History Essay 14

How does Friedrich Gentz distinguish between the American and French Revolutions? Do you see the influence of Edmund Burke in his thinking?

Friedrich Gentz was a German writer and diplomat in the late eighteenth century at the beginning of the French Revolution. Gentz predicted that the French Revolution would turn into a mess because of the radical change that happened seemingly overnight. Gentz said that change should happen gradually so it is not so much of a shock to civilization. Gentz compared the American Revolution which he supported, to the French Revolution. The difference between the two was that the American Revolution was based off of support for tradition. The people who lived in the colonies were born Englishmen, who believed they should not have those rights stripped away just because they went to populate a different part of Britain. The French Revolution scoffed at tradition, didn’t see the importance of it and completely remade France. Gentz saw the French Revolution as dangerous because he saw the way it could turn into a dictatorship, which it did become when Napoleon took over authority.

 

What points is Mary Wollstonecraft making in the excerpts you read from the beginning of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman? What would she like to see changed in European society?

Mary Wollstonecraft was an advocate for the rights of women in the late eighteenth century. Mary was a full time writer, which was a strange occupation for a woman back in the eighteenth century. She would talk about women’s rights in her essay’s and didn’t receive a lot of support for her writings. Mary published A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 but it didn’t gain much momentum until the late twentieth century when feminism was very popular among women. Mary eventually married to William Godwin and died giving birth to their child, Mary Shelly, who wrote Frankenstein.

Mary Wollstonecraft helped pave the way for first wave feminism. Many feminists in the late twentieth century cited and read her works and she is considered the first feminist by many people. Mary talks about how women should get equal education as men and women are only considered inferior and weak to men because they don’t have equal opportunities. Mary also talked about how even though women are naturally weaker then men, it should not take away our humanity and it does not make women mere objects for men to use. Mary wanted women to use their minds, to contribute to society, which Mary felt women were not doing at the time.

History Essay 13

How would you summarize the principles of the French Revolution in its first three years?

In the beginning of the French Revolution people wanted to abolish the Aristocratic privilege and get rid of the heavy debt and taxes. The Third Estate demanded equal voting rights as there was no representation for them. They demanded that voting should happen by the head and that the delegates be doubled. While the King’s council was open to doubling the delegates they insisted that voting should happen by the estate. In 1791 the Third Estate had written a constitution for France that had a legislative body, while the King had a suspension veto.

 

What was the situation of the Church in France after Napoleon came to power?

After the Revolution had taken a turn for the extreme the Papacy was not in a good place. After France had invaded Rome in 1798 the Papacy was harassed by soldiers, most Priests would rather be killed then submit to the Revolution, which is what they were granted. Napoleon was granted absolute power to try and restore France. In 1800 Pope Pius VII was elected into the Papal office. Napoleon knew that France was majorly a Catholic country and it did not make sense to torment other Catholic priests. In 1801 Napoleon signed a contract with Pope Pius VII that granted the priests safety and religious toleration. But the contract stated that the state would still control the church. Pope Pius VII was grateful that France had at least allowed Catholicism to remain in France.

English 3 Essay 12

“After Satan’s rebellion, Satan was motivated more by his envy of God than his jealousy of God: true or false?”

John Milton’s Last Paradise is about Satan but is not theologically correct. He purposely did not follow the Bible and instead made it like an epic Greek piece of poetry. In the beginning of the book it talks about Satan falling out of heaven into hell, while Satan was cast out of heaven he did not immediately go hell and we know this because there is no evidence in the scriptures. We are not entirely sure when Satan was sent to hell but it must have been after the fall of man because, “For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23. Therefore if there was no death before then, there was no need for hell.

Throughout the book Milton contradicts himself constantly by saying that God is in complete control, then fate is in power, destiny, death, chaos, the list goes on and on and he never tells us who he thinks has complete control. At the end of the book is where it really turns into a Greek epic because Satan is told he had a son with Sin, Death, and things take a turn. There is no recordings of this in the Bible, death and sin are not living breathing beings, sin and death are actions. Sin is when humans rebel against God, death is our consequence for rebelling, sinning against God.

Satan’s motivation to rebel against God is done out of envy rather than jealousy. I believe that this is true. When Satan first rebelled he thought he was bigger than God, he was wrong. Satan’s first motivation was to be powerful like God or more powerful than God. Instead Satan was cast out of heaven with a third of the angel’s. Satan temped Eve, bringing sin into the world when we rebelled. That was an action done out of envy, he didn’t gain anything by tempting her. Ever since then Satan has been bringing destruction and chaos into the world, Satan doesn’t gain anything from tempting us. When Jesus died on the cross I am sure Satan thought he won, until Jesus rose from the dead, then Satan knew that he had lost forever.

Why? When Jesus died on the cross what changed? This was Jesus purpose from the time he was a baby, he was sent from heaven to die for us all and build a bridge to God. We can not cleanse ourselves, so when Jesus died his blood washed away our sins. When Jesus rose from the dead he defeated the grave, showing his power and showing that he is the son of God. Things changed for Satan because before there was no way to bring us to God, before Jesus rose he thought that God lost. After Jesus rose he knew that he would never win.

History Essay 12

What was “enlightened absolutism”?

Enlightened absolutism was a form of absolutism that held some or all of the views from the enlightenment. Monarchs who were enlightened absolutists normally believed in religious toleration, domination over the church, they also normally had contact with many of the thinkers and philosophers from the enlightenment. The countries that took hold of this view were Prussia, Russia, Austria and slightly effected Spain.

What was the constitutional dispute between the colonists and the British government that led to the American Revolution? Give specific examples of how this constitutional dispute was evident in particular events (e.g., the Stamp Act).

The thirteen colonies who seceded from Britain left because of the conflict between them. The colonists wanted to have self-government while Britain wanted to take control over the colonies. The colonists believed that because they were born Englishmen they should have the same rights that you would have in England, just because they were not in Britain did not mean that it forfeited their rights. Britain would often tax the colonists and they believed they had the right to refuse those taxes because it did not follow the traditional way of English customs. While Britain tried to stop self- government through a series of taxes, the colonists refused to accept the taxes which frustrated Britain. One of the most famous waves of taxes was the tax on glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. The taxing of these things lead to the Townshend Acts in 1767, where colonists boycotted and wrote about these taxes. Britain took back the taxing of these things except for tea which was a symbol that Britain gave to the colonists, telling them they had power over the colonists. Both the colonists and Britain would not budge and when the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord were fired the American Revolution began.

English 3 Essay 11

“Would any of Bacon’s essays have been more persuasive if he had talked about his own experiences? Which ones? Why?”

Francis Bacon was a writer, he wrote many essays and his most famous piece of literature is called the New Atlantis. His essays were around a couple pages and talked about his opinions on adversity, envy, love, trouble, etc. Bacon loved writing descriptive details in his writing but deviated from evidence to back up his opinions. You could get Bacon’s opinion on the subject matter from the first line, Bacon normally wrote his opinion in the very beginning and would then in the rest of the essay go into detail. In his essay, of Love you can understand what his opinions are very easily.

“The stage is more beholding to love, than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a siren, sometimes like a fury.”

Bacon does not talk about himself, he talks about other people and their experiences. I think that talking about himself it would make his essays more personal. Bacon would obviously be writing about himself which is brave because being private is one of the easiest things to do as humans. It gives the reader something to try and connect to, not a great figure which Bacon normally talked about, they can be hard to connect with mainly because most of us never have the opportunity to experience what they did. In his essay of Love he talks about Marcus Antonius, in of Adversity he talks about Hercules. These are both people who are very well known and go through things that aren’t going to connect with people.

If Bacon talked about himself I also think that he could have used it as persuasion. People can connect with people, we do connect with people, it’s how we were created, it’s a part of our human nature to be with other people. When someone has gone through something that other people can relate to or feel sympathy and empathy for, it means that they care in some way, whether they realize it or not. Bacon was very opposed to love, he says that love keeps you from gaining power, love makes you weak. Many powerful people have been and are married, King David from the Bible, George Washington, President Trump were and are married. Bacon is opposed to love and I can’t help but wonder if maybe he had a bad experience, if he did he could have used it to say that a bad experience of love makes you weak and feel powerless.

History Essay 11

Explain the views of the French materialists.

Materialism is the belief that the body does not have a soul, therefore making it like a machine designed to obey it’s commands and it’s nature. Baron d’ Hollbach stated that humans don’t have a free will because they are only naturally reacting to their surroundings. La Mettrie said that humans are above animals because we have a purpose and the pursuit of something, pleasure. These were the main popular beliefs of materialists.

What does Adam Smith mean by the “invisible hand”?

Adam Smith studied economics and further developed it’s study although he did not create economics. Adam Smith talks of an “invisible hand” in the trading market, saying that it runs off of self-interest. He says that self-interest is good because having a special trade of good quality is helping society. When you have something of good quality and someone else has something different of good quality then you can have a mutual exchange.

On what grounds have historians argued that King Louis XV damaged France as well as the cause of absolute monarchy?

King Louis XIV was an absolutist and it was his goal to defeat the parlements, though he never completed that goal. After the death of Louis XIV his son Louis XV took the throne at five years old and the parlements started to slowly come back into power. When King Louis XV came of age to rule France he reasserted his power ruling as an absolutist like his father, destroying the power of the parlements.

English 3 Essay 10

“Is it easier to read Shakespeare or the King James Bible?”

Shakespeare and the King James Bible are both renowned works of literature that are still acknowledged to this day. In a similar style of writing both works have phrases that stick out and catch attention from the eye and the ear. Although it is not known when Shakespeare started writing, his plays were preformed by 1592, making it only fourteen years until the King James Bible started to be written. Based on the fact that Shakespeare was alive when the King James Bible was written and the fact that his plays were so popular, I think that the writers and translators took inspiration from Shakespeare. I find it interesting that although no one spoke in the flowery language that Shakespeare and the King James Bible used they were both still very popular. It might have been why some biblical scholars decided to write it then. Shakespeare wrote the same way and was successful, so they might as well try. In fact the strange language was probably an advantage to them, making their works able to transport people into a different world.

Do I find Shakespeare or the King James Bible easier to read? I personally find the King James Bible easier to read. I find it easier to read because I have read and am still reading the Bible in a more modern style. When reading the King James Bible I have something to base it off of and figure out what the writers are talking about. Shakespeare does not have this advantage. I like fast paced plots and in Shakespeare’s Macbeth the murder happens off stage, after the first act, which is central to the plot. After the murder, it is four acts of Macbeth feeling guilty for what he has done and in the end kills himself. Even though I would choose the King James Bible over Shakespeare, I still prefer a different translation of Bible.

In conclusion both Shakespeare and the King James Bible were written around the same time. They both use language that is flowery and very poetic. I like the fact that both took the risk of the literature not being sold because of the strange language, however I still prefer the King James Bible over Shakespeare.