Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Term Paper thesis

The many key sea battle of Napolean's fleet, Trafalger, showed that Napolean's military genius commanding and using men on land did not carry over to the organization of his fleet and it's leadership; he commanded his fleet from France with messages and although he was not physically there the presence of his orders was a constant reality for his officers. The real failure of the French navy for Napolean against the British at Trafalger was not Nelson's strategy and the royal navy but the hierarchy of fear command structure that his officers, including Admiral VIllaneuve, followed, with Napolean on top.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

Mubarek and Louis XVI, French Revolution and Egyptian Revolution

Similarities

Louis: Absolute ruler
Mubarak: dictator

Louis: Came to power because Louis XV died
Mubarak: came to power because Anwar el-Sadat was killed

Louis: forced out of office and executed because of French revolution
Mubarak: forced out of office because of Egyptian revolution

Louis: In 1789, the National Assembly goes against the king and his people, riots start to break out around the country.
Mubarak: In 1986, riots break out against Mubarak and his government; this is the most serious riot yet.

Louis: He keeps his friends that are nobles in places of power, and never assigns someone from a lower class to a position of power.
Mubarak: Mubarak assigns is friends positions in his cabinet, like Atef Obeid.

Louis: The National Assembly is formed and begins to go against King Louis XVI.
Mubarak: The Muslim Brotherhood fights to gain more seats in the Egyptian parliament so that they can rise against Mubarak.

Louis: When he found out that the National Assembly refused to be a part of his Estates General, he said the Third Estate was no longer welcome in his Estates General.
Mubarak: When he found out his people were revolting against him, he shut down all means of communication

Differences

Louis: made peace treaties with countries far away like the United States
Mubarak: made peace treaties with neighboring countries and areas like Israel

Louis: the economy of France was deteriorating but he did nothing to change that, he only continued to tax the poor
Mubarak: in the beginning of his regime, he tried to better the economy of Egypt

Louis: He avoids meeting with leaders of countries that France normally has problems with, like England.
Mubarak: He meets with the leader of Israel in 1986, despite having previous problems with
Israel.

Louis: He was an absolute ruler and therefore did not allow for any laws to be made that could kick him out of his position as king.
Mubarak: Egypt has a parliament so the constitution was amended so that people could run against Mubarak. (2005)

2. In the French Revolution people were protesting because their government was in huge debt and instead of taxing the rich most of the taxes were being forced on the poor. The poor were forced to pay the most taxes while the top 2% were paying very little or no taxes. This caused the people of France to protest because they were being treated unfairly by the King.

In the Egyptian revolution the people were protesting because Mubarek had been ruling for 30 years and over this period of time he had become a dictator. He made it impossible for anyone else to become president and he was thinking of handing the leadership of Egypt to his son. When the people protested against Mubarek he used the police and military against them and shut down communications. The people were protesting because their rights were being taken away.

3.
French Revolution
- Marched on Versailles

- Olympe de Gouges writes a pamphlet called the Rights of Women which helps spread the word during the revolution that they deserve equal rights with men.

- Women weren’t officially allowed to take part in the revolution but they conducted most of the marches against the monarchy and because of this woman were banned from gathering in groups.

Egyptian Revolution

- Egyptian women march and protest in Tahrir square and outside the presidential palace.

- Women take part in many peaceful marches in Cairo and Alexandria despite the curfue posted by Mubarek.

- Women volunteer in Tahrir square and help by setting up makeshift utility stations and hand out food and water.

4. Many are concerned that even though Mubarek has resigned the government of Egypt will return to being ruled by a dictatorship. Right now the army has taken control of the country and set up a supreme council to rule Egypt. What the people do not want is a situation like what happened to France after it's revolution in which the Committee of public safety headed by Robespierre began executing thousands of potential "threats" to the new republic. The army says it will control the country for 6 months or until elections can be held. Hopefully Egypt will have a smooth transition into a democratic country.

5. People in the French Revolution did not have the internet so they expressed their views mostly through protesting, the printing of pamphlets and public speeches. Eventually they became violent and used guns and other weapons to revolt against Louis XVI.

The people of Egypt originally expressed their views through the internet and then they began to protest against Mubarek openly in the street. They set fire to government buildings and in some cases fought with police sent by Mubarek to stop the protests. When the internet and communications were cut off for them they gathered in Tahrir Square and refused to leave until Mubarek stepped down from power.

6. The protests are now over because Mubarek has resigned however some days were violent and protesters often clashed with riot police in the early days of the protests. Some Egyptians were killed accidentally during the protests aswell. In many cases the protesters surged through police to set fire to government buildings or to get to Tahrir square. Now that Mubarek has stepped down people are leaving the square and starting to return to normal life.

7. People are optimistic that Egypt is now heading in the right direction and that hopefully fair elections will be held and that the military will not over use it's power. After Mubarek stepped down people rejoiced in the square and the protests became like a party. Posts on twitter were saying to rejoice that Mubarek has fallen and that freedom had prevailed. In short, the people are optimistic that Egypt has been improved with the fall of Mubarek. People are celebrating on twitter with tweets in arabic that basically say, "Yay Mubarek has fallen" or tweets saying that the square is a party. Egypt is celebrating.

8. The possible outcomes that I can see for Egypt based on our study of the French Revolution are that the country has many possible paths it can go. It could end up like France, controlled by revolutionaries turned tyrants or the opposite could happen. Egypt could become a true democracy and set an example for the rest of the Arab world. The new balance of power in the Middle east could be a building block for democracy in the Arab world. Right now we can only speculate and see how events play out.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Surprise DBQ

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the terror as an instrument in the French revolution.
Outline
Advantages
- potential dissenters all killed leading to more stable government
- Those who would consider rebelling are fearful of death
- The new government could use their estates and wealth as their own
Disadvantages
- Many skilled and innocent people killed.
- The Revolution had failed
- Fear breeds resentment

The terror was a horrible period of French History in which tens of thousands of French men and women were executed. France’s revolutionary government had become a tyrant and was killing off anyone they believed to be against their cause sometimes unjustly and with no proof whatsoever. Headed by Robespierre the committee for public safety was purging France of dissenters who they believed to be a threat. The terror was a horrible time where many people were killed but it was necessary for the preservation of the new government, namely the Committee of public safety.
The fear of death can be a powerful motivator and the leaders of the new Government did not use it sparingly. The sheer number of people being killed scared the masses of France who may consider rebellion from their new tyrannical government into submission. Throughout the period of the terror over 8000 peasants and members of the working class were executed according to document 2. Many were likely innocent but the fact that anyone could be killed caused fear and a lack of will to rebel. General Ronsin of the revolutionary army justified the killings by saying the killings, “will carry terror into the departments where the seed of rebellion was sown.”(Doc 5) General Ronsin was right, even though it took the deaths of thousands to do it. The people were galvanized into agreeing with the Committee of public safety and accepting what was pretty much a period of tyrannical rule. In a report to the committee one reporter wrote, “On seeing peasants on the scaffold, people said, What, have these wretches allowed themselves to be corrupted? ...‘The law is just,’ people remarked, ‘it strikes rich and poor indiscriminately.’ The verdicts of the Revolutionary Tribunal are always applauded.”(Doc12) The fear of the guillotine also compelled many to join the ranks of the revolutionary army and fight for the committee. William Pitt the British Prime minister said in a speech to parliament about the reliance of the French armies that, “They are compelled into the field by the terror of the guillotine…what can be the dependence on the steadiness of their operations, or what rational prospect can there be of the permanence of their exertions?” (Doc 8) The terror killed thousands of innocents but it secured the position of the government from rebellion and bolstered the strength of it’s armies.
On the other hand the terror was also a terrible hindrance to France and it’s people. Thousands of skilled laborers were killed in Paris and throughout the country (Doc 2). Fear also breeds resentment, you can only terrorize the people so long until they begin to become discontent and ready to depose a government. A report sent to the Committee later in the month of the other report states this, “The revolutionary committees are every day falling into discredit. You daily hear that they consist of a number of intriguers, who plunder the nation and oppress citizens, It is a fact that there is no section in Paris which is not dissatisfied with its revolutionary committee or does not seriously desire to have them abolished.” (Doc 13) The revolutionary committee had gone too far with it’s relentless extermination of the citizens of France.
The terror helped to stabilize France and to unite its people even if it was through fear, however the insensibility of the killings caused the French people to become unhappy and many skilled people were executed under no legal grounds. However, the terror did stabilize the country and allow it to protect itself from invaders by forcefully recruiting through fear men to join their armies.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Candide Essay outline

Thesis: Pangloss has an optimistic philosophy that seems naive and ill thought out throughout most of the novel while Martin's philosophy seems more realist and practical in accordance with the events that plague the characters in the novel. The realistic views of Martin best represent the events of Candide and his story, and this realism is also a preferable philosophy the optimistic outlook of Pangloss.

I. Martin's realistic view of life in Candide is a much better reference to reflect upon the events of the story and what befalls Candide and his companions.
A. Oftentimes in the story Candide is tricked by characters who take advantage of his naivety and his initial faith in that people are inherently good.
B. Candide learns the hard way that not everyone is to be trusted and that some people are not who they say they are.
C. This shows that Martin's realistic view of society and people is superior to that of Pangloss' because if Candide had believed in Martin's philosophy he would have been aware of these tricks.

II. Pangloss' view of how the world is the best of all possible worlds and that everything that happens is for the best may seem like the more appealing argument but it is unrealistic and over-optimistic.
A. During the story Pangloss often disregards horrible events and uses his philosophy as an excuse to explain away horrible events as the best possible outcome.
B. Pangloss himself doubts his philosophy at the end of the book because of all the hardships that befell him.
C. The only reason he stands by his belief is because of pride and that a philosopher can never abandon his philosophy.

III. Candide is exposed to both these men and their ideas throughout the story and his ideas change often as he desperately tries to defend the ideas that he grew up on.
A. Candide grows up learning from Pangloss about his philosophy and that everything that happens is for the best and that men are good. When he starts out on his adventures he is incredibly naïve because of this.
B. As Candide’s story develops and he meets Martin he learns that there is another way to look at things. At first he fights the idea that Pangloss was wrong but as so many unfortunate events befall him his viewpoint begins to shift.
C. By the end of the story Candide is leaning towards Martin’s views as reality has pummeled him.