Tuesday 3 May 2011

Kaplan Practice Test

30/80

TOPICS:
- Napoleon
- Peter the Great and Catherine the Great
- John Calvin and Calvinism
- The 1920's
- Scientific developments after the Scientific Revolution
- American Revolution
- Agriculture, 18th century Agricultural Revolution
- Yugoslavia and other small countries (Georgia, Romania, etc.)
- Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution
- The Warsaw Pact
- Japan in WW1
- Prussia
- Seven Years War
- Bauhaus
- Post-war WW2 and Nazi party ideals
- Colonialism and Imperialism after the Age of Exploration
- Hapsburg Empire in Austria

TERMS:
- Corn Laws
- Zollverein (German trade union)
- The Pretender
- The Chapelier Law
- The Great Awakening
- Realpolitik
- Laissez-Faire

Friday 15 April 2011

World War I DBQ

**Ever since the period of nationalism, countries in Europe had felt a very strong sense of who they were as nations.  They were proud of their heritages just like they were proud of their religions, and many thought they were superior to others because of this.  These ethnicities and religions also brought countries that shared these characteristic together, forming alliances.  With these prejudices against other ethnicities, nationalities, and religions came much tension.  With every country striving for superiority, war was almost inevitable.  Though the Black Hand murdering Franz Ferdinand is considered the thing that began WWI, that was only the spark to start the fire.  The kindling that had been building up over the years was really these prejudices.  The alliances between all the countries that fought in WWI were built previously based on ethnicity and religion, and these alliances were why the war happened as it did.
**One of the two big alliances that was formed was the Triple Alliance.  This alliance was between Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy.  Austria first formed the alliance with Germany, based on ethnic similarities between the two.  It states in the Dual Alliance Between Austria-Hungary and Germany, "Should one of the High Contracting Parties be attacked by another Power, the other High Contracting Party binds itself hereby, not only not to support the aggressor against its high Ally, but to observe at least a benevolent neutral attitude towards its fellow Contracting Party" (doc. 1). This states almost exactly what would happen during WWI; "Austria-Hungary consequently considers herself henceforward in state of war with Serbia"(doc. 7), officially starting WWI by declaring war on Serbia, and Germany would be required to come to their aid to overcome the opposing party. This alliance formed because of ethnic similarities would be a deciding factor in the way the war would play out. This effect can be seen to its greatest extent in a telegraph between ruler of Germany William II and tsar of Russia Nicholas II. In their conversation, William II signs his message "You most sincere and devoted friend and cousin" (doc. 8). In response, Nicholas II begs, "I urge You in the name of our old friendship to do all in Your power to restrain Your ally [Austria-Hungary] from going too far" (doc. 8). But despite this plea and because of the alliance between Germany and Austria, Germany still must do all in its power to assist its ally. In Germany's declaration of war against Russia, this is addressed: "In compliance with a wish expressed to him by His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, the German Emperor had undertaken, in concert with Great Britain, the part of mediator between the Cabinets of Vienna and St. Petersburg; but Russia, without waiting for any result, proceeded to a general mobilization of her forces both on land and sea" (doc. 9). The Germans, though, wanted to seem like they had a true cause for war, so they tried to appear to have as peaceful intentions as possible, though this might not be completely true.
**Pan-Slavism, a movement in the mid-1800s, would also have a big effect on the war.  This movement was an attempt to unite all the Slavic ethnicities, such as the Serbs, Croats, and Slavs with the Austro-Hungarians. Though this did not fully work out in the case of Austria-Hungary, the smaller Balkan nations were still united. Serbia, Romania, and their neighbors all banded together because of their shared Slavic roots. In Serbia, this sense of teogetherness was especially strong, and they strove to ostracize anyone who was not Slavic. The by-laws of the organization of the Black Hand states, "Beyond the frontiers of Serbia, fight with all means the enemies of the Serbian national idea"  (doc. 6)  They were prepared to defend themselves and their fellow Slavs at any cost, and so when war broke out, the South-Slavic countries were quick to band together against Austria-Hungary.
**Similar characteristics not only brought countries together, but they also pitted nations against one another.   Howard Stewart Chamberlain writes, "Certain anthropologists would fain teach us that all races are equally gifted; we point to history and answer: that is a lie!"  (doc. 3).  Presumably German, Chamberlain, as many other Germans of that time, believed his race above all others. This superiority complex led Germans to even despise other nations who also thought they were the best nation. Eyre Crowe also discusses how the Germans feel about themselves in saying, "And as it is an axiom of her political faith that right, in order that it may prevail, must be backed by force, the transition is easy to the belief that the "good German sword," which plays so large a part in patriotic speech, is there to solve any difficulties that may be in the way of establishing the reign of those ideals in a Germanized world"  (doc. 4).  Germans believed that they themselves could overcome any sort of problem that was to arise in the world, they were smart enough, and were generally superior to everyone.
**Through the entire time before the First World War, tensions among all the countries of Europe had been brewing.  These tensions turned into bitter disputes and arguments, while similar characteristics between countries turned into alliances.  These alliances were what determined the outcome of WWI, and what actually allowed the war itself to happen and become as large as it did.

Monday 4 April 2011

Animal Farm Discussion

Marx:  Major
Stalin:  Napoleon
Trotsky: Snowball
Lenin:  Major/Napoleon

- Do you think that people living in any community can even truly be equal?
Martha Schick: There will always be people that are going to take power if the opportunity is available, and there will always be people with a greater amount of more valuable skills. If, let's say, this class overthrew Wojo and started teaching our own class, I would be the first to try and organize it. I would be a Napoleon.
Brianna Glase: I agree that it would be impossible for everyone to be equal after a period of time, because power is tempting and corrupting and someone would definitely want to take control.
Becca Kotula: People could never be truly equal because everyone's just different already.

- Do communities need leaders, or do leaders cause more trouble than they are worth?
Martha Schick: Communities need leaders or else people will come about power in a way that people will take advantage of. In general, any leader can take advantage of power, but if leaders are elected fairly instead of pretending that they don't exist there's less of a chance that they'll try to take over.
Becca Kotula: I don't think you can be with or without a leader, kind of. You need a leader, because if you don't have a leader nothing will get done and everyone will just do what they want, but if you have a leader they'll end up making some bad decisions and there will be people who don't like him. But communities need leaders because eventually they'll please most of the people.
Brianna Glase: Leaders are important because without them there wouldn't really be any control over all the people.

- What is more important: the rights of the community or the rights of the individual?
Martha Schick: The rights of the individual are more important. Without rights of an individual, there wouldn't be able to be any change. You can't get an entire community to agree, especially if you're not allowed to try and get the community to agree.
Brianna Glase: I say that the rights of the community are more important because of the idea of the greater good and the benefit for an entire group of people as opposed to just one person.
Becca Kotula: I think that the rights of the individual are important because if individuals don't have rights then everyone will be angry and just try and fight for their rights.
Brianna Glase: If there's too big a focus on individual rights that could lead to the idea that everyone's equal, but some people are more equal and others and they think that their rights are more important than everyone else's, which could lead to divisions and inequality.

- If it benefits society, should bad things be allowed to happen to good people?
Martha Schick: No. I mean, take Libya for example. You can't look at it as obviously everyone thinks Gaddafi is insane but the way he thinks about it he thinks that if he puts down the rebels then everything will return to normal, but if the community was doing well then you wouldn't have to kill all these people anyway.
Becca Kotula: No, nothing should be allowed to happen to the individual because then the community could be scared if they start killing people, and then they won't like their leader more and more. If you hurt one individual for the community, then everyone will be affected.
Brianna Glase: I disagree again, and I think that the greater good is more important than just one person. Say there was a crazy ax murderer killing a bunch of people, would you rather put that one guy to death or let him go on a rampage and kill a bunch more people or just kill the one guy and save everyone else?
Martha Schick: You could put him in jail for life. It costs less money to put someone in jail for life than to kill him, so putting him to death would be less money for the community anyway.
Brianna Glase: But it's not like they would take a collection for his death, they have the tax money anyway.
Martha Schick: Yeah, but if they put a bunch of people to death they'd have to raise taxes, especially in a small community.
Brianna Glase: That's true. But still, what if he was rich and could bail himself out of jail?
Martha Schick: If he committed a bad enough felony, the judge wouldn't allow bail.
Brianna Glase:For purpose of debate, what if he didn't kill that many people and he could afford the bail?
Martha Schick: Don't you think the judge would be aware of the fact that he had a lot of money? The judge is not gonna give him the option to easily walk back out on the street and kill more people.

- Explain whether or not you think this is true:  all John Carroll students are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Martha Schick: That is completely true. Regardless of whether you divide it by student government, the classes, student popularity, whether they're in AP or honors classes, there will always be students who are better than others at something. The people who are good at sports, the people who are in student government, the people who are unmotivated won't get the same opportunities as others. This class isn't equal to a regular history class, but there might be sports people in that other class who are headed to the Junior Olympics. There will always be people who are better than others at something.
Becca Kotula: I agree with the some are more equal than others. We're all students, but there are different ways of measuring how equal we are. There's different levels of equality.
Brianna Glase: I agree with both of you, because to a certain extent we're all equal, like we're all American citizens mostly and we have American rights, and we're mostly all in the middle class area, but within the school there are divisions and differences between us all.

Friday 25 March 2011

Socialism and Marxism DBQ

**In Europe, the artistic period after Romanticism was one of much change.  In this period, Realism, artists and authors started to move away from the idea of nature and instead focused on life itself.   Realism as a genre of art was one of the first types of paintings to show Europe as it really was.  By studying the paintings done in this time period, one can easily see the lives of the working and middle class.  However, Realism did not necessarily show how the middle class had changed.  Rather, the art of the Realist period showed the middle class as it always was, along with documenting the truth of how industrialized Europe had become.
**In past artistic movements, the main focus of art had often been religious figures or important political figures.  Even though they might have shown common people, one could tell that the scenes themselves were of great importance without having to read too much into them.  In Eugene Delacroix's painting of French revolutionaries lead by a women carrying the revolutionary flag, this was clearly a pivotal point in French history.  This scene depicted in this painting was of great significance to France as a whole.  On the other hand, Fig. 1 shows simple people riding on a train.  The train itself is not very important, nor are any of the people in it.  These are the true common people.  There was a small majority of middle-class men or women who actually participated in the fight for rights in the French Revolution.  Fig. 1, being a Realistic painting, showed these people as they really were: folk with simple lives and simple tasks to do, tasks that do not involve fighting in glorious wars.  Fig. 2 is another simple painting.  The people in this are merely taking a merry stroll down the street as the rain is clearing up.  There is nothing truly extraordinary going on.  In one painting of the previous Romantic era, The Raft of the Medusa, every person on the shipwrecked raft is doing something, the picture is busy and full of action.  This is hardly ever the case in reality.  Real life is often slow paced and leisurely, not as hectic as that painting portrays.  Fig. 2 instead shows how real life is often as easy as a stroll down the street, nothing too exciting.
**One specific way the paintings of the Realistic era convey the truth is that they convey the truth as the artist sees it him- or herself.  The painter of Fig. 1 saw the common people more sad and downtrodden.  Weary people on a crowded train, thinking about all the things that need to be done.  There are people talking and there are people sleeping -- both adults and a baby.  Maybe the artist took a ride on a train one day and was inspired to paint exactly what he saw.  What he saw turned out to be a troubled middle class, but only troubled by their own troubles, petty day-to-day troubles, little troubles that everyone is worried about, making this painting seem even more realistic.  The painter of Fig. 2 seemed to see the world in a different way.  He shows the people in his art as possibly more esteemed, judging by their fancy garb and top hats.  He saw a finer side to the common people, and this is the message he tried to convey in his piece.  In artistic periods prior to this, common people were common people, all pretty much the same and represented how artistic law told painters to represent them.  The Realistic period is when the truth comes out, that even within a social class people can be different -- and so can the way that different people interpret them -- and this fact was represented in both Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.
**Another bit of truth that paintings of the Realistic era convey is indeed one of change: change in technology and industry.  In Fig. 1, the people are riding on a train, possible a steam engine or maybe an electric one, to get to their destination.  Trains were invented much before the Realistic era, but this was the time that technology like this started to appear in paintings.  In Fig. 2, one can see signs of industry mostly from the buildings in the background.  These large structures are well on their way to becoming skyscrapers.  Often in times before this, paintings had not had clear, detailed images of buildings of this time.  Both Delacroix's painting and The Raft of the Medusa do not have any clear buildings in them.  But even through all these changes in industry shown through these Realistic paintings, the middle class is the middle class in the middle class.  The world changed around them, maybe their jobs changed, maybe their pay changed for better or for worse, the both Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 convey the truth that the middle class stays the same throughout all of these new developments.
**The time of Realism was indeed a time in which artists could show real life as it was in actuality.  This was an even farther step forward than Romanticism in stepping away from the once-customary Church commissioned paintings.  Realism, as the name suggests, was real.  Realism was one of the first types of art to show the middle class as it really was; a middle class that, even through the industrializing world, had not really changed.  Of course, there were people in the middle class that rose up, for example the Third Estate becoming the bourgeois factory owners, but there was just another middle class -- the proletariat, in this case -- to take their place.  Through both Fig. 1 and Fig 2., the respective artists show the middle class as it was, is, and shall be: a working, sometimes struggling class, with ordinary problems living their ordinary lives, even through all of the change.

Friday 18 March 2011

Italian and French Revolutions FRQ

**Joseph Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi were two revolutionary leaders in what would become known as Italy supporting the poor and downtrodden working class.  Likewise, in France during the time of their revolution, the peasants in the Third Assembly were the ones who revolted from the Estates General and King Louis.  However, in Italy there was no absolute monarch that the people were revolting against.  The main difference between the revolutionaries in Italy and the revolutionaries in France was that in France their main purpose was to break away from their current monarchy, whereas in Italy their main purpose was to help the poor to a better life by first establishing a government, not by revising one that was already there.
**In France in the late 1700s, there was to be an Estates General with the nobility of the First Assembly, the clergy of the Second Assembly, and the common people of the Third Assembly.  However, thinking they deserved more rights than they were being offered, the people of the Third Assembly rebelled, refusing to attend the Estates General, locking themselves inside a tennis court building, and writing their Tennis Court Oath.  The people of what was now being called the National Assembly wanted a new kind of government, which was the main reason that they revolted.  They wanted King Louis to overturn the throne, or at least establish some sort of unicameral or bicameral assembly so that power would be evenly distributed within the country.  They wrote various documents including a new constitution to try and get their current leaders to see that something must be changed.
**Mazzini and Garibaldi and their followers revolted because of almost the exact opposite reason.  In the loose confederation of city-states that would become known as Italy, there was nothing that united them like the King united France.  Lombardy and Venetia were owned by Austria, Piedmont-Sardinia was its own independent state, the Vatican had its own territory in the papal states, etc.  In this convoluted conglomeration of lands and people, there was no direct order.  In this boot-shaped mess, the poor people often got left behind or neglected.  In France, the people were neglected because the king and his nobles went off to enjoy a life of luxury in Versailles, not because there was no nobility to take care of them and their needs.
**Mazzini and Garibaldi led their revolutions not because they wanted to change the governmental structure from something they did not like, but because they wanted to have some sort of concrete governmental structure in the first place.  Just like Victor Emmanuel and Count Cavour of Piedmont-Sardinia wanted Italy to be united, Mazzini and Garibaldi also wanted some sort of order.  They wanted someone to represent the poor, to make their lives better.  The closest thing they had was the Vatican, but the Pope and his bishops were too involved in religion to be true governmental leaders.  They could not help the poor in the same way that a King or some political leader could.  France revolted because they had a real leader that they wanted to overthrow; Mazzini and Garibaldi revolted for the people, so that a new leader would come and let a new world rise up like the sun.
**Though revolutions can sometimes blend together and all seem the same, the difference between the revolution of Mazzini and Garibaldi and the French Revolution was that the former occurred in the lack of the government to help the common people, whereas the latter occurred to change the current government to help the common people.  France, obviously, was at least a nation when the people revolted; Italy was not even its own independent country.  In the end, both France got its constitutional monarchy and Italy got its government under King Victor Immanuel, though neither worked out exactly like the revolutionaries had imagined it.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Kaplan Unit Four Review

1.  C
*2.  B
*3.  C
*4.  B
*5.  E
*6.  C
*7.  C
8.  B
*9.  C
*10.  E
*11.  C
12.  A
*13.  E
*14.  D
*15.  B
*16. C
17.  A
18.  B
*19.  E
20.  A
Total score: 6/20

Monday 14 March 2011

Final Term Paper Outline

PURPOSE:  What is the main reason that caused women to take part in the French Revolution?

THESIS:  Women took part in the French Revolution primarily because of writings like Olympe de Gouges's Declaration on the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen and Nicolas de Condorcet's On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship; if not for women being educated by such publications, they would not have been inspired to participate in the revolution alongside the men.

DEFINITIONS:
Olympe de Gouges
Nicolas and Sophie Concordet
Mary Wollstonecraft
Etta Palm d'Aelders

TYPES OF SOURCES:
Primary Sources:  June 20, 1789: Tennis Court Oath;  August 27, 1789: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen; 1793: Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen; 1795: Declaration of Rights and Duties of Man and Citizen; Nicolas de Concordet, July 1790: On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship;  Olympe de Gouge, 1791: Declaration on the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen;  Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792:  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman;  1790:  The French Outbreak;  1790:  French Verse Poem Freer than Freedom Itself;  Various Protestant Reformation Pamphlets;  1789: List of Grievances and Claims of Women; Lequino, February 17, 1792: Plea for Divorce and Women's Freedom; Guyomar, April 29, 1793:  National Convention Speech on Women's Rights; Etta Palm d'Aelders, December 30, 1790: Discourse on the Injustice of the Laws in Favor of Men, at the Expense of Women;  Paris, France, October 5, 1789: Engraving of the Women's March on Versailles; July 9, 1793:  Regulations of the Society of Revolutionary Women;
Secondary Sources:  N/A at this current point in time

OUTLINE:
A.  Background on the French Revolution
      1.  Tennis Court Oath - In June of 1789, the Third Assembly of France was locked out of the Estates General, so they christened themselves the National Assembly, locked themselves in a tennis court, and wrote and signed what became known as "The Tennis Court Oath," all in the hope of getting rights equal to the nobility and the clergy.
B.  Documents for the Rights of Men
      1. "Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights," (Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 1789)
      2.  "No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law," (Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 1789)
      3.  "The aim of the society is the common welfare," (Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 1793)
      4. "The rights of man in society are liberty, equality, security, property," (Declaration of Rights and Duties of Man and Citizen 1795)
C.  On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship
      1.  Condorcet: A man who also believes that women deserve equal rights
      2.  Believed that women were certainly capable of exercising the same rights as men
      3.  "Is there a stronger proof of the power of habit even among enlightened men than seeing the principle of equality of rights invoked in favor of three or four hundred men deprived of their rights by an absurd prejudice and at the same time forgetting those rights when it comes to twelve million women?" (Condorcet)
      4.  "Now the rights of men follow only from the fact that they are feeling beings, capable of acquiring moral ideas and of reasoning about these ideas. Since women have the same qualities, they necessarily have equal rights," (Condorcet)
      5.  "Either no individual in mankind has true rights, or all have the same ones; and whoever votes against the right of another, whatever be his religion, his color, or his sex, has from that moment abjured his own rights," (Condorcet)
      6.  "It is said that women have never been guided by what is called reason despite much intelligence, wisdom, and a faculty for reasoning developed to the same degree as in subtle dialecticians. This observation is false: they have not conducted themselves, it is true, according to the reason of men but rather according to their own. Their interests not being the same due to the defects of the laws, the same things not having for them at all the same importance as for us, they can, without being unreasonable, determine their course of action according to other principles and work toward a different goal," (Condorcet)
      7.  "If one admits such arguments against women, it would also be necessary to take away the rights of citizenship from that portion of the people who, having to work without respite, can neither acquire enlightenment nor exercise its reason, and soon little by little the only men who would be permitted to be citizens would be those who had followed a course in public law," (Condorcet)
D.  Declaration on the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen
      1.  Olympe de Gouges's challenge to women to rise up and defend their rights
            a.  "Woman, wake up; the tocsin of reason is being heard throughout the whole universe; discover your rights," (de Gouges)
            b.  "Do you fear that our French legislators, correctors of that morality, long ensnared by political practices now out of date, will only say again to you: women, what is there in common between you and us? Everything, you will have to answer," (de Gouges)
      2.  A potential social contract is provided to be used between a man and a woman
E.  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
      1.  Mary Wollstonecraft's multi-chapter piece on the rights women should have
      2.  One of the first lengthy treatises written for the benefit of women
      3. "The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear so incontrovertible; yet such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed the name of virtues, that it is necessary to pursue the course of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple axiom with casual deviations," (Wollstonecraft)
      4.  "Nothing can be so prejudicial to the morals of the inhabitants of country towns as the occasional residence of a set of idle superficial young men," (Wollstonecraft)
      5. "Men, indeed, appear to me to act in a very unphilosophical manner when they try to secure the good conduct of women by attempting to keep them always in a state of childhood," (Wollstonecraft)
F.  Similarities to the Protestant Reformation pamphlets
      1.  Revolutionary pamphlets were distributed to spread the word
            a.  "A lot of men lost in debt and crime, all of my urging laws lawful orders, and who despair of the most avoided, if everything is reversed, not exist,"  (The French Outbreak)
            b. "O beautiful kingdom! O unhappy France!Respectable old man, you come home in childhood:/It is all because of you So, it is over forever/Unreasonable people, oh! French too light,/Sweet, good, wicked, cruel, depending on the occasion:/I dream, my reader, is a vision./But, no, what I say is truth itself,/And I am filled with extreme pain;/The world sees them as fools, criminals,/Wise and gentle old, but become cruel,"  (French Verse Poem Freer than Freedom Itself)
      2.  Reformation pamphlets were one of the main reasons that Luther's reformation was able to take place
G.  Female Reactions
      1.  Discourse on the Injustice of the Laws in Favor of Men, at the Expense of Women
            a.  Etta Palm d'Aelders provides a more aggressive argument for gender equality
            b. "Justice must be the first virtue of free men, and justice demands that the laws be the same for all beings, like the air and the sun. And yet everywhere, the laws favor men at the expense of women, because everywhere power is in your hands,"  (d'Aelders)
      2.  List of Grievances and Claims of Women
            a. "The men persisted in making us victims of their pride and their injustice," (List of Grievances and Claims of Women)
H.  Male Reactions
      1.  Plea for Divorce and Women's Freedom
            a.  Lequino, a lawyer, gives a speech to the Legislative assembly asking for women's freedom
            b. "Among all nations women have lived so far in dependence on their husbands, or rather in a true state of slavery, still graduated over despotism in the political system of government," (Lequino)
      2.  Guyomar gives a speech to the National Convention about human equality
            a. "Freeing women from slavery withering humanity as we break the chains of our neighbors,"  (Guyomar)
I.  Women Taking Action
      1.  March on Versailles that was primarily attended by women to revolt against the nobility
      2.  Society of Revolutionary Republic Women
            a.  "The Society's purpose is to be armed to rush to the defense of the Fatherland; citoyennes [citizens] are nonetheless free to arm themselves or not," (Regulations of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women)


WORKS CITED:
d'Aelders, E.P. (1790, December 30). Discourse on the injustice of the laws in favor of men, at the expense of women. Retrieved from http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/476/

de Condorcet, N. (1790, July). On the admission of women to the rights of citizenship. Retrieved from http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/292/

de Gouges, O. (1791). Declaration on the rights of woman and the female citizen. Retrieved from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1791degouge1.html

Declaration of the rights of man. (1789, August 26). Retrieved from http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp

Declaration of the rights of man and citizen. (1793). Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/~iw6/docs/dec1793.html

Declaration of rights and duties of man and citizen. (1795, October 26). Retrieved from http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/298/

French verse poem freer than freedom itself. (1790). Retrieved from http://beck.library.emory.edu/frenchrevolution/view.php?doc=larev

Guyomar, . (1793, April 29). National convention speech on women. Retrieved from http://icp.ge.ch/po/cliotexte/xviiie-et-xixe-siecle-epoque-de-la-revolution-francaise/la-revolution-francaise


Olympe, de Gouges. (1791). Declaration on the rights of woman and the female citizen. Retrieved from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1791degouge1.html

Regulations of the society of revolutionary republican women. (1793, July 9). Retrieved from http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/481/

The french outbreak. (1790). Retrieved from http://beck.library.emory.edu/frenchrevolution/view.php?doc=epid

The oath of the tennis court. (1789, June 20). Retrieved from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/tennis_oath.html

Wollstonecraft, Mary. (1792). A vindication of the rights of women. Retrieved from http://www.bartleby.com/144/

Romanticism FRQ

**The period of Enlightenment was a time for people who developed ideas for the good of humanity.  Various philosophers brought about ideas about God and his plans for humankind and what He would want humans to do on Earth.  However, the period of thinking that followed was very different.  During the period of Romanticism, individualism became more important than thinking of God and society as a whole.  The period of Romanticism eradicated the effects of the period of Enlightenment by lessening the importance of God through  increasing the importance of the individual and what the individual feels.
**The majority of Enlightenment thinkers strove to determine what God's plan was for humankind.  Leibniz was a philosopher who believed that everything that happened must have been the very best thing that could possibly happen because God was eternally powerful and would not let anything bad happen to his people.  This was a theory of great optimism, one which Voltaire mocked in his satire Candide.  There were many more philosophers like Leibniz and pieces like Candide during the Enlightenment; religion-based works were the main product that came out of this time period.  Even Rousseau's work, The Social Contract, talked about the good of humanity as God would want it.  The period of the Enlightenment was mainly focused on God and humanity and how the two were related.
**The period that followed the Enlightenment was Romanticism.  In Romanticism, there were many controversial writers who branched away from the restrictions of writing such things that had to do with God.  Percy Bysshe Shelley may have been the most controversial when he got expelled from Oxford for writing a discourse on atheism.  At this time, because of the Enlightenment, stating that there was no God at all was one of the biggest crimes one could commit.  This philosophy of Godlessness led to a somewhat lackadaisical lifestyle and Shelley's breaking of the very social contract which Rousseau had written in disrespectfully leaving his first wife.  Even so, Shelley was one of the big influences of future authors, who also decided to stray from strict religious guidelines.  William Wordsworth, though less radical then Shelley, wrote a poem called Tintern Abbey, which talked about nature being the true "god" that ruled all and brought every living thing together.  John Keats was a surgeon-turned-writer who began to question God because of all the pain he had been through in his life.  His father had died when he was eight, and, during one of his operations, he truly felt the pain that his patient's screams expressed, so he decided to stop causing the pain and instead write about it in his poems.  Especially towards the end of his life, as he was dying of tuberculosis, John Keats wondered why there had to be such suffering in the world, and if it was God causing it all.
**Not only were there Romantic writers who strayed away from religious images, but there were also painters.  Up until this time, much art had been done for the Church.  Since much before the Enlightenment, in the time of Michaelangelo for example, paintings were commissioned by those who were rich enough to afford them, which was often the Vatican.  Even if the paintings were not religious, they all followed the realistic style up until Romanticism.  During the Enlightenment, paintings were very mathematical in their proportions and their technique of oil painting.  In the age of Romanticism, new techniques that had never been experimented with before started to arise.  One painter, Eugene Delacroix, used blending watercolors to try and put the same emotion into his paintings as poets like John Keats put into their poems.  Similarly, music was less mathematical.  Baroque music and music before the Romantics was also very mathematical in its counting and its dynamics.  During the age of Romanticism, one composer, Johannes Brahms, was able to deviate from the formula of writing music in order to convey more emotion in his pieces.
**Though the Enlightenment and the era of Romanticism were nearly consecutive, their products were not similar at all.  The products of the Enlightenment, being more focused on religion, helped to unravel the mysteries of God's plan as people thought God would want it.  Romantics, on the other hand, strove to let people be themselves and do things for themselves as opposed to God.  With this freedom, came emotion, emotion that can still be seen in writings, paintings, and compositions today.  Though the religious and humanitarian findings of the Enlightenment were still important, they were overshadowed by the benefits of individuality, emotion, and freedom that can be found in Romanticism.