolina faced similar conditions as the slaves in Virginia and Maryland because it was more suited for tobacco farming. Slaves in these colonies not only worked in the fields but were also assigned other household tasks. Slaves in New England and the Middle Colonies had more freedom in choosing their occupations than did the slaves of the Southern Colonies.

The lives and work of African Americans, although a minority by a large amount, reflected the region’s mixed economy and its varied ways of life. The slaves in these colonies north of Maryland had a considerable amount more of freedom in choosing their occupation than the slaves of the southern colonies did. This lead to the slaves pushing the slave owners more and more until the slave owners became so threatened that they began to pass strict laws regulating the amount of freedom that these slaves had.

In the late 1600’s, several laws were passed by the colonies controlling the activities of the African Americans. The African Americans were becoming too aggressive and this worried the colonists. The government passed strict laws that would help keep slaves under control and keep the colonists feeling a little safer. Harsh punishments were performed on African Americans who did not follow these rules and regulations as a way to enforce the laws. Many of these laws were soon applied to free African Americans as well as Native Americans. The combination of such laws and the harsh conditions led to violent revolts.

Slave revolts emerged all throughout the colonies but New York had the worst of these revolts. As a result of harsh conditions, slaves began to resist forcefully. Rebellions occurred there in 1708, 1712 and 1741. After the rebellion of 1741, thirteen slaves were burned alive as punishment for revolting. This also served as a warning to other slaves not to revolt. Slavery became a part of the new kind of society that emerged in North America which was built on relationships between ordinary people as well as inequality and the superiority of the British.

These race relations also led in part to larger wars such as the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The British not only treated the Native Americans unfairly by taking over their land and waging war on them but they also treated African Americans with inequality by treating them as a piece of property rather than as human beings. The enslavement of African Americans, and constant war with the Native Americans became such a routine practice that it just evolved into the standard norm of that time period.